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Transcriber’s Note:
This version of the text cannot represent certain typographical effects.
Italics are delimited with the ‘_’ character as _italic_.
Footnotes have been moved to follow the paragraphs in which they are
referenced.
Minor errors, attributable to the printer, have been corrected. Please
see the transcriber’s note at the end of this text for details regarding
the handling of any textual issues encountered during its preparation.
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HELON'S PILGRIMAGE
TO
JERUSALEM.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
HELON'S PILGRIMAGE
TO
JERUSALEM.
A PICTURE OF JUDAISM,
IN THE CENTURY WHICH PRECEDED THE ADVENT
OF OUR SAVIOUR.
_TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN OF_
FREDERICK STRAUSS,
WITH NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS BY THE TRANSLATOR.
------------------
Ἡ ΣΩΤΗΡΙΑ ἘΚ ΤΩΝ ἸΟΓΔΑΙΩΝ ἘΣΤΙΝ.
VOL. I.
------------------
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR J. MAWMAN, LUDGATE-STREET.
---
1824.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
LONDON: PRINTED BY A. APPLEGATH, STAMFORD-STREET.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTENTS.
[Illustration]
VOL. I. BOOK I.
CHAPTER I.
Page.
Alexandria 1
CHAPTER II.
The Departure 19
CHAPTER III.
The Caravan 42
CHAPTER IV.
The Halt at Casium 70
CHAPTER V.
The Halt at Ostracine 94
CHAPTER VI.
The Halt at Rhinocorura 117
CHAPTER VII.
The Halt at Raphia 147
BOOK II.
CHAPTER I.
Page.
The Promised Land 179
CHAPTER II.
The Pilgrimage 197
CHAPTER III.
The Day of Preparation for the Passover 226
CHAPTER IV.
The Paschal Lamb 259
CHAPTER V.
The Day after the Passover 275
CHAPTER VI.
The Remaining Days of Unleavened Bread 290
CHAPTER VII.
Close of the Feast of the Passover 313
AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
The present work contains a picture of the Jewish people, in which their
ecclesiastical and civil constitution, their social and domestic life
are represented, as they existed at the time when the advent of the
Messiah was at hand.
From his boyhood the author had been inspired, by the perusal of similar
works on Pagan antiquities, with the wish to exhibit such a picture of
the Jewish nation; and, encouraged by men whose opinion he valued, he
had at an early period of life formed the resolution to undertake it,
had sketched the general outline of his work, and even executed
particular parts of it. Just at this time, however, it pleased the
Disposer of events to call him from the situation of leisure in which he
had hitherto been placed, to the execution of an office, whose
multiplied duties left him little time for any other occupations; and he
was compelled to abandon the design which he had so long cherished. It
was not without pain that he resolved to make this sacrifice of an
object which had long directed and animated his studies. The images
which it had left in his mind recurred from time to time, and revived
his former wishes. In particular, whenever he had occasion, in the
discharge of his pastoral duty, to narrate the histories of the Bible,
the question arose in his mind, whether it might not be possible to
delineate the peculiar system of life in which these writings
originated, according to the picture which they had left in his own
mind, without descending to all the minutiæ of antiquarian detail? In
pursuance of this thought, he has devoted his few and interrupted hours
of leisure, to the work which he now offers to the indulgence of the
reader, for which he hopes with the more confidence, having had such
large experience of it on a former occasion.
The plan of the work is the following. A young Jew, who had been
enamoured of the prevailing Grecian philosophy, has returned to the
observance of the law of his fathers, at one of those important crises
in life which decide the character of succeeding periods. Bent on the
fulfilment of the law, which he believes it impossible to accomplish any
where but in the place where the altar of Jehovah is fixed, he makes a
journey from Alexandria, where he had been brought up, accompanied by
his uncle, to Jerusalem, in the spring of the year 109 before the birth
of Christ, remains there during the half year which included the
principal religious festivals; becomes a priest; enters into the married
state; and, by the guidance of Providence, and varied experience,
attains to the conviction, that peace of mind is only to be found in
believing in Him who has been promised for the consolation of Israel.
