10
CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD
all growth and expansion of thought. It is doubtless
true that
the letter killeth but the spirit giveth life;
but the truth of that great saying, is not the
condemnation
of Rabbinism, any more than it is of
Christianity ; and it might have been spoken with no less
right by Aqiba than by Paul, for the one, no less than
the other, was an originator within the lines of his own
form of religious thought.
The answer to the question,
'
How could new teach-
ing find a place in a system based exclusively on
tradition ' ? admits of a simple statement. The Torah
as given to Moses, and by him handed down, was
regarded as containing the whole of divine truth, not
merely so much as might at any given time have
been discerned, but all that in all future ages might
be brought to light. This divine truth was partly
explicit, partly implicit. That which was explicit
was stated in Scripture, more particularly in the
Mosaic laws, and also in that oral tradition which
furnished the interpretation and application of the
Scripture. That which was implicit was the further,
as yet undiscovered, meaning contained in the Torah.
And the whole task of Rabbinism was to render that
explicit which had been implicit, to discover and un-
fold more and more of the divine truth contained in
the Torah, so as to make it available for the perfecting
of the religious life. When, therefore, a Rabbi taught
some new application of a religious precept, what
was new was the application ; the precept was old.'
He was not adding to the Torah, but showing
' This is clearly stated in the Talmud (j. Hag. i. 8. 76°) : " Even that
which an acute disciple shall teach in the presence of his Rabbi has already
been said to Moses on Sinai."
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