The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-04-16
NEW BIBLE LEGENDS.
Il RE1I1 RKABLE DISCOVERY IN
THE BODLEIAN library.
Ancient Hebrews Filled Gaps in BLDG
Narratives by the Creation of Many
Legends and Tales Not Commonly

Narratives by The Creation of Many
Legends and Tales Not Commonly
Known.
A most remarkable and unique manu-
script has been discovered in the IA
NOUS Bodeian library by the well
known Hebrew scholar, DR.. M, Caster
saws the st. Louis Globe-Democrat. IL
is nothing less than a chronicle dating
from about a century before the Chris
tian era DR.. Caster, In publishing a
translation of his find for the Royal
Asiatic society, calls it the Chronicles
Of Jerahmell' Every reader of the b.
ble has felt from time to time as If there
were gaps in the narrative. This feel
ing was responded to by the ancient
Hebrews in the creation of a large num-
Der Of legends, which are scattered
through infinite volumes of rabbinlcal
law. 1.-THE Chronicles of JerahmelP' en-
body many of these ancient Legends anu
include also a large number OF interest
ing tales hitherto unknown.
The compilation Of the present manu-
script is due to certain Eleasar pen
Asher. the Levite, who lived at the be-
ginning of the fourettnth century; but
his chief source of information was Jer-
ahmell, the most ancient of those VINO
attempted to fill out the lacunae in the
biblical narrative. He did not repeat
the Bible stories at all. Those, ne
knew, were in the reach of every one'
but he tried in every case to supply
what seemed to him lacking In those
stories. He took up the problems Whlch
suggest themselves to the minds OF most
readers of the Bible, and for which they
look to the Bible for light and very Of
ten in vain. There is no detail of life
too small for legend, and one of the
most interesting of these is that rela-
ting to the seven ages of man.
s'And why does the child cry at birth!
Because of the world it has left behind?
For at that moment seven new worlds
are awaiting it. In the first world 1t IS
like unto king, after whose welcome
all people ask; all desire to see II ana
embrace it and kiss it, because It IS IN
the first year. In the second world 1T IS
like unto a swine which walloWs IN
mire; a child does the same until II
reaches two years. In the third world
II is like unto kid that skips and gam
bols about on the meadows. Thus a
child skips about here and there until
1t is five years of age. In the fourth
world it lis like unto a horse who strides
along haughtily. In the same way does
a child walk along, proud OF his youth,
until he is eighteen years old. In the
fifth world he is like unto an ass, upon
whose shoulders burdens are placed.
In the same manner burdens are heaped
upon mans shoulders; he Is given
wife and children. He must wander to
and fro in order to obtain food for them
until he is about forty years old. In the
sixth stage he is like unto dog, inso-
lent and wandering about in all places
for food; stealing and robbing IN one
place and enjoying it in another. In
the seventh stage he is like unto an ape,
whose appearance is changed In every
respect. All the household curse him
and beside his death; even the young
children make fun of him, and even the
smallest bird wakes him from his
sleep"
PARADISE DESCRIBED.
A description of Paradise, nowhere
plainly mentioned in the Old Tesla
ment, is most striking.
paradise has two gates Of carbuncle
and sixty nyriads of ministering an
gels keep watch over them. Each OF
these angels shines with lustre OF the
heaven. When the just man approaches
them they divest him of the clothes In
which he had been buried and clothe
him with eight cloths, woven out of
clouds Of glory and place upon his head
two crowns, one of precious stones and
pearls and the other of gold, and they
place eight myrtles in his hand and
praise him and say to him, GO and eat
thy bread with joy And they lead him
to a place full of rivers, surrounded by
eight hundred species of roses and myr-
ties. Each one has a canopy according
to his merits, ais 1t is said Tin the Bible),
for over all the glory shall be spread
canopy And through it flow four riv-
ers, one of oil, the other of balsam, the
third of wine and the fourth of honey
Every canopy is overgrown by vine OF
gold and thirty pearls hang down from
1T, each Of them shining like the morn
ing stars. In every canopy there Is
table of precious stones and pearls, and
sixty angels stand at the head of every
lust man, saying to him Go and eat
with joy Of the honey, for thou hast
worked assiduously in the law of which
it is said, And it is sweeter than hon
ey,' and drink of the wine preserved
from the sixth days Of creation, for thot
hast worked in the law, which is com
pared with the wine as 1t is said,
would cause thee to drink of spfceo
wine, The least fair of them is as
beautiful as Joseph and Johanan, and
as the grains of the pomegranate lit ur
by the rays of the sun. There Is nc
night, as it is said. And the light of tbs
righteous is as of the shining light.
And they undergo four transformations
according to the four watches of the
day. In the first watch the dust is
changed into child, and he enters the
compartment of children and tastes the
10y Of childhood. In the second watch
he is changed into a youth, and there he
enjoys the delights of youth. In the
third watch he becomes a middle age6
man. and rejoices accordingly. In the
fourth watch he is changed into an ole
man: he enters the compartment of the
old, and enjoys the pleasure of mature
age"
The process of the confusion of Ian
guages at the Tower of Babel has al
ways been an interesting question, ano
Jerahmell supplies the following &C
count, as supplementing the Bible sto
~. and 1t came to pass when they
.o,,,,opoo5 70 b1ri1d the tower that Goo