The plan now traced, while it offered an opportunity of delineating the
progress of an interesting change in the sentiments of Helon himself,
seemed also to present the means of combining with this a living picture
of the customs, opinions, and laws of the Jewish people. No period of
their history seemed so well adapted to the design of this work, as that
of John Hyrcanus. It is about this time that the books of the Maccabees
close; it is the last era of the freedom and independence of the people,
whose character and institutions at the same time were so nearly
developed and fixed, that very little change took place between this and
the time of our Saviour. It was possible, therefore, to give a picture
which, as far as relates to usages and manners, should be applicable to
the times of the New Testament. By selecting this period, it was more
easy to avoid the inconvenience of placing fictitious characters in
contact with the real personages of history, than if the time of our
Saviour had been chosen. Hyrcanus and his sons have only in one instance
been brought upon the scene, and even here care has been taken to keep
them as much as possible in the back-ground, to avoid mingling the
individual realities of history with a series of events, which the
author has invented to answer the design of his work.
It was in the last years of the long reign of Hyrcanus that the opposing
sects of Sadducees and Pharisees first became conspicuous, and the one
hundred and ninth year before the Christian era is the date of the
destruction of Samaria. In the description of the temple, however, I
have allowed myself to anticipate a little, in order to describe its
magnificence in the days of Herod, whose temple was that to which our
Saviour resorted. In the description of the customs of sacrifice and
prayer, I have ventured to use, but with moderation, the accounts of
later times.
One thing it must be allowed to the author to remark, in order to
prevent the misapprehensions of those, who do not know what properly
belongs to a work like the present, and that is, that he is by no means
to be understood as uniformly declaring his own views; and he
particularly wishes this to be borne in mind in reading the first
part.[1]
Footnote 1:
The translator wishes by no means to be supposed to agree even in
those opinions, which, from the manner of bringing them forward,
appear to be the author’s own. The discourses of the old man of the
temple with Helon, in the second volume, are evidently an anticipation
of Christianity, founded upon the author’s views of the doctrines of
the New Testament. Those who agree with him in these views will think
it reasonable, that such anticipations of the nature and office of the
Messiah should be attributed to a Jew who was piously expecting his
appearance; those who do not, will perceive that the _prolepsis_ which
the author has allowed himself adds nothing to the evidence of the
doctrines in question. I have passed over these parts of the work
generally without remark, the only authority which could have been
alleged in support of them being passages of Scripture, respecting the
meaning of which the Christian world is far from being unanimous in
its opinion.
It is well known that the want of a lively and distinct picture of those
local and national peculiarities which are presented in the Bible,
revolts many from the perusal of it, and exposes others to very
erroneous conceptions. It is the author’s prayer to Him, from whom these
precious records have proceeded, that the present work may serve, under
his blessing, to make the perusal of the Scriptures more attractive and
edifying; and he hopes those who shall drink with pleasure from his
humble rill, will not be satisfied without going to the fountain of
living waters.
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.
The work which is now offered to the public, appeared in Germany in
1820, unaccompanied by notes or even references to Scripture. The author
alleged, as a reason for this omission, that the majority of readers
would not concern themselves about authorities, and that the few who did
might easily find them. He was, however, soon convinced, by the
expression of public opinion, that he had underrated the curiosity of
the former class, as much as he had overrated the patience of the
latter; and promised to remedy the deficiency. As the work had been
partly translated into Dutch and illustrated with notes, by the
Professors Vanderpalm and Clarisse, he purposed to add his own notes to
theirs, when their translation should be completed. It was my original
intention to have waited for the appearance of this appendix; but as
four years have now elapsed, and I have been unable to hear any tidings
of it from Germany, I thought it better to endeavour to supply the
defect. Having no clue whatever to guide me to the sources of the
author’s statements, it may happen that I have not assigned the precise
authority which he had in view; and, in justice to him, the reader will
not conclude, that all which is not fortified by a reference is
destitute of a warrant from antiquity, but only that the passage in
which it is found has not occurred to me.
The liberty which I have used with the original consists wholly in
retrenchments. Of these alterations some have been made to prevent
repetition and diffuseness: in a very few instances what appeared
evidently fanciful or unfounded has been silently effaced.
