50 BEV. W. ST. CLAIR TISDALL^ M.A., B.J)., ON THE INFLUENCE 



0. — Christian Influence on Neo-Judaism and 

 n^eo-zoroasteianism. 



l.—ON NEO-JUDAISM. 



It would be a mistake to derive the Targumic doctrine of the 

 Memrd (b^"jrp"^P) or Dibhurd* {^yf^'^) from Christianity, for it 

 is doubtless taken from Philo, and through him from Plato. In 

 fact, St. John used the word " Logos " of Christ in order to 

 direct the thoughts of men to recognize that, instead of being a 

 a philosophical abstraction, there really does exist a Logos, and 

 that He has been manifested in Jesus Christ, God's Son. But 

 even in early post-Christian Jewish works, though hatred 

 towards our Lord is painfully and blasphemously expressed, we 

 find the doctrine of Mediation taught. The Mediator is called 

 MetatTon (l^^'^X^'^) Mitatron (]i"^tpt?*'P), and sometimes Mitaior 

 ("^"it^^^P), a word derived from the Latin Mctator, or from 

 fxeraTvpavvo^ or ixerdOpovo^. He is identified with the Voice of 

 God which measured " the waters to divide them, and which 

 " measured " out to Moses the boundaries of the Promised Land.f 

 " Metatron " is said to be Enoch's name in Heaven after his 

 ascension,! and he is called the " Great Writer." He sits in a 

 golden chamber to write down the good deeds of Israel.§ His 

 name is the same as his Lord's,|| he holds rank next to God 

 (referring to Exodus xxiii, 21), and is seated in the innermost 

 room nearest God, whereas all the angels are bidden to wait 

 behind the Veil.^ He is even styled " the Prince of Eternity," 



(D^i^r ^^to). This seems in a great degree due to Christian 

 theology. 



The Zohar is now known to be a forgery of the thirteenth 

 century; yet in it there are so many points of accord with 

 Christian teaching that, believing the book to be very ancient, 

 some distinguished Jews in the Middle Ages are said to have 

 been led by the book to profess Christianity. The very fact that 

 it was composed by a Jew, and largely accepted by Jews, shows 

 how strong Christian influences had even then become among 

 their learned men. 



* In Targum of Jonathan on Numb. VII, 89^ e.y.^ Dihhurd is distinctly 

 a Person 



t Genesis Rabba, § 5. 



% Jerusalem Targ. on Gen. v, 24. 



§ Chagigah 15, a. 



II Sanhedrin, 38, b, referring to Ex. xxiv, 1. 

 if Cf. Chagigah, 16, a. 



