8- 
 
 THE MISHNA
 
 PRINTED BY C. J. CLAY, M.A. AND SON, 
 AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.
 
 THE MISHNA 
 
 AS ILLUSTRATING 
 
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 THE GOSPELS 
 
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 W. H. BENNETT B.A. 
 
 (M.A. LONDON) 
 
 FRY HEBEEW SCHOLAR OF ST JOHN'S COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE 
 TYRWHITT SCHOLAR 
 
 Published in accordance with the requirements of Mrs Ann Fry's Hebrew 
 
 Scholarship 
 
 CAMBRIDGE 
 
 DEIGHTON BELL AND CO. 
 
 LONDON GEORGE BELL AND SONS 
 
 1884
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 IN the following essay an attempt has been made 
 to arrange and in a slight measure to interpret some 
 of the facts as to the Mishna and the Gospels in 
 relation to one another. The lessons to be drawn 
 from the errors of the Pharisees are in general so 
 much better known than the facts about these 
 errors, that it has not been felt necessary to insist 
 much upon these lessons and I have tried, probably 
 with only very moderate success, to deal with the 
 Mishna in some spirit of sympathy. For only thus 
 is it possible to deal fairly with any teachers and 
 the record of their teaching. 
 
 The extracts from the Mishna are taken from 
 the translations of Rabbis de Sola and Raphall 
 and of Barclay, from Dr Taylor's ' Sayings of the 
 Jewish Fathers' and from the Latin translation 
 of Surenhusius. 
 
 2095312
 
 VI PREFACE. 
 
 The historical data are mainly derived from 
 Milman's History of the Jews, Jost's GescJiichte der 
 Israeliten, and the article by Dr Schiller- Szinessy 
 on the Mishna in the Encyclopaedia Britannica. 
 
 For the suggestion of a subject and for criticism 
 on parts of the essay I am indebted to Rev. R. 
 Sinker, M.A., B.D., of Trinity College.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 I. The Mishna 1 
 
 II. The Mishna and the Gospels as based on Oral Tra- 
 dition 13 
 
 III. The Mishua as illustrating the Gospels generally . 20 
 
 IV. The Pharisees 29 
 
 V. The Sabbath 53 
 
 VI. The Status of Women 67 
 
 VII. Ethics and Doctrine 79 
 
 VIII. Vows. The Poor 92 
 
 IX. Relation of the Mishna and the Gospels to the Old 
 
 Testament 98 
 
 X. Subsequent History of the Mishna and the Gospels 107 
 Appendix 114
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 THE MISHNA. 
 
 THE Mishna is an authoritative application of Mosaic law to General 
 
 statement, 
 later times, a Jewish law-book of the third century, A.D. 
 
 As the ancient laws of the Pentateuch claim divine authority 
 and form the essential part of the Jewish religious writings, 
 so do the laws of the Mishna claim the authority of Divine 
 revelation given to Moses and handed down by oral tra- 
 dition. It is also one of the earliest extant Hebrew books 
 after the close of the Old Testament Canon, thus continuing 
 after an interval of centuries the line of Hebrew Literature. 
 It links the Judaism of the Old Testament, of the Mac- 
 cabees, of the Herods, with that persistent unalterable 
 Judaism which has endured down to our own times. It 
 professes to record laws and customs which must have regu- 
 lated the lives of orthodox Jews during the ministry of 
 Christ and the spread of Christianity. 
 
 On the one hand, these laws and customs grew up 
 between the close of the Old Testament Canon and the 
 compilation of the Mishna and so represent Jewish life and 
 its tendencies during that period ; and on the other, these 
 laws and customs as set forth by the Mishna and interpreted 
 
 B. 1
 
 2 THE MISHNA. 
 
 in its commentaries have done much to determine Jewish 
 life ever since. 
 
 The estimation in which the Mishna was once held by 
 almost all Jews and is still held by many, may be illustrated 
 from an official translation of certain of its treatises. 
 Writing 1 in 1842, and speaking of one class amongst their 
 fellow Israelites, the translators say in their preface : 
 
 " There can be no doubt that to the Israelite, who be- 
 lieves in the divinity of an oral law who thinks the salva- 
 tion of his soul depends on such belief but to whom the 
 Mishna in the Hebrew is a sealed book there can be no 
 doubt that to such a man, if he be rational as well as pious, 
 the present translation must be highly acceptable, as mere 
 belief in the contents of a book not understood can confer 
 no claim to heavenly reward ". 
 
 The Mishna is ' the fundamental document of the oral 
 law of the Jews 2 '. 
 
 According to Jost 8 the Mishna was to be to the Jews ' a 
 new Fatherland' to compensate them for their losses. From 
 it the life of later Rabbinic Judaism drew its nourishment 
 and strength, and to the Mishna this later Judaism devoted 
 its literary industry. 
 
 The Gemara says that he who reads Scripture without 
 learning Mishna is a boor 4 5 , 
 
 1 Eighteen Treatises from the Mishna, translated by Kev. D. A. de Sola 
 and the Kev. M. J. Eaphall. 
 
 2 Art. Mishna, Enct/cl. Brit. Dr Schiller-Szinessy. 
 
 3 Jost, Gescli. Isrl. Bk. xin. Ch. i. 
 
 4 Wagenseil, Sota, p. 516. 
 
 5 Kabbinowicz, in the preface to his Legislation Criminelle du Talmud 
 tells us how, inspired by his zeal for the Talmud, he worked all day and all 
 the evening in a cafe, because he could not afford to pay for a fire, and dined 
 for 13 or 11 sous a day.
 
 THE MISHNA. J 
 
 A leading part in the compilation of the Mishna is Editor, 
 always assigned to Rabbi Judah Hakkadosh (the Holy), who 
 flourished about the end of the second century. Jost speaks 
 of him as producing the first written edition of the Mishna, 
 the present form of the work being a later recension. Dr 
 Schiller-Szinessy and other authorities maintain that Rabbi 
 Judah only collected and supplemented and arranged the 
 oral tradition, and did not commit it to writing. But he 
 says that the Mishna belongs to Rabbi Judah 'in great 
 measure and in more than one sense 1 '. 
 
 In addition to his name of ' the Holy', he was called 
 Han-Nasi (the Prince) as president of the Sanhedrim and 
 head of the Jews of Tiberias. On account of his dis- 
 tinguished position, he is frequently spoken of simply as 
 'Rabbi'. He inherited his position from his father; and in 
 earlier times his ancestors Gamaliel, the teacher of St Paul, 
 and the celebrated Hillel had been presidents of the Jewish 
 school of traditional law. In the days of Rabbi Judah the 
 Sanhedrim was mainly occupied in discussing the applica- 
 tion of the law of Moses. It is doubtful whether cases were 
 submitted to them that they might judge actual criminals 
 or decide matters in dispute between man and man. But 
 they were much occupied with abstract points and imaginary 
 cases. While individual Rabbis had their schools and dis- 
 cussed these matters with their pupils, the Rabbis them- 
 selves met for similar discussion in the Sanhedrim under 
 the presidency of Judah Han-Nasi. He too had his own pri- 
 vate school, whither resorted Jewish scholars from far and near. 
 In earlier life he himself was such a scholar frequenting 
 the schools and hearing the sayings of the older Rabbis, 
 
 1 Art. Mishna, Encycl, Brit. 
 
 12
 
 4 THE MISHNA. 
 
 and now, after the usual custom of Jewish teachers, he 
 handed on these sayings to his scholars with additions and 
 interpretations of his own. 
 
 The Mishna is the written record of such sayings, but as 
 we have already said it is matter of controversy when and by 
 whom an edition of the Mishna was committed to writing. 
 Jost 1 says it is probable that Rabbi Judah wrote a book as a 
 private work, but that officially the Mishna would still be 
 transmitted orally and that the date of any official written 
 book would be much later. Dr Schiller-Szinessy 2 emphati- 
 cally denies that the Mishna could have been written down 
 for centuries after the time of Rabbi Judah, though he 
 admits that there were small collections of notes kept in 
 secret. Would it be permissible to suppose that Rabbi Judah 
 might at least have collections of notes more copious than 
 those of any other students of Mishna ? If we have to admit 
 that the codification of the oral tradition was accomplished 
 and transmitted purely by memory, we, in these days of note 
 books and printing-presses can only regard Rabbi Judah and 
 his successors with the greater admiration 3 . 
 
 Not only was he qualified for his arduous task by heredi- 
 tary aptitude and acquired learning, but he was wealthy and 
 is said to have been intimate with Romans of high position, 
 notably with an emperor called ' Antoninus 4 '. 
 
 His life was spent chiefly at Beth-Shearim 5 and Sepphoris. 
 
 1 Jost, Bk. sin. Note 25. 
 * Art. Mishna, Encycl. Brit. 
 
 3 It is indeed said in Yoma in. 1 that Queen He'ena of Adiabene, a con- 
 temporary of Christ, had the section Sota written on a tablet of gold ; but 
 even if this is true, it would scarcely apply to the whole section. 
 
 4 This 'Antoninus' has been identified with Marcus Aurelius, Caracalla 
 and other Roman emperors. Many writers refuse to believe the story. 
 
 5 N.E. of Sepphoris. Graetz, Gesch. der Juden, iv. 234.
 
 THE MISHNA. 5 
 
 As to his personal character little is known ; the failing 
 of his family was pride, and he himself is said not to have 
 been altogether free from it 1 . 
 
 When the Mishna was compiled the hopes of the Jews Circum- 
 had been twice raised to the highest pitch only to be utterly 
 disappointed. For the Jewish wars of 70, when the temple 
 was destroyed, and of 132 (the revolt of Barchochabh) had 
 both been fought with partial success at first and then there 
 came in each case defeat, massacre and wholesale slavery. 
 In the Christian Church at this time the great teachers of 
 Alexandria and Carthage were developing doctrine and 
 maintaining the enthusiasm of their followers. 
 
 The Roman Empire had seen or saw in the near distance 
 the tokens of the close of the prosperous era of the Anto- 
 nines, and was experiencing or was soon to experience the 
 vicissitudes of military anarchy, tempered now and then by 
 able military despots. Possibly a sense of insecurity, caused 
 partly by the disastrous results of the Jewish wars and partly 
 by the unsettled state of the Empire, may have had to do 
 with the committing to writing of the Jewish tradition". 
 At the conclusion of each revolt the Rabbis had been scat- 
 tered, and after that of Barchochabh an attempt seems to 
 have been made to put an end to the succession. The sub- 
 stitution of a written manuscript for oral tradition might 
 be a safeguard against similar attempts. 
 
 Or even if the Mishna were not then committed to 
 writing, much might be gained by collecting scattered and 
 often fading traditions and arranging them so that the 
 
 1 Yet he is spoken of as the ' humble ', Horaioth f. 14 in Jost, xm. 10. 
 
 2 See above, similar causes would act still more powerfully later on.
 
 6 THE MISHNA. 
 
 memory might more easily retain the whole 1 . As yet there 
 was still a large Jewish community in Galilee and the 
 Romans tolerated the Jewish schools, but there was no 
 guarantee that this state of things would continue. 
 
 Then, too, this is the age of Papinian and other great 
 Roman jurists, and possibly the enthusiasm for codifying 
 laws was infectious 2 . 
 
 Antiquity What then was the.antiquity of the laws codified ? They 
 
 claimed . 
 
 for laws, claim in part to be an unwritten tradition handed down from 
 
 Moses, and in part to be the sayings of various Rabbis 
 through whom the tradition was handed down. 
 
 The succession is given thus at the beginning of the 
 Pirke Aboth : 
 
 "Moses received the law from Sinai and delivered it to 
 Joshua, and Joshua to the elders, and the elders to the 
 prophets, and the prophets to the men of the great Syna- 
 gogue", then "Simon the Just", "Antigonus of Socho", 
 "Joseph ben Joezer of Tseredah and Joseph ben Jochanan 
 of Jerusalem", "Joshua ben Perachiah and Matthai the 
 Arbelite "," Judah ben Tabbai and Simon ben Shatach ", 
 " Shemaiah and Abtalion ", " Hillel and Shammai ", " Jo- 
 hanan ben Zakkai". The usual formula is 'so and so received 
 of so and so ', and occurs last in the instance, " Johanan ben 
 Zakkai received of Hillel ". The Mishna also quotes many 
 other sages, notably the Gamaliel of Acts and his descendants 
 down to Rabbi Judah himself. 
 
 The Mishna is divided into six 3 books and 63 treatises, 
 
 1 Cf. Art." Mishna, Ency'd. Brit. 
 
 2 Cf. Milman's Hist, of Jews, n. 478. 
 
 3 The number of treatises as given by different authorities varies from 
 CO to G3.
 
 THE MISHNA. 7 
 
 the division being according to the main body of the subject- 
 matter, digressions being freely allowed. 
 
 Its contents may be variously classified, for instance, we Character 
 may adopt a threefold division : tents. 
 
 (a) The traditional rules or Mishna proper, which are 
 simply stated. 
 
 (6) Opinions and decisions of Rabbis, individually or 
 collectively (as 'the Sages'), with which may be classed 
 various moral and religious sayings. 
 
 (c) Leading cases or precedents, together with other 
 illustrative stories and with matters of antiquarian or general 
 interest. 
 
 It would be easy to subdivide these classes and yet fail 
 to embrace all the contents of the Mishna. Surely no other 
 law book was ever so given to irrelevant gossip. And yet 
 there is sufficient 'system to prevent the confusion from 
 being artistic ', and far too much ' confusion to allow the 
 system to be scientific'. 
 
 There is indeed a general method underlying very many 
 of the treatises, and up to a certain point such a treatise 
 may be developed from its fundamental maxim almost as if 
 by mathematical formula : thus : The Pentateuch lays down 
 a * general rule, ' Thou shalt not sow thy field with a 
 mingled seed '. 
 
 The question arises 2 ' What are "mingled seed"?' and 
 the investigation is pursued with laborious patience through 
 all the' varieties of grain and vegetables. 'Barley and oats 
 
 1 N. B. The general rule is not quoted, but it is assumed that the reader 
 is familiar with it. 
 
 2 Kilaim i.
 
 8 THE MISHNA. 
 
 .are not mingled seed, nor spelt and rye &c., &c/ for several 
 paragraphs, with occasional notes that ' cucumbers and 
 melons are not mingled seed, but Rabbi Judah says 
 they are '. 
 
 1 Later on the question arises as to the space to be left 
 between vines and sown land. Rabbi Judah tells a little 
 anecdote of a man at Zalmon, who worked his vineyard and 
 sown land in a complicated and doubtful manner. When, 
 however, the matter was brought before the sages, they 
 acquitted him of any breach of the law against sowing 
 mingled seed. 
 
 Much of what at first sight appears to be antiquarian 
 really falls under this formula. For instance the treatises 
 ' Measures ' (of the temple), ' The Day ' (of Atonement), 
 ' The Perpetual ' (or daily sacrifice) are really laws intended 
 for the restored temple. 
 
 Then there are anecdotes seemingly having only a 
 mnemonic connection with the context; anecdotes suggested 
 to the writer by the subject he was dealing with, and consi- 
 dered too good to be lost. 
 
 Thus in discussing the desecration of idols 2 the following 
 occurs 3 : 
 
 " The elders were asked in Rome, ' If God has no pleasure 
 in idolatry, why does He not destroy it'? They replied to 
 the Romans, ' If the idolaters were serving a thing not 
 necessary to the world, He would destroy it, but they serve 
 the sun, moon and stars and the signs of the zodiac. Shall 
 He destroy His world on account of the fools ' ? " 
 
 1 Kilaim IT. 9. 
 
 * With a view to their use. 
 
 3 Abodah Zarah, iv. 7.
 
 THE MISHNA. 9 
 
 The moral and religious sayings are chiefly collected in 
 the Pirke Aboth. 
 
 More will have to be said as to this want of regularity 
 in comparing the arrangement of the Mishna with that of 
 the Gospels. We may however again quote from de Sola 
 and Raphall. In. a note at the beginning of the treatise 
 Demai they say: 'It must be remarked that the Mishna 
 nowhere confines itself to the subject only of which it pro- 
 fesses to treat ; but that remarks and opinions are occasion- 
 ally introduced bearing no reference to the subject which 
 precedes or succeeds them '. 
 
 We might notice briefly the relation of the Mishna to Eelation 
 the Gemara. The Gemara is a kind of commentary on the Gemara. 
 Mishna, and the Mishna and Gemara together make up the 
 Talmud 1 . The Gemara explains the Mishna, investigates 
 its sources and also supplements it. Besides this it abounds 
 in irrelevant digressions and anecdotes. Perhaps one might 
 say very roughly that the Gemara is to the Mishna as the 
 Mishna is to the Pentateuch. There are two Gemaras, the 
 Jerusalem compiled in the fourth century and the Baby- 
 lonian in the fifth. 
 
 Dr Schiller-Szinessy says: ' The language of the Mishna, Obscure 
 
 style, 
 although pure and indeed purer than the language of several 
 
 books of the Bible, was so concise and terse that it could not 
 be understood without a commentary '. 
 
 This elliptical style may perhaps be compared to that of Elliptical. 
 a telegram which has to be expanded before it can be under- 
 
 1 While it is true that in the present arrangement of the Talmud the 
 commentary on the Mishna is called Gemara, it appears that Gemara was 
 originally a general term for Rabbinical learning. Cf. Taylor, Sayings of 
 Jewish Fathers, p. 112.
 
 10 THE MISHNA. 
 
 stood. For instance in the following quotation the words 
 in brackets are part of the expansion and have no counter- 
 part in the Hebrew. " [Damages awarded to her in compen- 
 sation for] insult or injury belong to her. Rabbi Judah ben 
 Bethera saith : [if the injury inflicted on her is] hidden, two- 
 thirds [of the damages recovered] belong to her and one- 
 third to him [the husband] * ". 
 
 Without the words in brackets it would read thus, " in- 
 sult or injury belong to her. Rabbi Judah ben Bethera 
 saith hidden two-thirds belong to her, and one-third to him". 
 Surely this would be sufficiently unintelligible to the ordinary 
 reader. 
 
 Enigmati- I n parts the language of the Mishna is highly figurative 
 and enigmatical : for instance, ' Be a tail to lions and not a 
 head to foxes' 2 . 'Warm thyself before the fire of the wise 
 but beware of their embers ' 3 . 
 
 Sometimes instead of these brief enigmatical sentences 
 there are parables almost equally obscure and contrasting 
 somewhat with the simplicity of most of the Gospel parables. 
 
 Range of The subjects with which the Mishna deals range from 
 subjects. 
 
 minute points of etiquette such as the proper place to put 
 
 one's napkin after dinner; to the most profound questions 
 of theology. It treats of civil and criminal, ceremonial and 
 moral law ; aiming in fact at being an exhaustive treatise on 
 every detail of the whole duty of man. It deals however 
 almost entirely with the outward observances and has little 
 to say about the inner life. 
 
 Naturally the treatment of these outward observances is 
 
 1 Ketuboth, vi. 1, de Sola and Kaphall. 
 
 2 Pirke Aboth, iv. 22. 
 
 3 Pirke Aboth, n. 14.
 
 THE MISHNA. 11 
 
 often tedious and dwells with tiresome minuteness on trivial 
 details. The reader gets impatient and almost indignant as 
 one great rabbi after another delivers his opinion as to the 
 arrangement of vegetables and fruit-trees in the fields, or 
 the question whether a man may go out with a wooden leg 
 on the Sabbath. 
 
 But it seems that even to a Jew of the present day all Spirit of 
 
 Mishna. 
 this is quite natural, and perhaps we cannot better close this 
 
 general view of the character of the Mishna than by illus- 
 trating its spirit by the following quotations from a recent 
 Jewish writer. 
 
 ' The duty of wearing Phylacteries, which is so rigorously 
 enjoined, that he who dispenses with them is considered 
 altogether impious, is so vaguely indicated in the Law that 
 without tradition we should not know their form '. 
 
 ' We often read in the Pentateuch that he who works on 
 the Sabbath shall be put to death, and the Scripture no- 
 where defines what work is or what kind of work is for- 
 bidden '. 
 
 'With tradition all these difficulties are removed, it 
 supplies the silence of the text, explains apparent contradic- 
 tions and pleonasms, gives to the words of the Scripture 
 their true meaning, and to laws the development necessary 
 for their application '. 
 
 'The sacrifice of Elijah on Carmel was a contravention 
 of the law. Deut. xii. 13 '. 
 
 ' There must therefore have been a tradition which in 
 such cases authorises these contraventions '. 
 
 ' The Pentateuch seems to be silent on the most funda- 
 mental and most consoling truths, such as the immortality of
 
 12 THE MISHNA. 
 
 the soul... God has transmitted them verbally, with the 
 means of finding them in the text '. 
 
 'A complementary tradition was necessary and indis- 
 pensable ' \ 
 
 1 Klein, La Verite sur le Talmud, pp. 12 15.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE MlSHNA AND THE GOSPELS AS BASED ON ORAL 
 TRADITION. 
 
 WHAT has already been said of the Mishna, as the result Origin of 
 
 the Gos- 
 of oral tradition, suggests one broad ground of comparison pels. 
 
 with the Gospels. 
 
 According to the most probable view 1 of the origin of the 
 Synoptic Gospels, they too are the result of oral tradition. 
 Indeed according to any view they must be so to some 
 extent, but the view in question lays special stress on this 
 feature. It is supposed that the written Gospels were 
 derived directly from the preaching of the Apostles. The 
 substance of this preaching was the history and sayings 
 of Christ. In time the contents of their message shaped 
 themselves by a kind of natural selection, certain of the 
 sayings, certain portions of the history appealed more readily 
 and with more effect to the Apostles' audience. Then when 
 the demand arose for a written Gospel, this Gospel would be 
 simply the record of the preaching of the Apostlss, in the 
 form determined by much experience among many peoples. 
 
 1 Westcott, Introduction to the Gospels, ch. in.
 
 14 THE MISHNA AND THE GOSPELS 
 
 Oral Without entering into the controversies as to the author- 
 
 sources. 
 
 ship of the Gospels and while accepting the ordinary views 
 
 it is easy to point out the oral nature of their sources. As 
 far as we know Christ wrote nothing, His disciples committed 
 none of His sayings to writing during His life. His teaching 
 consisted of spoken sayings doubtless often repeated, and 
 fixing themselves in the memory partly by the force of 
 Christ's enthusiasm and the commanding influence of His 
 character, partly by the striking nature of the sayings them- 
 selves, partly doubtless by frequent repetition. 
 
 In some such way would S. Matthew come to remember 
 the sayings of the Sermon on the Mount and at last after 
 years of preaching commit them to writing in their present 
 form. 
 
 In the case of S. Mark the tradition would not be so 
 immediate, we have no reason to believe that he was a 
 constant hearer of Christ. Early Christian writers speak of 
 him as recording the substance of S. Peter's preaching. So 
 that here S. Peter hears from Christ and S. Mark from 
 S. Peter. S. Luke again is said to have followed in his 
 Gospel the preaching of S. Paul. At any rate he professes 
 to be indebted in his narrative to ' eyewitnesses and 
 ministers of the word '. If he derived anything from S. 
 Paul, e.g. the account of the Last Supper, it would imply at 
 least two links in the chain of tradition between S. Luke and 
 Christ. S. Paul himself must have been indebted to some 
 eyewitness, directly or indirectly, for his account. 
 