The reader who is not acquainted with any other authority for Jewish
antiquities than the Old and New Testament, will not, perhaps, be
displeased to find here a brief statement of the sources whence the
materials of the following work have been derived. He who chooses a
distant age for the scene of such a fiction as this, and endeavours to
give the form and colour of reality to the dim and broken outlines, will
find himself at a loss, even in delineating the best known ages of
Greece and Rome. But our author has undertaken a task of still greater
difficulty. The Jews were entire strangers to those kinds of literary
production, in which the living manners of a people are preserved to
posterity: literature among them was devoted to higher objects than
comedy, satire, and ethical description. The history of our Saviour, it
is true, carries us into the very bosom of domestic life among his
contemporaries; and the knowledge which we thus acquire is peculiarly
valuable, from the stamp of truth which is impressed on every part of
it. But if we learn much from this source, there is still more of which
we are left ignorant. Next to the books of Scripture, the Antiquities
and History of the Jews by Josephus, are the most authentic sources of
information. Philo, occupied in pursuing the phantoms of allegorical
interpretation, gives less aid than might have been expected from his
voluminous writings. Among the Fathers of the Christian church, Jerome,
who was long resident in Palestine, has left us, in various works, very
important information respecting the geography, natural history, and
customs of the country. Of the heathen writers, even the gravest and
most learned so pervert and confound every thing relating to the manners
and religion of the Jews, that they cannot be trusted for any thing
beyond geography, and the details connected with it.
The Rabbinical writings of the Jews are chiefly occupied with that
traditional law, which, in our Saviour’s time, had almost strangled, by
its parasitical growth, the genuine stock of the Mosaic institutions:
but they also contain much information respecting civil and religious
customs, especially the ritual of the second temple. According to the
Jewish doctors, there existed two kinds of law; the _written_,
promulgated on Sinai, and preserved in the Mosaic books; and the _oral_,
delivered at the same time,[2] but handed down, traditionally, by a
succession of teachers, to the captivity; and thence from Ezra to the
time of Rabbi Judah _Hakkadosh_, (the holy,) who lived about the middle
of the second century after Christ. As the dispersion of the Jews had
rendered the oral transmission of their learning more difficult and
uncertain, he reduced the traditions of the doctors into a system, to
which the name of the MISHNA (repetition) was given. It consists partly
of civil and criminal laws, partly of a ritual for the great Jewish
festivals; in both, the Mosaic precepts bear a very small proportion to
the later additions. The Mishna itself was soon found to need commentary
and supplement; and the _Gemara_ of Jerusalem was compiled by Rabbi
Jochanan, and two disciples of Judah Hakkadosh, to supply its
deficiencies. This collection appears to have been received as of
authority by the Jews of Palestine, who cultivated Rabbinical learning
in the academies of Tiberias and Jafnia. In the sixth century, Rabbi
Asa, president of the school of Sora, in the Babylonian territory, where
the Jews were numerous and flourishing, compiled another Gemara. The
original work of the Mishna, with the addition of one or the other of
these Gemaras, forms the _Talmud_ (doctrine) of Jerusalem or Babylon.[3]
The Talmud is the oracle of the Jewish doctors, venerated by the greater
part of them as of equal if not greater authority than the law itself;
though many, as the whole sect of Karaites, deny its authority. Probably
the first step towards the religious improvement of the modern Jews,
must be the abandonment of the Talmud, and a return to the simplicity of
the Mosaic law.
Footnote 2:
See Maimonides, Preface to the Mishna, in Surenhusius, vol. i.
Footnote 3:
Basnage, Hist. of the Jews, b. iii. c. 5-7.
Besides this great repository of their traditions, the Jews have
commentaries of their Rabbins, of uncertain age, on books of Scripture,
under the name of _Medraschim_; and collections of their sayings. I do
not mention here their cabalistical writings; which are, evidently, too
fanciful and absurd, to furnish materials to the antiquary.
After participating in the darkness of the middle ages, Jewish
literature and science revived with great brilliancy in the eleventh and
twelfth centuries, from the connection of the Jews with the Saracens of
Spain, and their acquaintance with the Aristotelian philosophy. Of the
learned men who arose about this time, Jarchi, Aben Ezra, and David
Kimchi, are most celebrated for their grammatical and critical works:
Moses Ben Maimon, or Maimonides, for the vigour of his understanding,
and his knowledge of the ancient rites and ceremonies of his nation. He
gave consistency and systematic form to the Jewish doctrines, and his
articles are the standard of Jewish orthodoxy. The age at which these
authors lived, however, prevents us from receiving them as original
testimonies to any thing which concerns the state of the Jews before the
destruction of their polity. The question how far Rabbinical authority
can be relied on for Jewish antiquity, resolves itself at last into the
credibility of those who wrote in the first five centuries after the
Christian era, and especially of the Mishna and the Gemaras.
