Chapter II: Preface

THESE Outlines of Jewish History are the result of a proposal which was made to me, some two years back, by the administrators of the Jacob Franklin Trust, to write a book which should tell the history of the Jews from Biblical times to the present day, in a form which should fit it for use in schools and homes. A right of reference to Dr. Friedländer, the learned Principal of Jews’ College, was one of the privileges of my commission, and the bringing to him of all my doubts and difficulties for decision has proved not only an advantage to my book, but a pleasure to me.

The trouble I have had in endeavouring to keep the book simple enough for youthful readers, suggests the possible presence of a weak point, and tempts me to forestall criticism by urging that I have, at least, been mindful on this head, and have patiently done my best. But so complicated a history, and so advanced a civilisation as that of the Jews, is not quite susceptible of entirely simple treatment. ‘They stained their bodies with a plant called woad’ is a perfectly comprehensive if somewhat bald bit of history, ‘adapted to the use of schools,’ anent the ancient Britons. ‘In their schools they laid the foundations for the Mishnah’ would be a correct contemporaneous statement concerning the ancient Jews, but one that hardly lends itself to such comfortable brevity and simplicity of style. I can only plead that I have told the whole sad, beautiful, ‘heroic history’ of my race with the keenest sympathy; and I can only hope that the moral and the meaning of it all, which are so very clear to me, may be found to shine out between the lines.

KATIE MAGNUS.

_July 1886._

_DATES OF CHIEF EVENTS AND CHIEF PEOPLE._

B.C.E.
Return from Babylon 536

Dedication of Second Temple 516

Institution of Purim 473

Judea under Egyptian rule 320

Simon I., the Just; high priest 310

The Septuagint translation made 240

Judea is conquered by Syria 203

Antiochus IV., Epiphanes, King of Syria 175‒163

Institution of Hanucah 164

Judea an independent state 141

The Idumeans are conquered, and forced to accept 120
Judaism

Judas Aristobulus, the first Jewish king 106

Civil war between the brothers Hyrcanus II. and 70
Aristobulus

Pompey in Jerusalem 63

Herod I. becomes King of Judea 37

Hillel I. president of the Sanhedrin 30

The Temple rebuilt by Herod 20

C.E.
Judea a Roman province 7

Origin of the Christian religion 37

Philo, Jewish philosopher in Alexandria 40

Fall of Jerusalem and destruction of the Temple 70

Jochanan ben Zakkai establishes a college at Jamnia 70

The Pentateuch is translated into Chaldee by Onkelos, 130
and the whole Bible into Greek by Akylos

The Jews rise under Barcochba against the Romans 133‒135

Akiba dies 135

Compilation of the Mishnah by Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi 190

Colleges founded in Babylonia by Rab and Samuel 219

The Jerusalem Talmud compiled 320

Hillel II. fixes the Jewish calendar (at present 360
in use)

