is, that only there, and not in the Mishna*, nay, not even in the Jerufalem Gemara, or Talmud, which, however, was not compleated before the year of our Lord 300, but in the Babylonifh, which was not finished till the 500 year of Chrift, or beginning of the fixth century, is there mention of Mary or Miriam, the plaiter of womens hairt. By confequence this piece muft have been written fince that time.

Again, the ftory in it about Jefus, is, in many inftances, very different from the accounts which the àntient Jews gave of him, according to Chriftian writers in the primitive times, and according to their own Talmudical books. It is well known, though the works of the early adverfaries of our faith are loft, which is only a fate common to them, with many apologies and defences thereof by its friends, yet there are fragments of them preserved in the writings of the Chriftian fathers. Now from them, their notions about Jefus may be learned. Accordingly, we find by Origen's book against Celfus, That Celfus perfonating, or affuming the character of a Jew, pretended he was born of a poor woman, a native of Judea, who was caft out by her husband, a carpenter, as guilty of

Whether there is any reference at all to the affairs of Christi ans in the Mishna, is much difputed. Wagenfeil ftrenuously contends there is none, and obferves, though Buxtorf in his Talmudic Lexicon, makes the Mishnah speak of the feasts of Christians, the word in the original is Gojim, which signifies the Gentiles, or nations. See Wagenf. Confut. Toldoth. page 10.

The paffages relating to her, are quoted in Lighfoot's Works, vol. 2. page 270.

Orig. adverf. Celf. lib. 1. page 22. and ibid, page. 25.

'adultery; and that having served in Egypt for hire,

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on account of his poverty, where he learned fome 'powerful arts, for which the Egyptians were faK mous, he returned, elated on account of his abilities, and afferted that for them he ought to be ac'knowledged as a god.' And it is elsewhere faid of him there, That he believed he was begotten by one Panthera, who corrupted the virgin.' In the Talmud again, the Jews represent him to have been begotten upon a woman called Mary (or Miriam) a plaiter of womens hair, by the violence of Pandira‡ the paranymph, while her own husband, Paphus, forebore to approach her, on account of her legal pollution, at the time of marriage. They defcribe him, further, to have gone into Egypt, and learned magical arts; for it is faid, Did not † Ben Satda

*

(the fon of Satda) bring inchantments out of E'gypt, in the cutting which was in his flesh.'. They make him to have had only five difciples §, who were all flain in Judea.-And, finally, they tell us,

* She was also called Stada, or Satda, because she had turned afide from her own husband, or been unchaste. They said in Pumbadith, a school in the land of Babylon on the Euphrates, fhe departed.

See Maffachet Calla cited by Wagenfeil, page 14, 15. and Lardner's Teftim. i. 189,—199.

† See Shabbat, fol. 104. 2. where the glofs says, the reason of the cutting in the flesh was, he could not bring them away in writing, because the priests diligently searched all who went out, that they might not carry inchantments or magical arts with them to men in other nations, as quoted Lardner's Teftim. i. 190, 194. Lightfoot's Talmud, and Hebrew Exercitat. 111, 112. and Wagenfeil, ubi fupra, p. 17.

§ Lardner, 195. Wagenfeil, 17, 18. and compare Lightfoot on Mat. ix. 9.

he was § hanged in Lud, or Lydda, on the evening of the paffover, after he was ftoned; a cryer having made this proclamation before him for forty days, This man comes forth to be ftoned, because he • dealt in forceries, and perfuaded and feduced If'rael: whofoever knows any defence for him, let ' him appear and produce it,' and no defence hav-. ing been found.

But how different the narrative about Jefus, in the piece under our confideration, from the tales of Celfus, and the Talmudical writers! This one is indeed alfo begotten by Pandira on Mary, or Miriam, who remonftrates against all intercourfe, from the Mofaic prohibition; but then he is admitted through a miftake that he was Johanan, the bridegroom, or young perfon, to whom her mother had contracted her *. Moreover, he is not faid to go into Egypt at all, and to work miracles at his return through his acquifition of magical fkill there; but to have arrived to his power of performing them, by learning the ineffable name of God in the temple of Jerufalem. 'At that time,' fays Toldoth, there was in the

See Sanhedrim, fol. 43. quoted by Lightfoot on Mat. xxvii. 31. and Sanhedrim, fol. 67. quoted by Lardner, 198, &c. and Wagenfeil, page 19, 25.