It is now pretty generally admitted, that these works are very delusive
guides, in respect to the times of the Old Testament. But it might be
thought, that, having been compiled at so short an interval after the
destruction of Jerusalem, we might have trusted to them safely for
information respecting the times of the preaching of the Gospel, and the
immediately preceding period. And it cannot be denied that some
advantage is to be derived from them in this way, but much less than
might have been expected.[4] It is not necessary to have recourse to
works, which, like the _Entdecktes Judenthum_ of Eisenmenger, have been
written purposely to expose the Talmuds to contempt; it is sufficient
even to consult the professed extracts of what is useful in them, such
as the works of Lightfoot (a name not to be mentioned without respect
and gratitude) to be convinced how large a proportion is frivolous
subtlety or groundless fiction. Indulging themselves in an unbounded
license of invention, to solve difficulties, or exaggerate the glories
of their nation and religion, they incur the usual penalty of those who
violate the truth, and are suspected of falsehood, even when they may be
innocent. The rule which Schöttgenius lays down—_eligendum est quod
Scripturæ Sacræ magis convenit et quod cæteris paribus aliorum
antiquiorum auctoritas sequendum suaserit_—affords no guide in respect
to those accounts which Scripture does not confirm, nor yet by its
silence necessarily invalidate. Here an author can only follow his own
judgment and feeling of probability. The reader must determine for
himself, whether, in the Pilgrimage of Helon, only due weight has been
given to Rabbinical authority. I have endeavoured to enable him to
ascertain, by the references, what rests on this, and what on more solid
ground.
Footnote 4:
“Ne credant se ex Talmude multum in antiquitatibus Hebraicis
profecturos. Nam ubi Judæi, post destructionem templi, inter se adhuc
disputant, quomodo hæc vel illa res suscipienda fuerit, quam tuto
horum decisioni credas, qui te multo quam antea incertiorem
relinquunt.” Schöttgen. Hor. Heb. ii. 804.
The descriptions given by travellers of the present manners of the
people of Palestine, Syria, and Arabia, have furnished another and less
fallacious means of completing the picture of Jewish life. Allied to the
children of Israel, according to the testimony of Scripture and their
own traditions, by a common origin, and experiencing little change from
age to age, these nations still present the strongest conformity with
the manners described in the Bible; nor has any thing contributed more
to its illustration, than the use which modern critics have made of
oriental voyages and travels. The Arab Sheikh, among his flocks and
herds, recalls the very image of patriarchal times; allowing for the
change which religion has made, the mourning and the festivity, the
diet, dress, and habitation, of the present natives of these regions,
will be found nearly what they were two thousand years ago. It is true,
that we advance a step further, when, from the present state of the
east, we describe what it was at this distant period, than when we
merely illustrate scriptural allusions from modern oriental manners: but
among the various descriptions which might be given, _that_ will be
nearest to the truth which is most accordant with the known usages of
eastern nations; and though this presumption can never amount to a
positive proof of its accuracy, the reader is not misled, provided he is
informed on what he relies. The author has also occasionally attributed
some of the practices of the modern Jews to their ancestors of the
Asmonean period; and, perhaps, the singular inflexibility which
characterises the manners not less than the faith of this people, may
justify him in so doing.
The reader may possibly think that too flattering a portrait of the Jews
has been drawn in the Pilgrimage of Helon. Whoever is acquainted with an
earlier work of the same author, _Die Glockentöne_, will perceive at
once, that the piety, enthusiasm, and ardent feeling, the sensibility to
the _religio loci_, which mark the hero of the narrative, are the
characteristics of the writer’s own mind. And as every variety of
temperament exists in every age of the world, there is nothing unnatural
in the creation of such a character as that of Helon among the Jewish
people, if it only acts and is acted upon, according to the principles
and motives of the times to which it is referred. If, in the description
of the national character, he has heightened its virtues, or touched its
faults with a lenient hand, it must be remembered, that this was the
almost inevitable consequence of that warm interest in his subject,
without which he could have had no power to engage his readers’
feelings. To those who cannot be satisfied, unless the Jews are
described as sunk in all the vices which mark a people for the vengeance
of heaven, I would suggest how improbable it is, that the religious and
moral advantages which they enjoyed should not have made them better
than those whose corrupt religion, if it had any, had a pernicious
influence on their morals—or that Providence should select the
instruments of the moral regeneration of mankind from among a people,
whose depravity equalled or exceeded that of the heathen world. Were
this a proper place for entering on such a discussion, it might not be
difficult to show how unjustly we identify the whole body of the people
with the hypocritical Pharisees whom our Lord rebuked; or infer their
ordinary character from what Josephus says of the atrocities committed
by them, when stung by oppression, engaged in a desperate struggle for
independence and existence, and maddened by faction and fanaticism;
under the influence of which, Christian nations have manifested an equal
disregard of justice and humanity.
