sprach er keineswegs aus [!], auch brach er nicht etwa die Schranken der Nationalität .... Er hob
nicht im Entferntesten etwas vom Judenthum auf; er war ein Pharisäer, der auch in den Wegen
Hillels ging." This view is repeated by Rabbi Dr. M. H. Friedlander, in his Geschichtsbilder aus
der Zeit der Tanaite n und Amoräer. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des Talmuds (Brünn, 1879, p. 32):
"Jesus, oder Jeschu, war der Sohn eines Zimmermeisters, Namens Josef, aus Nazareth. Seine Mutter
hiess Mirjam oder Maria. Selbst der als conservativer Katholik [sic!] wie als bedeutender Gelehrter
bekannte Ewald nennt ihn ’Jesus den Sohn Josef’,....Wenn auch Jesus’ Gelehrsamkeit nicht riesig
war, da die Galiläer auf keiner hohen Stufe der Cultur standen, so zeichnete er sich doch durch
Seelenadel, Gemüthlichkeit und Herzensgü te vortheilhaft aus. Hillel I. scheint sein Vorbild und
Musterbild gewesen zu sein; denn der hillelianische Grundsatz: ’Was dir nicht recht ist, füge, deinen
Nebenmenschen nicht zu,’ war das Grundprincip seiner Lehren."Renan makes a similar assertion
in his Vie de Jésus (Chap. III. p. 35), but with considerable qualifications: "Par sa pauvreté
humblement supportée, par la douceur de son caractère, par l’opposition qu’il faisait aux hypocrites
et aux prêtres, Hillel fut le vrai maître de Jésus, s’il est permis de parler de maître, quand il s’agit
d’une si haute originalité." This comparison has been effectually disposed of by such able scholars
as Dr. Delitzsch, in his valuable pamphlet Jesus und Hillel (Erlangen, 3d revised ed. 1879, 40 pp.);
Ewald, V. 12–48 (Die Schule Hillel’s und deren Geqner); Keim I. 268–272; Schürer, p. 456; and
Farrar, Life of Christ, II. 453–460. All these writers come to the same conclusion of the perfect
independence and originality of Jesus. Nevertheless it is interesting to examine the facts in the case.
Hillel and Shammai are the most distinguished among the Jewish Rabbis. They were
contemporary founders of two rival schools of rabbinical theology (as Thomas Aquinas and Duns
Scotus of two schools of scholastic theology). It is strange that Josephus does not mention them,
unless he refers to them under the Hellenized names of Sameas and Pollion; but these names agree
better with Shemaja and Abtalion, two celebrated Pharisees and teachers of Hillel and Shammai;
moreover he designates Sameas as a disciple of Pollion. (See Ewald, v. 22–26; Schürer, p. 455).
The Talmudic tradition has obscured their history and embellished it with many fables.
Hillel I. or the Great was a descendant of the royal family of David, and born at Babylon.
He removed to Jerusalem in great poverty, and died about a.d. 10. He is said to have lived 120
years, like Moses, 40 years without learning, 40 years as a student, 40 years as a teacher. He was
the grandfather of the wise Gamaliel in whose family the presidency of the Sanhedrin was hereditary
for several generations. By his burning zeal for knowledge, and his pure, gentle and amiable
character, he attained the highest renown. He is said to have understood all languages, even the
unknown tongues of mountains, hills, valleys, trees, wild and tame beasts, and demons. He was
called "the gentle, the holy, the scholar of Ezra." There was a proverb: "Man should be always as
meek as Hillel, and not quick-tempered as Shammai." He differed from Rabbi Shammai by a milder
interpretation of the law, but on some points, as the mighty question whether it was right or wrong
to eat an egg laid on a Sabbath day, he took the more rigid view. A talmudic tract is called Beza,
The Egg, after this famous dispute. What a distance from him who said: "The Sabbath was made
for man, and not man for the Sabbath: so then the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath."
Many wise sayings, though partly obscure and of doubtful interpretation, are attributed to
Hillel in the tract Pirke Aboth (which is embodied in the Mishna and enumerates, in ch. 1, the pillars
of the legal traditions from Moses down to the destruction of Jerusalem). The following are the
best:A.D. 1-100.