«f r" ^4 ^^^^iC%\^'^'^^ /. L THE FIFTY-THIRD CHAPTER IS AIAH( ''^'^^^^ -^ ^9^-4^ h>.. ACCOBDING TO THE JEWISH INTERPRETERS 11. TRANSLATIONS BY S. R. DRIVER AlfD AD.' NEUBAUER With an Introduction to the Translations BT REV. E. B. PUSEY Regius Professor of llebreiv, Oxford JAMES PARKER AND CO. T. 0. WEIGEL 1877 [J U nghU reserved ] OXFORD: BY E. PICKARD HALL AND J. H. STACY, PRINTERS TO THE UNIVERSITY. PREFACE. It is now more than two years since the Kegius Professor of Hebrew in this University invited Mr. Neubauer to undertake the task of editing a complete catena of Jewish commentaries on the remarkable chapter which has for ages formed one of the principal battle-fields between Christians and their Jewish opponents^. The request was gladly acceded to ; and the collection in the present volume comprises not merely commentaries strictly so called, but also extracts relating to the same subject from works of controversy and other sources, whether composed in Hebrew or in any of the other languages adopted by Jews from time to time in the varied homes of their exile. These are arranged, as nearly as possible, in chronological order. In the pages that follow (which, with the exception of a few additional references, are sub- stantially a translation of the Hebrew preface pre- fixed to the companion volume) will be found a » With the addition, naturally, of the tliree verses of the fifty-second apter, which have been unfortunately severed from it. a 2 IV PREFACE. list of the authors cited, with Mr. Neubauer's own account of the authorities consulted by him, and of the sources, whether printed or manuscript, from which in each case the text has been derived. 1. The Septuagint, accoi'ding to TischcndoiTs third edition (Leipzig, 1874), together with such fragments as remain of the 'revised' versions of Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion, as given in Dr. Field's Hexapla (Oxford, 1874)^. 2. The Targumc, or (so-called) Chaldee Paraphrase, of Yona- than ben 'Uzziel, according to the printed editions, and MSS. at Paris ('P.') and Oxford (' 0.') 3. Notices in the Talmud, whether of Jerusalem or Babylon, in the Midrash Kabbah, Tanhuma, and the Yalqut Shim'onid; also in Siphre (as cited by Raymundus Martini e in his celebrated work, the Pugio Fidei), and the P'siqtha (as cited by Hulsius, in his Theologia Judaica, 1643, from the 7DII np3X). ^ Here ought strictly to have been added the extract cited on p. 41 2, which shews that already in the time of Origen (190-250), the application of the prophecy to Israel dispersed in exile was not unknown among the Jews. <= Information respecting Jewish literature in general may be found in Jost, Geschichte des Judcnthumes und seiner' Secten (3 vols., Leipzig, 1857-9) ; Gratz, Geschiclite der Jxiden, second edition, more especially vols, v-ix ; Etheridge, Introd. to Hthrew Literature (London, 1856) ; and Steinschneider, Jewish Literature (London, 1857). On the Targums in particular, see tlie article in Smith, Diet, of the Bible, iii. p. 1637 ff". ; on the Talmud and other Rabbinical works mentioned under No. 3, instructive notices will be found in the preface to Neubauer's La, Geographic da Talmud (Paris, 1868) ; in Deutsch's Literary Remains (London, 1874); or Schtirer's Lehrhuch der neutestamentlichcn Zeitgeschichte (Leipzig, 1874), p. 35 ff., where the further literature is quoted, among which should be named in particular Zunz, Gottes- diemtlichc Vortrdge der Judcn (Berlin, 1832). Reference may also be made to the various articles, ' Midrash,' etc., in Kitto's Cyclopaedia. d Etheridge, p. 409. 0 Of this remarkable man, the learned and powerful antagonist of Judaism in Spain, in the second half of the thirteenth century, scarcely any account PliEFACE. V 4. The Zoliar. Although agreeing myself with the most recent Jewish historians, who assign this hook to a far later clatef and believing, in fact, that the writer lived unquestionably after the time of Nahmanides (see chap, xx), yet in deference to others, and amongst them Dr. Pusey, who are still of opinion that it is of much greater antiquity, and that its author was none other than the ' Tanna,' R. Shim'on ben Yohai, I have inserted the extracts from it immediately after those from the Talmud. In a parallel column is annexed a Hebrew version from a MS. in the Bodleian Library, Oxford (0pp. 107), made in the year 1602 s. 5. The Arabic version of the Ga'Dnl", 11. Sa'adyah, the earliest commentator whose writings are now extant (tenth century), according to the Oxford MS. (PoC. 32), This was published by Paulus (Jena, 1 790-1); some various readings from a MS. seems to exist in English. The Pugio Fidei, a monument of erudition and research, was first published, with elaborate notes, by De Voisin in 1651 ; quartum jam sacculum in pulvere sovdido cum hlattis et tineis Inctans Ray- mundus delitescchat, writes the Bishop of Louvain, who discovered the manu- script. There is another edition by Carpzov (1668). Compare Griitz, vii*. 1 63, who refers for further particulars to Quetif's Ewtoria ordinis Praedica- torum (Lut. Par., 1719), i. 397. It should, however, be observed, with refer- ence to the extract from Siphra. (p. 10), that the words relating to the Messiah are not to be found in the printed editions or in the Bodleian MS. 150 ; com- pare Jennings and Lowe, The Psalms {Book v), p. 239. But on the question of the accuracy of Martini's citations, and on the confirmation which some, at least,seem to derive from another source, see further below, pp. xxxii-xxxvi. ' Jost, ii. 291, iii. 74-79 ; and especially Griitz, vii-. 219 ff., 466 ff. ; Franck, La Cabhale (Paris, 1843); Etheridgc, p. 312. g See Neubauer, Catal. of Heb. MSS. in the Bodl. Libr., No. 1561. The Zohar was also translated from Chaldee into Hebrew in Spain, as appears from the Refutation of Alfonso di Zamora (1520) preserved in the Library of the Escurial : see Archives des missions sciodijiqiies et litteraires, 2™» serie, V. 428 (Paris, 1868). •> The designation given to the chiefs of the Rabbinical school at Sora, in Babylonia : Jost, ii. 25 2 ; Etheridge, pp. 213, 218. The name appears to be an equivalent expression to the Latin c.rcellcntia, used as a title of dignity. On Sa'adyah, see Jost, ii. 275-286 ; Gratz, v. p. 302 ff. VI PREFACE. recently acquired by the Paris Library (No. 1325) will be found ' in tlie Addenda. 6. The translation and commentary by the Qaraite>, Yepheth ben 'Ali-J, a contemporary k of Sa'adyah's, according to the MS., No. 569, in the Imperial Library at St. Petersburg. 7. The Midrash known as the Mysteries of E. Shim'on ben Yohai, and accordingly attributed to this writer, but compiled, as it would appear in fact, during the eleventh century. 8. A notice by R. Mosheh had-Darshan^ of Narboune (eleventh century), in his BresTiiiJi Rahhd — now, unfortunately, no longer extant™ — as cited by Eaymundus Martini °. 9. E,. Tobiyyah ben 'Eli'ezer (contemporary of E. Mosheh had- Darshano) in his work, the Leqah tob, according to the printed edition. I o. E. Sh'lomoh Yizhaqi, the celebrated French commentator, born about 1030 at Troyes, more familiarly known as EashiP. Appended is a fragment no longer to be found either in the printed books or in MSS., but attributed to Eashi on the authority of Eaymundus Martini {Pug. Fid. pp. 311, 429). ri. The Commentary of E. Yoseph Qara, likewise a French scholar, according to MSS. at Paris and in the Laurentian Library at Florence. These, however, were all injured and partly erased ; and it was only after the greater part of both ' On the Qaraites, the name borne by those Jews who reject the traditions of the Talmud, see Jost, ii. 294-381 ; Griitz, v. 174 ff. J His translation of the Psalms has been edited by the Abbe Barges (Paris, 1846). ^ See Pinsker, LicJcute Qadmoniot (Wien, i860), i. p. 169. ' I. e. 'the Preacher :' Etheridge, pp. 423, 427 ; see also Zunz, p. 287. "» See R. Sh'lomoh Buber in the Maggid, 1872, p. 2S1. " It is possible that this also may be the BWeshith lidbha and Q'fannah cited by Alfonso di Zamora : see Archives, etc., loc. cit. ° Zunz, loc. cit. The composition of the Leqah tob was begun, according to a note in the Oxford MS. (Hunt. 397), in the year 1097 : see the new Catal. of Heb. MSS. in the Bodleian Library, No. 162. p See Zunz, Zeitschrift fur die Wissenschaft des Jvdenihums, Berlin, 1823, p. 277 ff.; Griitz, vi. p. 77 tf. PREFACE, Vll volumes were in type that I was fortunate enough to find the missing portions in a MS. in the possession of my friend Herr Raphael Kirchheim. These will be found in the Addenda (Hebrew, p. 398 ; English, p. 569). 