As regards the sentiments of the Rabbins towards Christianity: in the reign of
Domitian, (that is, about A.D. 90,) the Sanhedrim took measures against the
Minim, that is to say, the degenerated; for so they called the Jews who had been
converted to Christianity. The Rabbi Tarphon said:—“The Gospels and all the
books of the Minim deserve to be burnt, for Paganism is less dangerous: the
Pagans misunderstand the truths of Judaism from ignorance, the Minim deny
them with full knowledge of the case. Better to seek an asylum in a Pagan
temple than in the synagogues of the Minim.” The Sanhedrim of Jamnia and
other similar bodies adopted the like tone. And it was men like these who helped
to form the Talmud.
Not the less it remains true, that every powerful movement which has occurred
in the world’s history has shown a part of its power in the way it has influenced
opponents. The Reformation, as the Ultramontane De Maistre is compelled to
admit, wrought a very perceptible change even among Roman Catholics. The
French Revolution of 1793 did not leave Legitimists in the position they had
occupied before its outbreak. Now Christianity is the greatest movement the
world has ever seen. Dean Merivale in his excellent “History of the Romans
under the Empire,” states with no less eloquence than truth the immense indirect
influence which it had begun to exercise on heathen thought by the end even of
the first century. We can trace it in Pagan literature. But Deutsch and similar
Talmudophilists would have us believe that it had no influence whatever upon
the Talmud, and that whenever we find kindred thoughts in the teaching of
Christianity, and in the teaching of their favourite work, it is the Gospel which is
indebted to the Talmud and not the Talmud to the Gospel.
But for our part we wholly dissent from this extraordinary theory, which, indeed,
cannot be supported by any chronological evidence. There are occasions, of
course, in which dates become of comparatively trifling importance. A man feels
troubled, for example, with the enigmas of life, and finds light and consolation in
reading the book of Job; that most beautiful book—quel bellissimo libro, as the
Italian poet Giusti called it. Some friend, finding him thus engaged, begins to
argue in favour of Bishop Warburton’s view, that it is a composition of
comparatively late date, perhaps of the age of Jeremiah, and not (as used to be
generally supposed) as early as the time of Moses. In such a case a man may
well reply, that without any wish to discourage critical inquiry in its proper
place, he is content for the present to go on reading for his soul’s health, to
accept the words before him as a message from above, and to feel sure that
whenever GOD gave it, it was given at the time when it was most needed. But in