The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-04-15
NEW BIBLE LEGENDS.
4 REMARKABLE DISCOVERY IN
THE RoDLEIAN LIBRARY.
Ancient Hebrews Filled Gaps in
Bible Narratives by the Creation
of Many Legends and Tales Not
Commonly Known.
From the Boston Transc

| A most r1m4fkdDle ana unique manu-
script has besn discovered in the famous
Bodleian Library by the well known He
brew scholar DR.. NJ. Caster, says the 81.
| Louis Gloi e. Democrat. 1t is nothing less
than CHI onicle dating from about cen
fury before the Christian era. DR.. Caster,
| n publishing a retranslation of his find for
the Royal Asiatic Society, calls it the
Chronicles Of Jerahnell." Every read
er Of the Bible has felt from time to time
as If there were gaps in the narrative.
| This feeling was responded TO by the an
Client Hebrews in the creation of a large
number of legends which are scattered
through infinite volumes of rabbinical
law. The Chronicles of Jerahmell' en-
body many Of these ancient legends and
include also a large number of interest
| ing tales hitherto unknown.
The compilation Of the present manu-
| script is due to a certain Eleasar ben
! Asher, the Leyite, who lived at the be-
| ginning Of the fourteenth century; but his
| chief source of Information was Jerah-
II. the most ancient Of these who at
| tempted to nil out the acunae in the bib
! llcal narrative. He did not repeat the BIZ
bic stories at all. Those, he 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 which suggest themselves
to the minds of most readers of the Bible,
and for which they look to the Bible for
| sht, and very often in vain. There is no
detail CT life too small for a legend, and
one of the most interesting of these is
that relat ng to the seven ages of man.
And why does the child cry at birth?
Because Ct the word it has left behind?
| For at that moment seven new worlds
I a reaff fFaer In fhA EG- nrl1 &c
like unto king, after whose welcome all
people ask; all desire to see it and en-
brace it and kiss it; because it is In the
first year In the second word it is like
unto a swine which wallows in mire; a
child does the same until 1t reaches two
years. In the third world 1t Is like unto
a kid that skips and gambols about on
the ms adows. Thus a chi d sbips about
here and there until it is five years of
age. In the fourth world it is like unto a
| horse who strides along haughtily In
the same way does child walk along
proud of his youth, until he is 10 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 up-n mans shoulders; he is given
wife and children He must wander to
and fro in order to obtan food for them
until he is about forty years old. In the
sixth stage he is like unto a dog, inso-
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 re-
spect. All the household curse him and
desire his DEATH even the young chill
dren make fun of him, and even the
smallest bird wakes him from his sleep"
Paradise Described.
A description of Paradise, nowhere
l1afr,
is most striking
Paradise has two gates of carbuncle
and sixty myriads of minis lering angels
keep watch over them. Each of these an
gels 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, sur
rounded by eight hundred species of roses
aud myrtles. Each one has a canopy ac-
cording to his merits, as 1t is said lin the
Bible), for over all the glory shall lie
spread a canopy And through it flow four
rivers, 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 it,
each of them shining like the morning
stars. In every canopy there is a table of
precious stones and pearls. and sixty an
gels stand at the head of every Just man,
saving 10 him Go and eat with Joy of the
honey for thou hast worked assiduousy
in the law of which it is said, And il is
sweeter than honey" and drink of the
wine preserved from the sixth days of
creation, for thou hast worked in the law,
| which is compared with the wine as 1t Is
| said I would cause thee TO drink of spc-
! ed wine The least fair of them is as
| beautiful as Joseph and Johanan, and as
| the grains of the pomegranate lit up by
| the rays of the sun. There is no night as
! il is said 'Andthe light of the rightesu us Is
| as of the shining light. And they undergo
| four transformations, according to the
| four watches of the day In the 1rst
watch the dust is changed into child, and
he enters the compartment of children and
! tastes the Joy of childhood. In the second
watch he is changed into a youth, and
there he enjoys the delights of you h. In
| the third watch he becomes a middle aged
man and freioices accordingly In The
/ fourth watch he Is changed in.o an old
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 always
! been an interesting question, ana Jeldn-
1 nell supplies the following account
supplementing the Bible story And it
! came TO pass when they commenced 10
| build the tower that God confused their
! tongues and changed their form into that
/ of monkeys. so that one could not recog
uize his own brother. nor could enc man
| understand the language of his neighbor,
| so that when the builders ordered the pea
| ole 20 bring stones they brought water.
| ard when they told them to bring water.
! they brought stubble. In this way the
! evil intentions were frustrated and thew
! ceased building the tower, and the Lord
! scattered them over the face of the Who'll
| earth For they had said Come and let
us build for ourselves a city and. let us
! take axes and break open the Ornament.
! 80 that the water flow from there the sam
/ as below that he may not doto us as he di1
! in the generation of the flood. And let us
wage war with those in Heaven and es-
| tablish ourselves there as gods But how
could they build the city. since they hs d
no stonesT They made bricks from clay
| and pitch and burnt them as a potter
burns his pots in the oven and hardans