reference to it;34 and although there may be question as to the exact date of these paraphrases,
it cannot be doubted, that in this respect they represented the views of the Synagogue at the
time of Jesus. For the same reason we may gather from the Talmud and earliest commentaries,
what Israel's hope was in regard to the return of the `dispersed.'35 It was a beautiful idea to
liken Israel to the olive-tree, which is never stripped of its leaves.36 The storm of trial that had
swept over it was, indeed, sent in judgment, but not to destroy, only to purify. Even so, Israel's
persecutions had served to keep them from becoming mixed with the Gentiles. Heaven and
earth might be destroyed, but not Israel; and their final deliverance would far outstrip in
marvellousness that from Egypt. The winds would blow to bring together the dispersed; nay, if
there were a single Israelite in a land, however distant, he would be restored. With every honour
would the nations bring them back. The patriarchs and all the just would rise to share in the joys
Patræ of the new possession of their land; new hymns as well as the old ones would rise to the
praise of God. Nay, the bounds of the land would be extended far beyond what they had ever
been, and made as wide as originally promised to Abraham. Nor would that possession be ever
taken from them, nor those joys be ever succeeded by sorrows.37 In view of such general
expectations we cannot fail to mark with what wonderful sobriety the Apostles put the question
to Jesus: `Wilt Thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?'38
34. Notably in connection with Ex. Xii. 42 (both in the Pseudo-Jon. And Jer. Targum); Numb. xxiv. 7 (Jer.
Targ.); Deut. xxx.4 (targ. Ps.-Jon.); Is xiv. 29; Jer. xxxiii. 13; Hos. xiv. 7; Zech. x. 6. Dr. Drummond, in his
`Jewish Messiah,' p. 335, quotes from the Targum on Lamentations. But this dates from long after the
Talmudic period.
35. As each sentence which follows would necessitate one or more references to different works, the
reader, who may be desirous to verify the statements in the text, is generally referred to Castelli, u. s.
pp. 251-255.
36. Men. 53 b.
37. The fiction of two Messiahs - one the Son of David, the other the Son of Joseph, the latter being
connected with the restoration of the ten tribes - has been conclusively shown to be the post-Christian
date (comp. Schöttgen, Horæ Hebr. i. p. 359; and Wünsche, Leiden d. Mess. p. 109). Possibly it was
invented to find an explanation for Zech. xii. 10 (comp. Succ. 52 a), just as the Socinian doctrine of the
assumption of Christ into heaven at the beginning of His ministry was invented to account for St. John
iii. 13.
38. Acts i.6.
Hopes and expectations such as these are expressed not only in Talmudical writings. We find
them throughout that very interesting Apocalyptic class of literature, the Pseudepigrapha, to
which reference has already been made. The two earliest of them, the Book of Enoch and the
Sibylline Oracles, are equally emphatic on this subject. The seer in the Book of Enoch beholds
Israel in the Messianic time as coming in carriages, and as borne on the wings of the wind from
East, and West, and South.39 Fuller details of that happy event are furnished by the Jewish
Sibyl. In her utterances these three events are connected together: the coming of the Messiah,
the rebuilding of the Temple,40 and the restoration of the dispersed,41 when all nations would
bring their wealth to the House of God.42 43 The latter trait specially reminds us of their