J E W. 
822 
idea, that thofe who do well will have all forts of good 
things. heaped upon them, and thofe that do ill will be 
punifhed, either in this or in the other world. They have 
a fort of penitential canons, which flow the punishments, 
according to their opinion, that ought to be inflifted 
upon Sinners, when they come to confcfs their Sins. This 
confeffion is looked upon as obligatory upon them, and 
may be found among the ceremonies of the Sin-offering. 
He who offered it confeffed his fin, and charged the vic¬ 
tim with it. 
They acknowdedge that there is a' place appointed for 
the purification of fouls after death ; and they formerly 
offered facrifices for them ; but at prefent they content 
themfelves with barely praying for them. They diltin- 
guifh between two forts of fins, one of which will be par¬ 
doned in the other world, and the other is unpardonable; 
and Jofephus tells us, that the Pharifees held a very lin¬ 
gular opinion upon this lubjeff. They taught that the 
fouls of good men, when they go out of one body, enter 
into another; but that thofeof the wicked are condemned 
to eternal punifhments. Thus Herod the Tetrarch, who 
was prepoffelfed with this opinion, thought that the foul of 
John the Baptift, whom he had put to death, was entered 
into Jefus Chrift. Matth.-x iv. 2. The Jews pretend to 
difcover what fort of foul every man has in his body, by 
the firfl letters of his name ! As for inffance, they think 
that the foul of Adam puffed into the body of David, and 
muff come into that of the Mefiiah, becaufe the firfl let¬ 
ters of thefe three names make that of Adam, according 
to the Hebrew orthography. 
One of the principal ufages among the Jews is the ex¬ 
treme care they take to avoid all uncleanneffes. There 
are a vaft number of them fet down in the Jaw, or efta- 
blifhed by tradition ; and it is their great care to avoid all 
thefe forts of uncleannefs that has compelled them to 
break off all intercourfe with the people among whom 
they live. It was not pofiible, but that they rauft fall 
into fome one or other of thefe pollutions fo long as they 
lived with them ; becaufe, the Gentiles not taking any of 
the precautions required by the law, whatever they touched 
muft of neceflity become unclean. Thus they would not 
make u'fe of the oil made by the Greeks, as Jofephus in¬ 
forms us. 
The refpedl which' the Jews have for the facred writ¬ 
ings is another of their religious praftices. Nothing can 
be added to the care they take in writing them. The 
books of the ancients were of a different form from ours ; 
they were written upon fkins of parchment, which were 
fewn together lengthwife, and faflened at the ends to rollers 
of wood, upon which they were rolled up. The Jews, 
who are ftrift adherers to ancient cufloms, to this day 
make ufeof no bibles in their fynagogues but fuch as are 
of this ancient form. Each fynagogue has a Pentateuch, 
'which they call the Book of the Law, written upon calves’ 
fkins, in large ckaraflers, and without points, becaufe 
points are of late invention. Thefe fkins are faflened to 
two rollers, whofe ends project out at the fides beyond the 
fkins, and are ufually adorned with filver; it is by them 
that they hold up the hook of the law when they fhow it 
to the people, becaufe they are forbidden to touch the 
book itfelf. Thefe fkins are feveral ells long, and mu ft be 
fewn together by a jew with goats’ hair which has been 
fpun and prepared by a jewels. It muft be I ike wife a 
Jew that writes the law', and they are extremely diligent 
and exaft in it, for the moil trifling error would profane 
the book. To open and fnut this book, to hold it, and 
to raife and fhow it to the people, are three diftinfl offices, 
which are fold, and bring in a great deal of money. All 
who are in the fynagogue kifs it; and thofe who are not 
near enough to reach it with their mouths, touch it, then 
kifs their hands, and put the two fingers with which they 
touched it upon their eyes, thinking that it preferves the 
eve-fight. They keep it in a cupboard, which fupplies 
tiie place of the ark of the covenant; and they therefore 
call this cupboard uren, which fignifies ark. 