The translator may perhaps be singular in regarding the Jewish people,
even in the last days of their national independence, as objects rather
of commiseration than abhorrence; but surely there can be no question,
that the language in which they are perpetually spoken of must tend to
retard the event, which every true Christian earnestly desires, the
removal of that veil of prejudice which hides from them the evidence of
the divine origin of the Gospel. Beneath the exterior appearance of
passive submission, which fear and oppression have taught the Jew to
assume, and the habits of sordid worldliness to which our unjust laws
condemn him, lurks a deep-seated animosity against the Christian name—a
name associated in his mind with the brutal outrages of fanatic mobs,
the extortion and cruelty of tyrannical rulers; and though last, not
least in bitterness, the harsh and contumelious language with which his
nation is assailed, as if they were branded with the curse of heaven,
and a perpetual memorial of its vengeance. While the feeling continues
which such reproaches necessarily perpetuate, the efforts of Christians
for the conversion of the Jews will probably be as fruitless as they
have hitherto been. It would well become the disciples of the religion
of love, to set the example of conciliation; and to renounce the use of
language which is equally unfavourable in its influence on those who
employ and those who endure it.
Tuque prior, tu parce, genus qui ducis Olympo!
------------------------------------------------------------------------
HELON'S PILGRIMAGE
TO
JERUSALEM.
[Illustration]
BOOK I. CHAP. I.
ALEXANDRIA.
The whole house was in commotion. The camels were receiving their load
in the inner court, and drinking, before their journey, from the
fountain beneath the palm trees. The slaves ran this way and that way:
in the apartments of the women the maid-servants were busily preparing
the farewell meal for the son of their mistress, who, while she hurried
in different directions and issued her commands, was repeating the words
of the forty-second Psalm.—
As the hart panteth for the water-brooks,
So panteth my soul after thee, O God!
My soul thirsteth for God,
The living God!
When shall I return
And appear before the face of God!
She had been born in the Holy Land, and her deceased husband had brought
her to Egypt. The country in which her youthful days had been spent, and
the journies to Jerusalem, in which she had borne a part, rose up to her
remembrance, and with overflowing eyes she proceeded:
My tears have been my food day and night,
While they say unto me continually
“Where is thy God?”
The thought of her deceased husband rushed upon her mind, and her tears
flowed in a fuller stream. Yet with a lighter heart, and with a less
faltering voice, she proceeded: (ver. 4.)
When I remember these things, my heart melteth within me;
How I had gone with the multitude to the house of God,
How I had gone with the voice of joy and praise,
With the multitude that kept the festival.
At this moment Helon met her. She embraced him and said, “So once I went
to the holy city, but now I must remain a captive in a strange land. All
the day long this psalm of the sons of Korah dwells upon my mind. Thy
father sang it the last evening that we spent together. Immediately
after, he set out for the promised land, and returned no more.”
Helon was moved by the distress of his mother. His feelings had been the
same as hers, but he was near the accomplishment of his wishes. He was
about to visit the holy city, and the grave of his father in the valley
of Jehoshaphat; and raising himself from his mother’s embrace, he
replied, “Hast thou forgotten the thrice repeated chorus of that psalm?”
Why art thou cast down, O my soul,
And why art thou disquieted within me?
Hope thou in God; for I shall yet praise him
Who is my deliverer and my God.
Sallu, a young Jew, who had been purchased as a servant of the family
six years before, now entered the apartment. He was dejected, and
anxiously asked Helon, “Wilt thou not take me with thee, master?” The
mother replied, “Thou art free; yesterday thy six years expired, and it
shall be Helon's last employment before his departure solemnly to
emancipate thee.” The youth kept his eyes fixed upon Helon, as if he was
still asking him, “Wilt thou not take me with thee, master?” “Why dost
thou refuse thy freedom, Sallu?” said Helon. “Master,” replied he, “when
thy father bought me, six years ago, I was a houseless, friendless boy.
