5. The notion that God controlled Sheol too does not occur until about the fifth century B.C. (Job XXVI. 6; Psalm CXXXIX. 8; Proverbs XV. 11); nor does that of the soul’s resurrection until about a century later, when the unknown prophet whose words are included in Isaiah declared that all righteous Israelites should arise and participate in the Messianic Kingdom, quickened by God’s ‘dew of light’ (Isaiah XXVI. 19). Sheol thus came to be treated as a Purgatory where souls await the Last Judgement. This is still Orthodox Jewish and also Catholic belief.
ABBREVIATIONS, SOURCES AND ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
This list does not include the Old and New Testaments, nor the standard Greek and Roman authors.
A
ABODA ZARA. A. tractate of the Babylonian Talmud. See B.
ABOT DIR(ABBI) NATHAN. Ed. by Solomon Schechter, Vienna, 1887. Photostatic reprint, New York, 1945. This edition contains both versions of the book, which is a midrash of Tannaitic origin with many subsequent additions. Quoted by page.
ACTS OF ST. THOMAS. See Gospel of St. Thomas.
ADAMBUCH. Das christliche Adambuch des Morgenlandes. Aus dem Äthiopischen mit Bemerkungen übersetzt von A. Dillmann, Göttingen, 1853. An apocryphal Book of Adam, preserved in an Ethiopic text of the sixth century.
ADAMSCHRIFTEN. Die Apokryphischen Gnostischen Adamschriften. Aus dem Armenischen übersetzt und untersucht von Erwin Preuschen, Giessen, 1900. An apocryphal Book of Adam preserved in an Armenian text.
AGADAT BERESHIT. A late Hebrew midrash containing homilies on Genesis, based mainly on the Tanhuma (see Tanhuma Buber). Edited by Solomon Buber, Cracow, 1903. Photostatic reprint, New York, 1959.
AGADAT SHIR HASHIRIM. A tenth-century midrash on Canticles. Quoted by page of Solomon Schechter’s edition, Cambridge, 1896.
AGUDAT AGADOT. Ed. Ch. M. Horowitz, Frankfurt a. M., 1881.
ALPHA BETA DIBEN SIRA. Two versions, one (a) in Aramaic and one (b) in Hebrew, of alphabetically arranged proverbs with explanations, attributed to Jesus ben Sira, author of the apocryphal Ecclesiasticus, but in fact a much later compilation. Quoted by folio of Steinschneider’s edition, Berlin, 1858; or, if so stated, by page and column of Otzar Midrashim (q.v.).
ANET. See Pritchard.
APOC. OF ABRAHAM. An apocryphal book written originally in Hebrew or Aramaic in the late first century A.D. Ed. by George Herbert Box, London, 1918.
APOC. OF BARUCH, or 2 Baruch. An apocryphal book, written originally in Hebrew by orthodox Jews of the first century A.D. Extant in a Syriac version. See Charles, The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, Oxford, 1913, Vol. ii. pp. 470–526.
APOC. MOSIS. Apocalypse of Moses, ed. L. F. C. von Tischendorf, in his Apocalypses Apocryphae.
APOC. OF MOSES. Ed. Charles. See R. H. Charles (ed.), The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, Vol. ii. pp. 138 ff.
APPU FROM SHUDUL. A Hittite myth. Summarized by Th. H. Gaster in his The Oldest Stories in the World, New York, 1952, pp. 159–67, under the title ‘Master Good and Master Bad’.
ARABIAN NIGHTS, or the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments. Original title: Alf Layla Walayla (‘A Thousand and One Nights’). A huge Arabic collection of early mediaeval folk stories.
ASCENSION OF ISAIAH. An apocryphal book composed of three parts: the Martyrdom of Isaiah, the Vision of Isaiah, and the Testament of Hezekiah. The first of these is of Jewish origin from the first century A.D.; the other two were the work of Christian writers. See Charles, The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, Vol. ii. pp. 155 ff.
ASENATH, PRAYER OF. See Joseph and Asenath.
AZULAI, ABRAHAM, HESED LEABRAHAM. A kabbalistic work of a sixteenth-century commentator. Printed in Wilna, 1877.
