THE JEWISH 
 DOCTRINE OF MEDIATION.
 
 THE JEWISH 
 DOCT/RINE OF MEDIATION. 
 
 THE REV. W. O. E. OESTERLEY, D.D., 
 
 Jesus College, Cambridge ; 
 
 Examiner in Hebrew and Greek Testament, 
 
 University of London. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 SKEFFINGTON AND SON, 
 
 SOUTHAMPTON STREET, STRAND, W.C. 
 
 1910.
 
 LONDON : 
 
 CHARLES CULL AND SON, 
 
 15, HOUGHTON STREET, ALDWVCH. 
 
 AND AT CHISWICK.
 
 Prefatory Note 
 Introduction 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 The Teaching of the Old Testament. 
 
 Chapter I. Some Old Testament Passages considered . n 
 
 Chapter II. Some Technical Terms considered . . 19 
 
 Chapter III. Negative Teaching on Mediation in the Old 
 
 Testament ..... 28 
 
 The Teaching on Mediation in Post-Biblical Literature. 
 
 Chapter IV. The Teaching in the Apocrypha . . 30 
 
 Chapter V. The Teaching in the Pssudepigrapha . 37 
 
 The Teaching on Mediation in the Targums. 
 
 Chapter VI. The Teaching in the Targums . . 50 
 The Teaching on Mediation in Rabbinical Literature. 
 
 Chapter VII. Summary of the preceding Chapters . 62 
 
 Chapter VIII. The Torah as a Mediating Agency . 67 
 
 Chapter IX. Almsgiving as a Mediating Agency . 70 
 
 Chapter X. Repentance as a Mediating Agency . 72 
 
 Chapter XI. Other Mediating Agencies . . 74 
 
 Chapter XII. The Idea of Mediatorship . . 77 
 
 Chapter XIII. Intercession and Vicarious Suffering . 79 
 
 Chapter XIV. Semi-Divine Beings as Mediators . 85 
 
 Chapter XV. The Messiah as Mediator o 
 
 1422505
 
 VI. CONTENTS. 
 
 Page. 
 
 The Teaching of the Jewish Prayer Book. 
 
 Chapter XVI. The Principle of Mediation in the Jewish 
 
 Prayer Book .... 97 
 
 Chapter XVII. The Torah a Mediating Agency . 104 
 
 Chapter XVIII. Further Mediating Agencies . . 107 
 
 Chapter XIX. The Day of Atonement . . . in 
 
 Chapter XX. Intercessory Prayer . . . 116 
 
 Chapter XXI. The Idea of Mediatorship in the Jewish 
 
 Prayer Book . . . . 119 
 
 Chapter XXII. The Messiah as a Mediating Agent . 133 
 
 Chapter XXIII. Teaching antagonistic to the Doctrine of 
 
 Mediation .... 139 
 
 The Modern Jewish Attitude towards the Doctrine of Mediation. 
 
 Chapter XXIV. Orthodox Judaism and the Doctrine of 
 
 Mediation .... 147 
 
 Chapter XXV. The Attitude of Reform Judaism towards 
 
 the Doctrine of Mediation . . 160 
 
 Chapter XXVI. The Attitude of Semi-Reform Judaism 
 
 towards the Doctrine of Mediation . 172 
 
 Chapter XXVII. Summary and Conclusions . . 187 
 
 APPENDIX: Notes on the Sources Utilized ... 207 
 
 INDEX OF SUBJECTS ..... 233
 
 PREFATORY NOTE. 
 
 This volume offers, in as small a compass as possible, 
 some of the results of an investigation into what is to be 
 gathered concerning the doctrine of Mediation in Jewish 
 Literature, ancient and modern. 
 
 The subject is obviously one of interest and importance 
 on account of its bearing on the Christian doctrine of 
 Atonement. 
 
 One object which the writer has had in view has been to 
 try and illustrate the truth that the development of ancient 
 Judaism leads inevitably to Christianity, unless the course 
 of development be forced into a direction other than the 
 natural one. 
 
 Another object has been to try and obviate, in however 
 small a degree, some of the prejudice which so many 
 Christians entertain towards Judaism, by showing them 
 that in respect of the doctrine of Mediation Historic Judaism 
 offers much that tends in the direction of Christianity. 
 
 The teaching of the Old Testament, the Apocrypha, the 
 Pseudepigrapha, the Targums and the later Rabbinical 
 literature, including Mishnah, Gemara and Midrashic works, 
 as well as the Jewish Prayer Book and some representative 
 modern Jewish writings, have all, to a greater or less extent, 
 been taken into consideration. 
 
 In giving some of the results of several years' study of 
 the subject, the writer's intention has been to offer a 
 resume of illustrative quotations which may interest the 
 ordinary reader, not to present anything approaching a 
 treatise.
 
 viii. Prefatory Note. 
 
 The Old Testament has been but slightly dealt with, for 
 it did not seem necessary to repeat what has been admirably 
 said by others ; besides, the Old Testament everyone can 
 read for himself. It is different when studying the 
 subject in the other classes of literature which have been 
 considered ; the books, even in translations, which are 
 required for this are, for the most part, not easily accessible ; 
 moreover, pages and pages have to be gone through, very 
 often, before one comes across a relevant passage; the 
 gathering of such passages is, consequently, rather laborious, 
 and most people have not the inclination to do this " spade- 
 work " even if the soil (in the shape of the necessary books) 
 is close at hand. The writer has, therefore, devoted more 
 space to quotations from classes of literature other than 
 that contained in the Old Testament. 
 
 The Jewish doctrine of Mediation represents only one part 
 of the subject, for the completion of which the doctrine in 
 the Christian Church must necessarily be dealt with, and a 
 sequel to this volume is obviously required ; it is, therefore, 
 the intention of the writer's friend, the Rev. G. H. Box, to 
 publish in due course a companion volume on " The 
 Christian Doctrine of Mediation." 
 
 W. O. E. OESTERLEY. 
 
 HATCH END, 
 
 January, 1910.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 THE principle of Mediation, in the ordinary sense of 
 this word, is at work universally ; it is a principle 
 that lies in the nature of things ; whether in the natural 
 or the spiritual world there is always a means whereby 
 cause and effect are brought about ; the unity of nature, 
 the solidarity of the human race, the spiritual growth in 
 a man all are conditioned by this principle. But it is 
 not in this general sense that the word is to be used here. 
 In the purely religious domain, and it is that alone with 
 which we are now concerned, the word is used in a 
 restricted sense, and concerns the relationship between 
 God and men. __ 
 
 Two conceptions lie at the root of this religious 
 doctrine of Mediation ; the history of these two 
 conceptions is co-terminous with that of man as a 
 thinking being ; and from the nature of the case, 
 therefore, they have gone through a long process of 
 development ; and just as these two conceptions have 
 during their history undergone modification and growth, 
 so the ideas of the principle of Mediation have altered 
 according to the varying standpoint of these. The two 
 conceptions which lie at the root of the religious doctrine 
 of Mediation are : The Idea of God, and the Sense of 
 JSiri^ According as to whether the conception of God is 
 exalted, according as to whether the sense of sin is deep, 
 so will the intensity of the need of a Mediator between 
 God and man assert itself. Moreover, in accordance with
 
 man's realization of the Personality of God and his 
 recognition of his own sinfulness, so will be the ideas 
 which he formulates concerning the person and work of 
 such a Mediator. 
 
 A differentiation has, of course, to be made between 
 the principle of Mediation and the idea of Mediatorship ; 
 the latter is the logical development of the former, but 
 still, the two conceptions are distinct A belief in the 
 principle of Mediation, in a wide sense, does not 
 necessarily involve belief in a Mediator, any more than 
 Pantheism involves belief in a personal God. In the 
 Old Testament, for example, the principle of Mediation 
 underlies the entire conception of the relationship 
 between God and His people, but the idea of a 
 Mediator is very rarely to be discerned ; and, with one 
 or two exceptions (which are, however, of a striking 
 character) when this idea does appear it is rather 
 adumbrated than actually presented in concrete form. 
 This is, speaking generally, to be accounted for, in the 
 first place, on account of the familiar relationships which 
 were conceived of as existing between Jehovah and 
 His people ; this precluded the belief in any necessity of 
 a personal mediatorial element j_ in the second place, 
 because the elaborate sacrificial system with its supposed 
 ample means of reconciliation with God answered all the 
 requirements ; and, lastly, because, as already pointed out, 
 it is only when a real and adequate sense of sin has 
 been developed that the conception of a Mediator forces 
 itself to the front (see further below). And yet it is no 
 exaggeration to say that the immense majority of the 
 human race, whatever its varying forms of belief may be,
 
 : 
 
 seems, sooner or later, to be impelled to cling 1 not merely 
 to the principle of Mediation, but also to be convinced 
 of the need of a Mediator that is to say, some per- 
 sonal being who stands between the supreme Deity and 
 men. How is one to account for this ? We seem almost 
 to be forced to the conclusion that there is some element 
 in the constitution of our human nature which demands 
 some intermediary between God and men that is to 
 say, of course, when man's conception of the nature and 
 personality of God has become sufficiently exalted. To 
 realize the need of such intermediary there seems to be, 
 on the one hand, some natural conviction implanted in 
 men, which says, in effect, ' I cannot, and I would not 
 dare if I could, approach God immediately ' ; and, on the 
 other hand, there seems to be a natural craving im- 
 planted in him which will not be satisfied until it is 
 assured that means to approach God exist. But all 
 depends upon man's conception of the nature and 
 personality of God, and upon man's conception of 
 himself. There is nothing more instructive in this con- 
 nection than the process through which the Jewish 
 people, as a whole, went with regard to their belief in 
 God, we speak of the belief of the Jewish people as a 
 whole, not the extremely exalted conceptions of God 
 which were held by individual and specially inspired 
 prophets. The main steps in this process can be des- 
 cribed as follows : 
 
 The earlier we go back in the history of Israel the 
 more downright are the anthropomorphisms; it was not, 
 for example, a high conception of God which could 
 depict Him as making coats of skins for Adam and Eve
 
 (Gen. iii. 21), or as smelling the sweet savour of Noah's 
 sacrifice (Gen. viii. 21)* ; hence it did not appear incon- 
 gruous during the earlier stages of belief that men should 
 have been able to associate with Him, as in the case of 
 Adam, Abraham, Moses, Joshua, etc. ; such things wit- 
 ness to a belief in the attributes and personality of God 
 which is not an exalted one. Under such conditions 
 men do not feel keenly the need of a Mediator, or at 
 the most a man is sufficient to act as such ; if God for 
 any reason is angry His wrath can be appeased by 
 means of sacrifice.! What a change, however, we notice 
 in later ages, when, to a large extent, the teaching of the 
 prophets had influenced the people's conception of God. 
 To give but one or two examples : Thus saith the Lord, 
 The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool ; 
 what manner of house will ye build unto me ?" (Is. Ixvi. 
 i ) ; or, / will extol thee, my God and King ; I will bless 
 thy name for ever and ever. . . . Great is the Lord and 
 highly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable. . . 
 (Ps. cxlv. i ff.); or, once more, My thoughts are not your 
 thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord ; 
 for as the heaven is higher than the earth, so are my ways 
 higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your 
 thoughts. (Is. Iv. 8-9). That such sayings could be multi- 
 plied is obvious to every reader of the Bible, and they 
 bear witness to an immense spiritual advance, such as 
 
 * The present form in which these traditions have come down to us 
 may be of comparatively late date, but they assuredly represent very 
 antique conceptions. 
 
 f The wide use of the Hebrew root *}%3 (Kaphar) is very significant 
 in this connexion.
 
 5 
 
 we should naturally expect from the deeper knowledge 
 of God which resulted from the inspired teaching of 
 prophet and psalmist. The effect of this teaching, how- 
 ever, was not immediate ; but was it likely to be ? 
 Nothing is more difficult to eradicate than popular 
 conceptions and beliefs and practices which have the 
 sanction of centuries, perhaps even, in this case, of 
 millenniums, of tradition ; and the prophets make it 
 abundantly clear that for a very long time their efforts 
 to raise the popular conceptions concerning God were 
 in vain. Testimony of an even more convincing charac- 
 ter than that contained in the prophetical writings, is 
 offered in the Gospels : Woe unto you, scribes and Phari- 
 sees, hypocrites ! for ye build the sepulchres of the pro- 
 phets, and garnish the tombs of the righteous, aud say, If 
 we had been in the days of our fathers, we should not 
 have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. 
 Wherefore ye are witnesses to yourselves that ye are sons 
 of them that slew the prophets ; and a little later on it is 
 said : . . . that upon you may come all the righteous blood 
 shed on the earth, from the blood of A bel the righteous 
 unto the blood of Zachariah, son of Barachiah, whom ye 
 slew between the sanctuary and the altar (Matth. xxiii. 
 29-35 5 see also Lk. vi. 23, xi. 47-51, xiii. 34, Acts vii. 
 51, 52, Rom. xi. 3, I. Thess. ii. 15, Hebr. xi. 37). The 
 effect, therefore, of the prophetical teaching was not 
 immediate since the prophets were slain for giving it ; 
 here and there, no doubt, there are signs of leavening, 
 but it is quite exceptional, the rule was for a long, 
 long, time that the people would have nothing to do 
 with the teaching of their prophets ; and therefore, the
 
 old conceptions of God continued among the bulk of the 
 people, with the result that Mediation, in the form of 
 the sacrificial system, satisfied their wants, and the need 
 of a Mediator could not assert itself. It must always 
 be so when there is no true realization of the nature 
 
 and personality of God. 
 
 Here we must make a digression in order to answer an obvious 
 objection. It will be said that the conception of the nature and 
 ethical character of God presented by, at all events, some of the 
 prophets was so high that, according to the argument put forth above, 
 they ought to have conceived, and definitely formulated, a doctrine 
 of Mediatorship. The reply to this is two-fold. In the first place, 
 however great the measure of inspiration may be which is accorded 
 to men, they are, after all, but men, and are therefore hedged in and 
 limited in all things by the conditions of their human nature. We 
 are abundantly justified and one could easily prove the contention 
 in asserting that the fruits of inspiration, or shall we say, the full 
 fruits of inspiration, are rarely immediately manifest in man. The 
 law, the divine law, of growth and development works here as 
 everywhere else indeed, may it not be said that the more precious 
 the seed the more gradual is the process of the formation of blossom 
 and fruit ? We are, of course, speaking of things which are spiritual. 
 And if this is so, have we any right to expect, even in the prophets, 
 an immediate realization of what follows, when, through divine 
 inspiration, a deeper knowledge and higher conception of God has 
 been attained ? The process may seem simple enough to us who 
 live in the light of fuller revelation, but those who had not received 
 this could not immediately, nor anything like immediately, become 
 cognizant of what follows when they hare realized to some extent 
 the awful majesty, and power, and purity, and justice, the wholly 
 spiritual essence and nature of God ! For what does follow ? First 
 and foremost the destruction of all the now debasing conceptions of 
 God which had been held in the past, the reconstruction on infinitely 
 more spiritual lines, of all those anthropomorphic and anthropopathic 
 ideas which are so derogatory to the spiritual majesty of God. This 
 meant, in those days, perhaps more than we can possibly conceive; 
 it touched, and touched rudely, all that was nearest and dearest 
 in the religion of a people pre-eminently endowed with the religious
 
 instinct ; it meant to the people blasphemy ; for it meant the taking 
 away of the God Whom they had known, and Whom their fathers 
 had known. The loss would be as cruel to them as the loss which 
 centuries before Micah had felt and expressed in the pathetic cry : 
 "Ye have taken away my gods which I made; and what have I 
 more ? " (Judg. xviii. 24). If this was felt less by the prophets, as, 
 of course, was the case, still it meant a great break from time- 
 honoured customs ; and that break cannot take place all at once ; it is 
 only gradually that the ties with the past are loosened. Together with 
 their higher conceptions of the nature of God, the prophets held many 
 less exalted ideas, and the incongruity did not strike them. Therefore 
 it followed that, in spite of their purer beliefs regarding the personality 
 of God, the prophets as a body did not, and could not for centuries, 
 realize the fundamental difference between the nature of men and the 
 nature of God, and consequently they did not realize the distance 
 between God and men, and again, in consequence, they could not 
 feel the need of a Mediator. That is the first answer to the objection 
 suggested. 
 
 The second is that, as a matter of fact, the distinct beginnings 
 of a doctrine of a Mediatorship are observable in the writings of 
 the greatest of all the prophets, and, this prophet was, moreover, 
 one of the latest. This will be seen by a brief consideration of 
 Is. liii, 4-12, which will not be out of place here. 
 
 The following is a literal translation of the Hebrew: 
 
 4. Surely our sicknesses he hath borne, and our sorrows he hath 
 carried them ; and we esteemed him stricken, smitten of God, and 
 afflicted. 
 
 5. And he was pierced for our transgressions, bruised for ^our 
 iniquities ; the chastisement of our peace is upon him, and by his 
 stripes we are healed. 
 
 6. All we like sheep went astray, each to his own way we turned, 
 but Jehovah caused to light upon him the iniquity of us all. 
 
 According to early Israelite belief sickness and misfortune were the 
 visible manifestations of the wrath of God upon the sinner ; the point 
 of verse 4 is that the prophet is correcting what in this case of the 
 suffering servant, at any rate, was an error ; so much so that, as he 
 explains, not only were the sufferings of this servant not the signs of 
 God's wrath at his sins, but they were actually the signs of Divine 
 wrath at the sins of others. The willing self-sacrifice of the servant
 
 8 
 
 here recorded expresses the essence of the mediatorial office. The 
 " sicknesses " refer to bodily suffering, the "sorrows " to mental pain ; 
 as in this passage so in Ps. xxxviii. iS (17) " sorrows " refer to the 
 mental pain brought about on account of sin, i.e., it is equivalent to 
 repentance ; the wonderful thought, therefore, of the words is that the 
 servant undergoes penitential grief, and suffers bodily pain on behalf 
 of the sinful. A higher conception of vicarious suffering could scarcely 
 
 be reached. In verse 5 the words " he was pierced :> (pu'al of y?Tl) 
 is more strictly accurate than the EV " he was wounded " ; and it is 
 possible that this passage, as well as Zech. xii. 10,* was in the mind of 
 the Apostle who wrote John xix. 37. The thought of vicarious suffering 
 is further brought out in the second half of this verse in the words : 
 The chastisement of our peace was upon him, i.e., The chastise- 
 ment which was the means of bringing about our peace was upon 
 Him ; in verse 6 the same thought of vicarious suffering is prominent. 
 The next passage which more especially concerns us is the end of 
 verse 8 : 
 
 Because of the transgression of my people, the stroke was his. 
 
 These words point again to the fact that the punishment (" stroke ") 
 which should have been upon the people, on account of their trans- 
 gression, is endured by the Suffering Servant, although he is innocent ; 
 he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. But 
 the most significant word, perhaps, in the whole chapter is "guilt- 
 offering " (verse 10) as applied to him. This word ('asham in Hebrew) 
 is also pregnant with meaning. In the next verse (u) there are 
 some further words which are important. 
 
 The righteous one, my Servant, causes many to be righteous, 
 and their iniquities he bears.^ 
 
 It is well to emphasize the fact of how the central idea of this whole 
 chapter is kept in the mind throughout ; utterly unacceptable as the 
 writer must have known that this teaching would be to his contempo- 
 raries, he nevertheless reiterates again and again thejprime truth that 
 the Servant takes upon himself the sins of others, with the two-fold 
 Jesuit that the latter are made righteous^'. e., become justified in the 
 
 * The words in the two passages are not the same in the original, 
 t There is a slight ambiguity about the Hebrew text in the passage, 
 hut the general sense is clear enough.
 
 sight of God, while he himself becomes a sacrifice for sin. Lastly, 
 there are the concluding words of the chapter : 
 
 And he did bear the sins of many , and for transgressors doth he 
 make intercession. 
 
 It would scarcelj^Jjejpojisible to single out any passage in either the 
 Old or the New Testament which presented the essence of the idea of 
 Mediatorship more adequately than here. Intercession is an 
 indispensable element in Mediation, but it is a far less important 
 element than that which makes it efficacious i.e.. self-sacrifice ; in 
 these words before us the more important element comes first ; 
 and this, in the higher sense, is more logical ; for the obliteration of 
 the sins of men is the necessary antecedent to the intercession being 
 presented before God. If it should be argued that since 
 their sins were taken away there would be no need for intercession, 
 this would be to ignore the relationship between God and men ; 
 it is just here, as we shall see later on, that one of the fundamental 
 differences between the Jewish and Christian doctrine of Mediation 
 lies, and we shall cite this passage in support of the Christian pre- 
 sentation of the truth ; now it must be sufficient to say that the 
 obliteration of sins does not, ipso facto, establish what one may call 
 normal relations between God and His creatures ; in connexion with 
 the words, " He did bear the sins of many," must be read what is said 
 in verse 10 about his soul being a "sin-offering " ; for though the text 
 in that verse may be difficult, as it certainly is, its meaning is not 
 ambiguous, all authorities being agreed that the reference is to a life 
 ' being laid down in expiation of sin. The words before us must be 
 jy regarded, quite apart from any meaning they may gain in the light of 
 H Christian teaching, as a striking witness to a belief in vicarious suffer- 
 ing as appertaining to the office of Mediator in its fuller meaning. 
 
 It may be hoped, then, that this necessary digression will to some 
 extent have explained why, in spite of the exalted conception of God 
 which the inspired prophets had, they nevertheless, with the 
 exception referred to, did not experience the need of a Mediator 
 between God and men. 
 
 But a time came, as sooner or later it was bound to 
 come, in which the prophetical teaching influenced 
 thoughtful men more and more, and grew to fruition ; 
 and it was aided by that divinely appointed and very
 
 IO 
 
 significant fact of the Dispersion, which brought the 
 Jews into contact with Greek thought and language. In 
 this stage a doctrine of Mediatorship became definitely 
 formulated ; it is to be seen in the Pseudepigrapha, i'n 
 the Targuins, and in the mass of traditional belief, so 
 
 (much of which in its origin is pre-Christian, contained in 
 the MJshna and the Gemara, This foreshadowed, as we 
 believe, the fulness of the doctrine of Mediatorship as 
 taught in the New Testament by the successors of the 
 prophets. But to a large extent, though not altogether, 
 as many erroneously believe, to a large extent official 
 Judaism during the New Testament period did not follow 
 : the direct line of prophetical teaching ; they did not go 
 in the path indicated by the prophets ; and if from that 
 time onwards the Jewish doctrine of Mediatorship 
 became fainter and fainter the reason must be sought not 
 in anything that was alien in that doctrine to the genius 
 of Judaism, nor in anything in it which was per se 
 unacceptable, but in the, alas, ever growing antagonism 
 on the part of Jews to Christianity, one of the funda- 
 mental tenets of which being the doctrine of the Media- 
 torship of Jesus of Xaxareth. That antagonism still 
 exists, and with it the repudiation of the belief in Christ 
 as Mediator between God and men. But a belief in the 
 principle of Mediation, and even a belief modified it is 
 true in Mediatorship, is clearly discernible in the Jewish 
 Liturgy of to-day ; there are also here passages which 
 altogether repudiate any idea of Mediatorship ; these 
 shall be faithfully indicated ; but there is much, more 
 than one would have expected, which points the other 
 way.
 
 II 
 
 THE TEACHING ON MEDIATION IN 
 THE OLD TESTAMENT. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Some Old Testament Passages considered. 
 
 It must be acknowledged that, in the strictly theological 
 sense, the doctrine of Mediation in the Old Testament is 
 presented in a very incomplete form ; * one very striking 
 exception to this, however, exists in Is. liii., as already 
 pointed out above. The principle is there, and is even 
 strongly developed ; but the logical working-out of the 
 principle is only here and there in evidence. That is to 
 say, that while the principle of Mediation is observable 
 throughout, the presentation of Mediatorship is only 
 rarely adumbrated. This is precisely what is to be 
 expected ; for although the Doctrine of God in the Old 
 Testament is, taking it as a whole, a very exalted one, 
 more especially in the prophetic literature, nevertheless 
 
 *" Christian theologians, looking on the sacrifices of the Old Testament 
 as a type of the sacrifice on the Cross, and interpreting the latter as a 
 satisfaction to divine justice, have undoubtedly over-estimated the ethica 
 lessons embodied in the Jewish sacrificial system;as may be inferred even 
 from the fact that, for many centuries, the official theology of the church 
 was content to interpret the death of Christ as a ransom for mankind paid 
 to the devil, or as a satisfaction to the divine honour (Anselm), rather 
 than as a recognition of the sovereignty of the moral law of justice," 
 Robertson Smith, The, Religion of the Semites, p. 424 (2nd ed.)
 
 12 
 
 the sense of sinfulness in man is a thing which is only 
 very inadequately realized. 
 
 The general principle of Mediation is witnessed to by 
 
 the existence of the priesthood and the sacrificial system 
 though in their essence neither of these things_ is specifi- 
 cally Israelite- the same applies to the prophetical 
 office, and even to the kingship in so far as the king is 
 entitled to perform priestly functions. But in each of 
 these cases the idea of Mediatorship fails, if for no other 
 reason, from the fact that each office only represents one 
 side of mediatorial action. The essence of the idea of, a 
 Mediator between God and man is that he should repre- 
 sent two sides, the human before God, and the divine 
 I among men ; but while, in a certain sense, the priest is 
 the representative of men before God, and the prophet 
 comes among men as God's representative, neither com- 
 bines in himself the two offices. Therefore, strictly 
 speaking, it is only the principle of Mediation which is 
 presented in the person of priest and prophet. On the 
 other hand, however, the idea of a [mediator, in the strict 
 sense, is not wholly absent ; for example, the office of 
 > mediator is at least adumbrated in the case of the patriarch 
 Abraham pleading with God for the cities of the Plain. 
 He is here represented as standing between God and the 
 wicked, and interceding for them (Gen. xviii. 23-33), 
 The whole character of Abraham, as presented in the 
 Old Testament, marks him out as one whose intercourse 
 with God is much closer than that of men in general, and 
 he therefore occupies a unique position in this respect ; 
 for this reason the pleading on behalf of men by one who 
 is believed to be often in the presence ot the Deity denotes,
 
 13 
 
 to a certain extent, a belief in the mediatorial office. 
 But one of the classical instances of mediatorship in the 
 Old Testament is to be found in the person of Moses. 
 Perhaps the most instructive example of this is to be seen 
 in the episode of the Golden Calf; here MDSPS appears, 
 in the first place, as the intercessor on behalf of the people 
 in praying that the just wrath of God might be averted ; 
 Turn from Thy fierce wrath, andrepent of this evil against 
 Thy people. ... And the Lord repented of the evil 
 which He said He would do unto His people* But, in the 
 second place, a more significant element is seen in the 
 fact that the idea of mediatorship is presented in connec- 
 tion with vicarious suffering, for in Exod. xxxii. 31, 32, 
 we read as follows : And Moses returned unto the Lord, 
 and said) oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have 
 made them gods of gold. Yet now, if Thou wilt forgive 
 their sin ; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of Thy book 
 which thou hast written.^ 
 
 These words may, it is true, bear another interpretation; they 
 may be explained as an expression of despair, meaning that if God 
 will not forgive the people, it is useless for Moses to continue his 
 work. But in view of the frequency with which Moses is represented 
 as mediating between God and the nation, the interpretation given 
 above may, perhaps, be allowed a certain amount of justification 
 (cf. in this connection, Exod. xxxiii. 11-13, Z 7 5 Num. xii. 7, 8 ; 
 and especially Deut. v. 5) ; Moses, like Abraham, occupies a 
 special position. 
 
 A brief reference should also be made to the functions 
 which Aaron fulfils in this connection. He does not, 
 
 * Exod. xxxii. 11-14. 
 
 t Something of the same idea is to be found in the case of St. Paul when 
 he says : For I could wish that I myself were anathema from Christ for my 
 brethren's sake, my kinsmen according to the flesh, Rom. ix. 3.
 
 '4 
 
 indeed, occupy a position of intercessor in anything like 
 the same degree that Moses did ; he is rather the 
 instrument by whose means the holiest forms of atoning 
 sacrifice are presented to the deity, and in so far his 
 personality may be regarded as a mediating influence ; 
 this is, however, by virtue of his office rather than (as in 
 the case of Moses) owing to his personality. Lev. xvi. 
 illustrates this better than any other passage ; the central 
 point here is the idea of the sin-offering, of a special kind, 
 which Aaron alone may offer ; but this, together with 
 some other technical terms will have to be separately 
 considered presently, for they have an intimate 
 connection with the subject in hand. 
 
 It is, however, important to notice that intercession 
 alone is by no means always regarded as a sufficient form 
 of Mediation. In the first passage just referred to 
 (Gen. xviii. 23 ff.) Abraham's intercession is based upon 
 the fact that there are some righteous men in the city for 
 whose sake the divine forbearance is sought ; the 
 existence of these is the raison d'etre of Abraham's 
 intercession. That is to say, he who mediates must have 
 something to offer, in the sense of " presenting." In the 
 same way, when Moses intercedes (Exod. xxxii. 1 1 ff.), 
 it is not upon intercession alone that he relies ; two other 
 elements enter in ; in the first place, there is an appeal to 
 God to vindicate His own purposes in the words ; 
 Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, saying, For evil 
 did He bring them forth, to slay them in the mountains, 
 and to consume them from the face of the earth ? And 
 in the second place, the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and 
 Jacob are presented before the Deity by name as the
 
 15 
 
 holders of a divine promise that their seed should inherit 
 the promised land. Here again, therefore, something 
 more than intercession is deemed necessary. This truth 
 is further illustrated in the passage I. Sam. vii. 5 ff., And 
 Samuel said, Gather all Israel to Mizpah, and I will 
 pray for you unto the Lord. Samuel mediates here 
 between Israel and God on account of the sin of the 
 former ; punishment for their sin is imminent viz., a 
 Philistine attack, and Samuel intercedes for his people in 
 order that this punishment may be averted. But this 
 intercession alone is clearly regarded as only one element 
 in the rationale of Mediation, for we read, in addition, of 
 three other elements an offering, fasting, and confession 
 of sins : And they gathered together to Mizpah, and drew 
 water, and poured it out before the Lord, and fasted on 
 that day, and said there, We have sinned against the 
 Lord. This passage is an especially important one from 
 the point of view of our present investigation, and 
 merits therefore some little detailed examination. The 
 question of water libations in the Old Testament is a 
 difficult one ; it will be well to draw attention to the 
 general Semitic custom concerning them in order to see 
 whether there is any special significance in the mention 
 of pouring out water before the Lord as mentioned in 
 the passage just quoted, and in order also to discover if 
 there is any connection between water-offerings and the 
 idea of Mediation as contained in the Old Testament. 
 
 Among the early Babylonians the god Ea was worshipped as the personi- 
 fication of the element of water ; his sanctuary was, appropriately enough, 
 situated in Eridu, a city which, in days gone by, stood at the head of the 
 Persian Gulf ; the water-god was thus worshipped in a site which looked
 
 i6 
 
 upon the sea. His cult was always connected, as one would expect, with 
 "holy water." Now, among the Semites generally, there were three 
 conceptions held regarding the element of water : the primeval waters, 
 represented by Tiamat, the principle of disunion and harm, inspired men 
 with the idea of water as being something terrible ; on the other hand, 
 water as the means of moistening the soil, and thus assisting production, 
 was regarded as a fertilizing agency ; and lastly, as the cleansing element, 
 water symbolized purification. It was with the last ot these that the god 
 Ea was concerned ; he personified water as the element of purification. In 
 a text, which belonged originally to Eridu, mention is made of the priest in 
 " a garment of linen from Eridu," who stands on the threshold of "the 
 house of purification." In another text Ea says to his son Marduk, who is 
 interceding for a man possessed of a demon : " Go, my son Marduk, bring 
 him into the house of holy sprinkling, break his bann, loose his bann."* 
 It can scarcely be doubted that the pouring out of water here has to do with 
 purification ; so that if water libations were poured out in honour of Marduk, 
 this would be analogous to other instances of offering to a god that which 
 was specifically his own viz., the purifying element, in this case. But it 
 must be confessed that evidence is not forthcoming that libations of water 
 belonged to the regular drink-offerings to the deity among the Semites ; it 
 is more probable that when water was poured out in the sanctuary it was 
 an act which symbolized purification, or else ipso facto purified the 
 worshipper. In the instance given above the possessed man is sprinkled, 
 w and thus purified from the contamination of the demon ; it is well known 
 . that demons were supposed to regard with horror the element of water just 
 on account of its cleansing properties. It is possible that in part, but only 
 in part, the thought of cleansing was present when drink-offerings of water 
 were poured out on graves; dead bodies were always considered " unclean," 
 and tombs, like waterless places, were believed to be a favourite resort of 
 demons.f 
 
 * Jereraias, Das alte Testament im Lichte des alien Orients, pp. 29-32, 
 Jastrow, Des Religion Babyloniens und Assyriens, pp. 6l, 62. 
 
 fThe main reason of water libations being offered to the departed 
 was connected with the oriental idea that a drink of pure water 
 was an ideal delight ; the kindest wish that could be entertained 
 on behalf of a departed friend was that in Hades he might find 
 plenty of pure water to drink. It was a regular prayer among the
 
 17 
 
 Water libations of the ordinary kind were not, it may be safely stated, 
 offerings to the deity, but were ritual acts signifying, or as is more likely, 
 ' bringing about the spiritual purification of the worshippers ; in agreement 
 with this is the fact that in the Levitical ritual no mention is made of offerings 
 of water. On the other hand, there is important evidence showing that 
 ritual washing had the effect of purifying from uncleanness of various kinds 
 (cj. Lev. xiv. 1-32, xv. 13, Num. viii. 7-8),* and it is scarcely too bold an 
 assertion to say that a community of ideas underlay ritual washings of this 
 kind and water libations such as are referred to in the passage under 
 consideration (I. Sam. vii. 6.f) 
 
 These considerations seem to point to the fact that the 
 > pouring out of the water (i. Sam. vii. 5ff.) denoted an act 
 of purification \ it was followed by fasting and the 
 confession of sins. It is, therefore, clear that Samuel's 
 intercession was not regarded as sufficient ; the act of 
 Mediation required, besides the intercession, the purifying 
 of those who were interceded for, as well as an act of 
 self-sacrifice viz., the fasting, and the confession of sins._ 
 
 What has been said shows that, according to the 
 teaching of the Old Testament, the idea of Mediation 
 
 Arabs that Heaven would send much rain upon the graves of their 
 departed friends ( Wellhausen, Reste arabischen Htidenthums (a.ed.) 
 pp. i82f.) An entirely different set of ideas was connected with 
 the pouring out of water upon the altar, for example during the 
 .Feast of Tabernacles in later times ; this was merely an act of 
 imitative magic, practised (according to the Rabbis themselves) 
 with the object of securing fertilizing rains in the following year 
 (Robertson Smith, Op. cit., pp. 23lf.) This was a practice of 
 very wide prevalence (Frazer, The Golden Bough (2.ed.), I. pp. 
 81-114). 
 
 
 * This subject is dealt with at length in Oesterley and Box The Religion 
 and Worship of the Synagogue, pp, 255 ff. 
 
 t II. Sam. xxiii. 16 appears to be something quite exceptional, though 
 the passage witnesses to the existence of water libations.
 
 i8 
 
 did not consist merely in intercession. Though, 
 perhaps, not much more than adumbrated, there seems 
 nevertheless, to be connected with it an underlying 
 conception of a price to be paid. This receives emphasis 
 from the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, which occupies an 
 altogether unique position in the Old Testament* 
 
 A passing reference shouldalso Jre made (especially 
 in view of what will be said later on regarding the 
 mediating functions of angels) to Dan. xii. I, where 
 Michael is spoken of as " the great prince which stancleth 
 for the children of thy people ; " see also Dan, x. 13.21., 
 and cp. Jude 9, Rev. xii. 7. 
 
 * But see also Robertson Smith Op. cit. pp. 229 f.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Some technical terms considered. 
 
 It will be necessary next to consider as briefly as 
 possible one or two technical terms in connection with 
 sacrifices which have a bearing upon our present 
 investigation : 
 
 i. There are some derivatives from the root ""153 
 (kdphar) which are of great significance when considered 
 in connection with the Old Testament ideas of 
 Mediation. Concerning the root-meaning three, main 
 opinions are held ; in the first place, it is maintained that 
 it comes from the Arabic and has the meaning " to cover 
 over " ; that is to say, a gift or an offering has the effect 
 of covering over the eyes in order that a cause of offence 
 may not be seen ; this meaning is illustrated, for 
 example, in Gen. xx. 16, Behold, I have given thy brother 
 a thousand pieces of silver ; behold, it is for thee a 
 covering of the eyes to all that are with thee ; and in 
 respect of all thou are righted ; but still more pointed, 
 on account of the use of the actual word under 
 consideration, is Gen. xxxii. 20 (21 in Hebr.), / will 
 appease his face (lit. " I will cover his face " ; V2D mMN) 
 with the present that goeth in front of me; and 
 afterward / will see his face t peradventure he will 
 receive me. If this derivation is correct, the meaning 
 
 * With two exceptions it is only the Pi'el (Kipper) form with its 
 passive Pu 'al, together with the derivatives from these, that is found 
 in the Old Testament; the two excptions are the Niph'al, which 
 occurs in Deut. xxi. 8, and the Hithpa'-el in I. Sam. iii. 14.
 
 20 
 
 I" to cover over " implies that an offering blinds the eyes 
 of God to an offence that has been committed ; the 
 offering is the means whereby God is induced not to 
 regard the cause of offence. On the other hand, the 
 word is believed to denote that that which is " covered 
 over " is not the face of God, but the cause of offence, so 
 that it is not seen by God ; by this means the sin would 
 be regarded as non-existent. In the one case the making 
 of the atonement was accomplished by a gift to the 
 Deity ; in the other the sin was, as it were, obliterated by 
 means of covering it over. For this latter Lev. xvii. 1 1 
 is instructive : It is the blood that maketh atonement for 
 (or "covers over") your souls ; for it is the blood that 
 maketh atonement (or " covers over ") by reason of the 
 life (it is said in the first part of this verse that the 
 life of the flesh is in the blood). Now, although there 
 is a good deal involved in the difference between these 
 two explanations as to what this " covering over " refers 
 to, in either case the principle of Mediation comes to the 
 fore. On the one hand, it is by means of a gift that 
 God consents, as it were, not to see the sin ; on the other, 
 it is the means whereby the sin is hidden from God in 
 such a way as to make it appear as though it were not. 
 Once more, there is a good deal of justification for the 
 meaning "to wipe off" or " to wipe clean" ; this is the 
 signification of the Syriac stem, and there are other 
 Semitic analogies which could be urged in favour of this 
 meaning. * Originally the idea in each case was a naive 
 
 * See, further, Robertson Snxth, The Old Testament in the Jewish 
 Church, p. 381 (and ed.).
 
 21 
 
 one ; but the importance of it all lies in the fact that 
 witness is borne to the belief, firstly, of the shortcomings 
 of men in the sight of God ; secondly, to the necessity of 
 putting away the cause of offence ; and, thirdly, to the 
 need of some efficacious means whereby this can be 
 done ; or, if one were to put it into modern form : the 
 existence of sin, the need for it to be taken away, and 
 how it can be taken away. How far-reaching were the 
 ideas connected with the root-idea of the Hebrew word 
 "1S3 may be seen from the meanings which are attached 
 to some of its derivatives : 
 
 KOPHER means a "ransom," e.g. Exod. xxi. 30: If 
 there be laid on him a ransom, then he shall give for 
 the redemption of his life whatsoever is laid upon him? 
 
 KiPPijRiM is an abstract noun meaning "atonement," 
 e.g. Exod. xxix. 36 : A nd every day shalt thou offer the 
 bullock of sin-offering for atonement. This is the word 
 from which the modern name for the Day of Atonement 
 comes, " YojmJKippur " ; cf. Lev. xxiii. 27, 28. ; xxv. 9. 
 
 KAPPORETH is the technical word for the covering of 
 the ark of the testimony, Exod. xxv. ; it means the 
 " propitiatory " ; in I. Chron. xxviii. 1 1 the temple is 
 called from it " the house of the propitiatory " 
 (rnQiDn rVl). The different forms of the verb also have 
 meanings which are very significant from the point of 
 view of our present enquiry: 
 
 KIPPER, which is the ordinary and most usual form, 
 means to " make atonement " or " to reconcile." 
 
 HITHKAPPER, a reflexive form, which means " to 
 cause oneself to be reconciled " ; this implies the need of 
 the priest to perform the necessary functions ; and lastly,
 
 22 
 
 NlKKAPPER means " to become reconciled." 
 In all these cases the underlying ideas, as already 
 pointed out, are the existence of sin which separates 
 from God, the yearning to be reconciled to God, and 
 the means whereby such reconciliation can be brought 
 about. 
 
 ii. We turn next to the word Chdtfdth (jl^I2n) which 
 is usually, but incorrectly, translated " Sin-offering." The 
 \ r original root-meaning of this word has nothing to do 
 || with "sin " ; this is proved by the meaning of the word 
 in cognate languages. The root-meaning is still 
 preserved in some Old Testament passages, e.g. in 
 Judg. xx. 1 6 we read : Among all this people there were 
 seven hundred chosen men that were left-handed ; every one 
 could sling stones at an hair-breadth, and not miss ; the 
 last word here (Nt2J"P NT1) comes from the same root as 
 the word translated " to sin." Again, in Job. v. 24 we 
 have the following : A nd thou shalt know that thy tent 
 is in peace ; and thou shalt visit thy fold (or " dwelling- 
 place") and shalt miss nothing ; again, the last word in 
 the verse comes from the root that we are considering. 
 Without going into further detail one may say that the 
 ' ^ idea underlying the word was originally that jof ^sDme- 
 thing lacking, something that misses the mark.* And, 
 as we shall see, this originally negative sense is, generally 
 
 I * It is interesting to notice, in passing, that this meaning is precisely 
 1 ' that of the Greek apaprdvu, the word which occurs so frequently in 
 the New Testament for " to sin." The negative sense here, too, shows 
 that it is inadequate to express what, according to Christian teaching, 
 is the essence of sin ; hence the developed meaning which it assumes, 
 in the New Testament.
 
 23 
 
 speaking, that which is present in the word Chdtfdth y or 
 " Sin-Offering." 
 
 The central point of the " Sin-offering " is the 
 smearing of the blood of the sacrificed animal on the 
 horns of the altar, see e.g. Exod. xxx. 10: And Aaron shall 
 make atonement upon the horns of it (i.e., the altar) once 
 in the year ; with the blood of the sin-offering of 
 atonement once in the year shall he make atonement upon 
 it throughout your generations ; it is most holy unto the 
 Lord. The decisive act is this bringing of the blood upon 
 the altar ; this was believed to be the first step in 
 establishing a right relationship between the worshipper 
 and God ; and this was accomplished by means of the 
 blood of the offering. It is supremely important always 
 to bear in mind the significance there was in blood to the 
 '.; ancient Hebrew on account of its containing the life or 
 \ soul. In the case of the Chatfatk or " Sin-offering " the 
 blood first of all consecrated the altar afresh, while the 
 offering itself was the means of re-establishing normal 
 relations between God and the worship; it was that 
 which made reconciliation. But when it is asked what 
 was supposed to be the cause of the relationship having 
 been broken, the reply is, some ritual offence, soiqyffifog' 
 which had impaired the " consecrated state " of a man. 
 The result of this was twofold ; a state of " uncleanness," 
 and a consequent estrangement between God and the 
 man who had " made a mistake." And, therefore, to re- 
 establish normal relations a twofold action was necessary ; 
 f i first the becoming "clean," that is, in a fit state to enable 
 reconciliation to take, and then the actual ceremony of 
 reconciliation.
 
 24 
 
 This is very important in view of the later history of 
 the doctrine of Mediation, for, as already pointed out, 
 consecration and reconciliation are quite distinct ; or, to 
 put it in another way, the obliteration of sin does not 
 per se reconcile with God, it only makes man in a fit state 
 to be reconciled ; the forgiveness of sins is only the first 
 step which is brought about by the functions of 
 Mediatorship, reconciliation forms the completion of the 
 mediatorial action. In this Chdtfdth or " Sin-offering " 
 there was, then, originally only the idea of making good 
 something that had been left undone the ritual " mark " 
 had been missed ; and in that it took away that which 
 had caused the Deity displeasure, it was of a purely 
 negative character. It must, one feels, have been a later 
 development when the positive character was added 
 whereby the offering became also the means of putting a 
 man in a state of consecration or sanctification Ol^"Tp)> 
 because it implies advanced conceptions, and because, 
 moreover, it has no real connection with the name 
 Chdtfdth. In the form in which this Chdtfdlh appears 
 in the Old Testament, the translation " Sin-offering" is 
 very misleading ; as will be clear from what has been 
 |fc said, it should be translated " reconciliation-offering," or, 
 taking into account its later positive character, " consecra- 
 tion-offering." Finally, it must be remembered that this 
 Chdtfdth is not an offering which is sacrificed on account 
 of known or conscious offences against the ritual laws, 
 much less does any idea of moral offence enter in. 
 
 The importance and interest about these ancient 
 conceptions is that they are the forerunners of things 
 that are true, and that, therefore, they contain the germs 
 of truth within themselves.
 