I have been brought up with thee, and if I now must leave thee, I shall
be again without a friend or a home. I will not leave thee: thou art
going to Jerusalem, and, if I go not with thee, I shall never behold the
altar of my God, nor the place to which I direct my prayers. Take me
with thee, and I will be a servant in thine house all my days. I have
called the elders, and they will be here immediately.”
They endeavoured to dissuade him from his purpose. Helon painted to him
the value of freedom, and the mercy of Jehovah towards the bondsmen in
Israel, in appointing their release in the seventh year. His mother
promised him that he should not go forth empty handed; that she would
give him “of her flock, and of her barn, and of her wine-press, of all
in which the Lord her God had blessed her,” as the Lord had commanded by
Moses in the law.[5] But Sallu replied, “Nay but I will remain with
thee: it is best for me to be here.” The elders had now arrived.
Footnote 5:
Deut. xv. 14.
“This youth,” said one of them, “will be a servant of thy house. Come
together to the gate.”
The elders, with Helon, his mother, and Sallu, went through the covered
way, as far as the gate which opened to the outer court. Sallu stood
beside the gate-posts. The elder asked him, “Wilt thou not leave Helon?”
Sallu replied, “I will not leave him; for I love him and his house.”
Then Helon took an awl, and piercing his ears against the door-post,
made him his servant for ever. The elders pronounced a blessing, and
Helon put a ring through the ears of Sallu, as a sign that he was become
his property. The youth bounded for joy, and exclaimed, “I have bought
thee with my blood. Wilt thou not now take me with thee to the Holy
Land?” “Go,” said Helon, “to look after the camels, and prepare thyself
for the journey.”
The mother invited the elders to partake of the farewell supper with her
and her son, at which Elisama was also to be present. They consented,
and went back with her into the inner court (the _thavech_.) Helon
remained awhile behind, to inspect the preparations for the journey. The
slaves were equipping three stately dromedaries, which, young,
high-spirited, and fleet, deserved the name of ships of the desert. They
had taken a long draught at the well, while the slaves laid in order the
baggage which contained the food and clothing of the travellers, and
presents for their host in Jerusalem. In the east, the expressions of
friendship were made by deeds rather than by words, and the travellers
destined for their host costly caftans, Egyptian linen, a robe of thread
of gold, and some books written on papyrus. The camels, kneeling down,
received the burthen on their backs.
Helon’s uncle, Elisama, who was to be his guide on the pilgrimage to the
Holy Land, arrived, examined the preparations, and appointed to the
slaves the hour of departure. Helon and he then went together into the
inner court, where the elders were sitting under the palms beside the
fountain, and enjoying the refreshing coolness of the evening. This
inner court, around whose sides ran a portico and a gallery, was paved
with green, white, yellow, and black marble. An awning of various
colours was stretched over it to shelter from the burning rays of the
sun; and in the middle was the fountain with its lofty palms. In
Alexandria, as in the east generally, this was the place for the
reception of visitors.
The meal was prepared, and the elders arose from beside the fountain to
place themselves on cushions around the table. A venerable man with
hoary locks took the place of honour, the middle place, on the middle
cushion. The seven-branched lamp shed a bright light around, from its
one and twenty flames. The slaves had strewed the table, the cushions,
and the floor with the flowers of spring. Sallu came with a silver
basin, poured water on the hands of the guests, and when he had wiped
them sprinkled on them the fragrant nard. The most delicate productions
of fertile Egypt were served up; among which the mother had not
forgotten the fish of the Nile, that her son might taste them once more
before his departure. Helon lay before Elisama, or, as it was called in
the east, in his bosom.
Elisama, acting as father of the house, blessed the bread. He spread
both his hands over it, and said, “Blessed be thou, O Lord our God, King
of the world, who causest bread to grow out of the earth;” and the rest
answered “Amen.” As this was an entertainment, the wine also was
blessed. Elisama took the cup with both hands, then holding it with the
right, at the height of a yard above the table, he praised the Lord and
said, “Blessed be thou, O Lord our God, who hast given unto us the fruit
of the vine;” and the rest again replied, “Amen.” The bread and wine
were blessed with both hands, that the fingers might be a remembrance of
the number of the commandments. This done, he repeated the twenty-third
Psalm:
The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures,
He leadeth me beside the soft flowing waters,
He refresheth my soul,
He leadeth me in the straight path
For his name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I fear no evil, for thou art with me;
Thy rod and thy staff comfort me.
