صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

into captivity; that some few families had migrated into regions more remote, as to Cochin and Rajapoor in India, and to other places yet farther to the East; but that the bulk of the nation, though now much reduced in number, had not to this day removed two thousand miles from Samaria. Among the Black Jews I could not find many copies of the Bible. They informed me, that in certain places of the remote dispersion, their brethren have but some small portions of the Scriptures, and that the prophetical books were rare ; but that they themselves, from the vicinity to the White Jews, have been supplied, from time to time, with the whole of the Old Testament.

"From these communications I plainly perceive the important duty which now devolves on Christians possessing the art of printing, to send to the Jews in the East, copies of the Hebrew Scriptures, and particularly of the prophetical books. If only the prophecies of Isaiah and Daniel were published among them, the effect might be great. They do not want the law so much. But the prophetical books would appear among them with some novelty, particularly in a detached form; and could be easily circulated through the remotest parts of Asia."

MANUSCRIPTS.

"Almost in every house I find Hebrew books, printed or manuscript; particularly among the White Jews. Most of the printed Hebrew of Europe has found its way to Cochin, through the medium of the Portuguese and Dutch commerce of former times. When I questioned the Jews concerning the old copies of the Scriptures which had been read in the Synagogues from age to age; some told me that it was usual to bury them, when decayed by time and use. Others said that this was not always the case. I despaired at first of being able to procure any of the old biblical writings; but after I had been in the country about six weeks, and they found I did not expect to obtain them merely as presents, some copies were recovered. The White Jews had only the Bible written on parch

ment, and of modern appearance, in their Synagogue; but I was informed that the Black Jews possessed formerly copies written on Goat Skins; and that in the Synagogue of the Black Jews there was an old Record Chest into which the decayed copies of their Scriptures had been thrown. I accordingly went to the Synagogue with a few of the chief men, and examined the contents, which some of them said they had never looked at before, and did not seem greatly to value. The manuscripts were of various kinds, on parchment, goat-skins, and cotton paper. I negociated for them hastily, and wrapped them up in two cloths, and gave them to the Jews to carry home to my house. I had observed some murmuring amongst the bye-standers in the Synagogue, while I was examining the chest: and before we appeared in the streets, the alarm had gone forth, that the Christians were robbing the Synagogue of the Law. There were evident symptoms of tumult, and the women and children collected and were following us. I requested some of the more respectable Jews to accompany me out of the town; but I had scarcely arrived at my own house at Cochin, when the persons who had permitted me to take the manuscripts, came in evident agitation and told me I must restore them immediately to calm the popular rage. Others had gone to complain to the Chief Magistrate, Thomas Flower, Esq. And now I had lost my spoil, but for the friendly counsel and judicious conduct of Mr. Flower. He directed that all the manuscripts should be delivered up to him, and that there should be no further proceedings on the subject without his authority. To this the Jews agreed. There was some plea of justice on my side, as it was understood that I had given a valuable consideration. In the mean time he allowed a few days to pass, that the minds of the people might become tranquil, and he then summoned some of the more liberal men, and gave them a hearing on the subject. In the mean time I thought it prudent to retire from Cochin, for a day or two, and went to Cranganor, about sixteen miles off, to Colonel Macaulay, the British Resident at Travancore, who was then at the house of Mr. Drummond, the

collector of Malabar. On my return to Cochin, Mr. Flower informed me that all the manuscripts were to be returned to my house; that I was to select what was old, and of little use to the Jews, and to give back to them what was new. The affair ended however in the Jews permitting me generously to retain some part of the new.

'I have since made a tour through the towns of the Black Jews in the interior of the country, Tritoor, Paroor, Chenotta, and Maleh. I have procured a good many manuscripts, chiefly in the Rabinnical character, some of which the Jews themselves cannot read; and I do not know what to say to their traditions. A copy of the Scriptures belonging to the Jews of the East, who might be supposed to have had no communication with Jews in the West, has long been considered a desideratum in Europe; for the Western Jews have been accused by some learned men of altering or omitting certain words in the Hebrew Text, to invalidate the argument of Christians. But Jews in the