 It will be obvious that the essential fact of oral tradition 
 is not affected, if we refuse to accept the statements as to 
 the dependence of S. Mark and S. Luke on S. Peter and 
 S. Paul. For these evangelists, not being themselves eye-
 
 AS BASED ON ORAL TRADITION. 15 
 
 witnesses, would depend on what they heard from those 
 whose connection with Christ was closer and more constant. 
 Another reference to the handing down of truth by word of 
 mouth occurs in Hebr. ii. 3, where the writer speaks of the 
 confirmation of the promise of salvation to his readers and 
 himself by those that heard Christ. Moreover the early 
 Christian writers appeal rather to a still living tradition than 
 to written Gospels 1 . 
 
 This method of preserving and communicating truth was Oral tra- 
 
 11 c 1 1 -r i n 1 i IT dition in 
 
 exactly that ot the Jewish Dchools, and the committing to the Jewish 
 writing of the Gospels under the pressure of possible lapse of 
 tradition is very similar to the committing to writing of the 
 Jewish tradition in the Mishna. One difference is that the 
 Christians broke loose from the prejudice against a written 
 Gospel much sooner than the Jews and anticipated them by 
 more than a century, or perhaps by several centuries. 
 
 In the Mishna we have the sayings of the editor himself, Various 
 just as in the Gospels we have the comments of their authors, tradition 
 We have the sayings of Simon, son of Gamaliel, whom 
 Judah himself had heard, as S. Matthew and S. John had 
 heard Christ. We have traditions at third and fourth hand 
 as in S. Mark and S. Luke, and then the tradition stretches 
 away into the more remote past. There are also in the Mishna 
 as we have it sayings added by teachers who succeeded Rabbi 
 Judah. It is as if some one had gathered up the floating 
 traditions of the second century, some few possibly authentic 
 fragments of which still survive, and had incorporated these 
 floating traditions in a new edition of the Gospels. Nor are 
 there wanting critics who would have us believe that our 
 
 1 Westcott, Introduction to tlic Gospels, ch. in.
 
 16 THE MISHNA AND THE GOSPELS 
 
 present Gospels are a comparatively late recension" of that 
 Gospel, which formed the substance of the Apostles' preach- 
 ing. In fact there is a controversy as to how soon the 
 Gospel was committed to writing, just as there is a con- 
 troversy as to how soon the Mishna was committed to 
 writing. The arguments by which Jewish writers maintain 
 that the Mishna, if only committed to writing at a late date, 
 faithfully reproduces the earlier traditions ; these arguments 
 will also tend to prove that, even if the Gospel was trans- 
 mitted for a century by oral tradition, it yet faithfully repro- 
 duces the earlier preaching. 
 
 Authority The unhesitating acceptance of the record of tradition 
 dition. by the Jews in the case of the Mishna helps us to see that 
 all who shared their habits and training would be prepared 
 to accord a similar recognition to the record of Christian 
 tradition in the Gospels. When a new work appears now-a- 
 days we ask on what evidence of documents or monuments 
 or coins the book is based : the Jew asked from whom the 
 speaker or author had heard what he asserted or recorded. 
 If the answer was ' Rabbi Gamaliel ' or ' Rabbi Akiba ' he 
 was satisfied, and doubtless equally so if it was Rabbi Do- 
 sithai in the name of Rabbi Meir or Rabbi Simeon ben 
 Judah in the name of Rabbi Simeon ben Jochai. So the 
 Christian Jew might ask concerning the account of the Magi 
 ' Who taught this ' ? The answer would be ' the Holy 
 Apostle Matthew ' : or again he might ask as to the parable 
 of the seed growing secretly and the answer would be ' the 
 Evangelist Mark in the name of the Holy Apostle Peter '. 
 To the Jew such answers would be natural and satisfactory. 
 
 Tenden- Then too the principles which determine the contents of 
 
 cies of tra- 
 dition as the Mishna and of the Gospels are in part the same. In
 
 AS BASED ON ORAL TRADITION. 17 
 
 each case the vitality of the tradition was tested by years, in to oon- 
 
 J J tents, 
 
 some cases by generations, of teaching. The ultimate record 
 
 only contained that which survived the test. Of course the 
 main tendency would be to neglect and forget that which 
 did not prove itself practically useful ; and yet in many cases 
 sayings and stories will be remembered and recorded for no 
 apparent reason but simply because of some special working 
 of the laws of association in the minds of those who handed 
 on the tradition. It will be plain that the working of these 
 common tendencies will still leave wide room for differences 
 in the character of the contents of the Mishna and the 
 Gospels, and indeed there are enormous differences. The 
 causes to which these differences are due will be obvious to 
 anyone. 
 
 But to return to the influence of the process of tradition on 
 the contents of the Mishna and the Gospels ; to us it may seem 
 that minor truths and transient interests occupy too large a 
 space, some things may seem irrelevant and some unintelligi- 
 ble. Much that we expect to find is absent. We should not 
 willingly lose a word that throws light in any way on the 
 life and teaching of Christ, and yet some might think that 
 less might have been said of the traditions of the Pharisees 
 and more of the great evangelical doctrine of justification by 
 faith or that the principle of apostolic succession might have 
 been set forth more clearly. We may wonder at what seems 
 to us the involved vagueness of the prophecy of 'the last 
 things ' ; we may not understand how an obscure incident 
 like that of the ' young man 1 ' with ' a linen cloth cast about 
 him ' is relevant to the general narrative. 
 
 If we turn to the Mishna we shall find that the same 
 
 1 Mark xiv. 51, 52. 
 B. 2
 
 18 THE MISHNA AND THE GOSPELS 
 
 process of natural selection by oral tradition has destroyed 
 in a much greater degree the symmetry and coherence of 
 the record. There it seems as if the popular taste and the 
 atmosphere of the schools had chosen to have hardly any- 
 thing but minor truths and transient interests ; the tradi- 
 tions of the Pharisees drive the great truths of morality 
 and religion into odd corners. It is difficult to point out 
 special examples of irrelevancy in the Mishna, because after 
 reading a few sections the student gets a general idea that 
 everything is relevant to everything else, and it seems 
 almost natural to discuss in a treatise on the new year 
 the reason why we are not told the names of the elders 
 who ascended Sinai with Moses 1 . The reason is that the 
 Mishna wanders on like a man thinking aloud in a de- 
 sultory fashion and gives the chance links in the train of 
 thought, while the Gospel constantly omits them. 
 Influence The same facts help us to understand the difficulty in 
 tradition either case of finding a scientific or chronological arrange- 
 arrange- ment. Events and sayings were remembered and finally 
 ment. recorded as they were associated together and suggested 
 each other in the minds of those who remembered them. 
 They might be associated because of their connection in 
 time or because they were similar in subject, but men's 
 reminiscences are grouped according to many less obvious 
 laws than those of connection in time or similarity in 
 subject. 
 
 In the Mishna a long discussion about the payment of 
 tithes for land in Ammon and Moab interrupts the rules for 
 purifying the hands ; and again the account of the signs of 
 
 1 Bosh Hashanah n. 9. Exod. xxiv. 2.
 
 AS BASED ON OEAL TRADITION. 19 
 
 the coming of the Messiah occurs in the treatise on the 
 ' Waters of Jealousy '. 
 
 Similarly in the Gospels the arrangement does not always 
 admit of easy explanation, and different Evangelists connect 
 the same sayings with very different contexts. 
 
 Again, in the Gospels, much is common to the three Supple- 
 
 mentary 
 Synoptic Gospels and is called by many the Triple Tra- traditions. 
 
 dition. Yet there is much not contained in this Triple 
 Tradition, but preserved by one or two Evangelists. In 
 a somewhat similar manner the Mishna may be supposed 
 to represent the main stream of Jewish tradition. But 
 there are other works, the 'Tosifta' and 'Bereitha', for 
 which some claim an equal antiquity and to which the 
 Jews accord a modified authority, and these preserve sup- 
 plementary traditions. 
 
 Also it may be noticed that, while separate Gospels seem Discrepan- 
 
 . cies in 
 
 to present discrepancies, the Mishna does not hesitate to tradition. 
 
 record the varying decisions or reminiscences of different 
 authorities. For instance the Rabbis disagree as to whether 
 Ecclesiastes and Canticles render the hands unclean, i.e. are 
 canonical books 1 . 
 
 1 Yadaim iv. 5. 
 
 22
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE MISHNA AS ILLUSTRATING THE GOSPELS GENERALLY. 
 
 So far the grounds of comparison may be considered certain, 
 both Mishna and Gospel are due to tradition. The tra- 
 ditional character of the Mishna is universally acknowledged 
 and is proved by both internal and external evidence. In 
 the case of the Gospels there is at any rate a strong element 
 of tradition. 
 
 niustra- But we wish to use the Mishna to illustrate not only the 
 
 subject- method of composition of the Gospels but also their subject 
 matter. Before we can do so it is necessary to enquire how 
 far the customs, feelings and doctrine of the Jews as given in 
 the Mishna are similar to those of the Jews in the time of 
 Christ. 
 
 Interval On the one hand we have to remember that a period of 
 
 between 
 
 Gospels from 150 to 200 years had elapsed between the death of 
 
 Mishna. Christ and the publication of the Mishna, and that during 
 this period the Jews had been crushed by two disastrous 
 wars ; their capital and its temple had been destroyed ; 
 and Jerusalem had been replaced by a new city (Elia 
 Capitolina, from which the Jews were excluded. 
 
 Effects of At first sight a period so long and eventful might be 
 the inter- 
 val, expected to work much change in the customs of social and
 
 THE MISHNA AS ILLUSTRATING THE GOSPELS GENERALLY. 21 
 
 religious life. If we look back 150 years to the reign of 
 George II., or 200 years to that of Charles II., and remember 
 the wars and constitutional changes of the period, the pro- 
 gress in science, the railways, telegraph and penny post, we 
 might be tempted to say that a student would find little in 
 English life and literature of to-day to illustrate English 
 life of 150 or 200 years ago. But a moment's thought shows 
 us how much still remains the same. For instance the 
 Prayer-Book is almost identically the same, and many of the 
 forms of social and commercial life, many of the ceremonies 
 of Parliament and the law courts are the same. Then too 
 the principles and position of the High Church party of to- 
 day illustrate those of the High Church party of the time of 
 Laud ; and the spirit of ' No Popery ' survives to help us to 
 understand the long maintenance of the penal laws against 
 the Catholics. 
 
 If all this is true in Western progressive England, how 
 much more so in the changeless East, in a nation that clung 
 tenaciously to the past, governed by scholars whose whole 
 theory of learning was to remember, to reproduce, to in- 
 terpret what had been handed down, as they believed, even 
 from Moses. If to-day, after the lapse of eighteen centuries, 
 the dresses, customs and language of the East still afford 
 material for illustrating both Old and New Testament, how 
 much more a book compiled not later than the middle of the 
 third century after Christ and professing to contain traditions 
 of teachers from Ezra to its own time ? Men in those days 
 did not ask continually : 'Who will shew us any new thing' ? 
 New things meant revolutions or calamities 1 , the new things, 
 
 1 nbD13 Is. xv. 9. 'Added things', i.e. according to some, 'new 
 evils'; cf. 'res novse ' for 'revolutions '.
 
 22 THE MISHNA AS ILLUSTRATING 
 
 the revolutions of the Jews had been disastrous, and they 
 tried to maintain all that linked their life with older times. 
 For these older times, especially when remembered after 
 many years of misfortune, were more glorious or at any rate 
 more peaceful. 
 
 The changes that have altered our life and language are 
 not so much our wars and revolutions as the railways, the 
 telegraph and the postal system, the increase of intercourse 
 between men and nations, and the immediate knowledge of 
 contemporaneous history all over the world far and near. It 
 is true that the unity of the Roman Empire led to much 
 intercommunication between its parts and that the Jews and 
 the Roman officials were perhaps the greatest travellers of 
 their day. It is true too that the Jews then as now cor- 
 responded with one another and knew each other's doings 
 better than any other set of people. But at their best the 
 opportunities for intercommunication afforded by the Roman 
 Empire were far inferior to those of modern civilisation. 
 Moreover the Jews lived in the world and were not of the 
 world, and had no sympathy with heathen life and its 
 customs. And the Rabbis consciously and strenuously re- 
 sisted all influences from the Gentiles and doubtless even 
 from the Jews of the Dispersion. The Dispersion was to 
 humbly accept the law from them, they would not learn 
 from the Dispersion. Now the Mishna belongs to the Judaism 
 of the Rabbis. 
 
 The chain of Rabbinical succession seems to have been 
 unbroken. The Sanhedrim is said to have left Jerusalem 
 before the final siege and to have established itself at 
 Jamnia. Nor did the Romans molest them till the revolt 
 of Barchochabh. Even then the Rabbis in defiance of
 
 THE GOSPELS GENERALLY. 23 
 
 Roman decrees appointed successors to their office and pro- 
 vided for the transmission of the tradition. 
 
 There is too a certain local continuity about the Judaism 
 of the Mishna. The seat of the patriarchate at this time 
 was Tiberias in Galilee, and before that had been Sepphoris 
 in Galilee. Judah Hakkadosh spent the later years of his 
 life at Sepphoris. Neither Tiberias nor Sepphoris suffered 
 much in the first Jewish war. Sepphoris first obtained 
 permission from Josephus to protect itself with walls and 
 then submitted to .Vespasian before he entered Palestine 
 and received from him a Roman garrison. Tiberias was 
 spared through the intercession of Agrippa 1 . 
 
 The records of the war of Barchochabh are too scanty 
 to enable us to say whether these cities suffered during his 
 revolt. If they escaped a second time they were exception- 
 ally fortunate. But at any rate we find Jewish communities 
 at both Sepphoris and Tiberias soon after the revolt 2 . Thus 
 the Mishna was compiled in a district where the practice of 
 Jewish customs had gone on for centuries almost without 
 interruption. 
 
 We have therefore to take into account the attachment 
 of the Jews to their past, their trustful reverence for tra- 
 ditional teaching, the mutual hatred between Jew and Gen- 
 tile and the consequent estrangement of the Jew from all 
 sympathy of life and thought with the Gentile : we have to 
 bear in mind the unbroken chain of Rabbinical succession 
 and the comparative tranquillity of the seats of Rabbinical 
 learning, whereby the Eastern tendency to the maintenance 
 of old customs was allowed fair scope. Then, though in the 
 
 1 Vita Josephi, 65. 
 
 2 Jost, Bk. xii. oh. 13.
 
 24 THE MISHNA AS ILLUSTRATING 
 
 most careful and laborious oral teaching there must be some- 
 thing lost in course of time, and though even in the con- 
 servative and stationary East, a school of learning can 
 scarcely busy itself with one subject for generations without 
 adding much by way of development or interpretation, yet 
 we may conclude that in substance and spirit the position of 
 the Jews in the Mishna is that of the Jews of the first 
 century. Especially as the Mishna is essentially a law-book 
 and law is conservative, and the forms and records of the law 
 are a perfect repertory of the manners and customs and ideas 
 of the past. 
 
 Many of the sayings of the Mishna are expressly ascribed 
 to well-known teachers, and we may fairly suppose that 
 within certain limits the ascription is correct. It is not too 
 much to suppose that sayings might be transmitted with 
 fair accuracy from the time of Christ to the end of the 
 second century. People would be more scrupulous about 
 altering the sayings of Gamaliel than they would be in 
 modifying an anonymous tradition. Where the teachers in 
 question lived later than Christ, the probability that their 
 words are accurately reported is increased, and yet it is not 
 likely that they are essentially different from previous 
 teaching. Much of the Mishna is anonymous, and no doubt 
 received its present form from Rabbi Judah, or those who 
 somewhat later put the Mishna into its present state. Here 
 too there must have been some development since the time 
 of Christ, but such development by no means robs the 
 Mishna of its value as illustrating the New Testament. 
 What took place was not alteration but development, and 
 that development not of any new features of Judaism, nor 
 yet of any spiritual or esoteric teaching ; but of the elaborate
 
 THE GOSPELS GENERALLY, 25 
 
 ceremonial and oppressive formalism that Christ continually 
 denounced. Possibly slight tendencies that in the time of 
 Christ could only be discerned by a prophetic instinct, by the 
 time of the Mishna had asserted themselves in evident law 
 and custom. We may understand the tendencies all the 
 better by studying them in a later stage, the full-grown tree 
 may help us to understand the sapling. 
 
 Both the Gospel and the Mishna were written in a sense Absence 
 
 of l)iis 
 
 without bias. Jost says of the Mishna that it is not written 
 to support a teacher or a party, nor is it written to prove 
 any particular views of truth, but its object is to preserve 
 practical truth felt to be important. Probably any candid 
 reader will agree with Jost in this, and might even go further 
 and own that only the strictest sense of duty would have 
 induced anyone to unofertake so laborious and monotonous 
 a task. Nor can one believe that Rabbi Judah expected 
 that the Mishna would attract anyone to the doctrines or the 
 practice of Judaism. 
 
 Thus the Mishna has a special value for the illustration 
 of the Gospels, because we are sure that it has not been 
 adapted to the Gospels. When we read in early Christian 
 writers of Jewish manners and customs illustrating the New 
 Testament we are sometimes tempted to suspect that the 
 illustrations have been invented or modified to suit that 
 which is to be illustrated, but no such suspicion is possible 
 in the case of a Jewish book, handed down by Jews. 
 
 There are indeed two tendencies which detract from our Tendency 
 confidence in the historical accuracy of the Mishna. One of gerate 
 these is the very natural desire to emphasise the former glory, 
 glory of the nation and this leads to exaggeration. In some 
 cases the exaggeration is obvious, especially where it strays
 
 26 THE MISHNA AS ILLUSTRATING 
 
 into the region of the absurdly supernatural. For instance 
 we must attribute the statement 1 that the opening of the 
 gate of the Temple was heard at Jericho rather to patriotic 
 imagination than to accurate memory. In other cases where 
 the Mishna enlarges on the wonders and magnificence of the 
 former dispensation we may consider that there is fair ground 
 for suspicion. However to illustrate the Gospels we have 
 rather to attend to what is said of the sin and folly of the 
 Jews, we are not so much concerned with the splendour of 
 the Temple services. 
 
 Tendency There is also the tendency to invent details. Anyone 
 details. who is familiar with modern commentators knows how upon 
 one or two vague hints and upon the very silence of the 
 narrative an ingenious and learned critic will build up a 
 complete biography of a man of whom really nothing is 
 known but the name. A more imaginative and poetic age 
 invented with greater boldness and the necessary terseness 
 of oral tradition would soon convert conjecture into state- 
 ment. We can scarcely help believing that as new exi- 
 gencies arose, new rules to meet them were supplied at times 
 from an artificially stimulated memory and that gaps in anti- 
 quarian records would be supplied by the imagination. 
 
 There are however limits within which these disturbing 
 forces do not act. In the Mishna and the Gospel we have 
 two independent witnesses, witnesses too that are in the 
 main honest ; the Mishna rather exaggerates than perverts. 
 They are independent, neither has been modified so as either 
 to confirm or contradict the other. Hence where they agree 
 we have the coincidence of two independent witnesses, and 
 
 1 Tamid in. 8.
 
 THE GOSPELS GENERALLY. 27 
 
 such agreement is always acknowledged to afford a strong 
 presumption of the truth of both. 
 
 If too either of our authorities explains the other, either 
 the Mishna the Gospel, or the Gospel the Mishna, such 
 explanation also is a sign of accuracy in both. A clumsy 
 mistake is often obscure, and may become obscurer every 
 time it is repeated, but one clumsy mistake cannot explain 
 another. Again an obscurity which arises out of a mistake 
 may be explained and made to 'seem accurate by statements 
 specially concocted with a view to their bearing on the mis- 
 take. But no one would suspect the Mishna of aiming at 
 making clear what is obscure in the Gospels. For instance 
 the Mishna tells us that there was a golden vine 1 over the 
 doorway of the Temple ; we at once think of the parable of 
 the vine, and are perhaps willing to believe that the parable 
 was suggested by this vine. If so the Gospel narrative 
 would be made more vivid for us. We are at any rate sure 
 that the record of the parable and the statement in the 
 Mishna are independent and we feel that in some degree the 
 undesigned coincidence is a proof in favour of the authority 
 of both the Jewish and the Christian witness. 
 
 There is, however, another tendency in the Mishna which Anti- 
 needs to be taken into account. The Jewish Rabbis seem interest of 
 to have been possessed by a sort of antiquarian enthusiasm i n e b s * lete 
 for the study of obsolete laws. A recent Jewish writer says 2 : 
 
 'They studied with as much zeal the laws concerning 
 the perverse and rebellious son, which according to the 
 Talmud were never applied, as those which were in daily 
 use '. 
 
 1 Middoth in. 8. 
 
 2 Klein, La Virile sur le Talmud, p. 14.
 
 28 THE MISHNA AS ILLUSTRATING THE GOSPELS GENERALLY. 
 
 Very different results might spring from this tendency ; 
 on the one hand this antiquarian interest would preserve 
 the memory of manners and customs that might else have 
 been forgotten. On the other hand we cannot be certain 
 that manners and customs treated of at length in the 
 Mishna were not obsolete even before the time of Christ. 
 We are told that the use of the Waters of Jealousy was 
 done away with by a contemporary of Christ, and yet the 
 whole subject is discussed at great length and in minute 
 detail in the section Sota. These academic discussions on 
 obsolete law could not be checked or controlled by the 
 necessity of practically applying the decisions arrived at. 
 Hence it is likely that many of the cases dealt with are 
 mere subtleties of theory, and never had any counterpart in 
 the actual life of the Jews. 
 
 Summary. Recurring to our original question as to how far the 
 customs, feelings and doctrines of the Jews as given in the 
 Mishna are similar to those of the Jews in the time of 
 Christ. We have said already above that in substance and 
 spirit the position of the Jews in the Mishna is that of the 
 Jews of the first century after Christ. We may now add 
 that in some cases we may use the Mishna as a diagram on 
 a large scale of somewhat microscopic tendencies in the Jews 
 of the Gospel, and that details wherein both coincide or 
 wherein the one explains the other may fairly be con- 
 sidered accurate. Beyond this our ground is very uncertain, 
 and the estimate of the value of the Mishna as representing 
 Jewish life in the time of Christ will depend very much 
 on subjective considerations.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE PHARISEES. 
 
 IN making use of the Mishna, we have to ask which side Mishna 
 
 represents 
 of Jewish life or which party in Jewish teaching or politics, Pharisees. 
 
 as they existed in the time of Christ, the Mishna repre- 
 sents ? The Gospels recognise Herodians, Sadducees and 
 Pharisees; Josephus adds Essenes. As will be seen later 
 on, the teaching of the Mishna connects itself with that of 
 the Pharisees, variously described as Pharisees, scribes and 
 teachers of the law 1 . 
 
 We next ask how far the Rabbis of the Mishna re- 
 sembled the Pharisees, how far in recounting the traditions 
 of earlier times they acknowledge or imply that their pre- 
 decessors the Pharisees correctly held and worthily repre- 
 sented the teaching of their tradition ? 
 
 It is true that we find in the Mishna and Gemara half 
 contemptuous satire and even direct attack on the Pharisees. 
 
