28
CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD
ledge. And though these incidental remarks may
refer
to things in themselves very trivial, yet they
serve to extend the region of credibility. Indeed, it
is perhaps in these incidental remarks that the largest
harvest of historical fact is to be gathered. Because
they are usually the illustration, drawn
from the
actual knowledge and experience of the teacher who
mentions them, of the subject with which he is
dealing. A Rabbi, especially one who was skilful
in Haggadah, would permit himself any degree of
exaggeration or invention even in regard to historical
persons and events, if thereby he could produce a
greater impression. Thus, an event so terribly well
known as the great war, which ended with the death
of Bar Cocheba and the capture of Bethar in 135 A.D.,
was magnified in the description of
its horrors beyond
all bounds of possibility. And probably no one was
better aware of the exaggeration than the Rabbi who
uttered it.' But then the purpose of that Rabbi
would be, not to give his hearers an exact account of
the great calamity, but to
dwell on the horror of it,
and to burn it in upon the minds of the people as a
thing never to be forgotten. Yet there are many
incidental remarks about the events of the war which
are free from such exaggeration, and being in no way
improbable in themselves, are such as might well
have been known to the relater of them. The long
passage b. Gitt. 57a-58a contains a variety of state-
ments about the wars of Nero, Vespasian, and
Hadrian ; it is reported to a considerable extent
by
R. Johanan, whose informant was R. Shim'on b.
1
Cp. what is said below, p. 252, as to Rabbinical statements concerning
the former population of Palestine.
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