Is, then, the Christian religion so weak that it must be advocated by blackening the character of its oldest rival? And if it should appear, as I trust in some degree it has appeared, that the religion of Torah as held by the Pharisees was a real expression of spiritual experience, the inspiration of holy living and holy dying, is the spiritual power of Christianity in any degree made less? Why should the one begrudge to the other whatever is good in it? Especially when the one has grown great and has become the religion of many nations, while the other has remained as the inheritance of a lonely people? Why should not the Christian be glad to own that the Jew, even the Pharisee, knew more of the deep things of God than he had supposed, and after a way which was not the Christian way, yet loved the Lord his God with heart and soul and strength and mind,—yes, and his neighbour as himself? The time is surely come when Pharisaism should be recognised as a religion entitled to be judged on its own merits and by its own standards; a religion widely different indeed from Christianity in its methods and its forms of expression, but yet a living faith, capable of ministering to the real wants of human souls; a religion sui generis, but none the less to be acknowledged as one among the many expressions of divine revelation on the one hand and of human seeking after God on the other? It is in the hope of helping towards such a sympathetic and unprejudiced recognition of the intrinsic worth of Pharisaism that I have written this book. What I have written is scanty indeed, in view of the greatness of the subject; but it may yet have been enough to give some idea of what Pharisaism meant to the Pharisee, and to show that the Saints and Sages of Israel, those more particularly who are included amongst the Scribes and Pharisees, were not what they have commonly been called and usually thought to have been. Saints and Sages they were, who served God faithfully, and found in the Torah His full and perfect word. And to me, though not walking in their way, nor sharing in all their beliefs, yet drawn to them across the ages, they have been the companions and friends of many a year.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] A close parallel to the term Ḥasid, as denoting a type rather than a party, is afforded by the term Saint in the language of the extreme Puritans in the time of Cromwell.
[2] This claim is made in the Talmud, b. B.B. 12ª, where it is said that prophecy was taken from the prophets and given to the Wise, i.e. the Rabbis, and that it has not been taken from them.
[3] The meaning of the other term mentioned above, namely, Haggadah, will be explained hereafter. See Chapter V.
[4] To this may be added the fact that certain phrases, apparently harmless, were forbidden to be used in the Synagogue, because they were in some way heretical (M. Meg. iv. 9). Christianity is not directly mentioned, but there is good reason to suppose that Christianity is intended.
[5] I only quote these questions as being what must have been asked at a very early stage of the public career of Jesus: I offer no opinion as to the chronology of the incidents in the Gospels in connection with which those questions are introduced.