1 2. The Commentary of R. Abraham Tbn 'Ezra, according to the printed editions and MSS. at Paris, Parma, and Rome. In the Addenda, p. 400, are given readings from some more accu- rate MSS. employed by Lanado, and also from one which I met with myself in the Library at Leeuwarden. It is expected that before long 'Ibn 'Ezra's entire commentary on Isaiah will be published under the editorship of Dr. Friedlauder 1. 13. The Commentary of R. David Qamhi [Kimchi], according to the printed text, and MSS. at Oxford. The Seplier ha-Galuy of his father, referred to by him both in his Commentary and also in his ' Book of Roots,' of which all previous enquirers have supposed no copy to be in existence, I discovered recently in the Vatican Library (No. 402). The author composed it at the age of sixty years : it consists of a series of grammatical observations on the works of M'nahem ben Saruq, of Dunash ben Labrat, and of R. Ya'qob Tham ; there are annotations to it by Binyamin (ben Y'hudah 1). I hope at a future time to be in a position to publish it. As to the Book of the Covenant, by the same author, also referred to by his son, a controversial treatise bearing that title has been published at Constantinople under the name of Yoseph Qamhi ; it does not, however, contain any- thing relating to the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah. 14. An extract from the fifth chapter of the Wars of the Lord, a work attributed in the Oxford MSS., Mich. 269, Bodl. 58, to R, Ya'qob bar Reuben, the Rabbanitef, and stated to have been composed by him in the year 1 1 70, when he was twenty, or, accord- ing to the acrostic at the end of the MS., when he was thirty-six years old. The MSS. Mich. 221, Mich. 113, 0pp. 581, have further 1 His translation has already appeared (London, 1874). ■■ The ' Rabbanites' are the opponents of the ' Qaraites,' so called because they acknowledge the authority of the doctors or Rabbis. Vlll PREtACB. been consulted : the last mentioned commences with the words, ' Says R. Sa'adyah Ga'on . . . ,' and styles the book the Refutation, which in fact is also the name by which it is denoted at the end of Mich. 269 : Mosheh Kohen cites it anonymously, and R. Shem Tob ben Shaprut (cf p. 97) ascribes it to R. Yoseph Qamhi. The work is divided into twelve chapters, a poxlion of the last of which has been jirinted". 15. The Commentary of Mar Ya'qob ben Reuben, the Qaraite (a contemporary of his namesake the Rabbanite), known as the Book of Riches. "For this a Paris MS. (' P.') has been used, collated through the kindness of Prof, de Goeje with a MS. at Leyden (' L.') 1 6. A translation with short commentary, composed in Arabic by an unknown author, on Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the Minor Prophets, from an Oxford MS. (Hunt. 206). At the end of Jeremiah, it is stated that the author completed it in the year 1 1 96. It follows closely the Tai'gum of Yonathan*. 17. A commentary by a French scholar from an Oxford MS. (0pp. 625). From some verses at the end it aj)pears probable that the author may have been R, Eli'ezer of Beaugenci", who >vi'ote likewise the commentary on Ezekiel, and possibly also the one on the Minor Prophets contained in the same MS.^ 18. An extract from the work Yosejph the Zealot by Yoseph ben Nathan, I'Official, of Sens, who lived about the middle of the thirteenth century w. The work exists in manuscript at Paris (' P.') and Hamburg (' H.') * At least, according to the assertion of Steinschneider, Catalogue of rrinted Hebrew Boolcs in the Bodleian Library, col. 2032 ; but I have not myself been able to find it, as in the volume referred to by him the leaves that must have contained it have been torn away. * On the commentary upon the Minor Prophets, see Merx, Archiv fur vnssenschaftliche Erforschunf/en des alien Testaments, i. ii. n Cf. Zunz, Zur Literatur und GescMchte, p. 79. " See the new Catal. of Ileb. MSS. in the Bodl. Libr., No. 1265. " Histoire litteraire de la France, xxi. p. 509. PREFACE. IX 19. From the Commentary upon I.saiali by Y'sha'yah ben Mali of Trani, the Elder, a contemporary of Yoseph ben Nathan's, according to MSS. at Paris (' P.') and Rome, in the Angelica Convent, C. i. 5 (' R.') 20. The exposition of E,. Mosheh ben Nahman of Gerona^ (about 1 250-1 270), according to MSS. at Oxford, Mich. 500 ('M.'), 0pp. Add. quo. Ill ('0.'), at Vienna ('V.')y, and two in the possession of Herr S. J. Halberstam of Bielitz (' H.^ H.^'), who kindly transcribed them for me. This exposition has been already published by Dr. Steinschneider at the end of his edition of the Wikkuah or Refutation of Nahmauides (Bei'lin, i860), as he states himself, from the manuscript Mich. 289 (now 500), though the text apj)ears to me to be derived from some dif- ferent source. An extract from the Wikkuah is annexed, from the MS. ' O.,' and the text as edited by Steinschneider ('St.') 2 1 . From the Commentary of Mar Aliaron ben Yoseph, the Qaraite, the Elder, author of the Mibhhar on the Pentateuch. The extract is taken from the Mibhhar Tsharim, edited by the late Abraham Firkowitsch (Eupatoria, 1836). A short addition from MSS. at St. Petersburg will be found on p. 400 (English, p. 571). 22. A section from the elder Nizzahon"^, as printed by Wagen- seil 'n\ his Tela Ignea Satanae (Altorf, 1681), p. 105. 23. Chapter 8, section 19 of the Touchstone of E,. Shem Tob ben Yizhaq ben Shaprut, of Toledo, which was finished in the month lyar, 1385, in Tarazona. This treatise is usually sub- divided into twelve chapters, being based upon the Wars of tlie Lord (see No. 14), which the author tells us in his Preface was assigned by some to Yoseph Qamhi. Three MSS. have been collated for this, viz. Mich, 113, Mich. 137 (from which I have extracted the Reply to Alphonso, p. 97), and Opj). Add. quo. 72. ^ See Gratz, vii. 41 flF. y For a collation of which I am indebted to the kindness of Dr. Gtidemann, Rabbi in that city. " So called in distinction from the later Nizzahon ( = ' Conquest') of R. Lipmann (No. 28). X PREFACE. I have also found an abridgment of tlie treatise by Abraham Eliyyah Kohen in the MS., 0pp. Add. quo. iii, fol. 68^, where the writer states that he made an abstract of the work composed by Shem Tob against the heretics, and in particular against certain of the Christians, and known under the name of the Touchstone, adding that a treatise bearing the same name had already been written previously upon different subjects. And on fol. 70b he informs us that the Cardinal of Aragon% who was elected Pope in the year 13 13, had a public controversy with the author. It has not been thought necessary to reprint this abridgment. 24 A. The Commentary of R. Mosheh Kohen Tbn Crispin of Cordova, afterwards of Toledo, also at one period of his life a resident at Valencia, where he composed an answer to a casuis- tical question. He also wrote notes upon the Gate of Heaven by R. Yizhaq Israeli. It is possible that these were his earliest work. 24 B. The forty-second chapter of the Aid to Faith of R. Mosheh ha-Kohen of Otor-Sillas [Torresillas] in the kingdom of Leon, and afterwards of Avila, composed in the year 1375, after a disputation held by him with two of his compatriots who had deserted Judaism, and who by permission of the king assembled the Jews together for purposes of controversy. He cites the Wars of the Lord, though without mentioning the author's name, and the Moreh Zedeq of Abner b. His own book he dedicates to the celebrated Don David 'IbnYa'ishc of Toledo. I at first was of opinion that the two recensions A and B were by the same hand, and classified them accordingly under one head; but I now feel hesitation upon this point, though the question cannot yet be regarded as definitely settled. Three ■^ I. e. Petro de Luna : sec the Wihhuah in the Paris MS., No. 831. 