The Plot Against Christianity (E.Dilling)

'The missing link in Christian understanding is best expressed, on the subject of "Pharisees," by the Universal Jewish Encyclopedia (1943): "The Jewish religion as it is today traces its descent, without a break, through all the centuries, from the Pharisees. Their leading ideas and methods found expression in a literature of enormous extent, of which a great deal is still in existence. The TALMUD is the largest and most important single piece of that literature. . .and the study of it is essential for any real understanding of Pharisaism." Concerning the Pharisees, the 1905 Jewish Encyclopedia says: "with the destruction of the Temple (70AD) the Sadducees disappeared altogether, leaving the regulation of all Jewish affairs in the hands of Pharisees. Henceforth, Jewish life was regulated Pharisees; the whole history of Judaism was reconstructed from the Pharisaic point of view, and a new aspect was given to the Sanhedrin of the past. A new chain of tradition supplanted the older priestly tradition (Abot 1:1). Pharisaism shaped the character of Judaism and the life and thought of the Jew for all the future." (See Exhibit 264 herein).