B
B. Bavli (Babylonian). The Babylonian Talmud, compiled in Babylonia around 500 A.D. Written partly in Hebrew, but mostly in Aramaic. Quoted by tractate (whose title follows the abbreviation B.) and folio.
BABA BATHRA. A tractate of the Babylonian Talmud. See B.
BABA KAMMA. A tractate of the Babylonian Talmud. See B.
BABA METZIA. A tractate of the Babylonian Talmud. See B.
BARAITA DIMASS. NIDDA. See Tosephta Atiqta.
BARAITA DIMAASE BERESHIT, ed. Chones, in Buber, Yeri’ot Shelomo, Warsaw, 1896, pp. 47–50. Photostatic reprint, New York, 1959.
2 BARUCH. See Apoc. of Baruch.
BATE MIDRASHOT. A collection of minor midrashim, compiled and edited by Shelomo Aharon Wertheimer, Jerusalem, 1914. Quoted by page of the second, 2-vol. edition, Jerusalem, 1953.
BEKHOROT. A tractate of the Babylonian Talmud. See B.
BERAKHOT. A tractate of the Babylonian and of the Palestinian Talmud. See B. and Yer.
BERESHIT RABBATI. A midrash on Genesis, abridged from a longer lost midrash compiled by Rabbi Moshe Hadarshan in the first half of the eleventh century at Narbonne. Quoted by page of Hanoch Albeck’s edition, Jerusalem, 1940.
BEROSSUS’S BABYLONIAN HISTORY. Fragmentarily preserved in the works of Josephus Flavius, Eusebius, etc. Berossus himself was a priest of Bel in Babylonia during the third century B.C.
BHM. Beth HaMidrash, ed. by Adolph Jellinek, 6 vols., Leipzig, 1853–77; photostatic reprint, Jerusalem, 1938. A collection of 100 minor midrashim.
BOOK OF ADAM. See Adambuch.
BOOK OF THE DEAD. A collection of Egyptian funerary texts, covering a period of four thousand years. The Theban recension (from the 18th, 21st, and 22nd dynasties) was translated in Sir E. A. Wallis Budge’s The Book of the Dead, 2nd ed., 1923.
BOOK OF ENOCH. See Enoch.
BOOK OF JUBILEES. See Jubilees.
C
CAVE OF TREASURES. See Schatzhöhle.
CHRONICON PASCHALE. Also known as the Alexandrian Chronicle, a seventh-century Byzantine chronicle of Biblical and other events from the Creation to Emperor Heraclius. Ed. by D. du Cange, Paris, 1688.
CHWOLSON, DANIEL A., Die Ssabier und der Ssabismus. St. Petersburg, 1856, 2 vols.
CLEMENTINE HOMILIES. An early third-century A.D. Christian tract written probably in Syria. See Ante-Nicene Christian Library, vol. xvii, Edinburgh, 1870.
D
DA‘AT. Sepher Da‘at Zeqenim, Ofen, 1834 (first published in Leghorn, 1783). A compilation of midrashic commentaries on the Pentateuch.
DAMASCIUS. Greek philosopher, born c. 480 A.D. in Damascus. Extant fragments of his writings include part of a life of Isidore (one of his teachers) and Doubts and Solutions Respecting the First Principles, ed. by C. E. Ruelle, 1889.
DEUT. RAB. Deuteronomy Rabba, a midrash on Deuteronomy, compiled c. 900 A.D. Quoted by chapter and paragraph of the Wilna, 1884, edition.
DILLMANN, CHRISTIAN FRIEDRICH AUGUST, Genesis. Edinburgh, 1897.
DIODORUS SICULUS. Greek historian, born in Agyrium, Sicily, flourished around 20 B.C. His Historical Library, originally in forty books, is only partly preserved and published (with translation) in the Loeb Classical Library.
DOUGHTY, CHARLES M., Travels in Arabia Deserta, London, 1888.
E
ECCL. RAB. Ecclesiastes Rabba. A midrash on Ecclesiastes, compiled in the tenth century. Quoted by chapter and verse of Ecclesiastes, from the Wilna, 1884, edition.
