Legends of the Patriarchs and Prophets

The prophet announced to the priests and wise men of Egypt that when a virgin, who had borne a son, should set her foot on Egyptian soil, all the idols should fall.

Before the destruction of Jerusalem, he hid the ark of the covenant in a rock, which opened for the purpose, and closed upon it. Then said he to the princes of the people and to the elders, “The Lord has gone up from Sinai, but He will come again with His sacred power. And this shall be the token of His coming, – all nations shall bow before the Wood.”

Then the prophet continued, “None of the priests and prophets shall open the ark, except Moses, the elect of God; and Aaron shall alone unfold the tables it contains. At the Resurrection, the ark shall arise out of the rock first of all, and it shall be placed upon Mount Zion. Then all the saints will go there and await the Lord, and they will put the enemy to flight who seeks their destruction.”

Having said these words, he traced with his finger the name of God upon the rock, and the name remained graven there as if cut with iron. Then a cloud descended upon the rock and hid it, and no man has seen it since. It is in the desert, amongst the mountains, where are the tombs of Moses and Aaron. At night a cloud of fire shines above the spot.

XLII

EZEKIEL

Ezekiel, whom the Arabs call Kazquil, was the son of an aged couple, who had no children. They prayed to God, and He gave them a son.

Ezekiel was a prophet, and he exhorted the men of Jerusalem to war, but they would not go forth to battle. Then God sent a pestilence, and there died of them every day very many. So, fearing death, a million fled from the city, hoping to escape the pestilence, but the wrath of God overtook them, and they fell dead.

Then those who survived in the city went forth to bury them, but they were too numerous; therefore they built a wall round the corpses, to protect them from the beasts of the field; and thus they lay exposed to the heat and cold for many years, till the flesh had rotted off their bones.

Once the prophet Ezekiel came that way, and he saw this great multitude of dead and dry bones. He prayed, and God restored them to life again, and they stood upon their feet a great army, and entered into the city, and lived out the rest of their days. It is said that among the Jews there are, to this day, descendants of those who were resuscitated, and they may be recognized by the corpse-like odor they exhale.697

The Jews relate that a celebrated Rabbi found the greatest difficulty in comprehending the book of Ezekiel; therefore his disciples prepared for him three hundred tuns of oil to feed his lamp whilst he studied at night the visions of the prophet698

XLIII

EZRA

Cyrus, in the year 537 before Christ, put an end to the captivity of the Jews in Babylon, as had been foretold by Daniel; and not only did he permit the Jews to return to Jerusalem, but he furnished them with the means of rebuilding their city and temple. The Oriental writers, to explain the motive of Cyrus, say that his mother was a Jewess, and that he himself was married to the Jewess Maschat, sister of Zerubabbel, a granddaughter of the king Jehoiakim.

In 523 before Christ, Cambyses, having reigned a brief time, was succeeded by Smerdis, the Magian, who is called, in the Scriptures, Artaxerxes. He, being ill-disposed towards the Jews, withdrew from them the gifts made by Cyrus, and arrested their work. Smerdis, however, reigned only two years, and was succeeded by Darius Hystaspes, who continued the work of Cyrus, by the hands of Ezra or Esdras, one of the instruments used by God to restore His people.

Ezra was the son of Seraiah, of the lineage of Aaron.

In the Koran699 it is said that Ezra, passing through a village near Jerusalem, whose houses were ruined, exclaimed, “Can God restore these waste places, and revive the inhabitants?”

Then God made him die; and he remained dead for one hundred years. At the end of that time God revived him, and he saw the village rebuilt and full of busy people.

The commentators on the Koran say that Ezra (Ozaïr), when young, had been taken away captive by Nebuchadnezzar, but that he was delivered miraculously from prison, and returned to Jerusalem, which he found in ruins. He halted at a village, near the city, named Sair-Abad. Its houses were fallen and without inhabitants, but the fig-tree and vines remained in the gardens. Ezra collected the fruit, and made himself a little cell out of the fallen stones. And he kept near him the ass on which he had ridden.

The holy man, on contemplating from his hermitage the ruins of the holy city and the temple, wept bitterly before the Lord, and said often with a tone rather of lament than doubt, “How can the walls of Jerusalem ever be set up again?”

