The Covenanters of Damascus; A Hitherto Unknown Jewish SectMoore, George Foot
Religion
The Covenanters of Damascus; A Hitherto Unknown Jewish Sect
Moore, George Foot
Jewish sects -- Syria -- Damascus; Judaism -- History -- To 70 A.D.
The marked hostility to the patriarch Judah with which Eulogius, the
Patriarch of Alexandria (died 607 A.D.), charges Dositheus(86) is natural
enough in a Samaritan heresiarch; in the same sentence Eulogius accuses
him of scorning the prophets of God, which, again, is not peculiar to the
Dositheans, but is the general Samaritan position. It has been remarked
above (p. 353) that our sect gives especial honor to the books of the
prophets “whose words Israel has despised”; and, however unfriendly the
attitude of these seceders to the degenerate Judah of their time, there is
no indication of animosity to the patriarch, as there is none in the
Jubilees.
From a much later time Dr. Schechter has gleaned some notices of a sect of
“Zadokites” in whose tenets also he recognizes resemblances to those of
our sect. Kirkisani, a Karaite author of the tenth century,(87) says:
“Zadok was the first who exposed the Rabbanites and contradicted them
publicly. He revealed a part of the truth, and composed books [a book] in
which he frequently denounced the Rabbanites and criticised them. But he
adduced no proof for anything he said, merely saying it by way of
statement, except in one thing, namely, in his prohibition against
marrying the daughter of the brother and the daughter of the sister. For
he adduced as proof their being analogous to the paternal and maternal
aunt.”(88)
This is a matter about which our sectaries are especially fierce in their
denunciations of the laxity of the orthodox. The argument they employ is
the same which Kirkisani attributes to Zadok. It is, however, the obvious
argument, if the principle of analogy be admitted in the interpretation of
the law; it is common in the Karaite books, and is ascribed to the
Samaritans also.(89) Kirkisani also says that the Zadokites absolutely
forbade divorce, which the Scripture permitted, agreeing in this with the
Christians and with the Isawites, whose founders, Jesus and Obadiah of
Ispahan,(90) had likewise forbidden it. We are not told expressly that our
sect prohibited divorce, but their prohibition of remarriage during the
life of the divorced wife would have the same effect. Finally, Kirkisani
says that the Zadokites fixed all the months at thirty days each,(91) and
that they did not count the Sabbath among the seven days of the
celebration of the Passover and the Tabernacles, making the feast consist
of seven days exclusive of the Sabbath. Substantially the same statements
are made about the Zadokites by another Karaite author, Hadassi, who
flourished in the middle of the twelfth century, and perhaps derived his
information from Kirkisani.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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