of it is bribery to get them on the wrong side of officialdom. We have already seen how meagre was the actual visible evidence of the temple building, only the foundations at this point, and we are to learn from Haggai that this external pressure was matched by a growing internal reluctance and defeatism. Essentially what is at stake here is distinctiveness. Israel was called to be a holy people and a light to the nations. This meant resistance to anything which diluted the Torah and failed to conform