(_Alias, A Puzzle of long standing solved_).
Some of the readers of the "NOTES AND QUERIES" may have chanced, as was
the case with the writer, to have enjoyed a ramble through the park and
village of Wentworth, in Yorkshire, one of Earl Fitzwilliam's estates.
Should such be the case, the ramblers could not have failed to halt half
an hour, probably an hour, before a neat house, now inhabited by one of
his lordship's agents, and wonder and ponder over the intent and purport
of a curious inscription, on a stone sun-dial, which is placed over the
door of the house. Such I have learned to be the case with every new
passer-by. Having spent some time in musing over the hitherto
inexplicable puzzle, I think that I am enabled at last to offer a sort
of solution of the same. I shall therefore at first give a simple
description of the contents of the stone, and then my version of it.
In the centre of the slab, a dial plate is inserted; on its left are
carved three lines, running thus:
"Bezaleel Benevent
Sculptor Israelite. Isaiah xliv. 5.
Maker. I am 58 years old.
On its right, eight lines are carved, and run thus:
"1740 years of
[Hebrew: mem mem shin yod resh]
A stone of stumbling.
See Isaiah viii. 14, 15.
Ps. cxix. 165. Ezek. iii. 20
A stumbling-block.
Beware of Him.
Mal. i. 11."
There is scarcely any difficulty as regards the inscription on the left;
the purport being a brief and clumsy account of the sculptor himself.
The reason of the reference at the end of the second line may be a sort
of justification for suffixing "Israelite" to his name; the following
being the passage referred to: "One shall say, I am the Lord's; and
another shall call himself by the name of Jacob; and another shall
subscribe with his hand unto the Lord, and _surname himself by the name
of Israel_." The principal perplexity is presented by the inscription on
the right, and especially in the second line; containing, as it does, a
group of five Hebrew letters, so arranged as to defy the ingenuity of
the most erudite lexicographer; there being no word of such construction
in the whole range of Hebrew literature.
I must premise, before I proceed any further, by stating that I
apprehend the sculptor to have been a zealous, though very eccentric,
Jewish convert to Christianity; to whom it seemed good to put up that
enigmatical sun-dial, with a view to attract the attention, and conduce
the inquiry of his Hebrew brethren; which would afford him an
opportunity of propounding his Christian views from his own design.
I take the Hebrew letters [Hebrew: mem, mem, shin, yod, resh] to be the
initials of the following words:[4]
[Illustration: Hebrew letters]
[Footnote 4: According to the first canon of cabbalistical
interpretation, called _Notricon_. See _The Fundamental Principles
of Modern Judaism Investigated_, pp. 13, 14.]
"The King Messiah, the Shiloh, the Lord my Shepherd." Hence those
characters follow the A.D. date of the first line, and are followed by
the appropriate words in the third line, viz. "A stone of stumbling."
The fourth line then comes as a sort of explanation of the preceding
one: "And He shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling, and
for a rock of offence, to both the houses of Israel; for a gin and for a
snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many among them shall
stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken." "See
Isaiah viii. 14, 15." The fifth line, "Ps. cxix. 165. Ezek. iii. 20."
consists of scriptural references as to the cause and effect of loving
the law, and _vice versa_; the first reference being, "Great peace have
they which love thy law, and no stumbling-block for them" [according to
the original]. The second reference being, "Again, when a righteous man
doth turn from his righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I lay a
stumbling-block before him, he shall die; because thou hast not given
him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he
hath done shall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at thine
hand." The words in the sixth line, "A stumbling-block," evidently refer
to 1 Cor. i. 23.: "But we preach Christ crucified; unto the Jews a
stumbling-block." The "sculptor Israelite" may have feared that a
reference to the New Testament would betray his motive, and therefore
judged it prudent and expedient to omit it. The supposition that
Bezaleel had 1 Cor. i. 23. in view is supported by the seventh line,
"Beware of Him." The last line appears to be an appropriate conclusion;
as the passage referred to describes the extent of the Lord's kingdom,
as well as his reception by "all nations, tongues, and kindreds." "For
from the rising of the sun, even unto the going down of the same, my
name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense shall
be offered unto my name, and a peace offering; for my name shall be
great among the heathen, saith the Lord of hosts." Mal. i. 11.
One may well imagine an Israelite or two observing from the road the
Hebrew characters [Hebrew: mem, mem, shin, resh]--for they are very
large, and are seen afar off--and after puzzling over their intent and
purport for some time, proceed to ask for an explanation from the
major-domo. The master, delighted that the bait caught, vouchsafes, in
his peculiarly eccentric style, to lecture on his own device, and thus
reads to his brethren A SERMON IN STONE.[5]