The perfon who prefides choofes any one whom he 
pleafes to read and explain the Scriptures, which was 
looked upon as a mark of diftinftion, ( Maimon. Hilc. Teph. 
c. xii.) as we fee Afts xiii. where we find the rulers of ths 
fynagogue defiring the apoftles, when they were in the 
fynagogue, to make a difeourfe to the people. Ordinarily 
fpeaking, a priefl began, a levite read on, and at laft one 
of the people, whom the prefident chofe, concluded. He 
who read flood upright, as did Chrift when he went into 
the fynagogue on the fabbath-day ; Luke iv. 16. Before 
the reader began, he faid with a loud voice, “ Blefs ye 
God;” and the congregation anfwered, “ Blelfed be thou, 
O my God ; bleffed he thou for ever and ever.” When 
the leffon was ended, the book was wrapped up in a piece 
of filk. 
The Jews yet retain fo great a veneration for the anci¬ 
ent Hebrew tongue, that they will not fuffer any hible in 
a different language to be read in the fynagogue. The 
HJleniftic Jews read the Septuagint Greek verfion- in 
their fynagogues; which fo enraged the other Jews againft 
them, that ferious confequences were fometimes expected 
to arife from it : indeed, they were fo grieved that this 
verfion was ever made, that they inftituted a faft, in which 
they annually bewailed this misfortune. Becaufe, after 
the captivity, Hebrew ceafed to be the vulgar dialed!:, an 
interpreter was appointed in the fynagogues, whofe office 
it was to explain to the people what had before been read 
to them in Hebrew ; but neverthelefs, the ule they made 
of the Scriptures, in daily reading them, gave the peonle 
at leaft an imperfedt knowledge of their ancient language. 
See Neh. viii. 4-8. and Prid. Con. ii. 8. And thus we 
perceive that the eunuch, mentioned Adis viii. 34. could 
read the prophecy of Ifaiah, and underftood enough of it 
to afk Phillip a quellion concerning the application of a 
paffage in that book, which evidently bore reference to 
Chrift. 
The Jew's keep feftivals, and call them all fabbaths, or 
days of reft ; but they moil religioufly obferve the Weekly 
fabbath, or feventh day. On the eve of the fabbath the 
Jews prepared every thing that was neceffary for the en¬ 
duing day; and that eve was called by the Kellenifts pa- 
rajkeve, or day of preparation. They never'undertook any 
thing on this eve which they w'ere unable to finilii before 
fun-let; for at that inflant the fabbath began, and conti¬ 
nued till the fame period on the following day; fo that it 
lalled from fun-let to fun-let. This is the reafon w'by 
the people waited till fun-fet before they brought out 
their lick to Jefus Chrift. As loon as the fun had fo far 
funk into the weftern horizon as to fhine only on the 
tops of the hills, the lamps were lighted, becaufe it was 
unlawful to light any fire on the fabbath-day. 
The Jews on the fabbath abstained from all forts of la¬ 
bour, which they divide into thirty-nine different kinds,, 
and which contain under them a multitude, of others - 
fome infiances of which are thefe : It is forbidden to 
reap ; and even to gather the ears of corn, becaufe that 
is a fort of reaping. It is not lawful to fow ; therefore it 
is not proper to walk on ground newly fown, becaufe the 
feed may Hick to the feet, and fo be carried from place to 
place, which is looked upon as a kind of fowing. They 
were alio commanded to let all animals rell that day. If 
a bead by accident fall into a pit on the fabbath-day, the 
Jews will not take him out, as. they formerly did, but 
will feed him there. They extend the prohibition of car¬ 
rying any thing on that day fo far, that even a tailor dare 
not go out of his houfe with a needle on his fleeve. 
They bear neither arms, nor gold, nor filver, about them • 
they are not even permitted to touch them ; neither do 
they think it lawful to drefs a wound on that da}', unlei's 
life be fuppofed to be in danger. 
I11 order to explain what is faid in Exodus xvi. 2 9, 
“ Abide ye every one in his place, let no man go out of 
his place on the feventh day,” they have fixed a certain 
boundary, which ought not to be exceeded on the iitb- 
bath-day ; this was a fpace of 2000 cubits, which. Acts 
i. i2 a 
