Outlines of Jewish History from BC 586 to CE 1885 by Lady Katie Magnus

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Title: Outlines of Jewish History from B.C. 586 to C.E. 1885
Author: Lady Katie Magnus
Release Date: September 16, 2018 [eBook #57911]
Language: English
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Outlines of Jewish History

SOME PRESS NOTICES

OF

ABOUT THE JEWS SINCE BIBLE TIMES.

BY THE SAME AUTHOR.

‘Her history impresses us with a sense of truthfulness and of fairness quite exceptional.’—THE ACADEMY.

‘A very readable and popular account of most things that ought to be known about the chosen people in their later

development.’—SATURDAY REVIEW.

‘The result of careful study, and written with candour and moderation.’—PALL MALL GAZETTE.

‘A model of sober-minded terseness.... That freshness adds to the pleasure with which this useful and instructive book is sure to

be read.’—GRAPHIC.

‘A book that should achieve deserved popularity.’—WESTMINSTER REVIEW.

‘Conscientiously written, and contains much information. Several portions are notably good.’—THE WORLD.

‘An eloquent and brilliant work of its kind.’—GLASGOW HERALD.

‘Pleasantly and impartially written.... We sincerely hope that Mrs. MAGNUS will execute her intention of carrying on the history of

the Jews to the present day.’—JOURNAL OF EDUCATION.

‘Mrs. MAGNUS ... writes with considerable breadth. Her chapters are full of interest. Her estimates of Jewish character and of the

causes of national pursuits and characteristics are very suggestive.’—BRITISH QUARTERLY REVIEW.

‘The Authoress is never unfair, even when the most melancholy tales of spoliation and grief are being told by her. She has

succeeded in treating a very difficult subject with more than the profundity and exactitude that are the attributes of a solid history
writer.’—PUBLIC OPINION.

‘A clear, spirited, and on the whole a fairly impartial narrative.... Taken altogether ... combine to form a work of rare

interest.’—SCOTSMAN.

‘A distinct gain to general knowledge on the subject of the Jews.’—JEWISH WORLD.

‘Even after making all deductions, we must pronounce Mrs. MAGNUS’ history to be above all praise, and we trust that she will

continue it down to the present day.’—JEWISH CHRONICLE.

‘To do the lady justice, she has succeeded where even Dean MILMAN has failed in making Jewish history interesting to the

general reader. We have read it through from cover to cover with unflagging interest.’—THE LITERARY WORLD.

‘As interesting as a book of adventures or a novel, and much more profitable.’—MODERN REVIEW.

OUTLINES

OF

JEWISH HISTORY

B.C. 586 TO C.E. 1885

NOTE.

The late Jacob Abraham Franklin bequeathed by Will to five Trustees the sum of Five Thousand Pounds for the

promotion of certain objects in connexion with the Advancement of Judaism.

One of these objects was the publication of religious treatises and text-books.
The Trustees, believing the present work to be in accord with the views of the benevolent Testator, defray the cost of its

publication.

OUTLINES

OF

JEWISH HISTORY

FROM B.C. 586 TO C.E. 1885

WITH THREE MAPS

BY THE AUTHOR OF

‘ABOUT THE JEWS SINCE BIBLE TIMES’

REVISED BY

M. FRIEDLÄNDER, Ph.D.

LONDON

LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.

1886

All rights reserved

For ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord

TO THE DEAR MEMORY

OF

EDWARD JANVERIN EMANUEL

PREFACE.

THESE Outlines of Jewish History are the result of a proposal which was made to me, some two years back, by the administrators

of the Jacob Franklin Trust, to write a book which should tell the history of the Jews from Biblical times to the present day, in a form
which should fit it for use in schools and homes. A right of reference to Dr. Friedländer, the learned Principal of Jews’ College, was
one of the privileges of my commission, and the bringing to him of all my doubts and difficulties for decision has proved not only an
advantage to my book, but a pleasure to me.

The trouble I have had in endeavouring to keep the book simple enough for youthful readers, suggests the possible presence of a

weak point, and tempts me to forestall criticism by urging that I have, at least, been mindful on this head, and have patiently done my
best. But so complicated a history, and so advanced a civilisation as that of the Jews, is not quite susceptible of entirely simple
treatment. ‘They stained their bodies with a plant called woad’ is a perfectly comprehensive if somewhat bald bit of history, ‘adapted
to the use of schools,’ anent the ancient Britons. ‘In their schools they laid the foundations for the Mishnah’ would be a correct
contemporaneous statement concerning the ancient Jews, but one that hardly lends itself to such comfortable brevity and simplicity of
style. I can only plead that I have told the whole sad, beautiful, ‘heroic history’ of my race with the keenest sympathy; and I can only
hope that the moral and the meaning of it all, which are so very clear to me, may be found to shine out between the lines.

