The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah Vol 1 - Predestination

measured to us . with the same measure that we
mete, occurs in precisely the same manner in the
Talmud,^ and, indeed, seems to have been a
proverbial 'Sottr expression. The illustration in
verses 3 and 4, about the mote and the beam,
appears thus in Babbinic literature: * ' I wonder if
there is •Aim^mi any one in this generation who
would take reproof. If one said. Take the mote out
of thine eye, he would answer. Take the beam from
out thine own eye.' On which the additional
question is raised, whether any one in that
generation were capable of reproving. As it also
occurs with only trifling variations in other
passages,' we conclude 'B,Baxh. that this also was
a proverbial expression. The same may be said of
Bekhor.S86; gathering * grapes of thorns.*«
Similarly, the designation of * pearls' Buth Cverse
6) for the valuable sayings of sages is common. To
verse 11 •^"•**^« there is a realistic parallel,^
when it is related, that at a certain fast, ^ Ber. b. on
account of drought, a Babbi admonished the people
to good deeds, on which a man gave money to the
woman from whom he had been * 890 *'0^