The Babylonian Talmud completed 500

A Jewish kingdom in Yemen 500

First Gaon in Sura, Mar Isaac 658

Origin of the vowel signs and accents in Hebrew 650

The Arabs conquer Spain 711

The Chazars embrace Judaism 740

Development of Karaism 761

Saadia of Fajum, philosopher and theologian 892‒942

Foundation of colleges by Babylonian scholars in
Western countries 950

Hai, the last of the Gaonim 998‒1038

Solomon Gabirol 1037‒1070

Rashi (Rabbi Solomon Yitschaki) 1040‒1105

Beginning of the Crusades and of the persecutions 1096
of the Jews in Europe

Moses ibn Ezra 1070‒1139

Judah ha-Levi 1085‒1145

Abraham ibn Ezra 1092‒1167

Moses Maimonides 1135‒1204

Benjamin of Tudela, traveller 1165‒1173

Persecution of Jews in England under Richard I. 1189

The writings of Maimonides burnt at Paris 1233

The Jewish Parliament summoned by Henry III. 1240

Copies of the Talmud burnt at Paris 1242

Expulsion of Jews from England 1290

Jacob Asheri completes the religious code called 1340
the Four Turim

Persecution of Jews in Europe in consequence of the 1349
Black Death

Don Isaac Abarbanel 1437‒1509

The first Hebrew books printed 1475

Inquisition against the Marannos 1480

Expulsion of the Jews from Spain 1492

Expulsion of the Jews from Portugal 1497

The first ghetto in Venice 1516

Reuchlin for the Talmud, Pfefferkorn against it 1506‒1516

First complete edition of the Talmud printed 1520

Spanish Jews settle in Holland 1591

Manasseh ben Israel 1604‒1657

Sabbatai Zevi 1626‒1676

Baruch Spinoza 1632‒1677

Slaughter of Jews in Poland by the Cossacks under 1648
Chmielnicki

Manasseh ben Israel came to England 1655

First Portuguese synagogue in London 1656

First German synagogue in London 1692

Moses Mendelssohn born 1729

The edict of Joseph II., Emperor of Austria 1782

Moses Montefiore born 1784

Frederick William II. of Prussia abolishes the 1787
‘Leibzoll’

The Jews in France emancipated 1791

Jews admitted to the freedom of the City of London 1832

The Jews’ civil disabilities in England removed 1845

Persecution of Jews in Damascus: Professor Theodore’s 1840
letter on same

D. Salomons elected M.P. for Greenwich 1851

Jewish Oath Bill passed 1858

CONTENTS.

_BOOK I._

B.C. 586 TO A.C. 70.
IN THE SHADOW OF THE SWORD.

CHAPTER I.

THE JEWS IN BABYLON.

1. Babylonian Exiles
2. Persian Conquest of Babylon
3. The Influences of the Exile
4. How Cyrus’s Permission was received
5. The End of the Exile

CHAPTER II.

THE RETURN TO PALESTINE.

1. The Rebuilding of the Temple
2. The Samaritans
3. The Feast of Purim
4. Ezra the Scribe
5. The Work of Ezra and Nehemiah

CHAPTER III.

LIFE IN PALESTINE.

1. Condition of the People
2. Literary Labours
3. Alexandrian Jews
4. The Septuagint
5. Under Egyptian Rule
6. Under Syrian Rule
7. Home Rule

CHAPTER IV.

THE MACCABEAN WAR OF INDEPENDENCE.

1. Antiochus Epiphanes
2. Antiochus’s Tyranny
3. Resistance of Mattathias
4. Chasidim and Zaddikim
5. The Success of Judas Maccabeus
6. Institution of Hanucah
7. Treaty with Rome

CHAPTER V.

PALESTINE UNDER NATIVE RULE.

1. Death of Judas Maccabeus
2. Jonathan the Maccabee
3. Simon, the First of the Priest-King Dynasty
4. The Sons of Simon
5. Reign of John Hyrcanus
6. His Last Years

CHAPTER VI.

JUDEA DURING THE REMAINDER OF THE RULE OF THE ASMONEANS.

1. Rival Factions, Pharisees and Sadducees
2. How they got their Names
3. Their Tenets and Position, Religious and Political
4. State Quarrel with the Pharisees
5. The Essenes
6. Reign of Alexander Jannæus
7. After the Death of Alexander Jannæus

CHAPTER VII.

A NEW DYNASTY.

1. Antipater the Idumean
2. Rome arbitrates
3. Antipater’s plans
4. The Sanhedrin
5. The Fall of the Asmonean House

CHAPTER VIII.

REIGN OF HEROD.

1. Antipater’s ‘Desire’ fulfilled
2. How Herod strengthened his Position
3. Herod as Husband
4. Herod as Father
5. Herod as King
6. The End of Herod’s Reign
7. Hillel: a Contrast

CHAPTER IX.

JUDEA BEFORE THE WAR.

1. Herod’s Will
2. Judea sinks into a Roman Province
3. Jesus of Nazareth
4. Jews in Egypt and Syria
5. Birth of Christianity
6. Reign of Herod Agrippa
7. Caligula and the Jews

CHAPTER X.

THE WAR WITH ROME.

1. Agrippa II.; Roman Governors
2. Vespasian sent to Judea
3. Preparations for Defence
4. Josephus

CHAPTER XI.

THE END OF THE WAR.

1. The Defence of the Provinces
2. Affairs in Jerusalem
3. The War Party and the Peace Party: their Leaders
4. The Siege of Jerusalem
5. A Mediator sent: Terms proposed
6. The Destruction of the Temple

_BOOK II._

A.C. 70 TO 1600.
DARKNESS.

CHAPTER XII.

AFTER THE WAR.

1. Titus completes his Conquest
2. Masada
3. What became of the Chief Actors
4. What became of the Country and the People
5. Salvage
6. Jochanan ben Saccai; the Schools
7. An Unforeseen Result of the War: Jewish Christians

CHAPTER XIII.