 1 vofj.odidda-Ka\oi. Not all Pharisees would be scribes or teachers of the 
 law, but these two latter classes seem included in the party of the 
 Pharisees.
 
 30 THE PHAEISEES. 
 
 ' The wounds of a Pharisee ' incurred according to the com- 
 mentators in his anxiety to avoid looking at a woman, ' are 
 among the things that overthrow the world 1 '. Elsewhere, 
 however, the views of Sadducees and Pharisees are discussed 
 with a marked preference 2 for those of the Pharisees, and 
 the authorities quoted in the Mishna are mostly known as 
 Pharisees 3 . 
 
 Besides this the Mishna mostly either coincides with or 
 is in harmony with what we know of the teaching of the 
 Pharisees. It does not speak of its traditions definitely as 
 those of the Pharisees, nor does it speak of them as differing 
 from Pharisaic teaching. 
 
 Probably even in our Lord's time the leading teachers 
 were far from countenancing all the extravagancies of their 
 followers. And then as time went on the nomenclature of 
 parties would change. The Jewish teachers are not spoken 
 of in the Mishna as Pharisees but as Eabbis, and collectively 
 as 'the Sages'. And the 'Chaberim 4 ', or 'Associates', are 
 spoken of as careful observers of the Oral Law as distin- 
 guished from the ' Am-Ha-Arez s , who seem to have been 
 very lax in their observance. Probably the more intelli- 
 gent teachers dropped the title Pharisee, and the more 
 old-fashioned clung to it and exaggerated in their conduct 
 some of the more objectionable features of Pharisaic prac- 
 tice. Those of the party who had adopted new names, and 
 as it were a new dress, might feel some contempt for those 
 who affected the old costume 6 . This feeling, together with 
 
 1 Sota in. 4. 2 Yadaim n. 6, 7, 8. 
 
 3 e. g. Simon, son of Gamaliel. Vita Josephi, 38. 
 
 6 Cf . the slighting way in which some Radicals speak of Whigs.
 
 THE PHARISEES. 31 
 
 some censure of leaders on unworthy followers, and possibly 
 an element of playful self-satire, may account for the cri- 
 tical remarks of the Mishna on the Pharisees, without 
 assuming any vital difference of opinion between the two 
 parties. 
 
 We may say therefore that Christ, in His controversies Christ 
 
 and Phari- 
 with the Pharisees, came into contact with the principles sees. 
 
 expressed in the Mishna. What then were the relations 
 between Christ and the Pharisees ? We find Him as a 
 lad in the temple seeking to understand them and their 
 teaching. He arouses in them curiosity and astonishment. 
 Later on they and their emissaries follow closely and watch 
 carefully both John the Baptist and Christ. At last they 
 decided against both l . Herod relieved them of any anxiety 
 as to John ; but they were left to compass the ruin of Christ 
 for themselves. From the time of their decision their oppo- 
 sition became more bitter and more conspicuous, and was 
 probably not lessened by the conversion of Nicodemus and 
 other Pharisees and rulers. The Pharisees of the Synoptists 
 and the corresponding 'Jews' 2 of S. John's Gospel meet 
 Christ at every turn with carping criticism and insidious 
 plots, and throughout the Gospels they are scarcely ever 
 mentioned by Christ except to be condemned. 
 
 Herein lies a difficulty, the Christian reader of the Mishna 
 is tempted to look upon the book as a literary Antichrist 
 and to consider it his duty to find there nothing but false- 
 hood and folly as exemplified by the sins and vices of the 
 Pharisees. 
 
 It is not difficult to find such, but it must be remembered 
 
 1 John ix. 24, &c. ; Luke xx. 5. 
 
 2 Westcott on the Gospel of St John. Introduction 1. 1. i. a.
 
 32 THE PHAEISEES. 
 
 that the popular manifestation and application of the teach- 
 ing of the schools often exaggerates its worst points. Christ 
 would largely come in contact with such popular Pharisaism. 
 Among the Pharisees there may have been men as different 
 from the fanatics whom Christ denounces as Cardinal New- 
 man is from some ignorant Catholic priest or as Matthew 
 Arnold is from ignorant and violent sceptics. Between the 
 time of Christ and that of Judah the Holy the Jews had 
 undergone the discipline of severe suffering, and many of 
 the teachers quoted in the Mishna had been martyrs and 
 confessors of their faith. All sects have their striving after 
 truth and holiness, the Pharisees and the Rabbis are no 
 exception. The Rabbis of the time of the Mishna were 
 probably of a somewhat higher type than the popular 
 Pharisee of the Gospel. 
 
 The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses' seat, their teach- 
 ing is to be observed, 'these ought ye to have done', but 
 the example of their life is to be avoided. Christ and the 
 Pharisees clash on the importance of forms, it is not so much 
 that the Pharisees challenge His general teaching or that 
 He condemns altogether their forms in themselves, but He 
 challenges their slavery to form and they His neglect of 
 form. Moreover an attack on a system must be practically 
 on its incarnation in the life of a people, wherein oftentimes 
 the better features of a system are lost or have so little 
 influence that it scarcely falls within the province of a 
 reformer to notice them. 
 
 We may now proceed to illustrate from the Mishna some 
 of those peculiarities of the Pharisees which are so well 
 known from the Gospels. On some more important matters 
 we will treat more at length in separate chapters, but it
 
 THE PHARISEES. 33 
 
 will be convenient to group under this head many of our 
 illustrations on minor points. 
 
 These peculiarities of the Pharisees may be summed up 
 in formalism, exclusiveness and hypocrisy. 
 
 (i) Formalism: consisting in an excessive devotion to a Formal- 
 multiplicity of forms, many of them very minute. One 
 leading instance of this devotion is found in their attitude 
 to the Sabbath, but this we reserve for a special chapter. 
 
 Another instance is their scrupulous attention to legal Legal 
 
 Purity, 
 purity. On one occasion they assail the disciples and on 
 
 another Christ Himself for not washing before a meal. 
 We read in the same connection of their frequent washings 
 of pots and vessels, and of their carefulness as to 'meats 1 '. 
 
 To this subject of legal purifications is devoted that one 
 of the six great divisions of the Mishna called the Seder 
 Taharoth. This division contains twelve treatises, and of 
 these there are four which deal with 'Vessels', 'Liquors', 
 'Hands', ' Stalks ', respectively. 
 
 The treatise Yadaim or ' Hands ' contains regulations 
 for purifying the hands from uncleanness. Maimonides in 
 his commentary on this treatise 2 tells us that the custom of 
 washing the hands before meals was instituted by the scribes, 
 when or by whom is doubtful. The object was to make sure 
 that the hands should not be unclean and so render the food 
 unclean, and for greater security the hands were always 
 to be washed before meals even when it was not known that 
 any uncleanness had been incurred. 3 A quarter of a log 
 of water is to be poured on the hands. It must be poured 
 
 1 Matt. xv. 2, xxiii. 25 ; Mark vii. 2 4 ; Luke xi. 38. 
 
 2 See Lightfoot, Horce Hebraicie, on Matt. xv. 2. 
 
 3 For what follows on this subject, see Yadaim. 
 
 B, 3
 
 34 THE PHARISEES. 
 
 out of a vessel and not from another man's hand ; it must 
 not have a bad smell nor have been used for any other 
 purpose; but anyone may pour water upon another man's 
 hands, even an idiot or an ape. 
 
 If a man pours water on one hand first and before 
 pouring water on the other rubs the two together, the one 
 hand again becomes unclean. The marginal rendering of 
 the Revised Version of Mark vii. 3 1 is supported by the 
 references of this treatise to the practice of washing the 
 hands up to the wrists. 
 
 The hands might be rendered unclean if merely put 
 inside a house infected with leprosy. The question was said 
 to have arisen as to whether they did not become unclean 
 if put in the empty space of an unclean vessel. Moreover 
 they were rendered unclean by touching any portion of the 
 canonical scriptures. This last was an artificial regulation 
 to prevent the careless handling of sacred books. It might 
 seem to us more reasonable if they had been required to 
 wash their hands before touching their Bible. We are told 
 that persons who ate with unwashen hands were troubled 
 with a particular class of devils 2 . Rabbi Akiba, when in 
 prison and suffering from thirst, used what little water was 
 at his disposal to wash his hands before prayer 8 . 
 
 The treatise Kelim or ' Vessels ' discusses at great length 
 the liability of vessels of different kinds to contract un- 
 cleanness; what precise closeness of contact, with what 
 precise amount of an unclean thing will render vessels un- 
 clean ; how far the tendency to uncleanness is affected by 
 a vessel having rims, or handles, and many other questions 
 
 1 irvyfjiTi, ' up to the elbow '. 
 
 2 Lightfoot on Matt. xv. 2. 
 
 3 Jost, Bk. xn, ch. 12.
 
 THE PHARISEES. 35 
 
 of like importance. As the law -lays down 1 that a vessel 
 contracting legal impurity is to be washed ; it is easy to 
 see that as the cases of legal impurity were multiplied so 
 would be the washings. 
 
 The treatises 'Maksheerin' and 'Oozekin', 'Liquids' and 
 ' Stalks ', deal with the legal purity of food. 
 
 ' Maksheerin ' is an expansion of Leviticus xi. 38, ' But if 
 any water be put upon the seed, and any part of their 
 carcase fall thereon, it shall be unclean'. The question is 
 discussed as to what liquids when ' put upon ' grain or herbs 
 render it liable to become unclean. The list extended 
 amongst other things to dew and honey. 
 
 ' Oozekin ' lays down the rule that if the stalk or shell of 
 fruit touch anything unclean, the uncleanness is communi- 
 cated to the fruit and vice versa. 
 
 Fasting was general in those days, the prophetess Anna Fasting, 
 fasted, both the disciples of John and the Pharisees fasted 
 often, and Christ Himself sanctions the practice 2 . 
 
 There is a treatise ' Taanith ' or ' Fasting ', which is 
 largely taken up with the subject from which it is named. 
 It alludes to the yearly fasts but dwells specially on the 
 arrangements for fasts in case of calamity. A cumulative 
 system is prescribed in case of drought, fasts of increasing 
 severity were to be observed till either the rain came or the 
 harvest was hopelessly spoilt. It may be noticed that while 
 Christ commands the faster 3 to anoint his head and wash 
 his face, the Mishna 4 says that ' During the week in which 
 
 1 Leviticus xi. 32, 33. 
 8 Luke ii. 37, v. 33 ; Matt, vi 16, 17. 
 Matt. vi. 17. 
 
 4 Taanith iv. 7. On the 9th of Ab a fast was held in memory of the 
 destruction of the Temple. 
 
 32
 
 36 THE PHARISEES. 
 
 the 9th of Ab happens it is prohibited to a person to shave 
 himself or to wash his clothes '. 
 
 Tithes. Two references are made in the Gospels to the minute 
 
 care with which the Pharisees paid their tithes ; in Matthew 
 xxiii. 23 they are spoken of as ' paying tithes of mint and 
 anise and cummin ', ; and in the parable of the Pharisee and 
 the Publican, the Pharisee makes it his special boast that he 
 pays tithes of all he possesses. 
 
 Three treatises in the Mishna deal with the question of 
 tithes. 
 
 The treatise Maaseroth and Maaser Sheni are on what 
 are called the First and Second Tithes respectively 1 . 
 
 The general law of tithes is laid down thus : ' Everything 
 that is eaten and is kept and has increase from the earth is 
 liable to tithes 2 '. That is to say, everything that grows out 
 of the earth and is edible and is of sufficient value to be 
 kept. It is plain that this general definition would include 
 'mint and anise and cummin'. Lightfoot in his Horce 
 HebraiccB on Matthew xxiii. 23 quotes from the Mishna 
 passages in which each of these herbs is spoken of as liable 
 to tithes or other legal dues. He also quotes the Talmud 
 Babli to the effect that the tithing of herbs was instituted 
 by the Rabbis. He proceeds thus, " This tithing was added 
 by the Scribes and yet it was approved of by Christ, when 
 He says 'These things ought ye not to leave undone'. 
 Hearken to this, thou who dost not believe in tithes 3 ". 
 The treatise Maaseroth gives long lists of articles to be 
 
 1 These tithes are the subject of much controversy, but the question 
 belongs to the Old Testament and not to the New. 
 
 2 Maaseroth i. 1. 
 
 3 'Audi hoc, 6 anti-decimarie.'
 
 THE PHARISEES. 37 
 
 tithed, and of the circumstances under which they are or are 
 not liable for tithes. 
 
 For instance ; a man brings figs into his house, pre- 
 sumably from his own garden and untithed, his children and 
 household servants may eat them without breaking the law ; 
 workmen whom he employs may eat of them also, unless he 
 finds them in food 1 . 
 
 Again, when the time of tithing draws near a man must 
 not sell his fruit to anyone who cannot be trusted to pay 
 tithe upon it 2 . It is further laid down 3 that if a man finds 
 a vessel with the letter Mem (ra) on it, he is to consider this . 
 tithe and hand it over to the proper authorities, because 
 presumably Mem is put as the initial of Maaser, tithe. 
 Rabbi Jose' however seems not to concur in this decision and 
 suggests that the Mem may be the initial of a man's name. 
 
 But the strictness of the Pharisees on the subject of 
 tithes is most forcibly shown by the treatise Demai. 
 
 This treatise discusses the case of a strict Jew, who finds 
 himself in possession of that which should have been tithed, 
 but, as far as he knows, may not have been tithed. For the 
 purposes of this treatise the people are divided into Chaberim 
 or Associates, who strictly observe the law, and the 'Am 
 HaArez or common people, who do not. It is laid down 
 that if the former buy titheable articles from the latter, they 
 cannot depend upon the 'Am HaArez having paid tithe 
 and so must pay tithe themselves. Also the Chaber is to be 
 exceedingly careful that he does not lead others to eat that 
 which has not been tithed. If he is carrying herbs and 
 wishes to throw some away to lighten his burden he must 
 
 1 Maaseroth in. 1. 2 Maaseroth v. 3. 
 
 3 Maaser Sheni iv. 11.
 
 38 THE PHAKISEES. 
 
 not do so without tithing them, lest any one finding them 
 should eat them untithed. If he find fruit by the wayside 
 and takes it up to eat it and changes his mind he must not 
 throw it away without tithing it 1 . 
 
 It is evident that the same or even greater caution will 
 be needful in the case of that which is purchased from a 
 Samaritan or a heathen. He that buys wine from Cuthaeans 2 
 is to say : ' The two logs I am going to put aside are for 
 heave offering and ten for tithe and nine for second tithe, 
 and then he may begin to drink '. 
 
 Exclusive- (ii) Exclusiveness. This feature of the Pharisaic character 
 ness. 
 
 is implied in their name, which signifies ' separated '. They 
 
 withdrew within narrowing circles, shutting out from their 
 fellowship first Gentiles, then Samaritans, then the common 
 people. 
 
 Gentiles. As the scene of action of the Gospels is almost exclu- 
 sively in Palestine, Christ is scarcely brought into contact 
 with the Gentiles. However it is recorded that a significant 
 reference to the exceptional favour showed to Gentiles like 
 Naaman the Syrian arid the widow of Zarephath called forth 
 the indignation of the Jews, who heard it, and no doubt 
 when Christ said to the Syrophenician woman ' Is it meet 
 to cast the children's bread to the dogs ?', He wished to 
 remind her how an earnest orthodox Jewish teacher would 
 have viewed her request. In the Acts the idea that Jews 
 must not eat with Gentiles has its influence in the Christian 
 Church. 
 
 It is evident that the regulations for legal purity would 
 
 1 Demai ra. 2, 3. 
 
 2 i. e. Samaritan and possibly sometimes Gtentile. Lightfoot, Horce 
 Hebr. on John iv. 1 ; Matt. x. 5.
 
 THE PHARISEES. 39 
 
 prevent the Jews from free intercourse with Gentiles, and 
 especially from eating with them. Besides this it was neces- 
 sary to avoid any implication in their idolatry. Rules as to 
 intercourse with idolaters are laid down in the treatise 
 Abodah Zarah : " Three days before the feasts of the idolaters 
 it is forbidden to deal with them, to lend to them or borrow 
 from them, to pay them, to take payment of them. Rabbi 
 Judah said, ' It is allowed to take payment from them, since 
 it is disagreeable to the idolater '. The Sages answered him 
 'Though it is disagreeable to him now, he rejoices after- 
 wards 1 ' ". 
 
 The object of these restrictions would be to avoid having 
 any share in providing for a heathen festival. It is in- 
 teresting to notice that authorities are agreed on the de- 
 sirability of annoying the heathen, though they differ as to 
 the most effectual method. 
 
 Again it is said, ' Men must not let to them buildings in 
 the land of Israel and it is needless to say fields 2 '. ' No man 
 should be alone with them, because they are apt to shed 
 blood 3 '. In these rules there is a spirit of suspicious ex- 
 clusiveness, but it is only too certain that there was much 
 to justify such a spirit. 
 
 In the matter of wine the Israelites were much hampered 
 in their dealings with the heathen. The Jew felt that if he 
 drank from a barrel or pitcher of wine, from which a libation 
 had been poured out to an idol, that he was implicated in an act 
 of idolatrous worship. Hence such decisions as these : 'A man 
 dines with an idolater and leaves a flask of wine on the table 
 and one on the sideboard, and left them and went out. The 
 
 1 Abodah Zarah i 1. 2 Abodah Zarah i. 10. 
 
 3 Abodali Zarah 11. 1.
 
 40 THE PHARISEES. 
 
 flask on the table is forbidden to be used, but that on the 
 sideboard is allowed ' 1 . This must be explained thus ; the 
 absence of the Jew gives the idolater an opportunity of 
 pouring out a libation to some idol-God without the Jew 
 knowing of it ; so that the Jew if he drank out of that flask, 
 may be drinking wine from which a libation has been offered. 
 But it is supposed the Jew is not away long enough to give 
 the idolater an opportunity of pouring a libation from the 
 flask on the sideboard and therefore that wine may be used. 
 
 Similarly 2 , 'If foreign robbers have entered into a city in 
 time of peace, no barrel of wine which was open at the time 
 may be used ' because the foreigners may have poured liba- 
 tions from them. 
 
 It will be plain from such instances how difference of 
 habits and mutual suspicion together with the anxiety of the 
 Jew to be legally clean and his hatred of idolatry would 
 bring about and find expression for a spirit of rigid exclusive- 
 ness in the case of Gentiles. 
 
 Samari- I n the case of the Samaritans the common element of 
 
 Jewish and Samaritan religion would at times draw them 
 together, but oftener tend to embitter the dislike and 
 suspicion derived from their differences. Religious animosity 
 is acknowledged to be most bitter when the disputants have 
 much in common. 
 
 There are in the Gospels several instances of mutual 
 hatred between Jews and Samaritans. 
 
 Christ Himself seems to recognise that for practical pur- 
 poses the Samaritans are on the same level as the Gentiles 
 and that it is necessary to exclude them for the present 
 
 1 Abodah Zarah v. 3. 
 
 2 Abodah Zarah, v. 4.
 
 THE PHARISEES. 41 
 
 from His work. In sending forth the Twelve 1 He bids them 
 not to go in the way of the Gentiles nor to enter into any city 
 of the Samaritans '. Three times Samaritans are spoken of 
 in a way that seems to imply special reproach to the Jews. 
 In the case of the ' Woman of Samaria ' 2 , the ' Good Sama- 
 ritan' 3 , and the solitary leper out of the ten healed of whom 
 it is recorded 'and he was a Samaritan' 4 , there underlies the 
 narrative a consciousness of the contempt and hatred felt by 
 the Jews for the Samaritans. ' If these Samaritans whom 
 you hate and despise surpass you in faith and good works, 
 ought you not to be ashamed alike of yourselves and of your 
 hatred ? ' When the Jews want to vent their spleen upon 
 Christ to the uttermost, the worst they can find to say about 
 Him is that ' He is a Samaritan and has a devil ' 5 . 
 
 In one instance we have an illustration of the hatred felt 
 by the Samaritans, for on His last journey from Galilee they 
 would not receive Him because His face was as if He were 
 going to Jerusalem 6 . 
 
 Later on circumstances somewhat mitigated their mutual 
 hatred. During the Jewish war of Titus and Vespasian, the 
 Samaritans assembled in arms and seemed about to revolt, 
 but were forthwith crushed by the Romans 7 . Common 
 danger and common suffering seem for a time to have 
 brought about a partial reconciliation between Jews and 
 Samaritans, but when danger and suffering gave place again 
 to peace and security the old hatred and jealousy were re- 
 newed 8 . 
 
 The Mishna, being compiled at a time when feeling 
 
 1 S. Matt. x. 5. 2 S. John iv. 3 S. Luke x. 
 
 4 S. Luke xvii. S. John viii. 48. 6 S. Luke ix. 
 
 7 Joseph. B. J. HI. 7. 32. 8 jost, Bk. xm. Ch. vin.
 
 42 THE PHARISEES. 
 
 had passed through these various phases, bears traces of 
 them all. 
 
 We read of ancient acts of hostility on the part of the 
 Samaritans. How the news of the appearance of the new 
 moon used to be communicated by beacon-fires on the 
 mountains. But the Samaritans kindled misleading fires 
 on the wrong days and the practice had to be given up 1 . 
 
 If an Israelite says grace the rest must say Amen, but 
 if a Samaritan says grace the rest must only say Amen if 
 they have heard the whole of the blessing 2 . An Israelite 
 might safely say Amen to any grace of an Israelite, but 
 a Samaritan grace might contain something heterodox or 
 even blasphemous. 
 
 All legal documents, on which the attestation of a Sama- 
 ritan witness appears, are void, bills of divorce and deeds of 
 manumission excepted 3 . These rules point to a certain 
 intimacy of intercourse between Jews and Samaritans, but 
 also to much suspicion on the part of the Jews as to the 
 honesty of the Samaritans. The latter regulation may 
 possibly be due rather to anxiety that no technical inform- 
 ality should stand in the way of divorce or the manumission 
 of slaves rather than to any confidence in the honesty of 
 Samaritans in these special cases. 
 
 Other sayings of the Mishna point to a more irrecon- 
 cilable hatred and a more complete separation between the 
 two peoples. It is said of the daughter of a Sadducee who 
 treads in her father's footsteps that she is no better than 
 a Samaritan 4 . A saying which reminds us of the Pharisees' 
 taunt ' Thou art a Samaritan '. 
 
 1 Eosh Hashanah n. 2. a Berachoth viii. 8. 
 
 3 Gittin i. 5. 4 Niddah iv. 2.
 
 THE PHARISEES. 43 
 
 Rabbi Eliezer says that he who eats the bread of the 
 Samaritans is as he who eats swine's flesh 1 . 
 
 We next have to show how far a spirit of exclusiveness Am HaA- 
 
 rez. 
 divided the Pharisees or more strictly orthodox Jews from 
 
 various classes of their own countrymen. 
 
 We are familiar with their attitude towards ' Publicans 
 and sinners '. The crime of the former consisted partly in 
 their being the officers of a foreign power, and so the hatred 
 of the Publican is partly hatred of the foreigner. 
 
 The Pharisees come to the disciples with the indignant . 
 enquiry ' Why eateth your Master with Publicans and 
 sinners ' ? 2 Christ Himself says that ' The Son of Man ' was 
 called 'a gluttonous man and a wine-bibber, a friend of Pub- 
 licans and sinners' 3 . 
 
