The Talmud

Kitap Tanitim Yazisi Arka KapakIt appears from the undisguised acknowledgments of the New Testament, that the doctors andrabbies of the Jews, the Pharisees, and scribes, were the implacable enemies of Jesus of Nazareth,and that they were the main instruments in effecting his death. The modern Jews consider this factas a sufficient apology for their rejection of his claims to the Messiahship. They take it forgranted that the great and learned men of that day were also good men, and that they had validreasons for their conduct. They think if Jesus of Nazareth had been the true Messiah, that theSanhedrin, the great Jewish council of the time, would have acknowledged him, and concludethat, as they rejected him, he cannot be the true Messiah. The New Testament, on the contrary,accounts for their unbelief by plainly telling us, that they were bad men; and that they wereenemies to the Lord Jesus, because he told them the truth, and exposed their hypocrisy. Now,which of these two representations accords with the truth Were the scribes and Pharisees, thosegreat advocates of the oral law, , good men or bad men The readers of our firstnumber will be in some degree qualified to answer this question. Could those be good men whoprofanely talked of the lawfulness of killing an unlearned man, and who contemptuouslycompared the wives and daughters of the unlearned to vermin and beasts If they could talkwith levity of rending like a fish an unlearned man, one of their own brethren who had neverdone them any harm, what were they likely to do with one who exposed their wickedness, andboldly told them that they by their traditions made void the law of God The very fact, that Jesusof Nazareth was put to death by such men, is presumptive evidence, that he was a good man, andv