the good against the evil; good from good, and evil from evil; the good trying the evil,
and the evil trying the good the good is kept for the good, and the evil is kept for the evil.
Mishnah 3. Three are one, that standeth alone; seven are divided, there as against three,
and the statute intermediate between them. Twelve are in war: three loving, three hating,
three giving life, three giving death. The three loving ones: the heart, the ears, and the
mouth; the three hating ones: the liver, the gall, and the tongue - and God a faithful king
reigning over all: one (is) over three, three over seven, seven over twelve, and they are
all joined together, the one with the other.
Mishnah 4. And when Abraham our father had beheld, and considered, and seen, and
drawn, and hewn, and obtained it, then the Lord of all revealed Himself to him, and
called him His friend, and made a covenant with him and with his seed: and he believed
in Jehovah, and it was imputed to him for righteousness. He made with him a covenant
between the ten toes, and that is circumcision; between the ten fingers of his hand, and
that is the tongue; and He bound two-and-twenty letters on his tongue, and showed him
their foundation. He drew them with water, He kindled them with fire, He breathed them
with (air); He burnt them in seven; He poured them forth in the twelve constellations.
The views expressed in the Book Yetsirah are repeatedly referred to in the Mishnah and
in other of the most ancient Jewish writings. They represent, as stated at the outset, a
direction long anterior to the Mishnah, and of which the first beginnings and ultimate
principles are of deepest interest to the Christian student. The reader who wishes to see
the application to Christian metaphysics and theology of the Kabbalah, of which Yetsirah
is but the first word, is referred to a deeply interesting and profound work, strangely
unknown to English scholars: Molitor, Philosophie d. Gesch. oder uber d. Tradition, 4
vols. English readers will find much to interest them in the now somewhat rare work of
the Rev. John Oxley : The Christian Doctrine of the Trinity and Incarnation (London,
1815, 2 vols.)
The principles laid down in the Bo ok Yetsirah are further carried out and receive their
fullest (often most remarkable) development and application in the book Zohar
('Splendour' - the edition used by us is the 8vo. edition, Amsterdam, 1805, in 3 vols, with
the Amsterdam edition of the Tikkune Zohar; other Kabbalistic books used by us need
not here be mentioned). The main portion of the Zohar is in the form of a Commentary on
the Pentateuch, but other tractates are interspersed throughout the volumes.
5. Dogmatic Theology. - This is fully treated of in the text of these volumes.
6. Historic Theology. - To describe and criticise the various works which come under this
designation would require the expansion of this Appendix into a Tractate. Some of these
compositions have been referred to in the text of these volumes. For a general account
and criticism of them I must again refer to the 'History of the Jewish Nation' (see
especially the chapters on 'The Progress of Arts and Sciences among the Jews,' and
'Theological Science and Religious Belief in Palestine'). For the historical and critical
account of Rabbinic historical works the student is referred to Zunz, Gottesd. Vortr. d.