THE MACMILLAN COMPANY MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD. TORONTO HIS LIFE, TIMES, AND TEACHING BY JOSEPH KLAUSNER, PH.D. (HEIDELBERG) JERUSALEM TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL HEBREW BY HERBERT DANBY, D.D. (OXFORD) New York THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1925 All rights reserved COPYRIGHT, 1925, BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up and electrotyped. Printed in the United States of America by J. J. LITTLE AND IVES COMPANY, NEW YORK 12-31-43 12679 TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE Dr. Joseph Klausner, though not widely known among non-Jews (outside the small group of Christian students interested in the Rabbinical sources for the New Testament period) has a high and well-earned reputation as writer, historian and leader of thought in those Jewish circles which are working in the cause of the present Hebrew cultural revival, commonly called Zionism. To this cause he has devoted his whole life. He was born in Russia in 1874. He early came under the influence of "Ahad ha-Am" (Asher Ginsberg), the philosopher of the Zionist movement and editor of the principal Hebrew periodical, "Ha-Shiloach." In 1897 he entered the University of Heidelberg where he studied Philosophy and Semitic languages. For his degree of Ph.D. he wrote the thesis "Die messianischen Vorstellungen des jüdischen Volkes im Zeitalter der Tannaiten" (i.e. Jewish Messianic ideas in the Tannaitic period), a subject of study at which he has ever since persistently worked and which compelled him to devote an attention, closer and more minute than had yet been given by any Jewish scholar, to the subject of Jesus, his Messianic claims, and the problem of Christian origins. Dr. Klausner's "Die messianischen Vorstellungen" was published (in German) in 1904, and it is by this book that he has hitherto been known in non-Jewish circles. The bulk of his literary output since has been in Hebrew. This output has been considerable. Apart from the present book (published in Jerusalem in the spring of 1922) his most important publications are: The Messianic Idea in Israel (3 vols.: vol. i, In the Prophets [Cracow, 1909]; vol. ii, In the apocalyptic and pseudepigraphic literature [Jerusalem, 1921]; vol. iii, In the tannaitic period, i.e., first two centuries A.D. [Jerusalem, 1923, translated from the German edition of 1904 and revised]); The History of Israel (4 vols.: vol. i, Till the Maccabæan age [Odessa, 1909, 3rd ed., Odessa, 1919]; vol. ii, The Maccabæan Age [Jerusalem, 1923]; vol. iii, The Herodian Age [Jerusalem, 1924]; vol. iv, The Jewish Revolt and the Destruction of the Temple [Jerusalem, 1924]). In 1905 Dr. Klausner succeeded "Ahad ha-Am" as editor of "Ha-Shiloach," and he has edited this, the most important Hebrew literary periodical, ever since. From 1904 till 1919 he held various academic posts in Jewish institutions in Odessa. He came to Pales |