KATIE MAGNUS.

July 1886.

DATES OF CHIEF EVENTS AND CHIEF PEOPLE.

B.C.E.

Return from Babylon
536

Dedication of Second Temple
516

Institution of Purim
473

Judea under Egyptian rule
320

Simon I., the Just; high priest
310

The Septuagint translation made
240

Judea is conquered by Syria
203

Antiochus IV., Epiphanes, King of Syria
175‒163

Institution of Hanucah
164

Judea an independent state
141

The Idumeans are conquered, and forced to accept Judaism
120

Judas Aristobulus, the first Jewish king
106

Civil war between the brothers Hyrcanus II. and Aristobulus
70

Pompey in Jerusalem
63

Herod I. becomes King of Judea
37

Hillel I. president of the Sanhedrin
30

The Temple rebuilt by Herod
20

C.E.

Judea a Roman province
7

Origin of the Christian religion
37

Philo, Jewish philosopher in Alexandria
40

Fall of Jerusalem and destruction of the Temple
70

Jochanan ben Zakkai establishes a college at Jamnia
70

The Pentateuch is translated into Chaldee by Onkelos, and the whole Bible into Greek by Akylos
130

The Jews rise under Barcochba against the Romans
133‒135

Akiba dies
135

Compilation of the Mishnah by Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi
190

Colleges founded in Babylonia by Rab and Samuel
219

The Jerusalem Talmud compiled
320

Hillel II. fixes the Jewish calendar (at present in use)
360

The Babylonian Talmud completed
500

A Jewish kingdom in Yemen
500

First Gaon in Sura, Mar Isaac
658

Origin of the vowel signs and accents in Hebrew
650

The Arabs conquer Spain
711

The Chazars embrace Judaism
740

Development of Karaism
761

Saadia of Fajum, philosopher and theologian
892‒942

Foundation of colleges by Babylonian scholars in Western countries
950

Hai, the last of the Gaonim
998‒1038

Solomon Gabirol
1037‒1070

Rashi (Rabbi Solomon Yitschaki)
1040‒1105

Beginning of the Crusades and of the persecutions of the Jews in Europe
1096

Moses ibn Ezra
1070‒1139

Judah ha-Levi
1085‒1145

Abraham ibn Ezra
1092‒1167

Moses Maimonides
1135‒1204

Benjamin of Tudela, traveller
1165‒1173

Persecution of Jews in England under Richard I.
1189

The writings of Maimonides burnt at Paris
1233

The Jewish Parliament summoned by Henry III.
1240

Copies of the Talmud burnt at Paris
1242

Expulsion of Jews from England
1290

Jacob Asheri completes the religious code called the Four Turim
1340

Persecution of Jews in Europe in consequence of the Black Death
1349

Don Isaac Abarbanel
1437‒1509

The first Hebrew books printed
1475

Inquisition against the Marannos
1480

Expulsion of the Jews from Spain
1492

Expulsion of the Jews from Portugal
1497

The first ghetto in Venice
1516

Reuchlin for the Talmud, Pfefferkorn against it
1506‒1516

First complete edition of the Talmud printed
1520

Spanish Jews settle in Holland
1591

Manasseh ben Israel
1604‒1657

Sabbatai Zevi
1626‒1676

Baruch Spinoza
1632‒1677

Slaughter of Jews in Poland by the Cossacks under Chmielnicki
1648

Manasseh ben Israel came to England
1655

First Portuguese synagogue in London
1656

First German synagogue in London
1692

Moses Mendelssohn born
1729

The edict of Joseph II., Emperor of Austria
1782

Moses Montefiore born
1784

Frederick William II. of Prussia abolishes the ‘Leibzoll’
1787

The Jews in France emancipated
1791

Jews admitted to the freedom of the City of London
1832

The Jews’ civil disabilities in England removed
1845

Persecution of Jews in Damascus: Professor Theodore’s letter on same
1840

D. Salomons elected M.P. for Greenwich
1851

Jewish Oath Bill passed
1858

CONTENTS.