 In the Mishna Publicans are classed with murderers and 
 other bad characters as persons to whom vows need not be 
 fulfilled*. Money coming from Publicans was not to be 
 received that alms might be given from it 5 . A house is un- 
 clean if a Publican enters it 6 . 
 
 While it seemed a patriotic duty to stand aloof from the 
 Publican, enthusiasm for orthodoxy divided them somewhat 
 from the Sadducees. In the Gospels this opposition scarcely 
 comes into notice. Christ and His teaching seem to have 
 been objectionable to both parties. In the Acts however 
 their differences tempted S. Paul to seek for safety from 
 their dissensions 7 . 
 
 As has been already said the Mishna accepts the views 
 of the Pharisees and mentions those of the Sadducees in 
 
 1 Shebiith vm. 10. 2 S. Matt. ix. 11. 3 S. Matt. xi. 19. 
 
 4 Nedarim in. 4. 5 Baba Kama x. 1. 
 
 6 Taharoth viz. 6. 7 Acts xxiii. 68.
 
 44 THE PHARISEES. 
 
 order to make light of them and reject them. Since the 
 Sadducee did not accept the oral law there was a danger 
 that vessels might be rendered unclean by his presence 1 . 
 The method prescribed for the preparation of the ashes of 
 the red heifer, involved an undignified skipping on the part 
 of a ram which was employed. Rabbi Jose' said ' You should 
 not give the Sadducees an opportunity for scoffing' 2 . Thus 
 with the Pharisees the Sadducee represents the ' enemy ' 
 who will take advantage of any ' occasion to blaspheme '. 
 
 From such facts as these as well as from the well-known 
 doctrinal differences, we come to understand that it was no 
 ordinary hatred towards Christ and no slight sense of danger 
 that united parties having so little sympathy one with the 
 other. 
 
 We pass on to the attitude of the Pharisees towards the 
 common people. If a Pharisee could have been brought to 
 understand the state of things now-a-days, he would probably 
 have felt that the ' common people ' corresponded more or 
 less to the 'lapsed masses'. Even in times when rigid 
 orthodoxy is dominant and strictness of life strenuously 
 insisted on, there is always a large class who admit with 
 reluctance the necessity of the orthodox religious observances 
 and do not pretend to carry them out with any degree of 
 thoroughness. Now it was just this ' common people ' who 
 heard Christ gladly, while the Pharisees enquired indig- 
 nantly ' Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on 
 Him ' ? The support given to Christ by the common people 
 was easily disposed of, ' This mob that knoweth not the law 
 is cursed' 3 . 
 
 1 Erubin iv. 2. 2 Parah in. 3. 
 
 3 S. John vii. 4749.
 
 THE PHARISEES. 45 
 
 The Mosaic Law invested the person of the priest with 
 a special sanctity and imposed upon him special and addi- 
 tional rules with a view to his legal purity. The Mishna 
 distinguishes different grades of sanctity within the priest- 
 hood and divides the people into Pharisees and Am HaArez, 
 the latter corresponding roughly to the ' common people ' of 
 the Gospels. Contact with the garments of one of the Am 
 HaArez defiles the Pharisee ; contact with the garments of 
 the Pharisee defiles those who eat the heave-offering; 
 contact with the garments of those who eat the heave- 
 offering defiles for eating holy flesh ; contact with gar- 
 ments of those who eat the holy flesh defiles for the sin- 
 offering 1 . 
 
 As has been said already the Pharisees were not allowed 
 to assume that the ' common people ' had paid their tithes, 
 so that they could scarcely eat with them for fear they 
 should be eating that which had not paid tithe. If they 
 bought of the ' common people ' they had to pay tithe on 
 what they bought. 
 
 All these restrictions would limit freedom of intercourse 
 between the Pharisees and the ' common people ' and tend to 
 do away with any sympathy between them. The exclusive- 
 ness of the Pharisees in different instances may be assigned 
 to different causes ; in the case of Gentiles and Publicans 
 to national pride ; in the case of the Sadducees to pride of 
 orthodoxy ; in the case of the ' common people ' pride of 
 learning and of social position ; but in all these cases allied 
 with the special causes there was the one dominant cause, 
 the necessity for legal purity. 
 
 1 Hagiga n. 7. To eat of the various offerings was a privilege of the 
 priests and their dependents.
 
 46 THE PHARISEES. 
 
 Hypo- (iii) Hypocrisy. We have taken this for a title under 
 
 crisv 
 
 which to group some of the characteristics of the Pharisees, 
 
 because hypocrisy is always spoken of as one of their chief 
 faults, and Christ Himself addresses them as ' hypocrites '. It 
 is probable that the application of the English word in its 
 ordinary acceptation to the Pharisees is misleading. The 
 conventional idea of a hypocrite is that of a man who does 
 not mean what he says and yet says it with the intention 
 and in the hope that people may believe him, and of a man 
 who tries to appear good and to get credit for being so while 
 he lives as wickedly as he can without being found out. In 
 this sense of the word there is very little deliberate hypo- 
 crisy, and of conscious hypocrisy there is even less. The 
 conscious stage of hypocrisy is very transient, for it is essen- 
 tial to hypocrisy as to all forms of deceit that sooner or later 
 and for the most part sooner the deceiver deceives himself. 
 Especially there is seldom to any great extent deliberate and 
 conscious hypocrisy on the part of a class. For it is an 
 established law of general morality that a man's own class, 
 who for him are the one source of public opinion, may 
 decree that certain words and phrases are to be understood 
 in a sense different from their ordinary meaning or are to be 
 understood as meaning nothing at all. "When this is the 
 case the individual feels that he cannot be charged with 
 hypocrisy for using words thus. 
 
 So in the days when the religion of Rome had lost its 
 hold on the educated classes, Cicero and Seneca went through 
 religions and ceremonies and pronounced religious formulae 
 and had no consciousness of hypocrisy, because everybody, 
 that is everybody worth considering, every educated man, 
 understood that such ceremonies and formulae were partly
 
 THE PHAEISBES. 47 
 
 a political expedient and partly a meaningless farce. But 
 it may be doubted whether the Pharisees used formulae and 
 ceremonies they did not believe in. Their hypocrisy was 
 rather one of life and conduct than of words. They professed 
 to follow after holiness and to carry it out into all the minute 
 details of life. Their hypocrisy consisted in the fact that 
 with them holiness of form and ritual had become largely dis- 
 sociated from holiness of character, justice, mercy and love ; 
 their control of minute details broke down in many points, 
 and instead of frankly admitting their incapacity to deal, by 
 means of precise rules, with all the exigencies of life, they 
 strove to hide their failure with the quibbles and evasions of 
 a feeble and dishonest casuistry. 
 
 At first sight this may seem far too mild a statement of 
 the case against the Pharisees. Christ seems to accuse them 
 of open immorality, they are devourers of widows' houses, 
 full of extortion and excess. He accuses them of utter hypo- 
 crisy in religion, it is for a pretence that they make long 
 prayers. He sums up their character by calling them 
 'children of the devil' 'children of Gehenna'. Surely Light- 
 foot is right when he says that ' the best of the Pharisees 
 would be certainly the worst of men' ? 1 
 
 But a man might be guilty of all the sins with which 
 Christ charges the Pharisees and yet not be considered 
 either by himself or by others disreputable or irreligious. 
 There have been in all ages legal and respectable ways of 
 devouring widows' houses. A profession of special interest 
 in particular religious views may be believed to be due to 
 political or ecclesiastical partisanship and yet those who 
 
 1 Horce Hebr. on Matt. in. 7, optimi Pharisaeonim, certe pessimi homi- 
 num.
 
 48 THE PHARISEES. 
 
 make the profession are not scouted as hypocrites. Great 
 preachers in days when plain speaking was more in fashion 
 have addressed congregations in language almost as strong 
 as that used by Christ of and to the Pharisees. As for their 
 murder of Christ it was to them simply a political necessity ; 
 Christian prelates and sovereigns usually cut short the career 
 of obnoxious religious teachers much more promptly. The 
 special misfortune of the Pharisees that has made their 
 name a by-word was that their formalism and insincerity 
 were contrasted with the simple earnestness and straight- 
 forward honesty of Christ. 
 
 Crimes doubtless the Pharisees as individuals were guilty 
 of, and probably their peculiar system had much to do in 
 determining them to such crimes ; but it would be as useless 
 to look in the Mishna for the authorisation of wholesale 
 robbery, fraud and hypocrisy as such, as it would be to seek 
 in the canons of the Church of Rome for any official justifica- 
 tion of the murders of Borgia or the vices of his cardinals. 
 
 Having thus tried to guard against an over-estimate of 
 the sins of Pharisees, we may point out certain traces of 
 these sins which are to be found in the Mishna. Christ 
 charges the Pharisees with insincerity in their religious ob- 
 servances, with avarice and with an undue thirst for social 
 and scholastic preeminence. Insincerity in religious ob- 
 servance, making long prayers for a pretence, fasting and 
 giving alms that men may see and admire, these faults are 
 the natural outcome of that excessive formalism already 
 noticed. It inculcated the observance of a multiplicity of 
 forms, it laid stress on the observance of these forms while 
 little or nothing is said as to their inner or spiritual meaning. 
 It became easy to forget that there was any meaning and
 
 THE PHARISEES. 49 
 
 forms of prayer and worship might be treated like the in- 
 cantations of a magician. If a multiplicity of forms was an 
 essential of religion, he who observed most forms surpassed 
 others in religion, and he who desired a reputation for holi- 
 ness was tempted to make an extensive display of such 
 observances, without any reference to real worship. 
 
 For instance, in the matter of Prayers, there is a treatise 
 called 'Blessings' which lays down minute rules as to prayers. 
 It was the duty of men among the Israelites to repeat 
 morning and evening the Shema, i.e. the passage beginning 
 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord 1 '. Exact 
 rules are laid down as to the times from which and up to 
 which the Shema may be said ; also as to whether it is to 
 be said standing or reclining, whether it may be said on the 
 top of a tree or on a wall. Later on the question of 
 ' Blessings ' is discussed at length. After eating figs, grapes 
 and pomegranates three blessings must be said according to 
 Rabban Gamaliel, but according to the Wise Men only one. 
 He who sees a place where signs were wrought for Israel is 
 to say ' Blessed be He who wrought signs for our fathers in 
 this place'. On comets, earthquakes, lightnings, thunder and 
 tempests, a man is to say ' Blessed be He whose strength 
 and might fill the world'. Many other such blessings are 
 given, so that in many places and on many occasions the 
 strict Jew would have an opportunity of displaying his 
 careful obedience. Here and there in this mass of minute 
 rules something is said that might suggest the necessity of 
 earnestness and sincerity in prayer ; it is said ' Man is bound 
 
 1 Christ speaks of this as the first of all the commandments, S. Mark 
 xii. 29. 
 
 B. 4
 
 50 THE PHARISEES. 
 
 to bless God for evil, as he is bound to bless Him for good '. 
 It is said elsewhere 'When thou prayest, make not thy prayer 
 an ordinance, but an entreaty before God 1 ', which is thus 
 explained : ' Prayer is not to be said merely at set times 
 and as a duty, but is to be the expression of a heartfelt 
 desire 2 '. 
 
 It may not be fair to measure the relative interest felt 
 by the Rabbis in the forms and in the spirit of prayer 
 by the space they devote to these several subjects; but it 
 is certain that people in general would pay more atten- 
 tion to the copious directions as to the form than to the 
 very occasional sayings on the spirit, and the result would 
 be insincerity. 
 
 It is also said of the Pharisees that they were avaricious 3 . 
 Possibly the Mishna does not directly and specially illustrate 
 the avarice of the Pharisees. It is difficult to see on what 
 grounds rules could be laid down which should secure special 
 pecuniary advantages for a particular sect or school of re- 
 ligious thought. But from the close connection in the 
 Gospels and elsewhere between priests and Pharisees we 
 gather that the priests were mostly of the Pharisaic party 4 , 
 and so the Pharisees in caring for the interests of the priests 
 would be consulting their own interests. The Mishna is 
 very careful of the interests of the priests, it enforces the 
 payment of the tithes which they were to receive and also 
 
 1 Pirke Aboth n. 17. 
 
 2 Taylor, Sayings of the Jewish Fathers, p. 52. 
 
 3 Luke xvi. 14. 
 
 4 During the period of the Acts, the High Priest and his kindred were 
 Sadducees ; but it is not necessary to suppose that their example was fol- 
 lowed by the other priests.
 
 THE PHAEISEES. 51 
 
 of their other dues. The heave-offering if offered by a man 
 living near the priest, so that the offering would not have 
 time to go bad, was to be taken from the best, but other- 
 wise from that which would keep longest 1 . It is said that 
 the rich brought firstfruits in gold and silver baskets which 
 were given to the priests 2 . Moreover the fulfilment of any 
 vow which was to the disadvantage of a priest might be 
 hindered by force 3 . 
 
 It is easier to find striking illustrations of the ap- 
 petite of the Rabbis for fame, their tendency to seek 
 honour of men, the first seats at feasts and in the syna- 
 gogues, greetings in the market place and the salutation 
 'Rabbi'. 
 
 The exhortation ' Get thyself a master ' is often repeated 
 in one form or another 4 . Again it is said ' Let the fear of 
 thy master be as the fear of heaven 5 '. The possible arrival 
 of a 'Wise Man' or 'Teacher' is considered likely to be the 
 occasion of special arrangements for going out to meet him 
 on the Sabbath 6 . It is also laid down that he who takes 
 the Nazirite vow in the faith that the Wise Men can absolve 
 him from his vow is to be absolved, but Rabbi Simeon 
 dissents from this decision 7 . 
 
 We have thus shewn that the picture of the Pharisee as 
 given by the Gospels in its leading features of formalism, ex- 
 clusiveness and in a special sense hypocrisy is borne out by 
 the Mishna. Other less prominent characteristics, such as 
 
 1 Terumah n. 4. 2 Bikoorim in. 8. 
 
 3 Nedarim xi. 3. 4 Pirke Aboth i. 4, 7, 17. 
 
 5 Pirke Aboth iv. 17. 6 Erubin in. 5. 
 
 7 Nazir 11. 4. 
 
 42
 
 52 THE PHARISEES. 
 
 their views on divorce and on the resurrection will come 
 more conveniently under other heads. What there is in the 
 Mishna of purer and more spiritual teaching will also be 
 better treated separately.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE SABBATH. 
 
 OF those matters of form and outward observance on which 
 Christ and the Pharisees clashed the Sabbath came into 
 question oftenest, and it was on this point that Christ 
 wounded most deeply the prejudices of the Pharisees. 
 
 Out of some thirty-three recorded miracles, seven were 
 wrought on the Sabbath 1 . In two cases only out of the 
 seven, the healing of the demoniac at Capernaum and the 
 healing of Peter's wife's mother, did He fail to excite the 
 severest criticism, and after the healing of the man with the 
 withered hand, the Pharisees planned His death. One of 
 the leading motives of the Pharisees in desiring His death 
 was that He persistently set Himself against the observance 
 of the Sabbath as they understood it. 
 
 It is perhaps easiest to state the Pharisaic view of the Pharisees 
 Sabbath by a slight exaggeration and to say that they held *ath. * 
 concerning the Sabbath exactly what Christ denied, namely, 
 
 1 The Healing of the Impotent Man at Bethesda, S. John v. The 
 Demoniac at Capernaum and Simon's Wife's Mother, S. Luke iv. The 
 Withered Hand, S. Luke vi. The Man born Blind, S. John ix. The Wo- 
 man with a Spirit of Infirmity, S. Luke xiii. The Healing of the Man 
 with a Dropsy, S. Luke xiv.
 
 54 THE SABBATH. 
 
 ' That man was made for the Sabbath ', and it is interesting 
 to find in the Book of Jubilees 1 the statement that the 
 Sabbath was ordained before the Creation and that Israel 
 was chosen to keep it. 
 
 The Sabbath appears to have been for the Pharisees 
 chiefly a day when you must not do things, the things in 
 question being numerous and extending into minute details 
 of life carefully and exhaustively denned. The Fourth Com- 
 mandment was not supposed to be sufficiently intelligible to 
 ordinary common sense, nor was it interpreted according to 
 the spirit and intention but according to the letter. More- 
 over while some allowance seems to be made for works of 
 beneficence and necessity, yet this was grudgingly conceded 
 and carefully limited. 
 
 Impotent Some of the points on which the Pharisees attack Christ 
 are the veriest trifles. For instance a man carries the rough 
 mat that formed his bed 2 , this comes under the head of 
 carrying burdens. Indeed this was no trifle to the Pharisees, 
 for take illustrations of their idea of burdens : milk equal to 
 a mouthful, ink enough to write two letters, paint enough to 
 dye one eye, reed sufficient to make a writing pen, or bone 
 enough to make a spoon 3 . Moreover they discussed carefully 
 what instruments might be carried without being considered 
 burdens. A tailor may not go out with a needle nor a scribe 
 with a pen 4 , but a cripple may go out with crutches, though 
 R. Meir and R. Jose* are at issue as to whether he may go 
 out with a wooden leg 5 . It is also a grave question as to 
 where the line is to be drawn between ornaments or articles 
 
 1 A Jewish work assigned by different authorities to various dates from 
 
 100 B.C. tO 100 A.D. 
 
 2 S. John v. 8 Sabbath vm. 
 4 Sabbath i. 3. Sabbath vi. 8.
 
 THE SABBATH. 55 
 
 of dress and burdens. A woman may go out with plaits of 
 false hair, but it is a question whether she may go out with 
 a false tooth 1 . A woman may not wear a frontlet on the 
 Sabbath unless it is sewn to her cap 1 . Now a bed, even the 
 rug of the Easterns, was very clearly larger than the reed 
 sufficient to make a pen. It was not an instrument neces- 
 sary for walking like a crutch, nor yet on any ground an 
 article of dress, to carry it was a clear and gross transgression 
 of the law. 
 
 At another time the indignation of the Pharisees was 
 aroused, because the disciples plucked ears of corn on the corn. f 
 Sabbath day and rubbed them in their hands 2 . Among the 
 principal works which are forbidden on the Sabbath are 
 reaping, threshing, winnowing, sifting and grinding 3 . There 
 is no exact definition given of these kinds of work as there is 
 of building. It is indeed a question whether a man does 
 not break the Sabbath if he plucks anything from a flower 
 in a pot 4 . It is laid down also that ' Men must not squeeze 
 fruits, so as to extract the juice, and if it ooze out of itself it 
 is forbidden to use it. Rabbi Judah says " If the fruits are 
 for eating, the juice which oozes out may be used, but if the 
 fruits are for beverage, the juice which oozes out is forbidden 
 for use 5 "'. 
 
 In the light of these restrictions and remembering the 
 way in which the term 'burdens' is understood by the 
 Pharisees, it becomes evident that the disciples had been 
 guilty of a very complicated crime. They had been plucking 
 ears of corn, probably not two or three, but handfuls. This 
 
 1 Sabbath vi. 5. 2 S. Luke vi. and parallel. 
 
 3 Sabbath vn. 2. * Sabbath x. 6. 
 
 5 Sabbath xxn. 1.
 
 56 THE SABBATH. 
 
 was reaping. Then they - had rubbed it in their hands, 
 which would be equivalent to winnowing and sifting, and 
 might even be considered an attempt at grinding. 
 
 Man born In healing the man born blind, Christ made clay and 
 
 blind. 
 
 anointed his eyes 1 . The making of clay is evidently an im- 
 portant point, for when the man is asked how his eyes were 
 opened he says 'The man called Jesus made clay and anointed 
 my eyes ', and the Evangelist is careful to tell us that it was 
 on the Sabbath that Jesus made the clay and opened the 
 man's eyes. This making of clay might be considered knead- 
 ing, which is another ' principal work ' not to be done on the 
 Sabbath. But even as the preparation of a dressing it would 
 be forbidden. For instance a man must not prepare brine 
 on the Sabbath 2 ; and though a child may be circumcised 
 on the Sabbath 3 , yet if oil and wine have not been already 
 mixed on the Sabbath eve, they must be put on separately ; 
 a proper dressing may not be prepared on the Sabbath, but a 
 linen rag may be tied on the wound 4 . Circumcision had to 
 be performed on the eighth day and yet the rules for the 
 Sabbath are only reluctantly and partially set aside : a blind 
 man might receive his sight any day, there was no excuse 
 whatever for preparing a dressing in his case 5 . 
 
 There remain three other cases in which Christ incurred 
 the censure of the Pharisees by healing on the Sabbath : the 
 healing of the man with the withered hand, the healing of 
 the woman with a spirit of infirmity, and the healing of the 
 man with a dropsy. His guilt in these three cases must 
 
 1 S. John ix. 6. 2 Sabbath xiv. 2. 
 
 3 Sabbath xrx. 2. 4 Cf. S. John vii. 22, 23. 
 
 5 It has also been pointed out in this connection that at sunset, when 
 the Sabbath ended, sick folk were brought to Christ. Their friends had 
 evidently waited till the Sabbath was over. S. Mark i. 32,
 
 THE SABBATH. 57 
 
 have been simply that He healed the sufferers. It is true 
 that He laid His hands on the afflicted woman and com- 
 manded the man with a withered hand to stretch it forth ; 
 but it could scarcely be called work or a violation of the 
 Sabbath to touch any one or to stretch forth one's hand. 
 
 In all these three cases Christ appeals to the charity and 
 humanity of the Pharisees and points His appeal by remind- 
 ing them of the works of mercy they permitted in the case 
 of animals. ' What man shall there be of you, that shall 
 have one sheep, and if this fall into a pit on the Sabbath 
 day will he not lay hold on it and lift it out ? How much 
 then is a man of more value than a sheep ' 1 ? 
 
 ' Hypocrites, doth not each one of you on the Sabbath 
 loose his ox or his ass from the stall and lead him away to 
 watering ? And ought not this woman, being a daughter of 
 Abraham, whom Satan had bound, lo, these eighteen years, 
 to have been loosed from this bond on the day of the Sab- 
 bath' 2 ? 
 
 With regard to the raising of an animal from a pit, Light- 
 foot 3 gives quotations from the Gemara and Maimonides 
 which are not quite consistent. The Gemara says that if a 
 beast and its young fall into a pit, the beast may be taken out 
 with a view to killing it and must be killed, while the young 
 may be supplied with food in the pit. It mentions however 
 that Rabbi Joshua says that the intention of killing the 
 beast need not be carried out and that the young may 
 be taken out. The quotation from Maimonides which is 
 well known from commentaries says that if a beast fall 
 into a pit or pool of water, the owner may give it food, if 
 
 1 S. Matt. xii. 11, 12. Of. S. Luke xiv. 15. 
 
 2 S. Luke xiii. 15, 16. 3 Horce Hebr. in loco.
 
 58 THE SABBATH. 
 
 he cannot do this, he may place rags and planks to support 
 it and if these happen to enable the beast to get out, it 
 may get out. 
 
 The Mishna itself contains many provisions for the care 
 of cattle on the Sabbath. Straw may be untied for cattle, 
 pumpkins may be cut up for them and carrion for dogs 1 . 
 Men may cleanse the crib for a stalled ox, at least so Rabbi 
 Dosa says, but the Wise Men forbid this. Men may move 
 fodder from before one beast to put it before another on the 
 Sabbath 2 . Also arrangements are made for taking animals 
 to wells on the Sabbath and giving them water 3 . 
 