4. ^ I. e. Alfonso Burgensis de Valladolid, Gr.atz, viii. 337. "= Of the same family as, if not identical with, the Ya'ish who, in conjunc- tion with R. fllosheh Abodcl, pleaded the cause of the Jews before the king (Gratz, iJbkl. p. 341). PllEPACE. XI MSS. have been collated, viz. Bodl. 599 (' B.'), Micb. 147 ('M.'), and 0pp. Add. quo. 74 ('0.') 25. The Commentary of EnvTitten by him in answer to the convert Paulus Christianas in 1 2 7 4 v. This I have taken from the Vatican MS. 271, with which the printed text has also been collated for me by R. Mordekhai Angelo di Capua. /. From the Objections collected together and added to by R. Mosheh ben Sh'lomoh of Salerno (about 1240^), according to a Breslau MS., No. 59. g. From the 'Iqqarim of Yoseph Albo (1420), part iv, chap. 13. h. A poem by R. Israel (perhaps R. Israel Nagara, of Damascus, who lived about 1550), from the Oxford MSS., M. 310 and M. 189. i. From the Beginning of Wisdom, by R. Eliyyah de Vidas (1575), according to the Venice edition of 1593. j. From the Shield and Spear of R. Hayyim 'Ibn Musa, of ]Magi-eb, also from the Breslau MS. 59. For the transcription of the three last-named extracts I am indebted to Dr. Freudenthal, and the transcript has also been again collated with the original MSS. by Dr. David Kaufmann. k. A chapter of an anonymous Wars of the Lord, from a MS. in the Talmudical School at Amsterdam : in the course of it, mention is made of a commentary on the Old Testament by R. Ya'qob ben R'uben. This was tran- scribed and collated for me by the same scholars who kindly lent me their assistance for No. 29. I. From the Paris MS., No. 17. m. From a Parma MS., No. 1090. n. From the n Comp. Archives des missions, 1872, p. 556, and Gross in Gratz's Monat- schrift, 1875, p. 190. * Steinschneider in the Mazkir, xvi. p. 42. The Vatican MS. is often very difficult to read, and in many places has suflFered obliteration. w Mazkir, xv. p. 86. PREFACE. XVll Book of the Pious, Bologna, 1538, No. 56 (in other texts, No. 31). 0. From the Midrash Konen, following the old printed text, and Jellinek's Beth ham- Midrash, ii. p. 29. p. From the Ten Discourses of R. M'nahera 'Azaryah of Fano (about 1640), n. 7 of the part headed pT "\"lpn. q. Chapter 19 of the Gilgulim (' transmigrations') of K. Ha}^im Vital, r. From the Midrash Nelami, according to the Yalqut Ruheni ("Wilhermsdorf, 1681). s. From the later Yalqut, the portion styled Souls, t. From a controversial work contained in a Hamburg MS., according to UfFenbach's Catalogiie, fol. 146. u. From the Prayers for the First Day of the Passover, according to the order observed by the German Jews. v. From the Liqqutim, \vi-itten in Genuan, and printed at Amsterdam in 1699, p. 5^. w. From the Order of Prayer for the Day of Atonement, likewise according to the German Jews (Hebrew text, p. 394). x. From the Commentary on the Pentateuch (Deut. xxxiv, 10) by Levi ben Gershom (four- teenth century), y. From the i'XnB''' HVJ of K. Y'hudah ben B'zal'el of Pi-ague (sixteenth century). At this point it was originally my intention to bring the catena to an end ; but after conferring with Dr. Pusey, I deter- mined to add the following : — 48. From the exposition of the entire Old Testament, called the Korem, by Herz Homberg (Wien, 1818). 49. A Commentary on Isaiah liii, by JR. Ya'qob Yoseph Mord'khai Hayyim Passani, chief Rabbi at Rome from 1852 to 1867. A transcript was made from a JIS. belonging to the synagogue at Rome, by Signer Angelo di Capua, and sent to me by the kindness of Dr. Berliner. 50. From the Commentary on Isaiah by Samuel David Luz- zatto (Padua, 1867). Before passing to the Spanish texts, I may indicate briefly certain other commentaries which, although composed by Jewish hands, have yet for various reasons been omitted. Some are * This extract is not from the Fuente Claro, as Steinschneider strangely thinks, Catal. Bodl. col. 2798. b XVlll PREFACE. SO penetrated with ideas of a cabbalistic or haggadic nature as to be scarcely intelligible ; as, for example, the D3n TT\)T\ (pp. 16-19) of R. Hayj'im Kohen, the Dpy n"l33DO of R. Yoseph Pardo, the n'^B' (Y'shayah Hurwiz) and "i^DH pDy of R, Naphtali Herz Bachi-ach : others, such as those by the pupils of R. Mosheh of Dessau (Mendelssohn) and R.Yirm'yah Heinemann, are merely glossaries, or not original : a third class, again, such as that by R. Me'ir (Liebusch) Malbim, are wholly of a philosophical character, or resemble the 7N1B''' IT'iriN of the late Gottlieb Schwartz, which, in my opinion, does violence to the Hebrew idiom. Lastly, commentaries such as those of S. Cahen, Herx- heimer, or Philippson, being written in the vulgar tongue, and in the hands of every one interested in the literature of the Old Testament, it was evidently unnecessary to reprint. 51. Chapter 4 of the Fuente Claro (place and date of publica- tion unknown), the only known copy of which, now at Parma v, is exceedingly corrupt, not merely through the confusion of similar letters (such as 3, 3, and "1 ; n and n ; "I, T, and "i ; 13 and p), but also from the interchange of Spanish and Italian words, and the presence of frequent lacunae. These corruptions were so numerous, that it was impossible to indicate all the corrections that were needed in order to make the text readable, except in cases where they consisted merely in the filling up of the lacunae [ ]. It seems probable that the work was written originally in Hebrew. In decypbering this text I must acknowledge the assistance I have derived from my friend M. Joseph Halevy of Paris. In the Imperial Library at St. Petersburg (which I was recently commissioned by the University of Oxford to visit, for the purpose of reporting upon the second collection of Hebrew- Arabic MSS. acquired from the late M. Firkowitzsch), I was fortunate enough to meet with two commentaries of the gi'eatest value, viz. : — 52. The Commentary of R. Y'hudah ben Bil'ani (c. 1080) on y De Rossi, Bihliotheca Judaiea Antiehristiana, p. 33. PREFACE. XIX the Prophets. It is probable that Ben Bil'am's commentary embraced the Avholc of the Old Testament ; for part of that on Numbers and Deuteronomy exists in the Bodleian Librarj^ and I have found besides a leaf of his commentary on the Psalms in the second Petei-sburg collection (No. 6 1 9), and some from those on Job and Daniel (all written in Arabic) in the Vatican Library, No. 429. 53. The Commentary of R. Tanhum ben Yoseph, of Jeni- salem (thirteenth century). I must here acknowledge specially my obligations to the Vice-Director of the Library, M. A. Th. Bitschkow,. who most courteously permitted me the freest access to the MSS., and also to my friend Dr. Harkavy. 54. A. From the Khozari of R. Y'hudah hal-Levi (about 1 1 40). B. The Commentary of R. Sh'lomoh ben M'nahem, also known as Frat Maimon, and contained in his work, the Testimony to Israel, and cited at length in their commentaries on the Khozari, by his two pupils R. N'thanel ben N'hemyah Kaspi (MS. Mich. Add. 11, fol. 74) and R. Sh'lomoh ben Y'hudah (called also Salmon Vivas of Lunel), 0pp. Add. quo. 114, fol. 55. The composition of the latter commentary was begun in the year [5i]84 = i424, when the author was thirteen years old 2. 55. From the Commentary on the Prophets by R. Gershom ben Nathan, written in 1594 : the MS. is in the University Library at Upsala. Next follow three Spanish texts written in Roman characters, and the Latin of ben Amram. A. Chapter 41, in the original (see No. 39), from the Fortaleza del Judaismo y Confusion del estrano of R. Abraham, the Pros- elyte *!, of Cordova, according to an Oxford MS.