Thou preparest a table for me
In the presence of mine enemies;
Thou anointest my head with oil;
My cup runneth over
Surely goodness and mercy follow me all my life,
I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.
This was the prayer with which the festive meal was usually hallowed in
Israel. The guests helped themselves and enjoyed the feast. When the
last dish was removed, Elisama began: “It is long since I repeated that
beautiful psalm, with such a feeling of devotion as to-day. One might
think that it had been written expressly for the feast on the evening
before our departure for the Holy Land. 'Happy the people that know the
sound of the trumpet!'”
Helon’s kindling glance, thanked Elisama for thus expressing the
sentiment of which his own heart was full. But one of the elders
replied, “The sound of the trumpet is heard also in Leontopolis, and the
psalm might be repeated with equal propriety, before a journey to the
nome of Heliopolis.”
“I always maintain,” said Elisama, “that Israel is Israel nowhere but in
the Holy Land.”
“But does not the law itself declare,” said the elder, “Thou shalt not
abhor an Egyptian, because thou wast a stranger in his land?[6] Did not
the patriarchs of our nation always repair to Egypt in their distress,
and did not the land of Ham almost always show a brotherly compassion
for the children of Shem? Why did our forefathers always resort to this
land of wonders, rather than to Syria or Mesopotamia? Does it not appear
as if some secret guiding of Providence had always impelled Israel to
unite himself with his brethren of Misraim? Was not our father Abraham
himself in Egypt?” “And well did Pharaoh reward him by his treatment of
Sarah,” interrupted Elisama. “Jehovah himself forbad Isaac to go down to
Egypt.”[7]
Footnote 6:
Deut. xxiii. 7.
Footnote 7:
Gen. xxvi. 2.
“Yet,” replied the elder, “Jacob came hither with seventy souls; Joseph
was proclaimed the father of the land, and Pharaoh said to him, I am
Pharaoh, and without thee shall no man lift up his hand or foot in the
land of Egypt.[8] Moses was born here and brought up at court, and
Jeremiah also was here.[9] When Alexander founded this city, he brought
a multitude of our nation hither; the first Ptolemy settled a hundred
thousand of them in different parts of the land, and because the kings
thought us to be the brethren of the Egyptians, we have obtained the
privileges of the highest rank of citizens, and are called, like the
conquerors themselves, Macedonians. The Lord has moved the heart of the
king and queen, and Onias, the son of Onias, has built us a temple in
Leontopolis, which is an exact copy of that on mount Moriah. Soon shall
we be still more highly exalted. You know that let the schemes of
Ptolemy Lathyrus be what they may, his mother Cleopatra, who is joint
regent with him, has the administration in her hands, and by her means
(a thing unheard of in any other country) two of our nation, Hilkias and
Ananias, the sons of Onias, are at the head of the army.”
Footnote 8:
Gen. xli. 44.
Footnote 9:
Jer. xlii.
“The God of Israel bless Cleopatra our queen! May he increase her a
thousandfold, and cause her seed to possess the gate of their enemies,”
exclaimed the elders.
“What thou hast said of our fathers, and of their journies into Egypt is
true; but acknowledge also,” said Elisama, “that they never failed to
return to the Holy Land, when they had an opportunity; and we will do
the same.”
“No,” said the elder, “we have our own temple in Egypt, our Oneion.”
“But it is contrary to the law of the Lord; on Moriah only should the
temple and the altar stand. Jehovah spoke to Moses saying,[10] ‘To the
place which the Lord your God shall choose out of all your tribes, to
put his name there, even unto his habitation shall ye seek, and thither
shall ye come, and thither shall ye bring your burnt-offerings: but take
heed that thou offer not thy burnt-offerings in any place that thou
seest; in the place which the Lord shall choose there shalt thou offer
thy burnt-offerings, and do all that the Lord thy God requires of thee.’
And five hundred years after, when the temple was built, he said to
Solomon, when he appeared to him in the night, ‘I have heard thy prayer
and have chosen this place to myself, as a house of sacrifice.’[11] And
this place is Moriah, where Abraham was about to offer up his own son.”
Footnote 10:
Deut. xii. 1-14.