 But in spite of these reasonable arrangements for cattle, 
 concessions to men in suffering and sickness are very slight 
 and jealously restricted. He who has toothache must not 
 rinse his teeth with vinegar*. He who has pains in his loins 
 must not rub them with wine or vinegar, but may anoint 
 them with oil, except it be rose oil 5 . Anointing with oil it 
 must be remembered was a regular practice and therefore 
 not specially medicine. Men must not close the eyes of the 
 dead on the Sabbath 6 . The priests in the temple may 
 replace a plaster on the Sabbath, but must not do so in the 
 country. It is forbidden either in the temple or in the 
 country to put the first plaster on a wound. A priest, who 
 hurts his finger, may bind it up with reeds in the temple on 
 the Sabbath, but not in the country 7 . 
 
 Other re- There are other restrictions to which there is no reference in 
 the Gospels. There are numerous rules about the lighting of 
 lamps, the burning of which was regarded as a sacred duty. 
 
 1 Sabbath xxiv. 2 Sabbath xx. 4. 3 Erubin n. 2. 
 
 4 It is interesting to know that Eabbi Judah himself is said to have been 
 much afflicted with toothache. Jost, Bk. xm. Ch. x. 
 
 8 Sabbath xrv. 4. 6 Sabbath xxm. 5. 7 Erubin x. 13, 14.
 
 THE SABBATH. 59 
 
 Of course no cooking may be done on the Sabbath, an egg 
 must not be put by the side of a hot kettle. But the reader 
 may ask how can there be a hot kettle on the Sabbath ? A 
 kettle may be boiled on the Sabbath-eve and kept warm under 
 garments or feathers. As man must not pare his nails, a 
 woman must not dye her eyebrows on the Sabbath 1 . Build- 
 ing of course is forbidden. ' He who builds how much must 
 he build to become guilty ? Whoever builds at all, whoever 
 chops a stone, strikes with a hammer or uses a plane, or 
 bores a hole' 2 . 
 
 It is forbidden to write two letters of the alphabet on the 
 Sabbath, or to weave three threads. Labourers must not be 
 hired on the Sabbath. Also there are many other restric- 
 tions of no special interest, which are sufficiently illustrated 
 by the above instances. 
 
 One great rule as to the Sabbath is the subject of a whole Mixtures, 
 treatise, Erubin, and that treatise is largely an account of 
 expedients by which the strict observance of the rule may 
 be evaded. 
 
 It is written ' Abide ye every man in his place, let no 
 man go out of his place on the seventh day' 3 . A man's 
 place was understood to be the city where he lived together 
 with a belt of country round the city 2000 cubits or about 
 six furlongs broad; so that a man could on the Sabbath start 
 from his house, go to the boundary of the city and proceed 
 further any distance not greater than 2000 cubits. 
 
 Again, the last of the thirty-nine ' principal works' which 
 
 1 Sabbath x. 6. 2 Sabbath xn. 1. 
 
 3 Ex. xvi. 29. Originally this seems to have referred to going out of 
 the camp to gather manna, but the Jews held it to be of perpetual obli- 
 gation.
 
 60 THE SABBATH. 
 
 are forbidden on the Sabbath is the carrying of anything 
 from one house or set of premises 1 to another. 
 
 The former rule gave rise to the well-known 'Sabbath 
 Day's Journey'. 
 
 The latter is illustrated by the following example: A 
 mendicant stands outside and the master of the house 
 inside the house; should the mendicant put his hand into 
 the house and put anything (possibly his wallet, so RR. 
 de Sola and Raphall) into the master's hand, or take some- 
 thing out of the master's hand and draw his hand back, 
 the mendicant is guilty, but the master of the house is free 
 from blame. Should the master put his hand outside the 
 house and put his gift into the hand of the mendicant, or 
 take the wallet out of it and draw his hand back, the 
 master of the house is guilty, but the mendicant is free 
 from blame. Should the mendicant put his hand inside 
 the house and the master take the wallet out o it or put 
 his gift into it, and the mendicant draw his hand out, both 
 are free from blame. Should the master stretch out his 
 hand and the mendicant take the gift out of it, or put his 
 wallet into it, both are free from blame. 
 
 In the first of these four cases the master is entirely 
 passive and the mendicant is the sole agent in transferring 
 a burden from the inside of the house to the outside, and so 
 bears the blame ; in the second case the master is the sole 
 asrent, and he bears the blame. In the last two cases the 
 
 O ' 
 
 act of transfer is divided between the two, neither is guilty 
 of a complete act and neither is to blame. 
 
 , specially TnjO n-IKh, private property: any place surrounded 
 or inclosed by a wall, or a ditch ten hands wide and four deep ; also the 
 ditch itself ; any city encompassed by walls that are closed at night. Intro- 
 duction to treatise Sabbath in EB. de Sola and Kaphall.
 
 THE SABBATH. 61 
 
 Obviously these two rules would -often be very incon- 
 venient. The Sabbath was a day largely devoted to social 
 intercourse, and it might chance that neighbours and friends 
 lived just outside the Sabbath day's journey; or some need 
 might arise for travelling somewhat further on the Sabbath. 
 Then, too, it would often be natural and reasonable that 
 the mistresses of neighbouring houses should lend or borrow 
 and render neighbourly help. This would be impossible 
 without carrying burdens from one house to another, and 
 would therefore be prohibited if the second rule were made 
 absolute and invariable. 
 
 In order to afford some relief from the stringency of 
 these rules, recourse was had to the method of Erubin or 
 mixtures. By this method one house was ' mixed ' or com- 
 bined with another so as to form one, and then anything 
 might be carried from house to house ; also one Sabbath 
 day's journey was combined with another, and a man was 
 enabled to go 4000 cubits on the Sabbath. 
 
 The principle upon which this method is based is that 
 ' where a man's meat is there is his house '. Thus courts 
 are combined by all the householders of the court uniting 
 to place some article of food in a given place, by doing so 
 they, as it were, form themselves into one family, and all 
 the dwellings of the court become for the time one general 
 and common abode for all its inmates, who thereby become 
 entitled to carry and convey from one house to another 
 within the limits of the court on the Sabbath. 
 
 He who wishes to combine one Sabbath day's journey 
 with another so as to be able to go two on the Sabbath, 
 must, before the coming in of the Sabbath, deposit food for 
 two meals in any particular place within the original limits
 
 62 THE SABBATH. 
 
 of the Sabbath day's journey. This place now becomes his 
 home, he is allowed on the Sabbath to go home and then 
 2000 cubits beyond it 1 . A man might deposit food in two 
 places and avail himself of whichever suited him. He may 
 say, ' If foes come from the east I will avail myself of my 
 deposit in the west to go westward and flee from them ; if 
 they come from the west I will avail myself of my deposit 
 in the east. If they come from both sides I shall go in 
 which direction I please 2 '. There are also conventions by 
 which adjoining towns may be treated as one town. 
 Accidental A man who, by any accident, is taken or goes out of 
 siorTof 68 the due limit on the Sabbath, finds himself in a very 
 cal limits, awkward predicament. If foes or an evil spirit have caused 
 a man to go out beyond the Sabbath limit, he must not 
 move further than four cubits. If they have carried him 
 into another town and put him into a prison or fold for 
 cattle, he may, according to Rabban Gamaliel and R. Eleazar 
 ben Azariah, go about throughout its whole extent; but 
 R. Joshua and R. Akiba maintain that he must not move 
 further than four cubits. It once happened that these four 
 Rabbis came together from Parendisim and their vessel kept 
 the sea on the Sabbath (so that they were carried more than 
 the prescribed distance). Rabban Gamaliel and R. Eleazar 
 ben Azariah walked about throughout the whole of the 
 vessel ; but R. Joshua and R. Akiba did not move beyond 
 four cubits, as they wished to observe the law with rigid 
 accuracy 8 . 
 
 Eelaxa- We may notice some other slight relaxations of the strict 
 
 rules of the Sabbath. If a fire occurs on the Sabbath sacred 
 
 1 EB. de Sola and Raphall, introduction to treatise Erubin. 
 
 2 Erubin ra. 5. 3 Erubin rv. 1.
 
 THE SABBATH. 63 
 
 writings are to be saved, also food for three meals, also a 
 basket full of loaves, a fig cake, a cask of wine. It is lawful 
 to call to others to save what they can for themselves. A 
 man may carry out all vessels required for his meals that 
 day. He may dress himself in as much as he can put on 
 and gird about him as much as he can. R. Jose' saith he 
 must not put on more than eighteen garments, but he may 
 go back and dress himself in another eighteen and get others 
 to do the same 1 . These expedients enable the man to save 
 his wardrobe and other portions of his property without 
 incurring the guilt of carrying burdens on the Sabbath ; for 
 to take up his property and carry it out in a straightforward 
 way would be carrying burdens. 
 
 An Israelite may take advantage of work done by a 
 heathen on the Sabbath, provided the work has not been 
 done at his request. For instance, if the heathen comes to 
 put out the fire he is not to be told to extinguish the fire 
 nor yet to be forbidden to do so. The Israelites are not 
 bound to make him keep the Sabbath. If a heathen lights 
 a candle, an Israelite may use the light unless it has been 
 lighted on purpose for the Israelite ; if a heathen has drawn 
 water for his cattle to drink, the Israelite may give his cattle 
 to drink after him, unless the water has been drawn on 
 purpose for the Israelite. If a heathen has made a step to 
 descend from a ship, an Israelite may descend after him, 
 unless the heathen made it on purpose for the Israelite. It 
 once happened that Rabban Gamaliel and the elders arrived 
 in a ship, and a heathen made a step by which he descended 
 and Rabban Gamaliel and the elders descended after him 2 . 
 
 1 Sabbath xvi. 2 Sabbath xvi.
 
 64 THE SABBATH. 
 
 These rules made it obviously convenient to be in the 
 neighbourhood of heathens on the Sabbath day, and ought 
 to have done something to create a kindly feeling on the 
 part of the Israelites toward the heathen. How the feelings 
 of the heathen would be influenced it is difficult to say. 
 Another rule implies much simple trust on the part of the 
 Israelite toward the heathen. It was forbidden to carry 
 money on the Sabbath, so the Israelite who on the Sabbath- 
 eve was overtaken by the dusk on the road was to give his 
 purse to the heathen. 
 
 Another principle of the Mishna is that if any work 
 gets done without its being intended to be done advan- 
 tage may be taken of it. He who has strained his hand 
 or foot must not pour cold water on it ; but he may wash 
 it in the usual way; and if he does get cured he does 
 get cured 1 . He who has the toothache must not rinse 
 his teeth with vinegar, but he may wash them as usual, 
 and if he does get cured, he does get cured 2 . It is also 
 laid down that work done unintentionally on the Sabbath 
 may be taken advantage of, but if done intentionally it 
 may not 3 . 
 
 These regulations pave the way for evasions of the law; a 
 man's interests might lead him to affect ignorance of the 
 motives of the heathen or even forgetfulness of his own 
 intentions. Entirely opposed to this is the fragment found 
 in Codex Bezse after Luke v. 10 " On the same day seeing a 
 man working on the Sabbath, he said to him : ' Man, if thou 
 knowest what thou art doing happy art thou, but if thou 
 
 1 Sabbath xxn. 6. 2 Sabbath xiv. 4. 
 
 3 Terumah n. 3.
 
 THE SABBATH. 65 
 
 knowest not thou art accursed and a transgressor of the 
 law ' ". 
 
 In all this there was the intention of glorifying God by 
 keeping His Sabbath, and in spite of all this heavy burden 
 of Sabbath keeping the day is spoken of as one of repose 
 and enjoyment. For it is said ' They did not fast on the eve 
 of the Sabbath, for honour to the Sabbath. Nor on the first 
 day, that they should not go forth from repose and en- 
 joyment to toil and fasting and death 1 . Moreover we know 
 that feasts were given on the Sabbath. On the Sabbath 
 Christ goes to eat bread at the house of a Pharisee with a 
 company of Pharisees 2 . And yet in spite of all this the 
 Sabbath must have been to many a heavy burden, grievous 
 to be borne, though it is possible that those who were 
 skilled in all the niceties of the law might find many con- 
 venient ways of avoiding troublesome restrictions. 
 
 Against this complicated system we have to set the one 
 positive utterance of Christ. 'The Sabbath was made for 
 man '. Even this is called forth by Pharisaic excess and is 
 rather a protest against the Pharisaic Sabbath than a con- 
 scious and intentional statement of positive views. Else- 
 where the Sabbath has no place in the teachings of Christ, 
 except in so far as He rejects the Sabbath of the Pharisees. 
 Nothing is said about it in the Sermon on the Mount and 
 no parable illustrates its value. So too the Pharisees under- 
 stood Him. Dispensations from the obligation of the Sab- 
 bath in particular cases, difference of opinion on special 
 points might be allowed to a prophet or rabbi and might 
 not invalidate his claim to orthodoxy or to authority. But 
 
 1 Taanith iv. 3. 2 S. Luke xiv. 16. 
 
 B. 5
 
 66 THE SABBATH. 
 
 Christ's teaching was far more general, far more revolution- 
 ary. Here as elsewhere Christ sought to substitute the 
 spirit for the letter and to do so was to strike at the roots of 
 the Pharisaic system 1 . 
 
 1 What is said here is only intended to refer to the Pharisaic Sabbath. 
 It would be foreign to this essay to discuss the relation of the teaching of 
 Christ to the observance of the first day of the week.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE STATUS OF WOMEN. 
 
 THE bulk of the Mishna, as for instance the treatise on the 
 Sabbath, applies equally to both sexes, and where this is 
 not the case, the same treatise will deal with both. But 
 besides this, one of the six great divisions of the Mishna, 
 containing seven treatises, is devoted specially to the position 
 of women and its title is ' On Women 1 '. One treatise is on 
 the obligation of a brother to marry his deceased brother's 
 widow, another on betrothals, another on marriage settle- 
 ments, and another on bills of divorce. 
 
 The Mishna deliberately and constantly places women on Women 
 
 on lower 
 a lower level than men both legally and socially. level. 
 
 'Women, slaves and children, are exempt from reciting 
 the Shema, and also from the phylacteries 2 '. ' Women, 
 slaves and children, are exempted from the obligation of 
 living in booths during the Feast of Tabernacles 3 '. It was 
 the custom for the appearance of the new moon, and especi- 
 ally of the new moon which began the new year, to be 
 proved by witnesses. Certain persons were not qualified to 
 
 1 Cf. Taylor, Sayings of the Jewish Fathers, p. 29, note 12. 
 
 2 Berachoth in. 3. 3 Succah n. 8. 
 
 52
 
 68 THE STATUS OF WOMEN. 
 
 act as witnesses. ' Gamblers, usurers, pigeon breeders, traders 
 in the produce of the Sabbatical year, and slaves. This is 
 the rule all evidence that cannot be received from a woman 
 cannot be received from any of these 1 '. Again, ' All are 
 bound to appear in the temple, except the deaf, an idiot, 
 a child and an eunuch, and women, and slaves who have not 
 been set free, and the lame and the blind, and the sick and 
 the aged, and the man who cannot go afoot 2 '. 
 
 Again, ' The observance of all affirmative precepts of the 
 law, the performance of which is limited to a certain time, is 
 incumbent on males, and not on females 3 '. 
 
 It is possibly because women are relieved from some of 
 the precepts of the law, that it is considered doubtful 
 whether they need be instructed in the Scriptures. We 
 certainly read that 'a man should teach his daughter the 
 Scriptures, lest perchance she be compelled to drink the 
 bitter waters of jealousy, in which case the fact that she has 
 studied the Scriptures will defer their' harmful effect 4 '. 
 However upon this text the commentators gravely discuss 
 the question whether women should be instructed in the 
 Scriptures 5 . 
 
 In other matters the rights of the woman are inferior to 
 those of the man. A man-may devote his son as a Nazirite, 
 may sell or betroth his daughter ; a woman has none of these 
 rights. On the other hand, a woman is in certain cases 
 treated more leniently than a man ; she may not be hung, 
 nor may she be sold on account of theft, whereas a man may 
 suffer either of these punishments 6 . 
 
 1 Kosh Hashanah i. 8. 2 Chagiga i. 1. 
 
 3 Kedushin i. 7. 
 
 4 Cf. Num. v. 11 31. It is assumed that she is guilty. 
 
 5 Sotah in. 4. 6 Sotah m. 8.
 
 THE STATUS OF WOMEN. 69 
 
 In all these cases the woman is treated as inferior to the 
 man, and while limited in privileges is also relieved from 
 responsibility. 
 
 The introductory section of the treatise on Betrothals Women as 
 
 . property, 
 treats of women as property in much the same way as it 
 
 treats of slaves and cattle. A wife is acquired in three ways, 
 two of which are by money and by contract 1 . A Hebrew 
 slave is acquired by money or by contract 2 ; a Canaanite 
 slave by money or by contract 3 ; immoveable property is 
 acquired by money, moveable property by being removed by 
 the purchaser 4 . Large cattle are acquired by delivery of the 
 animal from the seller to the buyer 5 . All this, it must be 
 remembered, is the introduction to the subject of betrothals, 
 a sort of general treatment of the whole subject of acquiring 
 property before proceeding to the special case of women. 
 This particular species of property seems sometimes to have 
 been treated carelessly. ' When a father says, " I have 
 betrothed my daughter, but do not remember to whom", 
 and a man comes and says, " You betrothed her to me ", that 
 man is to be believed 6 '. 
 
 On the other hand, a woman is usually spoken of as be- 
 trothing herself and not as being betrothed 7 by her father, 
 except in the case of minors, and then provision is made for 
 the repudiation of the betrothal by the woman if she does 
 not approve of it 8 . 
 
 The legal position of women is summed up thus: 'A 
 woman is always under the authority of her father until she 
 is placed under the authority of her husband 9 '. 
 
 1 Kedushin i. 1. 2 Kedushin i. 2. 3 Kedushin i. 3. 
 
 4 Kedushin i. 5. B Kedushin i. 4. 6 Kedushin in. 7. 
 
 7 Kedushin n. 1. 8 y e bamoth xin. 1, 2. 9 Ketuboth rv. 3.
 
 70 THE STATUS OF WOMEN. 
 
 The betrothal was an introductory step to this transfer of 
 authority, was formally entered into by both parties, and 
 was important in point of law. The man and woman are 
 spoken of as husband and wife and a bill of divorce was 
 necessary to annul the contract 1 . Any breach of the con- 
 tract is virtually a breach of a marriage vow. 
 
 Hence, when Mary was betrothed to Joseph and was sus- 
 pected by him of infidelity, he proposed to put her away by 
 a writing of divorce. 
 
 Married A married woman had considerable rights of property. 
 
 property. E- er Ketubah or marriage settlement is strictly guarded; 
 anything she inherits becomes her property, likewise a share 
 of damages awarded her for insult or injury 2 ; but the usu- 
 fruct of all such property is given to the husband 3 . In 
 return the husband must maintain his wife, must ransom her 
 from captivity and must provide for her interment. He 
 inherits her property at her decease, and a widow must be 
 maintained out of her late husband's property but her Ketu- 
 bah goes to her heirs 4 . In case she is divorced, without 
 sufficient cause, she takes her property with her. 
 
 Household The Mishna is also very explicit about a woman's house- 
 duties. 
 
 hold duties : ' These are the kinds of work which a woman 
 
 is bound to do for her husband. She must grind corn and 
 bake and wash and cook and suckle his child and make his 
 bed and work in wool. If she brought him one bondwoman, 
 she needs not to grind, bake or wash ; if she brought two, 
 she need not cook nor suckle her child ; if she brought three, 
 she need not cook nor work in wool ; if she brought four, 
 she may sit in her easy chair. R. Eleazar saith, Even 
 
 1 Kedushin rv. 9. 2 Ketuboth vi. 1. 
 
 3 Ketuboth vm. * Ketuboth xi.
 
 THE STATUS OP WOMEN. 71 
 
 though she has brought him a hundred bondwomen, he can 
 compel her to work in wool, as idleness leads to unchastity. 
 R. Simon ben Gamaliel saith, in like manner, Should a man 
 by vow interdict his wife from doing any kind of work, he 
 is bound to divorce her and to pay her the amount of her 
 Ketubah, because idleness may lead to mental aberration 1 '. 
 
 Polygamy is taken for granted in the Mishna, a man Polygamy. 
 may betroth himself -to five women at once 2 . The various 
 complications arising out of a multiplicity of wives are fully 
 discussed. It is, however, supposed from the Gospels and 
 other writings of the period that the custom of polygamy 
 was dying out and the regulations of the Mishna may be 
 rather a formal completing of the theory of the ancient law 
 than intended for practical use at the time. It should, 
 however, be remembered that the Herods did not confine 
 themselves to one wife at a time. The discord in families 
 to which polygamy might lead may be illustrated by the 
 following provision ; ' Everyone is deemed a trustworthy 
 witness to testify to a woman concerning her husband's 
 decease, except her mother-in-law, the daughter of the 
 latter, her own rival (i.e. her husband's other wife), her 
 sister-in-law or her husband's daughter (by another wife) 3 '. 
 To which de Sola and Raphall append the following note, 
 ' Because these females are suspected of bearing her ill-will 
 and may wish to bring her to shame' (by giving her false 
 information, which may lead her to marry a second husband 
 while her first is alive). 
 
 Divorce, as is well known, was easy and frequent. Divorce. 
 Herodias had divorced her husband Philip to marry Herod 
 
 1 Ketuboth v. 7. a Kedushin n. 7. 
 
 3 Yebamoth xv. 4.
 
 72 THE STATUS OF WOMEN. 
 
 Antipas. The woman of Samaria had probably been sepa- 
 rated from her five husbands by divorce. Naturally there 
 was much controversy as to what constituted valid grounds 
 for divorce. Christ gives His decision on this question in 
 two passages. The first is in the Sermon on the Mount 1 . 
 ' It was said also, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him 
 give her a writing of divorcement : but I say unto you, that 
 every one that putteth away his wife, saving for the cause 
 of fornication, maketh her an adulteress : and whosoever 
 shall marry her when she is put away cornmitteth adultery '. 
 
 The second utterance of Christ on this subject was on 
 His last journey to Jerusalem 2 . The Pharisees came tempt- 
 ing Him and saying, ' Is it lawful for a man to put away his 
 wife for every cause ? And He answered and said, Have ye 
 not read, that He which made them from the beginning made 
 them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a man 
 leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, 
 and the twain shall become one flesh. What therefore God 
 hath joined together, let not man put asunder. They say 
 unto Him, Why then did Moses command to give a bill of 
 divorcement and to put her away ? He said unto them, 
 Moses for your hardness of heart suffered you to put away 
 your wives; but from the beginning it hath not been so. 
 And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, 
 except for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth 
 adultery : and he that marrieth her when she is put away 
 committeth adultery'. Perhaps one of the striking proofs of 
 the extent to which loose views on marriage were adopted 
 
 1 S. Matt. v. 31. Cf. S. Luke xvi. 18, the only reference to the subject 
 in that Gospel. 
 
 3 S. Matt. xix. 312; cf. S. Mark x. 212.
 
 THE STATUS OF WOMEN. 73 
 
 is to be found in the comment of the disciples, ' If the case 
 of the man is so with his wife, it is not expedient to marry', 
 and the answer of Christ, ' All men cannot receive this say- 
 ing, but they to whom it is given '. Now the views of the 
 Mishna on this subject are far more in harmony with the 
 practice of certain American states than with the teaching 
 of Christ. The re-marriage of divorced wives and husbands, 
 as in the case of Herodias and the Samaritan woman, is 
 referred to as a matter of course 1 and no attempt is made 
 to limit the practice. 
 