^ This treatise is also to be found in Baron GUnzburg's Library, No. 467. ^ See Archives des missions, etc., 1873, p. 573. » Otherwise called Lorenzo Escudero, according to Dr. Kayserling, Sephar- dim, p. 255. *> Catal. Mortara, No. 167 ; Catal. Coxe, Canon. Miscell., No. 544, who says that, to judge from the hand, the MS. must belong to the sixteenth century. b 2 XX PREFACE. B. The 23r(l 'Question' on Isaiah from the Conciliador of R. M'nasseli ben Israel (a])out 1640), according to the Amster- dam edition of 1650, but with occasional corrections, the text as there given being disfigured by numerous errata. C. Chapters 24-28 from the Prevenciones divinas contra la vana Idolatria de /«9 (jentes of the physician Orobio de Castro, one of the persecuted Spaniards who, in order to be able to profess Judaism openly, migrated about the middle of the seventeenth cen- tury c to Amstei'dam, whei'e he composed this work in support of the Jewish faith. For the text I have followed an Oxford MS., 0pp. Add. fol. 29, and another which came into my hands from M. Montezinos in Amsterdam. For making the necessary cor- rections in the MS., previous to publication, I called in the assistance of Seiior Lucena, Teacher of Spanish in this Univer- sity. There is an abridgment of this treatise in Portuguese '', which I had acquired from M. Montezinos, and from which the French translation was made by Henriquez t' ; but as Portu- guese is less generally known than French, it was deemed sufficient to reprint the last chapter from the French trans- lation, according to the first edition. D. Sections 613-647, and 840, 841, fi'om the Gate of Truth, by R. Ya'qob ben 'Amram, written in the year 1634. The Hebrew original of this is unfortunately lost, and it exists only in a Latin translation, in a MS. belonging to Balliol College, Oxford, No. 251. On the first j)age are the words: 'Porta veritatis sive compendiaria via ad beatitudincm, autoi'C Jacob ben Amram Judaeo ; haec porta Domini, justi intrabunt per " See Gratz, x. p. 202. ^ Its title is, Explica^ao paraphrastica sohre o cap. 53 de profcta Isaias ..... feito jjor hum coriozo da nacao helrca em Amstenlam em 0 mez de Tisry anno 5435. See the Cardozo Catalogue, Amsterdam, 1870, No. 1376. " It has been printed twice: once in London, 1770, under the title Inrad vevr/e, on exposition naturelle des jiropMtiex h'hrairjues que les chreliens applifjuent a lenr pr^tendu Messie ; and in Paris, 1846. PREFACE. XXI earn (Ps. 117, v. 20). Auno de orbe condito, 5394*.' Latin is still so far from being in England a dead or unknown language that it has been deemed unnecessary to have this Commentary translated ; the text itself has, however, for convenience, been reprinted in the English volume. There still remain four other treatises to be alluded to. a. Tratado hecho for doctor \Elie\ Montealto sobre el capitulo 53 de Isahias, which likewise is in my possessions: this has been omitted, because it is merely a discussion on the sin of oar first parents, and not an exposition of the entire chapter. h. Declaragao do Cap. 53 de lesaya, by Yizhaq Montealto I': this I was unable to see, in consequence of the jealousy of its possessor ; it may possibly be a Portuguese version of one of the Spanish chapters mentioned above, c. The npi73 nn^oi, a commentary on Isaiah, by R. Hillel ben Ya'qob ha-Kohen (about 1500?); but this, as Dr. Perles has pointed outJ — and through ' The following curious note is inscribed on the cover : — An Advertisement. This manuscript was found in the library of the very learned Rd. Cudworth, D. D. Thence it came into the hands of my learned friend P. Allix, D.D., of whom I bought it. I have heard Dr. Cudworth say that he bought of M. ben Israel a AIS. for £10, and I believe this to be the same. It has been thought that M. ben Israel was the author of it. I cannot affirm that to be so. But I can affirm that I take it to be the greatest effort against Christianity that I ever saw in any language whatsoever. And for that reason I do declare that it is my will that it be not sold to any private person for any price how great soever, lest by that means it should be printed, without an answer, to the prejudice of Christianity. I rather will that it should be burnt, or given to some public library upon sufficient caution that it be never lent out of the said library, nor transcribed, but locked up by itself and consiUted upon occasion, in tlie library, by such only as shall be allowed by the owners of the said library. May g, 1700. Richard Bath and Wells. s Cardozo Catalogue, No. 1398. ^ Ibid., No. 1405. ' See Steinschneider's Catal. of the Hebrew MSS. at Munich, Cod. 365. J Griitz, Monatsschrift, 1875, p. 368. XXU PREFACE. the kindness of Eabbi S. Z. Taussig, the editor of the Q'hv niJ, who transcribed for me the portion relating to this Parashah, I am in a position entirely to confirm liis judgment — is nothing more than a cento from the earlier commentators, and in particular from Rashi and David Qamhi. It is possible that other passages relating to the same chapter may have escaped my notice ; any such which may be indicated by the kindness of critics, I shall gladly supply should aa oppor- tunity present itself. I cannot end this preface without acknowledging the obliga- tions I am under to my two friends, M. Senior Sachs of Paris, and Dr. Schiller-Szinessy of Cambridge, who have been of the greatest assistance to me while the Hebrew sheets were passing through the press. The above is a complete list of the texts wliich have been edited in volume i. For the translations occupying the present volume, with the excep- tion of those from the Spanish, the undersigned are jointly responsible ; for the revision of the translations of the Spanish commentaries, they are under obligations to Mr. H. J. Mathews, of Exeter College, Oxford, to whom they desire to acknow- ledge their best thanks for the aid which he has rendered. It has been the aim of the translators to render the various texts as literally as was con- sistent with English idiom, while at the same time reducing in some measure the diffuseness and tautology of expression not unfrequently charac- teristic of the original. They have refrained from offering any criticisms or comments of their own, PREFACE. XXUl even in cases where defective philology or palpably false exegesis might seem to invite or demand them. And, lastly, they feel that it is only just to record their grateful recognition of the assist- ance which, through the whole course of the work, they have derived from the diHgent and skilful eye of Mr. Pembrey, to whom the high character borne by the Oriental publications of the Clarendon Press has been for many years due. A. N. S. R. D. Oxford, December, 1876. PllEt'ACE. NOTE. Some explanation ought perhaps to be offered of tlic orthogT'aphy employed in the present volume in the transliteration of Hebrew words. The current forms of many of the more familiar Bible-names are derived, as is well known, through the Vulgate from those adopted by the Septuagint translators, and often deviate noticeably from such as would be in strict accordance with the present vocalization of the Hebrew text. It was felt that in a work in which unfamiliar names constantly occurring would of necessity call for exact trans- literation, an attempt might be made to remove the anomaly of conventional and unconventional forms appearing side by side, and at the same time to secure throughout forms more thoroughly in harmony with analogy and the structure of the language. When thus restored, for example, the proper names Simeon, Moses, Solomon, Isaac, Jacob, Samuel, Elijah, Isaiah, Sennacherib, become, respectively, Shim'on, Mosheh, Sh'lomoh, Yizhaq, Ya'qob, Sh'mu'el, 'Eliyyah, Y'sha'yah, Sanherib. In the citation of books of the Bible, how- ever, the usual orthography has been adhered to ; and in some other instances also uniformity has not been completely attained. It only remains to explain that ' represents, before a vowel, the soft breathing ; before a consonant, the slight e-sound almost necessarily heard between two consonants occurring together at the beginning of a syllable ; that ' represents the rough guttural 'Ain ; that t, z, q represent respectively Tet, Zade, and Qoph (as distinguished from Tau, Zain, and Kaph) : lastly, that j has of course disappeared, being replaced by y; and that Cheth {ch as in 'Loch'), to avoid mispronunciation, is represented by h. CONTENTS, Introduction to the English Translation Brief Extracts, in wliich the Jewish Commentators write (i) of the vicariousness of the sufferings mentioned in this section, (2) the actual death of the sufferer or sufferers, (3) of his or their continued intercessi on . Ixvi Additional Note . Ixxv I. — The Septuagint, Aquila, Symmachus, and Theoc otion 1 II. — Targum of Jonathan . 5 III.— Talmud :— a. Talmud of Jerusalem . . . . . 7 h. Talmud of Babylon 7 c. Midrash Rabbah . . . . . . 9 d. Yalqut ...... 9 e. Siphre . 10 /. Tanhuma ...... . 11 g. P'siqtha ..... . 11 IV.— Zohar . 12 V. — R. Sa'adyah Gaon ..... . 17- VI. — Japheth ben 'Ali . 