EDUYOT. A tractate of the Mishna. See M.
ELDAD HADANI, ed. Abraham Epstein, Pressburg, 1891. A partly invented description of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel by a tenth-century Jewish traveller of East African origin.
ENOCH. The apocryphal Book of Enoch, written in either Hebrew or Aramaic during the first century B.C. in Palestine and preserved in Greek and Ethiopic texts. 2 Enoch is a different version of the same book preserved in a Slavonic text. The best English translations of both are made by Charles, The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, vol. ii. pp. 163 ff.
ENUMA ELISH (‘When Above’), the Babylonian creation epic written in Akkadian. The best English translation is that of James B. Pritchard (ed.), Ancient Near Eastern Texts, Princeton, 1955, pp. 60–72.
EPHR. SYR. Eph
raem Syrus, Commentary on Gen. See Ephraemi Syrii Opera Omnia, ed. B. Benedictus and Assemanus, Rome, 1737–43.
ERUBIN. A tractate of the Babylonian and of the Palestinian Talmud. See B. and Yer.
ESDRAS or EZRA. The name of two apocryphal books attributed to Ezra: one preserved in Greek and called either 1 Esdras, or 3 Esdras; one preserved in Latin and called either 2 Esdras or 4 Esdras. Both written originally in Hebrew, in Palestine; the first probably dates from the fourth century B.C., the second from the first century A.D.
EUSEBIUS, Praeparatio Evangelica, ed. Gifford, Oxford, 1903. Eusebius of Caesarea (c. 260–340 A.D.), was Bishop of Caesarea, Palestine, and wrote several books of Church history.
EX. RAB. Exodus Rabba, a midrash on the Book of Exodus, compiled in Hebrew and Aramaic, in the eleventh century but containing much older material. Quoted by chapter and paragraph of the Wilna, 1884, edition.
G
GASTER, MA’ASIYOT. Moses Gaster (ed.), The Exempla of the Rabbis, London, 1924.
GEN. RAB. Genesis Rabba, a midrash on the Book of Genesis, compiled in the fifth century in Palestine. Quoted by page of the critical edition of J. Theodor and Ch. Albeck, Berlin, 1912–27, 2 vols.
GENESIS APOCRYPHON, ed. by N. Avigad and Y. Yadin, Jerusalem, 1956.
GILGAMESH AND THE WILLOW TREE. A Sumerian tablet from Ur, from c. 2000 B.C., published by Samuel N. Kramer as Gilgamesh and the Huluppu-Tree. The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, Assyriological Studies, No. 10, Chicago, 1938.
GILGAMESH EPIC. An Akkadian epic found in Ashurbanipal’s (seventh century B.C.) library, but going back to second millennium B.C. Sumerian and Hittite prototypes. See Pritchard, Ancient Near Eastern Texts, pp. 72–99.
GINZBERG, L.J. The Legends of the Jews, by Louis Ginzberg, 7 vols., Philadelphia, 1909–46. The most important scholarly work on the subject.
GITTIN. A tractate of the Babylonian Talmud. See B.
GOSPEL OF ST. THOMAS. Published in Tischendorf’s Evangelia Apocrypha.
GOSSE, PHILIP HENRY. The reference is to his book Omphalos.
GRAVES, ROBERT, The Greek Myths. Penguin Books, 2 vols., Baltimore, 1955.
GRAVES, ROBERT, The White Goddess, New York, 1948.
GUNKEL, HERMANN, Schöpfung und Chaos in Urzeit und Endzeit, 2nd ed., Göttingen, 1921.
H
HADAR. Sepher Hadar Zeqenim, ed. Leghorn, 1840. A collection of midrashic explanations to the Bible, culled from the Talmudic commentaries of the Tosaphists (thirteenth and fourteenth centuries).
HAGIGA. A tractate of the Babylonian and Palestinian Talmud. See B. and Yer.
HAGOREN. Louis Ginzberg, ‘Hagadot Qetu’ot,’ Hagoren, vol. 9, Berlin, 1923. The Hebrew literary magazine Hagoren was edited by Shemuel Abba Horodetzky in Berditschew and Berlin, 1899–1923.
HALLA. A tractate of the Mishna. See M.
