825 
J E W 
■with his defign; for, though he too often fuffered his Lnti- 
nity to get the better of his Hebrew, yet that work, if he 
had gone through with it, would have been a noble and a 
pleafant introduction to thofe who would willingly know 
tliefe things at an eafy rate, and are often difgufted at the 
uncouthnefs and barbarity of the ftyle of molt writers 
upon thefe fubjefts. In 1711 Andreas Chriltophorus 
Sellerus printed his title “of the Red Heifer” at Am- 
fcerdam. 
But all this, and whatever elfe has been publithed by 
Chriltians out of thefe pandeCts, is very little in compa- 
rifon of the whole work. And, after all, if we had it 
entire in Latin or Englifh, yet it wants a great deal of the 
authority of the Mifdina itfelf, efpecially in contefted 
cafes. For we ought to consider that Maimonides lived 
in the twelfth century, feveral ages after the Talmud was 
■fealed up, which it was upon the finilhing of the Baby¬ 
lonian Gemma, after the great fchools which the Jews 
kept for many ages' in Babylonia were deftroyed by the 
Saracenic caliphs. The Jews were then difperfed into 
Europe; and in Spain, France, and England 1 , they made 
numerous fettlements. At Corduba in Spain Maimonides 
was born; there he began to compofe his firftgreat work, 
which was his Commentaries upon the Mifchna, which 
lie wrote in Arabic, the language of the Morifcos and 
Arabs among whom he had his education. It was after¬ 
wards turned into Hebrew ; and Dr. Pococke has given 
us a hiftory of that verfion in his Preface to the Porta 
Mofis. From that verfion it has been publiflied in Latin 
by Surenhufius. That commentary is drawn from the 
Gemaras and the other mod ancient ritual authors among 
tiie Jews. But ftill, vvhatfoever praife he may and does 
deferve, as an exact, intelligible, and judicious, inter¬ 
preter, who has cleared the whole body of thofe tradi¬ 
tional laws from the valt load of impertinent and fabulous 
ftuff with and. under which it had fo long lain mixed 
and opprefi’ed, he can he confidered only as an interpre¬ 
ter. Nothing that he fays can be appealed to as a record, 
when any eflential doubts arife. The cafe is the fame 
with him, who ought to be placed in the front of the 
Talmudic commentators and fyftematical. men, and So¬ 
lomon Jarchi and Bartenora, when the meaning 'of any 
decifion is enquired after, as it is with Stapleton, Bellar- 
min, or Du Perron, or any eminent polemical divines 
among the papifts. They are readily allowed by their 
own fide to be good and ufeful writers upon any queftion 
that is controverted between us and the church of Rome. 
Eut if any man of that communion fhould in the heat of 
dil'putation be preffed with the authority of any of thefe 
authors, by one of our writers, who may judge that what 
they fay is to his purpofe ; fuch a man would inftantly 
reply, Thefe were but fingle doctors,; they might err, and 
they very often do. We are not bound to Hand to their 
decifion. What fays the Council of Trent ? What fays 
the Catechifmus ad Parochos? Is there any fuch thing in 
the-eftablifiied Liturgies? So here, if a queftion fiiould 
arife relating to any material conftitution, either concern¬ 
ing its fenfe or its validity, no learned Jew will be deter¬ 
mined by what Maimonides or Solomon Jarchi fays, if it 
fhould feem to contradift the text of the Mifchna ; and 
much more if it cannot be reconciled to the fettled ex¬ 
plications of the text in the Gemaras, efpecially that of 
Babylon, which is of the greateft authority, as we hdve 
before obferyed. 
In addition to the above, we may remark, that feveral 
authors, befides thofe before mentioned, have treated on 
fome particular paftages of the Mifchna3 asid we fliall con¬ 
clude with observing, that every thing refpefting the 
Jewifti mode of interpreting the law is worth the atten¬ 
tion of every individual who wilhes to become acquainted 
.with the minutiae of the Jewifti as well of the Chriftian 
Faith. 
JEW's EARS,/ [from its refgmblance of the human 
ear. Skinner. ] A fungus, tough and thin; and naturally, 
■while growing, of a rumpled figure, like a flat and vari- 
Vql.X; No. 732. 