19 VII. — Nistaroth of E. Simeon ben Yohai . 32 VIII. — R. Moses had-Darshan . 33- IX.— Leqah Tobh of E. Tobiah ben Eliezer . . 36 X. — E. Solomon Yizhaqi (Eashi) . . 37 XL — E. Joseph Qara ...... 41,569 XII. — E. Abraham ibn 'Ezra .... . 43 XIII.— R. David Qamhi (Kimchi) . . 49 CONTENTS. XIV. — R. Jacob ben Reuben, the Rabbanite XV. — Jacob ben Reuben, the Qaraite XVI. — Anonymous Arabic Translation . XVII. — R. Eliezer of Beaugenci ? . XVIII.— R. Joseph ben Natlian (I'Official) XIX. — R. Isaiah ben Mali (the Elder) XX. — R. Moses ben Nahman (Nachmanides) XXI. — Aaron ben Joseph (the Elder) XXII.— The Older Nizzahon . XXIII.— R. Shein Tobh ben Shaprut . XXIV. A. — R. Moses Kohen ibn Crispin XXIV. B.— R. Moses Kohen . XXV. — En Solomon Astruc . XXVI.— R. Isaac Elijah (Ali ?) Kohen . XXVII. — Anonymous Persian Translation XXVIIL— R. Lipraann (Yom Tobh) of Muhlhauscn XXIX. — Don Isaac Abarbanel XXX. — R. David de Rocca Martino XXXI. — R. Sa'adyah ibn Danan XXXII.— R. Solomon ben Melekh . XXXIII. — R. Abraham Farissol . XXXIV. — Anonymous .... XXXV.— R. Meir 'Aramah . XXXVI.— Isaac Troki .... XXXVIL— R. Moses Al-Sheikh . XXXVIII. — R. Solomon ben Isaac Levi . XXXIX. — R. Abraham, the Proselyte XL. — R. Samuel Laflado XLI. — The Qaraitic Tatar ic Translation . XLII.-:-R. Abraham ben Judah Hazan . XLIII. — R. Naphtali ben Asher Altschuler XLIV. — R. Solomon de Marini XLV. — R. Isaac Lopez .... XLVI. — R. Joshua Segre XLVII.— R. David Altschuler CONTENTS. XXVll Short Passages : — PAGE a. R. David ben Abraham, the Qaraitc . . 373- h. R. Jonah ibn Janah .... . 373 c. R. Moses ben Maimon . 374 * d. R. Meir ben Simeon . . 375 e. R. Mordecai ben Joseph . 378 ^ /. R. Moses of Salerno . . 381 g. R. Joseph Albo . 384 ;s h. R. Israel (Nagarah?) . 385 i. R. Elijah de Vidas . . 385 j. R. Hayyim ibn Musa . 386 k. Anonymous Book of Controversy . 388 I. Anonymous Marginal Glosses . 391 m. Other Glosses ..... . 393 n. The Book of the Pious . 394 0. Midrash Konen . 394 p. R. Menahem Azariah of Fano . . 394 q. R. Hayyim Vital .... . 395 r. Midrash han-Ne'elam . 395 s. Yalqut (the later) .... . 396 t. Anonymous Book of Controversy . 397 u. Liturgical Piece . . . . . . 398 V. Anonymous ' Buch der Verzeichnung' . 398 w. Liturgical Piece .... . 399 X. Levi ben Gershom . . . . . . 568 y. E.. Liwa ben Bezaleel . . . . . 568 XLVIII.— Herz Homberg . 400 XLIX. — R. Joseph Passani . 406 L. — Samuel David Luzzatto . 412 LI. — Anonymous ' Fuente Claro' . . . . . 429 LII. — Judah ben Balaam . . . . . . 550 LIU. — R. Thanhum of Jerusalem . . . . . 553 LIV. — The Khozari and its Commentators : — A. — Judah hal-Levi . 559 tv B. — R. Solomon ben Menahem • . . . 559 XXVIU CONTJiNTS. LV. — R. Gershom bcu Nathan Spanish, French, anh Latin Texts A. — Abraham Guev de Cordova B. — E,. Manasseh ben Israel . C. — Isaac Orobio do Castro . D. — Jacob ben Amram . Additions and Cobrections Index PAGE 564 436 436 450 532 569 573 INTEODUCTION TO THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION. The late pious Dr. Macbride, ever a great lover of the Jewish people, endowed (as is well known in Oxford) an annual Sermon on 'the Jewish interpretation of prophecy.' On one occasion when I was entrusted with preaching that Sermon, it occurred to me that we wanted larger materials than can be within the reach of most preachers. The extracts indeed from the older writers, which we still have, are copious, and more complete than they could be made in these days ». Kaymond Martini had before him MSS. which, under the mandate of the king of Arragou, had been brought together from the sjoiagogues within his realm. Eaymond de Peunafoi-ti had founded seminaries for the instruction of mem- bers of his order, iu Hebrew and Arabic, to promote the con- version of Jews and Mohammedans ^. James I, king of Arragon, commissioned Paulus Christianus c, 'of Jewish birth and in- structed among them in Hebrew literature d,' among others, to collect such MSS. as were to his purpose. Paul had gone about * Those passages only are collected here, in which this section of Isaiah is directly quoted. Wiinsche, die Leiden des Messias, has collected into one the passages on the sufferings of the Messiah from Martini, Schottgen, and the rest. Sometimes also the allusion to this section is contained in the characteristic word blO (liii. 4, 1 1) : as in the Pesikta Rabbathi, ' Our Rabbins have handed down, the fathers of the world will rise in Nisan and say to him, Ephraim Messiah our righteousness, though we are thy fathers, thou art better than we, because thou hast borne our iniquities and the iniquities of our sons (13':3 m:!?! "i^'miir nban), and many and hard judgments have passed over thee, which did not pass over the former or the later,' &c. (Schcittg. p. 133, the Hebrew in Wiinsche, p. 67) ; and in the account of a pious man, who, when asked why he took suffering on himself, said, ' He also must suffer something, since the Messiah bore the iniquities (m2iy bz^C) of Israel,' Chasidim, p. 60 in Hengst. Christol. ii. 351 ed. 2. ^ Acta Sanctt. Jan. 27, i. 212*", 419"'; Gratz, vii. 27. e Wolf, Bibl. Hebr. t. i. n. 191 2. ^ Clement IV in Carpzov's Praef. ; Griitz, vii. 131. XXX INTRODUCTION TO THE as a missionary, disputing with the Jews, undertaking to ' prove from the Bible and the Talmud, that Jesus was Christ and God «.' He knew then what to select : a king's command could not then be resisted in Spain, and penalties were annexed to its refusal f. So the books wliich IMartiui used, represent the texts, such as existed in MSS. of the Jewish synagogues in Spain in the latter part of the thirteenth century ^. They are spoken of as ' of the more recondite'!.' The latest historian of the Jews attests his capa- cities. ' ' He was solidly instructed in Biblical and Rabbinical literature, which he had certainly learned from a baptized Jew, perhaps from Paulus Christianus ; he read fluently the writings of the Agada, Rashi, Ibn Ezra, ^Maimuni, and Kimchi, and used therefrom what seemed to him calculated to prove that, not only in the Bible, but also in the Rabbinical writings, Jesus was announced as Messiah and Son of God.' The distinguished Jewish writer Ben Aderet, who wrote against himJ, objected nothing to the accuracy of his quotations. In his preface (in which he speaks modestly of himself k) he saj's ', ' I was enjoined to compose a work from the books of the Old Testament which the Jews receive, and from the Talmud, and the other writings authentic among them, — a poniai'd which should be at hand for Christian preachers and worshippers, either in their sermons to cut to the Jews the bread ^^ of the Divine word, or to put an end to their faithlessness,' &c. Jews of course must lay hold of any weak points in it ; but they own that '^ it for the first time introduced Christians into the Jewish world of thought.' I had hoped that the general statement of the character of Martini, and the circumstances under which he compiled his work, would have sufiiced. But he has lately been denounced as one 'guilty of impostures,' ' weW-mecmmg dishonesty' (as if dishonesty were not aggravated when the subject is the faith), ' audacious alteration of the text,' &c. An early father appealed to the heathen emperor as to the calumnies against Christians, ' o What you would not do, you should not suspect others of <^ Griitz, 1. c. ' Bosquet Ep. ad Voisin. in Carpzqv Theol. Jud. c. xii. K Martini was engaged in writing the tenth chapter of his second part in A. D. 1275 (Pug. Fid. fol. 316), but he must have collected his materials before he began. ^ •> ' Codices reconditiores,' Bosquet Ep. ad Voisin. in Carpzov, 1. c. p. 92. ' Griitz, vii. 163. J Id. ibid. p. 165, note. ^ Prooem. n. iv. p. 3 ed. Carpzov. ' Ibid. n. iii. "> The poniard being used as a knife for cutting bread. n Griitz, p. 164. ° Tertull. Apol. c. 8. ENGLISH TRANSLATION. XXXI doing.' Raymond Martini spent near forty years p in his labours for the extensioia of the truth, which he loved. Although we know him as a writer, yet writing was not his exclusive or prominent occupation. He is said to have been President of eight colleges, founded by the king of Arragon to promote the study of the Oriental languages for the conversion of Jews and Mohammedans i. He was also for a short time a Missionary in Tunis, where