ANTIQUITIES

OF

THE JEWS,

CAREFULLY COMPILED FROM AUTHENTIC SOURCES,

AND

THEIR CUSTOMS ILLUSTRATED

FROM MODERN TRAVELS.

BY WILLIAM BROWN, D.D.

MINISTER OF ESKDALEMUIR.

TO WHICH IS ADDED,

A DISSERTATION ON THE HEBREW LANGUAGE, FROM
JENNINGS'S JEWISH ANTIQUITIES.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. II.

PHILADELPHIA:

PUBLISHED BY WILLIAM W. WOODWARD,

NO. 52, SOUTH SECOND STREET.

.............

1823.

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11-206-19203

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CONTENTS.

PART IX.

LEARNING OF THE JEWS.

SECT. I. Jewish Manner of writing. Origin of writing. Engraving on

brass, stone tables, on rock. The inscriptions on the mountains of Faran, in

the wilderness of Sinai; in the plain of Mummies in Egypt; at the river Ly.

cus; on the bricks of Babylon. One of these seen by the author. Engraving

on lead. Books written on painted linen, papyrus, parchment, leaves, and

inner bark of trees, plates of wood covered with wax. Their pens or styles:

sometimes iron; sometimes a reed. The ancient form of books in rolls. A

copy of the Veda described, as seen by the author. Rolls commonly written

on one side; but sometimes on both. Writings how preserved. Letters, or

private epistles in the form of rolls: how sealed. Description of an eastern

letter seen by the author

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SECT. II. Some Account of their principal Books. -The Old Testament divided

into the Pentateuch, former prophets, latter prophets, and Hagiographa.

Account of the origin of chapters and verses. The Books referred to in

Scripture, but at present lost. The Septuagint: Josephus. Of the Talmu-

dical writings, the following are the most remarkable. 1st. The Midraschim,

or Commentaries. 2d. The Midraschim Rabbot, or Great Commentaries.

3d. The Pirke Abbot, or Sentences of the Fathers. 4th. The Mishna, its

origin, author, and contents described. 5th. The Gemara. 6th. The Talmud.

7. The Targum. 8th. The Commentary on the Old Testament by Aben Ezra.

9th. Maimonides, writings of, described. 10th. Abarbanel's Commentary on

the Law

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SECT. III. Jewish Notions of Astronomy. Jewish notions of the figure,

motion, and dissolution of the earth. Objections against the Copernican sys-

tem examined. State of astronomy in Chaldea, Egypt, and Judea. The cases

of Joshua, and the dial of Ahaz. Arcturus and Orion described: the Pleiades :

the chambers of the south; Mazzaroth. Parkhurst's different explanation

of these. The darkness at our Saviour's death considered. An interesting

extract from Ferguson's Tracts

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