HAMMURABI, LAWS OF. A legal code promulgated by Hammurabi (1728–1686 B.C.), the sixth king of the Old Babylonian (Amorite) Dynasty. See Pritchard, Ancient Near Eastern Texts, pp. 163–80.
HEIM, ROGER, and WASSON, R. GORDON, Les Champignons Hallucinogènes du Mexique, Paris, 1958.
HUCA. Hebrew Union College Annual, Cincinnati, Ohio, vols. i ff (1924 ff).
HULLIN. A tractate of the Babylonian Talmud. See B.
I
IMRE NOAM. Midrashic commentary on the Pentateuch by Jacob di Illescos (fourteenth century). Printed in Constantinople, 1539, and Cremona, 1565.
J
JACOB OF EDESSA. Also known as James of Edessa (died 708). Syrian Jacobite poet, commentator, letter-writer and translator of Greek works into Syriac.
JEROME. Hieronymi Questiones Hebraicae in Libro Geneseo e. recog. P. de Lagarde, Leipzig, 1868.
JEROME’S LATIN VULGATE. See Vulgate.
JONAS, HANS, Gnosis und spätantiker Geist, 2 vols., Göttingen, 1934–54.
JOSEPH AND ASENATH. An apocryphal book written in Hebrew by Jewish Essenes. Extant in a Greek translation. See Paul Riessler, Altjüdisches Schrifttum ausserhalb der Bibel, Augsburg, 1928, pp. 497–538.
JOSEPHUS FLAVIUS. Jewish historian of the first century A.D. Wrote in Greek. His major works are The Wars of the Jews and The Antiquities of the Jews.
JOSHUA B. SHU’AIB. See Shu’aib.
JUBILEES. The apocryphal Book of Jubilees. Written, probably in the second century B.C., in midrashic vein, by a Pharisaic Jew. The original Hebrew version has been lost. The best extant version is the Ethiopia See Charles, The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, vol. ii. 1 ff.
K
KALIR. Eleazar Kalir, lived probably in the eighth century; wrote Hebrew religious poems, of which some two hundred are extant.
KEPHALAIA. A collection of Manichaean manuscripts, published by Polotzky and Schmidt, Stuttgart, 1935–9.
KERET EPIC. An Ugaritic legend dating from the fourteenth century B.C. See Pritchard, Ancient Near Eastern Texts, pp. 142–9.
KETUBOT. A tractate of the Babylonian Talmud. See B.
KIDDUSHIN. A tractate of the Babylonian Talmud. See B.
KORAN. The Bible of Islam: revealed to the Prophet Mohammed in the early seventh century at Mecca and Medina.
L
LEV. RAB. Leviticus Rabba, a midrash on the Book of Leviticus, compiled probably in the seventh century. Quoted by chapter and section from the Wilna, 1884, edition.
LIFE OF ADAM AND EVE. See Vita Adae.
LIQQUTE MIDRASHIM. A collection of thirty-one midrash-fragments, printed in BHM (q.v.) vol. v. pp. 155–64.
LIQQUTIM. Liqqutim miMidrash Abkir, ed. Solomon Buber, Vienna, 1883. A collection of the passages quoted by the Yalqut (q.v.) from the Mid. Abkir (q.v.).
LURIA. Textual comments on PRE by David Luria, printed in Warsaw, 1852. See PRE.
M
M. Mishna. The first code of Rabbinic law, written in Hebrew and compiled by Rabbi Jehuda Hanasi c. 200 A.D., in Palestine. Quoted by tractate, chapter, and paragraph.
MA’ASE ABRAHAM. A heroic midrash about the exploits of Abraham, originally written in Arabic, extant in a Hebrew translation. Printed in BHM (q.v.) vol. i. pp. 24–34.
1 MACCABEES. A historical book about the Maccabean period to the death of Simon (135 B.C.). Written in Hebrew in Palestine between 104 and 63 B.C. Extant in a Greek translation.
4 MACCABEES. A sermon about the rule of reason over the passions, written in Greek but in a strictly Jewish spirit, probably between 56 and 66 A.D.
MAKKOT. A tractate of the Babylonian Talmud. See B.