he was very acceptable to its king, and yet this, too, had its perils, for one of his colleagues became a martyr J". He declared his belief that our Lord » put it into his heart to begin his work, and he prayed Him to enable him to complete it in such wise as should be to the glory of God, the defence of the faith, the true and beneficial conversion of unbelievers, and to the eternal salvation of himself, the least of his order. It is best to speak plainly. Either Martini was what he has hitherto been accounted, an able and laborious and conscientious man with vast resources at his command, which have since been lost, or he was a forger, a liar, and hypocrite. There is no doubt of his ability. There is a saying that 'he spoke Hebrew and Arabic as fluently as Latin *.' Did he abuse these powers, lying in the name of God 1 Augustin Justinian, bishop of Nebio, in his preface to Porchet's * Victoria,' the materials of which Porchet professed to draw from Martini, says", '^Vliat labour, vigils, expense, helps are necessary to those who would penetrate the secrets of the Hebrews, I have myself experienced. But, being in whatever degree provided with all these, I have myself read in the monu- ments of the Hebrews a good part of what is cited by Porchet and Raymond, so that there is no room left for any doubt as to the truthfulness [fide] of their citations. Of this we can give fullest proof to any one by testimony of the books, from which this pi'ecious store was taken : almost all of which I have obtained for myself, and keep carefully, as kings do their jewels.' The loss of any book or books, in the time before printing was discovered, or the variation of texts, when they were only P He was appointed President a. d. 1250, died after a. d. 1286. His signature appears in a conventus, July i, 1284, Diago Hist. Praed. Arrag. ii. 28. 1 Herzog, Real-Encyclopadie xii. 570, Art. Raymund Martino. "■ Diago, 1. c. ' Praef. end, n. 18. * Herzog, ibid. ° Quoted in Carpzov's Praef. c. 12, p. 104. XXXii INTRODUCTION TO THE handed down by individual scribes, can siii'prise no one. In many subjects we have to regret our losses. In this little volume an exposition of Benjamin of Nehawend w, another of Saadyah Gaon X, both of them celebrated writers, are alleged. They must have existed in the eleventh centuiy, but are, as yet, lost. The remarkable saying of Joseph Ben Caspi, I believe, is known at present through the one writer who ([uotes him J', What would have been thought of Martini, had he quoted from a book^^ anterior to the Talmud, of which those who have previously quoted it are said to have alleged only one saying 1 A Jewish controversialist a, who himself supposes Israel to be the subject of the section, says, as an admission, that in the Talmud it is ex- pounded of the Messiah : ' It is not to be found in our editions.' Dr. Neubauer, who has recently been employed by the French Government to ascertain AA'hat remains there are of Jewish literature in Spain and Portugal, tells us, ' ^ There are not more than loo ISISS. in those countries, the seat of Hebrew learning of all bi'anches during five centuries (1040 to 1490).' All prq- _b9l)ly, which Martini used, must have perished. It is almost degi'ading to an author of accredited honesty to defend him on the ground that fraud would have defeated its own purpose. We use JSIartini as a repertorium of extracts from books which have been lost. But Martini wrote it to furnish materials for those of his own order, engaged in the like studies for the conversion of Jews and Mohammedans, but chiefly of the Jews. But the Jews had able controversialists. The books alleged were their study from eai'ly youth. To what end to use fraud which would be patent and rebound in the first disputa- tion 1 Passages quoted by Maitini are also quoted, indepen- dently of him apparently, by a Jewish convert, Hieronymus a S. Fide, who had his authorities from his own Jewish studies. He also quotes from a ' Geuesi magno antiquissimoc;' but his quotations, while agreeing in the main with those of Martini, vary from them, quoting sometimes a text more of Holy Scripture, w Quoted by Yepheth b. Ali; see p. 31. ^ Quoted by Ibn Ezra, p. 42. y Ibn Daniin, p. 203. ^ Tana d' be Eliyyahu, below, p. 385 ; see Wolf, B. H. i. p. 147. "■ Meir b. Shim'on quoting Sotah, § i, below, p. 377. '' Neubauer, Talm. and Rabb. Literat. p. 9, (an extract from tbe Annual Report of the Philological Society, London, 1876.) <= Hieron. Ix S. Fide contra Jud. i. 2, in Bibl. Max. Patr. t. 26, p. 533. ENGLISH TRANSLATION. XXXIU sometimes a text less, sometimes omitting a portion of his text, sometimes explaining it in his own words. Under his name before his conversion, Joshua Ibn Vives Allorqui, he is well spoken of by the Jewish historian, who mentions his expostulations under the form of enquiries from a former convert, well known as Paulus Burgensis ^. His book, according to the account of the same historian, was the basis of the celebrated disputation of Tortosa, which, amid many inter- ruptions, lasted for a year and nine months, fi-om Feb. 1 4 1 3 to Nov. 12, 1414, in 68 sessions c. The subject of the dispute was whether the position of Hieronymus, that the Talmud attested that Jesus was the Messiah, was true or no^. The Jewish historian says s, ' Hieronymus adduced the notorious Agada- passages out of the Talmud and other Jewish Avi-itiugs, to prove that most incredible thing, that the Talmud itself attested in some degree that Jesus was the Messiah.' He speaks of them as ' insipid.' He denounces in no measured terms the weakness of his argu- ments \ or (in the second part) the charges against the Talmud : but he speaks of him as ' the apostate well-read in Jewish literature',' and brings not the slightest imputation against tho accuracy of his citations. Hieronymus himself saysi, 'I intend by the grace of God to verify, that these 24 conditions were to be in the true Messiah promised in the Law, by authorities and glosses made by masters among the Jews and Talmudists whose words no one of the Jews ventured in any way to deny.' And they were not denied. But among these passages were some for which Martini has been denounced as a clever falsifi- cator. ^ Griitz, viii. pp. 82-84. o Ibid. p. 118. The book contained 24 conditions which the Messiah was to fulfil, as in Hieron. pp. 531, 532. Hieronymus' work is also divided into the same two parts: i. The testimony to the Messiah; 2. The allegations against the Talmud. ' Ibid. p. 120. B Ibid. •* ' Geronimo first elaborated a writing, to establish out of Jewish writings, that Jesus was the Messiah and was God. He brought together therein, all which his predecessors had produced of apparent proofs, sophisms, per- version of Scripture, resting on a confused and senseless interpretation, added thereto new senselessness, elevated naive, harmless, allusive Agada- passages to essential articles of faith.' ' The writing breathed a patristic and Rabbinic spirit,' 'he assailed Rabbinic Judaism with Rabbinic weapons.' Gratz, viii. 116-I18. ' Ibid. p. 114. i L. c. C XXXIV INTRODUCTION TO THE The quotation from the Siphre ^ and two from R. Mosheh Had- darshan ' occur in Hieronymus also, but with variations which shew that liis authority was independent of Martini. In the following volume a passage from the Talmud is quoted with an addition of two words. In this Martini's text is so clearly right, that it can hardly fail to be accepted. It is one in which names of the Messiah are enumerated. With one exception, each consists of a single word. ' Shiloh,' ' Yinnon ' (Ps, Ixxii. 