What the World Owes to the Pharisees, being the second "Arthur Davis memorial lecture" delivered before the Jewish historical society at University college on Sunday, April/Nisan 6, 1919/5679
London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1919. First edition. Softcover. 12mo. 71, [7]pp. Original printed wrappers. Remarkable work divided into three parts. In the first part, the author considers the plain fact of the presence of Judaism as a living religion at the present day, after an unbroken continuous existence through all the centuries of the common era. In the second part, he tries to show what it was which enabled Judaism thus to persist, in face of all the assertions that it ought to have died out, and the still bolder assertions that it did die out, when Christianity rose into prominence. The answer to that question the author finds in the principles of Pharisaism; and this leads him in the third place to consider what special element, what characteristic feature of Pharisaism contained the "promise and potency" of that vitality, made it able to ensure the continued existence of Judaism with the results which we see today. Covers sunned and spine partly chipped. Upper corner bumped, thus slightly affecting pages throughout. Offsetting on endpapers and half-title. Wrappers in overall fair, interior in good+ condition. g. Item #33567
Price: $50.00