Then God bade him die, and hid him from the eyes of men, in his cell, with all that he had about him, his fruit, his mat, and his ass. At the close of a century God revived him, and he found all as when he had died; the ass standing, and the fruit unwithered. Then Ezra saw the works that had been executed in Jerusalem, how the walls were being set up, and the breaches repaired, and he said, “God is Almighty; He can do whatsoever pleaseth him!”

After his resurrection, he went into the holy city, and spent night and day in explaining to the people the Law, as he remembered it. But it had been forgotten by the Jews, and therefore they disregarded his instruction.

The Iman Thalebi says, that the Jews, to test the mission of Ezra, placed five pens in his hand, and with each he wrote at the same moment with like facility as if he held only one; and he wrote all the Books of the Sacred Canon, as he drew them from his memory, without the assistance of a book.

The Jews, however, said amongst themselves, “How can we be sure that what Ezra has written is the true sacred text, since there is none amongst us who can bear witness?”

Then one of them said, “I have heard say that my grandfather preserved a copy of the sacred books, and that they were hidden by him in a hollow rock, which he marked so that it might be recognized again.”

They therefore sought the place which had been marked, and there they found a volume containing the Scriptures, which having been compared with what Ezra had written, it was found that the agreement was exact. Then the people, astonished at the miracle, cried out that Ezra was a god.700

At the time of carrying away into Babylon, the sacred fire had been cast into a well in the temple court. Ezra, having drawn some of the dirt out of the well, placed on it the wood of the sacrifice; then the flame, which for a hundred and forty years had been extinguished, burst forth again out of the mire. When Ezra saw this wonder, he thrice drank of the dust out of the well; and thus he imbibed the prophetic spirit, and the power of recomposing from memory the lost sacred books.701

XLIV

ZECHARIAH

Sozomen702 relates that the prophet Zechariah appeared to Colomeras, a farmer of the village of Chupher, in Palestine, and revealed to him his tomb; and on excavations having been made on the spot, an ancient Hebrew book was discovered, which, however, was not regarded as canonical. Nicephoras repeats the story after Sozomen.703

1

Rev. xii. 7-9.

2

Isaiah xiv. 13, 14.

3

Luke x. 18.

4

Fabricius (J. A.), Codex Pseudepigraphus Vet. Test. Hamb., 1722, p. 21.

5

Jalkut Rubeni, 3, sub. tit. Sammael.

6

Fol. 139, col. 1: see Eisenmenger, i. p. 831.

7

Jalkut Rubeni, in Eisenmenger, i. p. 307.

8

Eisenmenger, i. p. 104.

9

Ibid., i. p. 820.

10

Ibid., ii. 416, 420, 421.

11

Chronique de Tabari. Paris, 1867, i. c. xxvii.

12

Abulfeda, Hist. Ante-Islamica. Lipsiæ, 1831, p. 13.

13

1 Cor. x. 20.

14

Majer, Mythologische Lexicon, Th. i. p. 231.

15

Orig. adv. Cels. vi. 42.

16

Lettres Edifiantes, viii. p. 420.

17

Bibliothèque Univ. de Genève, 1827; D’Anselme, i. p. 228.

18

Hist. Naturelle de l’Orinoque, par Tos. Gumilla. Avignon, 1751, t. i. p. 172.

19

Weil, Biblische Legenden der Muselmänner. Frankfort, 1845, pp. 12-16.

20

Geiger, Was hat Mohammed aus d. Judenthum aufgenommen? p. 99.

21

So also Abulfeda, Hist. Ante-Islamica, ed. Fleischer. Lipsiæ, 1831 p. 13.

22

Tabari, i. c. xxvi.

23

Colin de Plancy, p. 55.

24

Eisenmenger, Neuentdecktes Judenthum. Königsberg, 1711, i. pp. 364-5.

25

Bochart, Hierozoica, p. 2, l. 8, fol. 486.

26

Tract Sanhedrim, f. 38.

27

Jalkut Schimoni, f. 6.

28

Tract Hagida, f. 12.

29

Eisenmenger, i. p. 367.

30

Ibid., 368.

31

Eisenmenger, i. p. 369.

32

Müller, Amerikanische Urreligionen; Basle, 1855. Atherne Jones, North American Traditions, i. p. 210, etc. Heckewelder’s Indian Nations, etc.

33

Fourmont Anciens Peuples, i. lib. ii. p. 10.

34

Aves, 666.

35

Mémoires des Chinois, i. p. 105.

36

Berosus, in Cory’s Ancient Fragments, p. 26.

