The Development of "Legalism"

When Cyrus, the Persian ruler, began to let the Jews trickle back to their homeland, they developed a way of life which centered upon adherence to a set of rules. (This experience is described in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah.)

The feeling was that God had told his people just what to do and not to do, and that everybody should live up to the "do's" and "don'ts" of the code. The priests were to interpret the code and carry out the rituals and ceremonies that were prescribed in it. Thus the code of rules, or the "law," became the measuring stick of achievement. You were "good" if you obeyed the rules, "bad" if you disregarded them.