It is a saying of Monsieur Rénan that "in the history of the origins of Christianity, the Talmud has hitherto been far too much neglected." His idea is that the New Testament can only be understood by the light of the Talmud, while the present work will prove that many things in the Talmud can only be understood by the light of the New Testament and the history of the Church. To do this we have divided the matter into two parts. The first tries to show what the Talmud is, by giving a succinct history of the development of Jewish traditionalism, which culminated in the Talmud, "that wonderful monument of human industry, human wisdom, and human folly," as Milman calls it; and in order to dispel erroneous views concerning the Talmud, we have arrayed the opinions of such scholars as Milman, Farrar, Geikie, Schaff, Delitzsch and others, whom no one will accuse of partiality. As a connecting link we have inserted those passages of the Talmud which treat of the Messiah, because we believe that their contents were more or less influenced by Christian thought, and that they do not express the views of the Jews concerning the Messiah before and at the Christian era.