17), 'Chaninah,' ' Menahem.' In the present text of the Talmud the other name has been made ' leprous of the house of Rabbi.' Such a name could only have found acceptance through the absence of good MSS. Martini's MS. restores the sense : ' The Rabbis say, " the leprous one " [with reference doubtless to an explanation of ver. 4 "i] ; those of the house of Rabbi say, " the sick one," as it is said, " surely he hath borne our sick- nesses." ' This clear case gives a favourable impression as to Martini's texts. Formerly, Christians used to charge the Jews with falsifying their MSS. : the tables ai'e now turned, and the charge has been made against Martini. There is no ground for these mutual , criminations. The Jews had a perfect right to enlarge or con- tract their texts, which were made for private use, so long as that ( text itself was not authoritative, as the Holy Scriptui-es. It is notorious that MSS. did represent their text more or less accurately. Even with printed books before him, Schottgen complained of the injuries which the text had undergone. Thus, he shews how, in a long passage, the Pesikta Rabbathi and the Yalkut Shimeoni fill up and coiTect one another i^. He restores the Pesikta, ' in a place veiy dislocated,' from the Eclia Rabbathi o ; and again in some degree out of the Yalkut p and fc Below, p. 10, quoted as Ziphrat in Hieron. i. 11. The spelling is throughout very bad ; but for it he is not responsible. The jiassage in the Siphr^ varying in the present editions, I would only add that Edzardi quotes two i)assages, in which mention is made of ' the merit of the Messiah ' (notes on the Pug. Fid. p. 866, 1. 7, in Wolf, Bibl. Hebr. iv. 632), and that the Talm. "lycann (Hebr. text, p. 9), 'afflicted himself,' is a Jewish, not a Christian conception of the Messiah (comp. mjynnbi Di^b ITebr. text, p. 35). Not knowing of the atoning death, they pictured voluntary self-affliction. • That beginning ' Says R. B'rekyah,' and that ' la the h&jinning' below, P- 33- ™ See Levy, Lex. Chald. p. 245. ° Horae Hebraicae de Messia, pp. 1 27-134. ° Ibid. p. 136. P Ibid. p. 172. ENGLISH TRANSLATION. XXXV the Rabbothn. He supplies from the Tanchuma what Martini quotes from his Bereshith Eabba '" : he restores from one edition of the Pesikta Sotartas what had clearly been omitted in another*. He shews how theTanchuma may be supplied out of the Bereshith Rabba, as quoted by ]\Tartini u, or how the Bereshith Eabba may be supplied in part out of the Yalkut, but more fully out of that of Martini "■', or from the Yalkut alone ^. He marks omissions in some editions x; he complains also of dislocation and corrup- tions of the Zohar y and the Tanchuma z. He notices variations of the ' son of David ' and ' house of David ' in different citations of the same passage » ; of the substitution of the Messiah ben Joseph for the Messiah ben David ^ ; the omission of IT'U'JO 17D c. He uses the modern critical canon, that the number of various readings imply con-uption^. Dr. Neubauer informs me that different collections and copies of Midrashim are more or less full, and that some have been lost. Indeed, I could not but , think, that Jewish writers who quoted them, generally had a \ larger range before them, than we have now. However, I would , say that I took upon myself the responsibility of requesting Dr. Neubauer to insert the quotations from Martini, and that he inserted them (as he placed the extracts from the Zohar) in consideration of my wishes, leaving it to me to defend them. Amid the vai'ious sources of human mistake, we are bound by the duties of our common humanity, not to assume the very worst, dishonesty ; but to believe what a person says that he saw with his own eyes. Enough has been said, perhaps, w^here demonstration on either side is impossible, since the extracts were made neai'ly six centuries ago, and the MSS. which Martini had before him have long since perished. To return. Besides this gi'eat and (as I believe on a study of near fifty years) accurate repertorium, drawn from MSS. before the invention of printing, and including extracts from works which have since been lost, are the large collectanea of Schottgen, as also those in Lightfoot, Sommer on the Theology of the Sohar, Glasener on the twofold Messiah, Edzardi's works, as also the careful monogi-aph of Dr. M^ Caul on Is. liii, and others. But while these brought within the reach of all, the older 1 Horae Hebraicae de Messia, p. 197. " Pp. loi, 103. s P. 141. * P. 97. " Pp. 72, 73. " Pp. 161, 162. " P. 164. » P. 182. y Pp. 109, 241. ' P. 74. » P. 227. '' Pp. 228, 229. " P. 231 and elsewhere. See other variations, ibid. pp. 237, 239, 240. ^ P. 159. C 2 XXXVl INTRODUCTION TO THE traditional interpretations, we seemed to me to have a less knowledge of the later Jewish mind, from the eleventh century onwards. It may be that, as, on all subjects in all nations, the original minds are few, and the mass of writings are but repro- ductions of the few, so it may be here. However, be this as it may, whether or no it shall appear that the more recent writers among the Jews, follow the few leaders, as Raslii, Joseph Kimchi (himself followed by his son David), Ibn Ezra, and Abarbanel, both in their own interpretations and in their objections to Christianity, I thought that we wanted fuller evidence of their mind. Those to whom most had access were very few in number ; and much remained to be added from MSS. Abarbanel, I found, quoted a commentary on this section by a celebrated writer, Moses ben Nachman®, which had escaped the vast knowledge of Wolf (Bibliotheca Hebi'aea) and De llossi. Dr. Neubauer pointed it out to me in the Michael collection of MSS. which he was cataloguing, as also another wholly unknown. Besides the additions from MSS., I expected that some of the printed works might be filled up or corrected by MSS. Pococke pointed out, more than two centuries ago^, by aid of the first edition of Kimchi g on the Prophets, and two Oxford MSS., that, from different causes, passages directed against Christianity had been suppressed in printed editions. But if we wish to know any one's mind, we must know it wholly. I requested Dr. Neubauer then to collect for me all Jewish interpretations of Is. lii. 13-liii. end, engaging myself to have them printed. This he willingly undertook, as an important literaiy work, and has executed Avith a fulness which could only have been attained by one with his extensive Oriental learning and knowledge of Jewish literature. Twenty-eight 1' of the larger extracts, and nine of the shorter, have been collected from MSS. in the Bodleian, and libraries of St. Petersburg, Paris, Piome, Florence, Parma, Leyden, Breslau, Upsala. Of the printed com- ments, the familiar names of Rashi, Ibn Ezra, Kimchi (and his epitome, the Michlal Yophi), Abarbanel, Moses Elsheikh, with those of R. Samuel Lanyado and R. Meir Aramah, were probably " It was printed by Steinschneider ; see Dr. Neubaucr's Preface, p. ix. ' Not. Miscell. ad Port. Mos. c. 8 ; Works, t. i. pp. 241-249, published A.D. 1653. ^ Ed. Pisaur., a.d. 151 5. ** The Fuente Claro is also taken from the one printed copy, which exists, J ENGLISH TILA.NSLATION. XXXVll alone in reach of most. Of these, Kimchi, Ibn Ezra, and Meir Ai'amah were collated afresh, and Saadyah Gaon's text was restored from the single known MS. (that now at Pai'is has heen acquired since). Tims far I should only have deserved the thanks of Hebrew and Arabic scholars for having suggested the work to one so competent to complete it, who has spared no pains in its execution. I incurred personal responsibility by requesting Dr. Neubauer to have his collection ti'anslated into English under his own superintendence. On the one side, the transla- tion, which has been done with gi'eat and accurate pains, made the collection accessible to those who, although idiomatically acquainted with Hebrew, and so, capable of availing themselves of it, had not had leisure to become Arabic scholars, or to read Rabbinical Hebrew fluentlj% and so could make little use of the originals. On the other side, the translation placed this amount of Jewish controversy (as it must be for the most part) within the reach of persons, men or women, who have not the knowledge required to estimate aright any one thing in the book. Yet in these days, in which almost everybody reads eveiything new, some might use it to confirm their unbelief; some might be discomforted by the repetition of denials of the faith in it. I was myself startled at the strength of Bishop Kidder's protest, and his feai-s of the effect of onei rather common-place work. Yet in these days anj-thing is but a drop in a raging sea. "While then I hope that this book may enable us to uudei'stand the better the difficulties of our Jewish brethren, I would, while (owing to the ciixumstances of the publication) I remain strictly on the defensive, briefly say, why this volume in no way shakes the evidence from