Alford Edersheim

Selected Works, Vol. 2 Alford Edersheim

You are about to embark upon a simple and impartial account of Judaism on the one hand, and a perusal of the Gospels on the other, constituting one of the most convincing proofs of the Divine origin of the Christian religion, and of its organic connection with that of the Old Testament. Again, it is impossible to read the Gospel narrative in the light of Jewish history without feeling that the notions and circumstances to which it alludes, are exactly those of the time in which Jesus Christ lived and taught on earth. They apply to that period, and to that period only. The notions, the modes of speaking, the opposition and its very manner, to which the New Testament refers, are exactly those of that period. If a copy of the Gospels were put into the hands of an impartial Jewish historian, he could not fail to discover that the events there chronicled must have taken place exactly at the time when, according to Christian belief, Jesus walked among men. This is the legacy of A. Edersheim.