26
CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD
possible, reliance cannot be placed upon statements
concerning events more remote. Yet that hasty
conclusion is refuted by the fact that the
statements
referring to historical events are sometimes confirmed
by external testimony, such as the writings of non-
Jewish historians, and sometimes, when not directly
confirmed, are still in accordance with such external
testimony. No one would dream of accepting as
true all the historical statements of the Talmud and
Midrash ; but they are certainly not all false. And
it ought not to be, and I believe is not, beyond the
power of a careful criticism, to distinguish with some
degree of probability the historically true from the
historically false.
It must be borne in mind that the whole of the
literature under consideration is a collection of
Traditions. Now, while such a method of
retaining
and transmitting knowledge is exposed to the dangers
of omission, addition, and alteration in a greater degree
than is the case with written documents, yet on the
other hand the fact that such a method was alone
employed implies that the power of memory was
cultivated and improved also in a greater degree
than is usual with those who only or chiefly make
use of writing. The Talmud and Midrash afford
illustrations of both these propositions ; for while we
f i nd that varying forms are handed down of one and
the same tradition, the difference in the form shows
that the tradition was the subject of remembrance
in several minds and over considerable periods of
time. It must also be borne in mind that
the
Talmud is not
1
1 a dateless book," as it has been
called, but that the main points in its chronology
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