THE TAL MUD

BY JOSEPH BARCLAY, LL.D.

RECTOR OF STAPLEFORD, HERTS

jmir6
(Aboth. i. 1.)

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS AND PLAN OF THE TEMPLE

LONDON
JOHN MUEEAY, ALBEMAELE STREET
1878

[All rights
 INTRODUCTION. THE MESSIAH. 37

Talmud in some places asserts it, and in some places denies

it. But it is said that in the days of the Messiah all the
Gentiles shall become proselytes to the Jewish faith. The
Eabbis are divided as to the continuance of the Messiah ;

some say forty years, some seventy years, some three genera
tions, and some say that He will continue as long as from
the creation of the world or the time of Noah "

up to the

present Others say that the kingdom of the Messiah

time."

will endure for thousands of years, as when there is a good

"

government it is not quickly dissolved." It is also said that

He shall die, and His kingdom descend to His son and
grandson. In proof of this opinion Isaiah xlii. 4 is quoted :

"

He shall not fail, nor be discouraged, till He have set judg

ment in the earth." The lives ofmen will be prolonged for
centuries :
"

He will swallow up death in victory (Is. xxv.

"

and the child shall die an hundred years old

"
"

8) ; (Is.
Ixv. 20). The Talmud applies the former verse to Israel,
the latter verse to the Gentiles. The men of that time will
be two hundred ells high. This is said to be proved by the
word
" "
"

upright (Lev. xxvi. 13), upright being applied to

"

the supposed height of man before the fall. Moreover the "

light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun ;

and the
light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days
"

(Is. xxx. 26). The land of Israel will produce cakes and
clothes of the finest wool. The wheat will grow on Lebanon
as high as palm-trees and a wind will be sent from God ;

to reduce it to fine flour for the support of those who gather

"

with the kidneys of wheat

"

it ;
as it is said fat of (Deut.
xxxii. 14). Each kidney will be as large as "the kidneys
of the fattestoxen." To prove that this is nothing wonder
ful, an account is given of a rape seed, in which a fox once
brought forth young. These young ones were weighed, and
found to be as heavy as sixty pounds of Cyprus weight.
Lest these statements should be thought a contradiction of
the verse "There is no new thing under the sun" (Eccles. i. 9),
the Eabbis say that it is just like the growth of mushrooms,
toadstools, and the delicate mosses on the branches of trees.
Grapes will also grow most luxuriantly ;
and in every cluster