East, remote from the controversy, would have no motive for such corruptions. One or two of the MSS. which I have just procured, will probably be of some service in this respect. One of them is an old copy of the Books of Moses, written on a roll of leather. The skins are sewed together, and the roll is about fortyeight feet in length. It is, in some places, worn out, and the holes have been sewed up with pieces of parchment. Some of the Jews suppose that this roll came originally from Senna in Arabia; others have heard that it was brought from Cashmir. The Cabul Jews, who travel into the interior of China, say that, in some Synagogues the law is still written on a roll of leather, made of Goats' Skins dyed red; not on vellum, but on a soft flexible leather; which agrees with the description of the roll above mentioned.*

Ever since I came among these people, and heard their sentiments on the prophecies, and their confident hopes of returning to Jerusalem, I have thought

*Mr. Yeates, formerly of All Souls College, Oxford, and editor of the Hebrew Grammar, has been employed by the Author for the last two years at Cambridge, in arranging and collating the

much on the means of obtaining a version of the NEW TESTAMENT in the Hebrew Language, and circulating it among them and their brethren in the East. I had heard that there were one or two translations of the Testament in their own possession, but they were studiously kept out of my sight, for a considerable time. At last however they were produced by individuals in a private manner. One of them is written in the small Rabinnical or Jerusalem character; the other in a large square letter. The history of the former is very interesting. The translator, a learned Rabbi, conceived the design of making an accurate version of the New Testament for the express purpose of confuting it. His style is copious and elegant, like that of a master in the language, and the translation is in general faithful. It does not indeed appear that he wished to pervert the meaning of a single sentence; but depending on his own abilities and renown as a scholar, he hoped to be able to controvert its doctrines, and to triumph over it by fair contest in the presence of the world. There is yet a mystery about the circumstances of this man's death, which time will perhaps unfold the Jews are not inclined to say much to me about him. His version is complete, and written with greater freedom and ease towards the end than at the beginning. How astonishing it is that an enemy should have done this! that he should have persevered resolutely and calmly to the end of his work! not indeed always calmly; for there is sometimes a note of execration on the Sacred Person who is the subject of it, to unburden his mind and ease the conflict of his laboring soul. At the close of the Gospels, as if afraid of the converting power of his own translation, " he calls Heaven to witness that he had undertaken the work with the professed design of opposing the

:

Hebrew and Syriac MSS. brought from India. His collation of the roll of the Pentateuch above mentioned is now finished, and will form a volume in quarto. The University has, with great liberality, resolved that this book shall be printed at the expence of the University, for the benefit of Mr. Yeates; and Dr. Marsh, the learned Editor of Michaelis, has wrttten a note on the antiquity and importance of the manuscript, which will form a Preface to the work.

N

Epicureans; by which term he contemptuously means the Christians.

I have had many interesting conferences with the Jews on the subject of their present state; and have been much struck with two circumstances, their constant reference to the DESOLATION of Jerusalem, and their confident hope that it will be one day REBUILT. The desolation of the Holy City is ever present to the minds of the Jews, when the subject is concerning themselves as a Nation; for, though without a king and without a country, they constantly speak of the unity of their nation. Distance of time and place seems to have no effect in obliterating the remembrance of the desolation. I often thought of the verse in the Psalms, "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning." They speak of Palestine as being close at hand, and easily accessible. It is become an ordinance of their Rabbins in some places, that when a man builds a new house, he shall leave a small part of it unfinished, as an enblem of ruin, and write on it these words, Zecher Lachorchan, i. e. In MEMORY of the DESOLATION.

"Their hopes of REBUILDING the walls of Jerusalem the THIRD and LAST time, under the auspices of the Messiah, or of a second Cyrus, before his coming, are always expressed with great confidence. They have a general impression, that the period of their liberation from the Heathen is not very remote; and they consider the present commotions in the earth as gradually loosening their bonds. "It is," say they, “a sure sign of our approaching restoration, that in almost all countries there is a GENERAL RELAXATION of the persecution against us." I pressed strongly upon them the prophecies of Daniel. In former times that Prophet was not in repute among the Jews, because he predicted the coming of the Messiah at the end of "the seventy weeks;" and his book has been actually removed from the list of prophetic writings, and remains to this day, among the Hagiographa, such as Job, the Psalms, the Proverbs, Ruth; but he now begins to be popular among those who have studied him, because he has predicted that the final "accomplishment of the

« السابقةمتابعة »