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Being a Refutation of the Pamphlet of the Rev. M. R.
Miller, Entitled the “Identity of Judaism and
Christianity.”
By Rev. Dr. W. Schlessinger
The phenomenon presented to us in the fact that
zealous Christians make the most strenuous efforts
to persuade Jews to adopt their confession of faith
is neither new nor surprising. The more thoroughly a
person is imbued with the conviction that he and his
associates alone are possessed of the true belief,
and that this belief alone can confer salvation, the
more ardently must he then naturally desire, if he
be in the true sense of the <<298>>word a lover of
his species, that all mankind should embrace the
same faith which he professes, to insure their
ultimate happiness. Israelites, also, are animated
by the same wish, that their confession may at
length become the common property of all nations;
the writings of our prophets and our books of
prayers, present this idea in a thousand instances,
that at some time, in a period yet to arrive, the
eternal God alone shall be King over the whole
earth, and that on that day He shall be ONE and his
NAME ONE.
How any one can at the same time believe in the
fulfilment of such predictions, and in the existence
of a trinity, is a riddle, the solution of which is
possible for him who knows that the human mind can
be so perverted as to deduce from any proposition
the very reverse of what it ostensibly declares.
Judaism is, however, also chiefly distinguished from
Christianity in this, that according to its theory
the observance of the Mosaic precepts is enjoined
only on Israelites; whereas those who do not belong
to the Jewish people can attain everlasting
happiness if they observe the religion of nature—the
moral laws —the seven Noachitic precepts. A pious
and zealous Israelite can therefore very
consistently embrace all mankind within the limits
of his love without feeling on that account
the irresistible impulse to convert all men to
Judaism, the least of all, through means of rude
force, by the fire and the sword. Nay, we have a
strict prescription in our books of authority to endeavour to dissuade every non-Israelite in case he
comes to join us, and to remind him of the
difficulties attendant on a strict observance of our
law.
From these premises it will be readily perceived why
Jews, who, as is notorious, never value any
sacrifice of money for the promotion of their
religion and the observance of religious duties,
never, even in their days of prosperity, spent any
money on missionaries or proselyte makers of any
kind.
The noblest and best among the Israelites had at all
times work enough on their hands, in being engaged
in the improvement of their own associates in faith;
and they thought correctly, that they could best
serve mankind in educating a few exemplary men. On
the other hand no one knows better than
<<299>>we
ourselves, that the majority of the Jews are far
from being that for which the Lord has chosen them,
and which they could have become if they had paid
due obedience to the law. Judaism is the
bearer of the purest and most exalted religion,
which is the most reconcilable with an
in-God-believing philosophy but all who bear the
name of Jews are not for this sole reason Jews
already. It is also not a very easy and convenient
thing to be an Israelite in the true sense of the
word. The Mosaic code demands constant action,
sacrifices, suppression of the passions, and to care
and to have due regard for the welfare of our
fellow-men.
Christianity on the other side announces itself
always as the easiest religion in the world; what
wonder, then, that it has found so immense a mass of
adherents? In its bosom all were received—the
highway robber, the adulterer, the murderer, the
poisoner. A man might have committed crimes of
whatever degree and name you may imagine; but so
soon as he could bring it over his feelings to allow
himself to be sprinkled with a few drops of water,
so soon as he declared that he believed the only
begotten Son of God had died on the cross as an
atonement for all men, he was the participant of
everlasting beatitude.
We
Israelites also believe in a forgiveness of sins,
because we deem the infinite grace of God greater
than a man can possibly conceive it to be; but it is
the problem of a man’s life to render himself
deserving of this grace, and the sinner who is
awakened to the sinfulness of his state is,
therefore, not authorized to depend for atonement on
one who departed this life many centuries ago.
Each man must labour for his own salvation. He
himself must feel regret and do penance every day.
We understand the high significance of the Day of
Atonement as a day set apart on which the
Israelites, assembled in the houses consecrated to
God, expect forgiveness before the Lord through
prayer, confession of sins, and pious resolves; but
the gates of repentance are open every day.