BOOK I.

B.C. 586 TO A.C. 70.

IN THE SHADOW OF THE SWORD.

CHAPTER I.

THE JEWS IN BABYLON.

1. Babylonian Exiles
2. Persian Conquest of Babylon
3. The Influences of the Exile
4. How Cyrus’s Permission was received
5. The End of the Exile

CHAPTER II.

THE RETURN TO PALESTINE.

1. The Rebuilding of the Temple
2. The Samaritans
3. The Feast of Purim
4. Ezra the Scribe
5. The Work of Ezra and Nehemiah

CHAPTER III.
LIFE IN PALESTINE.

1. Condition of the People
2. Literary Labours
3. Alexandrian Jews
4. The Septuagint
5. Under Egyptian Rule
6. Under Syrian Rule
7. Home Rule

CHAPTER IV.

THE MACCABEAN WAR OF INDEPENDENCE.

1. Antiochus Epiphanes
2. Antiochus’s Tyranny
3. Resistance of Mattathias
4. Chasidim and Zaddikim
5. The Success of Judas Maccabeus
6. Institution of Hanucah
7. Treaty with Rome

CHAPTER V.

PALESTINE UNDER NATIVE RULE.

1. Death of Judas Maccabeus
2. Jonathan the Maccabee
3. Simon, the First of the Priest-King Dynasty
4. The Sons of Simon
5. Reign of John Hyrcanus
6. His Last Years

CHAPTER VI.

JUDEA DURING THE REMAINDER OF THE RULE OF THE ASMONEANS.

1. Rival Factions, Pharisees and Sadducees
2. How they got their Names
3. Their Tenets and Position, Religious and Political
4. State Quarrel with the Pharisees
5. The Essenes
6. Reign of Alexander Jannæus
7. After the Death of Alexander Jannæus

CHAPTER VII.
A NEW DYNASTY.

1. Antipater the Idumean
2. Rome arbitrates
3. Antipater’s plans
4. The Sanhedrin
5. The Fall of the Asmonean House

CHAPTER VIII.
REIGN OF HEROD.

1. Antipater’s ‘Desire’ fulfilled
2. How Herod strengthened his Position
3. Herod as Husband
4. Herod as Father
5. Herod as King
6. The End of Herod’s Reign
7. Hillel: a Contrast

CHAPTER IX.

JUDEA BEFORE THE WAR.

1. Herod’s Will
2. Judea sinks into a Roman Province
3. Jesus of Nazareth
4. Jews in Egypt and Syria
5. Birth of Christianity
6. Reign of Herod Agrippa
7. Caligula and the Jews

CHAPTER X.

THE WAR WITH ROME.

1. Agrippa II.; Roman Governors
2. Vespasian sent to Judea
3. Preparations for Defence
4. Josephus

CHAPTER XI.

THE END OF THE WAR.

1. The Defence of the Provinces
2. Affairs in Jerusalem
3. The War Party and the Peace Party: their Leaders
4. The Siege of Jerusalem
5. A Mediator sent: Terms proposed
6. The Destruction of the Temple

BOOK II.

A.C. 70 TO 1600.

DARKNESS.

CHAPTER XII.
AFTER THE WAR.

1. Titus completes his Conquest
2. Masada
3. What became of the Chief Actors
4. What became of the Country and the People
5. Salvage
6. Jochanan ben Saccai; the Schools
7. An Unforeseen Result of the War: Jewish Christians

CHAPTER XIII.

THE REVOLT UNDER HADRIAN.

1. Conquered Jews in the West
2. Contemporary Jews in the East
3. Under Trajan
4. The Policy of Hadrian
5. The Jews in Revolt: their Leader
6. Akiba, the Romance of his Youth
7. Akiba, the Romance of his Age
8. Hadrian’s Resolve accomplished

CHAPTER XIV.

THE REVIVAL OF THE SCHOOLS: THEIR WORK.

1. One of History’s Miracles
2. The Schools: their Work
3. The Masters of the Schools
4. The Moral Influence of the Schools
5. The Political Influence of the Schools
6. The Literary Influence of the Schools

CHAPTER XV.

CHRISTIANITY A STATE RELIGION.

1. How it spread among the Heathen
2. The First Christian Emperor
3. Constantine legislates on the Subject; its Effects
4. Jews in the East under Persian Rule

5. Julian the Apostate

CHAPTER XVI.

