Page:The old paths, or The Talmud tested by Scripture.djvu/178

 winds, and gravely asserts that not only the law and its explanation, but the prophets and the whole Talmud, were given to Moses at Sinai? Will he give up his own reason and the word of the living God to the authority of R. Simon ben Lakish? There cannot possibly be any argument which would prove the falsehood of the narrative concerning the oral law so completely as this interpretation, which is regarded as one of its main foundations. The words of Moses which are here perverted plainly speak of that which God had written. "I will give thee tables of stone, and the law and the commandment which I have written to teach them." Did God write the oral law, and give it to Moses? What became of it then? If it was written, how did it become oral? These words "Which I have written," have sadly puzzled the rabbinical commentators, who know not how to reconcile the plain and obvious sense of the words, with that interpretation which had been already put upon them in the Talmud. Rashi seemed to think that the difficulty might be got over by saying—

"All the six hundred and thirteen commandments are comprehended in the ten commandments." (Com. in Exod. xxiv. 12.) But this, though true in one sense, will not obviate the difficulty. God promises to give Moses the law and the commandment which he had written. If the oral law had not been written, it was not included. Saadiah Gaon, as quoted by Aben Ezra, proposes another solution:—

"The Gaon says that the words, Which I have written,' are to be connected with The tables of stone,' and not with 'The law and the commandment,' for God wrote only the ten words." But unfortunately Moses has so connected them, and we have no warrant for reversing his order. Aben Ezra himself, after giving the Talmudic exposition, gives it as his own opinion, that these words refer to the ten commandments. He says—

"But in my opinion, The law refers to the first and fifth commandment; and The commandment to the other eight." (Aben Ezra, Com. in loc.) This is about the