“He is our God, and we are his people, and the flock
of his pasture, this day, so you but hearken to his
voice.” (Psalm xcv. 7.)
But it is time that we enter more particularly upon
the dis<<300>>cussion of Mr. Miller’s pamphlet,
which stands at the head of this article.
To
judge from its whole tenor, and as the author
distinctly says, he must esteem the Hebrew Bible as
the word of God, but he thinks that we Israelites do
not understand how to expound the Scriptures
correctly; wherefore his aim is to teach us the
proper method. In order to arrive at a clear
understanding of the Scriptures, the first requisite
is a thorough knowledge of the Hebrew language; but
we think that we may assert, without being arrogant,
that notwithstanding the study of the Hebrew is not
in a very flourishing condition in America, there
are a good many Israelites in the country who are
better masters of the Hebrew than Mr. Miller, and we
say this with all due respect which we entertain for
his character and knowledge. Should it even be true
that ten-twelfths or yet more of Jacob’s descendants
had fallen off from Judaism, even say that many of
the yet living Israelites are unworthy of this name:
we have nevertheless the assurance that “This is my
covenant with them, saith the Lord: my spirit which
is upon thee, and my word which I have placed in thy
mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, and out of
the mouth of thy children, and out of the mouth of
thy children’s children, saith the Lord, from now
and for ever.” (Isa. xlix. 7.)
We
shall, therefore, never draw the water of salvation
from Christian sources, and forsake, to do this, the
living spring of the divine Spirit which is in the
Jewish faith. Should even thousands of Jews become
apostates from their God and their belief; should
even millions of non-Israelites, illuminated by the
light of the Bible lead a moral course of life: it
is still a fact, that, comparatively speaking, many
less crimes are committed by Jews than other
persuasions; least of all are they guilty of grave
crimes; it is a fact, also, that the pure idea of
the Godhead, as taught by Judaism, is the very
highest to which the human spirit can elevate
itself.
The pietistic and hypocritical gossip of the tract
distributor, who, in consideration of a salary of
several hundred dollars per annum, made it his
business to walk about the streets of New York for
the sake of catching a few souls, can surely have
no effect on any man who <<301>>thinks at all.
Whoever looks a little closely upon such people,
whoever knows with what ravenous an appetite they
swallow up lost souls, how zealously they catch at
straying, despairing and penniless Jews, in order to
gain them over to the church by the aid of a few
pieces of money, must feel a thorough disgust for
the business of these men in every point of view in
which he may regard it. And now at length, what a
happy discovery has this confessor of Christ made in
the 13-15 verses of the eighth chapter of Isaiah:
when we have a greater right to regard the 18th and
20th verses of the same chapter as a warning against
Christianity. For in these last it is shown how
ridiculous it is to turn to the dead for protection
to the living, and we are admonished to hold fast to
the law and the testimony, and not to pay attention
to words which lack all light.
Mr. Miller next utters the following: “Christianity
(evidently alluding but to a very small fraction
thereof, viz., Presbyterianism) professes to be the
natural, legitimate, living, divinely predestinated
development and expansion of ancient Judaism, and it
repels every charge of rupture, in any essential
point, either by innovation or abrogation, with the
ancient faith of Israel.” And all this is based upon
the assumption of Mr. Miller, that Christ and his
apostles understood expounding the Scriptures better
than the contending schools of Shammai and Hillel;
that the New Testament is better than the Talmud,
and that Paul, in his epistle to the Hebrews,
explained the Bible better than Rabbi Jehudah
Hakkadosh in his Mishnah.
