no being till many hundreds of years after the time in which it is pretended the book was written, neither was it heard of, or ever quoted by any author, till above a thousand years after that time. Solomon

Jarchi, a French Jew, who flourished about the year of our Lord 1140, is the first that makes mention of it. After that it is quoted by Aben Ezra, Abraham Ben Dior, and R. David Kimchi, who all three lived in the same century. After this it became generally owned by the Jews, and hath obtained that credit and esteem among them, as to be held, next the sacred writings, a book of principal value among them; and was one of the earliest of their books that hath been published in print by them. For it was printed at Constantinople, in the year of our Lord 1490, which was within fifty years of the first invention of that art; and hereon it became so generally received and valued by that people, that, twenty years after, there came out another edition of it from the same place, and after that a third edition at Venice, A. D. 1544. What Munster hath published of it is no more than an epitome of this author; but the whole of it is in the Constantinopolitan and Venice editions. It is divided into six books and ninety-seven chapters. The best that can be said of it is, that it is written in an elegant Hebrew style, and therefore on this account is very fit for the use of young students in the Hebrew language. But as to the subject matter, it is every where stuffed with apocryphal and Talmudic fables; most of that, which is not of this sort, is taken from the true Josephus ; but it is to be observed, that what the impostor takes from him is from the Latin version of Ruffinus, and not from the Greek original, which leads him into several blunders. But who this author was, or where or when he wrote his book, is uncertain. Scaligers conjectures, that he was a Jew of Tours in France; but his reason for it being only, that he speaks more of the places about Tours, than of any other parts of France, this doth not prove the thing. But it being

g In Elencho Trihær. Nicolai Serrarii, cap. 4.

sufficiently proved, that the book is an imposture, it is of no moment to know who was the true author of it, or where or when he lived. Mr. Gagnier, a French gentleman now living in Oxford, hath lately given a very accurate Latin version of this work, according to the best edition of it. It is to be wished that his learned pains had been employed about a better author.

For several hundred years after the destruction of the temple of Jerusalem, where Josephus ends, no other Jew hath written any history of the affairs of that people, till about the tenth century after Christ. But the sect of the Karraites (who, adhering only to the written word, rejected all traditions) then prevailing, and often pressing their Rabbinists, their antagonists in this controversy, to make good the succession through which they pretended to have received their traditions, this did put several of their learned men upon the hunt for it; and they having raked through both their Talmuds, and from them gotten together some historical scraps to serve for this purpose, with these poor materials have endeavoured to compose something like an history of their nation, giving an account therein, how their traditions were delivered down from Moses to the prophets, and from the prophets to the men of the great synagogue, and from the men of the great synagogue to the doctors, who afterwards, in a continued series, handed them down from one to another, through after generations. Of this sort they have some few historical composures among them, but such as are very mean and contemptible. They all begin from the creation of the world, and, as far as the Scriptures of the Old Testament go, they write from them, but often interpose fabulous glosses and additions 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 Judea, 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 four first 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. Buxtorfh 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 reacheth 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 Binach,) 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 in

h Bibliotheca Rabbinica, p. 386.

serted with some other historical fragments in the editions of Juchasin. He was Achmalotarch 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, that is, A. D. 1037, the Mahometan king that then reigned over Babyloniai expelled the Jews out of all those parts, and thereon all their schools and academies which they had there, were dissolved, and all the degrees and titles of honour, which on the account of learning used to be conferred 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, ten hundred and fifty-three 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 Levita1 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

i 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. k The chiefest of their academies were Naherda, Sora, and Pompeditha, towns in Babylonia.

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. VOL. III.

3

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 an history of the Jews, much larger than all the four abovementioned 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 Jechajah, 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 an 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 Gantz, 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 any thing better be expected from their other writings. If any thing of ancient history be found any where in them more than what is scriptural, it is either taken from one of the histories which I have 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 shewn.