824 
J E W. 
at Amflerdam, which contain an authentic account of the 
Jewifh courts of juflice, and of their method of animad¬ 
verting upon offenders, with judicious notes, and large" 
and valuable excerpt a out of the Babylonian Talmud upon 
thofe two titles. Conftantin I’Empereur printed the title 
Middct/i, in which we have the dimenfions of the Temple 
and all its parts, in 1630; and the title Baba Kama , which 
treats of damages done by beads, and fire, and pits, and 
things of the like nature, fpecified in Exodus xxi. in 1637. 
He had finifhed feveral other titles for the prefs. L’Empe- 
reur W'as admirably well verfed in the Jewifh learning ; and, 
by his great fkill in the civil law, he was enabled to com¬ 
pare the decifionsof the Talmudifts with the conftitutions 
of the Roman law-givers. Befides this, he puhlifhed a 
Jewifli tract called Halicotk Olam, in which the Ways of 
Reafoning of tliefe mafters are accurately explained ; and 
from which we have largely borrowed in this part ot our 
article. 
Mr. Robert Sheringham, fellow of Caius College in 
Cambridge, and a very great honour to that univerfity in 
his time, printed the title Joma, or of the Great Expia¬ 
tion, in Hebrew and Latin, with a learned commentary, 
at London, in 1648, when he was ejected for his loyalty, 
for which he was long an exile abroad. Some years after, 
Dr. Pocock, who was truly an honour to his age and 
country, printed feveral of Maimonides’s prefaces to his 
Commentaries upon the Mifchnain Arabic and Latin, un¬ 
der the title of Porta Mojis, at Oxford, in 16555 in which, as 
the title promifes, a gaie is opened to the underftanding 
of the whole-traditional law of the Jews. After him Mr. 
William Guile, late fellow of Ali-Souls College in Ox¬ 
ford, (who, to the ineftimable lofs of the whole eaftern 
learning, was taken off in the flower of his years,) at¬ 
tempted to tranllate the whole Mifchna into Latin ; but he 
iinilhed only the lix firft titles of the Seder Zeraim, which 
•were printed after his death at Oxford in 1690, by the 
learned Savilian profefibr of aftronomy in that univerfity, 
Dr. Edward Bernard. Some few titles more have been 
printed abroad, among which the moft coniiderable is the 
title Sotak, (or of the woman accufed of adultery, who was 
to be tried by the waters of jealoufy,) by Johannes Chrif- 
tophorus Wagenfeilius ; to which he has added a noble 
commentary, wherein he has taught his Chrifliaii readers 
abundance of things concerning the Jewifli affairs, befides 
what immediately related to the title which he undertook 
to illuftrate. He aifo, as Cocceius had done before him, 
annexed large excerpta out of the Gernara to the text of 
the Mifchna. Sebaltianus Schtnidius publiflied the titles 
Shabbatk and Eruvin, with the commentaries of Maimo- 
nides and Bartenora. Huntingius alfo and Lundius have 
given us the titles Rofh Hajhana, i. e. of the feaft of trum¬ 
pets, or the beginning of the year ; and Taanith, i. e. of 
the Jewifli falls; which they have illuilrated with large 
and ufeful commentaries. 
All this did not contain a-full third part of the Mifch¬ 
na ; and all this while the original text of the Pliafifaic 
jaw was unknown to molt men. Mr. Selden indeed, who 
was a great mailer of the whole Talmudic learning, had 
given us juft difcourfes upon many different fubjefts, in 
which he fully explained the opinions of thefe ancient 
doftors upon thofe heads which he treats of. (Hiftory of 
Tithes. UxorEbraica; De Succeffione in Pontificatum; 
De Succeffionibus in Bona Defunfti; De Anno Civil! 
Veterum judasorum ; De jure Naturali & Gentium Se¬ 
cundum Difciplinam Ebrasorum; De Synedriis.) And 
Dr. Ligbtfoot, a man no ways his inferior in that fort of 
.knowledge, had applied it with great advantage to the 
illullration of the biblical text, and thereby cleared abun¬ 
dance of things in the New Teftament which were before 
unknown to the moll learned interpreters of the Scrip¬ 
tures among the Chrillians. * 
Gulielmus Surenhufius, profefTor of Hebrew and Greek 
jn what they call the Schola Illullris at Amflerdam, un¬ 
dertook to give us the Mifchna entire in Hebrew and La¬ 
tin. V'ith the commentaries ot Maimonides and Bartenora 
at large .upon the whole work. This he publifned at 
Amflerdam in fix folios, of which the firft volume was 
printed in 1698, and the laft in 1703. So lately is it that 
that book which the mod coniiderable part of the Jewifh 
nation efteems as the authentic text of their oraLlaw,. as 
it has done for near 1700 years pall, has been entirely 
communicated to the Chriftian world. The greatnefg of 
the undertaking had deterred other men, which makes 
our obligation to him fo much the greater. 