Little as I feel disposed, in quality of a
peace-loving Israelite, to challenge Christianity to
a combat, I nevertheless have no hesitation, after
the gauntlet has been cast down to us, to enter the
lists boldly and to defend our good cause. I have
often read the so-called New Testament quite
through, and this with due attention. Let it be
understood we Jews know nothing of an Old or a New
Testament; our God has not passed through the gates
of death, and has, therefore, made no testament.*
We
adore a living God who has revealed to us, through
men inspired by Him his holy will. But in the
writings of the apostles, <<302>>I never was able to
find that Christ had imparted an expostion of the
Bible; on the contrary, both he and his apostles
have wrested single passages, taken without their
context, and explained them in such a manner that
here and there some ignorant persons could consider
him as the true Messiah. We cannot possibly summon
resolution enough to undertake the labour of
Sisyphus;—to repeat here, what has been alleged a
thousand and again a thousand times by Jews and
Christians against the authenticity of the New
Testament, and to repeat the contradictions of which
it is full; it is not difficult to prove that, even
in the sermon on the Mount, alongside of the most
beautiful and elevated moral doctrines, which are
taken from our Bible and are clothed only in a new
dress, are met with prescriptions exaggerated,
impracticable, nay, I might almost say absurd, in
their nature.
One remark, however, I must be permitted to make,
that it is incomprehensible to me in what manner
believing Christians can explain how it happened
that, whilst the Apostles, who were quite ordinary
fishermen or men of that stamp, should have written
the gospels, the sources of the whole Christian
faith, the God-man himself, or the Son of God, did
not, during his life-time, which continued more than
thirty years write a single book, not even the
smallest, which contains the principles of the true
faith, and in which are recorded the acts which are
requisite for the attainment of salvation. Would not
such a writing, were it even ever so small, have
proved his divinity far better and more
energetically than all the wonderful cures,
expulsions of evil spirits, and conjurings of the
devil, which he displayed?
But what foolish and senseless talk is it to
maintain that Christianity has introduced no changes
and abolished nothing! If this is not the most
fearful falsehood whichever passed over the tongue
of man, then must the word Falsehood be banished
from all dictionaries, and then will also be able to
prove that no mortal ever uttered a falsehood. Let
some one be good enough to point out to me the
testimonies, the observances, the commandments, the
ceremonies, the festivals, which are commanded in
the five books of Moses, which are observed by the
Presbyterians. What use is there in words, words
without <<303>>meaning, which are intended to convey
the opposite of what they ostensibly announce? What
use is there in it, when even Jesus has said, for so
we are told, that he did not come to destroy but to
confirm the law, when it is notorious that through
him the Mosaic law has been totally set aside and
declared as much as abolished for his followers?
What use is there in it that on Jesus himself the
commandment of circumcision was observed, when the
New Testament occasionally relates he had executed
this or that ceremony, at times even some rabbinical
ordinances, whilst his adherents wished to consider
themselves as Israelites without the least regard to
all these things?
Whenever Jews relinquish all sound reason, and
permit themselves to he guided by the following mode
of expounding, that “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our
God is the Lord, one” signifies that three is one,
and one is three; or “Remember the Sabbath
day to keep it holy—but the seventh day is a rest in
honour of the Lord thy God” signifies that we shall
celebrate the first instead of the seventh day of
every week; “The flesh of the hog ye shall not eat”
signifies, that you may eat it, and many more
similar expositions; then will they go over to the
Presbyterians to obtain from them instruction in the
manner of interpreting the Scriptures.
How can it now be imagined that we Jews should ever
be able to admit the authority of the Apostles in
the least, when they have themselves given such
ample and clear evidence in their writings of their
ignorance, short-sightedness, and credulity? Should
one even desire to gather the best and most cogent
of what has been written against the New Testament,
by both Jews and Christians, one hundred thick
volumes could not contain all these selections.
Our view, therefore, of Christianity cannot be
shaken. But as it is with the diseases, wounds, and
injuries of the body, that one evil can only be
expelled by another: so is it, also, with the
diseases, the aberrations and vagaries of the mind.
Paganism, with its abominations and disgusting
features, received its death-blow through
Christianity, which is in point of fact nothing but
an illegitimate child of Judaism. Men, springing out
of the midst of our religion, toyed with a
heathenish, Ale-<<304>>xandrian, Gnostic philosophy,
and the child of this uncongenial connexion, the
mixture of truth and error, of Judaism and Paganism
is, and it is nothing else, that system known as the
Christian religion. During fifteen hundred years,
and in this at least Presbyterians will coincide
with us, Christianity was in its outward appearance
more affiliated to heathenish than Jewish elements.
