[1] In the Ethiopic Version in xxi. 12 it should be observed that in
the list of the twelve trees suitable for burning on the altar
several are transliterated Aramaic names of trees. But in a late
Hebrew work (2nd century B.C.) the popular names of such objects
would naturally be used. In certain cases the Hebrew may have been
forgotten, or, where the tree was of late introduction, been
non-existent.
JUBILEE YEAR, an institution in the Roman Catholic Church, observed
every twenty-fifth year, from Christmas to Christmas. During its
continuance plenary indulgence is obtainable by all the faithful, on
condition of their penitently confessing their sins and visiting certain
churches a stated number of times, or doing an equivalent amount of
meritorious work. The institution dates from the time of Boniface VIII.,
whose bull _Antiquorum habet fidem_ is dated the 22nd of February 1300.
The circumstances in which it was promulgated are related by a
contemporary authority, Jacobus Cajetanus, according to whose account
("Relatio de centesimo s. jubilaeo anno" in the _Bibliotheca Patrum_) a
rumour spread through Rome at the close of 1299 that every one visiting
St Peter's on the 1st of January 1300 would receive full absolution. The
result was an enormous influx of pilgrims to Rome, which stirred the
pope's attention. Nothing was found in the archives, but an old peasant
107 years of age avowed that his father had been similarly benefited a
century previously. The bull was then issued, and the pilgrims became
even more numerous, to the profit of both clergy and citizens.
Originally the churches of St Peter and St Paul in Rome were the only
jubilee churches, but the privilege was afterwards extended to the
Lateran Church and that of Sta Maria Maggiore, and it is now shared also
for the year immediately following that of the Roman jubilee by a number
of specified provincial churches. At the request of the Roman people,
which was supported by St Bridget of Sweden and by Petrarch, Clement VI.
in 1343 appointed, by the bull _Unigenitus Dei filius_, that the jubilee
should recur every fifty years instead of every hundred years as had
been originally contemplated in the constitution of Boniface; Urban VI.,
who was badly in need of money, by the bull _Salvator noster_ in 1389
reduced the interval still further to thirty-three years (the supposed
duration of the earthly life of Christ); and Paul II. by the bull
_Ineffabilis_ (April 19, 1470) finally fixed it at twenty-five years.
Paul II. also permitted foreigners to substitute for the pilgrimage to
Rome a visit to some specified church in their own country and a
contribution towards the expenses of the Holy Wars. According to the
special ritual prepared by Alexander VI. in 1500, the pope on the
Christmas Eve with which the jubilee begins goes in solemn procession to
a particular walled-up door ("Porta aurea") of St Peter's and knocks
three times, using at the same time the words of Ps. cxviii. 19
(_Aperite mihi portas justitiae_). The doors are then opened and
sprinkled with holy water, and the pope passes through. A similar
ceremony is conducted by cardinals at the other jubilee churches of the
city. At the close of the jubilee, the special doorway is again built up
with appropriate solemnities.
The last ordinary jubilee was observed in 1900. "Extraordinary"
jubilees are sometimes appointed on special occasions, e.g. the
accession of a new pope, or that proclaimed by Pope Leo XIII. for the
12th of March 1881, "in order to obtain from the mercy of Almighty God
help and succour in the weighty necessities of the Church, and comfort
and strength in the battle against her numerous and mighty foes."
These are not so much jubilees in the ordinary sense as special grants
of plenary indulgences for particular purposes (_Indulgentiae
plenariae in forma jubilaei_).
JÚCAR, a river of eastern Spain. It rises in the north of the province
of Cuenca, at the foot of the Cerro de San Felipe (5906 ft.), and flows
south past Cuenca to the borders of Albacete; here it bends towards the
east, and maintains this direction for the greater part of its remaining
course. On the right it is connected with the city of Albacete by the
Maria Cristina canal. After entering Valencia, it receives on the left
its chief tributary the Cabriel, which also rises near the Cerro de San
Felipe, in the Montes Universales. Near Alcira the Júcar turns
south-eastward, and then sharply north, curving again to the south-east
before it enters the Mediterranean Sea at Cullera, after a total course
of 314 m. Its estuary forms the harbour of Cullera, and its lower waters
are freely utilized for purposes of irrigation.
JUD, LEO (1482-1542), known to his contemporaries as Meister Leu, Swiss
reformer, was born in Alsace and educated at Basel, where after a
course in medicine he turned to the study of theology. This change was
due to the influence of Zwingli whose colleague at Zürich Jud became
after serving for four years (1518-1522) as pastor of Einsiedeln. His
chief activity was as a translator; he was the leading spirit in the
translation of the Zürich Bible and also made a Latin version of the Old
Testament. He died at Zürich on the 19th of June 1542.
See _Life_ by C. Pestalozzi (1860); art. in Herzog-Hauck's
_Realencyklopädie_, vol. ix. (1901).
JUDAEA, the name given to the southern part of Palestine as occupied by
the Jewish community in post-exilic days under Persian, Greek and Roman
overlordship. In Luke and Acts the term is sometimes used loosely to
denote the whole of western Palestine. The limits of Judaea were never
very precisely defined and--especially on the northern frontier--varied
from time to time. After the death of Herod, Archelaus became ethnarch
of Samaria, Idumea and Judaea, and when he was deposed Judaea was merged
in Syria, being governed by a procurator whose headquarters were in
Caesarea.
For a description of the natural features of the country see
PALESTINE; for its history see JEWS and JUDAH. Cf. T. Mommsen, _The
Provinces of the Roman Empire_, ch. xi.