The Jews indeed have had, for "feveral ages, full and 
plain inftitutions of the whole oral law among them, writ¬ 
ten in a clear intelligible ftyle. The.chief of thefe is 
the Yadhachazaca , or the Strong Hand, of Maimonides; 
in which in an eafyand methodical manner, and in a clear 
ftyle, he has given his countrymen an ample account of the 
whole Talmudic law. This has been printed feveral times 
among the Jews, and has been from the time of its firft 
publication valued by them as it juftly deferves. And 
yet it is not much above’two hundred years fince its true 
value has been well known to the learned among us. 
Petrus Cuna;us was one of the firft that difeovered its 
great ulefulnefs, in his incomparable little book of the 
Commonwealth of the Jews. Jofeph Scaliger, before him, 
knew the worth of that great man, and of his More Ncvo- 
chim, which he commends according to its merit in feve¬ 
ral places of his epillles ; but that book is not ritual. 
However, Jofeph Scaliger did not Hop there; he it was, 
who whilft he lived in Holland, where he fpent his latter 
years, infpired the young men of that nation with a love 
of the eaftern learning, by blowing them its intrinfic worth ; 
lb that in truth we owe to his example and authority, in 
a great meafure, all thofe noble performances by which 
Cunaius, I’Empereur, de Dieu, Erpenius, who died early, 
and after him Golius, and many others of that age and 
country, acquired fo juft a reputation to themlelves, and 
were fo ufeful to thofe that came after them. And yet 
very few titles of that great work of Maimonides were-' 
publiihed in Latin till the feventeenth century. Dionyfius, 
foil to the great Gerarde John Voflius, tranflated the tit-ls 
of Idolatry, which is printed with his father’s great work 
of the Original and Progrefs of Idolatry, with a very ufe¬ 
ful commentary. Georgius Gentius publiihed his Hilcolli 
Dcut/i, or Moral Precepts, in Hebrew and Latin, at Am¬ 
fterdam, in 1640 ; Gulielmus Vorftius alfo tranflated Ilia 
Foundations of the Law .- but neither that, nor any other,of 
his verfions of Hebrew books, of which we have feveral, 
are much efteemed by the learned. The excellent dean 
of Norwich, Dr. Prideaux, to whom we are obliged for 
his Connexion of the*Hiftory of the Old and New"Tefta- 
nient, publiihed two titles out of Maimonides’s Yad, con¬ 
cerning the “ Gifts of the Poor,” and the “ Laws of the 
Profelytes of Righteoufnefs and the Gate.” And the 
learned and worthy profeilbr of the Hebrew language at 
Oxford, Dr. Robert Clavering, gave us two other titles, 
“of the Study of the Law,” and “of Repentance,” in 
Hebrew and Latin, with very ufeful notes. All which, 
for the curiofity of the matter, and the eafinefs of the 
ftyle, are very proper to be put into the hands of young- 
beginners. 
But in all thefe titles there is little ritual; fo that, 
though thele pieces have their juft and true value, yet, 
they do not much contribute towards underftanding the 
traditions of the elders, of which we have an entire fyftem 
in that admirable work of Maimonides. About 120 
years ago, M. Colbert, that great patron of letters, em¬ 
ployed Louis de Veil, a convert Jew, who was mailer ®f 
a beautiful Latin ftyle, to turn the whole Yad into Latin. 
He printed fome few titles out of it in Latin, efpecially 
concerning “ the Temple Service;” and the “Method.of 
Intercalations” of the Jewifh year, at Paris; when, turn¬ 
ing protellant, he came into England about the year 
1680, where he went on with that work, and publiihed 
the title “ of Sacrifices” in the year 1683 at London, with 
Abarbanel’s preface to his commentaries upon Leviticus. 
It is pity that he did not find encouragement to go on 
1 with 
