CARAITES, in ecclesiastical history, a religious sect among the Jews, of which there are still some subsisting in Poland, Russia, Constantinople, Cairo, and other places of the Levant, whose distinguishing tenet and practice it is to adhere closely to the words and letter of the scripture, exclusive of allegories, traditions, and the like.

Leo of Modena, a rabbi of Venice, observes, that of all the heresies among the Jews before the destruction of the temple, there is none now left but that of the Caraim, a name derived from Micra, which signifies the pure text of the Bible, because of their keeping to the Pentateuch, observing it to the letter, and rejecting all interpretations, paraphrases, and constitutions of the rabbin. Aben Ezra, and some other rabbin, treat the Caraites as Sadducees; but Leo de Juda calls them, more accurately, Sadducees Reformed, because they believe in the immortality [7:6:133] of the soul, paradise, hell, the resurrection, and other doctrines which the ancient Sadducees denied. He adds, however, that they were doubtless originally real Sadducees, and sprung from among them. But Μ. Simon, with more probability, supposes them to have taken their rise in this way, namely, that the more knowing among the Jews opposing the dreams and reveries of the rabbin, and using the pure texts of Scripture to refute their groundless traditions, had the name of Caraim given them, which signifies the same thing as the barbarous Latin Scriptnrarii, that is, people attached to the text of Scripture. The other Jews gave them the odious name Sadducees, from their agreement with those sectaries on the head of traditions. Scaliger, Vossius, and Spanheim, rank the Caraites among the Sabaeans, Magi, Manichees, and Mussulmans, but by mistake. Wolfgang, Fabricius, and others say that the Sadducees and Esseni were called Caraites, in opposition to the Pharisees; while others take them for the doctors of the law so often mentioned in the gospel. But these are all conjectures; for Josephus and Philo make no mention of them, which shows them to be more modern than either of those authors. In all probability this sect was not formed till after the collection of the second part of the Talmud, or the Gemera; perhaps not till after the compilation of the Mischna, in the third century. The Caraites themselves pretend to be the remains of the ten tribes led captive by Shalmaneser. Wolfius, from the Memoirs of Mardacheus, a Caraite, refers their origin to a massacre among the Jewish doctors under Alexander Jannaeus, their kinġ, about a hundred years before Christ; because Simon, son of Schetach, and the queen’s brother, making his escape into Egypt, there forged his pretended traditions, and, at his return to Jerusalem, published his visions, interpolating the law after his own fancy, and supporting his novelties from the notices which God, he said, had communicated by the mouth of Moses, whose depositary he was. He gained many followers, and was opposed by others, who maintained that all which God had revealed to Moses was written. Hence the Jews became divided into two sects, the Caraites and Traditionists. Among the first, Juda, son of Tabbai, distinguished himself; among the latter, Hillel. Wolfius reckons not only the Sadducees, but also the Scribes, in the number of Caraites. But the address of the Pharisees prevailed against them all, and the number of Caraites decreased. In the eighth century, Annan indeed retrieved their credit a little; Rabbi Schalomon did the same in the ninth; and they succeeded pretty well till the fourteenth; but since that time they have been declining.

The Caraites are but little known, their works coming only into very few hands, even among the greatest Hebraists. Buxtorf never saw more than one, and Selden two; but Mr Trigland says he has recovered enough to speak of them with assurance. He asserts, that soon after the prophets had ceased, the Jews became divided on the subject of works and supererogation, some maintaining their necessity from tradition, whilst others, keeping close to the written law, set them aside; and it was from these last that Caraitism commenced. He adds, that after the return from the Babylonish captivity, the observance of the law being to be re-established, there w ere several practices found proper for that end; and these being once introduced, were looked upon as essential, and as appointed by Moses. This was the origin of Pharisaism: while a contrary party continuing to keep close to the letter, founded Caraitism.

The modern Caraites, Leo of Modena observes, have their synagogues and ceremonies. They pretend to be the sole proper Jews, or observers of the laws of Moses, calling the. rest by the term rαbbinim, or “followers of the rabbin.” The latter bate the Caraites mortally, refusing to ally or even to converse with them, and treating them as mamzeim, or bastards, because of their rejecting the constitutions of the rabbin relating to marriages, repudiations, purifications of women, and the like. This aversion is so great, that if a Caraite should become a rabbinist, he would never be received by the other Jews.

The Caraites, however, do not absolutely reject all kinds of traditions, but only such as appear to be not well grounded. Selden, who is very express on this point, in his Uxor Hebraica, observes, that besides the mere text, they have certain interpretations, which they call hereditary, and which are proper traditions. Their theology seems to differ from that of the other Jews, only in that it is purer, and clearer of superstition; and they give no credit to the explications of the Cabbalists, chimerical allegories, nor to any constitutions of the Talmud, but such as are conformable to the Scripture, and may be drawn from it by just and necessary consequences.

Peringer observes of the Caraites in Lithuania, that they are very different, both in aspect, language, and manners, from the rabbinists, with whom the country abounds. Their mother tongue is the Turkish; and this they use in their schools and synagogues. In visage they resemble the Mahommedan Tartars. Their synagogues are placed north and south; and the reason they give for this is, that Shalmaneser brought them northward; so that, in praying, they must turn to the south, in order to look to Jerusalem. He adds, that they admit all the books of the Old Testament; contrary to the opinion of many of the learned, who hold that they reject all but the Pentateuch.

Caleb, a Caraite, reduces the difference between them and the rabbinists to three points: 1, In that they deny the oral law to have come from Moses, and reject the Cabbala; 2, in that they abhor the Talmud; 3, in that they observe the feasts, as the sabbaths, &c. much more rigorously than the rabbin do; and to these may be added, that they extend the degree of affinity in which marriage is prohibited, almost to infinity.