 25 
 
 iii. We come now to the offering called the 'asham 
 (Dt^N). This comes from a root meaning, in the first 
 instance, " to be guilty " ; the noun also means " guilt," 
 but comes later on to denote "compensation for guilt" 
 The transition is not difficult to follow ; a man who is 
 guilty makes an offering in order that his guilt may be 
 taken away ; it is, as it were, transferred to the offering, 
 and therefore the offering is conceived of as bearing the 
 guilt, and thus itself guilty ; that is why it bears the 
 name 'dshdm. But this is all a later development ; 
 originally the 'dshdm was something much simpler. The 
 clearest illustration of it in its early sense is to be 
 found in i Sam. vi. 1-18 ; here we have an account of 
 how the Philistines were suffering because of their 
 having taken away the Ark of the Lord against His 
 will ; consequently they are anxious to get rid of it, and 
 come to their priests and diviners for counsel : What 
 shall we do with the Ark of the Lord ? show us wherewith 
 we shall send it to its place ; the priests reply : If ye send 
 away the Ark of the God of Israel, send it not empty ; but 
 in any wise return Him an 'dshdm ("guilt-offering" 
 R.V.) ; then shall ye be healed . . . ; in reply to the 
 question : What shall be the 'dshdm which we shall 
 return to Him ? the priests say : Five golden 
 tumours, and five golden mice, according to the 
 number of the lords of the Philistines ; for one plague 
 was on you (them) all, and on your lords. Wherefore 
 ye shall make images of your tumours, and images of 
 your mice that mar the land; and ye shall give glory 
 unto the God of Israel; peradventure He will lighten His 
 hand from off you, and from off your gods, and from off
 
 26 
 
 your land. We have here a very interesting combina- 
 tion of the antique belief in imitative magic with a not 
 very advanced religious belief; we learn from the passage 
 that the original idea of an \isJiam was that of compensa- 
 tion. It was an offering which " seems to have been " 
 confined to offences against God or man that could be 
 estimated and so covered by compensation." In later 
 times it became an exclusively religious act, which was 
 not necessarily the case in the earlier stages of its 
 history. As a specifically "trespass-offering" it was 
 represented by a ram, in addition to a penalty of the 
 fifth part of its value, which formed the restitution to the 
 injured party. The great difference, and it was of a 
 fundamental character, between the 'as ham and the 
 Chatfath) which was considered just now, was that in the 
 case of the 'ashdm the blood of the victim was not applied 
 to the horns of the altar ; the reason for this was that, 
 as we have already seen, the 'as ham was compensatory ; 
 it compensated for the injury done, and therefore there 
 was no need for the offence to be expiated at the altar. 
 As an acknowledgment of guilt the 'ds/id?n-offer'mg may 
 perhaps be best described as an act of penitence. When, 
 therefore, we read in Is. liii. 10 of the " Servant of the 
 Lord " offering himself as an 'dsham, we must see in the 
 act, firstly, a recognition of guilt which the " Servant " 
 takes upon himself, and, secondly, a compensation for the 
 sins of the people. The thought underlying it all is that 
 God has been injured, and has therefore to be com- 
 pensated ; the \1shdm is the medium whereby the 
 injury is compensated for, and by means of which 
 normal relations between God and His people are re-
 
 27 
 
 established. As a compensatory offering the victim in 
 the 'asham could be said " to bear the sin (z>., the injury- 
 done to God) of many." The point in Is. liii. 10 which 
 is so extraordinary is not the offering of the 'as/iat^but 
 that the victim should be a man. 
 
 From what has been said about these three technical 
 terms (and they by no means exhaust the number that 
 ought strictly to be considered), viz., to " cover over," the 
 "reconciliation" or "consecration-offering" (Chdtt'dih) 
 and the " offering of compensation " (^dsham}, it will be 
 seen that they touch closely upon the idea of Mediation, 
 and that they are the antecedents, or foreshadowing, of 
 the great Sacrifice upon the Cross of the One Mediator 
 and Advocate Jesus Christ.
 
 28 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Negative Teaching on Mediation in the Old Testament. 
 
 But it would not be right to ignore the fact that there 
 are in the Old Testament passages which are directly 
 contrary to the idea of a mediator between God and 
 man. Two of these may be given ; in I. Sam. ii. 25 
 occur the words : If a man sinneth against a man, God 
 will mediate (" decide," or " arbitrate ") for him ; but if a 
 man sinneth against Jehovah, who can intercede for him ? 
 That is to say, that if a man commits a sin against 
 -another man, God, through His representative, will put 
 things straight again between the two ; but there is 
 nobody to perform a like office when a man sins against 
 God. Then, again, in Job ix. 33 we read : Oh that there 
 were a Mediator between us (LXX. renders 6 fitair^ jj/iwi/ 
 for IS'O'O), that may lay his hand (i.e. settle matters) upon 
 us. The underlying idea here is quite similar to that in 
 the passage from I. Sam. above ; the context shows that 
 Job sees no hope of justification in the sight of God 
 If I wash myself with snow water, and make my hands 
 never so clean, yet wilt thou plunge me in the ditch, and 
 mine own clothes shall abhor me , and therefore he 
 longs [for someone who could act on his behalf, and 
 present his case before God ; but there is nobody to do 
 this. It is an intensely pathetic cry for a Mediator, 
 -without whom man's case in the sight of God is hopeless.
 
 29 
 
 But the very hopelessness which this plaint implies shows 
 that what is desired is not believed to exist. 
 
 There are, of course, other passages in the Old 
 Testament (though their number is very limited) which 
 witness to a repudiation of the idea of Mediatorship ; it 
 will not be necessary, however, to deal further with these, 
 as our object is mainly to examine the positive teaching 
 on the subject ; and this far outweighs that on the 
 negative side.
 
 THE TEACHING ON MEDIATION IN 
 POST-BIBLICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Teaching in the Apocrypha. 
 
 The two classes of literature known as Apocrypha 
 
 and Pseudepigrafiha are usually differentiated because 
 
 the former was accepted by the Alexandrian Canon and 
 
 i the latter was not ; but it must be remembered that both 
 
 \ were rejected by official Palestinian Judaism. On the 
 
 other hand, it should be mentioned that certain books 
 
 jjamong the Apocrypha, viz., Tobit, Ecclesiasticus, Judith, 
 
 jvand the first book of Maccabees, were recognized as 
 
 m m 
 
 containing teaching in harmony with orthodox Judaism. 
 It cannot, however, be too strongly insisted upon that, 
 although both these classes of literature were rejected 
 by the Jewish religious leaders in Palestine, they 
 reflected nevertheless the thoughts and convictions and 
 aspirations of a large body of Jewish thinkers, and that 
 the influence of these upon the bulk of the Jewish people 
 was originally greater than that of the Pharisaic (i.e., 
 official) party. 
 
 The Apocrypha and the Pseudepigrapha form the 
 normal continuation of the Old Testament Scriptures. 
 The teaching of the Pseudepigrapha, especially in 
 the main theme dealt with, i.e., Eschatology, is based 
 upon the prophetical literature of the Old Testament. In
 
 spite, therefore, of the fact that the Pseudepigrapha 
 are not recognized, and never have been, by orthodox 
 Judaism, the teaching which they contain on the subject 
 of Mediation must be taken into consideration, because 
 this reflects the belief of the bulk of the Jewish peoplej] 
 during the centuries immediately preceding the Christian' 
 Era, and onwards. It is a fact which does not admit of 
 contradiction that, speaking generally, the direct line of 
 sequence runs thus: Old Testament, Apocrypha, and 
 Pseudepigrapha ; while the " Torah "-religion of official, 
 Pharisaic Judaism ran into a cut de sac from which it has 
 never yet emerged, as far as orthodox Judaism is 
 concerned. 
 
 The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha may, then, be 
 taken together in considering what they teach upon the 
 subject of Mediation, though as the latter comprises a 
 far larger literature than the former, the data from the 
 Psuedepigraphical books to be examined will naturally 
 exceed in number those from the Apocrypha. We shall 
 give some typical quotations first, and then proceed to 
 examine the evidence in the light of these. 
 
 In Tob. xii. 15 we read that the angels present to God 
 the prayers of the saints, it is there said : " I am Raphael, 
 one ofthe seven holy angels, who bear the prayers of the 
 saints upwards, and who have access to the glory of the 
 Holy One ;" with this should be compared what is said 
 in iii. 16 17 of the same book : "And the Lord heard 
 the prayer of both in the presence of the glory of the 
 T?t Raphael, and he (Raphael) was sent to heal them 
 both " (i.e., Tobit and Sarah) ; and, once more, it is an 
 angel who says : " And as ye prayed, thou and thy
 
 32 
 
 daughter-in-law Sarah, I brought your sacrifice of prayer 
 before the Holy One" (xii. 12). This belief in the 
 mediatorial functions of angels will come before us again 
 .^presently in a more pronounced form. An instructive 
 ifs passage occurs in IJ. Mace, xv. 12 15 ; it is there 
 f related how Judas Maccabaeus had a vision, in which 
 he saw Onias (who had in earlier days been high- 
 priest) with outstretched arms, praying for the Jews. 
 After that another figure appeared, likewise with 
 outstretched arms ; then Onias spoke to Judas, and 
 said : " This man is the friend of the brethren, who prays 
 much for his people and the holy city. Jeremiah, the 
 prophet of God." Distinct as the reference to Mediation 
 is in these passages and it is worth noting that in 
 contradistinction to Old Testament teaching, the 
 vl Mediator is in each case a supernatural being they 
 form, nevertheless, exceptions, so far as the Apocrypha 
 is concerned ; rarely anywhere else in this collection is 
 there any reference to the subject ; on the contrary, in a 
 number of passages in which the subject-matter directly 
 invites the mention of Mediation it is pointedly omitted. 
 A few examples may be given ; in /fcc/.f. (" The 
 Wisdom of Jesus, the Son of Sirach ") it is said that it is 
 easy for God to recompense the wicked man according 
 to his deserts when the end comes (xi. 26) ; more 
 striking, in view of the fact that in the Old Testament 
 the intercession of Abraham is described, is Ecclus. 
 xvi. 7 ff: "He was not reconciled in the case of the 
 giants of old, who in their strength rebelled against Him. 
 He did not spare Lot's fellow-citizens, whom He 
 abhorred because of their pride. He had no mercy on
 
 33 
 
 the people destined to destruction who were swept away 
 in their sins. . . . He has power to reconcile (i.e., 
 through forgiveness), and he pours out his wrath; 
 however great his mercy, so great too is his chastise- 
 ment ; He judges each according to his works " ; cf., too, 
 xviii. n-12. Here one might assuredly have expected 
 some reference to mediation on the part of men or angels 
 if this had been believed in ; though it must, of course, 
 be borne in mind that both here and in the next passage 
 to be quoted the dominant idea in the writer's mind is 
 the great contrast between the lot of the wicked and that 
 of the righteous ; this is clearly seen also in Wisdom 
 v. i ff. : " Then in much boldness shall the righteous 
 stand in the presence of those who oppressed him and 
 took no account of his travail. When they (the wicked) 
 see him then shall they be troubled with terrible fear, 
 and shall be amazed at the unexpectedness of his 
 salvation. Repentant they will say, in anguish of soul 
 they will groan, ' This man it was who was once the 
 object of scorn.'' . . . ;" the long passage which then 
 follows, expressive of the repentance of the wicked, 
 contains not the remotest reference to any mediation or 
 intercession that might be offered on behalf of them ; see 
 further Wisd. iii. 18, iv. 19-20. In the references to the 
 final Judgement, moreover, the idea of the intercessions 
 of the righteous on behalf of sinners is altogether absent. 
 It is this silence concerning the subject in passages 
 where mention of it might reasonably be expected which 
 is so significant. 
 
 On the other hand, the mediating efficacy of works is 
 distinctly taught, for example, in Ecclus. iii. 3 " He that
 
 34 
 
 honoureth his father shall make atonement for sins " ; as 
 we shall see later on, it was a tenet of Rabbinical Juda- 
 ism which in Ecclus. is already found fully developed 
 in many particulars that works, namely the fulfilling of 
 Mitzvoth (lit. " commandments "), were meritorious, and 
 that they were, therefore, efficacious in annulling sin. In 
 the Old Testament, as we have already seen, it is _ only 
 sacrifices that atoned for sin, in the New Testament it is 
 
 \only Christ Who can do so ; here we have an intermediate 
 conception. There is an instructive example of this in 
 Ecclus. iii. 30 : " Water will quench a flaming fire ; and 
 almsgiving will make atonement for sins " ; i.e. just as 
 water quenches fire, so do good works (in this case, alms- 
 giving) obliterate sins, cp. xxxv. 3. In these instances 
 the good works form the mediating agency which comes 
 between God and man, and establishes normal relation- 
 ship between them. But most pointedly of all is this 
 brought out in \]^^^Ej^atf ; the whole of chapter vii. is 
 very instructive in this respect ; a few verses may be 
 quoted : " For God solemnly declared to the living, as 
 soon as they become alive, what they should do to attain 
 life (eternal), and what they should observe in order to 
 avoid punishment. But they (the wicked) were disobe- 
 dient, and gainsaid Him. . . . Therefore, O Esdras, 
 evil for the evil, good for the good ! "* This definite 
 alternative is not in any degree softened by any reference 
 to a mediating influence, indeed in verses 102 ff. this is 
 explicitly excluded ; for Esdras puts the direct question 
 as to whether on the Day of Judgement the righteous 
 
 * Vacua Vacuis et Plena Plenis:
 
 35 
 
 will be permitted to come before God and intercede for 
 the wicked, " Fathers for sons, sons for their parents, 
 brothers for brothers, relations for their cousins, friends 
 for their companions ? " The angel answers Esdras : 
 "... Just as even now no father can send his son, 
 no son his father, no lord his servant, no friend his com- 
 panion, to be ill for him, or sleep, or eat, or be made 
 whole, on his behalf, so in that time also, no man will 
 by any means be permitted to intercede for, nor yet to 
 accuse anyone else ; for then each shall bear his righte- 
 ousness or unrighteousness alone." Very much to the 
 point Esdras then replies : " But how is it that we find it 
 written that already Abraham prayed for the men of 
 Sodom,* Moses for our fathers who sinned in the wilder- 
 ness^ after him Joshua for Israel in the days of Achan,J 
 Samuel in the days of Saul, David concerning the 
 plague, || Solomon for those who prayed in the Sanctuary,! 
 Elijah for those who received rain,** and for the dead 
 (child) that he might live,ff Hezekiah for the people in 
 the days of Sennacherib,:^ and many others for other 
 men ? If, therefore, when corruption had increased and 
 unrighteousness had become sore, the righteous prayed 
 for sinners, why cannot the same happen also now?" 
 The angel's answer is as follows : " The present world is 
 not the end of things, its glory will not last ; therefore 
 the strong were permitted to pray for the weak. But the 
 Day of Judgement is the end of this world, and the 
 
 * Gen. xviii. 23 ff. f Exod. xxxii. n ft. J Josh. vii. 7 ff. 
 I. Sam. vii. 9 ; xii. 23. || II. Sam. xxiv. 15 17. 
 IT I. Kgs. viii. 22 ff. 30 ff. ** I. Kgs. xviii. 42. 
 ft I. Kgs. xvii. 20 ff. t$ Kgs. xix. 15 ff.
 
 36 
 
 beginning of the eternal world that is to come ; there, 
 Corruptness is past, Unseemliness cast out, Unbelief 
 destroyed, but Righteousness increased, and Truth in the 
 ascendant. At that time, therefore, shall no one be per- 
 mitted to take pity on one who is under judgement, nor 
 will he be able to cast him down who has conquered." 
 
 The teaching, therefore, of the Apocrypha may be 
 v briefly summed up thus : For the most part the idea of 
 \ Mediation is wholly absent ; generally speaking, there is 
 but little hope for sinners ; when there is a question of 
 forgiveness for these, the djvine mercy is accorded with- 
 out the need of any Mediator. A few instances, and 
 I they are exceptional, occur in which a Mediator is men- 
 tioned, but in these cases he is superhuman^ The two 
 points of prime significance are these : firstly, this super- 
 human character of the Mediator, when he is mentioned ; 
 and secondly, as illustrated, above all, in ii (iv) Esdras, the 
 hopeless condition of sinners. It will thus be seen that, 
 as far as the character of the Mediator is concerned, the 
 teaching of the ApocrypJia is an advance upon that ofthe 
 \* Old Testament ; but that, taken as a whole, the doctrine 
 of Mediation in the Apocrypha shows a retrograde 
 movement, more, however, by its silence on the subject 
 than by actually antagonistic teaching with the excep- 
 tion always of ii. (iv) Esdras vii.
 
 37 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Teaching in the Pseudepigrapha. 
 
 We turn next to the Pseudepigraphic writings ; and 
 here, again, it will be best to present some of the evidence 
 first. The earliest work, or series of works, here to be 
 considered, viz., the Enoch literature (circa 200-70 B.C.), 
 is especially important on account of the large body of 
 evidence which it contains regarding our present subject. 
 We may take, as an instructive starting-point, a passage 
 which, as will be seen, strikes the key-note of the book 
 as far as the doctrine of Mediation is concerned, namely 
 that the Mediator is a superhuman 
 
 xii.-xiii. ; in these chapters Enoch, the " Scribe of Right- 
 eousness," recounts a vision he has had ; in this vision he 
 is bidden to announce to those angels who had left the 
 
 Heavens in order to defile themselves with the daughters 
 
 of men (cf. Gen. vi. 4. Jude 6) that destruction awaited 
 them, and that they should find neither peace nor forgive- 
 ,ness ; Enoch then relates as follows : " Then I went and 
 spoke to them all, and they were all afraid, and fear and 
 trembling took hold of them. And they besought me to 
 
 ! write out a petition for them, in order that they might 
 receive forgiveness, and that I should read their petition 
 before the Lord of Heaven. For they could no more 
 speak to Him themselves, nor could they raise their eyes 
 to Heaven for shame on account of their sin, for the sake 
 of which they were being punished. Thereupon, I com-
 
 posed their petition and supplication on behalf of their 
 spirit, and for their individual deeds concerning which 
 s, they prayed that they might receive forgiveness and for- 
 bearance. Then I went and sat me down by the waters 
 of Dan, in the land of Dan, that lies south of the west 
 * side of Hermon, and I read their petition [to God (?)] 
 until I fell asleep" (xiii. 3 7). Their petition is not 
 granted (see xiv. 4 7), but nothing could be clearer 
 ! than the character of Mediator in which Enoch is here 
 presented. 
 
 It may be mentioned that the figure of Enoch as the ' Heavenly 
 Scribe,' or the ' Scribe of Righteousness,' is one which occurs 
 fairly frequently, e.g., Enoch xii. 3, xv. i, xcii. i ; in the Targum 
 of pseudo-Jonathan to Gen. v. 24, Enoch, in his character of 
 Heavenly Scribe, is identified with Metatron (concerning this 
 latter see below). His ' writing ' is mostly in the form of inter- 
 cession ; and, as will have been noticed, this intercession is not 
 necessarily on behalf of the Jews, like that of Metatron ; in 
 .V<-/w.r. xliv. 16, where Enoch is spoken of, a gloss, preserved 
 in one of the manuscripts of the book, runs : " And he was 
 removed to Paradise that he might give repentance to the 
 Gentiles ' ' (Cf. Kautszch, Die Apokryphen undPseudep. des A. 71, 
 I. 451). In the Book of Jubilees iv. 17 19 it is said of Enoch : 
 "This is the first among the children of men, of those who were 
 born on earth, who learned writing and knowledge and wisdom, 
 and who wrote in a book the signs of the heavens after the order 
 of their months . . ;" cf. x. 17. His ' writing ' is further 
 referred to in fub. xxi. 10, Test xii. Patr. Simon 5, Levi 10, 14, 
 16 it is not always the Book of Enoch that is referred to in 
 these passages. The tradition concerning Enoch's scribal 
 activity, therefore, regarded him as an earthly scribe before he 
 became the " Heavenly Scribe." 
 
 hen again in xv. 2 we read of Enoch being bidden to 
 ddress the ' Watchers of Heaven ' thus : " Ye ought to 
 pray for men, not men for you ;" Enoch counts himself
 
 39 
 
 here as a 'child of man,' but obviously he is super- 
 human. The intercession of angels on behalf of men, 
 referred to here, will come under our notice more than 
 once again ; for example in xl. 6 we read : " And the 
 third voice I heard pray and intercede for those who 
 dwell on earth and supplicate in the name of the Lord 
 of Spirits." The voice is that of the four "presences" 
 on the four sides of the Lord of Spirits. The four 
 " presences "means the four angels of the presence, they 
 are enumerated in verses 9-10 of this chapter: Michael, 
 Raphael, Gabriel, and Phanuel ; so that it would be 
 Gabriel who is referred to here ; but in ix. i the order of 
 these varies. Gabriel coming last, Raphael third, and in 
 place of Phanuel, Uriel is named, but as the second in 
 order. Angels of the " presence " are mentioned in the 
 New Testament, Matth. xviii. 10 . . For I say 
 unto you, that in heaven their angels do always behold the 
 face of my Father which is in heaven ; Rev. iv. 6. 
 . . . and round about the throne four living creatures 
 full of eyes before and behind. An interesting passage 
 from the Old Testament, the contents of which are 
 doubly significant, is worth recalling in this connection, 
 Is. Ixiii. 9 : In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the 
 angel of his presence saved them ; in his love and in his 
 pity he redeemed them. The next verse in our passage 
 (xl. 7) is also full of significance from the present point 
 view, as it illustrates the converse of the idea of 
 ^.Mediation, namely enmity between God and men. The 
 belief in the existence of certain beings who accuse men 
 before God, in a certain sense necessitates a corresponding 
 belief in advocates and mediators, for a righteous judge
 
 obviously requires to hear both sides of a matter ;* it is 
 for this reason that xl. 7 is not without importance : 
 " And I heard the fourth voice as it warded off the 
 Satans and permitted them not to appear before the 
 Lord of Spirits to accuse them who dwell on the earth." 
 Here again we have an idea which has a long history 
 behind it ; Job i. ii. at once recurs to the mind ; and the 
 thought in Rev. xii. 10 belongs, in its origin, to much 
 earlier times than the book of Revelation ; . . . for 
 the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accuseth 
 them before God day and night ; it is well to bear in mind 
 that in this passage it is Michael and his angels who war 
 against and overcome the " accuser." 
 
 The position taken up by Michael, as Mediator, needs 
 now to be examined a little more closely. In the first 
 place, Michael appears sometimes as though he would 
 like to act as Mediator between the fallen angels and the 
 Almighty, thus in Enoch Ixviii. 3, 4, we read : " Again 
 Michael replied, and said to Raphael : ' Whose heart 
 would not be mollified, and whose kidneys would not be 
 disquieted because of the word of judgement that has 
 gone against them, against those that they have led out ?' 
 But when he was standing before the Lord of Spirits, 
 Michael spoke thus to Raphael : * I will not come 
 forward on their behalf under the eye of the Lord ; for 
 the Lord of Spirits is waxed wrath against them, because 
 they act as though they were equal to the Lord.' " As 
 interceding for men, Michael is probably referred to in 
 
 * It is necessary to guard against confusing the two ideas of the 
 accusing Satan and the avenging Angel, cf. Enoch xcix. 16.
 
 Enoch Ixxxix. 76 : " But he who wrote the book, brought 
 it up, showed it, and read it in the presence of the Lord 
 of the sheep ; and he made intercession for them, and 
 besought Him for them, while declaring before him all 
 that the shepherds had done and giving testimony 
 against the shepherds." " He who wrote-,the book " is 
 most probably Michael, this will be seen by comparing 
 Ixxxix. 6 1, xc. 14, 22. Again, in the Testament of Abraham, 
 Abraham implores Michael to intercede for him to the 
 Lord ; in the Apoc. of Moses 3, God sends Michael as a 
 comforter to Adam ; the same is found in the_Z^/^<? 
 Adam and Eve 22, and in the preceding section of this 
 latter book, 21, Michael is sent by God to Eve, to 
 bless her. These passages (and they could be consider- 
 ably increased) are very important as showing a fixed 
 belief in the mediatorial function of the Archangel 
 Michael ; he, like Enoch, with whom he is not 
 infrequently identified, is the Mediator par excellence in 
 post-biblical, but pre-Christian, Judaism. 
 
 But, as we have already seen, the angels, as an order, 
 occupy the position of interceders for men to God ; this 
 must be further illustrated. For an angel as the interme- 
 diary, though not necessarily as mediator, between God ? d 
 and man, the following passage from the Grggfc, Apocalypse * 
 of Baruch^ * is suggestive ; an angel of the Lord comes to 
 Baruch and says : " Thus saith God, the Almighty Lord, 
 for He hath sent me into Thy presence that I might declare 
 and show thee all things of God ; thy prayer is answered 
 
 * To be differentiated from the very much larger work, The Syriac 
 Apocalypse of Baruch.
 
 r 
 
 
 by Him, it has entered into the ears of God, the Lord " 
 
 ( i). But the more distinctively mediatorial function 
 of angels is brought out, for example, in Enoch civ. i : 
 " I swear unto you, ye righteous, that the angels in 
 heaven remember you for good in the presence of 
 the glory of the Great Onej your names are written 
 in the presence of the glory of the Great One." 
 Again, in the Slavonic Book of Enoch, vii. 5, we read of 
 angels interceding for men ;_in the Test of the xii. 
 Pair., Levj iii. 5.6, mention is made of "the angels of 
 the presence of the Lord, who serve Him, and make 
 propitiation for all the sins of the righteous to the Lord. 
 They offer to the Lord the reasonable sweet odour of 
 incense and unbloody sacrifice" ; and in v. 7 of the same 
 book, we read : " Hereupon I awoke and praised the 
 Most High, and the angel * who intercedes for the race 
 of Israel and all righteous men." 
 
 It will have been noticed that in the passages from 
 Pseudepigraphic works which have been referred to, the 
 Mediation of angels consists not only in the fact of their 
 interceding to God for men, but that the intercession is 
 conceived of as taking place in the actual presence of 
 God ; this point is of considerable importance, for it 
 marks a distinct advance in the development of the 
 doctrine of Mediation. There is clearly a ^reat difference 
 between intercessions which men on earth offer up for 
 one another, as found in the O.T., and the prayers which 
 - angelic beings offer to God in His very presence ; while 
 
 * It is probable that Michael is here meant, for he is the Guardian- 
 angel of the Israelite nation.
 
 \ 
 
 : 
 
 43 
 
 in the former case the principle of Mediation is present,, 
 yet the character of man makes him but a poor instru- 
 ment of Mediation, whereas the sinless nature of the 
 angels marks them out as more appropriate pleaders on 
 behalf of men. But it is more especially the fact that the 
 angelic intercession is believed to be uttered in the actual 
 divine presence which shows the advance made in the 
 doctrine of Mediatorship ; it is this fact which brings out 
 the distinction between the principle of Mediation and 
 the office of a Mediator, though, of course, the former is 
 included in the latter. In the Old Testament the 
 
 intercession of angels, as we have seen, is little more 
 than adumbrated ; so that we must regard the teaching 
 contained in the Pseudepigraphic literature concerning 
 this point as a distinct advance. 
 
 But in the P seudepigrapha the specific teaching of the 
 Old Testament is continued, and it will be well to 
 illustrate this a little more. Thus, in the Life of Adam 
 and Eve, 20, we read : "And Eve said [z>., to Adam]> 
 ' When I saw thee my tormented soul received refresh- 
 ment. And now, pray unto God, the Lord, for me, that 
 He would answer me, and look upon me favourably, and 
 free me from my grievous pains.' And Adam prayed to 
 the Lord for Eve." In the next section it is described 
 how God heard Adam's prayer, and sent angels to 
 relieve Eve of her pain. In the same way we read of 
 Abraham* interceding for sinners in the Test, of Abraham, 
 
 * That the good deeds of the fathers bring blessings to their 
 children is in accordance with Jewish belief, just as the converse is 
 true, that the children suffer for the sins of the fathers.
 
 . 
 
 44 
 
 xiv. and in the Test, of the xii. Pair. Asher vii. 7, there 
 are the words : " But the Lord will gather you together 
 in faith through His tender mercy, and for the sake of 
 Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob ; " but in the Slavonic Book 
 o/ Enoch, liii. i, we have a passage which combats the 
 idea of the patriarch being an intercessor in the realms 
 above ; and this rather witnesses to the fact that, accord- 
 ing to the popular belief, Abraham, unlike Enoch, does not 
 continue in the presence of God the intercessions which 
 he had offered up on behalf of sinners while on earth ; 
 Enoch is made to say : " Say not, our father stands 
 before God and prays for us to be released from sin ; for 
 there is no man there to help any that have sinned." 
 There recurs to the mind in connection with these words 
 the passage, Luke xvi. 23 fif. (the parable of Dives and 
 Lazarus) which implicitly bears out what is said in the 
 Enoch passage. Again, in the Ascension of Moses xi. 17, 
 we read as follows : "If the enemies shall again have 
 acted godlessly against their Lord, they shall have no 
 defender, who might bring their prayers before God, like 
 Moses who was a mighty angel, who pressed his knees 
 upon the earth at every hour by day and night, praying 
 and gazing up to Him Who rules the whole world in 
 mercy and righteousness . . . " ; or again, in xii. 
 5, 6, of the same book : " All that was to happen on this 
 earth did the Lord foresee, and behold, it comes to pass 
 . . . He hath appointed me for them, and because 
 of their sins, that I might pray and supplicate for them." 
 And, once more, in the Syriac Apoc. of Baruch, ii. 2, God 
 says of the prayers of Baruch and Jeremiah, that their 
 prayers on behalf of Jerusalem are like a " strong wall " ;
 
 45 
 
 the whole of Chap. iii. of this book illustrates the doctrine 
 of Mediation. One other passage must be briefly 
 Considered, (for it is one of great interest, viz., Enoch 
 
 * % xlvii. 1-4 : " In that day shall the prayer of the righteous 
 and the blood of the righteous ascend up before the Lord, 
 of Spirits. In those days shall the holy ones, who dwell 
 above in the heavens, intercede with one voice", they shall 
 pray, praise, give thanks, and glorify the name of the 
 Lord of Spirits, because of the blood of the righteous 
 and because of the prayer of the righteous, that it may 
 not be in vain in the sight of the Lord of Spirits, that 
 judgement may be done unto them, and that they may 
 not have to suffer for ever. In those days I saw how 
 the Ancient of days sat upon the throne of His glory,, 
 and the books of the living were opened before Him, and 
 His whole host, which is in Heaven above and around 
 
 \\ Him, stood before Him. The hearts of the holy ones 
 were filled with joy, because the number of righteousness 
 was near [i.e., to be filled up], the prayer of the righteous 
 answered, and the blood of the righteous avenged before 
 the Lord of Spirits." That part of this passage which, 
 for our present purpose, is the most important, is 
 contained in the words : " In those days shall the holy 
 
 / ones, who dwell above in the heavens, intercede with one 
 voice " ; the reference here is to the angels ; their prayer, 
 which is answered, is that the blood of the righteous and 
 the prayer of the righteous may not be in vain. The 
 striking point here is that the belief in the intercession 
 of angels is found in connection with a very characteristic 
 element of Judaism, viz., the spirit of revenge ; for the 
 thought of our passage is the same as that found in
 
 4 6 
 
 Rev. vi. 9, 10: And . . . I saw underneath the altar 
 the souls of them that had been slain for the word of God, 
 and for the testimony which they held ; and they cried 
 with a loud voice saying, ' How long, O Master, the holy 
 and true, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood on 
 them that dwell on the earth ? that is to say, in the 
 Enoch passage it is a, question of angelic intercession 
 for the execution of revenge. It is an instance of how 
 thoroughly the idea of angelic intercession which 
 contains within itself the principle of Mediation was 
 part and parcel of Jewish belief._ 
 
 It has been said above that the general principle of 
 Mediation is witnessed to by the existence of the sacrificial 
 system, the , sacrifices being regarded as a means of 
 \\ reconciliation with God; it should, therefore, in conclusion 
 be added that this Old Testament idea is present, 
 although in a vastly subordinate degree, in the Apocrypha 
 and, in a still less degree, in the P seudepigrapha ; e.g., 
 Ecclus. xxxii. 8 (xxxv. 8) : " The offering of the righteous 
 makes fat the altar, and his incense offering comes before 
 the Most High " ; the whole of this chapter, however, 
 deals with the thesis that only the sacrifices of good men 
 are acceptable to God ; cf., too, vii. 31, xxxi. 21 ff., 
 xxxviii. ii. On the other hand, the inutility of sacrifices 
 is sometimes insisted upon, for example in Ecclus. 
 vii. 8-9. " Think not to atone for sins (committed) twice 
 in succession, because for the first thou shalt not go 
 unpunished. Say not, ' The Lord will look down 
 (favourably) upon the multitude of my offerings, and 
 when I present anything before the God Most High, that 
 He will accept it.' " ^uch passages witness to the
 
 47 
 
 growing disbelief in the efficacy of sacrifices as a means 
 
 of making peace with God, though passages like the 
 following, must not be lost sight of. "But thou, wisely 
 thinking mortal, hold not back with hesitating mind, but 
 turn unto God and seek to reconcile Him. Offer to God 
 hundreds of bullocks and of firstling lambs, and of goats 
 in the recurring seasons ; yea, seek to reconcile Him, the 
 Immortal God, that He may have mercy." Sz&. Orac. 
 iii. 624 628. 
 
 To sum up, now, the main teaching of these two 
 
 classes of literature : we note, first of all, that it has 
 
 pronounced points of attachment with the Old Testament 
 
 teaching on the subject. The sacrificial system as a 
 
 means of reconciliation with God is in part advocated, 
 
 but belief in its efficacy per se is no more firmly held ; this 
 
 is a point of supreme importance. The intercession of 
 
 human beings, of course, finds a place, but not such an 
 
 important place as in the Old Testament A great 
 
 advance has taken place in the belief in the intercession .-, 
 
 of angels, which is not more than adumbrated in the Old 
 
 Testament ; especially does the figure of the Archangel 
 
 Michael occupy a prominent position ; and his not 
 
 infrequent identification with Enoch is a point which 
 
 suggests various thoughts. The significance of angelic 
 
 intercession, as being offered by sinless beings, and as 
 
 taking place in the actual divine presence, has already 
 
 been referred to. But one other thing in this literature 
 
 must be noted, because it is both interesting and important. 
 
 We have found that in the Old Testament Mediation is, 
 
 speaking generally, confined to the intercessions of some 
 
 of the foremost religious leaders of the people \ this is,
 
 
 4 8 
 
 at all events, the main characteristic of the Old 
 Testament teaching on the subject. In the Apocrypha 
 and Pseudepigrapha this intercession is, for the most part, 
 accomplished by angels. But we find another element 
 as well, which may perhaps be described as an attempt 
 to combine the specifically Old Testament teaching with 
 that which is more especially characteristic of the later 
 literature; th mediating function which had been 
 exercised by religious leaders while on earth is conceived 
 of as being continued in the realms above ; good men, that 
 is to say, like Enoch *, Abraham, and Moses, who have 
 lived on earth, are believed to be interceding, as spiritual 
 beings in the presence of God in Heaven. The important 
 bearing which this has upon the Christian doctrine of 
 Mediation, will be obvious ; it will be sufficient here to 
 quote the well-known words in Hebr. vii. 25 : Wherefore 
 also he is able to save to the uttermost them that draw 
 near unto God through him, seeing he ever liveth to make 
 intercession for them"^ The following verses in the 
 same passage seem in a wonderful way to express the 
 thoughts of those post-biblical Jewish thinkers who were 
 beginning, on the one hand, to realize the incongruousness 
 of sinful men acting as mediating agencies between God 
 and men, and who, on the other hand, were beginning to 
 recognise not only the inadequacy, but also the inefficacy 
 of the sacrificial system : For suck a high-priest became 
 us, holy, guileless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and 
 made higher than the heavens ; who needed not daily, like 
 
 * Even though Enoch is identified with Michael, he is still believed 
 to have been at one time living on earth, and mortal, 
 t See also Hebr. iv. 14-16.
 
 49 
 
 those high-priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for his own 
 sins, and then for the sins of the people ; for this he did 
 once for all when he offered up himself. In the literature 
 we have been considering, therefore, we are able to 
 discern a distinct development regarding men's thoughts 
 on the subject of Mediation ; the substitute which these 
 thinkers conceived of, namely, the ancrels and the spirits 
 
 - - - " "--*-._--. MMt-^n, i IP UH_MHI i ii mi .M^wiHiliii. . w* 
 
 of the righteous, instead of sinful men and the 
 sacrificial system, bears witness to a sublime trend of 
 
 thought, indeed we should prefer to designate it as. 
 something much higher than a mere trend of thought, 
 They had reached the highest conception concerning 
 Mediatorship which was possible in pre-Christian times, 
 the conception, namely, of the mediation of spiritual and 
 sinless personalities, some of whom knew of the weak- 
 nesses and temptations of mortal men by their own 
 experience. But to what an ineradicable conviction of 
 the need of a Mediator does this bear witness !
 
 THE TEACHING OF MEDIATION IN 
 THE TARGUMS. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The Teaching in the Targums. 
 
 The Targums occupy a place of special importance in 
 
 the post-biblical literature of the Jews because they 
 embody the traditional exegesis of the Scriptures. The 
 word Targum means " Translation " ; but the Targums 
 constitute much more than translations of the Scriptures, 
 for the translation was intended to be at the same time 
 an interpretation. To the Jews the reading of the 
 Scriptures was considered insufficient if they were not 
 understood, and they could not be understood unless 
 explained. Besides this, as early as the time of Nehe- 
 A- miah* Hebrew had been displaced by Aramaic as the 
 I ] an g ua g e of the Jews ; when, therefore, the H ebre w 
 1 Bible was read in public It became necessary to translate 
 i it into Aramaic. Neh. viii. I 10 offers a good illustra- 
 tion of this : . . . And Ezra opened the book in the sight 
 of all the people . . . Also Jeshua, and Bani . . . and the 
 Levites caused the people to understand the law ; and the 
 people stood in their place. A nd they read in the book, in 
 the law of God, distinctly ;t and they gave the sense, so 
 
 * See also Ezra iv. 7. 
 
 t The margin in the Revised Version has : " With an interpretation " ; 
 he Hebrew word means literally : " To spread out," or " expand. '
 
 Si 
 
 that they understood the reading. When, later on, the 
 synagogues arose, and the Scriptures were read there, the 
 office of "translator " was instituted. The official trans- 
 lator who performed the duty of translating the Hebrew 
 Bible into Aramaic was called the Methurgeman or 
 Targeman, which is equivalent to the modern Dragoman 
 (" Interpreter "). The way in which it was done was as 
 follows : " In the case of the Pentateuch (the Law] one 
 verse. was read in Hebrew, and then translated into Ara- 
 maic, and so on to the end of the appointed portion ; but 
 in the case of the prophetical writings three verses were 
 reacL and then translated. Whether this system was the 
 custom originally may be doubted ; it was probably done 
 in a less formal way at first. By degrees the translation 
 became stereotyped, and was ultimately reduced to writ- 
 ing; and thus the Targums, the Aramaic translations of 
 the Hebrew Bible, came into existence."* But, as already 
 stated, the Targums were not merely translations, but 
 also interpretations of the biblical text, and the interpre- 
 tation took the form of a paraphrase of the original ; 
 sometimes this paraphrase is of a more elaborate char- 
 acter than at others ; in the Tar gum of Onkelos to the 
 Pentateuch, for example, the paraphrase is much simpler 
 than that in the Tar gum to the Sons: of Songs. 
 
 In giving some examples of the teaching on Mediation 
 as contained in the Targums, it will be understood that 
 they comprise only a very few out of a much larger 
 number that could be given. The Targums to which 
 
 * See, further, the writer's art. "Targums" in Hastings' One Volume 
 Diet, of the Bible ; Oesterley and Box, Op. cit. pp. 44-50.
 
 52 
 
 reference will be made, as well as the editions utilized, 
 are the following : 
 
 The Targum of Onkelos to the Pentateuch (The Aramaic 
 Text with Notes has been published by Berliner, 1884; 
 Wu'nsche and others are issuing the Aramaic Text with 
 a German translation, this is in process of publication, 
 1906.) 
 
 The Targum of fiseudo- Jonathan to the Pentateuch (An 
 English Translation was published by Etheridge, under 
 the title The Targums to the Pentateuch, 2 vols., 1 862 
 1865). 
 
 The Targum of Jonathan to the Prophets (An English 
 Translation of the Targum to Isaiah was published by 
 Pauli, The Chaldee Paraphrase on the prophet Isaiah, 
 1871). 
 
 The Targum to Canticles, i.e. "Song of Songs" (An 
 English Translation has been published by Gollancz, 
 1909.) 
 
 As will be seen, the three divisions of the Hebrew 
 Bible The Law, the Prophets, and the Writings are 
 thus each represented. In quoting from or referring to 
 these, we shall use the following abbreviations : Targ. 
 Onk.; Targ. ps.-Jon. ; Targ. Jon. ; Targ, Cant. 
 
 i. Human Beings as Intermediaries between God 
 
 and men. 
 
 The doctrine of the merits of the fathers being a 
 mediating agency between God and men will come 
 before us later on ; but it is a doctrine which finds 
 expression in the Targums; thus in Targ. Cant, to i. 9 
 it is said that the Israelites " passed in the midst of 
 the Red Sea on dry land by virtue of the merit of
 
 53 
 
 Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the beloved ones of the 
 Lord." It is not only the merits of the fathers which 
 are potent in inducing God to look favourably upon 
 His people, but also the merits of the righteous in any 
 age ; for example, in Targ. Cant, to vi. 12. God is repre- 
 sented as saying: " I will no longer smite them, nor will 
 I make an end of them, but I shall consider within 
 Myself how I may deal kindly with them, to place them 
 on high in the company of kings, for the sake of the 
 merits of the righteous of the generation, resembling in 
 their actions Abraham their forefather "; again, in the 
 same Targum to vii. 14.: " The term of the exile has 
 been completed; and the merit of the righteous has 
 given forth its fragrance before Me .... Come, now, 
 rise, and receive the Kingdom which I have reserved 
 for thee," i.e. for the Messiah. 
 
 Among the merits of the patriarchs which are of 
 mediating efficacy those of Abraham naturally play a 
 leading part Chief of these is his obedience to God in 
 binding Isaac upon the altar ; this act is technically known 
 as 'Afygdah (= " Binding "); we shall have occasion to 
 refer to it again later on ; it is mentioned in Targ. Cant. 
 to i. 13., in the words: "... Whereupon Moses turned, 
 and besought compassion from the Lord, and the Lord 
 remembered unto them the binding of Isaac, whose 
 father bound him on Mount Moriah upon the altar, and 
 the Lord turned from His anger, and suffered His 
 Divine Presence to dwell in their midst as heretofore." 
 Here God's wrath is directly stated to have been 
 appeased through Abraham's good deed. It may be 
 pientioned in passing that in the Midrash on the Song
 
 54 
 
 of Songs this verse, i. 13., is also explained as referring 
 to Abraham: "Just as this myrrh is the best of every 
 kind of herb, so Abraham was the foremost among all 
 the righteous " ; these words are repeated in iii. 6.* 
 Again it is said in Targ. Cant, to ii. 17, that in punish- 
 ment for their worship of the Golden Calf, God was 
 about to destroy the children of Israel from off the 
 earth, but He called to mind the covenant which He 
 had established with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and 
 " He remembered the sacrifice^ which Abraham offered 
 in Isaac, his son, on Mount Moriah," cp. also iii. 6, vii. 6. 
 Sometimes also the merits of Jacob are recorded as 
 inclining God favourably towards the Israelites, e.g., in 
 Targ. Cant, to iii. 6, it is said that miracles were wrought 
 " through the piety of Jacob " ; and in the Midrash the 
 " frankincense " is explained as referring to Isaac, " who 
 was to have been presented on the altar like a handful 
 of frankincense." Further, as one would expect, the 
 personality of Moses occupies a prominent position as 
 one who comes between God and men, averting the 
 divine wrath and effecting peace ; for example, in Targ. 
 Onk. to Deut v. 5, we read : " I (Moses) stood between 
 the Word of Jehovah and you " ; the substitution of the 
 " Word (Memra) of Jehovah/' for "Jehovah;' \vhich is 
 what the Old Testament has, is for the purpose of 
 avoiding an anthropomorphism; this is characteristic 
 of Targumic exegesis. 
 
 Very striking are the words in Targ. Cant, to i. 5.: 
 When Moses, their Teacher, went up to Heaven, 
 
 * Wiinsche, Der Midrasch Schir ha-Schirim.
 
 55 
 
 and brought about peace between them and their King"; 
 in the same Targum to i. 9., it is said : " At that moment 
 the anger of the Lord waxed against them, and he was 
 about to drown them in the waters of the sea, in the 
 same manner as Pharoah and his host were drowned, 
 had it not been for Moses, the prophet, who spread 
 forth his hands before the Lord, and removed the anger 
 of the Lord from them;" and once more, iii. 3.: "... 
 And Moses, the great Teacher of Israel, replied, and 
 said, I will ascend unto the high Heavens, and suppli- 
 cate the Lord ; peradventure He will forgive your guilt, 
 and suffer His Presence to dwell among you as hereto- 
 
 I'-fbre." 
 
 Butjt is of still greater interest to observe the way in 
 ich the Tqrgums speak of the Messiah as Intercessor 
 and Redeemer^; a few illustrations may be given to 
 illustrate this. In Targ. Jon. to Zech. xii. 5., the 
 Messiah is spoken of as Israel's " Redeemer"; this must 
 not, however, be understood as redeeming from sin, the 
 reference is to redemption from bondage to the nations 
 which the Israelites will be suffering, according to Jewish 
 teaching, immediately prior to the advent of the 
 Messiah ; nevertheless, from many other passages 
 
 5 it is clear that the Messiah occupies a special 
 position as intermediary between God and men, so that 
 
 his title of Redeemer here connotes the idea of a unique 
 office which he fulfils as God's regent. 
 
 One cannot dissociate the Messianic teaching of the prophetical 
 books in the Bible from that of the Targums, the former underlies 
 the latter ; this fact comes out strongly when one takes into 
 consideration the whole of the post- biblical Jewish teaching on the 
 subject. In connexion with the belief in the "redemptive"
 
 56 
 
 functions of the Messiah it is well to bear in mind the Isaianic 
 conceptions regarding the Person of the Messiah ; the four passages, 
 ii. 2-4, iv. 2-6. ix. 5-6, xi. 1-5, will be found to be instructive in this 
 connection. " In the first passage Jehovah Himself is the 
 Messianic ruler ; He is to be the universal Judge over all peoples. 
 The ruler is divine, His subjects include all nations. In the second 
 passage Jehovah is still the Messianic ruler on earth, but His presence 
 is indicated by the Shekhinah ; His subjects are now restricted 
 to the purified children of Israel. A new element has entered the 
 circle of ideas, namely, the 'Branch of Jehovah,' forming the point 
 of attachment for the idea of the ' Shoot ' or ' Twig ' of Jesse. In 
 the third passage a divine-human ruler (the Immanuel-conception 
 of vii. 14 forming the link) sits upon the throne of David ; His 
 subjects are the children of Israel. In the fourth passage a purely 
 human ruler, upon whom the spirit of Jehovah is manifest in a unique 
 manner, is presented ; he is a descendant of Jesse, and therefore, 
 presumably, his subjects are restricted to the children of Israel."* 
 This striking chain of ideas whereby the functions of the Messiah 
 are by gradual steps transferred from God Himself to a human ruler 
 shows that in the history of the Messianic Hope one may r.t 
 dissociate the thought of God from Messianic action ; so that in the 
 redemptive functions of the Messiah, even when they refer to purely 
 temporal affairs, one is justified in discerning mediatorial activity. 
 
