prefly forbid them all farther access to it. And the more The Jews effectually to clear it of its Jewish inhabitants, he caufed a forbid to prodigious number of them to be fold at two different come to it. fairs (D), at the common price of horfes; and ordered the remainder to be transported into Egypt. After this the Itate Vaft numof the Jews became one of the moft melancholy that can be bers of them fold. imagined; and being thus doubly excluded the entrance into the holy city, they were forced to content themselves with in feveral others which were become venerable to the Chriftians. But the greatest indigni. ty to the Jews was his ordering a hog to be carved, and fet up over the gate that led to Bethlehem; not fo much in token of their flavery to the Romans, as an ancient father imagined (41), as becaule that creature was forbid by the Mosaic law, and abhorred by all the Jews. (D) One of these fairs was annually kept on the plain of Mamre, facred for having been the place where Abraham had often pitched his tent, and where he received the three heavenly guests (42). It was called the fair of Therebinthus, from the famous oak which grew there, and which the vulgar tranflates by that name, though the Hebrew word Elah rather fignifies an oak, elm, or large tree. However that be, St. Jerom tells us, that it was ftill ftanding in his time, and much reforted and reverenced by Chriftians and Jews; and Hegefippus tells us, that it had ftood ever-fince the creation,and been famed for being a place of great refort by merchants of all the neighbouring nations. This oak, or Terebinth, Jofephus and ·(41) Hieronim Chronol. in an. 137. Bell. Jud, l. iv. c. 7 Euf. loc. Hebr. 396. (45) De bis vid. Triftan. com. Bafnag. ub. fup. c. 12. §. 34. Eufebius place about fix miles from Hebron (43). St. Jerom only two miles from it, and Sozemen about fifteen ftades (44). St. Jerom adds, that this fair was ftill kept in his time, but that the Jews were ashamed to come to it, on account of fo great a number of their nation having been expofed to fale at it (45). Those that could not be fold here were sent to Gaza, where was another celebrated fair; and the reft were fold into Egypt, where they foon grew numerous. In memory of this fignal overthrow of the Jews, the emperor ordered a medal to be ftruck, with the figure of a woman holding two naked boys, and facrificing upon an altar, with this legend; Adventus Aug. Judeæ; or, The arrival of the emperor in Jadea. There is likewife another of the fame emperor, on which Judea is reprefented like a woman kneeling, and holding a hand up to him, with three children, one of them naked, and all in a fuppliant pofture; and reprefenting thereby the fubjection and mifery of the Je nation (46). (42) Vid. Genefis xviii. 1, & feq. (43) (44) Hiflor. I. ii. c. 4 (45) In Sopbon. p. bift, Adrian. Frenber. de numifonat. cenfu. beholding A bard beholding it, though with floods of tears, from fome of the neighbouring hills; neither could they obtain this liberty from the Roman foldiers, but by dint of money. The Mount of Olives, in particular, was often feen covered with men and women, with their clothes rent, bewailing the ruin of that once famed metropolis. SOME other impofts we find laid on them for the liberty tax laid on of their religion; particularly for that of reading the facred them. books, circumcifing their children, &c. Concerning which, authors, both Jews and Christians, vary; but which are not worth dwelling longer upon. As for the Jews of the east, they seem to have fared much better; for, though Trajan had carried on a war against them as far as Mefopotamia, yet Adrian, upon his coming to the empire, having confented that the Euphrates fhould be the boundary of the Roman empire on that fide; those beyond the river had no other share in the war we have been speaking of, except that many of them came over to affift their brethren, and ferved only to increase the number of the flain and conquered on this fide (E). THE laft remarkable thing in this century is, the comTudah Hakka piling of the Mishnah by Judah Hakkadofbh. He was the fon dofh com- of Simeon furnamed The Juft, and the third Patriarch of the piles the Jews. He fucceeded him in that dignity, and was born in Mishnah. the city of Tzipori, or Sephoris (F), and flourished during the reigns (E) This laft fuppofition is founded on what Dio infinuates, that the Ferus did every-where rife up against the Romans, and that the world was in an univerfal uproar. From which, we may conclude, that many of thofe on the other fide of the Euphrates came over, either to help their brethren on this fide, or in hopes of plunder, and hatred to the tyrannous Remans. And indeed, confidering how wafted Palestine had been in Trajan's reign, it is fcarce credible they could be fo numerous and powerful in that of Adrian, under whom the number of thofe that were deftroyed (47) Ecclef. i. 9. vid. Gantz Tzemach, §. 