EDUCATION: JEWISH INFLUENCE 69 symbols of the powers of Nature or mere tools in the hand of the supreme world-ruler); it must be admitted that the distinction between the Jewish and the Greek beliefs in God was not so great but that an understanding between them, on the basis of a rational ethical monotheism, was perfectly possible. As a matter of fact, God-fearing Gentiles were accustomed to hold friendly intercourse with Hellen- istic Jews on the basis of this belief, as on a common ground ; and this was the basis upon which Paul founded his churches. It was not the belief in God, but the belief in the Law and the meticulous observ- ance of the Law, which formed the insuperable barrier which divided strict Pharisaic Judaism from the Gentiles, and, consequently, also from Gentile Christians. According to the Pharisaic theology, the world was created for the sake of the (Mosaic) Law, and therefore for the People of the Law, and Zion is its centre. Above the earth rise seven heavens, of which the highest is the seat of God. The under-world was now divided (in a fashion still unknown to the canonical Scriptures of the Old Testament) into a place of reward for the pious, Paradise, and a place of punishment for the ungodly, Gehenna (the counter- part in the other world of Gehinnom or the “valley of abomination”—so called from the sacrifice to Moloch which had been practised there—near Jeru- salem). Man is not created in the immediate image of God, but of the angels. He remained only a short time in the Paradise of innocence, then fell, through the transgression of his First Parents, into a deep and ever-advancing corruption. This doctrine