tions of their own. From the time where the Old Testament Scriptures end, the two Talmuds supply them; and from the time where the Talmuds end, they are supplied from the traditions that were afterwards preserved among them. And an account of their doctors, and the succession of them in their chief schools and academies in Judæa, Babylonia, and elsewhere, is the main subject which after the Scriptural times they treat of. And of these historical books there are but seven in all, that I know of among them, and they are these following: 1. Seder Olam Rabbah; 2. Teshuvoth R. Sherira Gaon; 3. Seder Olam Zeutah; 4. Kabbalah R. Abraham Levita Ben Dior; 5. Sepher Juchasin; 6. Shalsheleth Haccabbalah; 7. Zemach David. The first four are the ancientest, but all of them have been written since the beginning of the ninth century, and are very short. The three last are much larger, but of a very modern composure, being all of them written since the time of our King Henry VIII. I will here give an account of each of them in their order. I. SEDER OLAM RABBAH, i. e. the Larger Chronicon, is so called in respect to Seder Olam Zeutah, i. e. the Lesser Chronicon, which was afterwards composed. However, notwithstanding this great name, it is but a short history, and treats mostly of the Scriptural times. Buxtorf' tells us it reached down to the time of Adrian the Roman emperor, and his vanquishing Ben Chuzibah the impostor, who did then set up for the Messiah. I have not seen any copy of that history which reached down so far; but no doubt that great and learned man did, otherwise he would not have told us so. The author is commonly said to have been R. Jose ben Chaliptha, who flourished a little after the beginning of the second century after Christ, and is said to have been master to R. Judah Hakkadosh, who composed the Mishna. But R. Azarias, the author of Meor Enaim, in the third part of that book (which he calls Imre Binah), tells us, that he had seen an ancient copy of this book, in which it was written, that the author lived seven hundred and sixty-two years after the destruction of the temple of Jerusalem, which refers his time to the year of Christ 832. It was most certainly written after the Babylonish Talmud; for it contains many fables and dotages taken from thence. II. TESHUVOTH R. SHERIRA GAON, i. e, the Answers of R. Sherira, Sublime Doctor, is an historical tract, written by way of questions and answers by him whose name it bears. It is a very short piece, and is usually inserted with some other historical fragments in the editions of Juchasin. He was Æchmalotarch in Babylonia, and head of all the Jewish schools and academies in that country; which dignity he obtained A. D. 967, and continued in it thirty years, that is, till the year 997, when he resigned it to R. Haia his son, who was the last that bore the title of Gaon, or Sublime Doctor. For in his time, i. e. anno 1037, the Mahometan king that then reigned over Babylonia 2 expelled the Jews out of all those parts, and thereon 3 all their schools and academies that they had there were dissolved, and all the degrees and titles of honour, which on the account of learning used to be con 1 Bibliotheca Rabbinica, p. 386. On this expulsion out of the East, they flocked into the West, and from that time Spain, France, England, and Germany were filled with them. The chiefest of their academies were Naherda, Sora, and Pombeditha, towns in Babylonia. ferred in them, utterly ceased; and no learned man hath since that time, among the Jews, assumed any higher name or title of honour in respect of his learning than that of Rabbi. III. SEDER OLAM ZEUTAH, i. e. the Lesser Chronicon, is so called in respect to Seder Olam Rabbah, or the Greater Chronicon. This book was written, as it is therein expressed, one thousand and fiftythree years after the destruction of the temple at Jerusalem, that is, in the year of our Lord 1123. Who was the author of it is not known. It is, agreeable to its name, a very short chronicon, and is carried down from the beginning of the world to the year 452 after the destruction of the temple of Jerusalem, that is, to the year of our Lord 522. Eight generations after are named in it, but nothing more than their names is there mentioned of them. IV. SEPHER KABBALAH R. ABRAHAM LEVITA,' BEN DIOR, i. e. the Book of Tradition, by Rabbi Abraham the Levite, the son of Dior, is an historical tract, chiefly intended to give an account of the succession of those by whom the traditions of the Jews, as they pretend, from the time of Moses, were handed down to them from generation to generation. It begins from the creation of the world, and ends at the year of Christ 