J E W 
oufly-hollowed cup; from an inch to two inches in length* 
and about two thirds of its length in breadth. Its fide* 
in many places run into the. hollow, fo as to reprefent in 
its ridges like thofe of the human ear. It generally 
grows on the lower parts of the trunks of elder-trees de¬ 
caying. The common people cure themfelves of fore 
throats with a deco< 5 tion of it in milk. Hill's Mat: Med .— • 
See Peziza. —An herb called Jew's ear groweth upon the 
lower parts of elder, and fometimes allies; in warm water 
it fweUeth, and openeth extremely. Bacon. 
JEW’s HARP, f. A kind of mufical inftrum'ent held 
between the teeth, which gives a found by the motion of 
a broad fpring of iron, which, being ftruck by the hand, 
plays againft the breath. 
JEW’S MAL'LOW,/ Ramvolf fays it is Town in great 
plenty about Aleppo as a pot-herb, the Jews boiling the 
leaves of this plant to eat it with their meat. Miller. —See 
Corch-Orus. 
JEW’s STONE, f. The clavated fpine of a very large 
egg-fhaped fea-urchin, petrified by long lying in the earth. 
It is of a regular figure, oblong and rounded, dwelling in 
the middle, and gradually tapering; about three quarters 
of an inch in length, and half an inch in diameter j 
ridged and furrowed alternately, in a longitudinal direc¬ 
tion ; and its colour is a pale dufky grey, with a faint call; 
of dufky reddifhnefs." It is found in Syria. Hill's Mat - 
Med. 
JEW’s TRUMP,/ The Jew’s harp. Scott, 
JEW'EL, f. [joyau, Fr. jeweelen, Dut.] « Any orna¬ 
ment of great value, ufed commonly of fuch as are adorn¬ 
ed with precious ftones.—Here, wear this jewel forme; 
’tis my picture. Shakefpeare. 
They found him dead, and caft into the ftreets. 
An empty cafket, where the jewel, life. 
By dome damn’d hand was robb’d and ta’en away. Shakefp. 
A precious ftone; a gem.— Jewels too, ftones, rich and 
precious ftones, ftolen by my daughter! Shakefpeare. —A 
name of fondnefs; an appellation of tender regard ; 
Ye jewels of our father, with wafh’d eyes 
Cordelia leaves you. Shakefpeare, 
Jewels made a part of the ornaments with which the 
Jews, Greeks, and Romans, efpecially their ladies of dif- 
tiriftion, adorned themfelves. So prodigious was the ex¬ 
travagance of the Roman ladies in particular, that Pliny 
the elder fays he faw Lollio Paulina with an equipage of 
this kind amounting, according to Dr. Arbuthnot’s cal¬ 
culation, to 312,9161. 13s. q.d. of our money. It is wor¬ 
thy of obfervation, that precious ftones amongft the Ro¬ 
mans and ali the ancients were much (career, and confe- 
quently in higher efteem, than they are amongft us fines 
a commerce has been opened with the Indies. The an¬ 
cients did not know how to cut and polifh them to much 
perfection ;.but coloured ftones were not fcarce, and they 
cut them very well either hollow or in relief. When lux¬ 
ury had gained ground amongft them, the Romans hung 
pendants and pearls in their ears ; and, for 'this purpofe s 
the ears of both fexes were frequently bored. 
JEW'EL (John), a learned prelate of the church of 
England, and zealous champion for the proteftant caufe, 
was defeended from an ancient and refpefrable Family in 
Devonfhire, and born at the village of Balden in that 
county,-in the year 1522. He received his firft inftruc- 
tion in the rudiments of grammar-learning from his uncle 
John Bellamy, rector of Hampton; and before he was four¬ 
teen years of age was fent to the univerfity of Oxford, and 
admitted a poft-mafter at Merton-college; where his tutor 
was Mr. John Parkhurft/ afterwards - bifhop of Norwich. 
Under his inftru&ions young Jewel made a confiderable 
jfrogrefs in his academical ftudies, and was initiated in the 
principles of the reformed religion. In the year 1539, he 
removed to Corpus-Chrifti college, of which he had been, 
ele&ed a fcholar; and in the following year he took the 
degree of 1 >. A. He now began to proiecute his ftudies 
to A witia 
