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nation in his time; and also perceiving that the captivity had already continued a long time; (he having lived about 100 years after the destruction of the temple;) and that those learned in the Oral Law began to decrease: And justly apprehending that the face of affairs might one day grow worse, he came to the resolution of compiling and digesting into one body, all those Doctrines and Practices of our church, which had been preserved and conveyed down to posterity by Oral Tradition, from the time of the Elders and the Prophets, the men of the Great Synagogue, and also the Mishnical Doctors down to his own time. these he committed to writing and arranged under six general heads, called Sedorim, orders or classes."-" As soon as the Mishna was committed to writing," adds the same learned Jew, "it was received by all our nation with a general consent, and was so universally approved of by them, that it was embraced as an authentic body of the LAW, (as it undoubtedly was, being delivered by God to Moses as an explanation of the Written Law, and handed down by tradition, as already shown,) and taught in all our public schools in the Holy Land, as also in Babylon."

The Gemaras are expositions of the Mishna; for the Mishna, being delivered in aphorisms or short sentences, as not being intended to be committed to writing, but delivered by tradition, was thought to need some larger explications to render it the more easy and intelligible. "This task," observes the author already quoted, "was begun within a short time after its first publication, by several of the most eminent and learned men in the nation, who, in their respective ages and schools, taught and expounded to their scholars the meaning of those short sentences, and illustrated all the difficult and less obvious passages of the Mishna, with proper and useful Comments; and those Comments and Expositions are, what we call Gemara, that is, the Complement, because, by them the Mishna is fully explained, and the whole traditionary doctrine of our

law and religion completed; for the Mishna is the text, and the Gemara is the comment, and both together is what we call the Talmud."-The comments thus collected by R. Jochanan in the third century of the Christian era, and appended to the Mishna, constitute, with it, the Jerusalem Talmud; and the comments and expositions collected by R. Ashe and his successors in the presidentship of the Jewish academy at Sora, and completed about the year 500, form, with the Mishna, the Babylonish Talmud; and are sometimes called the Talmud, though without the text, or Mishna. The Mishna, or text, is the same in both Talmuds, the difference being in the Gemaras or Com

ments.

The Mishna has been frequently printed separately, with and without commentaries:-two editions, in folio, were printed at Naples, in 1492, with the commentary of Maimonides, by Joshua Solomon of Soncini :-another edition, with the Comments of Maimonides and Bartenora, was published at Venice, A. D. 1606, in folio, and again with brief and useful scholia in 1609, in 8vo.-There have also been separate portions printed both by Jews and Christians; those by Christians are generally accompanied with translations, chiefly in Latin, except two titles or sections-Shabbath and Eruvin, in English, by Dr. Wotten, accompanied with learned notes, in a rare and valuable work, entitled, "Miscellaneous Discourses relating to the Traditions and Usages of the Scribes and Pharisees in our Blessed Saviour Jesus Christ's time." 2 vols. 8vo., London, 1718. The most complete and useful edition of the entire Mishna, is that by Surenhusius entitled, "MISCHNA, sive totius Hebræorum Juris, Rituum, Antiquitatum, ac Legum Oralium Systema. Heb. et Lat. cum Commentariis Maimonidis, Bartenora et aliorum: Interprete, Editore et Notatore, Guil. Surenhusio." Amst. 1698-1703, 6 volumes folio.-"This is a very

*

beautiful and correct work," says a learned commentator and bibliographer, "necessary to the library of every biblical critic and divine. He who has it, need be solicitous for nothing more on this subject."

The Talmuds, being compiled by men of various talents and learning during a course of successive ages, contain, as we might justly expect, many highly figurative illustrations of Jewish opinions, many extravagant and absurd expositions of Scripture, and violent invectives against Christ and Christianity, with numberless fabulous relations and additions to Scripture facts. The English reader who wishes to form an opinion of the ridiculous fables and monstrous absurdities, to be found in these volumes and other Rabbinical works, may consult the Rev. J. P. Stehelin's "RABBINICAL LITERATURE; or, the Traditions of the Jews, contained in their Talmud and other mystical Writings." London, 1748, 2 vols., 8vo.-The Talmudic writings have, of late, however, found an ingenious defender in Mr. Hyman Hurwitz, who, in an Essay prefixed to his "HEBREW TALES," has advocated the cause of the Hebrew writers with considerable ability and learning; and in the "Hebrew Tales" themselves has presented the reader with several pleasing and important apologues, selected from their writings, and conveyed in an elegant and spirited translation.

