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recreation, or in order to fulfil some divine precept.-Leaping over a ditch is allowed; but not wading through water, lest occasion should be given for drying stockings.-No sword is to be worn, nor any other weapon or warlike accoutrement.-A tailor must not go out of doors with a needle stuck in any of his clothes.-A person lame, maimed, or paralytic, who is unable to walk without a stick, may take one to support him; but the blind are not allowed this indulgence.-The use of stilts for passing over deep water or mire, is prohibited; because, though the stilts seem to carry the man, yet in reality the man carries the stilts, and to bear any burden on the sabbath is contrary to the law.-A plaster or bandage over a wound may be continued; but if it happen to fall off, it must not be replaced, nor must a fresh bandage be applied till the sabbath is ended.-No money, either gold or silver, is then to be carried in the pockets, or in a purse, unless it be sewed into the clothes.-Dirt on the shoes may be scraped off against a wall, but not on the ground, lest it seem to fill any ditch or hole.-Dirt on a coat, cloak, or stockings, may be scraped off with the nails while it is recent and moist; but if it is dry, it must remain till the sabbath is over, because scraping it off when dry would raise some dust, and would resemble grinding or breaking in pieces. -Any one whose hands are bedaubed with dirt, may wipe them with the tail of a cow, or the tail or mane of a horse, but not with a towel, napkin, or other clean linen cloth, lest occasion be given for washing it on the sabbath.-If any one finds a

flea either on the ground or running over his garments, on the sabbath, he is not allowed to catch it: if it bites, he may catch and throw it from him, but is forbidden to kill it.-Whether lice are entitled to this privilege, has been a subject of sharp disputation. A few eminent rabbies have asserted their right to the same immunities as fleas but most of the doctors have represented them as not one of the original species of creatures, but a nondescript spawn of equivocal generation, and therefore liable to be killed on the sabbath as at any other time.*

Buxtorf. ibid. p. 368-370. 356-359. Vide etiam Buxtorf. Synag. Jud. cap. xvi. passim. Hoornbeek contra Jud. L. vii. a 5. Huls. de Theol. Jud. p. 242–248. David Levi, ibid. p. 17—19.

355

CHAPTER XX.

Traditions respecting the Age of the World and the ancient Hebrew Months and Years-Present Jewish Calendar described, and illustrated by various Tables.

BEFORE we proceed to the moveable festivals and fasts, it seems proper to give some account of the Calendar which regulates the days of their observance. The modern Jews compute their time by the number of years which they suppose to have passed from the creation of the world. The various opinions maintained among them on this subject, in different ages and countries, will appear from the following statement.

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The Seder Olam Sutha, or Small Chronicle of
the World, published about A. D. 1121, (see
Ganz's Chronology) dates the Creation
The Eastern Jews, according to Abulfaragi
The Western Jews, according to Riccioli
The Chinese Jews, according to Brotier
Maimonides (Univer. Hist.)

David Ganz (Chronology)

Rabbi Gersom (Playfair)

·

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Seder Olam Rabba, or Great Chronicle of the

BEFORE

CHRIST.

4359

4220

. 4184

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4079

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4058

3761

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World, published about A. D. 130 (Ganz) Rabbi Habsom (Univer. Hist.)

Rabbi Nosen (Univer. Hist.)

* This is the date assumed by the writer of the Toldoth Jeshu

published by Wagenseil. See p. 239.

+ Dr. Hales's New Analysis of Chronology, p. 5, 6, 7. 13.

The computation generally followed by the Synagogue differs from all these, and fixing the Creation B. C. 3760, reckons the present the year 5576 from that epoch. When this era of the Creation was first adopted, is not certain: one Jewish writer states its introduction to have been subsequent to the completion of the Talmud; * meaning, I suppose, the Babylonian Talmud; and another represents it to have been “agreed upon about the end of the tenth or beginning of the eleventh century.†

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What was the precise epoch of the creation is acknowledged to be one of the most difficult questions connected with sacred history. Not to mention other difficulties, the greatest diversity in the systems of chronologers has arisen from the discrepances between the received Hebrew Text, the Samaritan Text, and the Greek Version of the Septuagint, in recording the genealogies of the patriarchs both antediluvian and postdiluvian. The discrepances principally consist in the lengths assigned to the successive generations by these documents; which differ from each other, in describing several of the patriarchs as a hundred years older or younger at the births of those sons by whom the genealogies are reckoned, and contracting or extending the residues of their lives a century each, so as to agree, for the most part, in assigning them respectively the same total length

* Rabbi Azarias in Meor Enajim, apud Observ. Jos. de Voisin, in Procem. Pug. Fid. p. 75. Vide etiam Surenhus. in Mishnam, tom. ii. p. 307.

+ Isaac Abendana's Polity of the Jews, p. 177, 178.

of life.* The years from the creation to the deluge, and thence to the birth of Abraham, according

*The following Table will exhibit a detail of these variations.

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Both the Hebrew Text and Septuagint Version omit mentioning the total lengths of the lives between Noah and Terah; which are specified in the Samaritan Text, as here stated. The second Cainan, inserted in the Septuagint between Arphaxad and Salah, occupies the same place in the genealogy of Christ given by Luke; but is not found in the Hebrew or Samaritan Text, or in any other ancient version. Different copies of the Septuagint vary from each other in the residues of the lives of some of the postdiluvians; but these variations are of no importance in chronology. I have not hesitated to represent both the Hebrew and Septuagint as assigning 130 years for the age of Terah at the birth of Abraham; which a comparison of Gen. xi. 32. and xii. 4. appears to me to place beyond all doubt. Vide Hebraic. et Samaritan. Pentateuch. et. Vers. Septuag. in Wallon. Bib. Polyglot. -Septuagint, à Grabe.—Capelli Chronologiam, præfix. Wall. Polyglot. p. 2-6.

430

270

270

404

209 109

209

239

207 107

207

239

200 100 200

230

119 69 129
75 75 75 205 145 205

148

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