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that he copied fome fentences out of each: for we are told, that even the tranfcribing of a fentence out of Deuteronomy, v. 9. doth entitle one to the title of having wrote that book. Both those disciples received the impofition of hands from their master, and both were chiefs of the academy of Tiberias, to the great mortification of one of their fchool-fellows, named Sceman Bar-Abba, who almoft broke his heart for not being raised to that dignity.

• BARTOLOC. tom. iii. p. 673.

right. We fhall pafs by fome of those which are chiefly levelled against Christians, which not only oblige the Jews to curfe them in their prayers, morning and night, but encourage the greatest inhumanities against them. It is indeed to be hoped that those who are living under the protection of our mild government, will look upon themselves as lefs bound to fuch uncharitable precepts, and we may fay, in fome meafure, fo contrary to the Mofaic law ; but how much the authority of the Thalmud is to be preferred to that, may appear from the following ftory taken out of it, and with which we fhall close this note. It is as follows:

A certain heathenish king, named Pirgandicus, having invited eleven of the most celebrated Jewish doctors to fup with him, and received them with a fuitable magnificence, put it to their choice whether they would feed upon fome fwine's flesh, or have carnal converfation with pagan women, or to drink wine that had been offered to idols; after mature deliberation, they chofe the laft, as being only forbid.

den by their doctors; whereas the two former were so by the law. Accordingly the king obliged them with fome excellent wine, confecrated to the gods, of which they drank very freely. The table, which ftood upon a hinge, being turned about, and covered with fwine's fiefh, they fell to it without further enquiry; and, after a full meal, being alfo well heated with wine, they were conducted to bed, where they found fuch handsome women as they were not proof against; and it was not till after a found fleep that they became fenfible of their gradual violation of the law, in that threefold manner. As a punishment for it they died all within the year, and of a fudden death, for having tranfgreffed the precepts of their doctors; thinking that they might more fafely do it than break the written law. And accordingly the Mishnah pronounces them more guilty who tranfgrefs the words of their wife men, than those who tranfgrefs the words of the written law (20). And R. Eleazer, being queftioned by his difciples upon his death bed about the fureft way to life, answered,

(20) Tract. Sanhedr, c. x. m. 3. tom. iv. p. 25,

Tura

Jews in HITHERTO the Jews had lived in peace and happiness, danger un- but were like to have fuffered a moft dreadful perfecution der Helio- in the reign of Heliogabalus. That whimsical prince, it gabalus ; feems, caufed himself to be circumcifed, and abftained from

fwines flesh, out of devotion to his gods; and this he had probably learned from fome Jews, in whose neighbourhood he had been brought up, and with whom his family, particularly his aunt Mammea, was very intimate. All this, however, could not have faved them from his fury, had he not been affaffinated by his foldiers, before he could bring his mad project about, of making his god Heliogabalus, as Lampridius tells us he defigned to have done, the only object of men's worship all over his Empire; for the Jews would have fuffered the fevereft perfecutions rather than have joined in it. But this danger was foon over, and they began again to feel the effects of peace under the empire of his successor. In high fa- THE mild difpofition of Alexander Severus, joined to the vour with prejudices he had imbibed in his youth, in favour of that Alexan- nation and of their religion (E), made him fhew fo much der Seve- favour towards them, that the then wits ufed to give him

rus.

the title of Archifynagogue of Syria. He was no less an admirer of the Christians, and imitated the method of both, of

Turn away your children from
the study of the written law,
and let them liften to the words
of the wife men; that is, to the
Thalmud. The reafon they give
is no lefs fingular; for, fay
they, the prophets and infpired
writers were obliged to prove
their doctrine by miracles;
whereas the wife men have
no need of fuch proofs, God
having enjoined his people
(Deut. xvii. v. 10. et feq.)
to do according to that which
they fhall fhew them, and
to act acccording to all they
fhall injoin them, &c. and for
this reafon it is another maxim
of the Thalmud, that there can
be no peace of confcience for
those who forfake the ftudy of
it, for that of the facred writ-
ings. And thus much fhall
fuffice to give our English rea-
ders a notion of the nature of

the two Thalmuds, and of their authority among the Jews.

