Einleitung in den Thalmud, Leipzig, 1894 ; M. Mielziner, Intro- duction to the Talmud, Cincinnati, 1894 ; Schiirer, GJ V2, 1. § 3 E, Leipzig, 1890 (Germ.). For popular accounts see E. Deutsch, The Talmud, Philadelphia, 1896; A. Darmesteter, The Talmud, Philadelphia, 1897.
DICTIONARIES AND GRAMMARS: Nathan b. Yehiel (of the 11th cent.), 717 75D, 1480, ed. pr. This work was last edited or rather incorporated in the Arukh Completum .. . auctore Nathane jilio Jechielis ... corrigit explevit critice Alex. Kohut, 8 vols., Wien, 1878-92; Joh. Buxtorf, Lexicon Chal- daicum Talmudicum et Rabbinicwm, Basel, 1640; Jacob Levy, Neuhebriisches und chaldiéisches Worterbuch tiber die Tal- mudim und Midraschim, Leipzig, 1876; M. Jastrow, Diction- ary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Jerushalmi, Lon- don and New York, 1886; Sam. Krauss, Giriechische und latein- ische Lehnworter tm Talmud, Midrasch, und Targum... Berlin, 1898; W. Bacher, Die dilteste Terminologie der jtidischen Schriftauslegung : Ein Worterbuch der bibelemegetischen Kunst- sprache der Tannaiten, Leipzig, 1899; H. L. Strack and O. Siegfried, Lehrbuch der Neuhebrdischen Sprache . . . Karlsruhe and Leipzig, 1884; A. Geiger, Lehr- und Lesebuch der Sprache der Mishnah, Breslau, 1845 (Germ.); I. H. Weiss, pw> naw mwnn, Wien, 1865 (Heb.); G. Dalman, Grammatik des J’ uidisch- Paldstinischen Aramiisch, Leipzig, 1894 (Germ.); 8. D. Luz- zatto, Elementi grammaticali del... dialetto Talmudico Babilonese, Padua, 1865 (Ital.), of which a Germ. tr. was prepared by M. 8. Kriiger, and was published in Breslau, 1873 ; Levias, Grammar of the Bab. Talm., Cincinnati, 1900.
The attempts towards translating the Talmud are many and various. A full account of them will be found in Dr. Erich Bischoff’s Kritische Geschichte der Thalmud-Ubersetzungen aller Zeiten und Zungen, Frankfurt-a.-M. 1899 (Germ.). The present writer can, however, recommend only the following books: On the Mishnasee above. On Minor tractates : Masecheth Sopherim, by J. Miiller, Leipzig, 1878 ; Derech Erez Suta, by A. lawrogy, Kénigsberg, 1885. Jerus. Talm.: A. Wiinsche, Der jerusalem- ische Talmud in seinen haggadischen Bestandtheilen ins Deutsche tibertragen, Ziirich, 1880. Bab. Talm.: A Translation of the treatise Chagigah, by A. W. Streane, 1891; Tractate Baba Mezia mit deutscher Ubersetzung . . . by A. Samter, Berlin, 1876; Der Bab. Talmud in seinen Hagadischen Bestand- theilen wortgetreu tibersetzt, by Wunsche, 1888. The student would do well to consult always, when reading a Haggadic text, the following standard works by W. Bacher: Die Agada der Babylonischen Amorder, Strassburg, 1879; Die Agada der Tannatten, Strassburg, 1884; Die Agada der Paldstinischen Amorder, Strassburg, 1892. S. SCHECHTER.
SIBYLLINE ORACLES.—Thecollection of Jewish and Christian poems which pass under the name of the Sibyl covers in its time of production a period of many centuries, reaching back into at least the 2nd cent. B.C., and coming down (when its latest developments are included) far into the Middle Ages. When we take further into account that, even in its first Jewish and Christian forms, Sibyllism was merely an attempt to transplant a feature of literature that was centuries old, and already effete in the pagan world, it will be seen that it constitutes a very important element in historical theology, and one which has had every influence upon the mind of man that could be secured for it by the exercise of authority (operat- ing through the State as in Roman life, or through great names as in the case of the Christian Church), supported as that authority was by the natural love of the secret and mysterious which charac- terizes the major part of men in all periods of human history.
The original Sibyl is very nearly the equivalent of ‘prophetess’ in the Gr. and Rom. world; the derivation of her name from an assumed com- bination of Xués (for Oeds) and BovA# (in a form BudAAd) goes back to Varro (ef. Lact. Div. Inst. i. 6); and, although it may be (and probably is) invalid philologically, it is sufficient evidence of the character assigned to the persons known as Sibyls, who had the knowledge (as it was supposed) of the Divine will in the fatalistie sense, aed were in the habit of recording the fiats of that Divine will in various oracular and prophetic ways. Accordingly, they could be consulted, either in some special antrwm or grotto, or through an inspection of such sep lees as they had com- mitted to writing. Now, according to the ancients, there were a number of such Sibyls, known some- times by actual names, and sometimes by the places where they prophesied, as the Chaldean,
SIBYLLINE ORACLES
Erythrean, Delphic, ete. But for practical pur- oses the one that exercised the commanding in- uence over the Christian Church to which we
have alluded above is the Cumean Sibyl. It is necessary to bear in mind that this commanding influence is merely a case of survival from the Roman State religion. And the question for the student of the Sib. Oracles as we have them extant, is as to the extent of the survival. It can be tested under the heads of (1) the language, (2) the form, (3) the matter of the ancient and the more modern oracles.
The Rom. tradition affirmed that these oracles had originally been offered by a certain Sibyl to a certain Roman king (say Tarquinius Superbus), but at an excessive price ; the price being refused, she departed and destroyed a certain part of her books, and returned to offer the remainder at the original price; and, after this process had been repeated a certain number of times, the king was sufficiently interested to buy the remainder, which thus became in the Roman government a State deposit of information concerning the future, placed under the contro! of the augurs or viri quindecemwvirales, and to be consulted in time of exigency.