1160. The author of it was R. Abraham the Levite, whose name it bears in the title. He flourished in the time where his book ends. He writes much from Josippon Ben Gorion, and was one of the first that gave credit to that spurious book. V. SEPHER JUCHASIN, i. e. the Book of Genealogies, is a history of the Jews, much larger than all the four above mentioned put together. It begins from the creation of the world, and is continued down to the year of our Lord 1500. In the process and series of it an account is given of the succession of the Jewish traditions from Mount Sinai, and of all their eminent doctors, teaching and professing them, down to the time where the book ends. The author of it was R. Abraham Zacuth, who first published it at Cracow in Poland, in the year of our Lord 1580. VI. SHALSHELETH HACCABBALAH, i. e. the Chain of Tradition, is an historical book of the same contents with Sepher Juchasin. The author of it was Rabbi Gedaliah Ben Jechaiah, who first published it at Venice in the year of our Lord 1587. VII. ZEMACH DAVID, i. e. a Branch or Sprout of David, is a history treating of the same subject as the two last preceding. It begins, as they do, from the creation of the world, and is continued down to the year of Christ 1592, in which year it was first published at Prague in Bohemia. The author was Rabbi David Gans, a Bohemian Jew. There is extant a Latin version of this book, composed by William Henry Vorstius, the son of Conrad Vorstius, and published by him at Leyden, A. D. 1644. By this it may be seen how little light into ancient times is to be gotten from histories of so modern and mean a composure, neither can anything better be expected from their other writings. If anything of ancient history be found anywhere in them more than what is Scriptural, it is either taken from one of the histories which I have 1 Others call him R. Abraham Ben David, but by mistake, for that R. Abraham was another person. See Buxtorf's Bibliotheca Rabbinica, p. 403. here given an account of, or from the Talmud, which is the common fountain from which they all draw. For this is the best authority they have, and how mean this is I have already shown. My living at a distance from the press hath deprived me of the opportunity of correcting the errors of it: but this defect hath been supplied by my very worthy friend Mr. Brampton Gurdon, who hath been pleased to take on him the trouble of correcting the last revise of every sheet; and I know no one more able to correct the errors not only of the printer, but also of the author, wherever I may have been mistaken in any particular contained in this book, he being a person eminently knowing in all those parts of literature that are treated of through the whole of it, and otherwise of that worth and learning as may justly recommend him to every man's esteem. I shall be glad if this Second Part of my History may be as acceptable to the public as the former hath been. I must confess it hath been written under greater disadvantages, by reason of the decays which have since grown upon me. It hath always been the comfort as well as the care of my life, to make myself as serviceable as I could in all the stations which I have been called to. With this view it hath been, that I have entered on the writing of any of those works that I have offered to the public; and I hope I have by all of them in some measure served my generation. But being now broken by age, and the calamitous distemper mentioned in the Preface to the former part of this History, I find myself superannuated for any other undertaking, and therefore must, I fear, spend the remainder of my days in a useless state of life, which to me will be the greatest burden of it. But since it is from the hand of God, I will comport myself with all patience to submit hereto, till my great change shall come, and God shall be pleased to call me out of this life into a better: for which I wait with a thorough hope and trust in his great and infinite mercy, through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom be glory, honour, and praise, for ever and ever. HUMPHREY PRIDEAUX. Norwich, Jan. 1, 1717-18. HISTORICAL CONNECTION OF THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS. PART II. HISTORY OF THE JEWS AND NEIGHBOURING NATIONS, FROM THE DEATH OF BOOK I. EGYPTIAN AND JEWISH HISTORY FROM THE COMPLETION OF THE CANON OF SCRIPTURE UNTIL THE TRANSLATION OF THE SCRIPTURES INTO GREEK, B. C. 291 TO 277. 1. Conclusion of the Reign of Ptolemy I. Soter, B. C. 291-285. Kings of Syria-Seleucus Nicator, 312. Accession of Eleazar to the high priesthood, and Antigonus Socho to the presidentship of the Sanhedrim: rise of the Mishnical doctors, 291.