THE REVOLT UNDER HADRIAN.

1. Conquered Jews in the West
2. Contemporary Jews in the East
3. Under Trajan
4. The Policy of Hadrian
5. The Jews in Revolt: their Leader
6. Akiba, the Romance of his Youth
7. Akiba, the Romance of his Age
8. Hadrian’s Resolve accomplished

CHAPTER XIV.

THE REVIVAL OF THE SCHOOLS: THEIR WORK.

1. One of History’s Miracles
2. The Schools: their Work
3. The Masters of the Schools
4. The Moral Influence of the Schools
5. The Political Influence of the Schools
6. The Literary Influence of the Schools

CHAPTER XV.

CHRISTIANITY A STATE RELIGION.

1. How it spread among the Heathen
2. The First Christian Emperor
3. Constantine legislates on the Subject; its Effects
4. Jews in the East under Persian Rule
5. Julian the Apostate

CHAPTER XVI.

THE BREAK-UP OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE: SOME OF ITS CONSEQUENCES.

1. Political Changes
2. Social Changes
3. Monks and Saints
4. How Jews became Traders
5. The Slave Trade
6. Jews as Slave Owners
7. Church Councils
8. Eastern Jews
9. War between the Persian and the Byzantine Empires

CHAPTER XVII.

THE RISE OF MAHOMEDANISM.

1. The Koran or the Sword
2. What Mahomed learnt from the Jews
3. Islam
4. Likenesses between Islam and Judaism
5. Differences between Islam and Judaism

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE CONQUESTS OF THE KALIPHS:
EFFECT, RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL, ON THE JEWS.

1. Progress of Mahomedanism
2. Gaonim
3. Spain in the Hands of the Mahomedans
4. The Karaite Movement
5. Mahomedan Causes for Karaism
6. The Leader of the Karaite Movement
7. What became of the Sect
8. Good out of Evil

CHAPTER XIX.

LIFE UNDER THE KALIPHS.

1. Jews in the East
2. Close of the Schools; some Scholars
3. Jews in the West
4. The Policy of the Early Kaliphs
5. Some Effects of this Policy

CHAPTER XX.

JEWS IN SPAIN (710‒1150).

1. ‘Like a Dream in the Night’
2. The Jew Schools
3. The first Nagid of Spain
4. Another Nagid: troubles in Granada
5. Revival of Catholicism in Spain
6. Effect on the Jews
7. The Almohade Dynasty of Kaliphs

CHAPTER XXI.

JEWS IN SPAIN, CONTINUED (1150‒1492).

1. Under Catholic Kings in Spain
2. The Toledo Synagogue
3. The Downward Slope to Death
4. The Marannos or New Christians
5. An Effort at Argument
6. The Inquisition
7. Objects and Functions of the Inquisition
8. Some Statistics of the Inquisition
9. Edict of Expulsion
10. Abarbanel’s Intercession

CHAPTER XXII.

JEWS IN CENTRAL EUROPE IN THE MIDDLE AGES.

1. General Position of European Jews
2. Jews become Money-lenders
3. Charges of Usury

CHAPTER XXIII.

JEWS IN CENTRAL EUROPE, CONTINUED.

1. The Crusades
2. Glimpses of Better Things
3. Life in France till the Expulsion thence
4. Expelled from France
5. Treatment of Jews in the German States

CHAPTER XXIV.

JEWS IN ENGLAND (1066‒1210).

1. The First Seventy Years
2. ‘Saints’ and Supplies
3. Accession of Richard
4. Treatment by Richard
5. Under John

CHAPTER XXV.

JEWS IN ENGLAND, CONTINUED (1216‒1290).

1. The Next Fifty Years
2. The Caorsini
3. The First Jewish M.P.’s
4. Another Device for raising Money
5. Under Edward I.
6. Some Ironical Legislation
7. Dishonest Jews
8. Efforts at Conversion
9. Expulsion of Jews from England

_BOOK III._

A.C. 100 TO 1500.
STARLIGHT.

CHAPTER XXVI.

CONCERNING JEWISH LITERATURE AND LITERARY MEN.

1. Starlight
2. How the Stars shone
3. Piyutim
4. A Specimen Planet

CHAPTER XXVII.

SOME FIXED STARS.