Footnote 11:
2 Chron. vii. 12.
“Knowest thou not,” continued the elder, “what Isaiah, the greatest of
all the prophets, said two hundred years later? Our high priest wrote
the passage to the king and queen at the building of the Oneion. In that
day shall five cities in the land of Egypt speak the language of Canaan
and swear to the Lord of Hosts: one shall be called Irhaheres,
Leontopolis.”[12]
Footnote 12:
Is. xix. 18.
Elisama replied, “I adhere to the words of the psalm, ‘The Lord hath
chosen Zion and delights to dwell therein.’[13] To Isaiah also the Lord
spoke, saying, ‘I will comfort you as one whom his mother comforteth,
and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem.’[14] We might say to you of
Alexandria, what the Lord said by the mouth of Jeremiah, 'Go up into
Gilead and take balm, O virgin daughter of Egypt!'”[15]
Footnote 13:
Ps. cxxxii. 13.
Footnote 14:
Is. lxvi. 13.
Footnote 15:
Jer. xlvi. 11. 20.
“Yet Jehovah, in the same chapter, calls Egypt a fair heifer.”
“True, but he threatens her; ‘destruction cometh from the north,’ and in
us will his word be fulfilled, 'ye shall be ashamed of Egypt as thou
wast ashamed of Assyria.'”[16]
Footnote 16:
Jer. ii. 36.
“Now accursed be he who reviles the Oneion, the temple of the Lord, and
Egypt and the queen,” exclaimed the elder, in vehement indignation. They
had long ceased to eat, as their conversation became more animated, and
sat upright upon their cushions. The elder started on his feet, and
seemed about to offer some violence to Elisama; but a grey-headed elder,
who had hither only listened, interposed between them, and with the
calmness of age said to them both, “Peace, my children! There is enough
of strife in Israel; let not us increase it. Do thou remain in Egypt,
and thou Elisama take thy way to Jerusalem. The Messiah cometh and will
teach us all things.”
The mother entered the room. “What sayst thou, dejected mother in
Israel,” continued the aged man. “She could not,” she said, “divest
herself of the fear that one of the travellers would never return. So it
had been six years before. Her only comfort was, that her deceased
husband had been buried in the valley of Jehoshaphat, and nothing would
have induced her to consent to Helon’s departure, but the thought that
he would visit his father’s grave. Ye all knew him,” said she, turning
to the guests, “he was a stay of Israel in a foreign land.”
The elders turned to Helon and said, “Blessed be thou, for thou art the
son of an upright man, and one that feared God.” “As to thy apprehension
that one of us may not return,” said Elisama, “let us rather hope, that
we shall bring back with us a new member of the family, a future mother,
either from Jericho or from Anathoth.”
The mother smiled, with a significant look, which seemed to say that she
already knew more of this matter. The elder, who had scarcely recovered
from his passion, seemed not well pleased that the number of Aramæan
Jews in Alexandria should be increased. Helon blushed, and observed the
modest silence which became a youth in Israel, in the presence of his
elders.
“Of the two,” said the old man, “thou wouldst rather receive thy new
relation from Anathoth.” “True,” she replied, “many of our friends live
there, and there the holy prophet Jeremiah was born.” The mention of
Jeremiah was sufficient to kindle Elisama. His forefathers had
accompanied the prophet, when, after Ishmael’s outrage upon
Gedaliah,[17] he was carried into Egypt, by the people who feared the
vengeance of the king of Babylon; and he had sojourned with this family.
“While there lives one of our race,” exclaimed Elisama, “never shall it
be forgotten by us that we once entertained a prophet of the Lord. His
writings are our favourite study, and by them we are directed to seek
the Holy Land.”
Footnote 17:
Jer. xli. xlii. xliii.
The discourse assumed a more cheerful character. The last cup was
emptied. Sallu washed the hands of the guests, and sprinkled them with
fragrant oil. Elisama pronounced the thanksgiving, and the old man
rising up, took Helon’s hand and said, “Farewell, and take with thee my
blessing.” Then, laying his hands upon the young man’s head, he said—
“He that keepeth Israel neither slumbereth nor sleepeth.
May Jehovah be thy keeper, thy shade on thy right hand!
May Jehovah preserve thy going out and coming in,
From this time forth and for evermore?”—Ps. cxxi.
The other elders also blessed him, but it was evident that they would
have done it with a more hearty good will, if he had been going to
Leontopolis. All the guests took leave, and returned to their respective
abodes.