We see how Christianity strives and labours
peacefully to purify itself from this heathenish
admixture; but it will not he able to carry out this
process fully, till it has given up its illegitimate
god, and regards Jesus merely as a merely historical
person, who was the means to call the attention of
the Pagans to the Bible of the Hebrews.
Were it not for the great and small ecclesiastical
benefices, and innumerable other worldly interests
which keep Christianity erect, the whole structure
would long since have fallen down into nothingness.
When the Lord shall hereafter pour out his spirit
over all flesh, and when truth shall be more valued
than falsehood, so that the confession of the latter
will even on this earth bear with it no prizes of
honour, then will He, the Lord, be ONE and his name
ONE and neither a second nor a third person in the
Deity shall be mentioned any more.
We
cannot avoid to furnish the reader, in this place,
with a small example of the art of interpretation as
employed by the Apostles, and to do this we will
choose the first two chapters of Matthew. The first
sixteen verses treat of the genealogy of Christ, in
order to demonstrate his descent from David, which
is the basis of the whole New Testament. In reality,
however, the first view we can take of the question
proves that the writer merely has shown us how
Joseph the husband of Mary was descended from David.
Jesus now must either have been the actual son of
Joseph, in which case the conception by the Holy
Ghost is a mere mythological fable, or he was not
the son of Joseph; in either case, what use is there
of the genealogical table? Of a surety, every
unprejudiced person must, of necessity discover in
the very first words of the Gospels nothing but a
slight proof of a confusion of ideas want of
clearness contradictions, which are
continued throughout the whole book.
The apostle commences, “The book of the generation
of Jesus Christ,” and <<305>>when you get to the end
you will find that it is not a register of his
generations.
It
is quite interesting to see how entirely different
in this Gospel the names of Joseph’s ancestors are
from those given in Luke iii.
In
the latter there are enumerated from Joseph to
Zerubabel nineteen generations, whereas in Matthew
there are but ten. It was evidently the business of
the apostle in this book to make out three times
fourteen generations, as we are told in verse 17, in
order to bring out the holy number forty-two.*
To carry out this favourite idea, he neglected to
pay a strict regard to truth. In verses 22 and 23 it
is told, “Now all this was done, that it might be
fulfilled, which was spoken of the Lord, by the
prophet, saying, Behold a virgin shall be with
child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall
call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is,
God with us.Ӡ Whoever possesses but a small share
of the power of investigation knows how futile and
untenable is this prop, on which Christianity has
always put so great a value: yea, it is to be hoped,
that when once the scales have dropt from the eyes
of the people they will be convinced, that the
prophet Isaiah, in committing the verse alluded to
to writing, could not have had a thought of Christ;
so that, when this occurs, no one will believe in
his divinity, or his Messiahship.
The Hebrew word עלמה
(Almah) which Isaiah employs in vii. 14, and
on which the whole argument is based, does not
signify virgin, but a young woman, the term
being applied to virgins, or, even women of debased
character. In Gen. xxiv. 43, it signifies a girl in
the nobler sense of the word; but in Proverbs xxx.
19 it means an incestuous woman, as appears with the
clearness of daylight from the context to which the
reader is referred.‡
If
<<306>>Isaiah now had designed to convey the miracle
of a virgin’s conception, he would to a surety not
have employed the suspicious and double meaning
’Almah as he could readily have made use of the
word בתולה
Bethulah, which always conveys in the
whole Bible text the idea of a virgin. But leaving
this out of view, we cannot comprehend how any one
who has eyes and sound reasoning powers, can
sincerely believe that Isaiah alluded here to
Christ. Let any one read the seventh chapter of
Isaiah with a tolerable degree of attention. The
prophet is in conversation with Ahaz, the
idol-worshipping king of Judah, and admonishes him,
to have no fear of the kings of Aram and Israel, and
gives him a sign that a certain young woman shall
bear a son, and that before this child shall be able
to understand how to avoid evil and choose the good,
the land shall be deprived of its two kings before
whom he felt such terror.—Where is there to be
discovered the least allusion to a future Messiah?
(To be continued.) |