 The grounds for divorce which the Mishna recognises as 
 valid are sufficiently numerous to justify one in saying that 
 according to the Rabbis divorce was allowable for any and 
 every cause. 
 
 2 ' The following women are divorced and do not receive 
 their Ketubah : She who violates the law of Moses or the 
 traditions of the Jews. What constitutes a violation of the 
 law of Moses ? If she causes him to eat food that has not 
 paid tithe;... if she vows and does not keep her vow. What 
 constitutes a violation of the traditions of the Jews ? If she 
 goes out with her hair loose ; if she spins in the streets ; if 
 she converses 3 with any man. Abba Saul saith, If she curses 
 his children in his presence. Rabbi Tarphon saith, If she 
 is a noisy woman. What is meant by a noisy woman ? One 
 who speaks in her own house so that the neighbours can 
 hear '. 
 
 ' Beth Shammai 4 say : No man may divorce his wife, 
 
 1 Gittin iv. 8, vin. 5, 8 and passim. 
 
 2 Ketubah vn. 6. 
 
 3 EB. de Sola and Eaphall interpret this as meaning ' flirts'. 
 
 4 The members of the school founded by Shammai, so Beth Hillel of 
 that founded by Hillel.
 
 74 THE STATUS OF WOMEN. 
 
 unless he found in her scandalous behaviour, for it is said 1 : 
 Because he found in her some scandalous behaviour; but 
 Beth Hillel say : Even if she spoiled his food. R. Akiba 
 saith : Even if he found one handsomer than her, for it is 
 said 1 : If it happen that she found no favour in his eyes '. 
 
 It also appears that divorce might be a matter of arrange- 
 ment or the subject of a bargain between man and wife, for 
 we read : ' If he (the husband) says : Here is your bill of 
 divorce on condition that you give me 200 zooz; she is 
 divorced from the moment she accepts the bill of divorce 
 and is bound to pay the stipulated amount 2 '. 
 
 RR. de Sola and Raphall however, in their note on the 
 decisions of Beth Shammai and Beth Hillel, state that 
 R. Akiba's decision is not accepted, and that neither Beth 
 Hillel nor R. Akiba would intend to apply their decision to 
 practical life. They also state that the Talmud always dis- 
 courages divorce and only permits it under peculiar cir- 
 cumstances and for a legal object. They quote the con- 
 cluding words of the Gemara on the treatise Gittin. R. 
 Eleazar saith, "Even the altar drops tears when a man 
 divorces the wife and companion of his youth, for thus 3 is it 
 written, 'And this have ye done again covering the altar of 
 the Lord with tears, with weeping, and with crying out... 
 Yet ye say, Wherefore ? Because the Lord hath been 
 witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against 
 whom thou hast dealt treacherously, although she is thy 
 companion and the wife of thy covenant". 
 
 It is possible that these teachers did not intend their 
 extreme doctrines to be acted upon, but it is pretty certain 
 
 1 Deut. xxiv. 2 Gittin vn. 5. 
 
 8 Mai. ii. 13, 14.
 
 THE STATUS OF WOMEN. 75 
 
 that these doctrines would serve as excuses for evil-disposed 
 persons, and it is clear from the Gospel narratives and other 
 authorities that this was the case. Take for instance the 
 following statement of Josephus in his autobiography 1 , 'And 
 at this time I divorced my wife, the mother of three chil- 
 dren, because I was not pleased with her manners '. A few 
 lines further down he tells us that he married again. RR. 
 de Sola and Raphall themselves tell us that it is mentioned 
 in the treatise Baba Kama, that the priests were often in 
 the habit of divorcing their wives in sudden fits of passion, 
 and repented soon after; when, as priests, it was unlawful 
 for them to take them back, after having been once divorced. 
 To meet this difficulty a special form of bill of divorce was 
 devised which could not become valid till after some delay. 
 It was hoped that this delay might give time for the priests 
 to become calm that they and their wives might be recon- 
 ciled. Here the behaviour of the priests seems to indicate 
 that they at any rate carried out practically what R. Akiba 
 and Beth Hillel taught. 
 
 Much has been made of a story quoted in Lightfoot 2 
 of a certain Rabbi Nachman, who on arriving at a village 
 to spend the night there, used to send round a herald for 
 a wife for the time of his stay. Surely the prosaic literal- 
 ness of Western criticism goes too far when it supposes that 
 this was intended for history. It is probably one of the 
 grim pleasantries with which the Rabbis delight to bewilder 
 and confound their readers. Amidst all this laxity as to 
 divorce it is curious to find extreme strictness on other 
 points ; it seems to be implied 3 that if a man has been 
 
 1 76. * Hor. Hebr. Matt. xix. 3. Kedushin ra. 10.
 
 76 THE STATUS OF WOMEN. 
 
 betrothed to a woman and the betrothal has not been com- 
 pleted by marriage, the man is not allowed to marry any 
 of the woman's relatives. 
 
 The Levi- If a woman were left a widow without children, the law 
 rate Law. 
 
 of Moses directed that her husband's brother should marry 
 
 her. Copious directions intended to exhaust all possible 
 cases are given in the treatise on this subject. One case 
 may remind us of the story by which the Sadducees tried to 
 puzzle Christ, the story in which a woman was married to 
 seven brothers one after the other. The case is as follows : 
 
 ' When a man, who had received information of his wife's 
 death, married her sister from the father's side only, and 
 upon receipt of intelligence of the death of this latter, 
 marries her maternal sister ; and on the news of the decease 
 of the last mentioned, marries her sister from the father's 
 side ; and, finally, on the reported death of this latter, 
 marries her maternal sister. It turns out that the infor- 
 mation has in each case been incorrect and all the five 
 women are alive 1 '. The passage goes on to explain, which 
 are his wives and which of them his brother would be bound 
 to marry in case of his death. 
 
 From all that has been quoted on this subject it will be 
 gathered that the Jews of this period were seriously tainted 
 with the immorality that was eating away the vigour of the 
 Roman Empire. Indeed Roman and Greek writers tell us 
 that the Jews were notorious as taking a leading part in 
 the infamous trade in vice. And the Mishna itself tells us 
 that because of the increase of murderers the ceremony of 
 the Heifer for the expiation of uncertain murder was aban- 
 
 1 Yebamoth x. 5.
 
 THE STATUS OF WOMEN. 77 
 
 doned, and because of the increase of adultery the ceremony 
 of the waters of jealousy was abandoned 1 . The latter fact 
 throws some light on the feigned zeal for morality on the 
 part of the Pharisees in the case of the woman taken in 
 adultery. 
 
 A less disagreeable question in connection with the Freedom 
 
 of Social 
 status of women is that of the extent of freedom of social Inter- 
 
 course, 
 intercourse allowed to them. It is evident from the Gospels 
 
 that we cannot ascribe to Jewish women that seclusion of 
 the harem, that jealous life-long imprisonment, which is 
 said to be the lot in the present day of Eastern women 
 of the middle and higher classes. They appear in public, 
 are present at feasts at any rate to serve the guests, and 
 some even follow Christ from place to place with the other 
 disciples. Probably the Pharisees disapproved of this. Even 
 the command that the women should keep silence in the 
 churches implies considerable liberty. 
 
 Nor are there in the Mishna traces of seclusion. It is 
 true that it is matter for grave suspicion if a woman is seen 
 conversing with a strange man in the street 2 . A woman 
 is not to keep a school, for fear of scandal arising through 
 the visits of the parents of the scholars 3 . There are also 
 cautions against talking too much with women, which may 
 help us to understand the astonishment of the disciples 
 at finding Christ talking to a woman 4 . Josd ben Jochanan 
 says, 'Prolong not converse with a woman', and a gloss adds, 
 ' His own wife is meant, much less a neighbour's 5 '. All these 
 precautions tend to shew that women had opportunities 
 
 1 Sotah ix. 9. 2 Ketuboth i. 8. 
 
 3 Kedushin iv. 13. 4 S. John iv. 27. 
 
 6 Pirke Aboth i. 5, 6.
 
 78 THE STATUS OF WOMEN. 
 
 of meeting with men, a certain freedom of social inter- 
 course. 
 
 It is also likely that in general the actual position of 
 women was better than the legal provisions on the subject 
 might lead us to suppose.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 ETHICS AND DOCTRINE. 
 
 THE Mishna is too much occupied in attempting to apply 
 the Law and the Tradition to all the possible contingencies 
 of daily life to have much time to spare for general principle. 
 At least the kind of general principle worked out in the 
 Mishna is, as before stated, fairly illustrated by ' Thou shalt 
 not sow thy field with mingled seed ', ' Thou shalt not carry 
 burdens on the Sabbath'. Out of the abundance of the 
 heart the mouth speaketh, and if the Pharisees left undone 
 the weightier matters of the law, judgment, and mercy, and 
 faith; the Mishna says very little about them 1 . What little 
 there is said is mainly collected in one treatise out of the 
 sixty, ' Pirke Aboth ' or ' Aboth', ' Fathers ', or as it is some- 
 times called in English, ' Sayings of the Fathers'. 
 
 The treatise Aboth is unique in the Mishna, here and Aboth. 
 elsewhere the manifold elaboration of ritual or moral minutiae 
 is broken by a doctrinal or ethical saying, but the treatise 
 Aboth stands alone in being made up of such. The gather- 
 
 1 It is true that the Hagadic writings deal more with spiritual matters, 
 but the pre-eminent position assigned to the Mishna justifies what is said 
 in the text.
 
 80 ETHICS AND DOCTRINE. 
 
 ing together of these into one treatise reminds one of the 
 grouping of Christ's sayings in the Sermon on the Mount, 
 and one might say that the Aboth is to the Mishna as the 
 Sermon on the Mount is to the Gospel, or as the Epistles to 
 the Seven Churches are to the Apocalypse, or as the twenty- 
 sixth chapter of Leviticus is to the book of Leviticus ; only 
 the difference between Aboth and the rest of the Mishna 
 is much more striking than in the other cases. 
 
 This treatise being for all other than antiquarian pur- 
 poses by far the most profitable and interesting part of the 
 Mishna is often published alone, it is the storehouse from 
 which many writers draw their gems of Talmudic wisdom, 
 but it is not to be supposed that Aboth or any set of quota- 
 tions from it is a fair specimen of the Mishna. 
 
 It consists chiefly of a series of short paragraphs, each 
 containing from one to half-a-dozen sayings, attributed to 
 some one of the successive teachers who in their turn re- 
 ceived and transmitted the tradition from Ezra to Rabbi 
 Judah himself. For instance, the Gamaliel of the Acts is 
 represented by the following saying, ' Rabban Gamaliel said, 
 Make to thyself a master, and be quit of doubt; and tithe 
 not much by conjecture'. 
 
 Thus in a few pages we have the selected wisdom of 
 centuries of orthodox Jewish thought. 
 
 Possibly in each case the sayings preserved were favourite 
 truths of the Rabbis to whom they are ascribed. The 
 Rabbis often repeated them till their hearers remembered 
 them and learnt to associate them with those particular 
 teachers. Thus the Seven Sages of Greece are remembered 
 by a saying apiece. Had Jesus of Nazareth been an 
 orthodox Rabbi, He might have been represented by some
 
 ETHICS AND DOCTRINE. 81 
 
 such sayings as these : ' He that hath ears to hear, let him 
 hear 1 ', 'Many that are first shall be last 2 ', 'Many are called 
 but few are chosen '. 3 
 
 It is true that if we remember the main characteristics 
 of the Mishna, which are those of a law-book, these sayings 
 seem out of place. But their position here serves to illus- 
 trate the determined recognition on the part of the Jews 
 of the union of social and legal with ethical and religious 
 teaching. This is also illustrated in something the same 
 way by the contents of the Pentateuch and the prophecies of 
 Ezekiel; but in neither of the latter are primary truths thrust 
 into the background that minor truths may be painfully 
 worked out and often distorted by being considered apart 
 from their relations to the greater truths on which they rest. 
 
 It will follow from the fragmentary character of this 
 teaching that there is no regular development, no scientific 
 statement of principles or doctrines. We may however 
 quote to shew how Jewish teachers summarized in pro- 
 verbial statements the truths which underlay the system of 
 the Mishna. As a rule the truths are better than the 
 system. 
 
 i. The Law. As we might naturally expect we find The Law. 
 a great deal on the value of the Law or of 'instruction 4 ', 
 the duty of studying it, and the fruitful results thereof. 
 
 According to Simon the Just the world rests on three 
 things ; the Torah, the Temple service, and the bestowal 
 of kindnesses 8 . Simeon ben Gamaliel however says, the 
 
 1 Matt. xi. 15, xiii. 9, 43; Mark iv. 9, 23, vii. 16, viii. 18; Lxike 
 viii. 8; xiv. 35. 
 
 2 Matt. xix. 30, xx. 16 and parallels. 8 Matt. xx. 16, xxii. 14. 
 * Cf. Taylor, Sayings of the Jewish Fathers, p. 119. 5 i. 2. 
 
 B. 6
 
 82 ETHICS AND DOCTRINE. 
 
 world stands on three things; judgment, truth, and peace 1 . 
 Man is created for Torah 2 , and Torah is one of the five 
 possessions of God 3 . There are three crowns, the crown of 
 Torah, the crown of Priesthood, and the crown of Royalty ; 
 but the crown of a good name is above them 4 . Elsewhere 
 it is said that the Torah is greater than the priesthood and 
 the kingdom 5 . 
 
 If three eat at one table, and have not said over it words 
 of Torah, they are as if they had eaten the sacrifices of the 
 dead 6 . Where there is no Torah there is no culture 7 . 
 
 If there is much Torah, there is much reward 8 , for Torah 
 gives life in this world and in the world to come 9 . The 
 observance of it brings honour 10 and wealth, if a man 
 neglects it he comes to poverty 11 . He who takes upon him 
 the yoke of Torah is relieved from the yoke of royalty and 
 worldly care 12 . The Shekinah or Divine Presence is with 
 those who occupy themselves about Torah 13 . 
 
 'He that profanes things sacred, and contemns the 
 festivals, and annuls the covenant of Abraham our father, 
 and acts barefacedly against the Torah, even though he be 
 a doer of good works, has no portion in the world to come 14 ', 
 but on the other hand it is said, 'All Torah without work 
 must fail and occasion iniquity'. Torah almost seems with 
 the Rabbis to occupy the place of faith with S. Paul and 
 S. James, for with them without faith works are dead, and 
 without works faith is dead. 
 
 1 1. 19. The quotations in this chapter are mostly from the section Aboth. 
 
 2 n. 9. Cf. Nedarim m. 11, where it is said the world was created on 
 account of circumcision. In Christian writers the world is said to be created 
 on account of the Church. 
 
 3 vi. 10. 4 iv. 19. 5 vi. 6. 6 m. 5. 
 
 ? m. 26. 8 L 19. 9 vi. 7. 10 rv. 10. 
 
 11 iv. 13. 12 in. 8. w m. 1. 14 m. 17, n. 2.
 
 ETHICS AND DOCTRINE. 83 
 
 ' Whosoever is busied in Torah for its own sake merits 
 many things ; and not only so, but he is worth the whole 
 world : he is called friend, beloved : loves God, loves man- 
 kind : pleases God, pleases mankind. And it clothes him 
 with meekness and fear, and fits him to become righteous, 
 pious, upright and faithful : and removes him from sin, and 
 brings him towards the side of merit... And he becomes 
 modest and long-suffering and forgiving of insult 1 '. So 
 that Torah is like that ' love ' in the great thirteenth of 
 First Corinthians, love which suffereth long and is not 
 puffed up; and reminds one also of 'faith' in the eleventh 
 chapter of the Hebrews; so that one feels that the whole 
 matter is fitly summed up by Ben Bag Bag, when he says 
 of Torah, ' Turn it and again turn it ; for the all is therein 
 and thy all is therein ; and swerve not therefrom for thou 
 canst have no greater excellency than this 2 '. 
 
 ii. Good Works. Some reference has - already been made 
 
 works, 
 to this subject in speaking of the Torah. 
 
 Submission to God is inculcated, but from somewhat 
 selfish motives. 
 
 ' Do His will as if it were thy will, that He may do thy 
 will, as if it were His will. Annul thy will before His will, 
 that He may annul the will of others before thy will 3 '; but 
 Antigonus of Socho, the founder of the Sadducees, says, ' Be 
 not as slaves that minister to the lord with a view to receive 
 recompense 4 '. 
 
 Much also is said in praise of kindliness and beneficence 
 towards men. The good way that a man should cleave to is 
 a good heart, the evil way an evil heart 5 . Hillel said, ' Be 
 
 1 vi. 1. 2 v. 32. 3 n. 4. 4 i. 3. n. 12, 13. 
 
 62
 
 84 ETHICS AND DOCTRINE. 
 
 of the disciples of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace ; 
 loving mankind and bringing them near to the Torah 1 '. 
 
 The bestowal of kindnesses is one of the three things on 
 which the world rests 2 . It is also said, ' Let the needy be 
 thy household 3 ', Repentance and good works are a shield 
 against punishment 4 '. So in case of a fast an aged man is 
 to say, Brethren it is not said for the men of Nineveh, 'And 
 God saw their sackcloth and their fasting' but 'God saw 
 their works, that they returned from their evil way ', and it 
 is said, ' Rend your hearts and not your garments, and turn 
 unto the Lord your God s '. 
 
 The necessity of supporting mere knowledge of truth by 
 practical holiness is enforced thus : 
 
 ' Whosesoever wisdom is in excess of his works, to what 
 is he like ? To a tree whose branches are abundant, and its 
 roots scanty ; and the wind comes, and uproots it and over- 
 turns it. And whosesoever works are in excess of his wisdom, 
 to what is he like ? To a tree whose branches are scanty, 
 and its roots abundant ; though all the winds come upon it, 
 they stir it not from its place 6 '. 
 
 It is interesting to find among all this praise of the Torah 
 and of its teachers the following tribute to a virtue often not 
 sufficiently appreciated. It almost seems as if the teachers 
 sometimes wearied their scholars. Simeon son of Gamaliel 
 said, " All my days I have grown up amongst the wise, and 
 have not found aught good for a man but silence ; not learn- 
 ing but doing is the groundwork ; and whoso multiplies 
 words occasions sin 7 ". Compare with this the saying of 
 Rabbi Akiba, " A fence to wisdom is silence 8 ". 
 
 1 i. 13. 2 i. 2. 3 i. 5. 4 iv. 15. B Taanith n.l. 
 
 6 in. 27; cf. S. Matt. vii. 24. 7 i. 18. 8 in. 20.
 
 ETHICS AND DOCTRINE. 85 
 
 Sincerity and the Doctrine of Intention. 
 
 From what has been said about Good Works it will be Sincerity, 
 evident that the Mishna is not wanting in exhortations to 
 practical morality ; the sincerity of profession is to be guaran- 
 teed by performance. There are also sayings which lay 
 stress on the necessity of spiritual earnestness as well as of 
 accurate ceremonial. "Men are not to stand up to pray 
 except with profound humility. The pious men of ancient 
 days used to pause a full hour before they began to pray, in 
 order to direct their minds to the Deity 1 ". A similar spirit 
 is manifested in the following comment on Exod. xvii. 11, 
 " When Moses held up his hand then Israel prevailed, &c." 
 " Could the hands of Moses animate the contest, or cause it 
 to cease ? But it was thus : whilst Israel looked to heaven 
 for aid, and subjected their will to their heavenly Father, 
 they prevailed, but when they ceased to do so, they failed ". 
 Again on Num. xxi. 8, " Make thee a fiery serpent, and set 
 it on a pole, and every one that is bitten, when he looketh 
 upon it shall live ". " Could this serpent kill or bring to life ? 
 But it was thus : when the Israelites looked to heaven for 
 aid, and subjected their inclination to the will of their 
 heavenly Father, they were cured, but when they did not, 
 they perished 2 ". It even seems that a silent intention to 
 pray was valid, even if it found no outward expression. We 
 read, " If one who is reading in the Law when the time 
 comes for praying intends it in his heart ? He is free. But 
 if not? He is not free 3 ". The meaning of this passage 
 seems to be that if anyone is reading the Law at the time 
 
 1 Berachoth v. 1. '- Bosh Hashauah in. 8. 
 
 3 Berachoth n. 1.
 
 86 ETHICS AND DOCTRINE. 
 
 when the Shema should be pronounced and, rather than 
 interrupt his reading, silently directs his thoughts to the 
 Shema, he is to be considered as having discharged the obli- 
 gation of repeating it. 
 
 Intention. This care for inward sincerity may if pressed become 
 mechanical. In the Mishna we find the Doctrine of Inten- 
 tion fairly anticipated 1 . In order that a ceremony per- 
 formed by a private individual for his own benefit may be 
 effectual thereunto, every stage of the ceremony must have 
 been gone through with the intention that it should be a 
 part of that particular ceremony. If a man washes himself 
 with the intention of eating ordinary food this washing does 
 not purify him for eating of tithes 1 . The Passover lamb 
 must be slaughtered with the intention that it shall be for 
 the Passover and with the intention that it shall be for a 
 definite company 2 , otherwise it is unlawful. 
 
 According to the Council of Trent the failure of a right 
 intention in the officiating priest destroys the efficacy of the 
 sacraments. A similar result seems to follow from the rules 
 of the Mishna as to the necessity of a right intention on the 
 part of the High Priest in discharging his duties. This 
 necessity is specially insisted on in the case of the Passover 3 
 and the ceremony of the Red Heifer 4 . 
 
 In laying stress on a right intention in the case of certain 
 actions an inevitable danger is incurred. In judging of his 
 intentions a man is judge, jury, counsel, witnesses and a 
 party to the suit all in one and must often be tempted to 
 persuade himself that his intentions were such as they 
 
 1 Chagiga n. 6. 2 Pesachim vi. 6. 
 
 3 Pesachim v. 2. 
 
 4 Parah iv. 1, xn. 2, 3 ; cf. Barclay's note in loco.
 
 ETHICS AND DOCTRINE. 87 
 
 should have been. He will often succumb to the tempta- 
 tion. In addition to such cases as the above there are others 
 in which the inducement to hypocrisy would be peculiarly 
 strong. Work done on the Sabbath unintentionally may be 
 made use of. Are there not many odd pieces of work that 
 a man might do almost by accident and afterwards persuade 
 himself that it was quite by accident ? 
 
 iii. The Divine Sovereignty. According to Josephus 1 Divine_ 
 the Pharisees taught that all things happened by divine ty. 
 decree, but yet they did not deny the free will of man. 
 Rabbi Akiba states the same truth thus : ' Everything is 
 foreseen ; and freewill is given. And the world is judged 
 by grace; and everything is according to work 2 '. Again 
 S. Paul, the pupil of Gamaliel, applies the same apparent 
 paradox to practical life thus : ' Work out your own salvation 
 with fear and trembling, for it is God that worketh in you 
 both to will and to do of His good pleasure,' 
 
 There are a few practical remarks which may perhaps 
 be traced to a belief in the Divine Sovereignty and in these 
 the Rabbis are happier than is their wont. Man is to bless 
 God for evil as well as for good 3 . 
 
