Page:The old paths, or The Talmud tested by Scripture.djvu/482

 Sanhedrin until after the Greek conquest of Judea, and in No. xlv., that there is no continuous chain of tradition. The only evidence, therefore, which could beget faith in the mind of a reasonable man is wanting.

2. The oral law itself is full of manifest fables. This has been proved almost in every number, but particularly from Nos. xvii.-xxi., where the fables selected are such as are particularly noticed in the prayers of the synagogue. No one can doubt that the stories about Leviathan and Behemoth—of Adam's singing the 92d Psalm after a conversation with Cain—of the river Sambation—of the experiment made by Turnus Rufus to raise his father—of Mount Sinai having been turned, like a tub, over the Israelites—of the descent of 600,000 angels to crown the Israelites—of the people's travelling 240 miles backwards and forwards during the delivery of the Ten Commandments, &c., &c.,—are all downright fables, not a whit more authentic than similar stories contained in the Koran, or the Arabian Nights' Entertainments. Any one fable would be sufficient to overturn the credit of the oral law, but what are we to think of the host of downright falsehoods here enumerated?

3. It is directly subversive of the state of things established in the written law. Moses appointed the priests, the sons of Levi, as the religious teachers of Israel. The oral law has ousted them altogether from their office, as was shown in No. xli.

4. ''The oral law encourages those Heathen superstitions expressly forbidden by Moses and the Prophets'', such as magic, astrology, amulets, and charms, as is shown from Nos. xxii.-xxvi.

5. The oral law loosens the moral obligations. It teaches men how to evade the Divine commandments, as was shown in Nos. xi., xiv., and xv. It allows dispensation from oaths, as proved in Nos. lvi. and lvii. It allows men to retain what they know does not belong to them, if it only belongs to a Gentile (p. 18), or to an unlearned Jew, as appears from No. lix. It sanctions the murder of the unlearned.

6. ''It leads men to put trust in mere external acts as a compensation for moral delinquencies.'' The washing of hands (No. x.)—the external sanctification of the Sabbath (No. xxix.)—the blowing of the cornet at the new year (No. xxxiv.)—the rite of circumcision (No. lviii.), &c., &c., are represented as sufficient to save wicked men from the just punishment of their misdeeds.

7. ''Though called an oral law, because not written with ink, it is really written in blood.'' For the most trifling offences it sentences the offender to be flogged (Nos. xiii. and liii.)—for the transgression of the rabbinic commands respecting the Sabbath, it awards the sentence of death (No. xxvii.)—and,