The Jewish people, in post-exilic and New Testament times, had their lovers of wisdom. Known as the wise, the sages, or the teachers of wisdom, they were the educators of the age, men whose special interest lay in knowing and producing the kind of thought which is technically termed wisdom. These teachers of wisdom were the only philosophers that Judaism produced. They were less speculative, less theoretical, and less systematic than the Greek philosophers, but just as clear thinkers. The work of the Jewish sages developed contemporaneously with that of the Greek philosophers. These Jewish men of wisdom were recognized as a distinct class as far back as Jeremiah's time, ca. 6oo B. C.,1 the time when Greek philosophy was just beginning with Thales. From then onward there grew up a notable body of Jewish wisdom teaching. Jesus of Nazareth thought and taught wisdom. The spirit of the wise was in him. Jesus was the most eminent teacher of wisdom in the first
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