 It is also said, and the saying is virtually an assertion of 
 the all-controlling wisdom of God, 'Despise not any man, 
 and carp not at anything; for thou wilt find that there 
 is not a man that has not his hour, and not a thing that has 
 not its place 4 '. We are also reminded that our lives are 
 part of a great plan and that our share in it is assigned 
 
 1 Antt. xvm. i. 3 ; B. J. n. viii. 14. 2 m. 24. 
 
 3 Berachoth ix. 5. The subsequent explanation of this saying is rather 
 unfortunate. 
 
 4 rv. 6.
 
 88 ETHICS AND DOCTRINE. 
 
 to us by God, and that it is beyond us to say what our work 
 shall be, to what extent we shall be allowed to complete 
 it, or when we may lay it aside ; for it is said, ' It is not 
 for thee to finish the work, nor art thou free to desist there- 
 from 1 '. A sterner aspect of the same truth is given in the 
 following saying, 'Let not thine imagination assure thee 
 that the grave is an asylum ; for without thine own consent 
 thou wast framed, and without thine own consent thou 
 livest, and without thine own consent thou diest, and without 
 thine own consent thou art about to give account and 
 reckoning before the King of the kings of kings, the Holy 
 One, blessed is He 2 '. 
 
 Future iv. The Future Life. The Acts of the Apostles says 
 
 of the Pharisees that they believed in the resurrection, in 
 angels and spirits, while the Sadducees believed in none 
 of those things 3 . Josephus also tells us that the Pharisees 
 believed in a future life 4 , and in one place speaks of the 
 soul as passing into another body 5 ; which might seem to 
 imply the transmigration of the soul. But as this doctrine 
 is not elsewhere ascribed to the Pharisees, it is possible 
 that it may be a somewhat awkward equivalent of our 
 phrase 'resurrection of the body'. 
 
 In S. John 6 the Jews, that is to say, the Pharisees, for 
 all really orthodox Jews were Pharisees, are spoken of as 
 thinking to find ' eternal life ' in their Scriptures. 
 
 The doctrine of the future life is clearly laid down in 
 the Mishna, the phrases ' the world to come ' and the ' life to 
 
 i ii. 19. a iv. 32. 3 Acts xxiii. 8. 
 
 4 Antt. xvm. i. 3. 5 B. J. n. viii. 14. 
 
 6 S. John v. 39.
 
 ETHICS AND DOCTRINE. 89 
 
 come' occur frequently, sometimes in opposition to 'the 
 world 1 '. The 'Garden of Eden' is spoken of as the reward 
 of the righteous 2 . In one passage 3 the opposite doctrine 
 is distinctly controverted. It is said, " All the seals of the 
 blessings in the sanctuary used to say, 'from the d?1^'. 
 But since the Epicureans perversely taught there is but one 
 u?ty, it was directed that men should say, 'from DTI^ 
 to DSljT'. 
 
 The word D/1^ is represented in Greek by alwv. Its 
 original meaning is ' age ' and then ' world ', then the phrase 
 'from the age' came to mean eternity. The Epicureans, 
 that is to say, heretics, caught up the words ' the age ' and 
 used it as a proof that there was only one ' age ', one ' world ', 
 one state in which men lived, and to meet this trivial and 
 frivolous argument, the formula was changed so as literally 
 to imply the existence of two worlds, a future life as well as 
 a present. 
 
 In the face of this it is rather strange to read, 'The death 
 of the wicked is pleasant for them and pleasant for the 
 world ; but the death of the righteous is evil for them and 
 evil for the world 4 '. 
 
 It almost seems as if the doctrine of the future life was 
 not yet clearly understood, and its consequences were not 
 properly worked out. 
 
 The mystical and miraculous are a much more prominent Mysti- 
 feature of the Gemara than of the Mishna ; but still they are a 
 sufficiently marked in the latter. In the Gospels we read 
 that Christ at His Baptism, at the Transfiguration and shortly 
 
 1 n. 8, 19, iv. 3, 24, vi. 7; Sanhedrim x. 1. Cf. Taylor, Sayings of the 
 Jewish Fathers, on n. 19 ; also N. T. passim, 6 alwv d fpxopevos and 6 
 
 aiuv, Mark x. 30, &c. 
 
 2 v. 29, 31. 3 Berachoth rx. 5. 4 Sanhedrim vra. 5.
 
 90 ETHICS AND DOCTRINE. 
 
 before His Passion 1 was addressed by a voice from heaven. 
 A 'voice from heaven', the ' Bath Kol' or 'daughter of the 
 voice ', is frequently referred to by Jewish writers. Thus 
 'Every day Bath Kol goes forth from Mount Horeb, and 
 makes proclamation and says, Woe to the creatures for 
 contempt of Torah 2 '. 
 
 According to the Mishna the temple services were the 
 occasion of a numerous set of regular miracles. On the Day 
 of Atonement a scarlet thread twisted on the door of the 
 Sanctuary turned white when the scape-goat arrived in the 
 wilderness 3 . 
 
 ' Ten miracles were wrought in the sanctuary 4 '. Among 
 these were the following: 'The holy meat never stank... a 
 fly was not seen in the slaughterhouse ; and a defect was not 
 found in the sheaf; nor in the two loaves; nor in the shew- 
 bread '. 
 
 A special significance is also attached to certain seasons : 
 'The world is judged at four periods ; at the passover, for the 
 growth of corn ; at pentecost, for the fruit of trees ; at new 
 year's day, when all human beings pass before Him like 
 lambs, as is said, "He fashioneth their hearts alike; He 
 considereth all their works"; and at the feast of tabernacles, 
 judgment is given for the rains 6 '. 
 
 It may however be doubted whether in these accounts of 
 miracles we ought to see anything more than a highly figura- 
 tive statement of certain moral and spiritual truths. 
 
 We also find traces of the ordinary belief in omens and 
 charms. If a man pray, and make a mistake, it is a bad 
 sign for him. If he be a representative of a congregation, it 
 
 1 S. John xii. 28. 2 vi. 2. 3 Yoma vi. 8. 
 
 4 v. 8. 6 Bosh Hashanah i. 2.
 
 ETHICS AND DOCTRINE. 91 
 
 is a bad sign for those whom he represents, for a man's 
 representative is like himself. They say of R. Hanina, son 
 of Dosa, that when he prayed for the sick, he used to say, 
 "this one will live", or "this one will die." They said to 
 him, " how do you know ?" He said to them, " if my prayer 
 be fluent in my mouth, I know that he is accepted ; but if 
 not, I know that he is lost 1 ". 
 
 Among the things which may be carried on the Sabbath 
 are included according to some, 'an egg of a locust, and 
 a tooth of a fox, and a nail of one crucified, as medicine 2 '. 
 According to others it is forbidden to carry such things at all 
 'because of the ways of the Amorites', i.e. because such 
 practices savoured of heathen magic. 
 
 The fifth chapter of the Pirke Aboth exemplifies the 
 tendency to attach special importance to certain numbers. 
 Omitting two or three short paragraphs, the chapter is 
 arranged thus; nine sets of ten, ten sayings by which the 
 world was created, ten generations from Adam to Noah, 
 &c. ; three sets of seven ; seven sets of four, mostly sets 
 of four characters ; two sets of three. 
 
 1 Berachoth v. 5. 2 Sabbath vi. 10.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Vows. THE POOR. 
 
 Vows. THE custom of making vows does not occupy any promi- 
 nent place in the Gospels. John the Baptist indeed is a 
 Nazirite, and Christ in His denunciation of the Pharisees 
 includes among their other sins the fact that they say, ' If a 
 man shall say to his father or his mother, That wherewith 
 thou mightest have been profited by me is Corban, that is to 
 say, Given to God ' and ' no longer suffer him to do aught for 
 his father or his mother ; making void the word of God by 
 their traditions 1 '. There is a treatise in the Mishna on the 
 Nazirite vow and also one on vows in general. ' Corban ' is 
 one of a group of words of similar meaning used in the 
 Mishna in the forms of vows. In one passage an opinion is 
 given as to the relative validity in such forms of 'Corban', 
 'as Corban', 'the Corban', 'for Corban' respectively, and 
 some doubt seems to exist as to the validity of the last 
 phrase 1 . 
 
 The phrases too 'wherein I might be profited by you', 
 'wherein you might be profited by me', are among the 
 regular forms of vows 2 . We meet with two classes of vows 
 
 1 Nedarim i. 4. 2 Nedarim vm. 7.
 
 VOWS. THE POOR. 93 
 
 of this kind, vows by which a man binds himself either not 
 to receive any advantage from some one or not to do any- 
 thing that will be of advantage to the other party. It seems 
 that such vows were so frequent, especially in Galilee, as to 
 interfere with social life and cause serious inconvenience. 
 With a view to obviating this difficulty synagogues and 
 other public buildings are reckoned as belonging to the 
 prince that they may not be subject to such vows and so 
 may be freely used 1 . 
 
 The treatise on vows discusses with the usual minuteness 
 the particular forms of vows that are valid and in what 
 particular cases, also with what degree of rigour the words of 
 a vow are to be interpreted. For instance, if a man has 
 vowed not to eat beans, may he eat French beans or is he 
 only debarred from broad beans 2 . As oaths and vows cannot 
 easily be distinguished both are virtually discussed in the 
 treatise ' Vows'. Christ in speaking of oaths says, ' Swear not 
 at all ; neither by heaven, for it is the throne of God ; nor by 
 the earth, for it is the footstool of His feet; nor by Jerusalem, 
 for it is the city of the great King 3 '. Now among the valid 
 forms of oath in the Mishna are the altar, the temple, and 
 Jerusalem, only Rabbi Judah says that if any man swears by 
 Jerusalem it is as if he said nothing 4 . 
 
 With this we have to compare Matt, xxiii. 16 22, ' Woe 
 unto you, ye blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear 
 by the temple, it is nothing ; but whosoever shall swear by 
 the gold of the temple, he is a debtor. ..Whosoever shall 
 swear by the altar, it is nothing ; but whosoever shall swear 
 by the gift that is upon it, he is a debtor. Ye blind : for 
 
 1 Nedarim v. 5. 2 This is only an imaginary example. 
 
 8 Matt. v. 35. * Nedarim I. 3.
 
 94 VOWS. THE POOR. 
 
 whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the 
 gift?' Between the Gospel and the Mishna as it now stands 
 there is a discrepancy, but the saying of Rabbi Judah sug- 
 gests the existence of a popular practice in accordance with 
 the words of the Gospel, but possibly disallowed in later 
 times. The saying ' the altar sanctifieth what belongs to it 
 (lit. is worthy of it)', occurs in another connection in the 
 Mishna 1 . 
 
 The provisions for absolving men from inconvenient vows 
 are as minute and elaborate as the discussion of the forms 
 and scope of vows. Four classes of vows need not be 
 observed, (i) Vows of persuasion, (ii) Hyperbolical Vows, 
 (iii) Vows as to which a mistake is made, (iv) Vows which 
 cannot be performed owing to adverse circumstances. Vows 
 of persuasion are illustrated by the oaths made use of in 
 negotiating a bargain. The seller swears he will not take 
 less than two shekels, the buyer swears he will not give more 
 than one. These incompatible vows are not allowed to put 
 an end to the negotiation, but may both be disregarded and 
 the buyer and seller may agree on an intermediate price. 
 Hyperbolical vows are vows in which the condition is impos- 
 sible in the nature of things, e.g. I will do so and so if I see 
 a serpent in the shape of a triangle. Mistaken vows are 
 those in which a man makes or breaks a vow under a false 
 impression, -vows 'if I have eaten', forgetting that he has 
 eaten, or 'if I shall eat', and afterwards forgets his vow and 
 eats. Vows annulled by circumstances are those in which 
 the performance of a vow is not known to be impossible 
 when the vow is made, but is afterwards found to be . so, as 
 for instance when a man vows to take a journey and after- 
 
 1 Zebachim ix. 1.
 
 VOWS. THE POOR. 95 
 
 wards finds that the floods are out and he cannot go 1 . There 
 are other curious regulations for the benefit of those who 
 made hasty vows or oaths. If a vow was made in the faith 
 that the Sages could absolve the man, he was to be absolved 2 ; 
 and if a man made a vow that if a man were made scribe he 
 would do so and so ; making the vow in the belief that the 
 man was not a scribe, and then found out that he was a 
 scribe, the vow was not valid. If the casuistry of the Mishna 
 is not exactly the same as that attributed to the Pharisees 
 by Christ it is very similar in character. 
 
 One of the leading features of the Old Testament is its The Poor: 
 
 Attitude of 
 
 care for the needs of the poor. The legislation of the Old old Testa- 
 Testament secures them many rights and provides for their 
 relief when in distress. The crime which the prophets 
 denounce most frequently and emphatically is the oppres- 
 sion of the poor. 
 
 It is unnecessary to point out that Christ in this matter Attitude of 
 fully endorses the teaching of the Old Testament. The 
 strongest proof of this is that He Himself was a working 
 man and chose His friends and disciples from the same class. 
 We read ' Blessed are the poor/ and it is hard for ' a rich 
 man to enter into the kingdom of heaven '. His command 
 is, ' Give to him that asketh of thee '. His invitation is given 
 to all who are 'weary and heavy laden'. Doubtless in all 
 these sayings there is a spiritual meaning, but' the willing- 
 ness of Christ to relieve physical suffering warrants us in 
 including in them actual poverty and weariness of toil. 
 
 The Mishna in its own peculiar way is equally faithful Attitude of 
 to the teaching of the Old Testament, and the rights granted *~ 
 therein to the poor are carefully maintained. For instance 
 1 Nedarim in. 1. 2 Nazir n. 4.
 
 96 VOWS. THE POOR. 
 
 4 Corner of we read, ' When ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shall 
 a field '. 
 
 not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when 
 
 thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy 
 harvest : thou shalt leave them to the poor, and to the 
 stranger: I am the Lord your God 1 '. 
 
 A treatise 2 of the Mishna is devoted to the subject of 
 this corner of a field. 
 
 Special in- The difficulties arising out of the uncertainty as to 
 whether food had been tithed have been referred to. Special 
 license as to the use of food in such cases is accorded for 
 the purpose of entertaining a poor man on the Sabbath 3 . 
 Labourers All debts according to the Pentateuch were to be re- 
 Sabbatical leased in the Sabbatical Year, but labourers' wages are not 
 
 released*. 
 
 Casuals. A poor man lodging for the night or for the Sabbath 
 
 is to be supplied with meals. But anyone possessing fifty 
 denarii 5 is not eligible for this relief 6 . Is it possible that He 
 who had not where to lay His head may sometimes have 
 availed Himself of this provision? 
 
 Wine at It is also commanded concerning ' the poorest in Israel ' 
 
 the Pass- 
 over, that 'they must not withhold from him the four cups of 
 
 wine, even though he receive the weekly alms 7 '. 
 
 Slaves. The Mishna contains comparatively little as to the po- 
 
 sition of slaves. They were disqualified from discharging 
 certain legal and ceremonial functions. Gamaliel seems to 
 have had a slave Tabbi to whom he was much attached and 
 who possessed some knowledge of the law 8 . 
 
 Denuncia- The provisions on behalf of the poor are enforced by 
 tion of 
 
 1 Lev. xxiii. 22. 2 Peah. 3 Demai rv. 4. 
 
 * Shebiith x. 1. 8 W. 6 Peah vni. 7, 9. 
 
 7 Peshachim x. 1. 8 Succah n. 1.
 
 VOWS. THE POOR. 97 
 
 solemn warning, ' At four seasons the pestilence waxes : in wrong to 
 
 the poor, 
 the fourth year, in the seventh, in the ending of the seventh; 
 
 and at the ending of the Feast 1 in every year. In the fourth 
 year, on account of the poor's tithe in the third ; in the 
 seventh, on account of the poor's tithe in the sixth ; and at 
 the ending of the seventh, on account of the seventh year 
 fruits ; and at the ending of the Feast in every year, on 
 account of the largesses of the poor '. 
 
 In discussing this subject the well-known care of mo- Present 
 dern Jews for their poor should not be forgotten. Herein O f Jewish 
 they are singularly faithful to the teaching of their tra- p< 
 ditions. 
 
 1 Tabernacles. 
 
 B.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 RELATION OF THE MISHNA AND THE GOSPELS TO THE 
 OLD TESTAMENT. 
 
 TheMish- IT is written in the closing verses of the Book of the 
 Gospel as Prophet Malachi ' Remember ye the law of Moses my ser- 
 the Old 8 van t, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, 
 with the statutes and judgments'. There follows the promise 
 that Elijah shall come before the great and dreadfu 1 day of 
 the Lord, and so the book ends. Thus at the end of the 
 Old Testament as arranged in our English Bible, the last of 
 the prophets addresses to Israel as the last word of the 
 prophetic order an exhortation to remember the Law. The 
 Alexandrine school of Jewish thought as represented by the 
 Apocrypha and by Philo was not unmindful of this com- 
 mand ; but the Law is remembered most directly and 
 thoroughly in the Gospel of Christ and the Mishna of the 
 Rabbis. Each of these connects directly with the tendency 
 of Jewish thought, as we find it at the close of the Old 
 Testament Canon. So far as either is the result of previous 
 writings or teaching, it is the result of the Old Testament. 
 To the Mishna the Law is all and in all ; Christ came to
 
 RELATION OF THE MISHNA TO THE OLD TESTAMENT. 99 
 
 fulfil the law giving the assurance, that not one jot or tittle 
 of it should pass away till all should be fulfilled. 
 
 The materials for historically connecting either Mishna How do 
 or Gospel with the Old Testament are scanty, we have no na 
 
 literature which really links the closing books of the Old 
 Testament with the revived Jewish literature of the Gospel 
 or of the Rabbinical schools. Chronologically indeed the ment? 
 Jewish literature of Alexandria 1 fills the gap, but the in- 
 fluence of this literature on either Mishna or Gospel is very 
 slight. Alexandria indeed exercises some influence on the 
 Gospel through the Septuagint, but the Mishna seems to 
 show no traces of such influence. The Mishna gives a list 
 of names connecting Rabbi Judah with Ezra, and assigns 
 one or two sentences to each. It claims moreover to be in 
 the main a reproduction of oral teaching handed down from 
 Moses. So far the connection is complete, but we have 
 little but these sentences to show us when the minute and 
 detailed system of the Mishna arose, to what circumstances 
 it was due and through what forms the oral tradition passed. 
 The claim of the Jews on behalf of the Mishna that it dates 
 back to Moses necessarily involves the neglect or suppression 
 of any evidence that might have thrown light on its actual 
 origin. Obviously the Mishna links itself with parts of the 
 Pentateuch and Ezekiel and the later prophets, also with 
 the Books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. It is not unnatural 
 that the legal provisions and proverbial wisdom of the Old 
 Testament should have had their development in later 
 times. However much we may wonder at the extreme 
 form which the development takes in the Mishna, yet even 
 
 1 It must be remembered that we are dealing with the Gospels and not 
 with the New Testament as a whole. 
 
 72
 
 100 RELATION OF THE MISHNA AND THE GOSPELS 
 
 here its system is scarcely unique as a specimen either of 
 civil or ecclesiastical law. But the real phenomenon of 
 Jewish thought as illustrated by the Mishna is the failure 
 of the prophetic and spiritual elements of the Old Testament 
 to beget a derivative literature amongst Palestinian Jews. 
 This failure is illustrated and partly explained by the 
 position of authority accorded to the Mishna ; for it was 
 the object of the Mishna to deal with the Law. Again the 
 fact should be noticed that what there is of more spiritual 
 teaching in the Hagada is largely grouped round the Mishna. 
 It may perhaps be possible to trace in the later books of the 
 Old Testament the beginning of this tendency to give an 
 undue prominence to legal ordinances. 
 
 It cannot be said that either the Alexandrine writings 
 or the Oral Tradition fill the gap in time between the 
 Evangelical teachings of the great prophets and its develop- 
 ment in the Gospels. In Stanley's Jewish Church the various 
 influences at work on the Jewish character are carefully 
 investigated, but there is little or nothing which indicates 
 any teaching transmitted through Jewish teachers, which 
 coming between the Prophets and the Gospels rises to 
 anything like the elevation of either. It is true that the 
 language and sayings of Christ seem to be influenced by the 
 older Rabbinical teachings, but the essential elements of 
 His teaching, so far as they rest on any original, go back 
 directly to the Old Testament. 
 
 The chief element in contemporary Jewish life and 
 thought, which may have supplied impulse, inspiration and 
 enthusiasm for new developments in Jewish literature was 
 the expectation of the immediate advent of the Messiah. 
 The Jewish communities were everywhere seething with
 
 TO THE OLD TESTAMENT. 101 
 
 excitement and agitated by the wildest hopes. Hence the 
 Old Testament must have had a more living meaning and 
 excited a deeper interest, and those elements of Old Testa- 
 ment teaching which appealed to men's highest hopes and 
 loftiest impulses might be expected to come to the front 
 and to have a dominant influence. This seems to have 
 taken place in at least three ways, according to the differing 
 character of men's highest hopes and impulses. Everyone 
 expected the realization of his ideal. Men of military and 
 patriotic ambition were kindled by the history of Israel's 
 ancient glory and by the seeming promise of empire. Perhaps 
 the rebellion of Barchochabh was the most mature result of 
 the Messianic hope in this direction, the most determined and 
 the most disastrous attempt to realize the ideal of an earthly 
 Messianic kingdom. The men of the schools in their turn 
 applied themselves with renewed vigour to adapt the ancient 
 law to the new condition of things, that the new king- 
 dom might be administered according to the divine will, 
 and Israel in her renewed empire be pure and blameless 
 before her God. But there was no such new kingdom or 
 renewed empire as the Rabbis had anticipated, and their 
 work has come down to us modified by the ruin and failure 
 of their hopes, and this work is embodied in the Mishna. 
 But there were others who sought for more than earthly 
 glory, for more than a perfect system of civil and ceremonial 
 law ; there would be men who would be led by the awakening 
 of life and thought to dwell upon the spiritual and moral 
 beauty of the old writings, and to interpret the Messianic 
 hope as a promise that the manifest presence of God, the 
 inspiration of the ancient prophets, should be renewed for 
 them. Christ invited such to find in Himself the realization
 
 102 RELATION OF THE MISHNA AND THE GOSPELS 
 
 of their ideal, and the Gospel is the history written by such 
 men of His claims upon their faith and their response to 
 these claims. But making allowance for the different in- 
 fluences that gave rise to the Mishna and the Gospel, it is 
 yet important to remember that it is the same spiritual 
 revelation as contained in Law, Prophets, and Psalms, and 
 as illustrated by Jewish history, that culminated for the 
 Jews in the Mishna and the Talmud, and for us in Christ. 
 Rabbinical teaching and Christianity are two offshoots from 
 the same stock of ancient Judaism and we must not let the 
 vast difference between the two blind us to the fact. To 
 us it may seem that Christianity is the continuation of the 
 main trunk, and modern Judaism a side shoot, feeble and 
 stunted, but both have grown up from the same roots and 
 are nourished by the same spiritual life. 
 
