378 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 107. 



A HEBREW SERMON IN ENGLISH STONE 



(Alias, A Puzzle of long standing solved). 



Some of the readers of the " Notes and 

 Queries " may have chanced, as was the case with 

 the writer, to have enjoyed a raml)Ie through the 

 park and village of Wentworth, in Yorkshire, one 

 of Earl Fitzwilliara's estates. Should such be the 

 case, the ramblers could not have failed to halt 

 half an hour, probably an hour, before a neat 

 house, now inhabited by one of his lordship's 

 agents, and wonder and ponder over the intent and 

 pur[)ort of a curious inscription, on a stone sun- 

 dial, which is placed over the door of the house. 

 Such I have learned to be the case with every new 

 passer-by. Having spent some time in musing 

 over the hitherto inex[)licable puzzle, I think that 

 I am enableil at last to oiler a sort of solution of 

 the same. I shall therefore at first give a simple 

 descrijition of the contents of the stone, and then 

 my version of it. 



In the centre of the slab, a dial plate is inserted ; 

 on its left are carved three lines, running thus : 



" Bezaleel Benevent 



Sculptor Israelite. Isaiah xliv. 5. 



Maker. I am 58 years old." 



On its right, eight lines are carved, and run thus : 

 " 1740 years of 



A ftone of stumbllns;. 



See Isaiah viii. 14, 15. 



Ps. cxix. 165. Ezek. iii. 20 



A stumbling- block. 



Beware of H im. 



Mai. i. 11." 



There is scarcely any difficulty as regards the 

 inscription on the left ; the purport being a brief 

 and clumsy account of the sculptor himself. The 

 reason of the reference at the end of the second 

 line may be a sort of justification for suffixing 

 "Israelite" to his name; the iollowing being the 

 passage referred to : " One shall say, I am the 

 Lord's ; and another shall call himself by the name 

 of Jacob ; and another shall subscribe with his 

 hand unto the Lord, and svrname Idmself hy the 

 name of Israrl.'' The principal perplexity is pre- 

 sented by the inscription on the right, and espe- 

 cially in the second line ; containing, as it does, a 

 group of live Hebrew letters, so arranged as to 

 defy the ingenuity of the most erudite lexicogra- 

 j)her; there being no word of such construction 

 in the whole range of Hebrew literature. 



I must premise, before I proceed any further, 

 by stating that I apprehend the sculptor to have 

 been a zealous, though very eccentric, Jewish 

 convert to Christianity ; to whom it seemed good 

 to put up that enigmatical sun-dial, with a view 

 to attract the attention, and conduce the inquiry 



of his Hebrew brethren ; which would afford him 

 an op[)ortunity of propounding his Christian views 

 from his own desiirn. 



I take the Hebrew letters "i^ti^DD to be the ini- 

 tials of the following words * : 



'VT mn* n^^c n^co ^'?D 



" The King Messiah, the Shiloh, the Lord my 

 Shepherd." Hence those characters follow the 

 A.D. date of the first line, and are followed by the 

 ajipropriate words in the third line, viz. " A stone 

 of stumbling." The fourth line then comes as a 

 sort of explanation of the preceding one: "And 

 He shall be for a sanctuary ; but for a stone of 

 stumbling, and for a rock of offence, to both the 

 houses of Israel ; for a gin and for a snare to the 

 inhnbitants of Jerusalem. And many among them 

 shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be 

 snared, and be taken." "See Isaiah viii. 14, 15." 

 The fifth line, " Ps. cxix. 1G5. Ezek. iii. 20." con- 

 sists of scriptural references as to the cause and 

 effect of loving the law, and vice versa; the first 

 reference being, " Great peace have they which 

 love thy law, and no stumbling-block for them" 

 [according to the original]. The second reference 

 being, "Again, when a righteous man dolh turn 

 from his righteousness, and commit iniquity, and 

 I lay a stumbling-block before him, he shall die; 

 because thou hast not given him warning, he shall 

 (lie in his sin, and his righteousness which he hath 

 done shall not be remembered; but his blood will 

 I require at thine hand." The words in the sixth 

 line, " A stumbling-block," evidently refer to 

 1 Cor. i. 23. : " But we preach Christ crucified ; 

 unto the Jews a stumbling-block." The " sculptor 

 Israelite " may have feared that a reference to the 

 New Testament would betray his motive, and 

 therefore judged it prudent and expedient to omit 

 it. The supposition that Bezaleel had 1 Cor. i. 23. 

 in view is sup]iorted by the seventh line, " Beware 

 of Him." The last line aj)pears to be an appro- 

 priate conclusion ; as the passage referred to de- 

 scribes the extent of the Lord's kingdom, as well 

 as his reception by "all nations, tongues, and 

 kindreds." " For from the rising of the sun, even 

 unto the going down of the same, my name shall 

 be great among the Gentiles ; and in every place 

 incense shall be ofi'ered unto my name, and a peace 

 ofT'ering ; for my name shall be great among 

 the heathen, saith the Lord of hosts." Mai. i. II. 



One may well imagine an Israelite or two ob- 

 serving from the road the Hebrew characters 

 1L"DD — for they are very large, and are seen 

 afar ofi' — and after jnizzling over their intent and 

 purport for some time, ])roceed to ask for an 

 explanation from the major-domo. The master, 



* According to the first canon of cabbalistical inter- 

 pretation, callefl Notricon. See The Fundamental Prht- 

 cijAes of Modern Juduism Investigated, pp. 13, 14. 