this great prophecy, but rather illustrates it. It will be observed on examination, that next to nothing turns upon x-enderings of the Hebrew. The objections raised by Jewish controversialists in the following volume, in only four or, at most, five words J, turn on the language. Of this hereafter. ' See Preface, p. xxi. J I do not include ni' (lii. 15); tor although the interpretations are different, it is never mentioned in Jewish controversy, nor does anything turn upon it. mn is, in the Old Testament, uniformly used of' besprinkling,' most frequently of blood, but also of the oil, or water with the ashes of the heifer, in symbolic purification. All the meanings ascribed to it by Jewish interpreters are derived from the meaning ' sprinkle.' Two of the earliest, Aquila and Theodotion, have the technical word, used in the Greek of the XXXVlll INTliODUCTlON TO TllK The characteristics, iu which all agree, are, that there would be a prevailing unbelief as to the subject of the prophecy, lowly Old Testament of' sprinkling to cleanse,' pavriau. These render ' besprinkle' with the accusative of the person, which is, as Gesenius observed, implied by the proper name rTM\ 2. Others, in view of the temporal Messias whom they expected, supply ' sprinkle the blood of,' Yephcth (p. 21), Jehudah b. Bala'm (p. 550), Ibn Ezra (p. 44), Anonymous, xvi. (p. 64), or 'scatter,' Tanchum (p. 553), Aaron b. Joseph (p. 86), Ibn Crispin (p. 105, but explaining 'scatter 'as ' one who sprinkles blood'), Abarbanel (p. 190) ; 'expel, perhaps with bloodshed,' xxxiv. (p. 231), Moses Elsheikh (p. 262) ; ' sprinkle, so as to leave very few indeed,' Lanyado (p. 301), David Altschulcr (p. 367). 3. Others, in the same view, render ' scatter ' (as, in sprinkling, drop parts from drop), Symmachus (p. i), Jonathan (p. 5), Saadyah (p. 17); 'sprinkle and scatter,' Gershom (p. 564); 'expel and drive away,' Joseph Kara (p. 41), Ibn Mali (p. 75), Jacob b. Reuben, Karaite (p. 61), xvii. (p. 67) ; ' scatter,' Nizzachon vet. (p. 90), Naphthali Altschuler (p. 320), m. (p. 393), Herz Hom- berg (p. 402) ; 'scatter and conquer' (but admitting 2 and 6 to be possible), Abarbanel (p. 171); 'conquer,' Joseph b. Nathan (p. 72); 'cast down the horns of,' Rashi (p. 37), Abraham b. Judali (p. 314). 4. Derived from this, is 'rule,' Ibn Shaprut (p. 94), Christian in Mosheh Cohen (p. 115), and Mosheh Cohen (p. 117), Christian in Lopez (p. 341), and Lopez (p. 350) ; ' by his knowledge hold sway over them and gain admit- tance to the table of kings/ Meir Aramah (p. 241). 5. A few render 'teaching' (again, drop by drop). Others, 'will teach wholesome doctrine,' Jacob b. Reuben, Karaite (p. 61); ' his speech will drop upon,' Moses b. Nachman (p. 80) ; ' preach and prophesy,' Shelomo Levi (P- 279)- 6. 'Speak of (sprmkling words), Farissol (p. 223), or 'make to speak,' Ibn Danan (p. 207). 7. 'Make to speak,' J. and D. Kimchi (p. 50), Astruc (p. 130), Isaac Ehyyah (p. 140), Sal. b. Melech (p. 217), Troki (p. 256), Moses of Salerno (p. 381), Manasseh b. Israel (p. 437), Persian version (p. xi), Tataric Karaite version (p. xiv), Orobio (p. 484). 8. Segre is, of course, alone in thinking that ' nr is for r\^v, omitting the "1 for euphony ' (p. 301). I think all these renderings unidiomatic. In no language would a person say absolutely that he ' besprinkled nations,' meaning that he ' shed their blood,' or that he ' scattered them,' or that he ' taught them,' or that he ' ruled over them ; ' or that, he ' made them to sprinkle,' meant that he ' made them to speak of him.' Still, let any take which of them he willed, the general meaning would remain the same, that he, whom they once despised, did these things which were the acts of one, who had power over them, as a . whole. They, at the same time, by selecting one or other of these, shew that though some of them were Arabic-speaking Jews, the favourite modern explanation, made them ' spring for joy,' did not occur to them, as indeed Golius's ' exultavit prae hilaritate' (retained by Frcytag) is a slip for ' the ass sprung from its night's resting-place.' Luzzatto alone leaves the Hebrew tra- dition for the German with his 'made to leap,' 'startled,' pp. 414, 415. Though at variance with the uniform Hebrew meaning, it docs not affect the sense. ENGLISH TltiNSLATIOX. XXXIX beginnings, among circumstances outwardly unfavourable, but before God, and protected by Him ; sorrows, injustice, contempt, death, which were the portion of the sufferer ; that he was ac- counted a transgressoi-, yet that his sufferings were, in some way, vicarious, the ju! C. Cels, i. 55 ; 0pp. i. 370 Ben. xlu I^^TIIODLCTIOX TO TllL natious.' The stress is laid on the dispersion, not on the suffer- ing, (for the Christians were at this time, witli the Jews, the objects of persecution.) The Jew anticipated that his nation, not the Christians, were to be the converters of the world. But this was no fixed opinion as to the meaning of the section. S. Athanasius, archbishop of a city where the Jews, even after the mutual massacres of Jews and Romans under Adrian, were in considerable numbers, says, that the Jews inteq^reted Is. vii. 1 4 of one of themselves, and Deut. xviii. 1 8 of one of the prophets, and ' c as to the words, " He was led as a sheep to the slaughter," instead of learning from Philip, conjecture them spoken of Esaias or some other of the prophets, which have been.' In the dialogue between S. Gregentius, archbishop of Taphar in Arabia Felix, and Herbau, ' a teacher of the law,' about A. d. 54 2, when S. Gregentius alleged this section ^, Herban is reported to have expressed him- self as perplexed between the declaration of God by INIoses of His Unity and 'David and Isaiah [in this section] speaking in truth of him who is called Christ.' Benjamin of Nehawend, a pliilosopliic Karaite of much reputation (a.d. 800-8 20)^, still believed that the section related to the Messiah f. ' Many,' Ibn Ezra says s, in the middle of the twelfth century, ' explained it of the Messiah,' on the authority of a traditional saying of the Rabbis. These then must have lived posterior to those Rabbis, on whose authority they rested, yet prior to any extant author who quotes them. Saadyah Gaon, at the revival of the study of Holy Scriptui'e, interpreted the whole section of Jeremiah ^ ; Judah b. Balaam thinks this possible, and ridicules Moses ben Gecatalia's opinion that it might be Hezekiah \ The interpretation which survived the longest was that which explained of the Messiah the first three verses of the section. This also came to be objected to. The great traditional gloss J on the words lii. 13, ' The Messiah shall be "higher" than Abra- ham, "lifted up" above Moses, "loftier" than the ministering angels,' seemed too great to be intei-preted of a mere man. The Christians in theii- disputations with the Jews, alleged them as <= Against Arians, i. 55, p. 259 Oxf. Tr. ^ Dial. ii. in Gallandi B.P.xi. 614. ® Griitz, Geschichte d. Juden, v. 203, 204; and Note 17. iii, Note 18. ii. ' According to Yepheth b. Ali (below, pp. 19, 31). e Below, p. 43. •» Ibid. ' Below, p. 551. J Abarbanel quotes it from 'the Midrash of R. Tanchuma,' p. 165. In Martini's time it was in the Bereshith Rabba on Gen. xxviii. 10. It is quoted from the Yalkut, p. 9. ENGLISH TRANSLATION. xliii only fulfilled in Jesus, since ' they cannot be true,' Abarbancl k repoi-ts tliem, ' except of the First Cause, who is loftier than the loftiest.' Apart from those who quote the saying, without explaining its meaning 1, they said, — 1 . That the words did not mean ' greater than,' but ' great from ™,' i.e. that the person sj)oken of derived his greatness from Abraham, !Moses, and the ministering angels, i. e. that these assisted him to his greatness. The chief writer who so explains it, says that ' the rendering " above" gave occasion to error on the part of the heretics [Christians], pointing, as they do certainly, to the Godhead of the Messiah.' 2. One, held in great respect, said that the angels were the Rabbis °. 3. Abarbauel admits that the Rabbis did mean to explain the verse of the Messiah «, but only as applying to it the traditions which they had received respecting the Messiah, without supposing it to be its meaning p. Another quotes a saying of ' our doctors