-ELEAZAR, the brother of Simon the Just,' succeeded him in the high priesthood at Jerusalem, and there executed this office fifteen years. But whereas Simon the Just had been also president of the Sanhedrim or national council of the Jews, he was in this last charge succeeded by Antigonus of Socho,3 to which he was recommended by his great learning: for he was an eminent scribe in the law of God, and a great teacher of righteousness among the people; and he being the first of the Tannaim or Mishnical doctors, from his school all those had their original who were afterwards called by that name. And these were all the doctors of the Jewish law from the death of Simon the Just to the time that Rabbi Judah Hakkadosh composed the Mishna, which was about the middle of the second century after Christ, as hath been before observed. In the Gospels they are sometimes called scribes, 1 Joseph. Antiq. lib. 12, c. 2. Chronicon Alexandrinum, Eusebii Chron. 2 Chronicon Alexandrinum. 3 Juchasin, Shalsheleth Haccabbala, et Zemach David. R. Abraham Levita in Historica Cabbala. sometimes lawyers, and sometimes those that sat in Moses's seat; for those different appellations all denote the same profession of men, that is, those who being bred up in the knowledge of the law of God, and the tradition of the elders concerning it, taught in the schools and synagogues of the Jews, and judged according to it in their Sanhedrims for out of the number of these doctors were chosen all such as were members of those courts, that is, either of the great Sanhedrim of seventy-two, which was for the whole nation; or of the Sanhedrim of twenty-three, which was in every city in Judah. And such were Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea, and Gamaliel; and in respect hereof it is that they are called elders, counsellors, and rulers, because being of the number of those who were chosen into these councils, they did there declare and execute those laws by which they ruled and governed the people. Jewish traditions concerning Simon the Just.-The Jews tell us great things of this Simon the Just, and speak of great alterations that happened on his death in some parts of their divine worship, and the signs of the divine acceptance, that had till then appeared in the performance of them for it is said in the Jerusalem Talmud, that "all the time of Simon the Just the scape-goat had scarce come to the middle of the precipice of the mountain, from whence he was cast down, but he was broken into pieces; but when Simon the Just was dead, he fled away alive into the desert, and was eaten of the Saracens. While Simon the Just lived, the lot of God in the day of expiation went forth always to the right hand; but Simon the Just being dead, it went forth sometimes to the right hand, and sometimes to the left. All the days of Simon the Just the little scarlet tongue looked always white; but when Simon the Just was dead, it looked sometimes white, and sometimes red. All the days of Simon the Just the west light always burnt; but when he was dead, it sometimes burnt, and sometimes went out. All the days of Simon the Just the fire upon the altar burnt clear and bright, and after two pieces of wood laid on in the morning, they laid on nothing else the whole day after; but when he was dead, the force of the fire languished in such manner, that they were forced to supply it all the day. All the days of Simon the Just a blessing was sent upon the two loaves 3 and the shew-bread; so that a portion came to every priest to the quantity of an olive at least; and there were some who did eat, and there were others to whom something remained after they had eaten their fill: but when Simon the Just was dead, that blessing was withdrawn, and so little remained to each priest, that those who were modest withdrew their hands, and those who were greedy still stretched them out." For the explication hereof it is to be observed, that on the great day of expiation, which was a most solemn fast among the Jews, kept every year by them on the tenth day of their month Tizri (which answers to our September),5 two goats were brought into 1 Mishna et Gemara Hierosol. in yoma. 4 2 That is, the most western of the seven lamps of the golden candlesticks, which stood in the holy place in the temple. That is, the two wave loaves offered in the feast of Pentecost, of which see Levit. xxiii. 15-21. That is, the twelve loaves of shew-bread, which were placed upon the shew-bread table in the holy place every Sabbath, and taken away the next Sabbath after, and divided among the priests that then officiated. See Levit. xxiv. 5-10. Mishna in yoma. Maimonides in yom Haccipurim. |