(/3) T7ie Briijhter Side of the Contemporary Juda- ism.— The above is a long and a serious catalogue of charges, partly resting upon the logic of the creed, but also '.oo much borne out by positive
JESUS CHRIST
JESUS CHIlISi
OUi
tesiiinony. It seems conclusivi'ly to prove that iKit only reformation, but a thoroughgoiug refor- malioii, was needed.
And yet there is aiiotlicr side whieh the Christian leaclier oujiht to emphasize more fully than it has ocen the custom to do.
(!.■) In the tii'st place, we have to remember that Judaism is [)riifessedly the religion of the OT. It is liased upon a IJook which includes the Prophets and the I'salnis (to use the familiar description a piitiori parlr) as well as the Law. And however much .ludaism proper ijave precedence to the Law, it (•cMd<l not foritet the other parts of the volume, or run wholly counter to their spirit. It is not too much to say that even in the Talnnid we can .see at every turn how the s|iirit of leualism wa-s cor- rei-teil liy an influence which is ultimalely derived from what are riiihtly called the evan'.;eliial portions of ( I r. We shall see to what an extent Chris- tiaidty itself is a direct development of these.
(ii.) The evidence of XT, severe as it is upon the wlioli', yet is not all c^f one tenor. Its pages are sprinkled over with Jewish characters, who are mentioned in terms of praise : Zacharias and Klisabeth, Simeon and .\nna, Nathanael, Nico- deinus, and .Jose])h of Arimathiea, the youni; ruler, and the scribe who was ]nonoiniceil to be 'not far from the kiufrdom of (Jod' (.Mk 12"). We mu.st not forget that there are parts of NT itself which in recent years liave been claimed by Christian scholars a.s thinly veneered proiliict-s of .ludaism (Kp. of James, Apoc. ). Whatever we may think of these i)arlicular instances, there are others (such as iJiiliirlii'' and the Tistuiiifnts of the Tirclve J'dtriuirhs) in which it is highly probable that a Jewish original has been adapted to Christian purposes. And (mr present investigation will bring Ijefore us many examples in which, while Christianity corrects Jewish leaching, it neverthe- less takes its start from it. and that not only from the purer originat, but in its contemporary form.
(iii. ) The panegyrists of the Talmud have at least right on their side to this extent, that single say- ings can fre(iuenlly be quoted from it in disjjroof of the sweeping allegations brought against it by its assailants. There are grains of fine wheat among its chaff. Some of these are referred, on what .seems to be good authority, to a time anterior to the coming of Christ. The 'golden rule' is attributed to llillel. The story is that when Shammai drove away an inipiirer who desired to be taught the whole Torali while he stood on one foot, the man went to llillel, who said: 'What is hateful to thy.self do not to thy fellow ; this is the whole Torah, and the rest is commentary' (Taylor, I'inin Alxitli, p. .'i7). Another great .saying is ascribed to Antigoiuis of Soko: 'He not as slaves that nnnister to the lord with a view to receive recompense; but be as slaves that miidster to the lord without a view to receive recompense ; and let the fear of Heaven be upon you' (I'ft. p. 27). There is a fair munber of such sayings. If we take the treatise from which the last is directly quoted we shall see in it what is ]irobably not an unfair representation of the better Juilaism in the time of Christ, with it.s \veaknc.s.ses sufficiently indicated, but with something also of its strength.
(iv. ) It is right also to bear in mind that the Judaism of this date had no lack of enthusia.sts and martyrs. Akiba in particular, though a Jew of iiu- Jews, cannot but command our admiration (.sie Taylor, lU hkji. p. (>7 IT.). And in a dilferent category his fortitude is matched by the initis :<iipiinlia of llillel. of whom it was said that his gentleness brought men 'nigh under the wings of the Shckinah ' (iVi. p. ;!7).
(v.) A favourable impression on the whole is given by the numerous pscudepigraphic works.
which belong in the main to the two centuries on each side of the Christian era. The olde.st parts of the Book of Knoch may possibly be earlier, just as some outlying mendiers of the baruch literature are probably later. The most typical writings are the Book of Knoch and the Psalms of Solomon (which can be dated with tolerable certainty u.c. 70—11)), the Book of Jubilees and the Assum])- tion of Moses (which nuiy be taken as roughly contemporary wiili the founding of Christianity), and the Fourth Book of Kzra (2 Ks) an<l the Apoc. of Barucli, both after the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. These writings show in varying degrees most of the characteristic infirmities of Judai.sm, but they also show its nobler features in a way which sometimes, and especially in the two latest works, throws the infirmities into the shade.*
It is a initut point huw far tlie psciidL-pitirnplia can bi- Uikea ns re[n"escntativ4? of the main currents of .ludaisiu. Montetiure, writing in Isit'j. .*.ays, * It must lie remetnberc<l tliat tlie apocalyptic \vritin(;s lie for llie most part outside tlie iuie oi tlie purest Jewish development, and olten present but tlio fringe or excrescence, and not tile real :;ijtistance of the doniinat- Inir reiifious tlioneiit " iUibfi. Lect. p. 4*iT). On tlie other hand, Clitirles has iHi difticulty in assigning the ditl'ereiit portit>ns to reeoL'iiized party divisions in .ludaisiu. ftchiirer ill like manner describes their standpoint as that of 'correct Judaism,* adding, however, that they are ' not products of the school. l,ut of free religious individuality' (/A//* in. li. 411). Similarly. Italden- sperger speaks of 4 k/.nl and Haruch as free from the spirit of casuistry, and not "atisiirbed in the Halachic rules' (p. ^'i. ed. ll. 'I'his verdict would ajijtly in s<Mne degree to this class of literature generally. It is perliaps in the main of provincial origin, or at least somewhat outside the beaten tracks of Jewish teaching. The Pss. of Solomon and Uk. of Jubilees would be nearest to these. It is very jtroltable that 4 K/.r. and Apoc. liar were directly affected by the ferment of thought caused by the birth of Clii-istianity.