PREFACE
ix
exhaustive ; in a great wilderness like the Talmud
and the Midrashim one can never be sure that some
passage of interest and importance has not been over-
looked. But I believe it will be found that the chief
material available for the purpose has been gathered
together ; and though it should not be quite com-
plete, it will yet suffice to throw light upon several
points of interest. Even if the reader should be
of opinion that, after all, the Rabbinical literature
does not add much to what is known of Christian
history from other sources, he may at least reflect
that now he does know what that Rabbinical
literature contains.
The period covered by the passages cited extends
to the middle of the
fourth century A.D.,
i.e.,
roughly
speaking, the period for which the Talmud is avail-
able. No reference whatever will be made to medi-
aeval polemics between Jews and Christians. My object
is to put before the reader all that I can find which
illustrates the relation between Jews and Christians
during the first four centuries of the common era,
and to do this solely from the Jewish side. I shall
make no attempt whatever to present the case from
Christian documents, because this has already been
thoroughly done. Further, I wish to write solely
from the point of view of historical scholarship,
with no bias towards either of the two great
religions whose representatives are mentioned in the
passages dealt with. My only aim is to present facts,
in the shape of statements contained in ancient
Jewish writings, and to extract from those state-
ments whatever information they may afford bearing
on the historical problem of the early history of
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