(E) That prince had received fuch a strong tincture of Judaifm from his mother Mammea, that tho' he never forfook the worship of the heathen gods, yet he had adopted into their number Abraham, the father of the faithful and patriarch of the Jews, and would have done the fame by Jefus Chrift. This, indeed, was a strange medley of religion, and feems to have been a kind of refinement on Heliogabalus's wild project, only with this difference, that Severus forbore all kind of violence, and strove to promote it by mild and gentle means. As to the title of Syrian Archi-fynagogue, it was given him as being a native of that province, and on account of his fingular favour to the Jews *: * See Ancient Hift. vol. xv. p. 358, & (N).

proclaiming,

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proclaiming the names of thofe officers whom he fet over his provinces, as thofe did by their chiefs and bishops, to the end that thofe under them might have it in their power to accuse them, when their behaviour deserved it. He was no less fond of the negative maxim common to Chriftians and Jews, which he often repeated, of not doing that to others which we would not have done to ourselves: but he feems to have been ignorant of that pofitive and more. excellent one, peculiar to Christ and his disciples, Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye alfo unto them, or elfe it is not to be doubted but he would have given it the preference.

His fucceffors fuffered the Jews to live in peace and full liber- Peaceable ty, particularly Philip, who, being born in Arabia, had been under his converfant with, and was a great favourer of them, as well fucceffors. as of the Chriftians, and, in whose time the famed St. Cyprian wrote his treatise of Testimonies, in which he mentions a vast number of prophecies which were fulfilled in Jefus Chrift. Among the Jews flourished the famed R. Scefciah, who, Learned tho' blind, became famed for his learning, and held several rabbies in disputes against the Chriftians, and particularly opposed their this cen praying towards the Eaft. They attribute two works to tury. him; one a cabalistical expofition of the Sephiroth, the manufcript of which was kept in the library cf Heidelberg; and the other a Targum, or paraphrafe on the facred books P. As Decius raised a perfecution against the Chriftians, out of fpleen to Philip who had protected them, fome have thought that the Jews bore a fhare in it; but, as the difference between the Christians and the Jews was better known by this time than it had been formerly, it is more likely these escaped it. That which raged afterwards in Valerian's reign against the Chriftians, hath been thought by fome to have been in a great measure owing to the Jews; and Dionyfius of Alexandria tells us, that that prince was ftirred up to it by the archifynagogue of Egypt. But it is probable that our author hath given that title to the chief' of the magicians, out of hatred to the Jews; for it was really an Egyptian magician that induced him to it, and it doth not appear that the Jews had any hand in it.

We have now gone thro' the hiftory of the western Jews Eastern during the three firft centuries, it is now time to pafs over Jews, the Euphrates, and give fome account of the eastern ones; their fate. of their princes or chiefs; of their captivity; their aca

P SAGHI NAHOR ap. Bartoloc. Bibl. Rabb.

MOD. HIST. VoĻ. XIII.

N

demies,

1

demies, and most celebrated doctors in them; and fuch other transactions relating to them as we think worth our reader's notice. And this place is so much the more proper to begin their hiftory in, because it is in the third cenChiefs of tury, and not before, that these chiefs and doctors began the capti- to make a figure, and to found their most celebrated academies; we therefore think, for the reasons hinted in the margin (F), that this new dignity did not introduce itself in

vity.

(F) We have already fhewn fhewn how fond the Jewish writers are of giving the preference to thefe Babylonife chiefs, above the patriarchs of Tiberias, on account of their being of the royal blood of David, and the perfons to whom the title to the Jewish fcepter belonged. In confequence of which, their leffer chronicle, or Seder Holam Zeathu, hath given us a lift, or series of them from king Jeconiah, who was carried away captive into Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar †, and was afterwards releafed out of his prifon by Evil Merodach his fon, in the firft year of his reign, and fet above the rest of the captive kings (21). To him that chronicle gives nine fucceffors, viz. 1. Salathiel his fon, under Bel Shazar. 2. Zorobabel his fon, who brought back that capti. vity under Cyrus 3. Mefullam his fon, under whom prophecy ceafed, and who died in the time of Alexander the Great. 4 Hananiah, under the reign of Salmon, Alafcan, and Maparis, kings of the Greeks (fo they call Piolemy, the fon of Lagus, Seleucus, and Caffander). He died, according to them, an. 140 of the era of the Seleucida. 5. His fon Barachiah,