 The Messiah is also spoken of as " Redeemer " in 
 
 Targ. Cant, to iv. 5, vii. 4. Generally speaking, in the 
 
 j Targums the Messiah is conceived of as a human being, 
 
 I but there are exceptions, such as in Targ. Jon. to 
 
 Zech. iv. 7, where it is said : " And He will reveal the 
 
 Messiah, whose name hath been uttered from eternity, 
 
 and he shall rule over all kingdoms." t But the most 
 
 instructive passage concerning the Messiah as Mediatop 
 
 is, of course, Is. liii. ; in Targ. Jon. to verse 4 it is said : 
 
 * See the writer's The Evolution of the Messianic Idea, pp. 236^, and 
 chips, xiv. , xv., of the same book, 
 t Weber, Op. cit., p. 383.
 
 57 
 
 " He will intercede concerning our sins and misdeeds, 
 and for his sake they will be forgiven " ; the forgiveness 
 of sins for his sake is also referred to in the paraphrase 
 on the following verse ; and again on verse 6 this 
 Targum says : " It was the good pleasure of Jehovah to 
 forgive all our sins for his sake " ; on verse 1 1 the 
 Messiah is described as interceding for sinners ; while the 
 paraphrase on the last verse runs : " Therefore will I 
 give him the spoil of many nations, and the wealth of 
 mighty cities shall he distribute as booty, because he 
 gave his life up to death ; and the faithless did he 
 subjugate unto the Law ; and he intercedes for the 
 sins of many, the faithless ones shall be forgiven for his 
 sake." It is important to notice here how the Targum 
 tones down the sublime teaching of the Old Testament, 
 deliberately passing over the clearly expressed doctrine 
 of vicarious suffering on the part of the Servant of the 
 Lord ; yet, in spite of this, the Targum gives ample 
 expression to the belief in the mediatorial functions of 
 the Messiah in laying continued stress on his intercession 
 and on his being the means of the forgiveness of sins. 
 The Messiah is here presented as Advocate and Mediator, 
 though concerning the way in which these functions 
 are accomplished silence is preserved. 
 
 ii. Super-human Beings as Intermediaries between 
 
 God and men. 
 
 Under this heading we may briefly mention first the 
 Archangel Michael, who figures so conspicuously in the 
 Pseudepigraphic literature,* though it is not often that 
 * See pp. 39 ff.
 
 58 
 
 he is referred to in the Targ-ums. He is spoken of as an 
 intercessor in Targ. Cant, to viii. 9 : " Then shall 
 Michael, Israel's chief, say, If she be ready as a wall 
 among the nations (prepared) to give silver for the 
 
 acquisition of the Unity of God's Name, then shall I and 
 
 ^ HI I ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^.^^l 
 
 you be with their Teachers. . . . And even though 
 she be destitute of precepts, we shall implore on her 
 behalf mercy from heaven." This intercessory activity 
 of the Archangel Michael accords with what we have 
 already seen to be the teaching in the Pseudepigraphic 
 literature, and it will come before us again in dealing 
 with the subject in the later Rabbinical literature. 
 
 Of greater importance is the teaching concerning 
 certain semi-divine beings of whom mention is made in 
 
 ~ ~i-fc -- -- _^..-j&^ *-^ - ^ -- 
 
 the Targums, and the conceptions concerning whom are 
 greatly developed in Rabbinical literature (see below). 
 i^f The first of these to whom attention must be drawn is 
 J\ i Metatron. In Targ. ps.-Jon. to Gen, v. 24 Metatron is 
 if ' identified with Enoch, the Great Scribe : * " Enoch 
 ascended into Heaven through the Word of God, and 
 He (God) called Him Metatron, the Great Scribe." In 
 the same Targum to Deut. xxxiv. 6 Metatron is 
 mentioned together with the Angels Jophiel, Uriel, and 
 Jophjophia, as those who buried Moses j they are called 
 the princes of Wisdom. f "In the Hebrew writings, 
 according to Ludwig Blau, Metatron 'fills the role of 
 Enoch in the Apocrypha in bearing witness to the sins 
 of mankind. Since both sources represent him as a 
 youth, it may be assumed that the first versions of the 
 
 * See P . 38. 
 
 t Weber, Op. cit., p. 178.
 
 59 
 
 Hebrew mystical works, though they received their 
 present form in the Geonic period, * originated in 
 f antiquity, so that the conception of Metatron must 
 likewise date from an early period ' {Jewish Encyd. viii., 
 519). It is characteristic that while Metatron, or 
 Enoch, appears as the accuser of mankind in general, he 
 occupies the rdle of intercessor and reconciler as far as 
 the children of Israel are concerned." f The 
 
 Metatron is most probably a hebraized form of the Greek 
 Metalhronos or perhaps J\Ietatyrannos, i.e., one who 
 occupies the next rank to ruler.t (See further, the 
 chapter on the Teaching of Mediation in Rabbincal 
 writings). 
 
 Next, we come to the Memra, or " Word," of God ; 
 this conception is specifically characteristic of the 
 Targums, and occurs in these with great frequency ; only 
 a small selection from a very large number of passages 
 is offered here. In the first place, the Memra is often 
 represented as Israel's Intercessor before God ; thus, in 
 Targ. Jon. to Jer. xxix. 14, the Memra is spoken of as 
 the Intercessor who pleads to God on behalf of Israel. 
 Again, frequently in the Targ. Onk. the Memra appears 
 'as the Helper of the righteous in Israel, e.g., to Gen. 
 xxi. 22: "The Menira of Jehovah is thy help (lit. 
 support) in all that thou doest " ; these words are 
 
 * i.e., 589-1040 A.D. ; the Geonim, "Princes" (of the Captivity), were 
 |the acknowledged heads of the academies, or schools, of Sura and 
 j Pumbeditha, in Babylonia. They were the official heads of Judaism in 
 things judicial as well as spiritual. 
 
 t Oesterley and Box, Of. cit., pp., I75f. 
 
 Weber, Op. cit. t p. 178.
 
 6o 
 
 spoken to Abraham ; to Exod. iii. 12, it is said to Moses : 
 " Yea, my Memra shall support thee ;" to Num. xiv. 9 : 
 *' The Memra of Jehovah will support us, be ye not 
 afraid of them " ; to Deut. ii. 7 : " These forty years the 
 Memra of Jehovah was supporting thee, thou didst not 
 lack for anything." In this Targum the words, " The 
 Memra of Jehovah will support thee" ("p^Dl ^n Nlft"^) 
 is a standing phrase. Then, again, in this Targum it is 
 the Memra who is the deliverer of the children of Israel 
 out of Egypt, e.g., to Exod. iii. 12, iv. 12, 15. 
 
 In the second place, stress is often laid upon the 
 redemptive function of the Memra ; thus, in Targ. ps.- 
 Jon. to Num. xxi. 9 f. the Memra is spoken of as Israel's 
 <f Redeemer ''" ; he is also called the " Redeemer " in Targ. 
 Jon. to Is. xlv. 17., Jer. iii. 23 ; and in the same Targum 
 to Is. Ivi. 13. it is said: "My Memra shall be unto you 
 for a redeeming deity " ; and to Zech. xii. 5. : " In the 
 Memra redemption will be found." 
 
 Lastly, the Memra is represented as a Mediator between 
 God and men ; according to Targ. ps.-Jon. to Lev. xxvi. 
 9. for example it is said the Memra is the means where- 
 by God turns again to His people ; in the same Targum 
 to Deut. iv. 7. it is said that " the Memra brings Israel 
 nigh unto God, and sits on His throne* receiving the 
 prayers of Israel "f; in Targ. Jon. to ii Kings xiii. 23. we 
 read : " Jehovah looked upon His people in mercy because 
 of His Memra " ; and in the same Targum to Is. xlv. 25. 
 the justification of the seed of Israel is said to be due to 
 
 * Cp. the name " Metatron," see p. 59 above, 
 t fewish Encycl., viii.,
 
 6i 
 
 the Memra. " As in ruling over the destiny of man the 
 Memra is the agent of God(Targ-.fls.-fon. to Num. xxvii. 
 16.), so also is it in the creation of the earth (Is. xlv. 12.) 
 and in the execution of justice (Targ. ps.-Jon, to Num. 
 xxxiii. 4.) "* 
 
 Two other super-human Beings are often mentioned 
 in the Targum, namely the Shekhinah, and the Holy 
 Spirit ; but with these we shall not be at present con- 
 cerned, for they are not represented as mediating agen- 
 cies in the same sense as Metatron and the Memra ; we 
 shall refer to them when dealing with the doctrine of 
 Mediation in Rabbinical literature. 
 
 Ibid.
 
 62 
 
 THE TEACHING ON MEDIATION IN 
 RABBINICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Summary of the preceding Chapters. 
 
 We have, so far, examined the subject of Mediation 
 in the Old Testament, in the Apocrypha, in the 
 Pseudepigraplia, and in the Targums. It is at this point 
 that the parting of the ways comes as regards the Jewish 
 and the Christian doctrine on the subject ; and there- 
 fore, before we proceed to examine the teaching of the 
 later Jewish literature, it will be well to make a brief 
 summary of the leading points hitherto noticed. 
 j Firstly, we saw that at the root of the doctrine of 
 ; Mediation lay two conceptions, namely, the Idea of God 
 and the Sense of Sin ; according as to whether the 
 conception of God is exalted, according as to whether 
 the sense of sin is deep, so will the intensity of the need 
 of a Mediator between God and man assert itself ; and 
 in accordance with man's realization of the nature of 
 God's Personality on the one hand, and his recognition 
 of his own sinfulness on the other, so will be the ideas 
 which he formulates concerning the person and work of 
 a Mediator.
 
 63 
 
 Secondly, it was shown that, speaking generally, while 
 in the Old Testament the principle of Mediation was 
 observable throughout, the presentation of the idea of 
 Mediatorship was only rarely adumbrated ; and this was 
 precisely what was to be expected, since although the 
 doctrine of God in the Old Testament is, taking it as a 
 whole, a very exalted one, more especially in the 
 prophetic literature, nevertheless the sense of sinfulness 
 in man is only inadequately apprehended. 
 
 Thirdly, illustrations of the general principle of 
 Mediation were given, namely, the priesthood, the 
 sacrificial system, the prophetical office^and the kingship 
 in so far as the king was entitled to perform priestly 
 functions. But it was pointed out that in each of these 
 cases the idea of Mediatorship fails from the fact that each 
 office only represents one side of mediatorial action ; for 
 the essence of the idea of a Mediator between God and man 
 is that he should represent two sides, the human before 
 God, and the divine among men ; but while, in a certain 
 sense, the priest is the representative of men before God, 
 and the prophet comes among men as God's representa- 
 tive, neither combines in himself the two offices ; and, 
 /therefore, strictly speaking, it is only the principle of 
 u Mediation which is presented in the persons of priest and 
 1 prophet. But, on the other hand, it was further pointed 
 out that in such persons as Abraham and Moses, who 
 occupy a special position in the sight both of God and of 
 men, the office of mediator is, at any rate, adumbrated. 
 
 Fourthly, another important point upon which emphasis 
 was laid was that in Mediation two elements were 
 equired ; viz., intercession, and the presenting of some-
 
 6 4 
 
 thing; examples were cited to prove this ; and in 
 
 connexion with this part of the subject certain technical 
 terms were examined, the most important of which were 
 (i) the various forms from the root 1Q2 "to cover/* 
 underlying each were the ideas of the existence of sin 
 which separates from God, the yearning to be reconciled 
 to God, and the means whereby such reconciliation can 
 be brought about ; (2) the chdtfdth, or " reconciliation- 
 offering " ; (3) the ' askant ^ or " compensation-offering." 
 
 Fifthly, some passages were given which were directly 
 contrary to the idea of a mediator between God and man. 
 
 In the next place the teaching of the Apocrypha was 
 examined, and the conclusion reached was that for the 
 most part the idea of Mediation was absent ; speaking 
 generally, there is but little hope for sinners ; when there 
 is a question of forgiveness for these, the divine mercy is 
 accorded without the need of any Mediator. One very 
 striking point, however, is that when a Mediator is 
 mentioned, though it be but rarely, he appears as a 
 superhuman being. So that as far as the character of 
 the Mediator is concerned the teaching of the Apocrypha 
 is an advance upon that of the Old Testament; but, 
 taken as a whole, the doctrine of Mediation in the 
 Apocrypha shows a retrograde movement, more, 
 however, by its silence on the subject than by actually 
 antagonistic teaching ; though one book, ii. (iv.) Esdras, 
 contains much that is directly antagonistic to all idea of 
 Mediation. 
 
 Next, it was seen that the teaching of the 
 Pseudepigrapka presented some new and important 
 elements ; thus the sacrificial system as a means of
 
 65 
 
 reconciliation with God is in part advocated, but belief 
 in its efficacy per se is no more firmly held ; this was a 
 point of great importance. The intercessions of human 
 beings finds a place, but not such an important place as 
 in the Old Testament. On the other hand, it was found 
 that a great advance had taken place here in the belief 
 concerning the intercession of angels, which was not 
 much more than adumbrated in the Old Testament ; it 
 was shown that the figure of the Archangel Michael 
 occupied a prominent position, and that not infrequently 
 he was identified with Enoch. Another element was 
 found which seemed to be an attempt to combine the 
 specifically Old Testament teaching with that which was 
 more specifically characteristic of the post-biblical 
 writings, namely that the mediating function which had 
 been exercised by religious leaders while on earth was 
 conceived of as being continued in the realms above ; 
 Enoch, Abraham, and Moses who had lived on earth, 
 were believed to be interceding, as spiritual beings, in the 
 presence of God in heaven. In the Pseudepigrapha, 
 therefore, it was pointed out that a distinct development 
 regarding men's thoughts on the subject of Mediation 
 was to be discerned ; the substitute which the authors of 
 these writings conceived of, namely, the angels and the 
 spirits of the righteous, instead of sinful men and the 
 sacrificial system, reflected almost the highest conception 
 concerning Mediatorship which was possible in pre- 
 Christian times, the conception, namely, of the mediation 
 of spiritual and sinless personalities. 
 
 Lastly, in the Targums we have both a continuation 
 and a development of the teaching in the Pseudepigrapha;
 
 66 
 
 the mediating function of such men as Abraham and 
 Moses is frequently emphasized ; but a great development 
 has taken place, for now for the first time super-human, 
 semi-divine beings, ]\Ietatron and the Memra t appear as 
 Mediators between God and men. 
 
 We are now in a position to examine the teaching of 
 the later Jewish teaching, or, as it may be expressed, of 
 Rabbinical Judaism. 
 
 Isem 
 Me
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The Torah as a Mediating Agency. 
 
 It would obviously be quite impossible to attempt to 
 deal in any way exhaustively with the idea of Mediation 
 as presented in Rabbinical writings ; this would require 
 specialized study and a much wider acquaintance with 
 the literature in question than we are able to boast of; 
 all that can be at present attempted is to give a few 
 indications of the fact that the principle of Mediation is 
 not so alien to the spirit of Judaism as one might at first 
 be led to suppose. 
 
 Our first step will be to try and show that much of 
 the ethical teaching of Judaism involves a belief in the 
 principle of Mediation. It should be stated that we are 
 at present referring to the principle of Mediation in a 
 wide sense of the term ; anything, that is to say, which 
 comes in between God and man, and brings about 
 reconciliation, thus tending to be effective in establishing 
 good relations between the Creator and His creatures, 
 partakes of the nature of a mediating influence ; but for 
 this purpose that which exercises the mediating influence 
 must be regarded as being itself effective in producing 
 the result desired ; and, as will be seen, this is the case 
 with those things now to be considered.
 
 68 
 
 We may begin with what is the foundation of all 
 Jewish ethical teaching, namely the Law, or 
 
 observance of which is per se effective in establishing and 
 maintaining a right relationship between God and man. 
 The Torah is the means of attaining eternal life ; thus, 
 for example, in Shabbath 88b it says : " Wherefore are 
 the words of the Torah* (Prov. viii. 15. 16) compared to 
 a prince ? In order that thou mayest know that just as a 
 prince has the power of killing and giving life, so are the 
 words of Torah mighty to slay or to make alive. 
 This is what Rabat said : ' The Torah is a means 
 of salvation for those who rely upon her ; but for those 
 who turn away from her she is a means of death.' " J ' 
 Again, in Pirke Aboth ii. 8 we read : " He who has 
 gotten to himself words of Torah has gotten to himself 
 the life of the world to come." In the same work, 
 vi. I, it says : " It (i.e. the Torah} 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 in vi. 7 : 
 " Great is Torah which gives life to those who practise 
 it in this world and in the world to come." Further, it is 
 said in Chagigah I2b that a cord of grace is drawn in 
 
 * Strictly speaking the Torah includes the Pentateuch only ; but the 
 extended use is not infrequently found. 
 
 t I.e., Ben Joseph Ben Chama a Babylonian amora of the fourth 
 generation; he lived from about 280-352 A.D. An " amyra" 
 (Interpreter) was the technical name given to the Commentators of the 
 text of the Mishnah, see Oesterley and Box, Op. cit., pp. 61 ff. 
 
 Weber, Op. cit., p. 21. 
 
 Taylor, Sayings of the Jewish Fathers, p. 32.
 
 6 9 
 
 the future world by God around those who study the 
 Torah ; and in Bereshith Rabba xxiii. 4 occur the words : 
 " The righteous [these are, of course, those who pre- 
 eminently study the Torak\ have the power to change 
 the attribute of justice to the attribute of mercy." As in 
 the Torah all is contained that is required both in this 
 world and in the world to come, he that faithfully studies 
 it and observes its precepts is doing all that he has the 
 power of doing and it is sufficient to ensure for himself 
 eternal life ; therefore, one is not surprised to read in 
 Sifre 4oa, for example, that it is the Torah which leads 
 men to eternal life in the next world ; in other words, 
 the Torah is the medium, and its study is the condition, 
 of immortality.* The idea of imputing personality to 
 the Torah which seems to underlie this passage, receives 
 actual expression in Shemoth Rabba^ c. 29, where it says 
 that the Torah stands before the Holy One and 
 intercedes for Israel. t 
 
 * Oesterley and Box, Cp. cit., pp. 141 ff. 
 t Weber, Op. cit,, p. 61.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Almsgiving as a Mediating Agency. 
 
 Another means whereby a right relationship between 
 God and man is effected is the giving of Alms. This 
 maybe illustrated by a few quotations. \\\ Baba Bathra 
 loa a saying of Rabbi Akiba's* is preserved to the effect 
 that benevolence of which almsgiving is, of course, the 
 visible expression saves from the torments of hell,t 
 (Cf. Gittin /a). In the same tractate, Baba Bathra 93, 
 it is said that just as formerly reconciliation was made 
 by means of the shekel, so now reconciliation is made by 
 means of almsgiving.^ The verse Prov. xi. 4 (Riches 
 profit not in the day of wrath; but righteousness 
 delivereth from death) was expounded thus : " Water 
 will quench blazing fire; so that almsgiving makes 
 atonement for sins." A most striking sentence is that 
 contained in Baba Bathra loa : " Almsgiving is a 
 powerful mediator between the Israelites and their 
 Father in heaven ; it brings the time of redemption 
 nigh." || This tractate is full of further teaching to the same 
 effect; one more example may be given, namely, the 
 following words of Monobazus, King of Adiabene : 
 
 * A Tanna (i.e., " Teacher") who was born in the middle of the first 
 century, A.D., and suffered martyrdom about the year 132. 
 fBacher, Aggada der Tannaiten, i. 295. 
 J Weber, Op. cit., p. 333. 
 Quoted in the Jewish Encyd. I. 435 b. 
 1| Ibid.
 
 " My fathers gathered treasures here below ; but I lay up 
 treasures above. My fathers gathered (treasures) in a 
 place where the hand can reach them ; but I have 
 gathered them in a place where no hand can reach 
 them. My fathers gathered that which bears no fruit ; 
 but I have gathered that which bears fruit. My fathers 
 gathered the treasures of mammon ; but I have 
 gathered treasures which are souls. My fathers gathered 
 for others ; but I have gathered for myself. My fathers 
 gathered for this world ; but I have gathered for the 
 world to come." (Baba Bathra, la).* 
 
 * Wiinsche, Neue Beitrdge zur Erliiuterung der Evangelien aus Talmud 
 und Midrasch II. 2. 134. Cf. Bousset, Die Religion des fudenthums, 
 p. 1 20.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 Repentance as a Mediating Agency. 
 
 Further, repentance is potent in re-establishing a 
 right relationship between God and man ; it is directly 
 spoken of as the " Interceder " on behalf of men with 
 God (Shabbath 3ib). In Yoma 86b it is said: "It 
 (i.e. Repentance) brings redemption, and is the cause of 
 God's regarding sins as though they had been 
 unconsciously committed, and even of His regarding 
 them as good works and meritorious. It prolongs 
 the days and years of men." In the same tractate we 
 read : " Great is the power of repentance ; for it reaches 
 up to the throne of God ; it brings healing (Hos. xiv. 4) ; 
 it turns sins resulting from ill-will into mere errors, nay, 
 into incentives to meritorious conduct " ( Yoma 86ab). 
 Again, in Shabbath 32a we read : " Repentance and 
 works of charity are man's intercessors before the House 
 of God"* And, once more : " He who sincerely repents 
 is doing as much as he who builds temple and altar, and 
 brings all sacrifices " (Sanhedrin 43b).f According to 
 Pesikta I56b, on the ten days which follow Rosh 
 Hashshana (i.e., " New Year's Day ") the divine Shekhinah 
 rests on Israel ; the act of repentance done during these 
 
 * Jewish Encycl. X. 377a. 
 f Op. tit. II. 279 b.
 
 73 
 
 days is especially acceptable to God ; therefore, 
 according to Rosh Hashshana i/b, whosoever shows 
 repentance during this period receives forgiveness of 
 sins, but whosoever does not repent then will not be 
 forgiven even though he should bring as offerings all the 
 rams of Nebaioth (see Is. Ix. 7) that are in the world.
 
 74 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 Other Mediating Agencies. 
 
 One other thing must be mentioned, and that is that 
 individual suffering is a means of Atonement, and, 
 therefore, of reconciliation with God. This is a matter 
 of considerable importance and claims particular 
 attention. It is not only that bodily sufferings^are 
 recognized as punishment for sin, but that they are in 
 themselves the means of obliterating sin. From this 
 point of view one may say that the committing of sin 
 is like the incurring of a debt ; when the money is paid 
 the debt no longer exists, the matter is settled ; so sin 
 is looked upon as involving a debt which is owing to 
 God ; this debt can be paid in the form of bodily 
 suffering ; the payment having been made in this form 
 is recognized as valid, and the divine Creditor is believed 
 to be fully satisfied. _Here it is, therefore, important to 
 note that the bodily suffering is the means of establishing 
 right relations between God and man ; it is that which 
 comes between God and man, and it thus involves the 
 jDrinciple of Mediation. This can be illustrated by a few 
 quotations. In Sifre 73b it is said that a man should 
 rejoice more in chastisements than in prosperity, 
 because if he enjoyed good fortune all the days of his 
 life, the sins of which he is guilty would not be forgiven 
 him. How, it is asked, can he attain forgiveness ? He 
 is forgiven by means of chastisements. The matter is
 
 75 
 
 put very baldly in Pesikta i6ib, where it is said that 
 God causes the righteous to pay Him what they owe 
 Him on account of the evil deeds which they have done.* 
 In Bereshith Rabba, c. 65, we are told that Isaac prayed 
 that he might be granted sufferings in order to turn away 
 from him the judgement in the world to come. 
 Again, " Suffering is more apt than sacrifice to win God's 
 favour and to atone for man " (Bereshith Rabba Saj.f 
 If suffering thus makes atonement for sin much more 
 will this be the case with death. Therefore it is taught 
 that for all those who seek to attain to righteousness 
 death in itself effects reconciliation. " Let my death 
 make atonement for all my sins," men say when they 
 are dying or in great peril.J "All who die are 
 reconciled through death," is a saying quoted in Sifre 
 33a. And the more dreadful the death the more 
 efficacious is its reconciling power ; therefore martyrdom 
 is a supreme means of reconciliation. That martyrs 
 should be believed to have places of special honour in 
 heaven stands to reason (Baba Bathra lob). 
 
 Besides the things that have been referred to, Prayen 
 Fasting, and Self-Mortification are also means of 
 reconciliation with God ; it will not be necessary to go 
 into any further details regarding these. The point to 
 be emphasized is that all these things are understood to- 
 be means whereby God is induced to look favourably 
 upon men. The significance of this, in the present 
 Connexion, however, lies in the fact that the Torak 
 
 * Weber, Op. cit. p. 322. 
 t Jewish Encycl. II. 279 b. 
 J Ibid.
 
 Almsgiving, etc., are per se mediating elements between 
 God and man, It is, of course, natural and obvious 
 that this should be so ; but this involves the principle of 
 Mediation, the truth, namely, that something is needed 
 to come in between God and man in order that normal 
 relations may be established and maintained between 
 them. They bear witness to the fact that sin estranges 
 from God, and that man's desire is to stand right with 
 God, and that something must act as a link between God 
 and man a link, or a means, of drawing them together 
 again. In a word, to repeat what has already been 
 said, they involve a belief in the principle of Mediation. 
 This, therefore, corresponds with what we have seen 
 to lie at the root of the doctrine of Mediation in the 
 Old Testament, namely, the Idea of God and the Sense 
 of Sin.
 
 77 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 The Idea of Mediatorship. 
 
 We must now go a step farther and turn from the. 
 principle of Mediation to the idea of a Mediator ; this 
 figures more frequently than might be supposed in 
 Rabbinical literature, though we shall naturally not 
 expect to find it occupying a very prominent position 
 there, nor that there is unanimity of teaching among the 
 various authorities cited. 
 
 It will be best if we deal with this part of our subject 
 under three headings ; though the subject-matter of each 
 runs into the other, yet it will be seen that for clearness v 
 sake it is better to divide it in this way. 
 
 We will, therefore, first draw attention to some general 
 considerations which suggest the idea of Mediatorship. 
 There is a beautiful thought which frequently finds 
 expression in Rabbinical writings to the effect that IsraeL 
 as a whole, is one self-contained organism, all the 
 
 I component parts of which are dependent upon each 
 other in spiritual things, and that which is lacking in 
 righteousness to one is supplied by others who are more 
 righteous.* Naturally those who were, above all, regarded 
 as the more righteous were the patriarchs of old, whose 
 good deeds were so great and so many in number that 
 some of them could be imputed to men of later genera- 
 tions, whose lives were not so rich in well-doing. There 
 
 * Cf. i. Cor. xii. 26.
 
 78 
 
 is a comment on the words of Song of SOHRS i. g, / am 
 black, but comely, which, judging from its frequent 
 occurrence, evidently enjoyed much favour ; these words 
 are explained thus : " The congregation of Israel says, 
 " 1^ am black through my own deeds, but comely through 
 \ the work of my fathers." Although sometimes 
 individuals may lay claim to the benefit of this heritage 
 of good works, it is as a rule for the Israelite body as a 
 whole that they are a means of atonement and 
 reconciliation.* There is an instructive passage in 
 Shemoth Rabba, c. 44, which well illustrates this belief in 
 the atoning efficacy of the good works of the fathers ; it 
 is as follows : " How many prayers did Elijah offer up 
 on Mount Carmel that fire might fall from Heaven, and 
 yet he was not answered ! But when he uttered the 
 names of the dead, and called Jehovah the God of 
 Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, then he was immediately 
 answered. So it was, too, with Moses. When the 
 Israelites had committed that evil deed, Moses stood up 
 and pleaded for their justification forty days and forty 
 nights ; and he was not answered. But when he made 
 mention of the dead, his prayer was answered at once ; 
 for it is said : ' Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,' 
 as it is written (Exod. xxxii. 14), God repented Him of 
 the evil. Wherefore, just as this living vine rests upon 
 the dead stem, so does Israel live, relying on the fathers 
 who are dead." t 
 
 * Cf. Bousset, Op. (it,, p. 182, 
 t Weber, Op. cit. t p. 293.
 
 79 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Intercession and Vicarious Suffering. 
 
 the idea of a Mediator is more pointedly 
 illustrated by passages which describe the actual inter- 
 cession of the righteous on behalf of others, as well as 
 their sufferings on behalf of others. That the death of 
 the righteous atones for the sins of the people is stated 
 several times ; thus in Pesikta i/4b, the passage in 
 II. Sam. xxi. 14, where it is said that after the burial of 
 Saul and Jonathan God was entreated for the land, is 
 interpreted in the sense that the death of these was in 
 itself an act of intercession on behalf of the people ; and 
 not only so, but the death and suffering of the righteous 
 is believed to be an actual atonement for the sins of the 
 people, thus bringing about reconciliation ; this is said, for 
 example, of Ezekiel and Job in Sanhedrin 3Qa ; * and in 
 Pesikta I74b, it is further stated that the death of the 
 righteous has the same atoning power as the Day of 
 Atonement. The righteous have the power, according 
 to Sanhedrin iO3a, Wajjikra Rabba, c. 2, of warding off 
 from the people the wrath of God. Rabbi Ishmael, who 
 lived at the beginning of the second century A.D., prayed : 
 " May I be for its atonement " (i.e., for that of the house 
 of Israel.) fV-If it should happen that there were no 
 righteous to die for others then the death of children 
 has the same atoning power ; thus in Shabbath 33ab, it is 
 
 * Jewish Encycl. II. 279 a. 
 t Bacher, Op. cit. I. p. 264.
 
 8o 
 
 said that at a time when there are righteous men God 
 suffers them to die for others ; but at a time when there 
 are no righteous men then God suffers school-children to 
 die for others : for these, in whom the feqer hara 1 (i.e., the 
 " evil tendency") is not yet powerful, are not yet worthy of 
 death for their own sins * their death can, therefore, be 
 utilized for others. It is important to observe that this 
 vicarious suffering by children is efficacious because of 
 their innocence.^/ 
 
 A few examples may now be given of the atoning 
 work of the patriarchs ; m Pesikta I54a it is said of 
 Abraham: "All the follies and lies of which Israel is 
 guilty in this world, our father Abraham is able to atone 
 for." | All that is good, and all blessings, come because 
 of Abraham ; it is by means of his merit that the world 
 is preserved ; so it is said in Bereshith Rabba c. 39. In 
 the same place it says, further, that by means of 
 Abraham's intercession the childless were blessed with 
 offspring, and the sick recovered. Moses is spoken of as 
 the wise man who makes atonement, and pacifies the 
 wrath of God by his prayers (Ex. R. xliii.) ; everything 
 was granted to him, because of his merit (Berakhoth lob). 
 In Shabbath 89 b Rabbi Yochanan speaks of Abraham 
 as an advocate pleading for Israel. All the people who 
 stood at the foot of Mount Sinai were protected by the 
 merit of Moses alone (Shir Rabba to iv. 4). || Philo (De 
 
 * Weber, Op. cit. p. 329. 
 
 t See Wunsche, Op. cit. I. p. 132, and Cf. iv. Ezra viii. 26 ff. 
 
 J Weber, Op. cit. , p. 327. 
 
 Jewish Encycl. II. 280 a. 
 
 U Weber, Op. cit. p. 298.
 
 8i 
 
 Vita May sis iii. 19) expresses a view which was certainly 
 endorsed in later days when he says that Moses is " the 
 mediator and reconciler of the world." Once more, in 
 Pesikta 1150 it is said that Jerusalem was preserved 
 owing to the presence there of Jeremiah : " As long as 
 Jeremiah was in Jerusalem it was not attacked ; but as 
 soon as he went out it came to ruin." Finally, an 
 interesting passage is the following from Tanchuma, 
 Shophetim 4* : ". . . For in his days (i.e., in the days 
 of Gideon) the Israelites suffered oppression, and the 
 Holy One sought a man who would bring their defence 
 before God. And he found no one, for that generation 
 was lacking in Torah-works and works of charity. 
 When, then, justification was found through Gideon, who 
 pleaded for them, immediately the Angel revealed 
 himself to him, for it is written : ' And the Angel of the 
 Lord came to him and said to him, Go in this thy 
 strength, that is, in the strength of thy merit, which thou 
 hast made effective for my children." 
 
 A belief which is not without importance in connexion 
 with our present enquiry, and which has reference to the 
 departed, must be briefly touched upon before we 
 proceed. _The atoning and redeeming power which is 
 ' effective through the works of righteous men is not 
 restricted in its results to the fellow-creatures on this earth, 
 but also benefits those who are dead. The following 
 passage from Tanchuma Haasinu I \ is very instructive 
 regarding this matter ; " The living redeem the dead ; 
 therefore, we are wont, on the Day of Atonement, to 
 
 * Quoted by Weber, Op. cit. pp. 298 ff. 
 t Weber, Op. cit. p. 329.
 
 82 
 
 make mention of the dead, and to give alms on their 
 behalf * (i.e., in order that the reconciliation inherent in 
 the observation of this Day may benefit them too) ; for 
 thus we have learned in the Torah Kohanim (" Law of 
 the Priests "). It might, perhaps, be thought that after 
 death alms can no more benefit them : therefore it is said 
 in Deut. xxi. 8 : Whom Thou hast redeemed, from which 
 it follows, that when one gives alms on their behalf (i.e., on 
 behalf of the departed), they are led out (from Gehinnqm) 
 and led up (into the garden of Eden)j just as one sends 
 forth an arrow from the bow. . . ." The exegesis 
 may be somewhat at fault here, but it expresses the 
 belief that righteous acts on this earth have an atoning 
 value for men in the next world. 
 
 But if righteous men on earth have thus the power, 
 through their good works, to act as mediators between 
 God and their fellow-creatures, we shall not be surprised 
 to find that angels, who are constantly in the Divine 
 presence, are also conceived of as exercising a similar 
 function. In the vast system of Angelology which has 
 been evolved by the Rabbis the most numerous class of 
 angels consists of those who carry out God's governance 
 and providence in the world ; while God Himself dwells 
 in unapproachable majesty in the world beyond, His 
 angels act as His intermediaries on this earth. Every 
 man has his angel,f sometimes more than one, who is 
 God's messenger, and looks after the person assigned to 
 his care. Angels, who are thus intimately acquainted 
 
 * Cf. t vicarious action of the same kind with regard to baptism, 
 mentioned in i. Cor. xv. 29. 
 t Cf. Acts xii. 15.
 
 83 
 
 with and interested in men, may be therefore regarded 
 as very natural beings to intercede for men and mediate 
 between God and men. They are said, for example, to 
 | be the instruments of God in bringing help to men for 
 f which he has been asked ; while in Sanhedrin 38b it is 
 h said : " The Holy One does nothing concerning which 
 He does not take counsel with the angels.**^ This is a 
 saying of Rabbi Jochanan.* Again, when Abraham was 
 about to sacrifice Isaac it was owing to the intercession 
 of angels that the act was averted.^ When Moses was 
 exposed on the river, angels pleaded for him that he should 
 not be allowed to perish (Sotak I2b). The mediating 
 function of angels between God and man is very 
 beautifully expressed in Ex. R. xxi., according to which 
 an angel, set over the prayers of men, weaves them into 
 crowns for the Most High.|| Every nation has its own 
 guardian angel who pleads the cause of the nation under 
 his protection before God ( Targ. ps.-Jon. to Gen. xi. 7, 8). 
 Israel's interceding angels make it their duty to seek 
 out the nation's special merits and plead them in the 
 presence of God (Sukkah 2Qa). An interesting passage 
 from Philo (On One who is Heir)^ runs : " The Father, 
 the Creator of the universe, gave to the archangel and 
 most ancient Logos (i.e. the Word) the privilege of 
 standing on the confines, separating the creature from 
 
 * Wunsche, Op. cit. III. 3. 
 
 t He lived during the third century, and died in 279 A. D. at Tiberias. 
 
 J Bacher, Agada der palastinischen Amoraer III. 29(1899). 
 
 % Jewish Encyd. I. 587 a. 
 
 || Ibid, 593 a. 
 
 1T Ibid, 596 a.
 
 8 4 
 
 the Creator, and of interceding between the immortal 
 God and the mortal, as ambassador sent by the ruler to 
 the subject. Rejoicing in this position, he says : / stood 
 between the Lord and you (Deut. v. 5), being neither 
 uncreated nor created, but between the two, pledge and 
 security to the Creator and to the creature, a hope that 
 the merciful God would not despise His work." This is 
 written in reference to the archangel Michael, who 
 occupies a very special position among the angels ; we 
 have already seen how he is described as fulfilling the 
 function of mediator in the pseudepigraphic literature, 
 but one or two references in Rabbinical writings may be 
 added here. Most significant is the fact that, according 
 to Chagigah I2b, Michael is the heavenly high-priest, 
 whose altar, upon which he offers up sacrifice, stands in 
 the fourth heaven.* In Jalkut Shimeoni Bereshith I 32 f, 
 Michael is described as the prince ovgr all the angels, 
 for he is the guardian-angel of the Israelite nation ;. he 
 acts as Israel's representative and patron in the presence 
 of God, and he intercedes there on behalf of his people. 
 Perhaps the most striking title given to Michael is that 
 of " Advocate of the Jews" (Chagigah i2b).J 
 
 * Wiinsche, Op. cit., I. 271. 
 
 t Weber, Op. cit., p. 170. 
 
 t Oesterley and Box, Op. cit. p. 176.
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Semi-divine Beings as Mediators. 
 
 We have so far seen that both the principle of Media- 
 tion, as well as the idea of a Mediator, are expressly 
 formulated in the Rabbinical literature ; men and angels, 
 chief among the latter being the archangel Michael, 
 fulfil this function. We have, however, yet to deal with 
 another element, in connexion with our subject, which 
 plays a great part in the literature we are considering, 
 namely, the intermediate beings, other than _j.njgels, 
 between God and man, one of whose main functions is thaj: 
 of acting as intercessors for men in the presence of God. 
 We shall not go into much detail here,* as this would 
 take us somewhat off our present subject ; it will be 
 sufficient if we give a few references to illustrate the 
 mediatorial functions which these semi-divine beings are 
 described as filling. It should, however, be made clear 
 that the Rabbinical teaching concerning these inter- 
 I mediate beings between God and man are the expression 
 'of individual opinions j they must obviously not always 
 be taken in their literal sense ; nevertheless, since they 
 are the expression of the opinions of those who were 
 the religious leaders and teachers of the people, and 
 since, moreover, they are not isolated, but are frequently 
 met with, and are incorporated in the official Thesaurus 
 of Jewish belief, it is difficult to resist the conclusion 
 that the teaching conveyed must have been widely 
 
 * The subject is treated in some detail in Oesterley and Box, Op. cit. pp. 
 169-195.
 
 I 
 
 
 86 
 
 accepted in orthodox circles during the Rabbinical 
 period. In referring to the subject Mr. Montefiore says : 
 "It_is safe to assert that in the ordinary stream of 
 Judaism these 'agencies' never possessed any special 
 importance at all"^ but it must at least be allowed 
 that, apart altogether from the details concerning the 
 activity of the various ' agencies/ one of the underlying 
 causes owing to which the whole circle of conceptions 
 with regard to them came into being was an instinctive 
 sense of the need of somebody coming between God 
 and man, and, moreover, s^omebody who was greater 
 than manjn order that he might presume to enter the 
 presence of God and intercede for men, but yet some- 
 body who was of necessity less than God, otherwise 
 the thought would have been blasphemy. It is this 
 underlying cause which is of real importance, and the 
 few details to be given now are only of interest, in the 
 present connexion, as being the articulation, often * 
 halting it is true, of this underlying cause. 
 
 ( a) The first of these intermediate agencies to whom 
 attention is drawn is METATRON.f His most important 
 function, and the only one which concerns us here, is that 
 in which he appears as mediator ; as one who is 
 described as constantly in the presence of God, 
 Metatron occupies an appropriate position as Israel's 
 intercessor ; Moses himself is said to have besought 
 Metatron to intercede for him with God in order that 
 his life might be prolonged. He is called the " Great 
 Scribe," because he writes down in the presence of God 
 the merits of the children of Israel, and is thus fitly 
 
 * The Jewish Quarterly Review, January, 1908, p. 349. 
 t See pp. 58 ff.
 
 87 
 
 described as the advocate who pleads on behalf of his 
 clients before the Judge.* In Bedmidbar Rabba, c. 12, 
 the term Mediator is directly applied to him, and, what 
 is still more significant, he is represented as the 
 reconciler between God and the Chosen People. 
 
 iiMetatron is sometimes identified with Michael and at 
 
 8f others with Enoch. 
 
 (b) Secondly, theMEMRA,f or "Word," of God. The 
 Targums have a very large number of references to the 
 Memra s activity ; in the present connection the following 
 examples are instructive. In Targ. Onk. to Lev. xxvi.9,the 
 biblical words are interpreted as meaning that God had 
 respect unto the people because of the Memra ; so, too, 
 in the Targ.-Jon. to Is. xlv. 25 the justification of the seed 
 of Israel is said to be due to the Memra. In Targ.- Jon. to 
 Is. Ivi. 13 it says, " My Memra shall be unto you for a 
 redeeming deity." J A brief reference to the teaching of 
 the great Jewish philosopher Philo on this subject will 
 
 !~be appropriate here. There are two points in his 
 ^/teaching regarding the Logos or Rema (=Memra\ 
 which are especially important because it stands midway 
 between the Jewish and Christian doctrines of Mediation. 
 The first is that the Lo^os occupies the position of inter- 
 mediary between God and His created world ; he is the 
 interceder for mortals to the Immortal, and he comes as 
 the messenger of God to proclaim God's will ; while he 
 is called the first-born of God, who was from the 
 beginning, he is yet " after the likeness of man " ; as man's 
 
 * Cf., the similar title given to the archangel Michael. 
 t See pp. 59 ff. 
 
 J For further examples see Weber, op. cit., pp. 180-184. 
 He lived at the beginning of the Christian Era.
 
 88 
 
 advocate and interceder with God he is spoken of as the 
 " High-priest." The second is that his main work is the 
 liberation of man from evil ; he himself is free from sin 
 both conscious and unconscious, and he is said to live in 
 the hearts of men to keep them from sin and 
 destruction ; if he lives not in the heart of man, guilt gains 
 the upper hand. Like the Memra of the Targums the 
 Logos of Philo regards the Jewish nation as his special 
 care.* The fact that the J\Ieinra so rarely figures in the 
 
 J later, Talmudic, literature is a striking one ; perhaps we 
 are not wrong in ascribing this to the Christian doctrine 
 of the Logos, which began to play an important part 
 towards the end of the first century A.D. 
 
 (c) Thirdly, the Ruach ka-Qj&desh (= the "Holy 
 
 jf Spirit "), often identified with Wisdom. t It is true that 
 the function of mediating between God and man is 
 rarely mentioned in connection with the Holy Spirit i 
 here and there, however, there are passages which offer 
 suggestions to this effect ; so, for example, in Wajjikra 
 Rabba c. 6 the Ruach ha-Q6desh is described as the 
 defender of Israel, who enumerates in the presence of 
 God the merits of the Israelites ; J this clearly implies 
 something of the nature of a Mediator. The same thing 
 is said in Debarim Rabba c. 3. But the function of 
 Mediator, which the Ruach ha-Q6desh fulfil?, is seen rather 
 in that he comes as a messenger from God to men ; it is. 
 
 * Oesterley and Box, Op. cit., pp. 181 f. 
 
 |.t C/., the Septuagint rendering of Exod. xxxi. 3, which speaks of the 
 "divine spirit of wisdom." 
 
 J Weber, Op. cit,, p. 191 
 
 Ibid.
 
 Sg 
 
 that is to say, only one aspect of the mediatorial office 
 that he exerciser. Thus he comes in order to manifest 
 God's will among men, thereby enabling them to know 
 and to fulfil the purposes of God, and therefore to 
 appear righteous in the sight of God ;* and, according to 
 Tanchuma Wajechi 14, all the good that is accomplished 
 by righteous men is owing to the guidance of the Holy 
 Spiritf 
 
 (d) Lastly, the Shekhinah& or " Glory of God" In 
 | some respects the Shekhinah is equivalent to the Memra, 
 in others to the Holy Spirit. Thus, according to 
 Sanhedrin /a, it inspires correct judgement in upright 
 judges ; a saying of Gamaliel's, preserved in Sanhedrin 
 39a, runs : " As the sun, which is but one of the countless 
 servants of God, giveth light to all the world, so in a 
 much greater degree does the Shekhinah " ; the Holy 
 Spirit was believed to appear in the shape of a dove, the 
 wings of which were the Shekhinah. Maimonides 
 explains the Shekhinah as " light created to be inter- 
 mediary between God and the world." [| 
 
 It will thus be seen that little stress can be laid on the 
 functions of the Holy Spirit and of the Shekhinah with 
 regard to the subject of Mediation, while those of 
 Metatron and the Memra are important in the present 
 connexion. 
 
 This agrees with the teaching of the Targums.\ 
 
 * See, e.%., Bemidbar rabba, c. 17. 
 
 t Weber, Ibid. 
 
 J Literally "dwelling," i.e., the sign of God's indwelling. 
 
 feivish Encycl. XI. 260 b. 
 
 II Oesterley and Box, Op. cit., p. 129. 
 
 IT See pp. 50 ff.
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 The Messiah as Mediator. 
 
