Volume 1

Rabbinical literature: or, the traditions of the Jews, contained in their Talmud and other mystical writings. Likewise the opinions of that people concerning Messiah, and the time and manner of His appearing; with an appendix, comprizing Buxtorf's account of the religious customs and ceremonies of that nation. Also, A preliminary enquiry into the origin, progress, authority, and usefulness of these traditions; wherein the sense of the strange allegories in the Talmud and Jewish authors is explained / By the Revd. Mr. J.P. Stehelin.

Johann Andreas Eisenmenger

Date:: 1748

Credit: Rabbinical literature: or, the traditions of the Jews, contained in their Talmud and other mystical writings. Likewise the opinions of that people concerning Messiah, and the time and manner of His appearing; with an appendix, comprizing Buxtorf's account of the religious customs and ceremonies of that nation. Also, A preliminary enquiry into the origin, progress, authority, and usefulness of these traditions; wherein the sense of the strange allegories in the Talmud and Jewish authors is explained / By the Revd. Mr. J.P. Stehelin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

64/424 page 50

a Man toucheth, he burfteth; that the Wicked ar^ fcourged every Moment by the deftroying Angels, that their Voices are heard as far as the Firmament of Heaven crying out, Woe^ Woe, and that there is none to pity them. It was the prevalent Opinion among the Heathens, the Jews, and the Primitive Chriftians, that' the De¬ parted Souls, immediately after Death, repair to a fub- terraneous Place where they are in Joy and Felicity, or in Mifery and Torment. The Heathens, both Greeks and Latins, underftood generally by their Hades or In- Jeri fuch a Place: The Primitive Chriftians believed, that Hell is the common Receptacle of all feparated Souls, whether good or bad, and that it is divided into tv/o Manfions, in one whereof the Souls of the Wicked remain in Grief and Torment; and in the other thofe of the Godly in Joy and Happinefs, both of them ex¬ pelling the general Refurredlion: The Sentiments of the ancient Jews were the fame, Father Richara Simon aftures us, that in the Days of our Saviour and his Apoftles, <c their common Belief was, that there were Places under Ground whither Souls went after they were feparated from their Bodies ;c and Jofephus faith, that the Pharifees believed the Immortality of the Souls, and that they were either tormented or honoured yßovbf under the Earth, according to the Virtues or Wickednefs of their paft Livesd. We muft therefore not be furprifed if we read in Jalkut Chadafi.?, that all Mankind muft go down into Hell, even thofe that are not wicked, as well as thofe that are ; or in the Trea~ tife Emekbammelech, of Rabbi Naphiali, that there is no Righteous Man among the ljraelites who goeth not into Hell, and who pafteth not thro’ it; The Diftinc- lion the Jews make between the fuperior and the infe¬ rior Paradife, as well as between the upper and the lower Hell, the various Names they aftign to each of [c] R. Simon Hiftoire Critique du N. Taft, ch, 22, [dj Judaic* Anuq. Lib. XVIil. c. 2. them* I

Licence and re-use

Contents

Volumes