Dr. !Milman, in his History of ihe Jews (iii, 13), says:
"The reader, at each successive extract from this extraor- dinary compilation (i.e. the Talmud), he.-ritates whether to adnure the vein of jirofound allegorical truth and the pleasini; moral apologue, to smile at the monstrous ex- iiavasance, or to shudder at the daring l)laspheniy. The influence of the Talmud on European superstitions, opin- ions, and even literature remains to be traced. To the Jew the Talmud became the magic circle within which the national mind patiently labored for ages in perform- ing the bidding of the aiicieut and mighty enchanters who drew the sacred line beyond which it might not venture to pass."
Mr. Farrar, in his Life of Christ (ii, 485), says :
"Anything more utterly nnhistorical than the Talmud cannot be conceived. It is probable that no human writ- ings ever confounded names, dates, aiid facts with a more absolute indifference. The genius of the Jews is the re- verse of what, in these days, we should call historical. . . . Some excellent maxims— even some close parallels to the utterances of Christ- may l)e quoted, of course, from the Talmud, where they lie iriibedded like pearls in 'a sea' of obscurity and mud. It seems to me indispensable— and a
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matter which every one can now vei'jfy for himself— tli:it these are amazingly few, cmisiileriug tlie vast bulU of na- tional lileiatuie from which they are drawn. And, after all, who shall prove to us that these sayiuirs were always nttered hy the rabbins to whom they were attributed!' Who will supply us with the faintest approach to a proof that (when not founded on the Old Test.) they were not directly or indirectly due to Christian iutlueuce or Chiis- liaii thoiiijht?"
Prof. Delitzsch, in his lectures on JiiJiscIies Iland- iverkerleben zur Zeit Jesu (3d ed. Erlangeii, 1879, p. 35), says :
"Those who have not in some degree accomplished the extremely difficult ta-k of reading this work for them- selves will hardly be able to form a clear idea of this poly- nomial colossus. It is a vast debating club, in which there hum confusedly the myriad voices of at least tive centuries. As we all know by experience, a law, thougli very minutely and exactly detined, may yet be suscepti- ble of various interpretations, and (piestionon question is sure to arise when it comes to be applied to the ever- varying circumstances of actual life. Suppose, then, you have about ten thoitsaiid legal detiiiitions all relating CO Jewish life and classilied under different heads, and add to these ten thousand detiiiitions about live hundred doctors and lawyers, belonging mostly to Palestine or Babylonia, who make these detiiiitions, one after the oth- er, the subject of examination and debate, and who, with hair-splitting acutene^s, exhaust not only every possible sense the words will bear, but every possible practical occurrence arising out of them. Suppose that these fine- spun threads of these legal disquisitions frequently lose themsehes in digressions, and that, when one has waded through a long tract of this sandy desert, one lights, here and there, on some green oasis consisting of stories and sayings of universal interest. This done, you will have some tolerable idea of this enormous and, in its way, unique code of laws, iu comparison with which, in point of comi)rehensiveness, the law-books of all other nations are but lilliputian, and, when compared with the hum of its kaleidoscopic Babel, they resemble, indeed, calm and studious retreats."
Mr. Alexander, in his book on The Jews: i/iei?- Past, Present, and Future (Lond. 1870), p. 80 sq., says:
"The Talmud, as it now stands, is almost the whole literature of the Jews during a thousand years. Com- mentator followed upon coinmentator, till at last the whole became an immense bulk, the original Babylonian Talmud alone consisting of 2!)4T folio pages. Out of such a liteiattirc it is easy to make quotations which may throw an odium over the whole. But fancy, if the productions of a thousand years of English literature, say from the Histovji of the Venerable Bede to Milton's Paradise Lust, were thrown together into a number of uniform folios, aud judged in like manner; if, because some superstitious monk should write silly 'Lives of Saints,' therefore, the w(Hks of John Bunyan should also be considered worth- less. The absurdity is too obvious to require another word. Such, however. Is the continual treatment the Tal- mud receives, both at the hands of its friends and of its enemies. Both will fin'd it easy to quote in behalf of their l)reconceived notions ; but the earnest student will rather try to weigh the matter impartially, retain the good he can tind even in the Talmud, and reject what will not stand the test of God's Word."
In conclusion, while we acknowledge the fact that this great encyclopajdia of Hebrew wisdom teems witii error, and that in almost every department in science, in natu- ral history, in chronology, genealogy', logic, and morals, falsehood and mistake are mixed up with truth upon its pages, we nevertheless confess that, notwithstanding, witli all its imperfections, it is a useful book, an attesta- tion of the past, a criterion of progress already attained, and a prophecy of the future. " It is a witness, too, of the lengtli of folly to which the mind of man may drift when he disdains the wisdom of (Jod as revealed in the Gospel ; and in these respects it will always have a claim on the attention of tiie wise. When Talmiidisin, as a religious system, shall, in a generation or two, have passed away, the Talmud itself will be still resorted to as a treas- ury of things amazing and things profitable; a deep cav- ern of antiquity, where he who carries the necessary torch will not fail to find, amid whole labyrinths of the rubbish of times gone by, those inestimable lessons that will be true for all times to come, and gems of ethical and poetic thought which retain their brightness for- ever" (Ettieridge, Introduction to Jewish Literature').