The truth is. the practice ol' making use, in this way, of previous and popular writers is one which was com- mon not. only in the days of the apostles, hut which can hardly fail to he common wherever an established national literature exists. In proof of this we have only to examine the writings of the later classics of Greece and Rome, which abound in quotations direct and accommodated from their earlier authors. We see the same course pursued by the Rabbinical writers to- wards the ( )ld Test, and by the ( hri-tiau fathers towards both the Old Test, and the New Test, as well as towards the profane classics. Indeed, such quotations form so apt and natural an ornament of style that writers of all ages and countries, where the means of doing SO exist, have availed themselves of it. Why, then, should we wonder that such a practice should have been followed by the sacred writers, who, in other respects, appear to have obeyed in the preparation of their works the or- dinary rules and usages, both grammatical and rhetori- cal, of literary composil ion V
Literature. — Surenhusius, B//3Aoe KriraWayi/g, in quo secundum Vet. Theol. Hebrceorum Formulas aUegan- i!i it M<nh).< interpretandi conciliantur Loca ex V. in X. T. allegata (Amst.1713, 4to); Drusius, ParaUela Sacra: h. e.Loconiui I'. /'.mm iis qua in N.citantur conjuncta Commemoratio, Ebraict et Grosce,cum Notis (1616, Ito; published also in vol.viii of the Critici Sacri) ; Hoff- mann, Demonstratio Evangelica i>< r ij>.<n,n Scriptura- riim Consensum ex Oraculis V. '/'. in A'. aUegatis declar rata, edidit /'. G. Hegelmaier | 177:; 7:t 81, :'■ vols. Ito); Michaelis, Einleitung in die gottlkhen Schriften des A. /,: ErsU e Th il. p. 223 -265 | Eng.transL by Marsh, i, 200- 246); Owen, M odes of Quotation usedbyth I > Writers Explained and Vindicated (1789, Ito); Ran- dolph, Prophecies am/ otht r Texts cited in tin A. »• Test, compared with tin Hebrew Original ami with tin x<i*t. Version (1782, Ito); Koppe, Excursus I in Ep. ad Ro- manos,N. I'. Koppianum (1806), Lv,346; Home, Intro- duction, ii, 281 (8th ed.); Davidson, He, ■ utics, ch. \i: Gough, A< w Test. Quotations Collated with th, old Test, i Lond. 1853 i ; Alexander. < 'cmnection ami Harmony of the old and New Test (ibid. 1853, 2d ed.); Stier, Words ■•/tin Lord Jesus (Amer. ed.), i. 132 sq.
QUOTATIONS of THi Old Testameni in rai
Tai.mi t>. In order to understand many quotations which are cited in the Talmud from the ."scriptures, we
mu8l remember that the ancient rabbins, in their collo- quies and disputations, did not use a MS., bul cited from memory a mode of citation open found in the \, w ["est Dr. M. Steinschneider, in his essay Jewish Literature, in Ersch and Gruber's Allgem. EnfycL§ 2, vol. xxvii. p. 875, makes the following statement : "The influence of the Bible on gnomonics in particular is shown in the following steps— (1. i Biblical precepts were
QUOTATIONS
857
QUOTATIONS
used unchanged in meaning and expression, as senti- ments or favorite sayings of particular persons.* (2.) Bib- lical sentences, unchanged in form, were made by ex- tending or contracting their contents into new expres- sions of various truths, which had elsewhere been clothed in known proverbs, so that these last were in some sense deduced from the Bible. A wide field was thus opened for the Midrash; and, finally, the words of the Bible were made into proverbs with an entirely different sense.f (3.) Lastly, Biblical phrases and ideas were used more or less intentionally in newly formed sententia?,J and passed into proverbial forms, as they are to be found in the old Halachah (e. g. Peak, ii, 2).
1. As the ancient rabbins made the Bible their study for years, we must not wonder when, in their colloquies, they were able to quote a correct Biblical text. And yet we must bear three things in mind, in order not to have a misconception of the matter. To make this in- telligible, we will quote the following examples:
(a.) The Talmudists sometimes erroneously attribute a Biblical verse to another context. Thus we read in the Talmud (Pesachim, fol. 109, col. 1), " It is every man's duty to rejoice with his household on the feast, for itjs written, 'And thou shalt rejoice in thy feast,'" Slfta©! ~5rt3 (Deut. xvi, 14, where reference is made to the Feast of Tabernacles). The Tosaphoth on this passage, however, reads, "And thou shalt rejoice, thou and thine household" (^n^S^I rtPX TH-cr;). Now the original reading was that as in the Tosaphoth, which is found in Deut. xiv, 26, where the second tithe is spoken of. The rabbins, however, thought that the reading alluded to in the Tosaphoth is found in the section which treats of the Feast of Tabernacles ; hence, when the editors of the Talmud found out the mistake, they substituted
for the reading -mm nnx nnaci that of nnaiui -pro.
(b.~) Sometimes sentences are quoted in the Talmud as Biblical which are not/bund in the Bible. In Berakoth, fol. 61, col. 1, in fine, we read: Bab Nachman said Manoah was an ignorant man (V"lXtl 03.'), for it is written, "He went after his wife" (Judg. xiii, 11). R. Nachman, the son of Isaac, asked, should this not also apply to Elkanah, for it is written, "And Elkanah went after his wife;" and to Elisha, of whom the Scripture says, "And he arose and followed her" (2 Kings iv, 30) ? He followed her, indeed ! Yes, but he followed her words and advice, and so here likewise he (Mano- ah) went after her words and counsel. The Tosaphoth correctly remarks on what the Talmud says concerning Elkanah: Xipan >=2 nt pi OS "pXO X!tt IBinE; i. e. " It is an error, for this verse is not found in the whole Scripture."