[757] See Appendix IX., where a detailed list is given of all the Old Testament passages which the ancient Synagogue applied Messianically, together with the references to the Rabbinic works where they are quoted.
[758] Large as this number is, I do not present the list as complete. Thus, out of the thirty-seven Parashahs constituting the Midrash on Leviticus, no fewer than twenty-five close with an outlook on Messianic times. The same may be said of the close of many of the Parashahs in the Midrashim known as Pesiqta and Tanchuma (Zunz, u.s. pp. 181, 234). Besides, the oldest portions of the Jewish liturgy are full of Messianic aspirations.
[759] For these, see Appendix IX.
[760] Yalkut on Is. ix. 1.
[761] This is the view expressed by all Jewish dogmatic writers. See also Weber, Altsynag. Theol. p. 217.
[762] Comp. on the subject. Ber. R. 12-16.
[763] In Ber. R., however, it has seemed to me, as if sometimes a mystical and symbolical view of the history of the Fall were insinuated - evil concupiscence being the occasion of it.
[764] Pirqé de R. El. c. 13; Yalkut i. p. 8 c.
[765] Comp. Pirqé de R. El. and Yalkut, u.s.; also Ber. R. 19.
[766] Ber. R. 19, ed. Warshau, p. 37 a.
[767] Bemidb. R. 13.
[768] They are: the shining splendour of his person, even his heels being like suns; his gigantic size, from east to west, from earth to heaven; the spontaneous splendid products of the ground, and of all fruit-trees; an infinitely greater measure of light on the part of the heavenly bodies; and, finally, endless duration of life (Ber. R. 12, ed. Warsh. p. 24 b; Ber. R. 21; Sanh. 38 b; Chag. 12 a; and for their restoration by the Messiah, Bem. R. 13).
[769] Vayyikra R. 27.
[770] Ber. R. 16, 21, and often.
[771] Ber. R. 5, 12, 10; comp. also Midr. on Eccl. vii. 13; and viii. 1, and Baba B. 17 a.
[772] Ber. R. 9.
[773] Bemidb. R. 19.
[774] According to Deut.xxxiii. 2; Hab. iii. 3.
[775] Ab. Zar. 2 b.
[776] Ab. Z. 5 a.
[777] By a most ingenious theological artifice the sin of the golden calf, and that of David are made matter for thanksgiving; the one as showing that, even if the whole people sinned, God was willing to forgive; the other as proving, that God graciously condescended to each individual sinner, and that to each the door of repentance was open.
[778] In the Talmud (Shabb. 55 a and b) each view is supported in discussion, the one by a reference to Ezek. xviii. 20, the other to Eccles. ix. 2 (comp. also Siphré on Deut. xxxii. 49). The final conclusion, however, greatly inclines towards the connection between death and the fall (see especially the clear statement in Debar. R. 9, ed. Warsh., p. 20 a). This view is also supported by such passages in the Apocrypha as Wisdom ii. 23, 24; iii. 1, &c.; while, on the other hand, Ecclus. xv. 11-17 seems rather to point in a different direction.
[779] Targum Ps.-Jon. on Gen. ii. 7.
[780] Nedar. 32 b; Midr. on Eccl. iv. 13, 14, ed. W. p. 89 a; ix. 15; ib. p. 101 a.
[781] Ber. R. 9.
[782] Ber. 61 a.
[783] Sukk. 52 a, and Yalkut ii. p. 149 b.
[784] Comp. also Jer. Targum on Ex. xxxii. 22.
[785] Ab. Z. 5 b; Kidd. 30 b.
[786] For example, Yoma 28 b; Chag. 4 b.
[787] Comp. IV. Esd. iii. 21, 22, 26; iv. 30; and especially vii. 46-53.
[788] There can be no question that, despite its strong polemical tendency against Christianity, the Fourth Book of Esdras (II. Esdras in our Apocrypha), written at the close of the first century of our era, is deeply tinged with Christian doctrine. Of course, the first two and the last two chapters in our Apocryphal II. Esdras are later spurious additions of Christian authorship. But in proof of the influence of the Christian teaching on the writer of the Fourth Book of Esdras we may call attention, besides the adoption of the doctrine of original sin, to the remarkable application to Israel of such N.T. expressions as the firstborn,' the only-begotten,' and the Well-beloved' (IV. Esdras vi. 58 - in our Apocr. II. Esdras iv. 58).