 A few words must be added regarding the question 
 as to in what respects the Messiah fulfils the office of 
 Mediator. It is very necessary to bear in mind that the 
 purely human character which the Jews impute to the 
 Messiah precludes any conception of Mediator in the 
 full Christian sense being applied to him. Although in 
 .. the pseudepigraphic literature the Messiah is mostly 
 represented as super-human, and his kingdom as being 
 not of this world, in Rabbinical writings we find that this 
 has to a large extent changed, and here the conception 
 of an earthly and purely human Messiah is that which 
 prevails, while the kingdom which he will found is_ 
 temporal. Yet this is not always_soj for example, when 
 % c\Hn Bereshith Rabba, c. 85, the Messiah is called Go' el 
 'acharon (" the latter redeemer," to distinguish him from 
 Moses, " the former redeemer "), the term probably con- 
 notes something more than the release of the Israelites 
 from their temporal foes, though it is this main idea of 
 redemption which usually occurs. In the Tar gum of 
 Jonathan to the Prophets the comment on Is. liii. 4, which 
 speaks of the vicarious suffering of the Messiah, runs : 
 " He will intercede for our sins and evil deeds, and for 
 his sake they will be forgiven " ; and, in reference to 
 verse 5, it goes on to say that the Messiah will rebuild 
 the sanctuary which had been desecrated on account of
 
 Israel s sins, and that through his te> r , 
 
 , . ,. , , . ... , r .-^ie of the elements 
 
 multiplied, and sins will be forgive*. .. , 
 
 , . . A **-ectly or in- 
 
 verse 6 is explained as meaning that it wao . 
 
 however, 
 good pleasure to forgive Israel all his sins _, . -. 
 
 Messiah's sake. The mention of the forgivene_ 
 sins for the Messiah's sake occurs more than onc>_ 
 in the comments on the later verses. But in the 
 j Talmud it is only, comparatively speaking, rarely that 
 I the work of the Messiah can be described as mediatorial,; 
 once or twice, it is true, in Bereshith Rabba it is said that 
 when the ' age to come ' begins God will redeem Israel 
 out of Gehinnom through the Messiah, the son of David, 
 e.g. : " But when they who were bound in Gehinnom saw 
 the light of the Messiah they rejoiced in receiving him, 
 and said : ' This is he who will lead us out of this dark- 
 ness.' "* It is also an interesting point that the fesur- 
 rection of the dead seems to be brought about through 
 the intermediary of the Messiah, for in Sanhedrin H3a 
 it says that God gives the " Key " of the resurrection of 
 the dead to the Messiah (Cf. Bereshith Rabba c. 73, 
 Midrash Tehillin to Ps. xciii.) ;f and in commenting on 
 Deut. xxxiv. 6 Rabbi Levi ben Gershom explains that 
 the resurrection of the dead is the means whereby the 
 Messiah will bring the nations to the worship of GodJ 
 (Cf. I Thess. iv. 14 : For if we believe that Jesus died and 
 rose again, even so them also which are fallen asleep in 
 Jesus will God bring with him). The belief that the 
 Messiah will bring a new Law (ToraJt), or, at all events,. 
 
 * Weber, Op. tit. p. 368. 
 t Ibid. 
 Ibid.
 
 ii the ancient Torah, must also be 
 
 ying a certain idea of mediatorial activity. 
 *ah is known as "the Messiah our Righteous- 
 .cicause he makes the people righteous in the sight 
 wiod, both through his personal holiness and through 
 iiis intercession, and also because he is the means of 
 inducing the people to fulfil the commandments of the 
 Law. Therefore by means of the Messiah's work peace 
 is established between God and Israel. M_o_reorer,j?eaiise 
 of the merit of the Messiah, together with his constant 
 intercession, forgiveness of sins is granted to sinners.* 
 But it is not always that the Messiah is represented as 
 being exclusively concerned with the Israelites ; some- 
 times his mediatorial action is directly stated to extend 
 to the Gentiles j thus in Shir Rabba to vii. 2 it is said of 
 the Messiah that he is called the " Way," because he leads 
 all men (" all the inhabitants of the world ") to repentance 
 before God (Cf. John xiv. 6, / am the way, the truth, and 
 the life ; no man cometh unto the Father but by me). 
 Finally, we may quote the following (in substance) from 
 Pesikta rabbati 36 : " God contemplated the Messiah and 
 his works before the creation of the world, and concealed 
 him under His throne (Cf. I Pet. i. 2) ; Satan asked God 
 what the light was .under His throne, and God replied 
 that it was one who would bring him to shame in the 
 future (Cf. Lk. x. 18); then, being allowed to see the 
 Messiah, Satan trembled and sank to the ground, crying 
 out : ' Truly this is the Messiah who will deliver me and 
 all heathen kings over to hell.' "f 
 
 * Weber, Op. cit. pp. 379 f. 
 
 ) Oesterley and Box, Op. cit. p. 207.
 
 93 
 
 We have thus dealt briefly with some of the elements 
 found in Rabbinical writings which refer directly or in- 
 directly to the subject of Mediation. It would, however, 
 not be right to close this chapter without adding a brief 
 reference to the fact. that there is mnrh in ffrfe foftrafriire i 
 which speaks altogether against the idea of Mediation., 
 Whatever may have been the reasons and perhaps they 
 are not far to seek the fact is that, in spite of the clear 
 enunciation of the doctrine of Mediation to be found in 
 the Old Testament, the Apocrypha, the Pseudepigraphic 
 writings, and also in the Targums, there are yet pointed 
 instances in which the doctrine is combated in Talmudical 
 writings ; the fact cannot be ignored, nor would it be right 
 to do so ; and we shall, therefore, give quite a few 
 examples illustrating this. But though these examples 
 may be few in number it is well to remember that they 
 might be greatly multiplied, and their existence must be 
 allowed due weight when considering the whole subject 
 of the doctrine of Mediation in this class of literature. 
 "The whole idea of Atonement, according to the Rabbin- 
 ical view, is regeneration restoration of the original state 
 of man in his relation to God, called tekanaji. ' As vessels 
 of gold or of glass, when broken, can be restored by 
 undergoing the process of melting, thus does the disciple 
 of the Law, after having sinned, find the way of recovering 
 his state of purity by repentance.'* Therefore he who 
 assumes a high public office after the confession of his 
 sins in the past is 'jnade a new creature, free from sin 
 like a child ' (Sanhedrin I4a)."f In Berakhoth% ix. I, 
 
 * Cha?igah, 15 a, a saying of Rabbi Akiba's. 
 
 t Jewish Encycl. II. 280 a. % Jerusalem Talmud.
 
 94 
 
 Rabbi Judah* is quoted to the following effect : " An 
 appeal to a mortal patron for relief depends on his 
 servant's willingness to permit the applicant to enter; 
 but appeals to the Almighty in times of trouble do not 
 depend on the angel Michael or Gabriel ; one need only 
 call upon God." As directly opposed to the Christian 
 belief in the mediatorial work of Christ are these words 
 from the Zokarf : " We clepenp^ nqt_on a man^nor do_ we 
 trust in a Son-God, but in the God of heaven, who is the 
 true God." With this may be compared what is said in 
 Sanhedrin Q2b, namely that when Nebuchadnezzar 
 observed that one of those in the burning fiery furnace 
 was like the Son of God, an angel cried out in wrath and 
 said, " Has God a Son ? " 
 
 These few references must suffice here, though, as 
 already remarked, they could be greatly multiplied. The 
 attitude towards the idea of Mediation which they reflect 
 constitutes one of the elements in Rabbinical literature 
 regarding our subject. 
 
 * Born about 135 A.D. ; he was the redactor of the Mishna. 
 + The Zohar, which purports to be the work of Rabbi Simeon ben 
 Jochai, is a pseudepigraphic commentary on the Pentateuch. 
 Jewish Encyd. X. 170 a.
 
 95 
 
 THE TEACHING OF' THE JEWISH PRAYER 
 
 BOOK. 
 
 We will now examine in some detail what the Jewish 
 Prayer Book has to say on this subject of Mediation. 
 It is sufficient for all practical purposes to utilize for this 
 the convenient and abridged form of the Jewish Liturgy 
 edited by the late Dr. Singer (Hebrew and English). 
 The Machzor Vitry (A.D. 1208),* i.e., the most important 
 
 *This compilation represents the Ashkenazic Minha& (i.e. "Custom" 
 or "Ritual"). Concerning the difference between the Minhag of the 
 Sephardim (i.e. the Je\v who adhere to the Spanish and Portuguese 
 ritual) and the Ashkenazim (i.e. those who adhere to the German 
 and Polish rituals^ the following remarks of Rabbi Greenstone (JE. 
 iv. 397 a) will be of interest ; "These," i.e. the Sephardim and Ashken- 
 azim, ""differ not only in minor customs and observances, but also in 
 the pronunciation of Hebrew and in their liturgies. The Sephardim 
 have retained the pronunciation of Judaea, while the Ashkenazim are 
 considered to have brought with them the language of Galilee. They 
 also differ in the manner of intoning their prayers ; the Sephardim 
 still maintaining the old Oriental chants, while the Ashkenazim have 
 permitted a strong European element to enter into their synagogal 
 music. The important portions of the service are alike in both, with 
 some possible variations of words and phrases ; but in the prayers of 
 later origin the divergence is very great. The Ashkenazim are 
 supposed to have brought their prayer-book from Tiberias, Galilee, 
 [the earliest authority for which is the Machzor Vitry], while the Sephar- 
 dim are supposed to have brought theirs from the Babylonian schools 
 of the ninth century."
 
 96 
 
 of the earliest compilations of prayers, is very volumi- 
 nous, and all that is really essential is to be had in Sin- 
 ger's very handy compilation. Some references will also 
 be made to the Sephardic Ritual from which many further 
 appropriate illustrations could be gathered ; Caster's 
 sumptuous edition is the one that has been utilized.
 
 97 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 The Principle of Mediation in the Jewish 
 Prayer Book. 
 
 It will be best to begin by showing that the principle 
 of Mediation is accepted and finds frequent expression 
 here. In the Old Testament the whole sacrificial system 
 obviously implies a belief in the principle of Mediation, 
 and the technical terms used in connexion with 
 sacrifices tend to emphasize this belief.__ Now in so 
 far as, in principle, the sacrificial system of the Old 
 Testament is accepted, and its teaching embodied in the 
 Jewish Prayer Book, to that extent, at any rate, the 
 teaching of the latter must be regarded as identical with 
 that of the former. And that the Old Testament teach- 
 ing on sacrifices has in principle been deliberately 
 ^mbodied in the Jewish Prayer Book is abundantly 
 evident even to the most superficial reader. To give 
 but a few examples ; in the Morning Service there are 
 incorporated : one passage from Leviticus and three from 
 Numbers ; in these passages things so vital to the prin- 
 ciple of Mediation are dealt with as oblations, burnt- 
 offerings, lamb-offerings, the goat for a sin-offering, and 
 the sprinkling of blood upon the altar. Moreover, these 
 passages are followed by an extract from the Mishna 
 treatise Zebachim, in which further details are given as 
 to the sacrificial ritual, thus emphasizing the acceptation 
 of the Old Testament doctrine of Mediation. In this 
 extract mention is made of sin-offerings, trespass-offer-
 
 9 8 
 
 ings, etc., eg., one subject dealt with is the " trespass- 
 offering of one who is in doubt whether he has com- 
 mitted an act that has to be atoned for by a sin-offering"; 
 one need not emphasize the significance of the idea of 
 atonement in connexion with our subject. Again, in the 
 Additional Service for Festivals_ the worshippers say : 
 "... And their meal -offering and their drink-offerings 
 as hath been ordained ; three tenth parts of an ephah 
 for each bullock .... with wine according to the 
 drink-offering thereof, and a he-goat wherewith to make 
 atonement, and the two continual offerings according to 
 their enactment." It is true enough that some of these 
 offerings here enumerated were honorific sacrifices ; but 
 that others were propitiatory is absolutely clear, even 
 apart from the mention of the sacrifice of atonement ; 
 and both these latter categories involve the idea of 
 Mediation. Another important passage in this connex- 
 ion is the following from the Additional Service for 
 New Year: "Lead us with exultation unto Zion thy 
 city, and unto Jerusalem the place of thy sanctuary, 
 with everlasting joy ; and there we will prepare before 
 thee the offerings that are obligatory for us, as is com- 
 manded us in thy Law through the hand of Moses thy 
 servant, from the mouth of thy glory, as it is said, And 
 in the day of your gladness, and in your feasts, and in 
 the beginnings of your months, ye shall blow with the 
 trumpets over your burnt-offerings, and over the sacri- 
 fices of your peace-offerings ; and they shall be to you 
 for a memorial before your God : I am the Lord your 
 God." * Here again, the expression " a memorial before 
 * On this passage see further below.
 
 99 
 
 your God " is suggestive of the principle of Mediation, 
 since such a " memorial " was undoubtedly intended to 
 contribute towards the continuance of normal relations 
 between God and His people ; and anything which thus 
 acts as a means of establishing or upholding a proper 
 relationship towards God is of the essence of Mediation. 
 This is brought out still more strongly in the Service 
 for the Day of Atonement (concerning which we shall 
 have more to say presently) in the words : "... for the 
 sins for which we owe a burnt-offering ; and for the sins 
 for which we owe a sin-offering; and for the sins for 
 which we owe an offering, varying according to our 
 means ; and for the sins for which we owe an offering, 
 whether for certain or for doubtful trespass ... for all 
 these, O God of forgiveness, forgive us, pardon us, grant 
 us remission." This passage is especially interesting on 
 account of its somewhat equivocal character; if sins are 
 committed for which a burnt-offering or a sin-offering is 
 owed, the obvious inference is that the debt having been 
 paid, normal conditions have been re-established ; and in 
 this case there should be no need for the further petition 
 for pardon and the grant of remission. If, on the other 
 hand, the prayer for pardon is enough why should a 
 sin-offering be owing ? The incongruity is not difficult 
 to account for. It is an attempted compromise between 
 the old and the new ; the old doctrine which whole- 
 heartedly accepted the principle of Mediation, and the 
 new, which says, in effect, that neither is any thing 
 nor any body to come between God and man. If, how- 
 ever, it should be maintained, in explanation, that divine 
 forgiveness is accorded on condition of the sacrifice, or
 
 100 
 
 its substitute, being offered, the consequence would be a 
 frank recognition of the principle of Mediation. 
 
 Under this heading should also be mentioned the 
 atoning character sometimes imputed to the observance 
 of New Moons ; for example, in the Additional Service 
 for Sabbath we have these words : " Thou, O Lord our 
 God, also gavest us in love Sabbaths for rest and New 
 Moons for atonement " ; and later on in the same service : 
 " Our God, and God of our fathers, accept our rest, and 
 on this Sabbath day renew this New Moon unto us for 
 good and for blessing, for joy and for gladness, for salva- 
 tion and comfort, for sustenance and maintenance, for 
 pardon of sin and forgiveness of iniquity ;" and during 
 Leap Year is added : " And for atonement of transgres- 
 sion." And, once more, in the Additional Service for thg 
 New Moon, after the Amidah prayer, the following is 
 said : " The beginnings of the months thou didst assign 
 unto thy people for a season of atonement throughout 
 their generations. While they offered unto thee accep- 
 table sacrifices, and goats for a sin-offering to atone 
 for them, these were to be a memorial for them all, and 
 the salvation of their soul from the hand of the enemy. 
 O do thou establish a new altar in Zion, and we will 
 offer upon it the burnt-offering of the New Moon, and 
 prepare he-goats for thine acceptance ; while we all of 
 us rejoice in the service of the sanctuary, and in the 
 song of David thy servant, which shall then be heard 
 in thy city, and chanted before thine altar. O vouch- 
 safe unto them everlasting love, and the covenant of the 
 fathers remember unto the children. Bring us with 
 exultation to Zion thy city, and to Jerusalem thy sane-
 
 101 
 
 tuary with everlasting joy, and there will we prepare 
 unto thee the offerings that are obligatory for us, the 
 continual offerings according to their order, and the 
 additional offerings according to their enactment ; and 
 the additional offering of this New Moon will we pre- 
 pare and offer unto thee in love according to the precept 
 of thy will, as thou hast prescribed for us in thy Law 
 through the hand of Moses thy servant, by the mouth of 
 thy glory ..." This passage has been quoted at length 
 for three reasons. First, on account of the expression 
 " a season of atonement." It was primarily, of course, 
 a season of atonement because the special sacrifices 
 then offered were believed to be of an atoning efficacy ; 
 but it will probably not be disputed that this atoning 
 efficacy was extended to the observance of the season 
 itself; the fact of observing it, apart from the details of 
 its observance, being believed to have the effect of 
 establishing normal relationships between God and His 
 worshippers ; it constituted a means of reconciliation, 
 that is to say. If this is so, it is precisely parallel to 
 what is believed concerning the atoning efficacy in the 
 Day of Atonement, quite apart from the manner of its 
 observance ; we shall come to this again presently. 
 Secondly, on account of the expression " these were to 
 be a memorial for them all " ; the idea of the " memo- 
 rial " of sacrifices before God expresses clearly their 
 mediating character; God is reminded, as it were, of 
 the means which had been used to induce Him to 
 forgive sins, and thus to be at peace with His people. 
 The " memorial " of the sacrifices before God is analo- 
 gous to the memorial, in the shape of phylacteries,
 
 IO2 
 
 between the eyes, as mentioned in Exod. xiii. 9 ; the 
 word (]"n27) is the same in each case. Both consti- 
 tuted a means of establishing, or continuing, normal 
 conditions between God and men. Then, thirdly, this 
 passage offers a striking example of the way in which 
 the sacrificial system of the Old Testament has been 
 accepted and embodied in the Jewish Prayer Book ; and 
 it is not only in principle that this has been done ; for 
 nothing could be more pointed than the way in which 
 the re-establishment of the whole system is contem- 
 plated ; and in the system must obviously be included 
 the principles and doctrines underlying it. If it be 
 objected that most, or at all events, many, Jews of the 
 present day repudiate this, and refuse to accept in a literal 
 sense what is written in their Prayer Book, the only 
 reply is that we must be guided by the official exposi- 
 tion of Judaism, and not by the opinions of individuals. 
 And it may be confidently asserted that in the Prayer 
 Book itself what is written in the passage we are con- 
 sidering is intended to be understood in a literal sense, 
 whether it is the sacrificial system or the return to 
 Palestine which is referred to. One other expression 
 in this passage deserves a passing notice, namely where 
 it is said that the acceptable sacrifices, etc., were to be 
 " the salvation of their soul from the hand of the enemy " 
 (WW TO DttfS2 nSWJl lit. " from the hand of the 
 hater ") ; there used to be a quaint old custom, which 
 still obtains in Poland and Galilee, and possibly else- 
 where, according to which the men shook out the corners 
 of their garments at the blessing of the New Moon. 
 This is said to have been a symbolic way of expressing
 
 103 
 
 the shaking off of enemies ; if this was so it was a harm- 
 less piece of imitative magic ; it is a wide-spread belief 
 that the periodic renewal of the moon shows that there 
 must be very real recuperative powers in it which can 
 be utilized for the benefit of men if they only go the 
 right way about bringing these powers into play. At 
 the bottom of this lies, of course, originally, the belief 
 in the personality of the moon, or at all events in the 
 moon being the manifestation of some personality. 
 Perhaps, therefore, one may hazard the suggestion that 
 in the distant past the New Moon represented to the 
 Israelites a manifestation of Jehovah ; in this case we 
 shall have something parallel to the conception con- 
 cerning the Shekhinah, which came at one time to be 
 regarded as a kind of intermediate agent between God 
 and men.* That is, however, all by the way. The most 
 important point about the passage we have been 
 considering is that it proves without a shadow of doubt 
 that the sacrificial system of the Old Testament, together 
 with the principles and doctrines underlying it, has been 
 embodied in the Jewish Prayer Book. 
 
 Seep.
 
 IO4 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 The Torah a Mediating Agency. 
 
 Next, we come to some passages in which the prin- 
 ciple of Mediation is implied, the mediating agency 
 being the Torah. In the Morning Service for Sabbath, 
 for example, various petitions are offered up, after which 
 follow the words : " Do it for the sake of thy name, do 
 it for the sake of thy right hand, do it for the sake of 
 thy holiness, do it for the sake of thy Law ; "* it will be 
 seen that the expression "for the sake of" (pttj?) 
 is used in precisely the same way as in Christian prayers 
 it is used in connexion with the name of Christ ; so 
 that the Christian might fairly urge that if God is 
 besought to answer prayer for the sake of things, much 
 more might He be asked to do so for the sake of a 
 person ; indeed, we shall see later on that this is actually 
 done in the Jewish Prayer Book. A passage from 
 Pirke A both (ii. 2), which is incorporated in the After- 
 | noon Service for Sabbath, is worth quoting in this 
 connexion, though it cannot be pressed, as its meaning 
 is somewhat ambiguous : " Rabban Gamaliel, the son of 
 Rabbi Judah the prince, said, An excellent thing is the 
 study of the Torah combined with some worldly occu- 
 pation, for the labour demanded by them both makes 
 sin to be forgotten (py nrtDt^D) ; " the point is as to 
 whom this " forgetting " refers; if it refers to the student 
 
 * See also the Additional Service for Sabbath, where the same 
 formula recurs.
 
 IDS 
 
 of the Torah he must be, but a poor student, for the 
 Torah provides a special means for the obliteration of 
 every sin, and among these means the " forgetting " of a 
 sin finds no place ; if it has not been atoned for, a sin is 
 none the less a sin for having been forgotten. If, on the 
 other hand, the forgetting is intended to refer to God, 
 then the Torah has been the means of the obliteration 
 of sin, or, in other words, the Torah is of mediating 
 efficacy, since all that tends to eliminate that which is a 
 I bar between God and man is a means of reconciliation 
 between them, and this is of the essence of Mediation. 
 If the Torah can, in any sense, be said to have this 
 effect, then it can to a certain extent be paralleled by 
 the idea underlying the frequently used root 1D3 
 {Kaphar} with its derivatives. The " covering " of sin, 
 which is the fundamental idea contained in this root, 
 refers either to the conception of the face of God being 
 covered, or blinded, in respect of sin, or else to that of 
 the sin itself being covered over by the sacrifice ; and in 
 either case, therefore, the idea is that the sin is caused to 
 be forgotten.* 
 
 There is another rather significant passage from Pirke 
 Aboth, which also finds a place in the Prayer Book ; 
 according to this Hillel said that, " He who has 
 acquired for himself words of Torah, has acquired for 
 himself life in the world to come " (ii. 8). But perhaps 
 the most striking passage of all under our present 
 heading, also from Pirke Aboth, and, in common with 
 
 * Cf. the : ' Kapparath-schlag " still in vogue among some of the 
 Jews in Poland, i.e., the sacrifice of a cock (preferably white, symbo- 
 lizing innocence) as a "covering" of sins. See pp. 19 ff. 

 
 io6 
 
 those already cited, occurring in the Afternoon Service 
 for Sabbath, is the following : " Rabbi Eliezer, the son 
 of Jacob, said, He who does one precept (of the Torah) 
 has gotten himself one advocate (lO^bp^D "Paraclete"); 
 and he who commits one transgression has gotten him- 
 self one accuser (TUIflp)." In the original these two 
 words, " advocate " and " accuser," are aramaized Greek, 
 corresponding to TrapdicXjjr-oc, used in the New Testament 
 of the Holy Spirit, and 6 icor^yopoc, the ordinary word 
 for " an accuser," though the form Karjyopwv occurs once, 
 and is used of the Devil (Rev. xii. 10). It is the use of 
 the former which is so significant when used in reference 
 to the Torah ; for this word occurs in other Rabbinical 
 writings and is used of the angel who acts as man's 
 advocate in the presence of God (Skabbafk 32 a). The 
 word is also applied to sacrifices ; it is said, for example, 
 in Zebachim jb that the sin-offering is a more efficacious 
 advocate than the burnt-offering, cf. Baba Bathra loa. 
 And again, repentance is spoken of as an advocate; thus, 
 in Shabbath $2a we read : " When a man is led to a 
 place of judgement and brings with him clever advocates 
 (D^VT^ ptO^bp^D), he is acquitted, otherwise he is not. 
 These advocates of a man consist in repentance and 
 good works (D^lID D^Wttl mitten), and though 
 nine hundred and ninety-nine proclaim his guilt, and one 
 his merit, he is delivered " (the reference is to Job 
 xxx. iii. 23).* 
 
 The use of the term " advocate " as applied to the 
 Torah will thus be seen to be of great interest in con- 
 nexion with our present subject. 
 
 * Cf. Levy, Chaldaisches Worterbuch, s.v.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Further Mediating Agencies. 
 
 Our next point, which is closely connected with 
 the foregoing, is to consider a variety of other things 
 which are mentioned in the Prayer Book as being of 
 mediating efficacy. First among these is Repentance, 
 which has just been referred to as occurring in Rabbini- 
 cal literature in this connexion. In the .Afternoon 
 Service for Sabbath we have these words from Pirke 
 Aboth iv. 13 : " Repentance and good deeds are as a 
 shield against punishment ; " as means for thus warding 
 off the expression of divine anger, these two things 
 must be regarded as witnessing to a belief in the 
 principle of Mediation. The same thing, as regards 
 Works, is to be seen, by implication, in the " Medita- 
 tion " which is said on the first night of the feast of 
 Tabernacles ; " Seeing that I have gone forth from my 
 house abroad, and am speeding the way of thy com- 
 mandments, may it be accounted unto me as though I 
 had wandered far in thy cause." Anything, as we have 
 already seen, that is a means of bringing man nearer to 
 God is ipso facto of mediating efficacy. The belief that 
 anything is a cause of making peace between God and 
 men involves a belief in the principle of Mediation ; and 
 it is only with the existence of a belief in \.}\\s principle 
 that we are at present concerned ; it is the first step, 
 and a very necessary one, which one has to take in 
 seeking to trace out the gradual development of belief 
 in a Mediator. Once more, in the Service for the Day
 
 io8 
 
 of Atonement forgiveness is asked for a great variety of 
 sins, which are enumerated in order ; among these, for- 
 giveness is asked " for the violation of positive, or for 
 the violation of negative precepts, whether these latter 
 do or do not admit of a remedy by the subsequent 
 fulfilment of a positive command ; " in a note appended 
 in explanation of this difficult passage it is said :" There 
 are prohibitions, the transgression of which cannot be 
 rectified by any subsequent act of the offender." The 
 words " cannot be rectified " mean, as a matter of fact, 
 " cannot be atoned for," so that here too the belief in the 
 mediating efficacy of works is implicitly involved. Again 
 { the Day of Atonement is in itself regarded as a mediating 
 
 agency.* Thanksgiving, for example, is offered up for 
 the Day of Atonement "which thou, O Lord our God, hast 
 given us for forgiveness, pardon, and atonement." (See 
 further below). A-nother means of atonement, and there- 
 fore of mediating efficacy, is Fasting \ this is graphically 
 illustrated in the Sephardic Ritual in the "Service for 
 Voluntary Fast of an individual," for example : " There- 
 fore O Lord, with Thy abundant mercy answer me, at 
 this time and hour, and let the diminution of my fat and 
 blood, which hath by this day's fast been diminished, be 
 accounted and favourably accepted before Thee, as the 
 fat of the sacrifice laid on Thine altar ; that it may atone 
 for what I have sinned, trespassed, and transgressed 
 against Thee, whether accidentally or by choice ; through 
 ignorance or presumption ; knowingly or unknowingly." 
 
 * Cf. " Though no sacrifices be offered, the day in itself effects atone- 
 ment" (Sifra, Emor, xiv [on Lev. xxiii. 27 sq.] quoted by Margolis in 
 Jewish Encycl. II., 286 b.)
 
 109 
 
 And again : 
 
 " Sovereign of the Universe ! I have now afflicted 
 myself with a fast before Thee ; it is known and manifest 
 before the throne of Thy glory, that while the temple 
 existed, a man sinning offered a sacrifice in Thy presence ; 
 of which the fat and blood were offered alone, and this 
 made an atonement, but at present because of our 
 manifold sins, we have neither sanctuary, altar, nor priest 
 to make an atonement for us. May it, therefore, be 
 Thy will, O Lord my God, and the God of my fathers, 
 that the diminution of my fat and blood, reduced in 
 Thy presence by my fast this day, be accounted and 
 accepted before the throne of Thy glory as if I had 
 offered it on thine altar, and be Thou favourable unto 
 me, according to Thine abundant mercy." 
 
 Besides Repentance, Good Works, and Fasting, it 
 would seem that Punishment is a means of obliterating 
 sin, and thus of effecting normal relationship with God ; 
 the passage to be quoted, however, is ambiguous, and 
 must not be pressed ; it occurs in the concluding portion 
 of the Service for the Day of Atonement (Ashkenazic 
 Ritual): " O may it be thy will, O Lord my God, and 
 God of my fathers, that I may sin no more, and as to 
 the sins I have committed, purge them away in thine 
 abounding compassion, though not by means of affliction 
 and sore diseases." It is these last words that are rather 
 striking, for they imply that sins can be purged away by 
 means of affliction and sore diseases, i.e., by means of 
 punishment ; and if this is so, then punishment must be 
 regarded as, per se, of mediating efficacy. The original 
 of" by means of" (^T'73? with IP) has the sense, "through
 
 IIO 
 
 the agency of," and certainly implies that the sin is 
 forgiven mediately, as opposed to "Pft " immediately." 
 
 _But if punishment is a means of obliterating sin, and 
 thus of effecting reconciliation with God, still more 
 must this be so in the case of Death ^ and indeed, 
 nothing could be more pointed than the words uttered 
 in the <; Confession on a Death-bed " ; it is said there : 
 <c O may my death be an atonement for all my sins, 
 iniquities and transgressions of which I have been guilty 
 against Thee." And in the same Service, according to 
 the Sephardic Ritual, occur the following words : 
 
 " But if the time appointed for me to die be near, O 
 let my death be an atonement for all my sins, iniquities, 
 and trangressions, wherein I have sinned, offended, and 
 transgressed against Thee, from the day of my first 
 existence ; and let my portion be in the Garden of Eden." 
 And again : 
 
 " May it be Thy will, O Lord, my God, and the God 
 of my Fathers, to receive my soul with mercy, when 
 Thou takest it from me ; and to place it under the 
 throne of Thy glory, from whence Thou hast planted it 
 in me : and when I die, let my death be an atonement 
 for all my sins."
 
 Ill 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 The Day of Atonement. 
 
 A few words will come in appropriately here about 
 the Day of Atonement ; this occupies an important 
 part in the Jewish Prayer Book ; but as the ritual 
 for the day follows post-biblical, as well as biblical 
 directions, it will be best to make some references 
 here to the Mishnic treatise Yoma, which deals specifi- 
 cally with this subject. To begin with, however, 
 as Dr. Margolis truly remarks * : " The Day of 
 Atonement is the keystone of the sacrificial system 
 of post-exilic Judaism. In the belief that the great 
 national misfortunes of the past were due to the 
 people's sins, the Jews of post-exilic times strove to 
 bring on the Messianic period of redemption by strictly 
 and minutely guarding against all manner of sin. The 
 land being defiled by the sin of the people, the pollution 
 must be removed lest the Divine Presence withdraw 
 from among them. Hence the sacrificial system with 
 its sin- and guilt-offerings. While provision was made 
 for the expiation of the wrong-doings of individuals 
 by private offerings, the public sacrifices atoned for 
 the sins of the community. Especially dangerous 
 seemed the errors unwittingly committed (Ps. xix. 13). 
 On the Day of Atonement such sins as may not have 
 been covered by the various private and public expiatory 
 sacrifices were to be disposed of by a general ceremony 
 of expiation. In this elaborate ceremonial, as described, 
 * Jewish Encycl. II. 286 a.
 
 112 
 
 the ordinary rites of the sin-offering were to be discerned 
 in an intensified form. In every sacrifice there is the 
 idea of substitution ; the victim takes the place of the 
 human sinner. The laying-on of hands upon the victim's 
 head is an ordinary rite by which the substitution and 
 the transfer of sins are effected ; on the Day of Atone- 
 ment the animal laden with the people's sins was sent 
 abroad (compare the similar rite on the recovery of a 
 leper, Lev. xiv. 7). The sprinkling of the blood is 
 essential to all sin-offerings. By dipping his finger in 
 the victim's blood and applying it to a sacred object 
 like the altar, the priest re-establishes the union between 
 the people that he represents and the Deity." The 
 principle of Mediation, so fully brought to expression 
 here, comes also to the fore in the post-biblical teaching on 
 the Day of Atonement; especially is this the case, as 
 remarked above, in the Mishnic tractate Yoma; some 
 illustrations from this may, therefore, be given. In iii. 8, 
 e.g., we have the following confession of sins on the part 
 of the High-priest : " O Name* (i.e., O God), I have done 
 amiss, I have transgressed, I have sinned before Thee, 
 I and my house ; O Name, make atonement I pray 
 (frW^D3) for the iniquities, and for the transgressions, 
 and for the sins whereby I have done amiss, and whereby 
 I have transgressed, and whereby I have sinned before 
 Thee, I and my house, as it is written in the law of 
 Moses, Thy servant, saying, For on this day shall 
 
 * This word is often used in order to avoid uttering the name of 
 God ; it is to be paralleled by the custom of not pronouncing the 
 name Jehovah, instead of .which Adonai (" My Lord ") is used among 
 the Jews, and the word Shetna' (" Hear ") among the Samaritans.
 
 H3 
 
 atonement be made for you, to cleanse you; from all your 
 sins shall ye be clean before the Lord." (Lev. xvi. 30). This 
 acknowledgement of sin,* and realization of the need of 
 its obliteration in order to stand right with God, is the 
 necessary preliminary to a belief in Mediation. Then, as 
 regards the taking away of sin, it is said, in viii. 8. : 
 "Sin-offering and guilt-offering, and an offering for a 
 conscious offence effect atonement," i.e., these per se 
 obliterate sin. And again, in the same section, it con- 
 tinues, " Repentance makes atonement for venial trans- 
 gressions whether for ' Do ' or ' Do not ' (i.e., whether the 
 sin is one of omission or commission) and as for grievous 
 (sins) it holds them in abeyance until the Day of Atone- 
 ment comes and makes atonement"! This passage is 
 of considerable importance since it teaches that the 
 atoning efficacy of the Day is in itself greater than 
 the atonement brought about by repentance ; this wit- 
 nesses to the feelings of the need of something outside 
 of man, of something more efficacious than anything 
 man can do, in order to bring about a normal relation- 
 ship with God by the taking away of sin. On the 
 other hand, the indispensable need of repentance for 
 sin in man is insisted on in the passage which follows ; 
 even the Day of Atonement is insufficient to atone for 
 sin if there is no repentance, see viii. 9. : " (He who says) 
 I will sin, and the Day of Atonement will atone (for it), 
 for such the Day of Atonement effects no atonement." 
 
 * Repeated in iv. 2, and vi. 2, 
 
 t Cp. the Midrash Debarim Rabba sec. II. to Deut. vi. 5, where it 
 is said that on the Day of Atonement the Israelites appear as innocent 
 as the ministering angels. 
 
 H
 
 As another instance of the atoning efficacy of this Day 
 we have the following final sentence of the tractate: "As 
 regards transgressions (which have occurred) between 
 man and the Mdkom (i.e. God),* the Day of Atonement 
 makes atonement (for these) ; but regarding those which 
 have occurred between a man and his neighbour, (for 
 these) the Day of Atonement makes no atonement 
 until he (i.e. the transgressor) has forgiven his neighbour." 
 There is an interesting note of Rabbi Akiba'sf added 
 at the close of this tractate which looks very much like 
 a warning lest the efficacy of the Day of Atonement 
 should be regarded by some as a necessary and indis- 
 pensable mediatorial agency between God and men : 
 " Blessed are ye, Israelites, (for) in the sight of Whom 
 are ye cleansed, and Who cleanses you ? (It is) your 
 Father in Heaven ; for it is said : And I will sprinkle clean 
 water upon you, and ye shall be clean ; from all your 
 filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you 
 (Ezek. xxxvi. 25). And it says (in another place), 
 Jehovah the Mikveh ("hope") of Israel (Jer. xvii. 13). 
 
 * This word (meaning " Place ") is often substituted for God in 
 Rabbinical writings. In the Midrash Bereshith rabba, c. 68 it is 
 said: "Why is the Holy One Blessed be He also called ha-Mdkom! 
 Because He is the Place of the world, and the world is not His place; this 
 is explained by Weber thus (Op. cit. p. 149) : "He (God) is the Infinite, 
 Who comprehends the Universe in Himself, but Whom the Universe 
 cannot comprehend" (Cf. the Athanasian Creed, "The Father incom- 
 prehensible, the Son incomprehensible, and the Holy Ghost incompre- 
 hensible ... As also there are not three incomprehensibles . . . 
 but one incomprehensible ; " and Jn. i. 5, And the light shineth in 
 the darkness ; and the darkness apprehended it not." ) 
 
 t A Palestinian Tanna ("Teacher ") who lived in the second century 
 A.D.
 
 H5 
 
 What is it that the Washing (= paTrriapos), which is equiva- 
 lent to Mikveh, does ? It cleanses the unclean. So doth 
 the Holy One Blessed be He cleanse Israel." As 
 Fiebig, in his edition of Yoma, remarks on this passage, 
 it is noteworthy that Akiba speaks here of sins being 
 washed away by the " Baptism," cf., Eph. v. 26, ... 
 that he might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the wash- 
 ing of water with the word.
 
 n6 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 Intercessory Prayer. 
 
 Before coming to deal with the subject of actual 
 Mediatorship as contained in the Jewish Prayer Book 
 one or two examples must be given of Intercessory 
 Prayer, for this forms one of the connecting links between 
 the doctrine of Mediation and that of Mediatorship. At 
 the Morning Service for Sabbath there occurs a series 
 of intercessions which reminds one of the Prayer for the 
 Church Militant in the Anglican Liturgy; or, perhaps still 
 more of the " Bidding Prayer ;" this begins as follows: 
 " May there be granted (lit. may there arise) salvation 
 from heaven, grace, and mercy, and loving-kindness, 
 and long life, and sufficient sustenance, and support 
 which is from heaven, and discernment which is from 
 above, (may there also be granted) a living seed, and a 
 continuing seed, that will not cut itself away from and 
 that will not cease from the commands of the Law, 
 (May all this be granted) to ... ." then follows the list 
 of those for whom intercession is made, viz : Teachers, 
 Rabbis, heads of academies, chiefs of the Captivity, 
 colleges, judges in the gates, the disciples of all these, 
 and their disciples, besides everyone who is occupied in 
 the study of the Law.* That is the first section of the 
 
 * With this may be compared the seventh petition offered up at the 
 burial of men, according to the Sephardic Ritual: "May thy soul be 
 bound up in the bond of life with the heads of colleges, and the heads of 
 the Captivity ; with Israelites, Priests, and Levites, and with the seven 
 bands of just and pious men. ..."
 
 Intercession; in the next section mention is made of the 
 whole congregation present, for those who are great and 
 for those who are small, and for women and children. 
 In the third section prayer is offered up for all holy 
 congregations, " them, their wives, their sons and their 
 daughters, and all that belong to them ; those also who 
 unite to form synagogues for prayer, and those who 
 enter therein to pray ; those who give the lamps for 
 lighting, and wine for Kiddush* and Habdala,} bread to 
 the wayfarers, and charity to the poor, and all such as 
 occupy themselves in faithfulness with the wants of the 
 congregation." Finally, in the fourth and fifth sections 
 intercessions are offered up for the King and the Royal 
 Family. 
 
 Another very beautiful example is an intercession for 
 the faithful departed which is said only on the Sabbaths 
 preceding Pentecost and the Fast of the Ninth of AbJ ; 
 
 * i.e. " Holiness" or " Hallowing;" the name given to the ceremony 
 which is celebrated in honour of the holiness of the Sabbath (or of a 
 festival) ; the central act of the ceremony is the drinking from a cup 
 of wine (over which a Blessing has been said) by all the members of a 
 family before partaking of their evening meal on Fridays. Extra 
 candles, or a special lamp, are also lighted in honour of the Sabbath. 
 See for further details, Oesterley and Box, Op. cit. pp. 345 ft. 
 
 t i.e. "Separation," or "Distinction;" the ceremony which takes 
 place on Saturday evenings at the going out of the Sabbath ; here 
 also a lighted candle and a cup of wine are used. Both Kiddush and 
 Habdala date from pre-Christian times. 
 
 J This fast is observed in commemoration of the destruction of 
 Jerusalem and of the Temple, first by the Chaldseans in 586 B.C., and, 
 later on, by the Romans in 70 A. D. Three other fasts are observed in 
 connexion with the former of these destructions ; the tenth of Tebet, when 
 the siege began ; the seventeenth of Tammuz, when the first breach was 
 made in the walls ; and the third of Tishri, when Gedaliah was slain (see 
 ii. Kings xxv. 25., Jer. xli. 2.)
 
 n8 
 
 the first part of this is as follows: "May the Father of 
 mercies, Who dwelleth on high, in his mighty compas- 
 sion, remember those loving, upright, and blameless ones, 
 the holy congregations, who laid down their lives for the 
 sanctification of the divine name, who were lovely and 
 pleasant in their lives, and in their death were not 
 divided . . . May our God remember them for good 
 with the other righteous of the world ..." 
 
 While there is nothing here to suggest Mediatorship 
 in the fuller sense of the word, there is, at any rate, the 
 distinct expression of the need of men coming between 
 their fellow-creatures and God, and using prayer as a 
 mediating agency.
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 The Idea of Mediator ship in the Jewish Prayer Book. 
 
 We come now to consider some passages of great 
 interest and importance in which belief in a mediator 
 finds clear expression. First, we may draw attention to 
 the doctrine that the merits of the fathers are effective 
 in bringing about a normal relationship between God and 
 men. Thus, in the ordinary Morning Service we have 
 the following : " Our Father, our King, for our fathers' 
 sake (12TniN "fil}Q), who trusted in thee, and whom 
 thou didst teach the statutes of life, be also gracious unto 
 us and teach us." Again, these words in the Amidah- 
 prayer are important : " Blessed art thou, O Lord our 
 God, and God of our fathers, God of Abraham, God of 
 Isaac, God of Jacob, the great, mighty and revered God, 
 the most high God, who bestowest loving-kindnesses, and 
 possessest all things; who rememberest the pious deeds of 
 the patriarchs, and in love wilt bring a redeemer (7N"U) 
 to their children's children for his name's sake 
 (ifttt* pTu?)" 5 we shall return to this passage. In the 
 great prayer known as Abinu Malkenu ("Our Father, 
 our King") we have some further striking examples : 
 " Our Father, our King ! do this for the sake of (p?ftT>) 
 them that were slain for thy holy name." " Our Father, 
 our King! do it for the sake of them that were slaughtered 
 for thy Unity." " Our Father, our King ! do it for the 
 sake of them that went through fire and water for the
 
 I2O 
 
 sanctification of Thy name." That which is prayed for 
 here is God's mercy and compassion. 
 
 Another prayer in the Morning Service contains the 
 following petition : 
 
 " We beseech thee, O gracious and merciful King, 
 
 remember and give heed to the Covenant between 
 
 the Pieces (with Abraham), and let the binding 
 
 (upon the altar) of (Isaac) an only son appear 
 
 before thee, to the welfare of Israel." 
 
 The 'Akedah, i.e. the "Binding" of Isaac, plays an 
 
 important part in the Jewish Liturgy. "In the course of 
 
 time ever greater importance was attributed to the 
 
 'Akedah. The haggadistic literature is full of allusions 
 
 to it ; the claim to forgiveness on its account was 
 
 inserted in the daily morning prayer ; and a piece 
 
 called 'Akedah was added to the liturgy of each of the 
 
 penitential days among the German Jews." * Geiger 
 
 held that the Christian doctrine of atonement and vica- 
 
 rious suffering was the means of influencing Jewish 
 
 belief in this matter ; f but this is exceedingly unlikely, 
 
 for the treatment of the Jews by the Church in the 
 
 Middle Ages was cruel in the extreme, and it can 
 
 hardly be supposed that Jewish teachers would be 
 
 likely to borrow a doctrine of this kind from their perse- 
 
 cutors. There was, moreover, ample authority in earlier 
 
 Jewish writings for emphasizing the doctrine of atone- 
 
 ment, quite apart from that of vicarious suffering taught 
 
 in Is. liii. It is far more likely that the Christian doc- 
 
 trine was the cause that the teaching on Mediatorship 
 
 * Jewish Encycl. I. 
 
 ^Nachgelassene Schnften v. p. 352.
 
 121 
 
 is not more prominent in Jewish writings than is actually 
 the case. Probably this is also one of the contributory 
 reasons why, as Dr. Lansberg says, in "the point of view 
 of some advocates of reformed Judaism the great impor- 
 tance of the Biblical story of the attempted sacrifice of 
 Isaac consists in the lesson that God does not desire 
 such a sacrifice " ; at any rate, in opposition to tradi- 
 tional Jewish usage, " many American reform rituals 
 have abolished the 'Akedah prayers. At the same time," 
 continues the same writer, " stress is laid, even by 
 reformers, on the typical character of the story as expres- 
 sing the spirit of martyrdom which permeates Jewish 
 history, and has maintained the Jewish faith."* The 
 'Akedah is again referred to in the Additional Service for 
 the New Year, where, however, its mediating efficacy is 
 altogether toned down : " May the binding with which 
 Abraham our father bound his son Isaac on the altar 
 appear before thee, how he overbore his compassion in 
 order to perform thy will with a perfect heart. So may 
 thy compassion overbear thine anger against us ; in thy 
 great goodness may the fierceness of thy wrath turn 
 aside from thy people . . . " ; but towards the end of 
 this prayer we have again these words : " For thou art 
 he who remembereth from eternity all forgotten things, 
 and before the throne of whose glory there is no forget- 
 fulness ; O remember the binding of Isaac this day in 
 mercy unto his seed." f 
 
 References to the ' Akedah are frequent in the Sephardic 
 
 * Jewish Encycl. I. 3035. 
 t See Ecclus. xliv. 20. 22.
 