37

It is unfortunate that I have already written on the myths relating to the formation of Eve in “Curiosities of Olden Times.” I would therefore have omitted a chapter which must repeat what has been already published, but that by so doing I should leave this work imperfect. However, there is much in this chapter which was not in the article referred to.

38

Rabboth, fol. 20 b.

39

Eisenmenger, i. 830.

40

Weil, pp. 17, 18.

41

Tabari, i. c. xxvi.

42

Talmud, Tract. Berachoth, f. 61; Bartolocci Bibl. Rabbin., iv. p. 66.

43

Bartolocci, Bibl. Rabbin., iv. p. 67.

44

Bartolocci, Bibl. Rabbin., iii. p. 395.

45

Ibid., p. 396; Eisenmenger, t. i. p. 365.

46

Bhagavat, iii. 12, 51.

47

Colebrooke Miscell. Essays, p. i. 64.

48

Bundehesch, p. 377.

49

Bartolocci, Bibl. Rabbin., iv. p. 463.

50

Mendez Pinto, Voyages, ii. p. 178.

51

Bhagavat, iii. 12, 25.

52

Ibid., iv. 15, 27.

53

Ovid, Metamorph., x. 7.

54

Hesiod, Works and Days, 61-79.

55

Gen. i. 27.

56

Ibid., ii. 18.

57

Ibid., 23.

58

Abraham Ecchellensis, Hist. Arabum, p. 268.

59

Talmud, Tract. Bava Bathra.

60

S. Epiphan. Hæres., xxvi.

61

Tho. Bangius, Cœlum Orientis, p. 103.

62

S. Clementi Recog., c. iv.

63

Lafitau, Mœurs des Sauvages Amériquaines, i. p. 93.

64

Pallas, Reise, i. p. 334.

65

Hodgson, Buddhism, p. 63.

66

Upham, Sacred Books of Ceylon, iii. 156.

67

Mémoires Chinois, i. p. 107.

68

Bundehesch in Windischmann: Zoroastrische Studien. Berlin, 1863, p. 82; and tr. A. du Perron, ii. pp. 77-80.

69

So also Abulfeda, Hist. Ante-Islamica, p. 13.

70

Weil, pp. 19-28.

71

Tabari, i. p. 80.

72

Diod. Sicul., 14 et seq.

73

Ausland für Nov. 4, 1847.

74

W. Smith, Nouveau Voyage de Guinée. Paris, 1751, ii. p. 176.

75

Bowdler, Mission from Cape Coast to Ashantee. London, 1819, p. 344.

76

Cranz, Historie von Grönland. Leipzig, 1770, i. p. 262.

77

Humboldt, Pittoreske Ansichten d. Cordilleren; Plate xiii. and explanation, ii. pp. 41, 42.

78

De la Borde, Reise zu den Caraiben. Nürnb. 1782, i. pp. 380-5.

79

Allg. Hist. der Reisen, xviii. p. 395.

80

Eisenmenger, i. pp. 827-9.

81

Weil, p. 28.

82

Basnage, Histoire des Juifs. La Haye, iii. p. 391.

83

Tract. Avod., f. 1. col. 3; also Tract. Pesachim, f. 118, col. 1.

84

Eisenmenger, i. pp. 376, 377.

85

Eisenmenger, i. pp. 377-80.

86

Talmud, Avoda Sara, fol. 8 a, and in Levy, Parabeln, p. 300.

87

It is a popular superstition among the lower orders in England that a woman who dies in childbirth, even if she be unmarried, cannot be lost.

88

Weil, pp. 29-38.

89

Dillman, Das Adambuch des Morgenlandes; Göttingen, 1853. This book is not to be confounded with the Testament of Adam.

90

Tabari, i., capp. xxviii. xxix.

91

In More Nevochim, quoted by Fabricius, i. p. 5.

92

Gen. v. i.

93

Fabricius, i. p. 11.

94

Adv. Hæresi, c. 5.

95

Eusebius Nierembergius, De Origine S. Scripturæ. Lugd., 1641.

96

Fabricius, i. p. 33.

97

Ferdinand de Troilo, Orientale Itinerario. Dresd., 1667, p. 323.

98

Selden, De Synedriis, ii. p. 452.

99

Hottinger, Historia Orientalis, lib. i. c. 8.

100

Jacobus Vitriacus, Hist. Hierosol., c. lxxxv.