*

+ See Anc. Hift. col. iv. p. 185, See inc.. Hift. vol. x. p. 178, & feq.

under that Ptolemy, who caused the fcriptures to be tranflated into Greek, who died 170 of the fame æra. 6. His fon Hafadia, an. 175, when Nicanor was defeated by the Jews. 7. Ifaiab his fon. 8. Abdiah his fon, who died in Herod's reign; and Shamaja his fon, who makes up the 10th generation of the royal line fince David. From this they give us a regular series of 31 more, beginning at Shechaniah his fon, who died an. 160, after the deftruction of Temple, or 236 of Chrift, down to Azariah, the brother of Jacob Phineas, the 41ft and laft of those chiefs, who made up accordingly to that chronologift, the 89th generation. We shall not trouble our readers with a lift of them, which is palpably faulty in many refpects, and hath little elfe, except their bare names, and here and there fome fynchronism; of which we shall give an account in the sequel; and now and then one of those new chiefs who chose to be buried in Judea.

But were this lift ever fo authentic, with relation to the regular fucceffion of those families, yet, with respect to their power, dignity, or figure, the Jews don't pretend to it, know

feq.

(21) 2 King. c. ult. v. 27, & feq. n.t. (C.

in Babylon till the time of Huna, the fon of Nathan, there mentioned,

ing well enough that many of thofe to whom they gave the pompous titles of Nai, Prince, Rofh, Chief, and others of the like nature, lived in the utmost indigence; efpecially during their flavish fubjection to the Parthians, Romans, &c. and bore those titles more on account of their merit, either for learning and fanctity, than on that of their figure or authority.

But what farther confirms that this dignity did not begin till the epoch which we mentioned, is, that Jofephus, who wrote under the emperor Trajan, hath never once fpoken of it; and that Juftin Martyr, who is ftill later, objects against his antagonist Trypho, that his nation had neither king nor chief. Is it probable the latter would have let him triumph over him thus if the cafe had been otherwife? and would he not have retorted to him this fucceffion of chiefs, if he had known of any fuch being ftill preferved? We may add, that thofe chiefs above-mentioned are only known by their names, except R. Nathan, who is there faid to have come from Babylon into Judea in the patriarchate of Simon, the father of Judah the faint, and became celebrated there, not only on account of his being chofen AbBeth-Din, at Tiberias (22), but likewise for some works he publifhed there. But is it probable that he would have exchanged his dignity of chief, or prince

of the captivity at Babylon, if he had been in poffeffion of any fuch, for that of fecond in the Jewish Sanhedrin; and at a time when Palestine was ruin'd by the wars that had raged in it, and by the avarice of Domitian? Had his dignity and authority been fo high at Babylon, is it likely he would have come fo far to be chosen to one fo inferior to it at Tiberias. But, by what appears, his father was chiefly diftinguished in the former, for the immenfe, riches and credit, which he had acquired at the court of the Parthian kings; on which account the Jews, according to their conftant cuftom, had given him fome pompous title. Nathan, therefore, feems ra

ther to have come to Tiberias in fearch of learning, and fome honourable employment, which he had not before, to add new merit to his wealth; and, hav. ing stayed there a confiderable time, upon his return to Babylon, he refolved to fet up fome dignity there alfo, answerable to the patriarchate of Judea. What confirms it is, that he lived very long, feeing he is numbered among the Thalmudifts, or commentators on the Mijhnah; which fhews that he cannot be well fuppofed to have come to Tiberias till after the conclufion of the war, lately mentioned under the emperor Adrian, or about the reign of Antoninus Pius.. However, after his return home, the wars between the Romans and the Parthians, under the

(22) De boc. vid. Anc, Hift. vol. x. p. 245, & feq. (T). Vid. Bafnag. ub. fup. l. viii. c. 3.

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