 122 
 
 Ritual ; a few examples may be given. Among the 
 prayers for New Year's Day occurs the following : 
 
 " If we have sinned, and have frequently scoffed, yet 
 reveal unto us the propitious time, for the sake of the 
 exalted Isaac, who was bound as a sheep, and for whose 
 ransom a ram was favourably accepted. O remember for 
 us this day the merit of his being bound, though our 
 backslidings be many ; we have sinned against Thee, O 
 Lord, forgive us." 
 
 Again, among the Daily Prayers, the following are 
 offered : 
 
 " O God and the God of our fathers ! O remember us 
 with a good memorial before Thee, and visit us with the 
 visitation of salvation from the ancient heaven of 
 heavens, and remember unto us, O Lord our God, the 
 love of Thine ancient servants, Abraham, Isaac, and 
 Israel ; and the covenant, the mercy and the oath, which 
 Thou didst swear unto our ancestor Abraham on Mount 
 Moriah, and the act of binding his son Isaac upon the 
 altar, as it is written in Thy Law." 
 
 " O most merciful and gracious King, we beseech Thee 
 to remember and have respect to the covenant made 
 with our ancestor Abraham, between the pieces, and let 
 the binding of his only child appear before Thee, and for 
 the sake of our father Israel, O our Father, forsake us 
 not, nor cast us off, O our King." 
 
 " O Lord, when in wrath remember mercy ; when in 
 wrath remember the binding of Isaac and the perfection 
 of Jacob." 
 
 " For the sake of the binding of Isaac, the only child 
 who was bound on the altar, and was accounted a perfect,
 
 123 
 
 pure, and holy burnt-offering, ... we beseech Thee 
 to cause the sea to cease from its raging, and to still its 
 waves . ." 
 
 Further examples of the pleading of the father's merits 
 are the following: In the Afternoon Service tor Sabbath 
 occurs the following from Pirke Aboth : " Let all who are 
 employed with the congregation act with them for 
 Heaven's sake, for then the merit of their fathers sustains 
 them, and their righteousness endures for ever." In the 
 Service for the Feast of Purim we have these interesting 
 words : " Who will rise up to atone for error, and 
 obtain pardon for the sin and iniquity of our fathers? 
 [It is, of course, not the Patriarchs who are here referred 
 to] A flower blossomed from the palm-tree : lo ! Hadas- 
 sah [i.e. Esther] arose to awaken the merit of those that 
 slept in the grave." In the Additional Service for 
 Festivals part of one of the prayers runs : " Our God, 
 and God of our fathers, merciful King, have mercy upon 
 us, O thou good and beneficent Being, suffer thyself to be 
 sought of us; return unto us in thy yearning compas- 
 sion for the fathers' sake who did thy will." In the 
 Service for the Day of Atonement in the Sephardic 
 Ritual occur the words : " All these things didst Thou 
 ordain for the glory of Aaron, whom Thou didst appoint 
 the instrument of atonement for Israel ; and in His 
 hands hast Thou placed the remission of iniquity." 
 
 It must be added that, with one exception (the pas- 
 sage from the Service for the Feast of Purim) the merits 
 of the fathers are not directly pleaded for atonement of 
 sin ; but that this is the underlying intention of the 
 doctrine of the merits of the fathers does not need
 
 124 
 
 emphasizing ; it is sufficient, for example, to point to 
 the fact that if God's mercy and compassion are sought 
 on the strength of the father's merits the former would 
 not have been withheld excepting on account of sin. In 
 any case, the offering of others (for the " merits " must 
 be regarded in the light of an acceptable offering) is the 
 means whereby normal relationships between God and 
 men are believed to be re-established ; and this is of 
 the essence of the doctrine of Mediatorship. The follow- 
 ing passages, also from the Sephardic Ritual, are 
 interesting in this connexion ; the quotations are from the 
 Prayers for the different days of the week : 
 
 " The faithful men who came before Thee by virtue of 
 their good works are lost to us ; they were powerful and 
 able to stand in the breach, and repel by their intercession 
 the evil decrees. They were a wall unto us, and a place 
 of refuge in the day of wrath, mitigating anger by their 
 silent prayer, and restraining wrath by their cry ; before 
 they called Thou didst answer them ; they knew how to 
 obtain favour by prayer ; for their sake didst Thou act 
 like a compassionate father, not dismissing them empty 
 from Thy presence. But by reason of the multitude of 
 our sins, they are lost to us ; they have been taken away 
 from us because of our iniquities ; they have retired to 
 their eternal rest, and have left us to sorrow. Those who 
 repaired the fence have disappeared, those who averted 
 anger are cut off; there is none capable to stand in the 
 breach, for those who are worthy to appear before Thee are 
 now no more. We have wandered the four quarters of 
 the globe, but have found no relief. We now return 
 unto Thee, our faces covered with shame, to seek Thee, 
 O God, in the time of our distress."
 
 125 
 
 These very touching words witness to a belief in the 
 possibility^ at any rate, of the mediatorial office of the 
 fathers. 
 
 And again : 
 
 " . . . O Most High ! Thy mercy is everlasting, 
 and pardon is with Thee. O repent Thee of evil, and 
 incline to mercy. . . . O close the mouth of the 
 adversary (]E1^) that he may not accuse us, rebuke him,, 
 that he be silent, and suffer a good intercessor * 
 (Job xxxiii. 23) to rise up to justify us, and declare our 
 uprightness. O merciful and gracious God ! Thou hast 
 revealed Thy ways to him who was faithful in Thy 
 house, and when he entreated Thee, then didst Thou 
 make Thy truth known to him." 
 
 Cf. also the following, which is taken from a prayer 
 offered on visiting graves : 
 
 " . . . May your merits, and your perfect life assist 
 us in our needs and protect us in times of trouble. 
 Increase ye also your prayers to the Lord our God, that 
 He, through His infinite mercy and His abundant 
 loving-kindness and for the sake of our holy fathers, and 
 for the sake of our pious ones who have fulfilled His will^ 
 may have compassion, pity, and mercy upon us. ... 
 May your rest be a glorious one, and may the merit of 
 your deeds and your devotion to the study of the Law 
 stand us in good stead, as well as all who have joined us,, 
 and the whole house of Israel. . . ." 
 
 Judging from various indications in the earlier Jewish 
 literature the conjecture may be hazarded that originally 
 the atoning efficacy of the merits of the fathers was 
 * It is said that this refers to a man's good angel.
 
 126 
 
 more fully believed in, and more directly expressed 
 than is at the present the case in the Jewish Liturgy.* 
 
 In passing, reference may be made to an interesting 
 passage from Pirke A both (v. 21) which is incorporated 
 in the Afternoon Service for Sabbath : " Whosoever 
 makes the many righteous, sin prevails not over him ;t 
 and whosoever makes the many to sin, they grant him 
 not the faculty to repent. Moses was righteous, and 
 made the many righteous and the righteousness of the 
 many is laid upon him . . . " ; on this Dr. Taylor J 
 remarks : " Moses is reckoned as co-operating with Israel 
 in all their acts of righteousness ; consequently the J~nDt 
 (Zecuth} of the many depends upon him." The word 
 Zecuth means the state of righteousness (attained by 
 good works) which renders a man justified in the sight 
 of God. Still more distinctly is the office of Mediator 
 seen to be held in the case of Elijah in a passage in a 
 liturgical form of Grace after meals, incorporated in the 
 Jewish Prayer Book, viz., " May the All-merciful send 
 us Elijah the prophet (let him be remembered for good), 
 who shall give us good tidings, salvation and consola- 
 tion." 
 
 In the Sephardic Ritual there are also many 
 references to the merits of the fathers ; in the Service for 
 the Day of Atonement we have, for example, the 
 following : 
 
 * Cf. the beautiful and touching thought expressed in the words: 
 "The tears of the righteous in Paradise cool the torments of hell," 
 (Shemoth Rabba vii.) 
 
 t Cf. Jas. v. 20, He that converteth a sinner from the error of 
 his way shall cover a multitude of sins, 
 
 J Sayings of the Jewish Fathers, p. 94,
 
 I2/ 
 
 " O Lord, yield to our entreaty for the sake of Thy 
 name, And have compassion on Thy people Israel. 
 
 O Lord, yield, for the sake of Abraham, Thy perfect 
 servant from the East. 
 
 O Lord, yield, for the sake of Isaac, who was bound in 
 Thy temple. 
 
 O Lord, yield, for the sake of Jacob, who was answered 
 on a ladder from Thy heavens. 
 
 O Lord, yield, for the sake of Joseph, who, when 
 imprisoned, hoped in Thee. 
 
 O Lord, yield, for the sake of Moses, who was 
 ' faithful in all Thy house.' 
 
 O Lord, yield, for the sake of Aaron, who ministered 
 arrayed in Thy Urim and Thummim. 
 
 O Lord, yield, for the sake of Phineas, the pure one 
 who was zealous for Thy name. 
 
 O Lord, yield, for the sake of David, Thy Sweet 
 Psalmist. 
 
 O Lord, yield, for the sake of Solomon, the king, who 
 built a temple to Thy name. 
 
 O Lord, yield, for the sake of those who have been 
 slain and burnt for testifying the unity of Thy holy 
 name." 
 
 And, again, at the Service for New Year's Day, there 
 are several very striking passages in which the merits of 
 the fathers are pleaded : 
 
 "O Thou Who art clothed and enwrapped in righteous- 
 ness, Thou Who alone art all-perfect, when we are 
 destitute of good works, remember the patriarchs who 
 sleep in Hebron, and may their memorial appear 
 constantly before Thee, as the burnt-offering of the 
 morning, which is for a continual burnt-offering."
 
 128 
 
 " The children of Thy servants repair this day to Thy 
 sanctuary ; they remember the righteous deeds of their 
 ancestors, for their sake, O Lord, remember them for life, 
 and may they be continually present before Thee." 
 
 " For the sake of the pure lives of the forefathers, 
 answer, O Lord, their offspring, defiled by sin, who are 
 terrified and amazed, for they have to appear before 
 Thee on this day of judgment. ' Thou givest truth unto 
 Jacob, and mercy unto Abraham.' >: 
 
 " O establish their seed for a blessing for their sake, and 
 grant the reward of their good deeds to their children 
 after them. . . . Bestow on me this day, the reward 
 of the righteousness of my ancestors, and may my lot 
 and portion in eternal life be like theirs, and cause to be 
 proclaimed to Thy congregation, ' I will ransom them 
 from the power of the grave,' ' Because that Abraham 
 obeyed my voice.' ' 
 
 On the seventh day of the Feast of Tabernacles^ at 
 morning service, seven scrolls of the Law are taken cut 
 and laid on the reading-desk, and seven circuits are made 
 with the lulab* round the reading-desk, in memory of thj 
 seven circuits which used to be made round the altar in 
 the Temple on Hoshanna Rabba,\ At each circuit one 
 Old Testament Saint is specially commemorated, and 
 the circuit is called by his name. The words recited at 
 these " circuits " are so interesting and important in the 
 present connexion that we may be pardoned for quoting 
 some of these rather fully. 
 
 * i.e., the "palm-branch" which is carried during the Feast of 
 Tabernacles ; to it are tied willow-branches and twigs of myrtle. 
 
 t i.e., the seventh day of the Feast of Tabernacles ; the day takes its 
 name from the fact that on it the people constantly cry out : " Hoshanna, ' 
 which means "Save, we pray." The word " Rabba " means "Great."
 
 129 
 
 Circuit of Aaron: 
 
 Through the merit of Aaron may Thy people sing 
 aloud when they say Hosanna. He was sealed with 
 honour when he put on the glorious mitre, to minister in 
 the priesthood. He was clothed in faithfulness with 
 beautiful garments to glorify Thy name ; O show his 
 glory to a contrite nation, Thou Who dwellest in the 
 exalted habitation, and through his merits and his 
 prayers, save Thy troubled people. Remember us, O 
 Lord, with the good-will that Thou bearest unto Thy 
 people. He put on the holy garments to sanctify Thee 
 and to minister in the innermost sanctuary, and he 
 clothed himself in them when he entered there, and 
 appeared as a holy angel of the Lord. With his 
 sacrifices and his burnt-offerings he made atonement for 
 our sins ; O remember his prayers and supplications to 
 Thy faithful people this day, and plant them and grant 
 them fulness of rest at the footstool of Thy sanctuary. 
 
 Circuit of Phineas: 
 
 Remember the merit of Phineas selected for the 
 attribute of justice, which is the foundation of the 
 world. . . . Hasten for his merit thy salvation to 
 this congregation. Remember us, O Lord, with the good- 
 will that Thou bearest unto Thy people. O Lord, for the 
 merit of .this zealous one, answer the cry of Thy hallowed 
 people. . . , 
 
 Circuit of David: 
 
 O Lord, remember David, the prince, who sung upon 
 the ten-stringed instrument and the psaltery ; with 
 whose hymns and psalms Thou art praised throughout 
 the world. . . . For the merit of David, Thy 
 beloved, whose seal is placed upon Thy royal crown,
 
 130 
 
 have mercy and grant comfort to Thy people Thine 
 inheritance. For his merit, show to the afflicted nation 
 the re-building of Thy temple and of Thy dwelling. 
 Remember from Heaven, I beseech Thee, the merit of 
 the patriarchs to Thy congregation, and lift them up and 
 exalt them through the merit of Thy seven perfect men. 
 
 . . . Remember unto us, O our God, the merit of 
 David, the son of Jesse ; and out of his stem call forth 
 the rod, gather Thy scattered, and through his merit, 
 collect our dispersed, and with our wives and children 
 we will rejoice in Thy kingdom, and in the relation of 
 Thy wonders. 
 
 Circuit of Isaac: 
 
 O remember the covenant of Isaac, who was bound 
 for an offering before Thee. He resigned himself to be 
 bound as a lamb, to do Thy will. O favour his root, and 
 be gracious to his seed, when they come before Thee ; 
 and if their guilt testifies against them yield to their 
 entreaty for the sake of Thy name, we beseech Thee. 
 Remember us, O Lord, with the good-will that Thou 
 bearest unto Thy people. Remember, O God, my Rock 
 and Redeemer, the merit of Isaac whose seal in heaven 
 is on the attribute of might unto the nation who seek 
 Thy help. Extend the merit of his being bound and 
 his righteousness unto the people called by Thy name. 
 Seal them for good out of Thy good-will, O God, Who 
 art girt with might. Do not withhold Thy tender mercy 
 from Thy inheritance, and Thy peculiar treasure. 
 
 Circuit of Moses: 
 
 Forget not, we beseech Thee, the merit of Moses, 
 whose seal is upon the attribute of eternity. For the 
 sake of his merit and his meekness subdue Thou our
 
 enemies ; and on Mount Moriah shall we sing hymns with 
 the chief musician. O Thou, eternal God, have mercy 
 for ever on the people who extol Thee. Remember us, 
 O Lord, with the good will that Thou bearest unto Thy 
 people. A perfect and sweet Law inherited " the meek " 
 on Mount Sinai ; forty days he abode with the 
 tremendous Lord God, to receive from His heavenly 
 habitation the Law which is pure and bright, God of 
 truth, Who didst cause Thy faithful people to inherit the 
 law of truth, remember, we beseech Thee, from Thy 
 heavenly abode, his righteousness and Thy law. 
 Remember us, O Lord." 
 
 Lastly, something must be said concerning the inter- 
 
 I, 1 cession and mediation of angels: some echoes of this are 
 preserved in the Jewish Prayer Book. In the " Prayers 
 before retiring to rest at night " occurs this prayer, which 
 is repeated three times : " In the name of the Lord, the 
 God of Israel, may Michael be at my right hand ; 
 Gabriel at my left ; before me, Uriel ; behind me, 
 
 - Raphael ; and above my head the Divine Presence of 
 God (7N !l^3t^ i.e., the Shekhinah.)* This passage does 
 not, of course, witness to the mediatorship of angels ; 
 their function here is only that of guardianship during 
 the hours of darkness against evil spirits which were 
 always believed to be specially active after nightfall ; but 
 the passage is quoted in order to show the belief in 
 personalities who were more powerful than men and who 
 acted as God's intermediaries among men. That angels 
 were believed to fulfil other functions besides that of 
 guardianship will be seen presently. 
 
 * Cp. Matth. xviii. 10, . ". . in heaven their angels do always 
 behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.
 
 132 
 
 There is a striking but somewhat difficult passage in 
 the liturgical form of the " Grace after meals," which 
 seems to have some reference to the mediatory functions 
 of the angels, it runs : " On their behalf (i.e. parents 
 and relatives) and on our behalf may they teach Zecuth 
 on high as shall be for the preserving of peace " ; the 
 words " may they teach Zecuth on high," must refer to 
 the angels, and the " teaching of Zecuth " probably means 
 placing their merit on record so that it may be pleaded 
 on behalf of men. Dr. Singer, in his translation of the 
 passage, renders it : " Both on their and on our behalf 
 may there be such advocacy on high as shall lead to 
 enduring peace " ; and the passage continues : " And 
 may we receive a blessing from the Lord, and righteous- 
 ness from the God of our salvation ; and may we find 
 grace and good understanding in the sight of God and 
 man." From these words it seems that by "enduring 
 i peace " is meant peace between God and men, which is 
 f to be brought about through the mediatorship of angels. 
 
 Again, in the Sephardic Ritual, in a hymn for New 
 Year's Day belief in angelic intercession is witnessed to 
 the following verse : " Then all the angels of the. 
 throne were deeply moved ; Ophanim* and Seraphim 
 interceded and implored for mercy for this chief of the 
 host and said, ' O grant a redemption and appoint a- ran- 
 som for him. Deprive not the world of so great a lumi- 
 nary.' " The object of this intercession is of less 
 importance than the fact that such intercession is said to 
 be offered by angelic beings. 
 
 * One of the ten orders of angels into which, according to Rabbinical 
 teaching, the angelic host is divided. The Ophanim are said to dwell 
 in the seventh Heaven.
 
 
 133 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 The Messiah as a Mediating Agent. 
 
 There are a few passages in the Jewish Prayer Book 
 in which the Messiah is spoken of as " Redeemer." The 
 reason why these are referred to is not because they teach 
 the Mediatorship of the Messiah, for it cannot be said 
 that they do this, but because they witness to a 
 belief in some special function which the Messiah is to 
 fulfil on behalf of his people, and also because one cannot 
 dissociate from the person of the Messiah mentioned in 
 the Prayer Book the conceptions concerning Him which 
 we find in the Old Testament. 
 
 In the opening hymn of praise for the Morning 
 Service occur the words : " He will send our Messiah at 
 the end of the days to redeem (miD v>) them that wait for 
 the end, [that wait for] his salvation." Again, it must 
 be the Messiah who is referred to when, later on, in the 
 same service the Amidah prayer (so-called because it 
 is said standing] is said : " Blessed art thou, O Lord our 
 God, and God of our fathers . . . Who rememberest 
 the pious deeds of the patriarchs, and in love wilt bring 
 a redeemer (7M13) " Goel " * to their children's children 
 for Thy name's sake." t Here it must be remarked that 
 
 * Goel is a regular word for the Messiah in Rabbinical literature 
 .?., Bereshith Rabba chap. Ixxxv. 
 
 t This is repeated at the Morning as well as at the Evening Service 
 for Sabbaths and Festivals.
 
 134 
 
 although the English has "for Thy name's sake," in 
 reference to God, the original reads " for His name's 
 sake " (TOI^), in reference to the " redeemer." * 
 
 We have in these two passages two different roots 
 used for the words rendered " to redeem " and a 
 " redeemer," viz., padah (ITTD) and gaal (7N3) ; it will 
 be worth while to examine quite briefly the ideas which 
 these two roots connote respectively according to 
 biblical usage. 
 
 Padah means "to ransom," the underlying idea being ahvays that 
 of a payment in one form or another.^ It is used with man as the 
 subject e.g., in Exod.xiii.,23 All the first born of man among thy sonsshalt 
 thou redeem ; i.e., a life is saved by means of a substitute. Cf., in the 
 " Service for the Redemption of the Firstborn " in the Jewish Prayer 
 Book, the words which the priest says after the father has paid the 
 redemption money : "This is instead of that, this in commutation for 
 that, this in remission for that." Another example, among many, is 
 Ps. xlix. 7, 8, None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give 
 to God a ransoms/or him. But the word is used mostly of ' ' delivering," 
 God being the subject, e.g., from the Egyptian bondage, Deut. vii. 8, 
 xiii. 6, Mic. xvi. 4, or from exile, Jer. xxxi. n, Zech. x. 8, or from 
 trouble, difficulty, violence, Shoel, and death. 
 
 Gaal, in its original meaning when man is the subject, signifies "to 
 act as a kinsman," then, just as PaJa/i, to redeem for a money payment. 
 But this word, too, is used mostly with God as the subject, and implies 
 a personal relationship between Him and the object of redemption ; it is 
 used of redeeming from the Egyptian bondage, from exile, from evil 
 generally, from an enemy, and from death (the "pit"), Hos. xiii. 14, 
 Ps. ciii. 4. The real difference between the two roots, when used with 
 God as the subject, is, speaking generally, that 1 adah connotes 
 redemption for which an equivalent of some kind is exacted ; while 
 redemption -without anything in the shape of paymen t. 
 
 ' 
 
 * The Name of the Messiah was, according to Jewish teaching, one of 
 the seven things which were called into existence before the creation of 
 the world (Shemoth Rabba c. xvii.). 
 
 t Here the Hebrew equivalent is kaphar (^D^X see above, pp. igff.
 
 In the two passages quoted above, the different usage 
 of the two roots is, in one respect, well brought out, for 
 in the passage in which the root ga'al is used i.e., the 
 second passage, the redeemer is clearly conceived of as 
 his people's kinsman, being mentioned along with the 
 patriarchs. Elsewhere in the Prayer Book the title 
 "Redeemer" (Go el) is applied to God, e.g., in the act of 
 Praise which precedes the passage just referred to, we 
 read : " Our Redeemer, the Lord of Hosts is his name, 
 the Holy One of Israel, Blessed art Thou, O Lord, Who 
 hast redeemed Israel." In the sentence before this the 
 root padah is used, and translated " deliver " ; this is 
 interesting, as showing that ga'al is used in a more 
 technical sense than padah, which, unlike its use in the 
 Old Testament, is of more general signification. 
 
 The Messiah appears again as a mediating agency in 
 the prayer beginning : " Our God and God of our fathers ! 
 May our remembrance rise, come, and be accepted before 
 Thee, with the remembrance of our fathers, of Messiah, 
 the son of David, Thy servant . . . " ; this prayer is 
 said at the Evening Service, at Morning Service on New 
 Moons and the intermediate days of the Feasts of 
 Passover and Tabernacles, at the Service for Festivals, at 
 the Service for the Day of Atonement, as well as at 
 " Grace after Meals." 
 
 In the Service for the Inauguration of the 
 Sabbath there occurs the beautiful hymn known as 
 
 rta n1pS "nVT PD 1 ? ("Come, my beloved, to 
 meet the bride ") ; in this poem the Sabbath is 
 personified as a bride, whose visit to the faithful of 
 Israel it is desired to honour and welcome. One of the
 
 136 
 
 verses of this poem contains the following words, 
 interesting especially in the present connexion : 
 "Shake thyself from the dust, arise, put on the 
 garments of thy glory, O my people ! through the son 
 of Jesse, the Bethlehemite, draw Thou nigh unto my 
 soul, redeem it" Here the Messiah, belonging to the 
 house of Jesse, is the one for whose sake ("p-*^) 
 redemption is sought (the root used is again gaal}. 
 
 One other passage, interesting from more than one 
 point of view, must be given ; it occurs in the " Service at 
 a Circumcision " : 
 
 " May the All-Merciful, regardful of the merit of them 
 that are akin by the blood of circumcision, send us 
 his Messiah, who walketh uprightly, to give good tidings 
 and consolation to the people scattered and dispersed 
 among the peoples. 
 
 May the All-Merciful send us the righteous priest, who 
 remains withdrawn in concealment f until a throne, 
 bright as the sun and radiant as the diamond, shall be 
 prepared for him ; [may he send us the prophet J who] 
 covered his face with his mantle and wrapped himself 
 therein, with whom is God's covenant [lit, " my 
 covenant "] of life and peace. 
 
 May the All-Merciful make us worthy of the days of 
 the Messiah, and of the life of the world to come." 
 
 t i.e., Moses; cf. Deut. xxxiv. 6; . . . but no man knoweth of his 
 sepulchre unto (his day. 
 
 i.e., Elijah ; cf. I. Kings xix. 13, One is naturally reminded of the 
 account of the Transfiguration, see especially Matth. xvii. 3 5. 
 
 More accurately "the age to come," (' Olam ha-ba') a technical 
 term for the Messianic Era which is to inaugurate eternity according to 
 Jewish teaching. Cf. Lk. xviii. 30, Hebr. vi. 5.
 
 
 137 
 
 The significance of these passages can only be 
 adequately grasped when it is realised what the concep- 
 tions of the Messiah and his work were according to 
 Biblical, post-Biblical, and Rabbinical teaching. It is 
 impossible to touch upon this large subject here ; 
 reference may be made to Oesterley and Box's Religion 
 and Worship of the Synagogue, chaps, x., xi., together 
 with the literature referred to there. 
 
 While in the Jewish Prayer Book the Messiah does 
 not occupy the position of mediator in the full sense of 
 Jhe word, it is clear that he figures as a unique mediating 
 agent between God and His people. This is as much 
 as one can reasonably expect ; for the Jewish Prayer 
 Book is in many respects an adaptation to modern needs, 
 and anything that would seem to play into the hands of 
 Christian dogmatic teaching would necessarily, and from 
 the Jewish point of view quite rightly, be eliminated. As 
 it is, the amount of Christian teaching on many subjects 
 which it contains is extraordinary ; we say " Christian 
 teaching " because it is what we, as Christians, teach, 
 'though we realize to the full that in doing so we are 
 teaching Judaism; but the truth is that a very great deal 
 of Judaism is accepted by Christianity, since it was what 
 Christ taught. The Christian religion owes infinitely 
 much to Judaism ; we would only wish that Jews would 
 recognise that Christianity is in some respects developed 
 Judaism. But where there are points of fundamental 
 difference, such as in the case of Messianic teaching, we 
 may not find fault with the official exponents of Judaism 
 if, in their Liturgy, they have felt constrained to eliminate 
 much concerning the Messiah which is taught in the
 
 133 
 
 Bible and in Rabbinical literature because they believe 
 that it would have a tendency to direct Jews into the 
 channel of Christian thought. On the other hand, we 
 have the right and we are sure that Jews will concede 
 us the same we have the right to investigate Judaism 
 as a whole, and of reading into the Jewish Prayer Book 
 much concerning the teaching of the Messiah which it 
 does not visibly contain ; or, in other words, we feel 
 that we are justified in studying the Jewish Prayer Book 
 in the light of earlier Jewish teaching. When this is done, 
 it is impossible not to become convinced that Christian 
 teaching concerning the Messiah is the natural and 
 jlogical development of what is potentionally contained 
 in Judaism.
 
 139 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 Teaching antagonistic to the Doctrine of Mediation. 
 
 It was pointed out in an earlier chapter that the 
 Jewish Prayer Book contained a good deal which 
 repudiated altogether the idea of Mediation, and this in 
 spite of the ccmparatively large amount of positive 
 teaching on the subject which figures there. This con- 
 tradiction, if contradiction it be, will be briefly dealt with 
 in our concluding chapters. Here it is our purpose to 
 illustrate by a few quotations the negative teaching of 
 the Jewish Prayer Book on Mediation. 
 
 We saw (Chap, xviii.) that, according to Jewish 
 teaching, Good Works were to be reckoned among those 
 things which per se had the power to bring about a right 
 relationship between God and man, and that they thus 
 partook of the nature of a mediating agency. But the 
 following passage from the Morning Service offers 
 another side to this teaching : " Sovereign of all worlds \ 
 Not because of our righteous acts do we lay our 
 supplications before thee, but because of thine abundant 
 mercies. What are we ? What is our life ? What is 
 our piety ? What our righteousness ? " Later on in 
 the same Service, but in a part which is only used during 
 the ten days of Penitence, occur these words : " Our 
 Father, our King ! be gracious unto us and answer us, 
 for we have no good works of our own ; deal with us in 
 charity and kindness, and save us." It should, however, 
 be added that, according to the original, this could mean
 
 I 
 
 140 
 
 that since the penitents have no works which they could 
 offer, therefore they throw themselves upon the divine 
 mercy ; in this case the passage might be understood to 
 imply that if the works were forthcoming their efficacy 
 could be pleaded. But there is no ambiguity in a 
 passage that comes soon after this, according to which 
 it is said : " We do not lay our supplications before thee 
 because of our righteous acts, but because of thine 
 abundant mercies." 
 
 Again, we saw (pp. 131 f.) that there were some echoes 
 in the Jewish Prayer Book of the mediatorial function of 
 angels, which, in earlier Jewish theology, was certainly 
 believed in ; this is, however, repudiated in the words : 
 " Not in man do I put my trust, nor upon any angel do 
 I rely, but upon the God of Heaven, who is the God of 
 truth . . . " ; this is from an act of Praise said on the 
 Morning Service for Sabbath. The mediatorial function 
 of the Messiah seems also repudiated in the following 
 words from the Morning Service : " True it is that thou 
 art indeed the Lord of thy people, and a mighty King 
 to plead their cause. True it is that thou art indeed the 
 first, and thou art the last, and beside thee we have no 
 King, Redeemer, and Saviour." * A pointed denial of 
 Mediatorship is also contained in the words : " We know 
 that we have sinned, and that there is none to stand up 
 in our behalf." A formula which occurs several times in 
 the Jewish Prayer Book runs : " Remember us unto life, 
 O King, who delightest in life, and inscribe us in the 
 book of life, for thine own sake, O living God." This is 
 
 * Somewhat similar words occur in several other passages.
 
 not, it is true, necessarily a denial of a doctrine of 
 Mediation, but it points in that direction. More 
 significant is the absence of all reference to Mediation 
 in the words of the penitential hymn for the Morning 
 Service, from which we have already quoted : " Our 
 Father, our King ! forgive and pardon all our iniquities. 
 Our Father, our King ! blot out our transgressions, and 
 make them pass away from before thine eyes. Our 
 Father, our King ! erase in thine abundant mercies all 
 the records of our guilt. . . ." Then, again, the following 
 passage reads almost like an intentional repudiation of 
 Christian doctrine : "... From everlasting to everlasting, 
 thou art God ; and beside thee we have no King who 
 redeemeth and saveth, setteth free and delivereth, who 
 supporteth and hath mercy in all times of trouble and 
 distress ; yea, we have no King but thee." This is said 
 in the Morning Service for Sabbath and Festivals ; and 
 the same thought occurs in the Additional Service for 
 these in the words : " He is our God ; there is none else ; 
 in truth he is our King ; there is none besides him ; as 
 it is written in his Law . . . there is none else." And, 
 once more, in the Prayers before retiring to rest at night 
 it is said : " And he is One, and there is no second to 
 compare to him, to consort with him." 
 
 But, perhaps, that which most clearly witnesses to the 
 non-belief in a Mediator between God and men is the 
 frequent prayer for divine pardon for sin directly, with- 
 out the mention of any intermediate intercessor ; this is 
 where the difference between Judaism and Christianity 
 on the subject of Mediation in the Jewish Prayer Book 
 becomes most manifest. A few examples of this must
 
 142 
 
 close our survey : " Blessed art thou, O Lord, thou 
 King, who pardonest and forgivest our iniquities and 
 the iniquities of thy people, the house of Israel, and 
 makest our trespasses to pass away year by year " 
 (Morning Service for Sabbath and Festivals). At the 
 beginning of the Service for the Day of Atonement it is 
 said : " . . . He will turn again and have mercy upon us ; 
 he will subdue our iniquities. And thou wilt cast all our 
 sins into the depths of the sea," and so often in this 
 Service. In the Concluding Service for the Day of 
 Atonement the same teaching is emphasized in a passage 
 which has additional interest, because it witnesses to 
 the inefficacy of sacrifices : " Thou givest a hand to 
 transgressors, and thy right hand is stretched out to 
 receive the penitent. . . . Endless would be the fire 
 offerings required for our guilt, and numberless the sweet 
 savours for our trespasses ; but thou knowest that our 
 latter end is the worm, and hast, therefore, multiplied the 
 means of our forgiveness." The whole passage is of great 
 beauty, and affords an excellent example of what one 
 may call the " liturgical faculty " which is so character- 
 istic of the Jews. 
 
 The passages given abovj do not, of course, exhaust 
 all that could be given ; but it may be claimed, we think, 
 that they fairly represent the most pointed ones which 
 are antagonistic to the doctrine of Mediation.
 
 143 
 
 THE MODERN JEWISH ATTITUDE 
 TOWARDS THE DOCTRINE OF MEDIATION. 
 
 In considering the modern Jewish attitude towards the 
 doctrine of Mediation, our method of procedure will 
 differ from that hitherto pursued. The various classes 
 of literature which have been referred to in the preceding 
 pages are all recognized universally as original authori- 
 ties, they can be appealed to as constituting authoritative 
 sources, they stretch over a period of many centuries, 
 and on the main point under consideration, they offer a 
 long chain of evidence which is not greatly affected by 
 a certain amount of antagonistic teaching. The data, 
 when once gathered, are easy to handle, their classifica- 
 tion is a simple matter. It is very different when one 
 comes to deal with the subject in modern Jewish litera- 
 ture ; there is no unanimity as to what is authoritative, 
 the literature extends over a short period, the data are 
 difficult to gather, there is an intangibility about the 
 whole matter. Most people would probably be inclined 
 to say that the question is an exceedingly simple one, 
 inasmuch as in modern Judaism there is no doctrine of 
 Mediation, and this is true ; nevertheless the following 
 facts have to be borne in mind : Orthodox Jews cling to 
 their Liturgy, and as we have seen, there is, at the very 
 least, a definite doctrine of Mediation taught there ; 
 Orthodox Jews regard the Talmud as a final appeal in 
 matters of belief, and in both Mishna and Gemara there 
 is a great mass of teaching on Mediation, as has already
 
 144 
 
 been pointed out ; and again, Orthodox Jews have the 
 greatest veneration and love for the Torah, the core of 
 which is the Pentateuch, (though it has come to mean 
 something wider as well,)* and it is not easy to get away 
 from the fact that the doctrine of Mediatorship is, at the 
 very least, adumbrated there. This being so, it is clear 
 that Orthodox Jews will be chary of repudiating the 
 teaching of the Bible, the Talmud, and the Liturgy ; and 
 it is here, therefore, that the interest of our present sub- 
 ject comes in ; for, as we shall see, Orthodox Jews do not 
 repudiate any of these authorities, it is in their interpre- 
 tation of the teaching which these contain that Orthodox 
 Jews differ from the interpretation which Christians 
 would give. 
 
 But the explaining away (the expression is not meant 
 unkindly, but it is difficult to know what other to use) of 
 much of the teaching in Bible and Talmud, and yet 
 accepting the authority of these, has appeared to many 
 intellectual Jews as illogical ; it is more logical, though 
 certainly somewhat drastic, to refuse to regard the Law. 
 
 (or Torah y as finally authoritative, and binding ; and this 
 is the position which has been taken up by what is known 
 as " Reform Judaism." Both Orthodox and " Reform " 
 Jews believe in Judaism, but while the former cling to 
 the Law, the latter repudiate this ; it is a question as to 
 whether Judaism is a legal religion or not ; and obviously 
 <4his constitutes a difference which is fundamental. The 
 attitude of the Reform Jews towards the idea of Mediation 
 will, therefore, also require some notice. 
 
 * "The Torah is not merely the Law (Pentateuch), it is the whole body 
 V of revealed truth and doctrine," Abrahams' Festival Studies, p. 26 (1906).
 
 H5 
 
 "The pivot of the opposition between Reform and Conservative 
 Judaism is the conception of Israel's destiny. Jewish Orthodoxy 
 looks upon Palestine not merely as the cradle, but also as the 
 ultimate home of Judaism. With its possession is connected the 
 possibility of fulfilling the Law, those parts of Divine legislation 
 being unavoidably suspended that are conditioned by the existence 
 of the Temple, and by the occupation of the Holy Land. Away 
 from Palestine, the Jew is compelled to violate God's Will in regard 
 to these. God gave the Law ; God decreed also Israel's dispersion. 
 To reconcile this disharmony between the demands of the Law 
 and historically developed actuality, the philosophy of Orthodoxy 
 regards the impossibility f observing the Law as a Divine punish- 
 ment, visited upon Israel on account of its sins. Israel is at the 
 present moment in exile ; it has been expelled from its land. The 
 present period is thus one of probation. The length of its duration 
 God alone can know and determine. Israel is doomed to wait 
 patiently in exile, praying and hoping for the coming of the 
 Messiah, who will lead the dispersed back to Palestine. There, 
 under His benign rule, the Temple will re-arise, the sacrificial 
 and sacerdotal scheme will again become active, and Israel, once 
 more an independent nation, will be able to observe to the letter 
 the law of God as contained in the Pentateuch. "t 
 
 But as always happens when a cleavage has thus 
 caused separation, attempts at bridging over the chasm 
 are not wanting ; and there are signs within modern 
 Judaism of the formation of an intermediate position 
 between Orthodox and " Reform " Judaism. The 
 attitude of these semi-Reform Jews towards the principle 
 of Mediation will also be deserving of a short 
 consideration. 
 
 The question naturally arises, whence are the data to 
 be gathered for information upon the subject? As 
 has been already remarked, the gathering of such data is 
 not an easy matter on account of the lack of sources 
 
 t Jewish Encycl. X. 3476. 
 
 K
 
 146 
 
 which are to be regarded as official and authoritative ; we 
 must therefore have recourse to works which, if not 
 official, may at all events be claimed as voicing fairly 
 and fully the tenets of the particular type of Judaism 
 which they represent. Other books will be incidentally 
 referred to, but in the main the three following works 
 will be utilised as text-books : as representing Orthodox 
 Judaism, M. Friedlander's, The Jewish Religion, 2nd ed. 
 (1900) ; as representing semi-Reform Judaism, Morris 
 - Joseph's Judaism as Creed and Life (1903)*; and, as 
 representing Reform Judaism. C. G. Montefiore's Liberal 
 \* Judaism (IQO^). These will be referred to by the names 
 of their respective authors. The quotations from these 
 works which we shall give will be somewhat full, but 
 in justice to the writers themselves, and in order to 
 avoid the risk of misrepresenting them, it is best to 
 give their words with the context. 
 
 * A second edition of this work has just been published, but it is the 
 ist edition we have utilized.
 
 147 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 Orthodox Judaism and the Doctrine of Mediation. 
 
 i. The Doctrine of God. 
 
 The Jews have no formal Creed in the Christian sense 
 of -the word, but as Dr. Friedlander (pp. 1 3 f.) points out, 
 " it became necessary to formulate the truths taught in 
 the Bible, when disputes arose as to their meaning and 
 to their validity. The Mishnah, therefore, declares certain 
 opinions as non-Jewish and contrary to the teaching of 
 the Divine Word. Later on, when controversies 
 multiplied between the various sections of the Jewish 
 nation, as well as between Jews and Christians, and Jews 
 and Mohammedans, it was found most important to 
 settle the forms and arrangement of our beliefs. Moses 
 Maimonides, the great religious philosopher, taught, in his 
 Commentary on the Mishnah, thirteen Principles of faith, 
 which found general acceptance among the Jews, and are 
 known as the Thirteen Principles." These Thirteen 
 Principles, formulated in the twelfth century, A.D., have 
 been incorporated in the Jewish Prayer Book, and 
 constitute the nearest approach to a formal Creed of 
 Judaism.* The Second Principle is as follows : 
 
 " I believe with perfect faith that the Creator, 
 blessed be His Name, is a Unity, and that there is 
 no unity in any manner like unto His, and that He 
 alone is our God, Who was, is, and will be." 
 
 * It exists in prose and poetry.
 
 148 
 
 Dr. Friedlander, in expanding and explaining this 
 Principle, says that the belief in the Unity of God is 
 " the belief that the Being Who is the cause of everything 
 in existence is One ; not like the unity of a group or 
 class, composed of a certain number of individuals, or 
 the unity of one individual consisting of various 
 constituent elements, or the unity of one simple thing 
 which is divisible ad infinitum, but as a unity, the like of 
 which does not exist." Whatever other non-Jewish 
 forms of belief it is intended to repudiate here, it is 
 certain that the Christian doctrine of the Holy Trinity is 
 included among them, and therefore also, by implication, 
 the Mediatorial function of the Second Person of the 
 Holy Trinity. 
 
 ii. The Law. 
 
 The eighth and ninth Principles are as follows : 
 " I believe with perfect faith that the whole Law, 
 now in our possession, is the same that was given to 
 Moses our teacher, peace be unto him." 
 " I believe with perfect faith that this Law will not 
 be changed, and that there will never be any other 
 law from the Creator, blessed be His Name." 
 By the " Law," as already pointed out, is meant, in the 
 first instance and primarily, the Pentateuch, including the 
 historical as well as the legal portions.* Now we have seen 
 that in the cases of Abraham and Moses (and we might 
 have added Phineas, see Num. xxv. 10-13) there are 
 instances in which the principle of Mediatorship is dis- 
 
 * It has a wider meaning as well, but is used by Maimonides in the 
 restricted sense here.
 
 149 
 
 tinctly adumbrated, if nothing more * ; the whole-hearted 
 acceptance of the Law, therefore, on the part of Orthodox 
 Judaism would seem to demand also the acceptance of 
 this principle which is taught there. Again, in the Law 
 is included the whole of the sacrificial system, underlying 
 which is the principle of Mediationf ; and some of the 
 technical terms in connexion with sacrifices emphasise 
 the implicit acceptation of the principle of Mediation on 
 the part of the writer or writers of the Pentateuch. 
 
 How does Orthodox Judaism deal with this subject? 
 It will be best to see first the way in which the two 
 Principles, quoted above, concerning the Law are under- 
 stood and explained by Dr. Friedlander in his Manual. 
 " The whole Torah," he says, " including both history 
 and precepts, is of Divine origin ; nothing is contained 
 in the Torah that was not revealed to Moses by the 
 Almighty, although we do not know in what manner 
 Moses received the information " (p. 134). 
 
 In regard to the other Principle quoted, he says that 
 by it " Jews pronounce their belief in the immutability 
 of the Law." 
 
 Upon the mediatorial functions of Abraham and 
 Moses nothing is said, but the regarding the sacrificial 
 system Dr. Friedlander has much to say : 
 
 " What was the main idea that prompted man to bring 
 an offering to the Almighty ? He felt, as it were, the 
 existence of a higher Being, the Creator and Ruler of 
 all things ; he was conscious that his own life and 
 welfare depended on the Will of the Being to whom in 
 
 * See Chapter i. 
 t See Chapter ii.
 
 150 
 
 reality everything belongs that man believes himself to 
 possess and enjoy. In order to give expression to this 
 feeling of allegiance, man brought the first and best of 
 what he had acquired to the true Owner, and thus 
 introduced himself by such gifts as a faithful subject 
 who is anxious to merit the favour of his Master. That 
 which was first introduced by man voluntarily, was 
 afterwards sanctioned and regulated by Divine 
 command " (pp. 414). Later on Dr. Friedlander 
 continues : " Great stress is laid on the sprinkling of the 
 blood of the sacrifice upon the altar. ' The blood,' the 
 Law says, ' is the soul of all flesh ; and I have given it to 
 you upon the altar to make an atonement for the soul ' 
 (Lev. xvii. n). We are thus reminded that, in so far as 
 the animal life is concerned, the pre-eminence of man 
 over the beast is nought, and yet the Creator gave us the 
 right to shed the blood of animals in order to save our 
 life. Why ? Because man has a higher mission to 
 fulfil ; he has been created in the image of God " 
 (p. 416). The object and reason of sacrifices here given 
 seem somewhat inadequate, especially in view of the 
 abundant instruction on the subject offered in the Torah 
 itself. It is, however, of much interest to note that 
 Orthodox Jews believe so firmly in the permanent 
 character of the sacrificial system that they look forward 
 to a time when it will again be fully observed. Dr. 
 Friedlander says : " With the destruction of the Temple 
 sacrifices ceased ; with the Restoration of Israel and the 
 Re-building of the Temple the Sacrificial Service will 
 likewise be resumed (cf. Mai. iii. 4). There are persons 
 who believe that the Sacrificial Service, implying much
 
 anthropomorphism, could not have been intended to be 
 permanent, and that it was only a concession made to 
 the fashion and the low degree of culture of the age. 
 Those who reject sacrifices on this account must also 
 reject prayer, which is likewise based on a certain degree 
 of anthropomorphism, though less strikingly than 
 sacrifice. If the law concerning offerings were only 
 intended for a certain age, such limitation would have 
 been indicated in the Law. In the absence of such 
 indication we have no right to criticise the Word of God, 
 and to think that we are too advanced in culture to obey 
 the Divine commands. . . . On the other hand, the 
 revival of the Sacrificial Service must be sanctioned by 
 the Divine voice of a prophet. The mere acquisition of 
 the Temple Mount, or of all Palestine by Jews, by war, 
 or political combinations, or purchase, would not justify 
 the revival. It is only the return of the Jews to Palestine, 
 and the rebuilding of the Temple by Divine command, 
 and by Divine intervention, that will be followed by the 
 restoration of the Sacrificial Service. And however 
 contrary the slaughter of animals, the sprinkling of their 
 blood, and the burning of their flesh be to our taste, we 
 ought to look forward with eagerness and pleasure for 
 the revival of the full Temple Service as an event that 
 will enable us to do the Will of the Almighty revealed 
 in the Torah" (pp. 4i6f.). 
 
 It Js . clear, ^therefore, that Orthodox Judaism accepts 
 
 the Law as Divine, and regards its precepts as perma- 
 
 jiently binding ; but it holds that the sacrificial system 
 
 4oes not involve the principle of Mediation. An 
 
 explanation of the real object of sacrifices is not forth-
 
 152 
 
 coming in Dr. Friedlander's book, for to say that these 
 were instituted merely in order to give expression to a 
 feeling of allegiance on the part of man towards the 
 true Owner of all things is simply to ignore the teaching 
 of Scripture. 
 