But whatever may be the judgment formed of the contents of the Talmuds, it must be matter of regret to every candid lover of literature, that they should have been so frequently and vigorously prohibited and suppressed; for, "if the Talmud was received with great applause by the Jews," says the Rev. J. P. Stehelin, "the Christians looked upon it as a book very pernicious, abounding with ridiculous fables, insignificant decisions, and manifest con

* Dr. Adam Clarke.

tradictions. The Emperor Justinian in his 14th Novel; Lewis the Saint, King of France in the year 1240.; Philip IV., King of Spain; the Popes Gregory IX.; Innocent IV.; Honorius IV.; John XXII.; Clement VI.; Julius III.; Paul IV.; Pius V.; Gregory XIII.; Clement VIII.; &c., forbade the reading of it. The Cardinal Inquisitors at Rome, by a decree made in the year 1563; and confirmed afterwards, in the year 1627, ordered all the copies of it to be burnt. In consequence of which, the famous library of the Jews at Cremona was, in the year 1569, plundered, and about 12,000 copies, as well of the Talmud, as of other Rabbinical books, committed to the flames." (Pref. p. 27.)*

Towards the close of the tenth or the commencement of the eleventh century, the Talmud was translated into Arabic by order of Haschim II., Caliph of Cordova, who committed the translation to R. Joseph, the disciple of R. Moses, usually called Moses clad with a sack, from having been thus meanly clothed when his great learning and talents were first discovered.

2. THE TARGUMS.

THE Chaldee word Targum means translation or interpretation, but is chiefly appropriated to the versions or translations of the Scriptures into the East-Aramæan or Chaldee dialect. For, after the Babylonish captivity, it was the practice of the Jews, that when the Law was "read in the synagogue every Sabbath-day," in pure Hebrew, an explanation was subjoined to it in Chaldee, in order to render it intelligible to the people, who had but an imperfect knowledge of the Biblical Hebrew.-There are ten Targums or Paraphrases still extant, on different parts of the Old Testament: These are,

See also "Illustrations of Biblical Literature," vol. i. p. 184; ii. pp. 179, 479; iii. p. 20.

1. The Targum of Onkelos; which was probably executed about the time of the Christian era, or a few years previously, as Onkelos, who was a Jew by birth and highly esteemed for his learning and probity, is said to have died eighteen years before the destruction of Jerusalem. "It is a strictly literal version, word for word, of the original text” of the Hebrew Pentateuch, into pure Chaldee. It was printed with the Pentateuch, in folio, 1482, Bonon.-The best edition will be found in Buxtorf's Hebrew Bible, 2 vols, Basil, 1620; or in the London Polyglott, vol. i. taken from the above, London, 1657, 6 vols. folio.

2 The Targum of Jonathan Ben Uzziel, on the Prophets; that is, on Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings, called by the Jews the former Prophets;-and Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the twelve minor Prophets, called the latter Prophets." This Targum is a paraphrase rather than a version, and contains many of the writer's own glosses on the text; besides which, several stories are inserted which discredit the work."-The author, Jonathan the son of Uzziel, who was nearly contemporary with Onkelos, is said to have been educated in the school of Rabbi Hillel, grandfather to Gamaliel, at whose feet the Apostle Paul was "brought up."-To attach the greater authority to this Targum, the Jews assert, that, whilst its author was composing it, there was an earthquake for forty leagues around him; and, that if a bird happened to pass over him, or a fly to alight on his paper whilst writing, it was immediately consumed by fire from heaven, without any injury being sustained either in the Rabbi's person or his paper! The earliest printed edition of part of this Targum was that published with the PROPHETE PRIORES, folio, Leira, 1494; but the whole was published by Buxtorf in his Hebrew Bible, folio, 2 vols., 1620. This, and the London Polyglott, contain the best editions of this Targum.

3. The Targum of the Pseudo-Jonathan, so called from being falsely ascribed to Jonathan Ben Uzziel, from whose