Whereas Philochristus reporteth that a certain Scribe in his days spake of “eating the Messiah,” I find no such saying current in those days. But true it is that, many years afterwards, Rabbi Hillel (but this is not the same as Hillel the Great, who lived in the generation before Philochristus) said these words: “There is no Messiah for Israel, since they have already eaten him in the days of Hezekiah.”16Moreover the saying of Moses, how that the nobles of Israel “saw God and did eat and drink,” is, without doubt, explained by some of the Teachers among the Jews to mean that the Shekinah was as meat and drink to the nobles. But whether this saying was current in those days, or whether Philochristus erreth here also (as elsewhere), certain it is that many of the sayings of the Scribes reported by Philochristus were not made known nor published till very long after; and meseemeth he hath perverted the doctrine of the Scribes with intent to cause the reader to have them in derision. [pg 439] But Anchinous the son of Alethes saith that, howsoever the sayings of the Scribes (whereof Philochristus maketh mention) have not been handed down to us as spoken in those times; yet the cause is, saith Anchinous, that few sayings of those times have been preserved. But if they had been preserved, then, saith he, we should have found that Philochristus described the teaching of the Scribes with exactness; even as the Gospels also bear witness that the Scribes in those days strained at gnats but swallowed camels; and overmuch esteemed the tithing of mint and anise and cummin, and the purification of pots and platters; and counted an oath that was sworn by the gold of the Temple, as being weightier than an oath that was sworn by the Temple itself. |
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