 But we have not yet done with the Law. We have 
 so far only referred to the Written Law ; but Orthodox 
 Judaism has much to say about the Oral Law. Dr. 
 Friedlander says : " Many explanations and details of 
 the laws were supplemented by oral teaching ; they were 
 handed down by word of mouth from generation to 
 generation, and only after the destruction of the second 
 Temple were they committed to writing. The latter 
 are, nevertheless, called Oral Law, as distinguished from 
 the Torah or Written Law, which from the first was 
 committed to writing. Those oral laws which were 
 revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai are called " Laws 
 given to Moses on Mount Sinai " * . . . The Oral 
 Law, or the Tradition, has been handed 'down in two 
 different forms : (a) in the form of a running Commen- 
 tary on the Pentateuch ; such Commentaries are called 
 Midrashim ; (b) arranged according to the different 
 subjects, and treated independently of the text of the 
 Torah. This is done in the Talmud" (pp. 136 f.). 
 
 * Cp. with this Mr. C. G. Montefiore's words : "Thus there are really 
 two divine laws : one contained in the Pentateuch ; one forming the 
 substratum of the subsequently written and codified Rabbinical legislation. 
 Few educated persons would venture nowadays to put in any plea for the 
 Mosaic origin of any of the Rabbinical ordinances, yet official and orthodox 
 Judaism is still bound to the observance of these ordinances " (p. 92).
 
 153 
 
 // / Midrash means "exposition" or " exegesis. " The Midrashic 
 literature consists, generally speaking, of two classes, the Midrash 
 ff^\ Halakah, of a legal character, and the Midrash Haggadah, of a 
 ,S i more popular kind. The Midrashim of the former category are: 
 Mechilta ("Measure"), a commentary on Exod. xii. xxiii. 19, 
 xxxii. 12-17, xxxv. 1-3 ; Sifra ("The Book"), on Leviticus; Si/re 
 ("Books"), on Num. v. xxxvi., and Deuteronomy. These, in 
 their original written form, go back to the earlier part of the second 
 century A.D. Of the latter class are the following : Bereshith^Rabba, 
 on Genesis, and commentaries on the five Mcgilloth ("Rolls"), viz., 
 Lamentations, Canticles, Ruth, Ecclesiastes, Esther ; Wayyikra 
 Rabba, on Leviticus ; Debarim Rabba, on Deuteronomy ; 
 Bemidbar Rabba, on Numbers ; and Shemoth Rabba, on Exodus. 
 These last ten works go by the comprehensive name of Rabboth.* 
 The Talmud (" Learning") exists in two recensions, the Jerusalem 
 and the Babylonian, of which the latter is the more important; 
 There are two elements in the Talmud, first the Mishnah (lit. 
 " Repetition "), which is a commentary on the text of Scripture, and 
 secondly the Gemara (" Completion "), which is a commentary on 
 and expansion of the Mishnah. 
 
 We have seen abovef what abundant teaching on 
 Mediation there is in this Rabbinical literature ; but in 
 spite of the fact that Orthodox Judaism accepts this as 
 authoritative, it lays no stress on its teaching on the 
 subject of Mediation. 
 
 iii. The Messiah. 
 The Twelfth Principle runs : 
 
 " I believe with perfect faith in the coming of the 
 Messiah, and, though He tarry, I will wait daily 
 for His coming." 
 
 Dr. Friedlander writes as follows on this Principle : 
 " All the attributes of Messiah are those of a human 
 
 * See further below, Appendix. 
 \ Chapters vii. xv.
 
 154 
 
 being in his highest possible perfection. No superhuman 
 qualities are ascribed to Him ; all His glory, all His 
 success is dependent on the Will of God. He is an ideal 
 man, and an ideal king, but no more ; if miracles are to 
 be wrought, it is not Messiah who will perform them, 
 but God, Who will act wondrously for Messiah and 
 Israel. The advent of Messiah is not expected to change 
 the nature of man, much less the course of the world 
 around us. The only change we expect is that the Unity 
 of God will be acknowledged universally, and that 
 justice and righteousness will flourish over all the earth. 
 Those who believe in a superhuman nature of Messiah 
 are guilty of idolatry" (p. 160). Further on in his book 
 Dr. Friedlander says: "The belief in the coming of 
 Messiah in some future time has been, like the belief in 
 the Unity of God, the source of vexatious disputations 
 between Jews and non-Jews. Mohammedans and 
 Christians tried by all means in their power to convince 
 the Jews that the Anointed whose advent was 
 prophesied by the Prophets, had already appeared, the 
 former pointing to Mohammed, the latter to Jesus, as 
 the person realizing those predictions. The Biblical 
 passages adduced as evidence, prove nothing of the 
 kind . . . Christians quoted passages from Isaiah, 
 which had no reference whatever to Messiah in evidence 
 of the Messianity of Jesus . . . the sufferings and 
 final relief of the servant of the Lord, that is Israel 
 (Chaps. Hi. and liii.), were applied to Jesus " (pp. 225 f.). 
 In reference to this passage from Isaiah, it is interesting 
 to note what Dr. Friedlander has to say on the subject 
 of vicarious atonement. " Of this we are certain, if death
 
 155 
 
 is punishment, that everyone dies for his own sin. This 
 theory is so frequently repeated in the Bible that it is 
 surprising how the theory of vicarious death and vicari- 
 ous atonement could be considered as harmonizing with 
 the teaching of the Bible. We are taught that God visits 
 the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the 
 third and upon the fourth generation ; but at the same 
 time we are told that the children are only punished if 
 they repeat the sins of their fathers, and even then only 
 for their own sins. It has been asserted that Isaiah in 
 chap liii. assumes the principle of vicarious atonement. 
 That this is not the case we can easily see if we turn 
 from the Anglican Version to the original Hebrew, and 
 translate it literally and in accordance with the context. 
 Isaiah, in describing the future glory of the servant of 
 the Lord (=Israel), tells us what those people who 
 oppress Israel will then feel and how they will give 
 expression to their feeling of shame and regret, saying,. 
 ' Surely he hath borne griefs caused by us, and carried, 
 sorrows caused by us : yet we did esteem Him stricken, 
 smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded 
 through our transgressions, bruised through our iniqui- 
 ties.' Sin-offerings were brought, but not as a vicarious 
 atonement, although the sinner might well have felt that 
 he himself deserved the treatment endured by the sacri- 
 fice. The sin-offering could not have been a vicarious 
 atonement, as it was not offered when the sin was 
 committed knowingly " (p. 224). With this last state- 
 ment we are not here concerned*, nor yet with the 
 
 * See pp. 22 fi. above.
 
 1 5 6 
 
 rendering of the Hebrew of Is. liii. 4, 5, given above, 
 though we should have liked to have had Dr. 
 Friedlander's translation and explanation of verses 8 
 and 10 ; but it is worth while noting the fact that in 
 asserting that the " Servant of the Lord " is equivalent 
 to Israel, Dr. Friedlander is not altogether in accord 
 with the earliest, and what presumably reflects the most 
 authoritative Jewish exegesis; for in the Targum of Jona- 
 than ben Uzziel to the Prophets, Is. liii. is explained in 
 such a way that the passages which refer to the humilia- 
 tion of the Servant are interpreted of the people of 
 Israel, while those which speak of the glory of the 
 Servant, are referred to the Messiah.* Our main pomt, 
 however, is that the mediatorial function of the Messiah, 
 as witnessed to in the Old Testament, the Targum, in 
 Rabbinical Literature, and to a modified extent in the_ 
 Jewish Prayer Book, is altogether repudiated by this 
 exponent of Orthodox Judaism. 
 
 It may be well, finally, to supplement these extracts 
 from Dr. Friedlander's work by a quotation from a 
 recently published volume from the pen of Dr. Adler, 
 the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of 
 the British Empire ; in his Anglo-Jewish Memories he 
 has a sermon on " The Jewish Doctrine of Atonement," 
 in which the modern Orthodox Jewish attitude regarding 
 the doctrine of Mediation is clearly and explicitly stated. 
 Dr. Adler says (pp. 243 f.) : " Is it in the power of any 
 human being to obtain forgiveness for the sin committed 
 by his fellow? Let us turn to a memorable incident 
 
 * See also pp. 56, 57 above.
 
 157 
 
 recorded in the Bible. The wrath of the Almighty was 
 roused against His people Israel, for they had set at 
 nought His behests, and had made themselves an idol of 
 gold, and worshipped it. Moses, deeply grieved, cries to 
 the people, ' Ye have sinned a great sin, and now I will 
 go up to the Lord ; peradventure I will make an atone- 
 ment for your sin ' (Exod. xxxii. 30). The great leader 
 was ready to sacrifice himself for his nation. He prays 
 to God : ' Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and 
 made them gods of gold. Yet now, if Thou wilt 
 forgive their sin ; and if not, blot me, I pray Thee, out 
 of Thy book which Thou hast written.' Did the Lord 
 accept this vicarious atonement? No. He said unto- 
 Moses : ' Whosoever has sinned against Me, him will I 
 blot out from My book.' These words enunciate the 
 doctrine, that every man is accountable to God for his 
 own actions, and cannot release himself from his 
 individual responsibility by the intercession of another 
 person, however great. We require no Mediator to save 
 us from the effects of our guilt. Our own sincere 
 repentance suffices to achieve for us Divine forgiveness." 
 We trust we may be pardoned for making two com- 
 ments upon these words of Dr. Adler ; for though the 
 object of the present writer in writing these pages is not 
 controversial, sometimes a word or two, if only in 
 justification of one's own position, seems demanded. In 
 reference to the words above : " The great leader was 
 ready to sacrifice himself for his nation. He prays to 
 God. . . . Did the Lord accept this vicarious atone- 
 ment ? No, " the point at issue is not so much as to 
 whether or not the Lord accepted the vicarious atonement,
 
 158 
 
 but the fact that it was offered. Dr. Adler distinctly 
 affirms that it was offered. And by whom was it offered ? 
 By Israel's greatest teacher, by the man to whom God 
 revealed the Torah, by the man who, with perhaps the 
 exception of Abraham, is more venerated by Hebrews 
 than any other who has ever lived. Was it a wrong 
 suggestion of his, that of vicarious atonement ? There 
 is no hint to this effect ; the text says that God refused 
 the offer ; if it had been unjustified would it have passed 
 unrebuked? So far from being antagonistic to the 
 doctrine of Mediation, this passage is the very reverse ; 
 we have the authority of Israel's greatest teacher and 
 law-giver in favour of that doctrine. Dr. Adler says 
 further, in the passage quoted : " These words enunciate 
 the doctrine, that every man is accountable to God for 
 his own actions, and cannot release himself from his 
 individual responsibility by the intercession of another 
 person, however great;" even if the words referred to 
 could be made to bear the meaning claimed, which, as 
 we have shown, they cannot do, it is fair to ask Dr. Adler 
 how he can reconcile what he says with the passage 
 Gen. xviii. 16-33 ? Here we have, in the first place, 
 Abraham's intercession for the men of Sodom, and in 
 reply to his prayer God is represented as saying : "If I 
 find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then will I 
 spare all the place for their sake" (verse 26); Abraham's 
 intercession continues until ultimately God says : " I will 
 not destroy it for ten's sake" (verse 32). The inter- 
 cessory prayer of Abraham, and the righteousness of ten 
 men were the means, or mediating element, by which all 
 the sinners in the city would have been saved from the
 
 159 
 
 effects of their guilt ; that is the plain and obvious 
 meaning of the passage. Dr. Adler's words are not in 
 agreement with this meaning. 
 
 It would not be difficult to show that various other 
 assertions which Dr. Adler makes in the pages of his 
 book, referred to, are not in accordance with sound 
 Biblical exegesis ; but we are not concerned with this 
 here. 
 
 Our main business has been to set forth the attitude 
 of modern Orthodox Judaism towards the doctrine of 
 Mediation, and we are convinced that this has been 
 stated truly, namely that modern Orthodox Judaism 
 repudiates it in toto. We have no right to find fault 
 with that ; what we do marvel at and consider illogical 
 is that Orthodox Judaism should recognise the authority 
 of the Torak and of the Talmud, and yet repudiate the 
 doctrine of Mediation (we do not say Mediatorship, in 
 the Christian sense) which, as we have attempted to 
 show in the preceding pages, is distinctly taught in each.
 
 . 
 
 i6o 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 The Attitude of Reform Judaism towards the Doctrine 
 of Mediation. 
 
 i. The Law. The attitude of Orthodox Judaism 
 towards any form of a doctrine of Mediation is, as we 
 have attempted to show, illogical, inasmuch as Jtjrepu- 
 diates this doctrine in toto, while it accepts as authorita- 
 tive the Bible and the Talmud in which the doctrine is 
 distinctly taught. Reform Judaism cannot be taxed 
 with being illogical in this respect, for it frankly repu- 
 diates the authority of both Bible and Talmud. "We 
 have to remember," says Mr_Claj.ide Montefiorg*, " that 
 Judaism as a living religion is not contained in any book 
 or expressed in any document, but that it is the religion 
 professed by Jews, just as Christianity is the religion 
 professed by Christians" (p. 2). A little later on he 
 says : "... In the ordinary Jewish prayer-books there 
 is a document which is called the ' Thirteen Principles 
 of the Faith,' and in a footnote these principles are called 
 
 * An orthodox Jewish writer of wide reading and enlightened culture 
 says, in writing about Mr. Montefiore's book, that " Mr. Montefiore 
 will have found a number of people to agree with him, and most of 
 them, it is fair to assume, will be willing to accept his language as an 
 adequate expression of their thought. n this sense, and, without 
 violating Mr. Montefiore's claim to speak about ' that particular and 
 individualized form of Liberal Judaism ' which he himself happens to 
 hold, Liberal Judaism, as he interprets it, may be taken as a definite 
 conception corresponding to a definite set of opinions, which are 
 shared by a definite section of the community." L. Magnus, : Religio 
 Laid ' Judaica ; the Faith of a Jewish Layman, p. 2 (1907).
 
 'Articles of the Jewish Creed.' Is not Judaism these 
 articles ? Certainly not. Judaism as a living religion is 
 not any series of articles, but a state of the mind ; if 
 there were no Jews, there would be no Judaism " (p. 7). 
 Still more pointedly does he remark : " The liberal Jew 
 cannot regard the Law as the centre of Jewish belief and 
 practice. If he was founding a public service de novo, 
 he would not make the reading of the Law its central 
 and most important feature. If he were building a 
 synagogue, without reference to past custom, he would 
 not put scrolls of the Law into an ark, and make that 
 ark the most sacred part of the building. If he had 
 such an ark, he would put in it the prophecies of Amos, 
 Hosea, and Isaiah, rather than the Pentateuch, for the 
 Prophets are more primary and more essential than the 
 Law "(p. 125); "the prominent references to the Law 
 in the liturgy can easily be given a new and different 
 meaning by ' liberal ' worshippers. To them the Law is 
 no longer the Pentateuch, but the Moral Law, before 
 whose majesty all men must bow . . ." (p. 166). One 
 can quite understand the words of a very thoughtful 
 Orthodox Jew who says in reference to such tenets : 
 " The most cherished feelings of the conservative Jew 
 are outraged by such hypotheses/'* At the same time, 
 it is only fair to point out that Mr. Montefiore protests 
 against the idea of cutting himself off from the past, he 
 recognizes in Judaism a historical religion to which 
 everyone who calls himself a Jew must be linked : 
 
 L. Magnus, Op. cit. p. 10.
 
 
 l62 
 
 " Though a man's personal religion is not what he has 
 read about religion, but what he himself believes, feels 
 and experiences, it is doubtful how far anyone could 
 rightly be called a Jew who knew nothing of the past 
 history of Judaism. Jt is clear that he must somehow be 
 J linked on to the past ; he cannot start with an absolutely 
 clean slate, devise his own religion, and call it Judaism. 
 He must therefore possess a certain minimum of know- 
 ledge. This minimum he may have obtained either 
 orally, from parents, teachers, or environment, or through 
 books. No man, in sheer loneliness, or independence, 
 creates his own religion. He is a link in a long and 
 very strange chain which stretches back to vague 
 beginnings. . . . For Judaism and Christianity are his- 
 torical religions ; and there are certain periods of 
 their history which are of special or even of supreme 
 importance. They are also literary and documentary 
 religions ; the story of their foundation and early growth 
 is recorded in a particular book the ' Bible ' ; and part 
 of the religion of every Jew or every Christian to-day is 
 the view he takes and the belief he holds about this 
 particular book" (pp. 14 f.). But we gather from many 
 passages of Mr. Montefiore's book that every man is 
 justified in accepting as much or as little of the Bible as 
 he chooses, that the importance of the various books of 
 the Bible depends solely upon each individual's personal 
 interpretation of their meaning, that if the original and 
 obvious meaning of a passage does not commend itself, 
 one must put another meaning on to it more consonant 
 with individual taste* in a word, that Holy Scripture is 
 * See, e.g., pp. 126, 133, 163, 164, 166.
 
 not authoritative. We are not finding fault with this 
 attitude, though we may disagree with it, all we want to 
 do is to make clear the relative positions of Orthodox 
 and Reform Judaism with regard to their attitude 
 towards the sources of Judaism ; and it will be clear 
 from the passages quoted that Reform Judaism, as 
 represented by Mr. Montefiore (and that he is its fore- 
 most exponent is universally recognized) is entirely at 
 * variance with Orthodox Judaism on this subject of the 
 ; authority of the Law, and Scripture generally, let alone 
 the Oral Law as contained in Midrash, Misknah, and 
 Geinara. 
 
 ii. Atonement and Mediatorship. What then are 
 Montefiore's ideas on Mediation and on that which is 
 
 Inseparable from it, namely Atonement ? The following 
 passage is very instructive on this point : " Man is liable 
 to sin. Is the ultimate reason of this that it was only 
 through sin that human goodness could have been 
 attained ? Vile sins have been committed at every 
 date in man's history, by Christians, by Jews, by 
 believers, and by unbelievers. But man can also attain 
 to a high degree of holiness and purity. He may attain 
 to it gradually without any crisis or sudden change ; he 
 may also cease to be a ' sinner/ and become almost 
 suddenly a ' saint'. But, in either case, there will have 
 been room and necessity for the mental and spiritual 
 phenomenon of repentance. 
 
 _The_ desired result of repentance is atonement. Man 
 wishes to feel at one with God, reconciled to Him. 
 This atonement can be conceived both outwardly and
 
 164 
 
 inwardly. Outward atonement is the feeling that God 
 has ' forgiven ' our sins^ If we desire this feeling merely 
 to avoid the punishment of our sins, then the out- 
 wardness reaches a low religious ebb. In such a case 
 God is merely regarded as supreme power, and not as 
 ideal perfection, or the Good. The desired feeling may, 
 however, shade off into the higher wish that God may 
 be at peace with us in order that we may feel at peace 
 with Him. In this way the outward atonement becomes 
 inward^ In old days the outward atonement was an 
 intense reality, and it did not cease to be a reality when 
 the inward atonement was also desired likewise. But 
 we no longer pray for outward atonement to-day, partly 
 because we do not believe that God is ever 'angry' or 
 4 unreconciled ' in a merely human sense of the word, 
 partly because we are convinced that in this life, or in 
 any future life, we shall only suffer for our sins what it 
 is good for MS, what it is our highest interest, to suffer. 
 In this respect the doctrine of Plato, as enunciated in 
 the Gorgias, has completely triumphed. 
 
 But we do desire inward peace to feel at one with 
 God and reconciled to Him. This we can obtain through 
 repentance. Repentance lies partly in our own power, 
 and yet we do well to pray : ' Help us to repent.' God, 
 in human language, inclines Himself to us as we strain 
 forward towards Him. By a law of His being which we 
 can never hope, and which we do not need to understand, 
 He, as it were, imparts of Himself to us if we honestly 
 and eagerly desire to be at one with Him. Reconcilia- 
 tion is neither purely human nor purely divine. It is 
 both in one. . . . Atonement, then, according to this
 
 i6 5 
 
 Jewish teaching, is a matter between God and ourselves. 
 On the one side is man, aspiring, struggling, sinning 
 and repenting ; on the other side is God, immutable, 
 righteous, and alone. Between them and their dealings 
 with each other there is neither intercessor nor barrier. 
 God, the eternal giver, is ever ready to receive us. The 
 streams of His influence are ever issuing forth from Him ; 
 it is for man to put himself by effort and repentance into 
 an attitude in which he can partake of this influence and 
 move forward by means of it " (pp. 45 ff.). We havg 
 quoted this passage at length because it states so clearly 
 the position of Reform Judaism regarding its attitude 
 towards the doctrine of Mediation; it is an attitude 
 which is perfectly logical, and one which Christians can 
 fully appreciate, as far as it goes ; the only thing which 
 Christians may reasonably ask is as to wherein it differs 
 from ordinary Unitarianism ? What right has " Reform 
 Judaism " to this name seeing that it has cut itself off 
 from historical Judaism in every particular excepting in 
 such as are common to other monotheistic faiths? It is 
 very true to say that in those points of doctrine which 
 other monotheistic faiths have in common with Judaism 
 they show their indebtedness to Judaism; and it might, 
 therefore, be argued that Unitarianism, for example, 
 should rather profess itself, in name, to be specifically 
 Jewish than that Reform Judaism should repudiate its 
 present nomenclature. But to this it may be replied that 
 the claim in either case is different ; Unitarians would 
 claim to hold their beliefs because they are true, not for 
 the reason that they came through the medium of the 
 Jews ; Reform Jews, as their name implies, claim that
 
 i66 
 
 they hold their beliefs because these have been handed 
 down by the Jews. In the former case, Unitarians 
 justify their non-use of the name of Judaism, in the 
 latter, Reform Jews can scarcely be said to justify their 
 name on the grounds given, for much which they repudiate 
 almost all that Orthodox Jews hold dear ; they have 
 nothing of those things which specifically differentiate 
 Judaism from other monotheistic faiths.* That Orthodox 
 Jews do not consider the term " Reform Judaism " 
 justified may be gathered from the words of an Orthodox 
 Jewish writer (already quoted) who is very far from 
 being obscurantist; in speaking of the existence of 
 Liberal or Reform Judaism as opposed to Orthodox 
 Judaism, he says : " It means all that is implied, in 
 journalistic language, by a ' parting of the ways,' and a 
 'crisis' in affairs. It means that the Jewish community 
 of England f is dividing itself into two camps, the 
 orthodox and reform, or the Conservative and Liberal, 
 or the old and the new. . . . Can the old beliefs put on 
 their new clothes ? Can the Jew who conscientiously 
 rejects the tradition of the inspiration of the Pentateuch 
 attend the same public worship as the Jew who con- 
 scientiously accepts it ? Nay more, can the same name 
 'Jew ' continue to include them both ? " J 
 
 This is, however, a digression. While the difference 
 between Orthodox and Reform Judaism is fundamental 
 
 * Mr. Montefiore deals with this subject on pp. 86ff., but unsatisfac- 
 torily, as it seems to us. 
 
 t And, it might be added, of the Continent, and of America. 
 J L. Magnus Op. cit, p. 3.
 
 167 
 
 in many respects, both will be agreed upon Mr. 
 Montefiore's statement of the difference between Judaism 
 and Christianity regarding the main subject under 
 discussion ; he says : " Nor are the differences between 
 Judaism and Christianity merely differences of dogma 
 upon abstruse technicalities of metaphysical theology. 
 They touch the religious life of the individual. Both 
 sides would agree to this, and Christians would say that 
 only they fully know the Father who know the Son, and 
 that the blessedness of redemption in and through Christ 
 constitutes a religious joy and a religious experience deeper 
 and more glorious than can be known to the members 
 of any other faith. And Jews would say that none^can_ 
 feel so near to God as those who in their communion 
 with Him recognise and require no intercessor and no 
 mediator. Judaism (whatever it may have been in the 
 past) * is now a religion without priests : no mystic rites 
 or words intervene or mediate between man and God. 
 When we are told that the Jewish God is distant, we smile, 
 with astonishment at the strange accusation. So near 
 is^ He, that He needs no Son to bring Him nearer to us, 
 no intercessor to reconcile Him with us, or us with Him. 
 The child needs no one to bring him into the very 
 presence of the Father " (p. 56). This passage will, from 
 the Christian point of view, be seen to be an illustration 
 of what was said in our Introduction (pp. I, 2), that two 
 conceptions lie at the root of the religious doctrine of 
 
 * Orthodox Judaism would add: "And whatever it may be in the 
 future," sse p. 150 above.
 
 1 68 
 
 Mediation, namely, The Idea of God, and the Sense of 
 Sin. According as to whether the conception of God 
 is exalted, according as to whether the sense of Sin is 
 deep, so will the intensity of the need of a Mediator 
 between God and man assert itself. Moreover, in 
 accordance with man's realization of the Personality of 
 God and his recognition of his own sinfulness, so will be 
 the ideas which he formulates concerning the person 
 and work of such a Mediator. 
 
 iii. The Day of Atonement. In view of the teaching 
 of the Old Testament and Orthodox Judaism on the 
 meaning and observance of the Day of Atonement, it 
 will be of interest to see what attitude Reform Judaism 
 takes up in regard to it. Mr. Montefiore first adminis- 
 ters a deserved rebuke a rebuke which every good Jew, 
 whether Orthodox or Reform would echo to those 
 whose observance of this day is a mere superstition ; he 
 says : " There are some persons who only come to Syna- 
 gogue once a year, on the Day of Atonement. They 
 would not eat or drink anything on that day for all the 
 world ! Why do they come to Synagogue once a year? 
 Because they are silly enough to think that by this 
 annual rite they may ward ofT some of the consequences 
 of misspent lives and evil deeds. They have to learn the 
 stern lesson, whether in this world or another, that the 
 consequences of evil cannot be changed or diverted by 
 any magic or ceremonial. Already the early Rabbis 
 had found it necessary to say, ' They who think in their 
 hearts, I will sin, for the Day of Atonement will bring 
 me forgiveness for them the Day of Atonement brings 
 no forgiveness ' " (p. 162). The fact illustrates the truth
 
 169 
 
 that even the most careless men will sometimes be led 
 _to seek some means of reconciliation with God. Mr. 
 Montefiore goes on to describe the ideas of Reform 
 Judaism on the subject in saying that "the modern Day 
 of Atonement is purely spiritual. It is true that most 
 Jews still fast for twenty-four hours, but no one ascribes 
 any efficacy to the fast* It is an old custom, which does 
 no particular harm, and is an exercise of self-control. 
 . . . In every other respect, the day has only to do with 
 fundamental religious ideas, with the conception of sin, 
 repentance, reconciliation, and atonement. Such a day 
 is absolutely fitted and useful for every human soul. It 
 is as sacred and holy a day for the liberal as for the 
 orthodox, for reformer as for conservative. . . . We 
 celebrate the day because we do believe that God helps 
 us to conquer sin, because we do believe that this help 
 will come to us more powerfully, if on our part by prayer, 
 by repentance, by communion, we strain and struggle to 
 receive it. We do believe that the Divine element in us 
 can be quickened and stimulated partly by our own 
 effort, and partly by the grace of God. We do believe 
 that by these means a sense of holy calm, a convic- 
 tion of nearness and reconciliation, may come to us, 
 which may make the day for us a very Day of Atone- 
 ment. For atonement is a far more living conception 
 and ideal to us than forgiveness. We do not ask that 
 
 o 
 
 our past sins may be forgiven in the sense that their 
 effects may be cancelled, for that is impossible ; we do 
 
 But see the quotations on pp. io8f.
 
 I/O 
 
 not ask that our sins should not meet their punishment, 
 for even if the request had any meaning, we can only 
 regard punishment as disciplinal and advantageous. All 
 we can and do ask for is better insight, purer faith, fuller 
 strength. We want to grow in holiness of life, and in 
 the love of God. For this we ask God's help, for this 
 end we try by earnest prayer to realise better the true 
 vileness of sin, how it separates us from God, and weak- 
 ens and defiles us; for this end only we make repentance 
 and seek atonement. Surely a day which is used for 
 purposes such as these is suited for all ... " (pp. 
 162 ff.). 
 
 iv. The Messiah. Finally, we must see what Reform 
 Judaism teaches us about the Messiah, for, as we have 
 had occasion to see, both in the Old Testament and in 
 later Judaism, there is a very close connexion between 
 the doctrine of Mediation and the Messiah. Mr. 
 Montefiore says : " The whole doctrine of the Messiah 
 no longer concerns our religious life and aspirations. We. 
 do, indeed, believe in the conception of the Messianic 
 age, or, at any rate in the optimistic faith which under- 
 lies it. We believe that God rules the world, and that 
 He means it to become not worse, but better. But we 
 A no longer believe in a personal Messiah, who will lead 
 VI back the Jews to Palestine, and exercise the sway and 
 ip_ower of conqueror and King. From the visions and 
 the faith of liberal Jews, to whom Judaism is a religion, 
 and the Jews are not a nation but a religious community, 
 such a belief has wholly disappeared " (pp. 176 f.). That 
 is all the teaching on the Messiah which Reform 
 Judaism offers ; its repudiation of all idea of a personal
 
 Messiah differentiates it in an essential and vital parti- 
 cular from historic Judaism, and is in itself sufficient to- 
 justify the assertion that the name ' Reform Judaism ' is 
 a misnomer. It is true that some Reform Jews regard 
 the idea of the Messianic Age as a figurative expression 
 for any time of prosperity and well-being, but this is 
 probably the same as what Mr. Montefiore means when 
 he says that "we no longer believe in a personal 
 Messiah."* 
 
 This, then is the attitude of Reform Judaism towards 
 the doctrine of Mediation, and those subjects closely 
 connected with it. 
 
 * This is somewhat after the manner of the author of the Book offubileesy. 
 excepting that in this work the time of prosperity and well-being is brought 
 about and conditioned by the observance of the Law. See the remarks in 
 the Appendix below, on the Book oj Jubilees.
 
 172 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 The Attitude of semi- Reform Judaism towards the 
 Doctrine of Mediation. 
 
 In discussing the attitude of semi-Reform Judaism 
 towards the Doctrine of Mediation we take as our text- 
 
 I book, Mr. Morris Joseph's work, Judaism as Creed and 
 Life; and it may be confidently asserted that this book 
 admirably represents the views of that large body of 
 Jews an increasingly large body, as it seems who 
 have, on the one hand, a love and a veneration for his- 
 toric Judaism, and on the other, a conviction that the 
 advance of modern knowledge necessitates a restate- 
 ment of the historic faith and a modification of ancient 
 practice more in accordance with the tendencies and 
 requirements of the age*. Mr. Abrahams, the Reader in 
 Talmudic in the University of Cambridge, says of this 
 book that " it is the best presentation, extant in any 
 language, of Judaism from a standpoint which does 
 justice alike to tradition and to progressive thought."* 
 
 In his Preface Mr. Morris Joseph explains that the 
 view of Judaism which he sets forth " lies midway 
 between the Shulchan Aruch,^ or at least the Talmud, as 
 
 * The Jewish Chronicle, Nov. 5, 1909, p. 23. 
 
 tThe Shulchan Aruch (by Joseph Caro, latter half of 16. cen.) 
 means " Prepared Table," and is a codification of Talmudic law. It 
 contains in clear and definite form all ritual and legal directions which, 
 in accordance with Rabbinical Judaism, have been observed since the
 
 173 
 
 the final authority in Judaism, and the extreme Liberalism 
 which, setting little store by the historic sentiment as a 
 factor of the Jewish consciousness, would lightly cut the 
 religion loose from the bonds of Tradition." He says 
 further : li Almost all the expositions of Judaism which 
 have hitherto appeared in England have been written 
 from the rigidly conservative standpoint Of these the 
 two hand-books of my much-respected teacher, Dr. M. 
 Friedlander, are notable examples. Something, though 
 far less, has been done to familiarize the public with the 
 conception of Judaism which stands at the other 
 extreme. It has found an able champion in my friend 
 Mr. C. G. Montefiore, whose essay, entitled Liberal 
 Judaism, was published almost on the very day that this 
 book was finished. But thus far no attempt has been made 
 to elucidate systematically the intermediate position, and 
 to give a comprehensive account of Jewish belief and prac- 
 tice as they are conceived by men of moderate views. . . . 
 I would demonstrate the possibility of reconciling respect 
 for the claims of modern thought and life with loyalty 
 to traditional Judaism, of being at one and the same 
 time a faithful son of Israel and a true child of the pro- 
 gressive age in which we live." 
 
 This is an attitude which must command sympathy ; 
 and the study of Mr. Morris Joseph's book shows that he 
 is able in very many instances to claim the support of 
 
 destruction of the Temple. By strict orthodox Jews this " Code " has 
 been regarded as authoritative since it was first promulgated. It has 
 been published in a German translation by Lowe, Der Shulchati 
 Aruch (1896).
 
 174 
 
 ancient Rabbinical teaching for the position which he 
 upholds. There is, however, one criticism which we feel 
 constrained to make at the outset, and it is this : generally 
 speaking, the choice of Rabbinical quotations is made in 
 -accordance with what is required, without drawing atten- 
 tion to the fact that equally telling quotations could be 
 made on the other side ; this is not always the case, indeed, 
 we shall give a pointed instance to the contrary presently ; 
 but as a rule we trust we are not doing Mr. Morris Joseph 
 an injustice as a rule, the quotations made are only those 
 which support what is required, and no hint is given that 
 other quotations could be given which would somewhat 
 counterbalance the teaching of those offered. The same 
 criticism may perhaps be made with regard to ourselves, 
 for we have certainly chosen our quotations from ancient 
 sources for a particular purpose ; but we have taken 
 special care to point out that the quotations made re- 
 present only one side of the question, and that plenty 
 of others exist, some of which are given, which teach a 
 different doctrine (see pp. 28 f., 36. 93 f., I39ff.) ; besides 
 which, our object has been to show, in opposition to the 
 belief of most Christians, and possibly also of some Jews, 
 that a doctrine of Mediation does figure largely in the 
 authoritative documents of Judaism. 
 
 Now, as regards the general attitude of semi-Reform 
 Judaism towards the doctrine of Mediation, it will be 
 seen that much depends upon its doctrine of God ; this is 
 true, of course, also of Orthodox and Reform Judaism, but 
 Mr. Morris Joseph brings the fact out more pointedly 
 than is done by either of the two authorities whose 
 works we have referred to. After finely describing the
 
 175 
 
 transcendent character of the Divine Nature, Mr. Morris 
 Joseph refers to the infinite condescension of God as 
 recorded in the Scriptures : "God is ever near to His people, 
 He works in the midst of their camp ; the cloud of glory, 
 the visible token of His Presence, rests upon the Sanc- 
 tuary ; _He talks with men from Heaven. Such a 
 Deity needs no mediator to bring Him into touch with 
 
 ..humanity. His yery nature, nay, theirs, supplies the link 
 between them. The Supreme ' in His love and in His 
 pity ' redeems them ; ' He bears and carries them ' 
 (Is. Ixiii. 9.). B_ut man, too, in whom God has breathed 
 the breath [of life, can rise to the Divine source of his 
 being without any aid save that which he may get from 
 the inherent power of his own immortal, soul. . . . 
 Judaism repudiates the notion of a beneficent Being 
 mediating between the Supreme and man. No go-between 
 can possibly be needed to bring the All-Father into com- 
 munion with His own children. ' In the hour of the 
 client's need,' say the Rabbins, ' he cannot go without 
 ceremony into the presence of his patron ; he must 
 linger at the door and get a servant to announce him. 
 Even then it is doubtful whether he will be received. It 
 is not so when men would approach the Almighty. In 
 this wise does He speak to them : When ye are in 
 
 trouble calljiot on any of the angels, neither on Michael 
 or on Gabriel ; but cry unto Me, and I will answer you 
 
 ( straightway. For doth not Holy Writ say (Joel 
 iii. 5), ' Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord 
 shall be delivered ? '* In like manner the Rabbins 
 
 * Berakhoth ix. i (Jerusalem Talmud); see the same quotation, in a 
 compressed form, given atove, p. 94.
 
 176 
 
 declare that the Israelites sinned when they asked 
 Moses at Sinai to- speak to them in place of God 
 (Midrash Rabba to Canticles i. 2) " ; jinder_ihe sarne 
 reference, however, in this Midrash a pointed instance is 
 '.given of an angel who was the intermediary between 
 God and the Israelites at the giving of the Law ;_the 
 comment is given in the name of Rabbi Jochanan. Mr. 
 Morris Joseph gives another example of Rabbinical 
 teaching antagonistic to the doctrine of Mediation : 
 " Moses, they say elsewhere (Skemoth Rabba, ch. xxi. 
 to Exod. xiv. 15), had no greater power to move the 
 Supreme by prayer than had the humblest man.* At 
 the Red Sea he offered supplication, but God rebuked 
 him. ' Why criest thou unto Me ? My sons have 
 already prayed to Me, and I have heard their prayer.' " 
 On the other hand, in the same Midrash, chap, xliii., 
 Moses is spoken of as the wise man who makes atone- 
 ment and pacifies the wrath of God by his prayers. 
 But Mr. Morris Joseph candidly admits that " it cannot 
 be denied that this characteristic Jewish doctrine [i.e., of 
 the non-existence of any mediator] has not always been 
 respected in practice. Invocations to angels and other 
 intercessory beings have found their way here and there . 
 into the liturgy, though not, it must be added, into the 
 .essential L portions ; of it. But they have done so as the 
 result of foreign influences,^ and in spite of the disap- 
 
 * On the other hand, see the reference to Shir Rabba to iv. 4, on p. 80 
 above, where it is said that all the people who stood at the foot of 
 Mount Sinai were protected by the merit of Moses alone. 
 
 J We would fain have had some proof of this ; but it may be presumed 
 that Mr. Morris Joseph does not mean to imply that all Rabbinical 
 teaching on Mediation is due to foreign influence. In any case, the teaching 
 was accepted and assimilated.
 
 177 
 
 proval of the highest authorities. Thus Maimonides 
 says (Commentary to the Midrash Synhed., xi. I.): ' We 
 h Y?^tp_re verejaod alone andjnp _ lower being. Nor may 
 we invoke the intercession of any such being. To God 
 alone ought we to direct our inmost though ts^ ignoring 
 every other existence but His.' In this explicit utterance 
 Maimonides sets forth the true Jewish doctrine on the 
 subject " (pp. 78 ff.). Later on Mr. Morris Joseph 
 quotes a passage which would seem to run counter to 
 this; it tells of the. righteous pleading with God here- 
 after on behalf of the transgressors ; " Go forth and heal 
 them," is the divine response to their intercession ; and 
 thus sought out and redeemed, the wicked rise into the 
 life everlasting ( Yalkut to Malachi iv. 3) ; but he says : 
 " The idea here emphasized is the abounding grace of 
 God and the power of prayer to evoke it. There is no 
 suggestion of vicarious atonement, or of a Divine or 
 semi-Divine mediator. The intercessors are the souls of 
 the righteous, and they move the Divine mercy not by 
 any suffering of theirs, but by the force of their supplica- 
 tion. The passage represents, perhaps, the furthest 
 point to which Jewish thought has carried the idea of 
 intercession " (p. 147). 
 
 Much further light is shed upon the attitude of semi- 
 Reform Judaism towards the doctrine of Mediation in 
 Mr. Morris Joseph's chapter on the Day of Atonement 
 (pp. 250-277) ; it will be best to quote again the writer's 
 actual words. The Day of Atonement is kept in 
 obedience to the Law as expressed in Lev. xvi. 29-34, 
 xxiii. 26-32, abstinence from all food during the day 
 is undergone also in obedience to the precept of the
 
 Law ; so that in this respect, at any rate, semi-Reform 
 Judaism recognizes the authority of the Law. " The Day 
 of Atonement is intended to complete and crown the 
 work of the penitential season by finally reconciling the 
 soul with the Almighty. . . . Implicitly trusting in 
 the Divine forgiveness the Israelite believes that his 
 contrition, if it be really sincere, will atone for him, will 
 make him ' at one ' once more with his Heavenly Father." 
 After recalling the manner of celebrating the Day of 
 Atonement in ancient times, with its elaborate sacrifices, 
 and "the most striking part of the Day's ritual," namely, 
 the " formal expiation of sin that was twice made by the 
 Pontiff in obedience to Scriptural ordinance (Lev. xvi.)," 
 Mr. Morris Joseph goes on to say that " we may still 
 lament the loss of the beautiful Sanctuary and the sacred 
 rites that moved our fathers to such fervent worship. . . . 
 But one thought may temper our regret. It is the 
 thought that the grandeur which once marked Israel's 
 public worship had no essential connection with the 
 success of his endeavour after atonement." This 
 scarcely accords with the Biblical teaching on the sub- 
 ject, and yet it is because of its being a Biblical 
 ordinance that semi-Reform Jews observe the Day of 
 Atonement. Mr. Morris Joseph very rightly protests 
 against a belief which is, apparently, prevalent among 
 some Jews, that there is any intrinsic atoning efficacy in 
 the mere fact of observing the Day ; there are those, he 
 says, who " attribute a miraculous effectiveness to the 
 Day itself. Its mere advent, they persuade themselves, 
 will adjust their moral account, and automatically strike 
 out their offences from the Heavenly records " ; and
 
 1/9 
 
 again, later on, he says : " When it degenerates into a 
 formal routine, when it is regarded as an effectual atone- 
 ment in itself, it becomes mere blind superstition, the 
 worst foe of Religion." Such an attitude is, to be sure, 
 deplorable; but it is the misguided outgrowth of an 
 instinct which, in its origin, is purely religious (see 
 above, pp. I, 3 ) 
 
 The main object of the Day of Atonement is, according 
 to Mr. Morris Joseph, Amendment ; this is " the last link 
 in the long chain of spiritual effort which we call atone- 
 ment. It is the most vital link of all. . . . To 
 purify desire, to ennoble the will this is the essential 
 condition of atonement. Nay, it is atonement. For we 
 speak of reconciliation and pardon ; but what are these but 
 figures of speech ? The reconciliation we have really to 
 effect is with our higher selves, with our conscience 
 which we have outraged, with our souls which we have 
 sullied. The changeless mind of God knows no such 
 mutations as are implied in the idea of wrath. What 
 we style His anger is really the resentment of our better 
 nature, its stern protest against the shame in which our 
 sin has involved us. And so with forgiveness. ' God 
 is not a man that He should repent.' Changefulness 
 such as the notion of pardon would attribute to Him is 
 inconceivable in the Perfect One. If He knows not the 
 feeling of anger, He knows not the change involved in 
 forgiveness. The only reconciliation possible for us is 
 self-reconciliation. And by that self-reconciliation it is 
 that we, again figuratively speaking, make our peace 
 with God. We who have put ourselves far from Him, 
 we whose iniquities have, in Prophetic phrase, ' separated
 
 i8o 
 
 between us and our God,' raised ' a barrier of iron,' in 
 the words of the Rabbins, between Him and us, we go 
 back to Him in thought and feeling like a wayward child 
 to the father it has offended ; we break down the 
 obstacles to spiritual union with Him that our iniquity 
 has created. And that sense of recovered fellowship 
 we call forgiveness." In another passage he says : " If 
 we could possibly imagine our having to choose between 
 prayer and performance, between contrition and amend- 
 ment, it would be our duty to let the prayer and the 
 contrition go, and base all our hopes of pardon upon the 
 firm foundation of the good life." The extraordinary 
 doctrine here enunciated would seem to be rather too 
 much for Mr. Morris Joseph himself, for he goes on to 
 say that " in spite of what has just been said, it would be 
 wrong to think that God's anger is, after all, only a 
 figurative expression for our own discontent with our- 
 selves, and therefore nothing to be dreaded. It is this 
 and something more. It stands also for the suffering 
 that transgression inevitably brings in its train sooner 
 or later. It is not because the Divine wrath is a figure 
 of speech that retribution is unreal, and that the sinner 
 may count upon impunity. Though, strictly speaking, 
 God is never angry, man is none the less accountable for 
 his life, and the wholesome ordinance which has decreed 
 suffering as the expiation of guilt, remains unimpugned 
 . . . Let it be said once more that the only remission we 
 have a right to ask for, is the remission of guilt. As to 
 the penalty, not even God Himself, to say it reverently, 
 can forego any part of it. For once the sin has been 
 sinned it must produce its effects, even as the seed begets
 
 the flower. . . . Therefore, when we pray for God's 
 forgiveness, let us not ask for the repeal of a decree that 
 is justice, nay, mercy itself. For how, save through his 
 suffering, is the sinner to pay homage to the great 
 principle of goodness that he has defiled. How, save by 
 punishment, is he to be purged of the taint of trans- 
 gression, made worthy of enjoying once more the Divine 
 companionship ? Those blessings are all that we ought 
 to ask for, and pain will cheaply purchase them." As a 
 comment on these words it is worth while quoting the 
 following from the prayer which comes after the great 
 confession of sins in the Service for the Day of Atone- 
 ment : " O may it be Thy will, O Lord my God and God 
 of my fathers, that I may sin no more, and as to the sins 
 I have committed, purge them away in Thine abounding 
 compassion though not by means of affliction and sore 
 diseases" 
 
 Towards the end of the chapter on the Day of Atone- 
 ment there is a very fine passage (p. 273) ; Mr. Morris 
 Joseph truly says : " We are all responsible not only for 
 our own lives, but for the influence they exert upon the 
 lives of others. And from that responsibility there is no 
 escape. . . . Thus, as Amiel has well said, ' every life is, 
 as it were, a beacon which entices a ship upon the rocks, 
 if it does not guide it into port.' The thought must 
 needs give the sinner pause. Against himself he may 
 possibly not refuse to sin, but he will surely shrink from 
 contributing to the moral undoing of others some of 
 them, perhaps, his own flesh and blood, to whom he is 
 attached by his very heartstrings. For vicarious suffering 
 is a very real thing. The sins of the fathers are visited
 
 182 
 
 upon the children,* and the children's upon the fathers." 
 Finally, Mr. Morris Joseph states, in his concluding 
 words on the subject, once more in plain and definite 
 terms the attitude of semi-Reform Judaism, as repre- 
 sented by him, towards the doctrine of Mediation : " It 
 is the truth that the aspiring soul the soul that earnestly 
 seeks after redemption can realize its desire by its own 
 unaided efforts, without the intervention of a mediator, 
 Divine or human. This noble conception has already 
 been enunciated in these pages, but it may appropriately 
 be again set forth here. For it is, so to speak, incarnate 
 in the Day of Atonement. . . . On this Day each wor- 
 shipper, however sin-laden, is exhorted to take his 
 burden straight to the Almighty, with the certainty of 
 being heard and pitied. He needs no one to plead for 
 him. His penitence and his settled determination to 
 amend will be his best, his only effective plea. . . . The 
 effort after redemption must come from the sinner him- 
 self, but the Divine grace will bless it and bring it to 
 fruition." 
 