JUDAH, a district of ancient Palestine, to the south of the kingdom of
Israel, between the Dead Sea and the Philistine plain. It falls
physically into three parts: the hill-country from Hebron northwards
through Jerusalem; the lowland (Heb. _Shephelah_) on the west; and the
steppes or "dry land" (Heb. _Negeb_) on the south. The district is one
of striking contrasts, with a lofty and stony table-land in the centre
(which reaches a height of 3300 ft. just north of Hebron), with a
strategically important valley dividing the central mountains from the
lowland, and with the most desolate of tracts to the east (by the Dead
Sea) and south. Some parts, especially around Hebron, are extremely
fertile, but the land as a whole has the characteristics of the southern
wilderness--the so-called "desert" is not a sterile Sahara--and was more
fitted for pastoral occupations; see further G. A. Smith, _Hist. Geog.
Holy Land_, chs. x.-xv. Life in ancient Judah is frequently depicted in
the Bible, but much of the Judaean history is obscure. In the days of
the old Hebrew monarchy there were periods of conflict and rivalry
between Judah and Israel--even times when the latter incorporated, or at
least claimed supremacy over, the former. Later, from the 5th century
B.C. there was a breach between the Jews (the name is derived from
Judah) and the Samaritans (q.v.). The intervening years after the fall
of Samaria (722 B.C.), and after the destruction of Jerusalem (586
B.C.), were probably marked by closer intercourse, similar to the period
of union in the popular traditions relating to the pre-monarchical age.
The course of Judaean history was conditioned, also, by the proximity of
the Philistines in the west, Moab in the east, and by Edom and other
southern peoples extending from North Arabia to the delta of the Nile.
Judah's stormy history, continued under Greek and Roman domination,
reached its climax in the birth of Christianity, and ended with the fall
of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 (see JEWS, PALESTINE).
In conformity with ancient methods of genealogy (q.v.), Judah is
traced back to a son of Jacob or Israel by Leah and along with other
"tribes" (Dan, Levi, Simeon, &c.) is included under the collective
term Israel. Thus it shares the general traditions of the Israelites,
although Judah appears as an individual in the story of his "brother"
Joseph (on ch. xxxvii. seq., see GENESIS). Its boundaries in Joshua
xv. are manifestly artificial or imaginary; they include the
Philistines and number places which are elsewhere ascribed to Simeon
or Dan. The origin of the name (_Yehudah_) is quite uncertain; the
interpretation "praised" is suggested in Gen. xxix. 35 (cf; xlix. 8
seq.), but some connexion with allied names, as Yehud (Yahudiya, E. of
Jaffa), or Ehud (a Benjamite clan) seems more probable. That Judah,
whatever its original connotation, underwent development through the
incorporation of other clans appears from 1 Chron. ii., iv., where it
is found to contain a large element of non-Israelite population whose
names find analogies or parallels in Simeonite, Edomite and other
southern lists.[1] Indeed, underlying the account of the Israelite
exodus (q.v.) there are traces of a separate movement of certain
clans--apart from the Israelite invasion of Palestine--who are
ultimately found in the south of Judah; and the traditions in
Chronicles themselves allow the view that the incorporation of these
elements began under David, when Judah first occupies a prominent
position in biblical history (cf. Cheyne, _Ency. Bib._, col. 2618
seq., and see CALEB, JERAHMEEL, KENITES). But such movements were not
necessarily limited to one single period, and the evidence connecting
(a) the non-Israelite clans of Judah with Levites, and (b) both with
the south, is found in narratives referring to several different ages
and might point to an unceasing relationship with the south. On the
other hand, clans, which in the traditions of David's time were in the
south of Judah, about five hundred years later (in the exile) are
found near Jerusalem (e.g. Caleb), so that either these survived the
strenuous vicissitudes of half a millennium or all perspective of
their early history has been lost. In Gen. xxxviii. a curious
narrative points to the separation of Judah "from his brethren" and
his marriage with Shua the Canaanite; two sons Er and Onan perish and
the third Shelah survives. From Judah and Er's widow Tamar are derived
Perez and Zerah, and these with Shelah appear in post-exilic times as
the three representative families of Judah (Neh. xi. 4-6; 1 Chron. ix.
4-6). This story, amid a number of other motives, appears to reflect
the growth of the tribe of Judah and its fluctuations, but that the
reference is to any very early period is unlikely, partly because the
interest of the story is in post-exilic families, and partly because
the scenes (Adullam, Chezib and Timnah) overlap with David's own
fights between Hebron and Jerusalem (2 Sam. xxi. xxiii.; see DAVID,
_ad fin._).[2] Even David's conquest of Jerusalem (2 Sam. v.)
conflicts both with the statement of its capture by Judah many years
previously (Judges i. 8), and with the traditions of the Israelite
heroes Joshua and Saul. Consequently, the few surviving data are too
uncertain for any decisive conclusions regarding the origin of the
tribe of Judah. Judah as a kingdom may have taken its name from a
limited district, in which case its growth finds a parallel in the
extension of the name Samaria from the city to the province. The
location of Yehud and Ehud in the light of 1 Kings iv. 8-19 (perhaps
the subdivisions of the Israelite kingdom, see SOLOMON), would
necessitate the assumption of a violent separation from the north;
this, however, is quite conceivable (see JEWS, §§ 11-13). On the
bearing of South Judah upon the historical criticism of the Old
Testament, see especially N. Schmidt, _Hibbert Journal_ (1908), pp.
322-342, "The Jerahmeel Theory and the Historic Importance of the
Negeb, with some account of personal exploration of the country"; also
JEWS, § 20. (S. A. C.)