Talmud fixes no precise year, or even century, when this obstacle will be removed. But it lays down several diagnostics, as descriptive of the season of his manifestation. The following specimens will enable the reader to form a judgment of the whole. All the periods are completed, ' and the event only depends on repentance and " good works. If Israel were penitent, they would immediately be delivered; and if not, they will not be delivered: that is, says Jarchi in his commentary on this passage; If they repent, the 'Messiah will come; otherwise he will not come.'* - If Israel were penitent for one day, Messiah the Son of David would immediately come. 'How is this proved? By these words; "To-day if ye will hear his voice." Psal. xcv. 7.'† 'The son of David will not come, till the impious kingdom be extended over the whole world for 'nine months.' The son of David will not 6 come, till the two houses of Israel be extinct : they are, the head of the captivity in Babylon, and the prince in the land of Israel.' §- The 'son of David will not come till the number of souls 'be completed that are contained in || Guph:'I * Talmud. Cod. Sanhedrin, c. xi. apud Raym. Mart. Pug. Fid. p. 401. + Talmud. Hierosol. Taanith: ibid. p. 402. Talmud. Cod. Joma, c. i. p. 9. apud Bartoloc. Bib. Rab. tom. iii. p. 425. Raym. Mart. Pug. Fid. p. 397. 396. § Talmud. Cod. Sanhedrin, c. iii. p. 38. apud Bartoloc. Bib. Rab. tom. iii. p. 579. Raym. Mart. Pug. Fid. p. 163. 405, 406. | Page 193. 1 Talmud. Cod. Jevamoth, c. vi. p. 63. apud Bartoloc. Bib. Rab. tom. iii. p. 466. Raym. Mart. Pug. Fid. p. 441. 444. that is, till all the souls created in the beginning, and placed in that mansion, shall have been sent into the world. The son of David will not come while there shall be the smallest piece of left in the Jews' purses.'* money The frustration of Jewish hopes, age after age, may account for the maledictions which the Talmudists and other rabbinical writers have undertaken to denounce against all who should indulge any conjectures, or calculations, respecting the exact time of the Messiah's appearance. The author of a book in high estimation curses every one who calculates the time appointed for the 'advent of the Messiah, and publishes his calcu 'lations; a thing which is the cause of great 'calamity to our nation: for if the Messiah come 'not at the assigned period, those who have long expected deliverance by him are thrown into dejection and despondency; and they consider themselves as perpetually deluded 'by hopes 'never to be accomplished.'†· The Talmud imprecates direful vengeance on 'those who compute the periods of the times: May their 'bones swell and burst; for the consequence is, 'that when the time arrives, and the promise is 'not fulfilled, men say, it will never be fulfilled ' at all.'I The severest interdictions, however, have not * Talmud. Cod. Sanhedrin, c. xi. p. 97. apud Bartoloc. Bib. Rab. tom. iv. p. 52. + Shebet Jehuda, p. 245. apud Hoornbeek contra Jud. L. ii. c. 1. p. 123. Talmud. Cod. Sanhedrin, c. xi. ibid. been sufficient to prevent these computations. Many of the most eminent doctors have employed their sagacity in attempting to ascertain the period which they anticipate as the consummation of Jewish glory, but which they have repeatedly found it necessary to adjourn from one generation to another. The rabbies, Saadias Gaon, who died in the year 942;* Salomon Jarchi, who lived in the twelfth century; Moses Ben Nachman and Bechai, who lived in the thirteenth century; and Levi Ben Gerson; all agreed in fixing the advent of the Messiah to the year 1358.+ Gerson had the mortification of living to witness his mistake: he died in the year 1370. Other rabbies fixed on the years 1575, and 1577.§-Abarbinel, in his commentary on Isaiah, finished in 1498, fixed on the year 1503; and in that on Jeremiah, finished in 1504, fixed on the year 1534. He died in 1508.|| -Gedalia Ben Jacchia, a famous rabbi of the sixteenth century,** fixed on the year 1598.†† -The author of the Zohar had long before fixed * The reader will observe that I here mention the years according to the Christian era. + Raym. Mart. Pug. Fid. p. 267. Wolf. Bib. Heb. tom. i. p. 933. 1057-1060. 876. Ibid. 726. Raym. Mart. Pug. Fid. p. 267. Raym. Mart. Pug. Fid. p. 267. Bartoloc. Bib. Rab. tom. iii. p. 877. Wolf. Bib. Heb. tom. i. p. 629. ** Raym. Mart. Pug. Fid. p. 267. Wolf. Bib. Heb. tom. i. p. 277. Bartoloc. Bib. Rab. tom. i. p. 707. ++ These and other rabbinical calculations on the same subject may be found in Gedalia's treatise, entitled Shalshaleth Hakkabala; a large extract from which, accompanied with a Latin version, is inserted in the first part of Wagenseil. Tela Ignea Sat. p. 614-629. on the year 1648.*-Another period of Jewish expectation was the year 1666.+ Other false lights have appeared in different ages, deluding unhappy Israelites with hopes never to be realized and it would seem that the sect of prognosticators is not yet extinct. Mr. Crooll, in his treatise, entitled, The Restoration of Israel, written in the year 1812, says: There are yet one hundred and thirty seven years to the time of 'the Messiah's coming; but we know that this 'time will be shortened; and according to the ' opinion of one great and eminent rabbi, there are only twenty-nine years more to the time of his coming. In a subsequent part of his work he exhibits a different Account.'§ The want of every thing like a plausible basis for his computations must be obvious to every reader. I shall transcribe the statement without any remark. 'It ought to be observed that this number of 'seventy, so much made use of, is not a vain thing; 'but it will instruct us to understand that the sons ' of Noah, only divided into seventy nations, should represent seventy jubilees; that is, from the time ' of the covenant, made with Abraham, until the 'coming of the Messiah, and in the end of this ' number shall commence the Jubilee of Israel. These seventy jubilees are to be divided into 'two divisions: the commencement of the first 'half, or thirty-five, began by the covenant, and 'ended by the desolation of the second temple. * In Genes. xxv. apud Raym. Mart. Pug. Fid. + Page 48. § Page 65, 66. P. 267. "ACCOUNT. From the covenant until the 'law * Israel had the land in possession only Years. 430 850 490 'N. B. This number will amount to thirty'five jubilees, and twenty years. Total 1770 From the desolation of the second temple, ' until this present year (1812) is the This last number, of the dispersion of Israel, ' is just now thirty-five jubilees. Both sums will ' amount to 3520 years, or the sum of seventy 'jubilees, and above twenty years. 'By this calculation, we may learn, that the 'jubilee of the restoration of Israel has begun already these twenty years back, that is, just 'when the revolution began in France; at that very time, the seventy jubilees were at an end. There are yet thirty-six years to the end of 'the jubilee of Israel, AND BEFORE THE END OF THESE THIRTY-SIX YEARS, ISRAEL WILL BE REC STORED, AND THE MESSIAH WILL TAKE POSSESSION ' OF HIS Empire.' 6 The advantages which the Jews profess to expect from the Messiah are earthly, sensual, and temporary. In contemplating the anticipated glories of his reign, they seem to have no conception of any thing spiritual; and that it has any connection with an eternal world, they strenuously deny. Mr. Crooll says *The Messiah's kingdom is not * Ibid. p. 36. |