 A word must be added regarding the Messianic beliefs 
 of semi-Reform Judaism ; they will be seen to partake 
 of the same mixture of old and new which, as must have 
 been noticed, characterizes so much of what has been 
 said above. "The Jew," says Mr. Morris Joseph ^pp. 
 167 ff.), " looks forward to a future of universal religion 
 and righteousness. He pictures to himself a Golden 
 Age ; but, unlike the Pagan peoples of old, he places it 
 
 * See the reference on pp. 79, 80 to Shabbath 33 ab, regarding the 
 vicarious suffering of children.
 
 i8 3 . 
 
 in the future, not in the past* The world, he holds, is 
 progressive ; mankind is slowly but surely marching on 
 to a happier time of faith and goodness, when men ' shall 
 not hurt nor destroy, for the earth shall be full of the 
 knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea' 
 (Is. xi. 9). That time is called the time of the Messiah, 
 or the Messianic era. The great Prophets of Israel loved 
 to dream and to speak about it. ... Not all the 
 Prophetic descriptions of coming joy refer to a remote 
 future, or foreshadow a condition of world-wide happi- 
 ness. Some relate exclusively to the Prophet's own 
 time, and announce events affecting the destinies of 
 Israel only. Many of these predictions, however, have 
 been interpreted in a directly opposite sense. They have 
 been regarded as foreshadowing the advent of a Messiah 
 that is, of a man belonging to the House of David, 
 and endowed with almost superhuman gifts of mind and 
 character, who in an age yet to come is to lead Israel 
 back to Palestine, and to inaugurate the reign of religion 
 and righteousness on earth. But 'in reality what they 
 announce is the coming of a sovereign like King Heze- J 
 kiah, for example, who lived in the Prophet's own time, if 
 and whose rule brought much-needed peace and well- 
 being to his sorely tried people. Even the word 
 ' Messiah,' as used in the Hebrew Bible, has not that 
 half-supernatural significance which it has come to 
 possess. ... In like manner, passages which, according 
 to some interpreters, speak of a Golden Age yet to come, 
 
 * Some, at any rate, among the Pagan peoples looked for it in the future 
 as well.
 
 1 84 
 
 were meant only to portray in highly figurative language 
 a happy state of things that was inaugurated, and came 
 to an end, long ago. Forgetfulness of these facts has 
 produced much mischief both within and without the 
 pale of Judaism. History is full of Messiahs, of men 
 who have given out sincerely or insincerely that they 
 were divinely chosen to resuscitate Israel's nationality, 
 and to establish a heavenly Kingdom on earth. Multi- 
 tudes have believed in them, and have only discovered 
 their mistake after much suffering. ... It does not 
 necessarily follow, however, that the belief in a Messiah 
 or in the restoration of the Jewish State is a delusion. 
 ... It may possibly be God's will that Israel is once 
 more to enjoy political independence; and be settled in 
 his own land under his own rulers. Nay, it would be 
 
 trash to declare positively that even the Prophets could 
 not have had this far-off event in their minds when they 
 dreamed of the future. If, then, we meet with Jews who 
 believe in the Return, in national revival, in a personal 
 Messiah, let no one venture to say dogmatically that 
 they are wrong." Then after describing the position of 
 Reform Judaism which teaches a belief in a ' Messianic 
 era ' in the sense of a time of universal peace and 
 brotherly love, but rejects the idea of a personal Messiah, 
 Mr. Morris Joseph continues : " Surely we are no more 
 at liberty to forbid these opinions than we are free 
 to rebuke the minds that reject them. The question 
 whether the Messiah is to be one of the figures of the 
 Messianic Age, or whether Israel is to be a nation once 
 more, and the Temple in Jerusalem the religious centre 
 of the whole world, is not a vital question. We can be
 
 i8 5 
 
 equally good Jews whatever view we hold on these 
 points. They are details on which freedom of thought 
 can be tolerated without injury to the Faith. But the 
 same cannot be said of the Messianic Idea. That is one 
 of the essentials of our creed, without which Judaism 
 would have neither meaning nor life. ... If the dogma 
 of the Divine Unity is the foundation of our religion, the 
 Messianic Idea is its coping-stone." 
 
 There is, finally, one other point, closely connected 
 with our subject, which must not be passed over ; it is 
 what Mr. Morris Joseph has to say about the Paschal 
 Sacrifice. " On the night of their Deliverance (i.e., from 
 the Egyptian bondage) the people were commanded to 
 partake of a meal that was so solemn and sacred as 
 to be considered sacrificial. It was to consist, first, of 
 the flesh of a lamb or kid that had been roasted whole. 
 The blood of the animal was previously to be sprinkled 
 on the door-posts, which for the occasion became the 
 altar. . . . What was the significance of this lamb ? It 
 clearly represents the House of Israel welded into 
 national unity by the hand of its Divine Redeemer. 
 Hence the injunction that not a bone of it was to be 
 broken, and that small families should eat it in common 
 so as to consume it entirely, without leaving aught till 
 the morning (Exod. xii. 4, 10, 46). All the details sug- 
 gested the idea of a united, a firmly-knit people. The 
 lamb, then, was Israel, and Israel giving himself, like 
 the sacrificial victim, to God, his Deliverer, in obedient 
 and grateful submission. It was, moreover, to be roasted 
 by contact with fire, the purifying agent, again to typify 
 Israel purged of his slavery. . . . And the ancient rite
 
 i86 
 
 still survives in these days, though necessarily in a 
 modified form. There is no longer a Paschal sacrifice, 
 for sacrifices are things of the past " (pp. 221 ff.). As an 
 example of Biblical exegesis the above is decidedly 
 interesting, and we should like to have shown the 
 imtenableness of Mr. Morris Joseph's interpretation, but 
 that is not our present concern. 
 
 The attitude of semi-Reform Judaism, therefore, to 
 the doctrine of Mediation will have been made clear. It 
 is illogical, for the same reason that the attitude of 
 Orthodox Judaism is, towards this doctrine, because it 
 accepts the authority of the Torah and of the Talmud^ 
 but rejects the doctrine which both teach; moreover, 
 its position, as it appears to us, is further weakened by 
 its partial acceptation and assimilation of the spirit of 
 Reform Judaism ; for this makes its attitude illogical 
 from another point of view. In the long run there can 
 be no real sense of community between Orthodox and 
 Reform Judaism, each is wholly permeated with a spirit 
 antagonistic to the other ; the attempt at bridging over 
 the chasm between the two only results in a split at 
 each end of the plank. The spirit which prompts this 
 mediating impulse is altogether admirable, but the 
 attempt is foredoomed to failure where the fundamental 
 principles of either side are essentially antagonistic.
 
 1 8 7 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 Summary and Conclusions. 
 
 Let us now briefly summarize the results of the pre- 
 ceding investigation, and enumerate our conclusions. 
 
 Rightly or wrongly, we are convinced that there are 
 two fundamental factors which are the real, the inevitable 
 cause, of impelling man to believe in the doctrine of 
 Mediation, viz., his conception of God, and his sense of 
 Sin, the latter including man's conception of himself; we 
 are, for the moment, not urging the witness of History. 
 That among men the conception of God and the sense of 
 Sin should vary is natural and it is this variation which 
 accounts for the fact that some do and some do not 
 believe in the doctrine of Mediation. But it is certain 
 that both views cannot be right. It is not our purpose 
 to present the Christian view* ; we are dealing only with 
 the Jewish ; but how fundamentally conceptions on this 
 subject are made to differ from each other by variations 
 of presentation can be seen by comparing the following 
 utterances of average representatives of the Christian and 
 Jewish standpoint respectively : 
 
 " Christ's identification of Himself with the race He 
 came to save is complete. It is not merely ' federal ' or 
 'legal'; it is vital, and this in every respect. His love 
 is unbounded ; His sympathy is complete ; His purpose 
 
 * It is the intention of my friend, the Rev. G. H. Box, to publish a 
 sequel to this volume, which will deal with the Christian Doctrine of 
 Mediation.
 
 i88 
 
 and desire to save are unfaltering. He identifies Himself 
 with humanity, with a perfect consciousness (i) of what 
 He is ; (2) of what the race He came to save is and 
 needs; (3) of what a perfect atonement involves. Him- 
 self holy, the well-beloved Son, He knows with unerring 
 clearness what sin is, and what the mind of God is about 
 sin. He does not shrink from anything His identifica- 
 tion with a sinful race entails upon Him, but freely 
 accepts its position and responsibilities as His own. He 
 is ' made under the Law ' (Gal. iv. 4.) ; a Law not merely 
 preceptive, but broken and violated, and entailing ' curse.' 
 Identifying Himself thus perfectly with the race of men 
 as under sin on the one hand, and with the mind of God 
 about sin on the other, He is the natural mediator 
 between God and man, and is alone in the position to 
 render to God whatever is necessary as atonement for 
 sin. . . . The innocent suffering with and for the guilty 
 is a law from which Jesus did not withdraw Himself. In 
 His consciousness of solidarity with mankind, He freely 
 submitted to those evils (shame, ignominy, suffering, 
 temptation, death) which express the judgement of God 
 on the sins of the world, and in the experience of them 
 peculiarly in the yielding up of His life did such 
 honour to all the principles of righteousness involved, 
 rendered so inward and spiritual a response to the whole 
 mind of God in His attitude to the sin of the world, as 
 constituted a perfect atonement for that sin for such as 
 believingly accept* it, and make its spirit their own."* 
 On the other hand, a Jewish thinker of no mean 
 
 *JTrof. James Orr in Hastings' One Volume Dictionary of the 
 JBible, p. 74.
 
 1 89 
 
 power, in discussing the subjects of Sin, and of the con- 
 ception of God, says : 
 
 " Where the all-important difference between Jewish 
 and Christian doctrine in this domain seems to lie, is in 
 the two-fold fact that (i) Jewish thought never elevated 
 the fall of man to the level of a fundamental article of 
 faith as was done by St. Augustine and other Church 
 Fathers, (2) Judaism's opposition to the Pauline idea of 
 a ' saving grace ' of God through the agency of an inter- 
 mediary, and its insistence that man's power of redemp- 
 tion from the thraldom of sin lies within and not without 
 himself. In other words, Judaism superseded the 
 doctrine of original sin with all its dismal associations 
 by its far brighter and more bracing doctrine of Repen- 
 tance. . . . Instead of encouraging a joyless brooding 
 over the past,* it tells man to take up the cudgels on 
 behalf of the future. His sin can never be so bad as to 
 be beyond repair. Be he sunken never so deeply in 
 the mire of depravity he is not necessarily debarred 
 from the Divine forgiveness. For God has implanted 
 in him a portion of His own Divine self, viz., the 
 power to improve, the will to amend ; in other words, 
 Repentance." And in speaking of the relationship 
 between the Divine nature and the nature of man, 
 the same writer says what, in the main, we should 
 all agree with ; the only question is whether in the 
 following words too much stress is not laid on one 
 side of a truth to the entire exclusion of another side 
 which is also supremely important : " The immanence of 
 
 * With the obvious non-realization of Christian doctrine here 
 implied we are not concerned ,
 
 190 
 
 God is the term to express the indwelling of God in man 
 and in nature. God is not the transcendent Being 
 sitting high above His world wrapped in an impene- 
 trable isolation. He is in the world, eternally present, 
 eternally active. It is this conception which inspired 
 Wordsworth to speak of 
 
 A motion and a spirit that impels 
 
 All thinking things, all objects of all thought 
 
 And rolls through all things. 
 
 Philo probably meant to convey some such notion 
 when he coined that oft-quoted phrase, ' Every man in 
 regard of his intellect is connected with Divine reason, 
 being an impression of, or a fragment, or a ray of that 
 blessed nature.' In the whole of English literature there 
 is probably no more eloquent description of the Divine 
 in man and the world, no finer piece of word-painting 
 about the supernatural dignity of man than the passage 
 in the Religio Medici of Sir Thomas Browne : ' The earth 
 is a point not only in respect of the heavens above us, 
 ,but of that heavenly and celestial part within us. That 
 mass of flesh that circumscribes me limits not my mind. 
 That surface that tells the heavens it hath an end cannot 
 persuade me that I have any. . . . whilst I study to 
 find how I am a microcosm or little body, I find myself 
 something more than the great. There is surely a piece 
 -of divinity in us ; something that was before the elements, 
 and pays no homage to the sun. Nature tells me I am 
 the image of God, as well as Scripture.' "* The 
 truth conveyed here is one which nobody would think 
 of denying ; but it must not be permitted to obscure the 
 
 * The Rev. J. Abelson, on Sin, in "The Jewish Chronicle," 
 .September 24th, 1909, pp. 2of.
 
 191 
 
 parallel truth that there is also something non-divine in 
 man. Modern exponents of Judaism sometimes seem 
 to exalt man so highly as to obscure this other side of 
 the truth, with the result that the power of the human 
 will is exaggerated, and man's insignificance in the sight 
 of God is lost sight of. These things do not tend to place 
 the relative positions of God and man in the true per- 
 spective ; they engender a conception of God which is 
 not the highest, and they make a real sense of Sin in 
 man impossible. 
 
 At any rate, the two quotations given above 
 illustrate the fact that the variation in the presentation 
 of a truth is in itself sufficient to produce fundamentally 
 different conceptions of such truth ; while Rabbinical 
 Judaism and Christianity have a lot of common ground to 
 start from regarding the doctrine of Mediation, Modern 
 Judaism and Christianity seem to be antagonist ab initio ; 
 this, one feels, ought not to be. 
 
 What has been said, however, bears out the contention 
 
 stated above that there are two fundamental factors 
 
 which are the real, the inevitable cause, of impelling men 
 
 to believe in the doctrine of Mediation, viz., the con- 
 
 / ception of God, and His sense of Sin ; according as to 
 
 \whether the conception of God is exalted, according as 
 
 to whether the sense of Sin is deep, so will the intensity 
 
 of the need of a Mediator between God and man assert 
 
 itself. 
 
 In the Old Testament a long period of history is 
 covered, and within this period development is to be 
 discovered in every line of thought which occupied the 
 minds of Israel's thinkers; this development is as strongly
 
 192 
 
 marked as anywhere in these two conceptions, just men- 
 tioned, which condition the whole doctrine of Mediation. 
 In the earliest stages the idea of God is characterised by 
 anthropomorphisms which are strikingly bold and down- 
 right ; one is forced to the conclusion that in that antique 
 age the difference between God and man was conceived 
 of as being one of degree rather than of kind. Such 
 being the case, the feeling of a need of a mediating agency 
 is one which comes to the fore only because of the 
 superior might of the Deity, who can be propitiated 
 by means of sacrifices ; or, if a personal mediator is 
 called for, it suffices that ; he should be a man, one 
 of outstanding sanctity, but yet only a man. In any 
 case, however, these things witness to the belief in the 
 need of both Mediation and Mediatorship. The 
 conception as to the nature of sacrifices, and their effi- 
 cacy, is often of a primitive kind, but none the less this 
 bears witness to a sense of need. A higher conception 
 is that of intercession made on behalf of men to God by 
 one who is believed to stand in closer relationship to 
 God than his fellows, such as Abraham ; at the same 
 time, the presentation of the idea of God which is found 
 in connexion with the Abraham-narratives is often not an 
 exalted one ; and this lies in the nature of things. With 
 the rise of the prophets comes, in course of time, an 
 extraordinarily high conception of God, and with it is 
 ultimately reached, in the person of the Suffering Servant, 
 the zenith of the Old Testament doctrine of Mediation. 
 
 So, too, with the development of the Sense of Sin in 
 the period covered by the Old Testament ; in the earlier 
 stages sin against God was conceived of, in one sense, as
 
 193 
 
 in the same category as sins against man ; each could be 
 compounded for. Moreover, generally speaking, ritual 
 ^offences were regarded as more grave than moral ones ; nor 
 was a ritual offence the less reprehensible for being unin- 
 tentional ; this is illustrated by the fact that the ordinaryl 
 Hebrew root for " to sin " means " to miss the mark," i.e. V 
 to make a mistake as regards ritual or traditional ob- 
 servances. Indeed, it is true to say with Clemens and 
 the truth forcibly bears out what has just been said about 
 the Sense of Sin in the earlier stages of Old Testament 
 history that originally the Hebrew idea of sin meant U 
 the failure to comply with traditional custom ; such I 
 failure meant, however, sin against God as well, for all 
 national custom was in the first instance based upon 
 religious sanction. Concurrently with the prophetical 
 teaching on the majesty and ethical purity of the God of 
 Israel came the beginning of a deeper sense of Sin_; that 
 was bound to be the case, for the higher the conception 
 of t God, the greater must be the recognition of man's 
 insignificance and the realization of his sinfulness in the 
 sight of the Ail-Powerful and All-Good. With this 
 higher conception of God, and with this deeper Sense of 
 Sin came, therefore, the more pressing need of a mediator; 
 and because it was beginning to be felt that the weight of 
 sin was too great for man to bear the divine truth none 
 the less divine for being exemplified daily in lesser ways 
 in ordinary lifef the divine truth of vicarious suffering 
 
 * Die Lehre von der SSnde, pp. 22f ; Cp. also Stade Biblische 
 Theologie des Alien Testaments pp 20of 
 
 t Cf. the interesting example in Sanhedrin iSa, where we are told 
 that when the people comforted the High-priest for the loss of a 
 relative, they said: "We will be an atonement for thee"; Rashi
 
 194 
 
 and vicarious atonement in connexion with the doctrine 
 of Mediatorship, was proclaimed by Israel's greatest 
 prophet. The mediator in connexion with whom this 
 truth is taught is a man, and in this respect the teaching 
 of the Apocrypha shows an advance upon that of the 
 Old Testament, for although references to the doctrine of 
 Mediation are but rare in the Apocrypha, and the teaching 
 in this class of literature is, in the main, antagonistic 
 to the doctrine, nevertheless when a mediator is men- 
 tipned he is one who is superhuman. So far as the 
 character of a mediator is concerned the teaching of 
 the Apocrypha is an advance upon that of the Old Testa- 
 ment ; but, taken as a whole, the doctrine of Mediation 
 here shows a retrograde movement, more, however, by 
 its silence on the subject than by actually antagonistic 
 teaching. The ii. (iv.) BOOK ot Esdrasj, it is true, contains 
 much that is directly opposed to all idea of Mediation, 
 but this may to some extent be accounted for by the 
 pronounced pessimistic tone which runs through the 
 whole of the book. 
 
 When we come to the Pseudepigrapha we are faced with 
 some new and somewhat startling elements. The 
 
 crypha and the Pseudepigrapha cover periods which are to 
 some extent parallel ; some of the most important works 
 among the latter, e.g., parts of the Book of Enoch (c. 170 
 100 B.C.) and the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs 
 (c. 100 B.C.), coming, more or less, within the limits of 
 the same century as, e.g., Ecclesiasticus (c. 170 B.C,) or 
 
 explains this as meaning : " Mayest thou through us be free from 
 every punishment ; we will suffer on thy behalf whatsoever may hence- 
 forward come upon thee " (Rawicz Der Traktat Sanhedrin, p, 89).
 
 195 
 
 Tobit (possibly belonging to about the same period). 
 The lack of teaching on Mediation which is characteristic, 
 in general, of the Ai>ocrv4>ha. and the, on the whole.} A 
 fuller and more developed teaching of the Pseudepi\ I 
 grapha, represent evidently two schools of thought withinl ( 
 Judaism. Another noteworthy fact in this connexion is 
 that the main characteristic of the Pseudepigrapha is the 
 eschatological teaching which is so fully treated in thisjlj 
 class of literature, while in the Apocrypha this subject is 
 scarcely ever touched upon; it is true that ii. (iv.) Esdras* 
 with its marked apocalyptic elements figures among ^^ 
 the Apocrypha, but it may be stated with confidence 
 that the place of this book is properly speaking among , 
 the Pseudepigrapha and not among the Apocrypha. 
 With the exception of this book with its peculiarly pro- ' 
 nounced pessimistic tone, it is probably true to say 
 that, generally speaking, the doctrine of Mediation is 
 proper to eschatological thought. And if this is so, it may 
 turn out to be the case that there was an extremely 
 interesting connexion between the concurrent teaching 
 on Mediation and Eschatology in pre-Christian litera- 
 ture, and the teaching on the same subjects in the New 
 Testament. With this point we cannot, however, deal 
 now. 
 
 In the Pseudepigrapha, as we have seen, some new and 
 important elements touching the doctrine of Mediation 
 are presented, but points of close contact with Old 
 Testament teaching are also in evidence. In the first 
 place, the sacrificial system as a means of reconciliation 
 
 *The book belongs to a considerably later date than any of the other 
 books of the Apocrypha, about 90 A. D.
 
 196 
 
 with God is in part advocated, but belief in its efficacy 
 per se is no more firmly held. Then, again, the inter- 
 cession of human beings finds a place, though this is not 
 so marked as in some of the books of the Old Testa- 
 ment. On the other hand, a great advance is noticeable 
 .1 in the belief concerning the intercession of angels, 
 | while the figure of the Archangel Michael occupies an 
 important place, and he is often identified with 
 Enoch. Another element, which witnesses to develop- 
 ment, of great interest is the attempt to combine 
 the specifically Old Testament teaching with that 
 which is more specifically characteristic of the_ post- 
 biblical writings, namely, that the mediating function 
 which has been exercised by religious leaders while _on 
 earth is conceived of as being continued in the realms 
 above; Enoch, Abraham, and Moses are represented as 
 interceding, as spiritual beings, in the presence of Gcx\. 
 It is a striking advance in the conception of Mediation 
 when we find the writers of these books teaching that 
 the angels and the spirits of the righteous, rather than 
 human beings and sacrifices, are the mediating agencies 
 between God and man. This teaching is still further 
 developed in the Targums, for while in these, following 
 herein the teaching of the Old Testament, human beings 
 are represented as mediators, there is also, for the first 
 time, the further teaching that brings not only super- 
 human, but also semi-divine mediators between God and 
 !man ; Metatron and the hypostatized Word of God^ 
 Memra, fcike tHe^place of the angels as mediators. 
 * JL In Rabbinical literature the teaching concerning the 
 quasi-personification of divine attributes is greatly 
 
 K
 
 197 
 
 elaborated ; to Metatrpn and the Afrefnra are added the 
 Ruach-ha-Kodesh (the "Holy Spirit") and the Shekhinak 
 (the divine glory). These occupy an intermediate 
 position between personalities and abstract beings. 
 
 While on the one hand, they are represented as being so 
 closely connected with God as to appear as parts of 
 Him, or attributes, they are, on the other hand, so often 
 spoken of as undertaking individual action that they 
 
 must be differentiated from God. We are not blind to 
 the fact that over and over again the Rabbis in their 
 teaching opposed mediatorial tendencies ; their literature 
 is full of protests against the idea of any mediatorial 
 person or agency ; even in the Targums the Rabbinical 
 use of such terms as Shekkinah, Memra, etc., was often 
 directed to the same end ; but there is another side to 
 this, and the presence of much which points in the other 
 direction in Rabbinical literature justifies us in saying 
 that a doctrine of Mediation is clearly to be discerned 
 there. This Jewish doctrine of intermediate beings is 
 of great importance to Christian theologians, for it offers 
 a striking commentary on the Christian doctrine of 
 pMediation ; " in how far the two religions have influenced 
 each other in this respect, it would be difficult to 
 say ; but it is worth remembering that the Talmud 
 and kindred writings only crystallize (though they 
 undoubtedly further elaborate) what had in very many 
 cases been current long before." * 
 
 It is significant how in modern hand-books on Judaism 
 this specifically Rabbinical doctrine of intermediate beings 
 between God and man is passed over in silence. While 
 
 * Oesterley and Box, Op, cit. p. 169.
 
 198 
 
 everyone would be prepared to concede that the Rabbis, 
 in writing about these quasi-personalities, did not at 
 any rate, generally speaking intend their words to be 
 taken literally, there is no getting away from the fact 
 that the conception underlying the whole cycle of these 
 ideas is that of mediatorial activity between God and 
 men ; they may be nothing more than mental pictures, 
 metaphors, or the like, but that they witness in a very 
 striking manner to the belief in the principle of Media- 
 tion in a very exalted sense, cannot be denied. In 
 Rabbinical literature, moreover, there are a large number 
 of minor indications pointing in the same direction ; 
 taken singly, these may not amount to much, but in the 
 aggregate they constitute a large body of material, wit- 
 nessing, in a halting manner it may be, to the belief of 
 the need of something coming in between God and man. 
 It is right to add, and to emphasize the point, that these 
 mediating agencies, such as the Law, Almsgiving, 
 Repentance, Fasting, etc., occupy a position, as regards 
 their efficacy, in Judaism essentially different from that 
 which they occupy in the Christian doctrine, and it is 
 this essential difference which justifies one in saying that 
 while in Judaism they are rightly called " mediating 
 agencies," according to Christian doctrine the term would 
 be inapplicable. That essential difference is this : the 
 accomplishment of Mitzvoth (i.e., legal observances, lit. 
 'commandments') constitutes a meritorious act, and 
 compels, as it were, divine approbation ; they are per se 
 the actual means of reconciliation, they are the cause 
 whereby a right relationship, an at-one-ment between 
 God and men is established. According to Christian
 
 199 
 
 teaching, those things are also necessary, very indispen- 
 sable, but there is nothing meritorious about them, their 
 being left undone constitutes a sin which, as a sin, stands 
 in the same category as sins of commission : "When ye 
 shall have done all things that are commanded you, say, 
 we are unprofitable servants ; we have done that which 
 it was our duty to do," i.e., nothing more than that. 
 According to Christian teaching, no amount of simply 
 f doing what it is our duty to do could per se effect a right 
 
 ,- -K-- a - ..,..__. .- ...*. ,.,-.- ...i. I,. *, . I, . ._ ..,._ .Aa^ 
 
 relationship with God, could bring about justification* ; 
 for a state of justification in the sight of God can only 
 be attained by means of the Divine-Human Mediator 
 and Advocate, Jesus Christ. Judaism or, at all events, 
 Rabbinical Judaism- has its doctrine of Mediation just 
 as Christianity has ; the great difference between the two 
 lies in the fact that, according to the former, the power 
 of bringing about Mediation lies with man, while 
 according to the latter, it is only God Himself, Who, in 
 the Person of Christ, does so. It is the Christian 
 I doctrine of Grace which makes all the difference. Jewish 
 theologians frequently seek to differentiate between 
 what they call the Pauline doctrine of grace and the 
 teaching of Christ ; to do so betrays an entire mis- 
 apprehension of the Gospel teaching ; to give but one 
 example : nowhere could the identity of the teaching of 
 our Lord and of St. Paul concerning Grace be more 
 
 * Some modern Jewish teachers deny this, e.g. : " Human regret and 
 amendment, prayer and promise, condition, as it were, God's pardon ; 
 they do not command or earn it" (Abrahams' Festival Studies, p. 96) ; 
 this is, however, a development of doctrine ; but the whole of 
 Chap, xiv., entitled " God and Man," in Mr. Abrahams' book should be 
 read ; it is very fine and thoroughly worthy of the gifted author.
 
 200 
 
 pointedly and clearly exhibited than by comparing the 
 parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard (Matth. xx. 
 i 15), spoken in answer to St. Peter's demand, " What, 
 then shall we have " ? ;(xix. 27), and such words of 
 St. Paul as : By the works of the Law shall no flesh be 
 justified (Rom. iii. 20) ; Ye are not under the Law, but 
 under Grace (Rom. vi. 14). 
 
 It is worth while, by way of comparison, to quote here a Rabbinical 
 parallel to the parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard, as it illus- 
 trates, when compared with the Gospel form of the parable, the 
 essential difference between Christian and Jewish teaching on the 
 subject of Grace and Works ; this parable was spoken by a Rabbi Sera 
 in his funeral oration over Rabbi Bun, * who lived at the beginning of 
 the fifth century A.D. ; the parable, which occurs in the Midrash Shir 
 ha-Shirim (Song of Songs) to vi. 2, is as follows : "There was a king 
 who had a vineyard, and he hired labourers to care for it. Among 
 these there was one who was far more able than the rest. When the 
 king noticed this he took him by the hand and strolled about with him 
 all over the vineyard. When even was come the labourers came to 
 receive their hire ; then also that very clever labourer came forward to 
 receive his hire together with the others ; and the king gave to him the 
 same hire as the others received. Whereupon the labourers murmured, 
 and said : ' O lord our king, we have laboured the whole day, and is 
 this man who has only laboured two or three hours to receive equal 
 hire with us?' ' Wherefore murmur ye?' replied the king, 'he has 
 done more work in those two or three hours than ye have done during 
 the whole day !" The parable is told in order to illustrate the fact 
 that Rabbi Bun fulfilled more Mitzvoth (' Commandments ') in the 
 twenty-eight years of life than many a grey-headed worker at the 
 Torah in a hundred years, t The same parable occurs in Bereshith 
 Rabbet, Ixii., and in Midrash Koheleth, on v. 12. The contrast 
 between the Rabbinical and the Christian form of the parable for it 
 
 * A shortened form of Abun (=Abin). 
 
 + Cf. Abodah Zara, ija : "One man earns heaven in how many 
 years ! and another in a single hour " (quoted by Herford, Christianity 
 in Talmud and Midrash, p. 184).
 
 2OI 
 
 can scarcely be doubted that both go back to a common source is 
 highly instructive ; the whole point of the Rabbinical form is to 
 emphasize the quality of works, which are accomplished by the 
 exercise of man's free-will ; while the whole point of the Christian form 
 is to emphasize the inefficacy of Works apart from Grace. 
 
 In the Jewish Prayer Book, and especially in the 
 Sephardic Ritual, there are many re-echoes of Rabbini- 
 cal teaching ; it is true, the semi-divine Beings referred 
 to above scarcely figure at all ; the Shekhinah is 
 mentioned, but without any trace of personality being 
 attached to it. On the other hand, the principle of 
 Mediation is affirmed in abundant measure ; the accep- 
 tion of the whole principle of the Sacrificial System, 
 together with the earnest looking forward to its revival, 
 the avowed mediating agency of the Torah, and such 
 meritorious Mitzvoth as Repentance, Fasting, Alms- 
 giving, Suffering, and even Death, as also the observance 
 of the Day of Atonement all these things constitute a 
 recognition of the principle of Mediation, and the Prayer 
 Book follows herein the teaching of the Rabbis. The 
 same is true with regard to the mediatorial function of 
 the Fathers, exercised by means of their merits ; the 
 mediator here is but human, but he is a personality, and 
 he has something definite to offer ; and teaching which 
 comes very near to that of vicarious suffering and atone- 
 ment is contained in such words as : " Do this for the 
 sake of them that were slain for Thy holy name," " Do 
 it for the sake of them that were slaughtered for Thy 
 Unity."* Other examples witnessing to the idea of 
 Mediatorship have been given in the preceding pages. 
 
 * Occurring in the Daily Morning Service.
 
 2O2 
 
 But while in the Jewish Prayer Book both the 
 principle of Mediation and the conception of Mediator- 
 ship are plainly in evidence, a comparison between the 
 teaching in the Prayer Book and Rabbinical writings on 
 this subject leaves the general impression that the former 
 offers upon the whole, a somewhat pale reflection of 
 what the Rabbis taught ; a toning-down tendency is 
 very observable in the Prayer Book in spite of a manifest 
 desire to be loyal to the fulness of Rabbinical teaching. 
 It is difficult to account for this otherwise than by sup- 
 posing it to be due to the desire to avoid, as far as 
 possible, what might seem to countenance Christian 
 teaching ; this supposition is strengthened by observing 
 that in the Prayer Book there are some quite clear 
 indications of an intention to controvert Christian 
 doctrine. It must, however, be pointed out that the 
 Christian doctrine of Mediation is only the final develop- 
 ment of a truth which Judaism had for centuries been 
 inevitably unfolding; even the violent shock which pre- 
 Christian Pharisaism gave to the advance of this 
 necessary truth-development was wholly unable to 
 check it excepting in the direction of Pharisaic Particu- 
 larism ; free Judaism with its outlook beyond the con- 
 fines of legal observance continued the work of preparing 
 the world for the fulness of the truth. How clearly it is 
 now possible to see why the Apocalyptic literature, and 
 fits authors were tabooed by the Pharisaic leaders of 
 ( Judaism ! Yet even so, an immense deal of the freer 
 beliefs of pre-Christian Judaism have found their way 
 into later Rabbinical literature side by side with narrower 
 tenets.
 
 203 
 
 The great break which occurred within Judaism during 
 the two pre-Christian centuries had as its final result the 
 placing of Christianity and Judaism in antagonism. 
 There are signs of a new break occurring within Judaism. 
 And, strange to say, the beginnings of these signs are to 
 be discerned in the ranks of those Orthodox Jews who 
 profess loyalty to the ancient faith as preserved in the 
 Old Testament, in the Targums, in Midrash, and in 
 Talmud. Modern Orthodox Judaism, at all events as 
 represented in Dr. Friedlander's hand-book, is an adap- 
 tation of Rabbinical Judaism ; this is true, at any rate, 
 of the Judaism of Western Europe, as can be shown by 
 comparing the practice of, for example, Orthodox Anglo- 
 Jewry with that of the Polish Jews within the " Pale."" 
 It is, however, not only in the domain of practical 
 Judaism that modern Orthodox Jews are beginning to 
 let the ancient landmarks disappear ; we have tried to 
 show, in Chap. xxiv. above, that in doctrine too, modern 
 Orthodox-Judaism is, in a supremely important respect, 
 out of harmony with the teaching of the _ Torah t the- 
 Targums, with Midrask, and Talmud. This tendency 
 is, of course, enormously developed by Reform and 
 semi-Reform Judaism ; in most respects a definite break 
 has already occurred between Orthodox and Reform 
 Judaism, but both are agreed in repudiating the teaching 
 of all authoritative Jewish documents on the subject of 
 Mediation. In this respect Orthodox, followed in a 
 half-hearted way by semi-Reform, Judaism is wholly 
 illogical, for it claims to be guided by the teaching of 
 the Torah, etc., but repudiates one of the essential 
 doctrines taught here. Reform Judaism is logical in its
 
 2O4 
 
 attitude in so far as it maintains that its course is a 
 natural development ; but when it claims connexion 
 with historic Judaism the claim is untenable, for, with 
 the exception of its Unitarian belief it has practically 
 nothing to do with historic Judaism. But while it is 
 true to say that Reform Judaism is justified in saying 
 that its procedure is logical, it is well to remember where 
 logic, if that is to be the guiding principle, inevitably 
 leads to ; if it does not lead directly to a pitiful 
 Agnosticism, it will certainly not lead in the direction of 
 religion, but rather to some such nebulous philosophy as 
 that which a highly cultivated Jew has called " Cosmic 
 Theism," i.e., Spinozism with a touch of that historic 
 sense so lacking in Reform Judaism.* We have great 
 sympathy with Reform Judaism, and especially with its 
 saintly leader in England, because we realize its inevit- 
 
 // ableness and the free spirit which impels it ; but it is an 
 anomaly ; we would gladly and gratefully be convinced 
 
 1 jhat we are mistaken, but it seems to us an anomaly. 
 Semi-Reform Judaism compels our admiration, for it is 
 admirable to act as mediator, and it is always a self- 
 denying task. Orthodox Judaism we love ; because, of 
 the three, it has most of that religious spirit which Biblical 
 Jjjdaism gave to the world ; it isjmpossible to read much 
 ^ the Prayer Book^without feeling this. 
 
 The writer has feltcalled upon to express himself thus 
 in order that, if any Jews should honour him by 
 glancing at the preceding pages, they may understand 
 that, in spite of fundamental differences of belief, he has 
 a very warm place in his heart for Judaism in each of its 
 forms. 
 
 * Joseph Jacob's Jewish Ideals, p. 58 ; see the whole essay on "The 
 Cod of Israel," which is full of extremely interesting matter.
 
 APPENDIX.
 
 APPENDIX: 
 
 NOTES ON THE SOURCES UTILIZED. 
 
 A brief account of the character and contents of the 
 various ancient books and tractates, etc., from which quota- 
 tions have been made in the preceding pages may be found 
 useful by some ; we therefore append a few notes on these, 
 dealing, however, only with such portions of the material 
 utilized with which, it may be presumed, the generality of 
 readers will not be familiar, i.e., the books of the Old 
 Testament from which quotations have been made will not 
 be dealt with here. 
 
 i. APOCRYPHA AND PSEUDEPIGRAPHA. 
 
 The Second Book of Maccabees. This book, in the 
 main, professes to be an epitome or a series of extracts 
 from a much larger historical work of a certain Jason of 
 Cyrene, of whom otherwise nothing is known. It com- 
 prises, roughly speaking, an account of the Maccabaean 
 struggle during the period 176-161 B.C. Unlike the first 
 Book of Maccabees, which was originally written in Hebrew, 
 this book is without any doubt a Greek work. Its special 
 characteristic is its religious tendency, and its main object 
 is not to write history, but to utilize history for the purpose 
 of glorifying legalistic Judaism. 
 
 Ecclesiasticus. In the Jewish Chokma- or Wisdom- 
 Literature "The Wisdom of Ben Sira"* occupies a most 
 
 * In the Greek Bible the title is : " The Wisdom of Jesus, the son of 
 Sirach " ; the title in the English Bible comes from the Vulgate ; 
 Ecclesiasticus = the Church Book par excellence.
 
 
 208 Appendix. 
 
 important place. The writer shows a considerable advance 
 in his method of treatment upon the older collections of 
 Proverbs ; and although the book cannot be said to exhibit 
 great signs of originality on the part of the writer, he never- 
 theless adds to the older material, of which he makes 
 abundant use, a wealth of independent thought which 
 witnesses to a certain amount of individuality. The mass of 
 information which the book contains regarding Jewish 
 religion, thought, and ethics, especially during a period of 
 which we have not otherwise much knowledge concerning 
 these, enhances the importance of the book. The purpose 
 of the writer was evidently to offer to his people a kind of 
 text-book in which men (and apparently women too) were 
 intended to seek guidance in almost every conceivable 
 circumstance of life ; and this is done with the primary 
 object of setting in a clear light the superior excellence of 
 Judaism over Hellenism ; so that in one sense Ecclesiasticus 
 is an apologetic work, inasmuch as it aims at combating 
 the rising influence of Greek thought and culture among 
 the Tews. 
 
 What may be called the general philosophy of Wisdom 
 presented in the book may be briefly described as follows. 
 In the past, divine and human Wisdom had been regarded as 
 opposed, but in Ecclesiasticus (and this is true of the 
 Chokma-literature generally) the new truth is taught that 
 Wisdom is the one thing of all others which is indispensable 
 to him who would lead an upright life. The evil of wicked- 
 ness is represented as lying in the fact that it is folly, 
 and therefore essentially opposed to Wisdom. This_the_sjs 
 was due to^ the influence of Hellenism. To this must 
 be added a specifically Jewish element which, as is to be 
 expected, is far more pronounced in the book : the Jews 
 were faithful to the Law, or Torah, whose ordinances had
 
 Appendix. 209 
 
 always been binding on them because it was the revealed 
 will of God ; therefore, in order to reconcile this old teaching 
 concerning the Law with the new teaching that Wisdom 
 was man's main requirement, Wisdom became identified 
 with the Law. " The fear of the Lord (i.e., respect and 
 observance of the Torah) is the beginning^ of Wisdom " 
 (Ecclus. L 14. 16) ; this is the foundation-thought of all the 
 CfeoJfemg-literature, and formed the reconciling link 
 between Judaism and Hellenism in this domain. This is 
 nowhere more practically illustrated than in Ecclesiasticus 
 where mankind is divided into two categories, the wise and 
 foolish, which correspond respectively to the righteous and 
 the wicked. 
 
 Ecclesiasticus was written in Hebrew, the major part of 
 which has been discovered within recent years ; it was 
 translated into Greek by the author's grandson in 132 B.C., 
 as the Prologue tells us, so that the original must have been 
 written some forty to fifty years earlier.* 
 
 The Book of Tobit. This is a composite work ; originally 
 a legend which was widely circulated, it was taken over and 
 adapted by a Jew who probably added certain elements to 
 make it more acceptable to his own people. From the 
 point of view of folk-lore the book is of great interest. Tfye 
 importance of it for the subject which has been considered 
 in the preceding pages is the developed angeiology which it 
 exhibits. It has come down to us in several forms; the 
 original language in which it was written in its Jewish 
 
 * Mr. J. H. A. Hart, in his recently published Ecclesiasticus in Greek, 
 contends for an earlier date, and believes that the Greek translation was 
 made soon after 247 B.C., the original, therefore, going back to about half 
 a century, at least, earlier. The present writer does not find himself able 
 to agree with this. 
 
 O
 
 210 Appendix. 
 
 dress was probably Aramaic, though this cannot be positively 
 asserted. There are reasons for giving as its date 150 B.C. 
 (circa), but here again there is no certainty. 
 
 The Wisdom of Solomon. This is one of the finest and 
 most remarkable products of the C/zo&raa-literature. It 
 shows, far more than is the case with Ecclesiastic^- the 
 influence of Greek philosophy ; it teaches, for example, the 
 doctrine of the immortality of the soul as distinct from the 
 resurrection of the body. " Materialism was always a snare 
 to the Jews, in view of their doctrine of a future life. If 
 the only prospect after death was that of a non-moral 
 existence in Sheol, there was to grosser natures no reason 
 why the cup of pleasure should not be drunk inordinately : 
 and further, there was no satisfying solution of the problem 
 of the prosperity of the wicked and the sufferings of the 
 righteous." * It was in order to rectify false notions such 
 as these, and to solve the problem of the prosperity of the 
 wicked and sufferings of the righteous, that the author of 
 this book framed his teaching concerning the hereafter, and 
 taught that " death opened a gate of blessedness for the 
 righteous, that prosperity and length of days were not the 
 criterion of a successful life, and that persecution was only 
 one side of a picture, the other (and strangely unexpected) 
 side of which would be revealed after death." f 
 
 It was written in Greek, probably an Alexandrine work ; 
 its date is a matter of some uncertainty, and it is difficult 
 to give anything more precise than 125-50 B.C., probably 
 nearer the earlier than the later limit. 
 
 * J. A. F. Gregg The Wisdom of Solomon, p. xxiii.
 
 Appendix. 2 1 r 
 
 The ii. (iv.) Book of Esdras. In the English Version 
 this is called the Second Book of Esdras, in reality it is the 
 Fourth Book, ^t-is a highly important Jewish apocalyptic 
 work, belonging to the end of the first Christian century, 
 but it embodies many conceptions of pre-Christian times; it_ 
 is the only representative of the Apocalyptic literature 
 embodied in the official Apocrypha of the Old Testament, 
 and the only book belonging to this body of (Apocryphal) 
 literature in which the figure of the Messiah, both the 
 earthly and the heavenly, figures in really definite form. 
 It was originally written in Hebrew or Aramaic. The most 
 striking feature in the whole book is the section known as 
 " The Vision of the Man ascending out of the Sea" (xiii. 2-13), 
 which purports to describe the Advent of the Messiah, with 
 the accompanying occurrences. 
 
 It must be pointed out that the books of our Apocrypha 
 Vv T cre not accepted by the official Judaism of the Talmud, 
 though some of them have always been recognized as more 
 or less orthodox even from the strict Jewish standpoint, viz., 
 Ecclesiasticus,* Tobit, Judith, i. Maccabees. Though 
 uncanonical, they were " allowed," and were not included 
 among the " external books " (i.e. books of a heretical 
 character which are uncanonical). It is a mistake to 
 suppose that by the " external books " mentioned in early 
 Rabbinical literature were understood all apocryphal books 
 indiscriminately ; the term only included heretical apocryphal 
 f books. Uncanonical books like the four just mentioned 
 were, and are, regarded as good orthodox Jewish literature. 
 
 The Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament embrace a 
 series of writings considerably more extensive than the 
 books of the Apocrypha proper. " Indeed, the distinction 
 
 * A number of quotations from this book are embodied in the Talmud.
 
 212 Appendix. 
 
 between the two classes of literature implied by the common 
 use of the term ' Apocrypha ' to denote a specified number 
 of deutero-canonical books is an arbitrary and artificial one. 
 It is due to St. Jerome. Originally the term ' Apocrypha ' 
 (= * hidden,' ' secret ') denoted the secret books or teaching 
 current among certain religious or philosophic sects. 
 The term is neither specifically Jewish nor Christian to 
 start with ; in the first instance it was used by the writers, 
 of the books themselves, not as a term of reproach, but of 
 distinction. In this wider sense it naturally included the 
 books now described as Pseudepigrapnic In the early 
 centuries of Christianity, down to about 200 A.D., many of 
 the apocalyptic books which were described under the 
 
 (general term ' Apocrypha' (e.g., the book of Enoch) were 
 highly regarded in Christian circles ; later, in the third 
 century, a change took place, when, under the influence of 
 the Greek Church, the oriental element in ancient Christianity " 
 
 twas, by gradual steps, largely eliminated * ; under this 
 influence much of the apocryphal (apocalyptic) literature 
 disappeared from general orthodox use. The works 
 described by the general term ' Pseudepigraphic ' are mainly 
 apocalyptic in character. The apocalyptic literature is 
 distinguished broadly by some common, general character- 
 istics. It is, first of all, a popular literature ; that is to say, 
 it reflects (in literary form more or less elaborated) the 
 thoughts of religious circles which were outside the 
 recognized Rabbinical schools ; and it embodies religious 
 ideas which in many points conflicted sharply with the strict 
 scholastic orthodoxy of the Pharisees. Next, it emphasized 
 the individual side of religion equally with that of the 
 righteous community ; not the nation as such, but the com- 
 
 Cp. Prof. Burkitt's very instructive book, Early Eastern Christ- 
 ianity (1904).
 
