42 



EEV. CANON R. J. KNOWLING, D.D., ON 



The Ajjocahq^se of BarucJi, the work of several authors, 

 Pharisaic Jews, dating from A.D. 50-100, and containing portions 

 to be assigned to a date before the fall of Jerusalem, again 

 shows us in some of its sections the prevalence of a carnal and 

 sensuous view of the Messianic kingdom, and in its dependence 

 for salvation upon works, the need of the preaching of a Paul. 

 If we take the passages bearing upon works and justification, it 

 is not too much to say of them that " with every position here 

 maintained Christianity is at variance, and Rabbinic teaching 

 in full accord." 



The Book of Jubilees, dating,- according to Dr. Charles, 135- 

 96 B.C., is an attempt of a pious Jew, to which reference has 

 already been made, and evidently a popular and widely read 

 attempt, to describe the creation and the successive events in the 

 history of Israel from the standpoint of the writer's own 

 times. 



In doing this the writer severely condemns the laxity of his 

 countrymen with regard to the keeping of the Sabbath, but at 

 the same time he shows us how rigid were the requirements of 

 an orthodox Jew, and, quite apart from the Gospels and St. Paul, 

 what a fatal danger the spirit of Rabbinism might become. 

 Whoever drew water or lifted a burden on the Sabbath was to 

 die ; whoever did any business, made a journey, attended to his 

 cattle, kindled a fire, rode any beast, travelled by ship, who- 

 ever fasted, or whoever made war on the Sabbath, was to die. 

 As we read such regulations, can we wonder that people turned 

 from a religion which might become so mechanical and so devoid 

 of spirituality to the teaching of Jesus ? or that St. Paul saw in 

 such a spirit a burden too grievous to be borne, and in the law 

 and liberty of Christ " a more excellent way ? " 



In some respects the most remarkable of all these books is 

 The Testaments of the Ticelve Patriarchs, coming to us in its 

 Hebrew original from about the closing years of the second 

 century B.C. This book in its later Greek form contains so 

 many points of likeness both in thought and word with the New 

 Testament that Dr. Charles has gone so far as to maintain that 

 the New Testament writers were influenced by Tlie Testaments, 

 although he admits that the latter does actually contain many 

 Christian interpolations. 



But Dr. Plummer, who has written in support of the opposite 

 view with great force and detailed examination, considers that 

 The Testaments was influenced by the New Testament. It is 

 noteworthy that by far the most of the alleged parallels to 

 the Gospels are to be found in the Gospel of St. Matthew, and 