101

As King Charles’s Oak may be seen in the fern-root.

102

Fabricius, i. p. 84.

103

Neue Ierosolymitanische Pilgerfahrt. Würtzburg, 1667, p. 47.

104

Stephanus Le Moyne, Notæ ad Varia Sacra, p. 863.

105

Abulfeda, p. 15. In the Apocryphal book, The Combat of Adam (Dillman, Das Christliche Adambuch des Morgenlandes; Göttingen, 1853), the same reason for hostility is given. In that account, Satan appears to Cain and prompts him to every act of wickedness.

106

Tabari, i. c. xxx.

107

Jalkut, fol. 11 a.

108

Yaschar, p. 1089.

109

Targums, ed. Etheridge, London, 1862, i. p. 172.

110

Eisenmenger, i. p. 320.

111

Liber Zenorena, quoted by Fabricius, i. p. 108.

112

S. Methodius, jun., Revelationes, c. 3.

113

Eutychius, Patriarcha Alex., Annales.

114

Pirke R. Eliezer, c. xxi.

115

Historia Dynastiarum, ed. Pocock; Oxon. 1663, p. 4.

116

Ad Antiochum, quæst. 56.

117

Fabricius, i. p. 112.

118

Eisenmenger, i. p. 462.

119

Targum, i. p. 173.

120

Jalkut Cadasch, fol. 6, col. i.

121

Pirke R. Eliezer, c. xxi.

122

Ibid.

123

Ibid.

124

Eisenmenger, ii. p. 8.

125

Ibid., p. 428.

126

Ibid., p. 455.

127

Tract. Avoda Sara.

128

Tabari, i. c. xix.

129

Antiq. Judæ., lib. i. c. 2.

130

Excerpta Chronologica, p. 2.

131

Gen. iv. 15.

132

Cosmas Indopleustes, Cosmographia, lib. v.

133

D’Herbelot, Bibliothèque Orientale, sub voce Cabil, i. p. 438.

134

Neue Ierosolymitanische Pilgerfahrt. Von P. F. Ignat. von Rheinfelden. Würtzburg, 1667. P. ii. p. 8.

135

Weil, pp. 40-3.

136

Tabari, i. c., xxxiii.

137

Colin de Plancy, p. 78.

138

Herbelot, i. p. 95.

139

Moses bar Cepha. Commentarius de Paradiso, P. i. c. 14. Fabricius, i. p. 75.

140

S. Basil Seleuc. Orat. xxxviii.

141

Lettre de H. A. D., Consul de France en Abyssinie, 1841.

142

Tabari, i. c. xxxiv.

143

D’Herbelot, i. p. 125, s. v. Rocail.

144

Midrash Tillim, fol. 10, col. 2.

145

Eisenmenger, i. p. 645.

146

Theodoret, Quæst. in Gen. xlvii.

147

Plutarch, Isis and Osiris, ed. Parthey; pp. 72, 88, and notes pp. 183, 238.

148

Abulfaraj, Hist. Dynast., ed. Pocock, p. 5.

149

Joseph. Antiq. Judaic., lib. i. c. 2.

150

Freculphus, Chron. lib. i. c. 12.

151

Anastasius Sinaita, Οδηγός. ed. Gretser, Ingolst. 1606, p. 269.

152

Gen. v. 6-9.

153

Pseudo Josephus Gorionides; ed. Clariss. Breithauptius, lib. ii. c. 18, p. 131.

154

I give the Arabic legend. The account in Jasher is different. Enoch retired from the world, and showed himself only at rare intervals, when he gave advice to all who came to hear his wisdom. He was taken up to heaven in a whirlwind, in a chariot with horses of fire. (Yaschar, pp. 1094-1096.)

155

Tabari, i. c. xxxv.

156

Dillman, Das Buch Enock; Leipzig, 1853. Ewald, in his “Geschichte der Volks Israel” (iii. 2, pp. 397-401), attributes it to the year 130. B. C.

157

Fol. 26, col. 2.

158

Jalkut Rubeni, fol. 27, col. 4.

159

Ibid., fol. 107, col i.

160

Targums, ed. Etheridge, i. p. 175.

161

Suidas, Lexic. s. v. Nannacos.

162

Nischmath Chajim, fol. 116, col. i.

163

Eisenmenger, i. p. 380.

164

Das Buch Henoch, von Dillmann, Leipz. 1853, c. xv. p. 9.