 Appendix. 213 
 
 munity of the righteous in it the ' plant of righteousness,' 
 as the book of Enoch terms it will inherit the divine 
 reward. The exalted religious scheme which dominates 
 these books tended to overcome national and particularistic 
 limitations. It is, however, on the side of the Messianic 
 Hope that this literature is most significant ; and here the 
 points of contact with the New Testament are most striking 
 and important." * In the preceding pages quotations have 
 been made from the following Pseudepigrapha : 
 
 The "Ethiopia" Book of Enoch. This is the most 
 important representative of the apocalyptic literature that 
 has survived. It is a composite work, the constituent parts 
 being, according to Prof. Charles,f as follows : 
 
 "The Book of Enoch" ; Chaps, i-xxxvi (170 B.C.), 
 Ixxxiii-xc (166-161 B.C.); xci-civ (134-95 B.C.). 
 
 " The Book of Celestial Physics " ; Chaps. Ixxii-lxxxii 
 (166-161 B.C.). 
 
 ( The Book of Similitudes " ; Chaps, xxxvii-lxx 
 (94-64 B.C.). 
 
 " The Apocalypse of Noah " ; extracts from this work are 
 interspersed throughout the above. This Apocalypse is 
 referred to in The Book of Jubilees, x. 13-14, xxi. 10. ; its 
 date is uncertain, but it was undoubtedly written before the 
 commencement of the Christian Era. 
 
 The name " Ethiopic " Book of Enoch is given because 
 
 * Oesterley and Box, Op. cit., pp. 33f. 
 
 |- The Book of Enoch, translated and edited, with Notes, etc., by 
 R. H. Charles (1893). 
 
 Cp. also the mediaeval Midrash called "The Book of Noah, "which 
 probably re-echoes in many respects ancient legendary matter concern- 
 ing Noah. This Midrash has been published by Jellinek in his Bet ha- 
 Midrasck, iii., pp. 155-160 ; a German translation has recently appeared, 
 see Wiinsche Aus Israels Lehrhallen, iii., pp. 201-210.
 
 214 Appendix. 
 
 the earliest version of the work which has been preserved is 
 in Ethiopia, originally it was most probably written in 
 Aramaic or Hebrew. The most striking section, and most, 
 important because of its picture of the transcendental 
 Messiah who is called ' the Son of Man,' is the " Book of 
 
 ^^^^^^^^MMMMBMMMBnHiMvMi^''*'--' 
 
 Similitudes." The entire work has for its characteristic 
 
 features a strongly developed Angelology and Demonologv^ 
 the doctrine and the description of the Messiah and the 
 Messianic Age, an exposition of the secrets of the unseen 
 world, and of celestial physics. " With the earlier Fathers 
 and Apologists it had all the weight of a canonical bookj 
 but towards the close of the third and beginning of the 
 fourth centuries it began to be discredited, and finally fell 
 under the ban of the Church." * 
 
 The " Slavonic " Book of Enoch. The more correct title 
 is " The Book of the Secrets of Enoch " ; the name 
 " Slavonic Enoch " is given on account of the only extant 
 form of it being in the Slavonic language ; originally it was 
 written in Greek. Though belonging once to the voluminous 
 " Enoch literature," it is quite distinct from the " Ethiopic 
 Enoch," t which it resembles, however, in general character; 
 
 (but it has been influenced to a larger extent by Greek 
 thought. According to Dr. Charles, the book " in its 
 present form was written somewhere about the beginning of 
 the Christian Era. Its author or final editor was an Hellen- 
 istic Jew, and the place of its composition was Egypt." J 
 
 The Book of Jubilees. This work is also called the 
 " Little Genesis," because it follows the history as given in 
 
 * Charles Op. cit. , p, 2. 
 
 t But "in many respects it is of no less value " than this, Charles 
 The Book of the Secrets of Enoch, p. xi. (1896). 
 cit., p. xii.
 
 Appendix. 215 
 
 the book of Genesis ; but it divides this history into fixed 
 periods of time, or Jubilees," * hence its name. It purports 
 to have been given through angels to Moses on Mount 
 I Sinai. The Book is strongly Pharisaic in tone and charac- 
 ter, laying great stress on legal observances ; it exalts the 
 Sabbath, Circumcision, the Dietary laws, the laws of 
 purification, etc., and is accordingly characterized by a spirit 
 of exclusiveness. As would be expected from this, its 
 attitude towards Messianism is wholly antagonistic ; the 
 figure of the Messiah disappears almost entirely, and 
 (anticipating herein, in one respect, a form of modern 
 Judaism) the book represents the Messianic Kingdom as 
 the outcome of a gradual process which is bound up with the 
 study of the Law. The date of the book is uncertain, but 
 the end of the second century B.C. seems most probable. 
 The original language was either Hebrew or Aramaic^ the 
 former is more likely. It has this in common with 
 Ecclesiasticus that one of its main objects is to combat the 
 growing influence of Hellenism. 
 
 The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs. There is 
 something particularly interesting about the contrast 
 between this work and the Book of Jubilees ; both are 
 approximately of the same date, and both are of Pharisaic 
 origin, but they exhibit a striking contrast on the subject of 
 the Messiah and the Messianic Kingdom ; we have seen 
 the attitude of the Book of Jubilees towards these ; the 
 writer of the Testaments, on the contrary, believes in a 
 
 *"The word 'Jubilee' is directly derived from the Hebrew term 
 fobel which, modern scholars are agreed, has the meaning ' ram ' or 
 ' ram's horn.' The year of Jubilee thus means literally, ' The year of 
 the ram's horn ' ; the fiftieth year was so called because it was pro- 
 claimed by the blowing of the rams' horns, see Lev. xxv." Oesterley 
 and Box, Op. cit., p. 36.
 
 216 Appendix. 
 
 Messiah, who is, moreover recognized in the person of Tohn 
 
 (Hyrcanu^ and. he. ;! already sees the Messianic Kingdom 
 established, under the sway of which the Gentiles will in 
 due course be saved, Belial overthrown, sin disappear from 
 the earth, and the righteous dead rise to share in the blessed- 
 ness of the living." * But, as Prof. Charles says further, 
 " the main, the overwhelming value of the book lies not in 
 this province, but in its ethical teaching, which has 
 achieved a real immortality by influencing the thought and 
 diction of the writers of the New Testament^ and even 
 those of our Lord. This ethical teaching, which is indefi- 
 nitely higher and purer than that of the Old Testament, is 
 yet its true spiritual child, and helps to bridge over' the 
 chasm that divides the ethics of the Old and New Testa- 
 ments." f It was originally written in Hebrew. Apocalyptic 
 elements are in evidence in the testaments of Levi and 
 Naphthali. 
 
 The Sybilline Oracles. The most striking Jewish por- 
 tions of this curious work (viz. Books iii. iv.) belong, 
 probably, to the end of the second century B.C. Written in 
 Greek, the matter contained in these " Oracles " was partly 
 adapted and derived from similar heathen " Oracles," in 
 imitation of which they are set in poetical form. This mode 
 was adopted for the purposes of the Jewish propaganda in 
 the Dispersion, with the object of commending the truths of 
 the Jewish religion to pagan circles. Apocalyptic elements 
 are pronounced in Book nu; they deal with such subjects 
 as ine f:it-j of the successive kingdoms which are to bear 
 rule over the Jews, signs of the end of the world, the day of 
 
 * Charles, The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, translated . . . 
 p. xvi. (1908). 
 
 \Ibid, p. xvii.
 
 Appendix. 217 
 
 Judgement, the blessed age to come. They display an 
 amount of interest in the con version of non-Jews to the 
 Jewish religion that is unusual in strictly Jewish writers. 
 
 The Assumption of Moses. This is a composite work, 
 being made up of two books which were originally distinct, 
 namely, The Testament of Moses and The Assumption of 
 Moses. It was written in Hebrew, most probably, and 
 belongs to about the beginning of the Christian Era. In 
 form the book assumes the character of a prediction 
 regarding the future history of Israel, delivered by Moses to 
 Joshua. According to Prof. Charles, it is the work of a 
 Pharisaic Quietist, who inculcates, as the main business of 
 life, the faithful observance of the precepts of the Law. 
 
 The Life of Adam and Eve and The Apocalypse of 
 Moses. These two works run to a large extent parallel, 
 and cover in great measure the same ground ;_they evidently 
 go back to one original, which was written in Hebrew. 
 They deal with such subjects as Adam in the Garden of 
 Eden, his expulsion from Paradise, his repentance, illness, 
 and death. The Rabbinical literature often refers to legends 
 connected with Adam,* probably all these legends go back 
 to an original popular legend which became elaborated as 
 time went on. Apocalyptic elements in the strict sense of 
 the word are rarely in evidence in these two works, but the 
 resurrection, paradise, and future bliss are referred to. 
 They possess a certain amount of importance for the study 
 of the Jewish doctrine of Sin. Their date is approximately 
 the middle of the first century A.D. 
 
 The Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch. Belonging to the 
 latter part of the first century A.D., and written in Hebrew 
 
 *e.g., in The Book of Noah referred to above.
 
 218 Appendix. 
 
 or Aramaic, this work offers an example of Orthodox 
 Jewish thought and religious feeling as it existed in the 
 early days of Christianity, and before the period of Talmudic 
 Judaism had fully set in. In form it assumes the character 
 of a series of visions connected by narrative. It is onty 
 extant in Syriac.* The book is of great importance for 
 the study of Judaism at the time of Christ and of the 
 Apostles. It may perhaps best be described as an apology 
 for Orthodox Pharisaic Judaism of the first century A. D., 
 with an implicit polemic against Christianity. It throws 
 valuable light on such parts of Jewish theology as are con- 
 cerned with Original Sin, Free Will, Works and Justification, 
 Mediation, and Forgiveness. 
 
 The Greek Apocalypse of Baruch. This is quite a 
 distinct work from that just referred to;, it is, probably, of 
 somewhat later date. It tells of how Baruch was conducted 
 through the heavens, and gives an account of the wonderful 
 sights he saw. An interesting element in it is its reference 
 to the offering of the prayers of men to God by Michael. 
 On the whole, however, the religious element in the work is 
 not conspicuous. 
 
 The Testament of Abraham. The date of this work is 
 uncertain; some scholars place it in the second century, A.D.,f 
 others claim an earlier date for it. J The original language 
 was Hebrew ; its whole venue is very Jewish, but it has been 
 subjected to later Christian influence. It describes 
 Abraham's refusal to yield up his soul ; his death is 
 ultimately brought about by the help of the Angel of Death, 
 for Michael, who had been sent by God to fetch his soul, 
 finds himself unable to do so. The book has an important 
 
 * An English translation has been published by Prof. Charles (1896). 
 
 tM. R. James The Testament of Abraham, p. 51. 
 
 J Jewish Encyd. I. Q5b, etc.
 
 Appendix. 219* 
 
 bearing on the doctrine of Mediation ; for in it the Archangel 
 Michael appears as intercessor on Abraham's behalf, and 
 Abraham himself is represented, together with Michael, as. 
 procuring a sinner's entry into Paradise by means of their 
 intercession (Chap. xiv.). A striking characteristic of the- 
 is its developed Angelology and Demonology. 
 
 ii. THE TARGUMIM. 
 
 f I The Targum of Onkelos to the Pentateuch. Also known 
 as " Targum Babli," as although most probably written 
 originally in Palestine, it was re-edited in Babylon. The- 
 compiler, Onkelos, was a pupil of Gamaliel the elder, who* 
 died in 70 A.D. The fact of this Targum having been written 
 almost within the life-time of Christ, and of its embody mg- 
 material which was centuries older, shows its value as a 
 witness to Jewish exegesis and theology during the period 
 
 , between the Old and New Testaments. Like all the- 
 Targums it avoids, whenever possible, anthropomorphisms, 
 but unlike the others, the Haggadic element (i.e., the- 
 anecdotal mode) is rare, when it does occur it is only in the 
 poetical passages. 
 
 ) The Targum of pseudo-Jonathan to the Pentateuch. 
 Also known as " Targum Jerushalmi " or the " Palestinian 
 Targum." The name as given above is the most usual one,. 
 it is a correction of what used to be the current title, namely 
 the " Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel to the Pentateuch " ; 
 this title was given owing to a mistake, a mistake which 
 arose in this way : " The Targum was often indicated 
 briefly as * Targum J' (i.e. Targum Jerushaimi) ; the / was 
 mistaken for an abbreviation of ' Jonathan.' and it wa& 
 supposed that the Jonathan ben Uzziel, to whom the
 
 220 Appendix. 
 
 Targum to the Prophets is ascribed, was also responsible 
 for this Targum to the Pentateuch."*. This Targum also 
 exists in another form, likewise known as the " Jerusalem 
 Targum," but frequently referred to as the " Fragment 
 Targum " owing to the fragmentary form in which it has 
 come down to us. 
 
 The Targum of Jonathan to the Prophets. iWritten by 
 Jonathan ben Uzziel, who is described as a pupil of Hillel 
 (early part of first century A.D.). This comprises the 
 historical books, called in the Hebrew Canon the "Former 
 Prophets," as well as the prophetical books proper, called in 
 the Hebrew Canon the " Latter Prophets." It is full of 
 interesting Haggadic matter ; Zunz says : " Even in the 
 case of historical books Jonathan often acts the part of an 
 expositor; in the case of the prophetical books, again, such 
 a style of exposition is uninterruptedly pursued as makes it 
 really a Haggadic work." -j- 
 
 The Targum to Canticles. " The Targumist handles the 
 * Song of Songs ' as an allegorical outline of Jewish History 
 from the Exodus to the coming of the Messiah and the 
 expectant building of the third Temple." J This Targum 
 
 /forms part of a work which comprises Targums on the five 
 NcgiUotli or " Rolls " (viz., Ruth, Lamentations, 
 Ecclesiastes, Esther, and Canticles'). According to Zunz, 
 all are, most likely, by the same author, who lived " very 
 probably a considerable time after the Talmudic period." 
 
 * Oesterley and Box, Op. cit., p. 47. 
 
 t Die gottesdienstlichen Vortriige der [uden historisch entiuickelt, p. 66, 
 X^ <2nd ed. 1892). 
 
 H. Gollancz, The Targum to the ' Song of Songs,' p. 3. 
 0p. cit., p. 68.
 
 Appendix. 221 
 
 iii. THE MIDRASHIM. 
 
 Although most of the Midrashic literature is chronolopi- 
 IcaUy later than the Talmudic, we shall consider it before th|& 
 
 'latter because the idea of Midrash is older. " Midrashic 
 elements can already be detected in the text of Scripture itself. 
 The Chronicler cites as one of his sources a * Midrash * fren- 
 dered ' Commentary ' in the English Bible] on the book of 
 Ki;i^> (i i . Chron. xxiv, 27), and the books of Chronicles exhibit 
 many of the characteristic features of Midrash proper, as 
 can be seen by comparing the parallel narratives contained 
 in Chronicles and the earlier historical books (Samuel and 
 Kings) . . . The Midrashic features were already developed 
 
 IT in the sources used by the Chronicler, and may not primarily 
 
 i be due to the latter." * What has to be borne in mind 
 when dealing with the Midrashic literature is admirably 
 stated in the following words : " We have to bear in mind 
 a fact familiar enough to students of the Talmudic and 
 Midrashic literature, . . . thejnveterat_e tendency^ of Jewish 
 teachers to convey theit doctrine, not in the form of abstract 
 
 ' discourse, but in a mode appealing directly to the imagination, 
 and seeking to arouse the interest and sympathy of the man 
 rather than the philosopher. The Rabbi embodies his 
 lesson in a story, whether parable or allegory or seeming 
 historical narrative ; and the last thing he or his disciples 
 would think of is to ask whether the selected persons, events, 
 and circumstances which so vividly suggest the doctrine are 
 in themselves real or fictitious. The doctrine is everything; 
 the mode of presentation has no independent value. To 
 make the story the first consideration, and the doctrine it 
 was intended to convey an afterthought as we, with our dry 
 Western literalness, are predisposed to do, is to reverse the 
 * Oesterley and Box, Op. cit. , p. 76.
 
 222 Appendix. 
 
 Jewish order of thinking, and to do unconscious injustice to 
 the authors of many edifying narratives of antiquity." * 
 The Midrashim from which quotations have been made in 
 the preceding pages are the following f ; we give them in 
 alphabetical order : 
 
 /1 1 Bemidbar Rabba. The name " Bemidbar " (= " In the 
 wilderness ") is the Hebrew title of Numbers ; " Rabba " 
 (= " Great ") indicates that it belongs to the collection 
 known as the " Midrash Rabba" which comprises a Midrash 
 . on each of the five books of the Pentateuch, and on each 
 fthe five Megilloth (=. " Scrolls "). In its present form this 
 idrash belongs in part to the twelfth century and in part to 
 a somewhat earlier date, for it is not a homogeneous work, 
 -at least two authors having had a share in its composition ; 
 much earlier Midrashic material has been incorporated in 
 the work. ;f 
 
 Bereshith Rabba. " Bereshith " (= " In the beginning ") 
 is the Hebrew title of Genesis. Wiinsche, in the Introduc- 
 tion to his German edition of this work, says : " It consists 
 f a hundred chapters ; the second part of Chap. xcix. is a 
 later addition, which contains a variant explanation of 
 Jacob's Blessing, and which for the most part agrees with 
 the corresponding passages of the Midrash Tanchuma (see 
 below). The time of its composition is certainly^ after the 
 completion of the Jerusalem Talmud, from which pur_ 
 Midrash contains many excerpts not only of Haggadic, 
 
 *C. J. Ball, in his Introduction to 7 he Song of the Three Holy 
 Children (Speaker's Commentary on the Apocrypha), Vol. II., p. 307. 
 t See also p. 153 above. 
 % Zunz Op. cit., pp. 270 ff. 
 i.e., Narrative matter.
 
 Appendix. 223 
 
 but .also of Halakic t content." t Zunz gives conclusive 
 reasons for assigning this Midrash to the sixth century A.D.; 
 but, as he shows, it contains a large amount of earlier 
 material. || Every verse of Genesis is quoted as a different 
 1 heading and is separately commented on ; these comments 
 are often of great interest. From the Christian point of 
 view the importance as well as the interest of Bereshith 
 Rabba lies in the fact that in a number of instances it is 
 found to throw light upon and to illustrate sayings in the 
 Fourth Gospel. 
 
 Debarim Rabba. " Debarim " (= " Words "), from the 
 ' Hebrew title of Deuteronomy. This is not nearly such a 
 large work as the preceding ; only a certain number of 
 verses from most of the chapters, but not all, of 
 Deuteronomy are dealt with. According to Wiinsche this 
 Midrash contains comparatively more Halakic matter than 
 any of the others of the Rabboth collection.** An inter- 
 esting detail is the way in which Moses is represented as 
 protesting to the Angel of Death his unwillingness to die 
 (xxxi. 14) ; it reminds one of the somewhat similar action 
 of Abraham in the Testament of Abraham. The same 
 episode, as regards Moses, is recounted in Wajjikra Rabba 
 c. xviii., and in Bemidbar Rabba c. xvi. This Midrash 
 belongs to the ninth-tenth century A.D.J so Zunz ; ft but as 
 is the case with all these Midrashim a great deal of the 
 material embodied belongs to much earlier times. 
 
 fi.e., Legal matter. 
 \.Der Midrasch Bereshit Rabba, p. v. 
 H Zunz Op. cit., pp. iSsf. 
 
 For some examples see Oesterley and Box, Of. cit., pp. isgf. 
 ** Der Midrasch Debarim Rabba, p. viii. 
 cit., p. 264.
 
 224 Appendix. 
 
 Midrash Tehillim. " Tehillim " = " Psalms." Originally 
 this work dealt only with the first one hundred and eighteen 
 psalms, the remainder was added later. The original 
 portion is regarded as decidedly ancient both by Buber and 
 Wiinsche,* the rest is late, belonging, according to the same 
 authorities, to the thirteenth century. Much use has been 
 made of older material, many quotations occurring especially 
 from the Jerusalem Talmud,! while in the latter portion 
 great use has been made of the Babylonian Talmud. | This 
 I Midrash is not a running commentarv on the Psalms, as a 
 
 l I r r ** ._--_;-.-.--. 
 
 I rule only a few verses from each psalm are commented ^>n. 
 The titles to the Psalms are dealt with at great length, many 
 of the explanations being extremely artificial. The place of 
 origin appears to be Palestine. 
 
 Pesikta. " Section." This Midrash takes its name from 
 the fact that it consists of about thirty homilies based upon. 
 the special Pentateuchal or Prophetic "Sections," or Lessons 
 
 as_we should call them. It is a Palestinian work of undoubted 
 antiquity, probably of the same date as Bereshith Rabba or 
 even earlier. || 
 
 ft\ Shemoth Rabba." Shemoth " (=" Names ") is the 
 Hebrew title of Exodus. This work is composite, the 
 later portions belonging, according to Zunz, to the eleventh or 
 twelfth century ; a great deal of earlier material is embodied 
 in it. The special characteristic of this Midrash is its wealth 
 
 V x .of parables. 
 
 " 
 
 * Midrasck Tekillim, oder Haggadische Erkldrung der Fsalmen, I. p. vi. 
 The original has been published by S. Buber (Wilna 1891). 
 t Wiinsche, ibid. 
 J Zunz, Op. cit., p. 279. 
 || See further Jewish Encycl., VIII., 559. 
 Zunz, Op. cit., p. 269.
 
 S/M> Rabba. " Shir " = u Song," an abbreviation for 
 I Shir ha Shirim, " Sorre of Songs." In this Midrash much 
 has been incorporated from Bereshith Rabba and the 
 Jerusalem Talmud.* In its present form it belongs to the 
 first half of the ninth century. The work is a running com- 
 mentary on every verse of Canticles, many quotations being 
 given from well-known Rabbis, some of very early date. 
 
 Sifra. " The. Jbook " ; it is called also Torath Kohpnim, 
 
 11 The Law of the Priests " ; it is a commentary on Leviticus, 
 and of great antiquity ; it is frequently quoted in the 
 Talmud, and most probably emanated originally from the 
 schools of Rabbi Akiba f and Rabbi Ishmael 1 ; in its 
 principal parts it is a Midrash of Rabbi Jehudah || ; there are 
 also later additions. 
 
 Sifre. " Books"; a Midrash on Numbers v.-xxxvi. and 
 
 Deuteronomy | like Sifra this Midrash is of great impor- 
 tance ; it also belongs to the schools of Rabbis Akiba and 
 Ishmael ; both are composite works, and both are contro- 
 versial in tone. 
 
 In conjunction with Sifra and Sifre should be mentioned 
 
 fMechilta * (" Measure "), or Midrash on Exodus xii. to the 
 
 end ; this, likewise, from its early age, is a very important 
 
 work.f " This group is of first-rate importance. In their 
 
 * Zunz, Op. cit., pp. 274^, Wiinsche Der Midrasch Schir ha-Schirim, 
 pp. viii.f. 
 
 fDied 135 A.D. 
 
 % Flourished about 120-140 A.D. 
 
 || Circa 190 A.D. 
 
 , See the article Sifra in the Jewish EncycL, XL, 330. 
 4 * The word means properly "The law which guides action," see 
 Winter and Wiinsche Mechiltha, p. v. 
 
 f Interesting details of this Midrash are given by Dr. L. A. Rosenthal 
 in Semitic Studies in memory of Alexander Kohut. pp. 463-484.
 
 226 Appendix. 
 
 original form these three Midrashim go back to the earlier 
 
 part of the second century A.D. {to a time anterior to the Bar- 
 Kokba revolt, 132-135 A.D.) The disciples of Rabbi Jochanan 
 benZakkai, viz., Ismael, Akibaand Eleazar of Modin,| appear 
 to have redacted the principal contents of the exposition on 
 the basis of the still older and anonymous stratum of the 
 exegetical tradition." | 
 
 Wajjikra Rabba. " Wajjikra " (= " And he called ") 
 the Hebrew title of Leviticus. This belongs to the 
 " Rabboth," or " Midrash Rabba " collection mentioned 
 above. Zunz places it in the seventh century and believes 
 
 to have been compiled in Palestine. It is characterized 
 by its many proverbs, in imitation of the earlier Choknia- 
 (" Wisdom ") literature. 
 
 Tanchuma Wajechi, Tanchuma Shophetim, and 
 Tanchuma Haasinu,jire the names of sections (of which 
 there are altogether a hundred and forty) of an immense 
 work known by the name of " Midrash Tanchuma." The 
 name comes from a famous Palestinian Rabbi, called 
 Tanchuma, who belonged to the fifth generation of 
 Amoraini* Originally the "Midrash Tanchuma" com- 
 prised three different collections of commentaries on the 
 
 t All belonging to the early part of the second century, A.D. 
 
 |] Oesterley and Box, Op. cit., p. 79. 
 
 Op. cit. , pp. 262f . 
 
 * Those Rabbis by whose work the Mishnah became expanded into 
 the two Talmuds are call .d .-Imoraim^-- -: Speakers"or " Interpreters "); 
 they are classified according to their generation, of which there are 
 five, dating from 220 to 500 A.D. The fifth generation is dated 
 427-500 A.D. In like manner, the Tannaim (= "Teachers"), a name 
 given to the Rabinnical authorities who flourished during the first two 
 
 Xiv 
 j cen 
 
 centuries, are divided into four generations, ranging from 10-220 A. u.
 
 Appendix. 227 
 
 Pentateuch ; two are extant, the third is known only 
 by citations. " These Midrasfaim, although bearing the 
 
 name of Rabbi Tanchuma, must not be regarded as having 
 been written or edited by him. They were so named 
 merely because they consist partly of homilies originating 
 with him^ (this being indicated by the introductory formula 
 ' Thus began Rabbi Tanchuma,' or ' Thus preached Rabbi 
 Tanchuma '), and partly of homilies by haggadic teachers 
 who followed the style of Rabbi Tanchuma. It is possible 
 that Rabbi Tanchuma himself preserved his homilies, and 
 that his collection was used by the editors of the Midrash. 
 The three collections were edited at different times/' * 
 This Midrash is also known by the name Yelammedenu, 
 ; derived from the formula " Yelammedenu Rabbenu '* ' 
 ("Our teacher teaches us") \rithwhich eighty-two of the 
 sections begin, t According to Zunz, the work in its present 
 form was compiled in Southern Italy in 850 A.D. J 
 
 Yalkut Shimeoni." Yalkut " = " Collection " : this 
 
 enormous work was edited by Rabbi Shimeon in the 
 thirteenth century. || It consists of a ^_chain "_of quotations, 
 something after the manner of the patristic Catenae, 
 explaining not only the Pentateuch but all the books of " 
 the Bible ; the quotations are gathered from the entire 
 Midrashic and Talmudic literatures. The real value of the 
 work lies in the fact that it has preserved much which would 
 otherwise have been lost. 
 
 * Jewish Encycl., XII., 45. 
 
 t Weber, fudische Tfieologie, p. xxix. 
 
 J Op. cit. pp. 238ff. 
 
 || Zunz, Op. cit., pp. 302ff. 
 
 Weber, Op. cit., p. xxx.
 
 228 Appendix. 
 
 iv. TALMUDIC TRACTATES. 
 
 For the following brief notes we are indebted, in the 
 main, to H. L. Strack, the fourth edition of whose 
 I Einleitung in den Talmud has recently appeared. Use 
 has also been made of Goldschmidt's edition (as yet incom- 
 plete) of the Talmud. We give the Tractates from which 
 quotations have been made in the order in which they come 
 in the original.* 
 
 Berakhoth. " Blessings " ; the tractate deals with the 
 
 subject of prayer. 
 
 Shabbath. " Sabbath " ; as the name implies, this 
 tractate gives minute directions of every imaginable 
 kind about the observance of the Sabbath. 
 Yoma. (" Day "), i.e., the Day of Atonement, which is 
 
 the subject of this tractate. 
 
 Sukkah. (" Booth '') ; here again the name clearly 
 indicates, the subject dealt with, viz., the Feast of 
 Tabernacles. 
 
 Rosh Hashshana.(" New Year's Day," lit. " The Head 
 of the year "), details are given as to the mode of 
 observing this Feast. 
 
 Chagigah. (" Festival ") ; this tractate deals with the 
 observance of the three great festivals, Passover, 
 Weeks, and Tabernacles. 
 
 Gittin. (" Bills of Divorce ") ; directions are here given 
 as to the preparation of the bill of divorce, the mode 
 of delivering it, witnesses, etc., etc. 
 
 Sotah. (" A woman suspected of adultery ") ; the subject 
 of this tractate is the unsavoury one indicated in the 
 title. 
 
 * It will, of course, be understood that the Tractates from which 
 quotations have been made comprise only a few of the sixty-three con- 
 tained in the Babylonian Talmud.
 
 Appendix. 229 
 
 Baba Bathra. (" The last gate)" this tractate deals with 
 the subject of landed estate, boundary marks, the 
 difference between public and private land, sale of 
 land, and with innumerable other details both relevant 
 and otherwise. 
 
 Sanhedrin. (" Court of Justice ") ; a valuable source of 
 information concerning the administration of justice, 
 and legal procedure, among the Jews from early 
 times. 
 
 Aboth(" Fathers," called also Pirke Aboth, * Ethics of 
 the Fathers)" ; the finest of the tractates ; it contains 
 sayings of many of the most notable Rabbis, and is 
 full of interest ; its primary object is to show the 
 continuity of the Tradition, or Oral Law, and with 
 continuity; of course, the authority thereof. Parts of 
 it have been incorporated in the Jewish Prayer 
 Book. 
 
 Zebachim. (" Sacrifices ") ; an important source of 
 information on the ritual of the Sacrificial System 
 and its doctrinal significance. 
 
 It must be remembered that in all these tractates an 
 immense quantity of irrelevant matter finds a place. 
 
 !
 
 INDEX OF SUBJECTS.
 
 INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 
 
 (Roman figures denote Chapters.} 
 
 Aaron 13 ff., 123, 127 
 
 "Circuit" of 129 
 Abinu Malkenu 119 
 A both 229 
 
 Abraham 12 ff., 32, 41, 44, 48, 53, 
 54, 65, 78, 80, 83, 127, 
 128, 149, 157 f., 192 
 , , The Testament 0/218,223 
 Adam 3, 43 
 
 Adam and Eve, Life of 21 J 
 Adonai 112 
 Advocate 56 
 
 ,, applied to the Tor ah 106. 
 ,, of the Jews, Michael 84 
 " Age to come, The " 91 
 Akedah, 53, 120 ff. 
 Akiba, Rabbi 93, 114, 115, 226 
 Almsgiving, a mediating agency, ix. 
 Amendment 179 
 Attiidak-piayer 100, 133 
 Amiel 181 
 Amoraim, 226 
 Angel of the Lord, The 81 
 Angels, activity of 82 f,, 113, 125 
 
 ,, as mediators 82 
 
 ,, Guardian 83 
 
 ,, Intercession of 31, 39 ff., 
 43, 45, f-, 83, 131, 176 
 
 ,, of the Presence, 39, 42 
 Anthropomorphism 54, 151 
 
 Apocalypse of Baruch, Greek, 218 
 ,, ,, Syriac, 217 f. 
 
 ,, Moses 217 
 
 ,, Noah 213 
 
 Apocrypha, The 207 ff. 
 Arabs 17 
 
 Articles of the Jewish Creed 161 
 'Asham 25 ff., 64 
 Ashkenazic Jews 95 
 Assumption of Moses, 217 
 Atonement 163, 179 
 
 ,, Jewish doctrine of 156 ff. 
 ,, Rabbinical ideas on 93 
 ,, Day of 79, 81, xix., 182 
 ,, ,, Reform Jewish 
 
 ideas 168 f. 
 
 ,, ,, semi-Reform 
 
 Jewish ideas on 
 177 ff. 
 
 Baba Bathra 229 
 Baptism 115 
 Bar-Kokba revolt 226 
 Baruch as interceder 44 
 Bemidbar Rabba, 222 
 Berakhoth 228 
 Bereshith Rabba 222 
 Bidding prayer 116 
 Blood of the righteous, mediatorial 
 efficacy of 45
 
 234 
 
 Index of Subjects. 
 
 Branch of Jehovah 56 
 
 Calf, The golden 54 
 
 Celestial Physics, The Book of "213 
 
 Chagigah 228 
 
 Chatt'ath 22 ff., 64 
 
 Children benefited by the merits 
 
 of the fathers 80 
 , , vicarious suffering of 79 f . 
 CA0,wa-literature 208 f. 
 "Circuits" 128 ff. 
 Confession of sins 93 
 " Cosmic Theism " 204 
 Creed, The Jewish 160 f. 
 Crowns for the Most High, The 
 prayers of men 83 
 
 Day of Atonement, The 79, 81, 
 xix, 182 
 ,, ,, a mediating 
 
 agency 108, 113 
 David, 127 
 
 ,, "The Circuit of" 129 
 Death, a mediating agency, no 
 Debarim Rabba 223 
 Demons 16 
 Departed, benefited by the works of 
 
 the righteous, The 8 1 
 Dispersion, The 10 
 Dragoman 51 
 
 Ea 15 
 
 Ecclesiasticus 207 ff. 
 Eden 82 
 
 Eleazar of Modin 226 
 Eliezer, Rabbi 106 
 Elijah 78, 126 
 Enoch 58, 65 
 
 Enoch as mediator 38 
 ,, as intercessor 44, 48 
 ,, identified with Metatron 87 
 ,, literature 37 
 ,, Ethiopic Book 0/213 ^ 
 ,, Slavonic Book (7/214 
 
 Eridu 15 
 
 Eschatology 30 
 
 Eve, 3, 43 
 
 Evil Tendency 80 
 
 Ezekiel 79 
 
 Fast of Ab 117 
 
 ,, Tamtnuz 117 
 
 ,, Tebet 117 
 
 ,, Tishri 117 
 
 Fasting a mediating agency 108 
 Fathers, merits of the 78, 127 
 First-born, The 134 
 Forgiveness of sins, 57, 180 
 
 Gaal, 134 f. 
 
 Gabriel 39, 94, 131 
 
 Gamaliel 89 
 
 Gedaliah 117 
 
 Gehinnom 82, 91 
 
 Gemara 153 
 
 Geonic period, The 59 
 
 Gideon 81 
 
 Gittin 228 
 
 God, The Doctrine of 147 ff. 
 
 The Idea of 162, 179, 189, 191 
 ,, The Personality of 2 
 
 Go el 133 ff. 
 
 Go' el 'acharon, title of the 
 
 Messiah 70 
 
 Golden Calf, The 54 
 
 Gorgias 164
 
 Index of Subjects. 
 
 235 
 
 Grace, The teaching of Christ and 
 
 St. Paul concerning 199 f. 
 " Great Scribe, The " 58, 86 
 
 Habdala 117 
 
 Hades 116 
 
 Heaven, The Watchers of 38 
 
 " Heavenly Scribe," The 38 
 
 Hillel 105 
 
 Holy ones as intercessors, The 45 
 
 Holy Spirit, The 61, 88 f., 106 
 
 Hoshanna 128 
 
 Hoshanna Rabba 128 
 
 Idea of God, The I, 62, 179, 191 
 Immanuel-conception, The 56 
 Intercession 9, 12 ff., 63 
 
 ,, for the faithful de- 
 parted 117 
 
 ,, of Angels 31, 39 ff., 
 
 43- 45 f., I3 1 
 ,, of the righteous, 
 
 xiii., 177 
 
 ,, of semi-divine Beings, 
 85 ff. 
 
 Intercessory prayer xx. 
 Intermediaries between God and 
 man, Human, 52 ff. 
 , , Super-human , 57 ff. , 197 
 Isaac 53, 54, 78, 83, 127 (See 
 
 also 'Akedah) 
 ,, "Circuit of" 130 
 Isaiah, fifty-third Chapter of 7 ff. 
 Ishmael, Rabbi 79, 226 
 Israel 80 
 
 ,, a self-contained organism 77 
 
 Jacob 53, 54, 78, 127 
 
 feqer Aa-ra' 80 
 Jeremiah 32, 44, 81 
 Jerusalem 81 
 Jesse, Shoot of 56 
 Jewish Belief in God 3 f. 
 
 ,, Doctrine of Mediation 10 
 Job 79, 106 
 
 Jochanan, Rabbi 80, 83, 226 
 Jophiel 58 
 Jophjophia 58 
 Joseph 127 
 
 Jubilees^ The Book of, 214 f. 
 Judah, Rabbi 94 
 
 Judaism and Christianity, 137 f., 
 162, 167, 197, 203 
 Judaism, Orthodox xxiv. 
 
 ,, Reform xxv. 
 
 ,, Semi-Reform xxvi. 
 Judas Maccabaeus 32 
 
 Kaphar 4, 19 ff., 64, 105, 134 
 Kapparath-schlag 105 
 "Key of the Resurrection, 
 
 The " 91 
 Kiddush 117 
 
 Law, The 144 f., 148 ff., 160 ff. 
 
 ,, The Scrolls of the, 128 
 Levi ben Gershom, Rabbi 91 
 Logos 83, 87 ff. 
 Lulab 128. 
 
 Maccabees, The second 
 
 Book of 207 
 Machzor Vitry 95 
 Magic, imitative 17, 103 
 Maimonides 147, 177 
 Makbm as a name of God, 114
 
 236 
 
 Index of Subjects. 
 
 Marduk 16 
 Mechtlta, 225 
 Mediating agencies : 
 
 Almsgiving 70 f. 
 Death 75 
 Fasting 75 
 Prayer 75, Il8 
 Punishment 109 
 Repentance 72 f., 107 
 Self-mortification, 75 
 Suffering 74 
 The Torah 67 ff. 
 Works 107, 139 
 Mediating efficacy of the merits of 
 
 the fathers 53 f. 
 Mediation i, 3, 7 ff., i., ii, 
 
 ,, Attitude towards of 
 
 modern Judaism 143 f. 
 ,, of Orthodox Judaism xxiv. 
 ,, of Reformed Judaism xxv. 
 ,, ofsemi-ReformJudaismxxvi. 
 ,, Development of the 
 
 idea of 49 
 
 ,, Difference between the 
 
 Jewish and Christian 
 
 standpoint concerning 
 
 187 ff. 
 
 ,, not alien to the spirit of 
 
 Judaism 67 
 ,, of angels 42 
 ,, Teaching of in the Old 
 Testament i., 
 ii., 62 ff., 191 
 ff. (antagonistic 
 iii.); 
 
 Apocrypha iv., 
 
 64 ff. ; 194 fi. ; 
 
 Mediation, Teaching in Pseudepigrapha 
 
 v., 64 ff., 194 
 
 ff. ; 
 
 ,, ,, Targums vi. 
 
 65 f., 196 f. ; 
 
 ,, ,, Rabbinical lit- 
 
 erature vii. ff., 
 i97ff. (antago- 
 nistic 93 f. ) ; 
 
 ,, ,, Jewish Prayer 
 
 Book, xvi. ff., 
 20 1 ff. (antago- 
 nistic xxiii.) 
 Mediator 2 
 
 ,, Abraham as 219 
 
 ,, function of a 12, 63 
 
 ,, Holy Spirit as 88 f. 
 
 , , Memra as 60 
 
 ,, the Messiah as 55 ff., xv., 
 
 xxii. 
 
 ,, Moses as 81 
 ,, Need of a 3, 4 
 Mediators, Semi-Divine Beings as 
 xiv. 
 Mediatorship, Jewish doctrine of 10 
 
 ,, of angels 82 
 Memra 54, 59 ff., 66, 87 f., 89 
 , , as Mediator 60 
 ,, as Redeemer 60, 87 
 Merits of the Patriarchs 53, 128, 133 
 Messiah 53 ff., 153 ff. 
 ,, and Satan 92 
 ,, as interceder 57 
 ,, as mediator xv. , xxii. 
 ,, conceptions of among 
 Reform Jews 170 f . ; 
 among Semi-Reform Jews, 
 182 ff.
 
 Index of Subjects. 
 
 237 
 
 Messianic activity extended to the 
 
 Gentiles 92 
 Hope 56 
 
 Metatron 38, 58 f,, 66, 86 f., 89 
 Methurgeman 51 
 Michael 18, 39, 57 f., 65, 84, 85, 
 
 94, 131 
 
 ,, as advocate 84 
 ,, as mediator 40 f., 219 
 ,, identified with Metatron 87 
 
 Midrash Tehillim 224 
 
 Midraskitn, The 153, 221 ff. 
 
 Mikveh 115 
 
 Minhag 95 
 
 Mishnah 153 
 
 Mittvoth 34, 198 ff., 201 
 
 Monobazus 70 
 
 Moral Law, The 161 
 
 Moriah 53, 54 
 
 Mohammedans 147 
 
 Moses 13 f., 44, 48, 53, 54 f., 58, 
 65, 78, 80, 83, 86, 98, 126, 
 148, 149, 157, 223 
 ,, as reconciler 8 1 
 ,, called " The former re- 
 deemer " go 
 ,, "Circuit " of 130 
 The Apocalypse of ill 
 ,, The Assumption of 217 
 ,, The Testament of '217 
 
 " Name," used of God 112 
 National Guardian-angels 83 
 Nebaioth, rams of 75 
 Nebuchadnezzar 94 
 New Moons 100, 102 
 Noah, The Apocalypse 0/213 
 ,, The Book of 213 
 
 " Olam ha-ba" 136 
 
 Onias 32 
 
 Onkelos, Targum of 219 
 
 Ophanim 132 
 
 Oral Tradition, The 149, 152 
 
 Padah, 134 f. 
 
 Palestinian Judaism 30 
 
 Palm-branch 128 
 
 Pantheism 2 
 
 Paschal Sacrifice, The 185 
 
 Patriarchs as intercessors, The 44 
 ,, atoning power of the 80 
 
 Pesikta 224 
 
 Phanuel 39 
 
 Pharisaic Judaism 30, 202 
 
 Philo 80, 83, 87 
 
 Phineas 127 
 
 ,, "Circuit" of 129 
 
 Pirke Aboth 229 
 
 Plato 164 
 
 Prayer a mediating agency 75, 118 
 , , Intercessory xx. 
 
 Prayers of men woven into crowns 
 ,, for the Almighty 83 
 ,, of the righteous 45 
 " Principles, The Thirteen " 147 
 
 Prophetical teaching 4 ff. 
 Prophets 5 
 Pseudepigrapha, The 213 ff. 
 
 Punishment a mediating agency 109 
 
 Raphael 31, 39, 40, 131 
 Reconciler, Moses as 31 
 Redeemer 55 f. 
 Rema 87 
 Repentance 163 ff., 182 
 
 ,, a mediating agency 72 f., 107
 
 238 
 
 Index of Subjects. 
 
 Resurrection of the dead 91 
 Righteous, atoning power of the > 
 79, 8i,82V 
 
 ,, intercession of the 177 
 Rosh hashshana 72, 228 
 Ruach ha-Qodesh (the Holy Spirit) 
 as Mediator 88 f. 
 
 Sabbath, holiness of the 117 
 
 inauguration of the 135 
 Sacrificial system, The 12, 46, 97 f. , 
 
 150 
 
 Samaritans 112 
 
 Samuel 15 ff. 
 
 Sanhedrin 229 
 
 Satan and the Messiah 92 
 
 " Scribe of righteousness, The " 
 37,38 
 
 Secrets of Enoch, The Book of the 
 214 
 
 Sephardic Jews 95 
 
 Seraphim 132 
 
 " Servant of the Lord, The " 156 
 
 Shabbath 228 
 
 Shekhinak, 56, 61, 72, 89, 113, 131 
 
 SAema' 112 
 
 Shemoth Rabba 224 
 
 Shir Rabba 225 
 
 Shulchan Aruch 172 
 
 Sifra 225 
 
 Si/re 225 
 
 Similitudes, The Book 0/213 f. 
 
 Sin, confession of 93 
 ,, covering of 19 f., 105 
 ,, offering 8, 9, 14, 23 ff. 155 
 ,, sense of i, 62, 191 ff. 
 
 Sinai, Mount 80, 176 
 
 Sodom 158 
 
 Solomon 127 
 
 Son of Man, The 214 
 
 Sotah 228 
 
 Spinozism 204 
 
 Suffering Servant, The 8, 26 
 
 Sukkah 228 
 
 Sybil line Oracles, The 216 
 
 Tabernacles, Feast of 17, 128 
 Talmud 153 
 
 Talmudic tractates 228 f. 
 Tanchuma Haasinu 226 f. 
 ,, Shophetim. 226 f. 
 ,, Wajechi 226 f. 
 
 Tanna 114 
 Tannaim 226 
 
 Targum, meaning of the word 50 
 Targum of Jonathan, The 220 
 Targum of Onkelos, The 219 
 Targum of Pseudo-J onathan 219 
 Targum to Canticles 220 
 Targums, Teaching on Mediation 
 
 in the vi. 
 Tekanah 93 
 
 Temple, Destruction of the 117 
 Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, 
 
 The 215 f. 
 Tiamat 16 
 
 Tobit, The Book of 2og 
 Torak, The 144, 148 ff., 152, 208 
 
 ,, a mediating agency viii., 
 xvii. 
 
 ,, a new, to be brought by 
 the Messiah 91 
 
 ,, as intercessor 69 
 Torath Kohanim 225 
 
 Unitarianism 165 
 Uriel 39, 58, 131 
 Urini and Thummim 127 
 
 - Vicarious Atonement 155, 157 f.
 
 Index to Subjects. 
 
 239 
 
 - Vicarious Suffering 57, xiii., 182 Works, a mediating agency 107, 
 
 of children 79 f. 
 
 Yalkut Shimeoni 227 
 Yelammedenu 227 
 Yoma 228 
 
 Wajjikra Rabba 226 
 Water libations 16 ff. 
 
 ,, Symbolizing purity 16 
 "Way, The," title of the Messiah 
 
 92 Zebachim 229 
 Wisdom identified with the Holy Zecuth 125, 132 
 
 Spirit 88 Zohar 94 
 
 ,, literature 107, 139, 207 ff. 
 
 139
 
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