Note 167 — BOOK V THE JEW AND THE TALMUD
Reading edition
“It is evident that some of the ‘dicta’ of the Rabbis, such as, for instance, the above-quoted passages, are not intended to be taken literally, but are the paradoxes of idealists, which leave us in some doubt as to how much they supposed to have been revealed explicitly to Moses.”—Pirke Aboth (Sayings of the Fathers), note by Dr. Taylor, Master of S. John’s, Cambridge, p. 122.
Dr. Taylor, however, adds that “such statements have to be taken into account in estimating the ancient Rabbis’ views of revelation.”