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Nothing can be plainer than that the writer is, in that passage, pursuing his topic of just commendation on the wisdom and benignity of the Mosaic laws. After adducing many instances from the Pentateuch, he passes on to the motive which had such a powerful effect in producing the inflexible attachment of the Jews to their law, and their readiness to endure every extremity rather than violate it: and this he declares to be a full belief, attended with the testimony of a good conscience," the lawgiver having foretold, and God having afforded the strong assurance (τὴν πίστιν ἰσχυρὰν παρεσχηκότος), that to those who keep the laws, and, if necessary, cheerfully die for them, God has granted to be brought into existence again, and in return (ÉK TEρITρoπis) to receive a better life." The unbiassed reader cannot but perceive that the lawgiver is Moses, and that the Tioris loxupa is the strong faith or persuasion in the mind of the individual, that God will, according to his promise, reward him in the life to come. Пlioris is manifestly the abstract of πεπίστευκε in the preceding clause. Dr. J. though his habitual attention to the association of ideas, as an instrument of philology, ought to have preserved him especially from this oversight, has not perceived the correspondence of the two words, and has translated the clause," God having confirmed it by a decisive pledge." On this he comments;—" The only decisive pledge which God has given of this assurance is the resurrection of Christ: to this, therefore, Josephus must allude." (Eccl. Researches, p. 551.) In a more recent paper he has very properly improved his version into "God has afforded a mighty proof;" but still refers it to the resurrection of Christ. (Mr. Valpy's Classical Journal, vol. xvii. p. 201, March, 1818.) To serve his hypothesis in another respect also, Dr. J. renders έK TEρITPOTÑS, "after a revolution of years," (Eccl. Res.) and, growing bolder in the Classical Journal, "after a revolution of ages:"* whereas the phrase is as predicable of a short, as of a long, portion of time, and merely denotes that the happiness of the martyr should succeed his sufferings. It is even more favourable to the idea of an imme

More recently still, he has adopted the words, " after a period." (Monthly Repos. June, 1818, p. 558.)

diate succession, than of one interrupted by any considerable period. Budæus has well illustrated the phrase. « Περιτροπή, circumactus et quod Latini dicunt, in orbem aliquid facere. Hoc Græci ἐκ περιτροπῆς. Basil. Homil. viii. Πῶς μὲν ἁι γέρανοι τὰς ἐν νυκτὶ φυλακὰς ἐκ περιτροπῆς ὑποδέχονται. Liv. iii. 35. Quum ita priores decemviri servassent, ut unus fasces haberet, et hoc insigne regium in orbem, suam cujusque vicem, per omnes iret." Budai Commentarii Ling. Gr. Bas. 1557, col. 589. See also Livy, i. 17.

SECT. V.

ON THE JEWISH RABBINICAL WRITINGS.

THAT the Jews in the middle ages, and their successors of the present day, have looked for only a human Messiah, it would be superfluous to prove: nor will any one attribute value to their opinions and interpretations, who adverts to the defiance of all reason and common understanding which appears in their avowed notions and expectations. While they reject the rational evidences and doctrines of Christianity, there are no absurdities too monstrous for them to pretend, at least, to believe; or too revolting, for them not to inculcate upon each other. SUCH is the "blindness which hath happened unto Israel.!”*

But it is not impossible that, in the writings of this unhappy people, some remains may be discoverable of their better and earlier faith.

In the Talmudical writings, frequent and ho

*See Mr. Allen's Modern Judaism: a faithful account of the puerilities and miserable superstitions which the unhappy Jews prefer to the reasonable service of Christianity.

nourable mention is made of Rabbi Simeon the son of Jochai, who is said to have been a disciple of Akiba, and to have been born before the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus. A collection of Cabalistical Doctrines, called the Book ZOHAR, or the Book of Light, is extant, which is affirmed to have been gathered up after Simeon's death, from his oral instructions, by his pupils and companions; in the same manner as the sayings of Socrates were collected by Xenophon. This book is written in the Chaldee dialect, similar to that of the Targums; a dialect which became totally extinct by the fourth or fifth century of the Christian æra, and was succeeded, in Jewish literature, by the Talmudical Hebrew.* The cir

I have before me the edition of Sultzbach, 1680, a small folio of 368 pages, closely printed in double columns, and in the Rabbinical character. It has not a single word except in Hebrew or Chaldee, in the title or in any other part. Its title is "the Book Zohar ( Light or Illustration) upon the Law, from that holy and very venerable man of God the Tanna Rabbi Simeon, the son of Jochai.”—Tanna (、ın) is a Rabinnical title of honour, denoting a Teacher of the Mishna, or oral law.

"SIMEON, the son of Jochai, a very celebrated man among the Jews, was a scholar of the Rabbi Akiba, and flourished about the year 120. At the time of the insurrection excited by Barchocheba he fled, through fear of the Romans, and retired to a cave, where he concealed himself twelve years, in the course of which he is said to have composed the well-known work entitled "Sohar;" a cabalistic explanation of the five books of Moses; but, on account of the abstract metaphysical manner in which it is written, and the matter being clothed, according to the Egyptian method, in hieroglyphical images and very florid language, it is not easily understood. In regard to the antiquity of it, a dif

cumstance of its language and style is held, by those who are sufficiently skilled in the Hebraic dialects, to be decisive of its having been written at or very near the time to which it is attributed. The style is extremely obscure and enigmatical, so as to have deterred from its study almost all but the most profound and patient scholars in this department of learning. Some parts of the work, or interpolations, seem to indicate several dates. Being unable to read this book with sufficient intelligence, I have recourse to the more easy method of extracting passages from the ample collections of Schoettgenius. That eminent scholar devoted a large portion of his life to the study of the Zohar, and has made much use of it for the illustration of the New Testament, in his Hora Hebraicæ et Talmudica. He entertained the opinion that Simeon was a Christian, of the description of those "many myriads of Jews who believed, and were all zealously attached to the law."* Serious objections to this opinion were advanced by another Lutheran clergyman, Glæsener of Hildesheim and Schottgenius candidly republished his ference of opinion has prevailed; some assigning it to the tenth century and it is the more difficult to speak with certainty on the subject, as both parties seem to have possibility and even probability on their side. This much, however, can be said, that it contains things which are very old; but it is allowed by Christians, as well as Jews who held it in esteem, to be the production of more authors than one, and to have been enlarged, from time to time, by various additions." General Biography, by Dr. Aikin, Mr. Morgan, and others.

* Acts xxi. 20.

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