THE BREAK-UP OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE: SOME OF ITS CONSEQUENCES.

1. Political Changes
2. Social Changes
3. Monks and Saints
4. How Jews became Traders
5. The Slave Trade
6. Jews as Slave Owners
7. Church Councils
8. Eastern Jews
9. War between the Persian and the Byzantine Empires

CHAPTER XVII.

THE RISE OF MAHOMEDANISM.

1. The Koran or the Sword
2. What Mahomed learnt from the Jews
3. Islam
4. Likenesses between Islam and Judaism
5. Differences between Islam and Judaism

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE CONQUESTS OF THE KALIPHS: EFFECT, RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL, ON THE JEWS.

1. Progress of Mahomedanism
2. Gaonim
3. Spain in the Hands of the Mahomedans
4. The Karaite Movement
5. Mahomedan Causes for Karaism
6. The Leader of the Karaite Movement
7. What became of the Sect
8. Good out of Evil

CHAPTER XIX.

LIFE UNDER THE KALIPHS.

1. Jews in the East
2. Close of the Schools; some Scholars
3. Jews in the West
4. The Policy of the Early Kaliphs
5. Some Effects of this Policy

CHAPTER XX.

JEWS IN SPAIN (710‒1150).

1. ‘Like a Dream in the Night’
2. The Jew Schools
3. The first Nagid of Spain
4. Another Nagid: troubles in Granada
5. Revival of Catholicism in Spain
6. Effect on the Jews
7. The Almohade Dynasty of Kaliphs

CHAPTER XXI.

JEWS IN SPAIN, CONTINUED (1150‒1492).

1. Under Catholic Kings in Spain

2. The Toledo Synagogue
3. The Downward Slope to Death
4. The Marannos or New Christians
5. An Effort at Argument
6. The Inquisition
7. Objects and Functions of the Inquisition
8. Some Statistics of the Inquisition
9. Edict of Expulsion
10. Abarbanel’s Intercession

CHAPTER XXII.

JEWS IN CENTRAL EUROPE IN THE MIDDLE AGES.

1. General Position of European Jews
2. Jews become Money-lenders
3. Charges of Usury

CHAPTER XXIII.

JEWS IN CENTRAL EUROPE, CONTINUED.

1. The Crusades
2. Glimpses of Better Things
3. Life in France till the Expulsion thence
4. Expelled from France
5. Treatment of Jews in the German States

CHAPTER XXIV.

JEWS IN ENGLAND (1066‒1210).

1. The First Seventy Years
2. ‘Saints’ and Supplies
3. Accession of Richard
4. Treatment by Richard
5. Under John

CHAPTER XXV.

JEWS IN ENGLAND, CONTINUED (1216‒1290).

1. The Next Fifty Years
2. The Caorsini
3. The First Jewish M.P.’s
4. Another Device for raising Money
5. Under Edward I.
6. Some Ironical Legislation
7. Dishonest Jews
8. Efforts at Conversion
9. Expulsion of Jews from England

BOOK III.

A.C. 100 TO 1500.

STARLIGHT.

CHAPTER XXVI.

CONCERNING JEWISH LITERATURE AND LITERARY MEN.

1. Starlight
2. How the Stars shone
3. Piyutim
4. A Specimen Planet

CHAPTER XXVII.
SOME FIXED STARS.

1. Solomon ibn Gabirol
2. ‘Rashi’
3. Ibn Ezra
4. A Great Traveller
5. Jehudah Halevi

CHAPTER XXVIII.

THE GREATEST OF THE FIXED STARS, MAIMONIDES (1135‒1204).

1. Early Days in Spain
2. Life in Exile
3. Becomes a Court Physician
4. Court and other Employment
5. His Writings
6. His Character
7. The End of his Life

CHAPTER XXIX.

DARKNESS BEFORE THE DAWN.

1. The Stars die out
2. Whither the Exiles went
3. Life in Germany
4. A New Crusade
5. What became of the Spanish and Portuguese Exiles

CHAPTER XXX.

THE DARKNESS VISIBLE.

1. Deterioration of Character
2. Atmospheric Conditions
3. A Shooting Star—Sabbatai Zevi
4. How the News was received
5. The Sultan interferes
6. Sabbatai resigns his Pretensions
7. Becomes a Convert to Mahomedanism

BOOK IV.

A.C. 1591 TO 1885.

DAWN.

CHAPTER XXXI.

DAWN.