107. ther reigns of three emperors, who were great enemies to the Christians, but very favourable to the Jews; viz. Antoninus Pius, M. Aurelius, and Commodus; the firft of whom came to the crown, A. C. 138; and the latter died An. 194. So that he quietly enjoyed his patriarchate 45 years *. He be came very confiderable on account of his fanctity, and much An account more for his great learning, and prefided over the great aca- of that work; demy of Tiberias, lately mentioned, with an uncontrouled authority. During which time he had had frequent occafion to decide controverfies of the highest nature, and gained a very great reputation by it. But he was esteemed above all for his celebrated book called the Mishnah, or repetition of the law, and ftiled by the Greeks Deuteronomy, or fecond law; a fhort account of which the reader may fee in the margin (G). This work was fo much the more neceffary at that ifius, in fix vol. fol. an. 170z. ,סדר מועדים ,The fecond Seder Mohadim, ordo feftorum, ther, fo that, according to them, (G) We fhall need fay the lefs of this famed treatife, becaufe it hath been fince tranflated into Latin by Surenhufius, with the notes of the learned Maimon, Barthenera, and Gu proceeding in them. The fifth, 770, Seder Kedoshim ,Seder סדר קדשים ordo fanctorum, and treats of fa- (48) Page 130, & feq. fub note (C). thof when wrote. that time, because the nation, having been forced to undergo fuch frequent difperfions and viciffitudes, had, in a great meafure, and would have ftill more, forgot the oral traditions about the rites, laws, and cuftoms, of the ancient Jews, which were become very numerous by this time, unless they were committed to writing, and digefted into one body or fyftem. And this he did with fuch fuccefs, that all the Jewish academies have fince followed him without any deviation. The time of his writing this book is varioufly conjectured. The most probable opinion is, that he finished it about the year of Chrift 180, or about the 44th year of his life, when he was in the flower of his age; and had, by long experience, been enabled, himself, to decide the most arduous queftions of the law. Judah's THE great reputation and authority which his learning character, and works had gained, did, however, even according to the Jewish writers, fwell him up into fuch a height of pride, as little thor hath likewife added to the This code or body of oral different decifions of the ancient doctors, concerning which a man is at liberty to take which fide he pleafes, whether, for inftance, thofe of Hillel or Shammai. 4th, On the maxims and fayings of the prophets and wifemen, which are on that account ftyled the hedges or fences of the law; but from which the rabbies do often swerve, though in the main they hold them in great esteem. 5th, On the ancient rites and cuftoms, which have fince gained the fanction of a law, and are made by it equally obligatory. This is the fum of that fo much boasted treatife, which is therefore styled a body of civil and ecclefiaftical rights of the Jews, and as a collection of their oral laws, rules, &c. However it is likely this book was not published, or, at leaft, received immediately, fince we find mention in Hegefioppus of fuch oral traditions being ftill appealed to and canvaffed towards the latter little answered his title of faint (H). He even indulged it to his dying hour, by the difpofal of all the places and titles under him; and among them, that of Kacham, or wife man, to one of his fons named Simeon; that of chief of the fynagogue to Chanina; and that of prince, or chief, to his eldest fon Gamaliel III (I). He likewife ordered his own funeral to be performed in the most fumptuous manner, and that his body should be carried about through the moft confiderable cities, and there bewailed after the Jewish manner. A great Exceffive concourse, we are told, accompanied the funeral pomp from all the adjacent parts. What they farther relate of it, the reader may fee in the margin (K). 1 Vid. Oth. Hift. doctor Mishnic. & auct. ab eo citat. p. 161. end of this fecond century. Those who want a fuller account of it may confult the Latin verfion above-mentioned, and the authors quoted in the margin (49). All that we shall fay farther about it is, that it muft not be confounded with the talmud, which was not compiled till a long time after; and of which we thall speak in its proper place. (H) He was the first that set up his own authority above that of the fanhedrin, and its decifions, which, till then, those chiefs were fubject to; infomuch that one of that council, named the fon of Lachi, having ventured to difpute it, and to affirm, that a chief ought to be whipt if he tranfgreffed, Judah im mediately fent officers to apprehend and bring him to a fevere punishment; which he found no way to escape but by a fpeedy flight. How can it therefore be fuppofed, that a man of such proud and ungovernable spirit should ever own the authority of the chiefs of Babylon to be fuperior to his, as the Ba- (I) These were the three (K) They tell us, that, the' the people flocked to the folemnity far and near, yet the day was fo far prolonged, that they had all time enough to get home, and light a candle against the next day, which was the Sabbath; and the Bath kol was heard to declare them all faved that had affifted at it; one only excepted, who thereupon, fall ing into defpair, put an end to his own life (50). (49) Bartoloc. Bibliot. Rab. tom. iii. Bafnage's Hift. Jud. lib. iii. c. 3. Cal met. fub vos. mifona, Prid. Connect. part i. lib. 5. (50) Vid. Gantx, & al. fup, itat, ap. Othm. & Bajnag, ub. fup. HE pride. |