* It is not then exactly true what fome have faid, that the Talmudic story of Christ's origin is adopted by the author of Toldoth Jefhu. I might have added, that, according to Toldoth, Johanan, the bridegroom, when he understood Mary had been defiled, informed against her to Simeon Shetahides, who discovered it to other wife men, his collegues. But according to the Talmud, fhe herfelf confeffed it to Rabbi Akiba, who declared it to other wife men. Again, the mafter of Jefus in Toldoth, is Elhanan; but in Talmud, is R. Jofua, the fon of Petahiah, who carried him into Egypt.

temple of Jerufalem, the WOW Shem Hamphorah, or ineffable name of God, engraven on a 'ftone of the foundation: for when David dug the foundation, he discovered there a certain ftone on the mouth of the abyfs which contained it, and lifting it up, he depofited it in the holy of holies, where it was guarded by brazen lions before the 'door, which the wise men had made, through their inchantments, to fend forth fuch roaring noise, 'that whoever should enter and learn the name ⚫ would forget it. Jefhu having come from Galilee, ' entered the temple fecretly, and learned it, and in⚫ scribed it on a piece of parchment, and, cutting his flesh, hid it there, having firft pronounced the name, ⚫ that he might not feel pain. Immediately, pronouncing it again, he caused the flesh to coalefce.• When he was going out through the door, the lions + roared, wherefore he forgot the name; but 'when he was out of the city, he opened the flesh, "took out the writing, and having thoroughly weigh'ed the characters, he recovered his knowledge of the name, whereon he wrought miracles.' Agreeably, it is expressly mentioned, when he healed the firft leper, after reftoring the first dead man to life, In like manner he restored him to foundness by the 'ineffable name.' So too, at the cure of the fecond leper, it is taken notice of, that he pronounced tit. And

+ Wagenfeil turns it, 'The dogs barked;' but the Hebrew word is the fame as before, arjoth, leones.

Thus alfo in Raymund's copy, where is the like account of Jeshu's learning the name, it is particularly remarked, he did thofe different miracles above recited from it, by pronouncing the fame.

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it is every where fuppofed § through the work, that he owed his power of miracles to it; as, indeed, it is also related there, that another, named Juda in Wa

genfeil's copy, but in Raymundus's Juda Scariot, oppofed or withstood him, by learning it alfo.-To proceed, Jefhu in Toldoth, inftead of five disciples, all put to death in Judea, has twelve, who leaving Judea, fill twelve kingdoms with their error and fuperftition.Here also, instead of having a trial in legal form, and the execution of the fentence delayed forty days, having been taken by furprize, he is immediately delivered to die * by the elders of the fanhedrim.And, finally, here, instead of being ftoned and hanged at Lud, a town fituated, according to Lightfoot, near the Phenician fhore, at the diftance of about a day's journey from Jerufalem, which is the Talmudical reprefentation, (without one word, however, of the stock of cabbage on which Tol

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Toldoth, indeed, reafons thus, where I have marked the omiffion of fome words in quoting; ' But he must have entred the temple by magical art and force of enchantments, otherwife how would the priefts have fuffered him to enter? He must then have done all these ⚫ things by the affistance of an impure name, and by magical art.' But there is not a word of his going into Egypt, and being instructed in it there. Nor is one miracle ever ascribed to any thing but the ineffable name of God, of which he had learned the true found.

*The story in Wagenfeil's Toldoth runs thus: That Juda having cut Jefhu's flesh with a knife, and stole out the parchment when he was affeep, through the help of fome inchantments which he used, perfuaded him afterwards to go to Jerufalem fecretly, and learn the name. That, when he had gone thither, from a defire of concealment, dreffed in garments like to those which his difciples wore to a hair's breadth, fo that it was impoffible to distinguish him from them, Juda procured him to be feized next day, and straightway put to death.