165

Abulfaraj, p. 6.

166

Eutych. Patriarcha Alex., Annales ab Orbe Condito, Arabice et Lat., ed. Selden; London, 1642, i. p. 19.

167

D’Herbelot, s. v. Surkrag and Kaïumarth.

168

Tabari, c. xxxvii.

169

D’Herbelot, s. v. Tahmourath.

170

Tabari, caps. xxxix. xl.

171

Gen. iv. 18-24.

172

Targums, ed. Etheridge, i. p. 173.

173

Yaschar, tr. Drach, p. 1092; the same in Midrash Jalkut, c. 38; Midrash, Par. Bereschith, fol. 2; Rabbi Raschi on Genesis; etc., etc.

174

Véland le Forgeron; Paris, 1833. There is an English translation by Wright.

175

Tabari, i. c. xxi.

176

Eisenmenger, ii. p. 416.

177

Colin de Plancy, p. 102.

178

Midrash, fol. 12; so also Targum of Palestine, Etheridge, i. p. 179.

179

Chron. Græc., ed. Scaliger, Lugd. Batav. 1606, p. 4.

180

Fabricius, i. p. 225.

181

Eisenmenger, i. p. 651.

182

Talmud, Tractat. Sanhedrin, fol. 108, col. 1. So also the Book Yaschar, p. 1097.

183

Jalkut, Genesis, fol. 14a.

184

Jalkut Shimoni, Job. fol. 121, col. 2.

185

Eisenmenger, i. p. 385. The Targum of Palestine says the water was hot (i. p. 179).

186

Tractat. Sevachim, fol. 113, col. 2.

187

Or, a unicorn; the Hebrew word is Reém.

188

Midrash, fol. 14.

189

Eutych, Patriarcha Alex., ed. Selden, i. p. 36.

190

Tabari, p. 108.

191

Abulfeda, p. 17.

192

Yaschar, p. 1100.

193

Colin de Plancy, p. 110.

194

Weil, p. 45.

195

Ararat.

196

Tabari, c. xli.

197

Weil, p. 45.

198

Midrash, fol. 15.

199

Tabari, p. 113.

200

Fabricius, i. pp. 74, 243.

201

Ed. Dillmann, c. 67.

202

Ed. Etheridge, i. p. 182.

203

Gen. v. 20.

204

In the Midrash Rabba, this want of connection between the name and the signification is remarked upon, and Solomon Jarki in his commentary says that, for the meaning assigned, the name ought to have been, not Noah, but Menahem.

205

Buttmann, Ueber der Mythus d. Sûndfluth, Berlin, 1819; Lûken Die Traditionen des Menschengeschlechts, Munster, 1856; Bryant, Of the Deluge in Ancient Mythology, London, 1775, etc.

206

Parrot, Journey to Ararat, English Trans. Lond. 1845.

207

Joseph. Antiq., i. 3; see also Ptolem. Geogr. vi. 2.

208

Joseph. Antiq., i. 4.

209

Euseb. Præp. Evang. ix. 19.

210

Lucian, De Dea Syra, c. 12, 13.

211

Georg. Syncellus, Chronographia, p. 29, B., ed. Bonn; or Cory’s Ancient Fragments, p. 26 et seq.

212

Præp. Evang. ix. 12; see also S. Cyril contra Julian, i.

213

Bochart, Geogr. Sacra, p. 231.

214

Ekhel, Doctrina Numm. Vet. iii. p. 132 et seq.; see also Bryant’s New System of Ancient Mythology, Lond. 1775, i. note 3.

215

Orac. Sibvll, i. v. 260, 265-7. Ed. Fiedlieb.

216

Bundehesch, 7.

217

On the Chronology of the Hindus, by Sir W. Jones; Asiatic Researches, ii. pp. 116-7.

218

Bopp, Die Sündfluth; Berlin, 1829, p. 9.

219

Ovid. Metam. i. 240 et seq.

220

Steph. Bryzant., s. voce Ικονιον.

221

Diod. Sicul. lib. i.

222

Mém. concernant les Chinois, i. p. 157.

223

Klaproth, Inschrift, des Yu; Halle, 1811, p. 29.

224

Mém. concernant les Chinois, ix. p. 383.

225

Mart. Martinii, Hist. Sin. p. 26.

226

Steller, Beschreibung v. Kamschatka; Frankf. 1744, p. 273.