INTRODUCTION
9
is shown by the formula to be found on every page
of the Talmud, in which a precept is expressed,
"
Rabbi A. says, in the name of Rabbi B," or, "
Rabbi
A. says that Rabbi B. says that Rabbi C. says, etc."
Some authority must confirm the dictum of every
teacher, the authority, viz., of some previous teacher,
or else the authority of the Torah interpreted accord-
ing to some recognised rule. No teacher could base
his teaching merely on his own authority ; and the
fact that Jesus did this, was no doubt one of the
grievances against him on the part of the Jews.
Ye have heard that it was said to them of old time
but I say unto you, etc.
(Matt. v.
21,
22),
implies the disavowal of the Rabbinical method ; and
the statement (Matt. vii. 28, 29) that Jesus taught
them as one having authority and not as their scribes,
was certainly cause sufficient that the people should be
astonished at his teaching,
and that the scribes
should be incensed and alarmed.
The question naturally arises here, How could new
teaching find a place where, in theory, nothing was
valid unless it had been handed down? That new
teaching did find a place is evident, if only from the
fact that the modest volume of the O.T. was ex-
panded into the enormous bulk of the Talmud, to say
nothing of the Midrash ; while, on the other hand,
the principle of receiving only what rested on the
authority of tradition was jealously upheld and
resolutely enforced. For want of a clear understanding
of the relation between the new and the old in
Rabbinicm, that system has been condemned as a
rigid formalism, crushing with the dead weight of
antiquity the living forces of the soul, and
preventing
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