A Thousand Years of Jewish History: From the days of Alexander the Great to the Moslem Conquest of SpainHarris, Maurice H. (Maurice Henry)
History
A Thousand Years of Jewish History: From the days of Alexander the Great to the Moslem Conquest of Spain
Harris, Maurice H. (Maurice Henry)
Jews -- History
Make clear to him how the revelation of the divine will came to be
expressed in Law. And, how the preservation and development of this
Law, in the interpreting hands of prophets, scribes, rabbis, poets
and philosophers, became henceforth the controlling motif of the
history of the Jew, his _modus vivendi_, whether under Babylonians,
Persians, Greeks, Romans, Arabians or Franks. Help him to see that
through it the Jew held in his keeping the religious fate of Orient
and Occident, that took from him their respective impressions of
Islamism and Christianity.
Let him see the "God-intoxicated" teaching his message by living it;
the Suffering Servant whose martyrdom brought healing to his smiters.
Then, perhaps, he may understand that no one definition can
completely express the Faith of the Jew and his place in the
divine economy. But with this glimpse of his history the grandeur
of his inheritance will sink into his consciousness, becoming
part of himself, and he will be thrilled with the tremendous
responsibility devolving upon him as a member of the priest-people,
the witnesses of God, whose mission was and is to "bring light to
the Gentiles--that salvation may reach to the ends of the earth."
Preface to the Revised Edition
The dual purpose of the revision of this work has been
simplification and amplification.
The language has been recast in parts and there have been added
sub-titles within each chapter, cross-references and an index. Ideas
such as "Religion as law," the Logos of Philo and the development of
Messianism have been made as simple as these subjects admit of.
In seeking illustrations to vivify the narrative it is unfortunate
that so little is available. Ah! if we had pictures of Hillel, of
Akiba the Martyr, of Judah the Saint, of the Jamnia Academy, of
the splendor of the Babylonian Exilarch. But this very absence of
pictures is in itself a bit of Jewish history.
This new edition contains quotations from the literature of the
periods covered, from the Apocrypha, Philo, Josephus and the Mishna.
Three chapters have been added, two on "Stories and Sayings of
the Sages of the Talmud" and one on "Rabbi Judah and his times."
Other chapters have been placed in more logical sequence. Both the
Chronological Tables and the Notes are fuller. A new feature has
been introduced in a "theme for discussion" at the close of each
chapter that may be found helpful to study circles and Chautauqua
societies. This has also been introduced in the recently issued
"Modern Jewish History."
The author expresses his grateful indebtedness to Dr. David de
Sola Pool for a most careful reading of the manuscript and for
many corrections and suggestions; also to Mr. Philip Cowen for
the aid rendered in collecting the illustrations. The author has
availed himself of writings that have appeared on this epoch since
the edition of 1904. He hopes he has succeeded in producing a more
readable book.
CONTENTS
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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