But Torah and Christ are incommensurable terms; and Paul's presentation of Pharisaic Judaism is, in consequence, at its best a distortion, at its worst a fiction. [12] I have been asked if it were not possible that there might be some section or school of the Pharisees to whom Paul's strictures might apply? Even if there were any evidence of such a school, that would not alter the fact that Paul himself draws no such distinction, but condemns the whole theoretical position of which the Halachah is the expression. A Pharisee who should repudiate the Halachah would be a contradiction in terms. My object is to set forth, as truly as I can, what Pharisaism was, on its own showing; and I am under no obligation to find a means whereby the strictures of Paul might be made to appear more relevant and valid than I have admitted them to be. I shall presently offer reasons in support of that judgment, which is not a hasty assertion but a deliberate opinion formed after years of comparing the Judaism of the Rabbis with Paul's version of it. Before, however, going on to this further part of my task, I will pause for a moment to consider the difference between Paul's attitude and that of Jesus towards the Pharisees and their religion. In the main it is this--that Paul condemned Pharisaism in theory, while Jesus condemned it in practice. Paul held that the whole system was radically defective, and remained so whatever relative excellence might be produced under it in the lives and characters of those who submitted to it. He condemned it, though he had himself, as he said, been "as touching the Torah, blameless." Jesus, on the other hand, charged the Pharisees with certain specific sins and vices, such as hypocrisy, pride, self-righteousness, etc. And he did not expressly denounce the systematic religion of Torah as such, although, as has been shown in the preceding chapter, he did on certain points reject the Torah. The Pharisees themselves were quite aware that the faults he denounced were not unknown amongst them. The Talmud bears honest witness to that fact, in the passage so often quoted (b. Sotah, 22^b), about the seven kinds of Pharisees. The censure of Jesus admits of the possibility that some, at least, of the Pharisees were pious and good. And that Scribe, to whom Jesus said, "Thou art not far from the kingdom of God" (Mark xii. 34), did not cease to be a Pharisee by reason of the opinion he had expressed.