1. Solomon ibn Gabirol
2. ‘Rashi’
3. Ibn Ezra
4. A Great Traveller
5. Jehudah Halevi

CHAPTER XXVIII.

THE GREATEST OF THE FIXED STARS, MAIMONIDES (1135‒1204).

1. Early Days in Spain
2. Life in Exile
3. Becomes a Court Physician
4. Court and other Employment
5. His Writings
6. His Character
7. The End of his Life

CHAPTER XXIX.

DARKNESS BEFORE THE DAWN.

1. The Stars die out
2. Whither the Exiles went
3. Life in Germany
4. A New Crusade
5. What became of the Spanish and Portuguese Exiles

CHAPTER XXX.

THE DARKNESS VISIBLE.

1. Deterioration of Character
2. Atmospheric Conditions
3. A Shooting Star――Sabbatai Zevi
4. How the News was received
5. The Sultan interferes
6. Sabbatai resigns his Pretensions
7. Becomes a Convert to Mahomedanism

_BOOK IV._

A.C. 1591 TO 1885.
DAWN.

CHAPTER XXXI.

DAWN.

1. Beginnings of Better Days in Holland
2. The New Jerusalem
3. Sephardim and Ashkenazim
4. Spanish Jews in Holland
5. Their Acquired Intolerance
6. An Instance in Point: Uriel da Costa

CHAPTER XXXII.

MANASSEH BEN ISRAEL.

1. His Early Life
2. His Writings and his Friends
3. Manasseh finds his Vocation
4. Negotiations begun for the Return of the Jews to England

CHAPTER XXXIII.

THE RETURN OF THE JEWS TO ENGLAND.

1. Manasseh presents his Petition
2. A Christian Advocate
3. What People said
4. How the Petition was received
5. End of Manasseh’s Story

CHAPTER XXXIV.

SPINOZA.

1. Clouds obscure the Dawn
2. The Amsterdam Jews at the Time of Spinoza
3. Spinoza’s Student Days
4. Things come to a Climax
5. How Spinoza took his Sentence; his Mode of Life
6. Unto this Last
7. His Writings
8. Results

CHAPTER XXXV.

IN NORTHERN AND CENTRAL EUROPE, BEFORE THE DAWN.

1. A Long Night
2. Reuchlin and the Talmud
3. Another Jewish Influence: Elias Levitas
4. Some Jewish Results from the Invention of Printing
5. Influence of Printing on Kabbalistic Literature

CHAPTER XXXVI.

IN NORTHERN AND CENTRAL EUROPE, BEFORE THE DAWN, CONTINUED.

1. A Group of Stars
2. Polish Jews
3. French Jews
4. Social Life in Germany
5. Moral and Material Effects upon the Jews

CHAPTER XXXVII.

MOSES MENDELSSOHN.

1. Early Days in Dessau
2. Goes to Berlin
3. How he fares there
4. Seed-time
5. Harvest
6. Nathan der Weise
7. Literary Successes
8. His Home Life
9. Last Years

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

THE NEXT HUNDRED YEARS (1780‒1880).

1. Light and Shadows
2. Leopold Zunz
3. Progress of Events and Legislation in Germany
4. Progress of Events and Legislation in France
5. Progress of Events and Legislation in Italy
6. Progress of Events and Legislation in Spain and Portugal
7. Progress of Events and Legislation in Austrian Dominions
8. Progress of Events and Legislation in other European States
9. Progress of Events and Legislation in Russia and Poland
10. Progress of Events and Legislation in Danubian Provinces
11. A Glance at the Rest of the Map

CHAPTER XXXIX.

TWO CENTURIES AND A QUARTER IN ENGLAND (1660‒1885).

1. The First Fifty Years
2. Influx of Germans and Poles: how received
3. Converts
4. Progress of Anglo-Jewish Legislation
5. Communal Progress
6. The Nineteenth Century
7. A Slander revived and slain
8. The Man of the Nineteenth Century
9. Conclusion

INDEX

_MAPS._

1. Palestine
2. The Roman Empire at the close of the Republic
3. Europe in the Middle Ages

_Erratum._

_Page 169, line 22, for 66 read 72._

OUTLINES OF JEWISH HISTORY.

BOOK I.

500 B.C. TO 70 A.C.

IN THE SHADOW OF THE SWORD.

אֲסִירֵי עֳנִי וּבַרְזֶל
PSALM cvii. 10.

‘_Life fulfils itself in many ways._’