MANETHO. Egyptian priest and historian of the fourth century B.C. See Manetho the Historian, The Loeb Classical Library, Cambridge, Mass., 1940.
MASSEKHET SOFERIM. An extra-canonical tractate joined to the Babylonian Talmud (see B.) and dating from the times of the Geonim (i.e. between 589 and 1040 A.D.).
MEGILLA. A tractate of the Babylonian Talmud. See B.
MEKHILTA. Mekhilta of Rabbi Ishmael, ed. M. Friedmann, Vienna, 1870. A Tannaitic midrash on Exodus, primarily intended to elucidate the laws contained in Exodus XII–XXIII. The authorities quoted are Tannaites, i.e., sages of the school of Rabbi Ishmael, who lived in Palestine not later than the second century A.D. Quoted by Pentateuchal weekly section and page.
MEKHILTA DIR. SHIMON. A midrash on Exodus attributed to Rabbi Simeon ben Yohai (second century A.D.) and compiled by Hezekiah son of Hiyya (end of second century A.D.). Quoted by page of the critical edition by David Hoffmann, Frankfurt a. M., 1905.
MENAHOT. A tractate of the Babylonian Talmud. See B.
MGWJ. Monatschrift für Geschichte und Wissenschaft des Judentums. The foremost German Jewish scholarly journal. Appeared from 1852 to 1939, in Dresden and later in Breslau.
MID. Midrash. The generic name of a major type of Rabbinic literature, taking the form of exegetic expositions appended to Biblical verses. Midrashim (pl.) were written and compiled from the second to about the twelfth century.
MID. ABKIR. A lost midrash, probably compiled in the ninth century, of which some fift
y passages are quoted in the Yalqut Shimoni. See Yalqut.
MID. ABKIR, ed. Marmorstein. See preceding entry.
MID. ADONAY BEHOKHMA YASAD ARETZ. A midrash on Proverbs III. 19: ‘The Lord by wisdom founded the earth.’ Printed in BHM (q.v.), vol. v. pp. 63–9.
MID. AGADA. A midrash on the Pentateuch. Edited by Solomon Buber, photostatic reprint, New York, 1960, 2 vols. Quoted by Pentateuchal book and page number of Buber’s edition.
MID. ALPHABETOT. One of several midrashim arranged in alphabetic order and attributed to Rabbi Akiba (second century A.D.), but actually compiled much later. This midrash was preserved in a sixteenth-century manuscript from Bokhara. Printed in Bate Midrashot (q.v.), vol. ii.
MID. ASERET HADIBROT. A midrash appended to the Ten Commandments, containing much cosmogonical material. Compiled in the tenth century. Printed in BHM (q.v.), vol. i. pp. 62–90.
MID. HAGADOL. Compiled in the twelfth century in Yemen. Quoted by page of Solomon Schechter’s edition, Cambridge, 1902.
MID. KONEN. A cosmogonical and cosmological midrash, containing four parts written by four different authors. Its contents often closely parallel such apocryphal books as Enoch, 4 Esdras, etc. Printed in BHM (q.v.), vol. ii. pp. 23–39.
MID. LEQAH TOBH. A midrash on the Pentateuch, compiled probably in 1079 by the Bulgarian Tobiah ben Eliezer. Quoted by Biblical book and page of Solomon Buber’s 2-volume edition, Wilna, 1880.
MID. MISHLE. A midrash and commentary on Proverbs. Compiled in the late tenth or early eleventh century, probably in Babylonia. Quoted by chapter of Proverbs and page of Solomon Buber’s edition, Wilna, 1893.
MID. QOHELETH. See Eccl. Rab.
MID. SEKHEL TOBH. A midrash on Genesis and Exodus, compiled in 1139 by Menahem ben Shelomo. Edited by Solomon Buber, Berlin, 1900–1.
MID. SHEMUEL. A midrash on the Book of Samuel compiled from older writings, in Palestine, during the Gaonic period (seventh to tenth centuries). Edited by Solomon Buber, Cracow, 1893. Quoted by chapter.
MID. SHIR. Canticles Rabba, quoted by folio of the Wilna, 1887, edition.