 To which It has already been pointed out more than once that 
 the Old the Mishna is specially and avowedly connected with the 
 do the n Pentateuch and belongs, with portions of Ezekiel, to those 
 Sthe J ewisl:i writings which deal with the Law. The Pirke Aboth 
 
 Gospel an( j w hat else of the same kind there is in the Mishna 
 specially 
 
 attach connects itself in form and subject-matter with Proverbs and 
 them- 
 selves? Ecclesiastes. But while this sacred book of later Judaism 
 
 was thus content to rest almost entirely on only a part 
 of the Old Testament, the Gospels virtually connect them- 
 selves with the whole ; with the Pentateuch, notably in the 
 Sermon on the Mount, with the Prophets, especially in 
 St Matthew, who definitely writes on the principle that Christ 
 and His teaching are the fulfilling of the prophets ; with 
 Psalms in frequent quotations ; with Proverbs in those 
 sayings of ' worldly wisdom ' that are not rare in Christ's 
 teaching. The relation of the Gospels to the historical
 
 TO THE OLD TESTAMENT. 103 
 
 books of the Old Testament is brought out most clearly 
 in the speeches in the Acts, where the history of the Old 
 Testament is appealed to as leading up to the Gospel. 
 
 Moreover while the Mishna elaborates the Law with a 
 servile regard for the letter, tempered by an ingenious 
 casuistry, the Gospel uses the spirit of the Old Testament as 
 the means of advancing in the freedom of the Spirit to new 
 developments of higher teaching. 
 
 The difference as to the amount of the Old Testament 
 dealt with is carried out in quotations. While the Gospel 
 quotes nearly the whole range of the books of the Old 
 Testament with certainly no preference for the Pentateuch, 
 the Mishna rarely refers to anything else but the Pentateuch. 
 But the Canon of the Mishua and of the Gospels are 
 essentially the same, and identical with that of our Bible. 
 
 In both Mishna and Gospel the authority of the Old Authority 
 Testament is rather taken for granted than definitely stated, Testa- 
 and both assume on the part of the hearer or reader a con- m 
 siderable knowledge of scripture. The Mishna never states 
 the text it is discussing and assumes that the reader will be 
 so familiar with it as to know from the discussion itself what 
 point is under consideration. 
 
 With the above limitations we may say that the Mishna, Quota- 
 tions, Me- 
 like the Gospels, has many ordinary straightforward quota- thod, &c. 
 
 tions, in which the Old Testament is appealed to as an 
 authority, or used to illustrate some point of doctrine or 
 ceremony. 
 
 But even in the New Testament there are quotations 
 where sentences are used without reference to their meaning 
 and context in the Old Testament because the words describe 
 or illustrate the New Testament. As for instance when the
 
 104 RELATION OF THE MISHNA AND THE GOSPELS 
 
 words ' Out of Egypt have I called my son ' are applied to 
 the return of the infant Christ from Egypt, though in the 
 original it applies to the children of Israel, and is part of a 
 reproach against their ingratitude. We shall see further on 
 that the Mishna is more systematically and dogmatically 
 indifferent to the context of its quotations so long as a 
 meaning can .be extracted from the words. 
 
 Again, in the Gospels we find words and phrases of the 
 Old Testament constantly embedded in the language. 
 Naturally in the Mishna the influence of the Old Testament 
 on the language shows itself chiefly in the use of the terms 
 and phrases of the Law. 
 
 Forced ap- We find however in the Mishna much use of scripture of 
 
 plication. . . i i 
 
 a very artificial kind. Every word, every letter is considered 
 
 pregnant with meaning, the arrangement of the words, the 
 use of the singular for the plural, everything is full of meaning. 
 On the one hand we read in the Gemara ' There are no two 
 passages in the Law which repeat the same thing 1 ', and on 
 the other, it is desirable to prove everything from the Law. 
 Hence the different forms of synonymous expressions are 
 pressed to give essentially different meanings, and the most 
 casual expressions in a simple narrative are treated as the deli- 
 berate and permanently binding enunciations of important 
 truths. If this fails poetry is interpreted by mystical or alle- 
 gorical formulae. For instance ' I will bring your sanctuaries 
 into desolation' ; the fact that in this sentence the sanctuaries 
 are spoken of and it is not expressly stated that they cease 
 to be sanctuaries is held to prove that they remain sanctuaries 
 even when desolate 2 . 
 
 1 Sanhedrin Gemara, fpL 39, Klein. 
 4 Megillali ILL 3.
 
 TO THE OLD TESTAMENT. 105 
 
 Then again it is desired to find scriptural authority for 
 the way of saying the Shema and it is found thus : ' Beth 
 Shammai hold, that in the evening, men are to recline when 
 they say the Shema, and in the morning they are to stand 
 upright ; for it is said, When thou liest down and when thou 
 risest up. But Beth Hillel hold that every man is to say it 
 in his own way, in what posture he pleases, for it is said 
 When thou walkest by the way. Such being the case why 
 then is it said, When thou liest down and when thou risest 
 up. The meaning is at the time when mankind usually lie 
 down and at the time when they usually rise up 1 '. 
 
 Reason for a liturgical practice is found as follows : 
 " The exit from Egypt is to be mentioned at night. Rabbi 
 Eleazar ben Azariah saith, Verily I am almost seventy 
 years of age, but have not succeeded in proving that the exit 
 from Egypt ought to be mentioned at night until Ben Zoma 
 expounded, That thou rnayest remember the day of thy going 
 forth from the land of Egypt all the days of thy life. ' The 
 days of thy life ' would denote the days only ; but the ex- 
 pression 'all the days of thy life' includes the night likewise. 
 But the Sages say ' the days of thy life ' denote the present 
 state ; whereas ' all the days of thy life ' include the future 
 days of the Messiah 2 ". Compare also the following, ' Whence 
 know we that Achan's confession made atonement for him ? 
 As it is said, And Joshua said Why hast thou troubled us ? 
 The Lord shall trouble thee this day. This day art thou 
 troubled but thou shalt not be troubled in the world to come 3 '. 
 
 These are only one or two examples out of a large 
 number. 
 
 1 Eerachoth i. 3. 2 Berachoth i. 5. 
 
 3 SankecUin vi. 2.
 
 106 RELATION OF THE MISHNA TO THE OLD TESTAMENT. 
 
 Altera- The Mishna in one or two instances uses a text to 
 
 tions. . 
 
 suggest a new truth by altering some prominent word. 'And 
 
 it saith And the tables were the work of God, and the writing 
 
 O 
 
 was the writing of God, graven upon the tables. Read not 
 Charuth graven but Cheruth freedom, for thou wilt find no 
 freeman but him who is occupied in learning Torah 1 '. 
 
 Eational- In the explanations already quoted of the Fiery Serpent 
 and of Hoses' prayer at Rephidirn we see traces of a rational- 
 ising spirit. 
 
 Additions. It is interesting to notice in what different ways the 
 Gospels and the Mishna supplement the Old Testament. 
 The Gospels add nothing to the history, little or nothing 
 to ritual or legal observance, elaborates none of these, but 
 develops great principles, supplies additional motives and 
 inspires new hopes. The Mishna fills up and completes 
 with great elaboration the scheme of law, and even extends 
 its list of miracles into Old Testament times and tells of the 
 wonderful things which were created at the moment of 
 transition from the six days of creation to the first Sabbath. 
 
 1 Pirke Aboth vi. 2.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 SUBSEQUENT HISTORY OF THE MISHNA AND THE GOSPELS. 
 
 IN tracing the subsequent history of the Mishna and the Circum- 
 stances of 
 Gospels, and noting such points in the history 01 each as origin. 
 
 offer ground for comparison, we must remember that they 
 originated approximately in similar circumstances and the 
 same period of time. Both are in a measure due to the 
 inspiration of the Messianic age, but in very different ways. 
 The Gospels breath an atmosphere of success and are full of 
 undiminished hope. The Mishna as we have it succeeds to 
 the failure of attempts to realize the Messianic kingdom; 
 the hope within it is but faint and it has more of the stern 
 resolution that may be gathered from despair. Yet the 
 glories of Christianity ought not to make us altogether blind 
 to the invincible patriotism, the heroic pertinacity with which 
 the teachers of this ruined and scattered people renewed the 
 grasp of the Law upon the conscience of Israel and secured 
 the unity and persistence of Jewish life and worship. 
 
 The first prominent feature in the history of the Mishna Gemara. 
 is the formation of a mass of literature relating to it. This 
 literature eventually was arranged as a kind of commentary 
 to the Mishna and appeared in two recensions known as the
 
 108 SUBSEQUENT HISTORY OF 
 
 Jerusalem and Babylonian Talmud respectively. As the new 
 matter was similar in character, equal in merit and often 
 superior in interest to the Mishna itself, it came to have 
 an almost equal authority, and the sacred book was not the 
 Mishna merely, but the Mishna and its commentary, i.e. the 
 Talmud. Henceforward the history of the Mishna is for the 
 most part the history of the Talmud. This new development, 
 together with the original Mishna, extends to six or eight 
 large folio volumes, and the style is at least as obscure as that 
 of the Mishna ; so that it became simply impossible that it 
 should be used as a popular text-book, and its authority 
 served chiefly to increase the influence of the limited class 
 wfro had leisure and learning enough to study it. Now in 
 the case of the Gospels it is true that the Acts, Epistles and 
 Apocalypse were added to them and they became one book, 
 but these are in no way parallel to the Gemara. Another 
 mass of Christian literature arose dealing with the New 
 Testament, namely the Patristic writings, and these formed 
 a sort of Christian Gemara. In time a supplementary 
 authority was accorded to the Fathers as interpreters of the 
 New Testament ; but their writings were different in charac- 
 ter, far inferior both in merit and interest to the Gospels ; 
 their bulk became even more formidable than that of the 
 Talmud. Hence the New Testament has never had the 
 dead weight of the Patristic writings tied round its neck in 
 the shape of a commentary of coordinate authority published 
 with it ; and the Churches of the Reformation have strictly 
 limited the authority to be accorded to the Fathers. Never- 
 theless when we speak disparagingly of the Talmud, its 
 many volumes, its tedious frivolity of allegorical interpreta- 
 tion and petty detail, its doubtful casuistry, we should
 
 THE MISHNA AND THE GOSPELS. 109 
 
 remember that the Fathers are not altogether free from 
 similar faults. Allegorical interpretation of the wildest 
 character is to be found in the Epistle of Barnabas and the 
 writings of Ambrose ; the casuistry of Chrysostom is more 
 than doubtful at times, and Jerome distinguishes himself by 
 bitter and unscrupulous partisanship. From these a Jewish 
 writer might compile a selection of passages as absurd as 
 some of those popular sets of extracts from the Talmud, 
 which, to the mind of a Jew, might seem intended to pander 
 to Christian prejudices or to supply the perennial craving of 
 the human mind for trivial anecdotes. But however tainted 
 with such faults both Talmud and Fathers helped to 
 throw new light on ancient truth, and it is only the false use 
 which may be made of them which makes them stumbling 
 blocks to Jew and Christian respectively. 
 
 The Mishna being now absorbed in the Talmud, the Destruo- 
 latter became the representative book of the Jews, as the sacred 
 New Testament was of the Christians, and as both Jews and 
 Christians were emphatically what has been called religions 
 of a book, it was natural that the enemy of the religion 
 should seek to destroy the book. It is well known that the 
 last great persecution of the Christians, that of Diocletian, 
 specially aimed at the destruction of the New Testament, 
 and in the days of the Reformation and since a similar object 
 has been attempted by those who believed that a New Tes- 
 tament in the vernacular was a dangerous and fatal book to 
 place in the hands of the laity. In like manner the enemies 
 of Judaism have again and again struck at the Talmud. 
 Justinian forbad the use of the Mishna 1 . Under Pope 
 Julius III. the Talmud was ordered to be burned 2 . At the 
 1 Milman, Hist, of Jews, in. 75. 8 ra. 343.
 
 110 SUBSEQUENT HISTORY OF 
 
 revival of learning at the Reformation, when printed editions 
 began to be issued and Reuchlin devoted himself to the 
 study of Rabbinical writings, a great outcry was raised both 
 against the writings and against the faithless Christian who 
 so far forgot himself as to study them. But fortunately 
 Reuchlin, aided by the influence of Erasmus, and protected 
 by the Archbishop of Maintz, was able more or less to hold 
 his own. Luther's advice was to take away all their Talmuds 
 in which are nothing but godlessness, lies, cursing and 
 swearing 1 . 
 
 By order of the Council of Trent subsequent editions of 
 the Talmud were purged of attacks on the Christians. It is 
 very much the fashion to speak of the absence of these 
 attacks from later editions as due to the anxiety of modern 
 Jews to suppress the evidence of former intolerance. This 
 .r motive may have its weight now, but it is only fair to 
 
 remember to whom the original expurgation was due. 
 
 It cannot be doubted that, as the persecution of Diocletian 
 helped to establish the authority of the New Testament, so 
 these efforts, on the part of the enemies of Judaism, to 
 destroy the Talmud only emphasized its authority and 
 secured for it the devoted attachment of the Jews. 
 Karaites. But while these attacks were made from outside there 
 were not wanting Jews who protested against the authority 
 of this superadded mass of tradition. As in the history of 
 the Church we meet with occasional protests against the 
 authority of the Fathers, and later on against that of the 
 schoolmen, so from the eighth century the existence of the 
 Karaites 2 was a standing protest against the authority alike 
 of Mishna and Gemara. This sect of the Jews fell back on 
 * Milman, Hist. Jews, m. 353. 2 in. 126.
 
 THE MISHNA AND THE GOSPELS. Ill 
 
 the Old Testament as the Reformers on the New Testament, 
 but their influence was as limited though more continuous 
 than that of the pre-Reformation Protestants. 
 
 In spite of opposition both the Gospels and the Talmud How the 
 fulfilled their missions. As a product of a living hope and a and the 
 means of its fulfilment, the Gospels continually extended the fulfilled 
 sphere of their influence ; the hope had been an aggressive sp ective" 
 one, and claimed that its influence should be world-wide. misslons - 
 The book succeeded in its mission. But the object of the 
 Mishna and subsequently of the Talmud was entirely differ- 
 ent. It was not intended to gather in converts to Judaism, 
 it was rather a means by which the Jewish people retired 
 still more within itself and drew around itself ever tightening 
 bonds, which while they secured the union of the people, 
 also shut out the Gentiles from them. It has been for cen- 
 turies entirely successful; absorbed in what seem to the 
 Christian the unattractive and multitudinous formulae of his 
 life and worship, the Jew has been continually reminded of ' 
 his unique position and special calling; he has remained 
 separate and preserved a national character. 
 
 Nor has the influence of the Talmud been confined to Influence 
 the Jews. The Talmud exercised considerable influence on Koran and 
 and supplied materials for the Koran. The teaching which ^ n utera-" 
 was afterwards embodied in the Talmud even acted upon ture> 
 Christianity itself through the medium of some of the Gnostic 
 sects. The Cabbalistic portions of the Talmud and other 
 Rabbinical writings had their share in the popular magic of 
 the Middle Ages. In our own days the Talmud is a store- 
 house of quaint suggestions for poets and is used for the 
 illustration and interpretation of both Old and New Testa- 
 ment.
 
 112 SUBSEQUENT HISTORY OF 
 
 Hebrew The influence of the Talmud was and to a very large 
 
 the lan- 
 
 guage of extent is even yet limited by the absence of translations. 
 
 and of the As m the Church of the Middle Ages so among the Jews 
 Books. the sacred books and the liturgies were hidden from the 
 laity under the veil of an unknown language. It is true 
 that Hebrew has always been known amongst the Jews to 
 a much larger extent than Latin amongst the Christians, 
 still there would doubtless be a proportion in old times as 
 there is a large proportion now, who could only understand 
 a Hebrew liturgy through a translation. Moreover the 
 language of the Talmud needs special study even in those 
 who are familiar with Biblical Hebrew. Thus just as the 
 Latin liturgies and the Vulgate were the mysterious and 
 magical weapons of a priestly caste and served to invest 
 their person and authority with a supernatural awe, so in 
 a smaller degree the Hebrew liturgies and the Talmud 
 exalted the Rabbis. 
 
 Commen- But the Talmud needs not only translations but com- 
 taries. 
 
 mentaries. What commentaries exist are chiefly on the 
 
 Mishna, they are comparatively few and aim rather at ex- 
 plaining the text, than at preaching sermons on it. It is 
 needless to say that the older commentaries are in Rabbi- 
 nical Hebrew. As the Mediaeval Church looked on the 
 knowledge of the New Testament as an esoteric book to be 
 reserved for the study of the profound scholar or the pri- 
 vileged ecclesiastic, so the study of the Mishna was not 
 intended for any but those sufficiently imbued with the 
 spirit of Judaism to be familiar with the Jewish language. 
 Influence The general revival of learning at the Renascence ex- 
 nascence," tended its influence to Judaism. Christians took up the 
 study of Jewish literature and gradually the Talmud was
 
 THE MISHNA AND THE GOSPELS. 113 
 
 made somewhat more accessible to the student. Buxtorf Commen. 
 published his great lexicon. And as the Renascence gave Lexicons, 
 rise to English and German translations of the Bible, so, only 
 considerably later, Surenhusius in the 17th century translated 1 
 the Mishna and some of its commentaries (not the Gemara) 
 into Latin, and somewhat earlier a Spanish version was pub- 
 lished. In the seventeenth century the Mishna was trans- 
 lated into German, and in 1845 eighteen treatises were 
 translated into English by Rabbis de Sola and Raphall, and 
 other portions have been translated. The Talmud is now 
 being translated into French by Moise Schwabe. 
 
 How far the influence of the Talmud will survive the loss Effect of 
 of the safe shelter of an unknown language, how far it could t i on . 
 subsist by its own merits, if the belief on external grounds 
 in its divine authority were lost, a Christian is scarcely in 
 a position to judge. The New Testament can be read by 
 everybody in almost every language and still maintains its 
 influence even over those who deny its special claims to 
 divine authority. 
 
 Doubtless modern criticism makes the New Testament Modern 
 more and more dependent on- the inherent vitality of its i sm an <i 
 teaching as witnessed to and enforced by the Divine Spirit 
 in the human spirit, and similar causes are breaking down 
 the authority of traditional Judaism and of the Talmud 
 amongst the Jews. But the failure of the faith of the Jews 
 in Judaism is not due to any extension of the influence of 
 Christianity but to the working of those forces which attack 
 alike all revelations. Moreover it should be remembered 
 
 1 It is said that the Talmud was translated into Arabic in the 10th 
 
 century, but the use of this would be limited. Milman, Hist. Jews, in. 
 147. 
 
 B. 8
 
 114 SUBSEQUENT HISTORY OF THE MISHNA AND GOSPELS. 
 
 that the surrender of one faith is seldom the immediate in- 
 
 The troduction to another. There seems good reason to suppose 
 
 Future. 
 
 that side by side in the future as in the past Christianity 
 
 and Judaism will bear their mutual witness to each other 
 and their common witness to the eternal working of the 
 Divine Spirit. 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 I. THE SECOND COMING OF THE SON OF MAN AND THE 
 ADVENT OF THE JEWISH MESSIAH. 
 
 A comparison may be made between the signs of the coming 
 of the Son of Man as given by Christ and those of the coming 
 of the Messiah as given by the Mishna. The signs of the coming 
 of the Son of Man are these : ' There shall be great distress upon 
 the land, and wrath unto this people. And they shall fall by 
 the edge of the sword, and shall be led captive unto all the 
 nations ; and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, 
 until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. And there shall be 
 signs in sun and moon and stars ; and upon the earth distress 
 of nations, in perplexity for the roaring of the sea and the bil- 
 lows ; men fainting for fear, and for expectation of the things 
 which are coming on the world : for the powers of the heavens 
 shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of Man coming 
 in a cloud with power and great glory * '. 
 
 In the Mishna we read : ' Shortly before the advent of the 
 Messiah licence shall increase; prices shall be very high; the vine 
 
 1 S. Luke xxi. 2327.
 
 APPENDIX. 115 
 
 shall bring forth fruit, yet wine shall be dear. And the kingdom 
 
 shall be overthrown by heresy and there shall be no reproof 
 
 and the territory of Judaea shall be desolate and its borders shall 
 be laid waste. Distinguished men shall go about from city to 
 city and shall meet with no kindness, the wisdom of the doctors 
 of the law shall grow rotten, they that fear sin shall be despised 
 and there shall be great lack of truth, youths shall put to shame 
 old men, old men shall rise up before youths. The son shall 
 provoke the father, the daughter shall rise up against her mother, 
 and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a man's 
 foes shall be they of his own household 1 . That generation shall 
 be shameless as a dog, nor shall the son respect his father. 
 Whom then shall we trust? Our Father who is in heaven 2 '. 
 
 II. ILLUSTRATIVE QUOTATIONS. 
 
 S. Matthew vi. 3, ' When thou doest alms, let not thy left 
 hand know what thy right hand doeth '. 
 
 Shekalim v. 6, 'There was a chamber for secret almsgiving 
 wherein pious men put gifts for the nourishing of the deserving 
 poor '. 
 
 S. Matthew vi. 26, ' Behold the birds of the heaven, that they 
 sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns ; and your 
 heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not ye of much more value 
 than they ' ? 
 
 Kedushin iv. 14, "Rabbi Simeon ben Eleazar said, 'Didst thou 
 ever see any animal or bird exercise any trade or handicraft and 
 yet they are maintained without trouble or care ; they were 
 created to serve me ; would it not follow, that I, who was created 
 for the sole purpose of worshipping my Creator, should also find 
 my maintenance without trouble, if it were not that, through my 
 evil conduct, I have forfeited my maintenance ' ". 
 
 1 Micah vii. 6, 7; Matt. x. 35, 36. 2 Sotah ix. 15.
 
 116 APPENDIX. 
 
 S. Matthew vii. 2, 'With what measure ye mete it shall be 
 measured unto you '. 
 
 Sotah i. 7, ' With what measure a man measureth, with that 
 do they measure unto him '. 
 
 S. Matthew ix. 17, ' Neither do men put new wine into old 
 wine-skins : else the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the 
 skins perish : but they put new wine into fresh wine-skins, and 
 both are preserved '. . 
 
 Yadaim iv. 3, ' Let therefore one new regulation be subjected 
 to conclusions drawn from another new regulation ; but let not a 
 new regulation be subjected to conclusions drawn from an old 
 established regulation'. 
 
 S. Mark v. 25, 26, 'A woman, which had an issue of blood 
 twelve years, and had suffered many things of many physicians, 
 and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered but 
 rather grew worse '. 
 
 Kedushin iv. 14, ' R. Judah says in the name of Abba Guriah 
 the best of physicians is destined for Gehinnom '. 
 
 RE,, de Sola and Raphall are careful to note that this has 
 not the force of a law, but is merely an expression of private 
 opinion. 
 
 S. Luke i. 21, 'And the people were waiting for Zacharias, 
 and they marvelled while he tarried in the temple'. 
 
 Yoma v. 1, ' He (the High Priest on the Day of Atonement) 
 
 offered a shorter prayer in the outer house, and he did not 
 
 prolong his prayer, lest he should excite terror in Israel '. 
 
 'Terror', that is to say, lest some divine judgment had be- 
 fallen him. 
 
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