JOSEPH BEN-ISAAC KDICIII 1022
JOSEPHUS
ins it to the earlier part of the 10th century is that Duiiash b.-Tanaini (who flourished about 955) knew the work aud spoke of parts of it (comp. Milman's Gibbon, Decline and Full of the Roman Empire, ii, 6, note).
But as to the chronicle itself. It consists of six books. It begins ita record with Adam ; explains the genealogical table iu (Jen. xi ; then passes on to the his- tory of Home, Babylon, Cyrus, and the fall of Babylon ; resumes again the history of the Jews; describes the times of Dauiel.'zerubbabel, Esther, etc. ; gives an accomit of Alexander the Great, his connection, his exploits, and cxiieditions of his successors ; and then continues the history of the Jews; of Heliodorus's assault on the Tem- ple; the translation of the O. T. into Greek; the deeds of the Maccabees; the events of the Herodians ; and the last war which terminated in the destruction of the Temple by Titus. The authorities quoted in this re- markable "book are : I. Nicolaus the Damascene ; 2. Stra- bo of Cappadocia; 3. Titus Livius; 4. Togthas of Jeru- salem ; 5. Porophius of Rome ; G. The history of Alex- ander, written in the year of his death by Magi ; 7. The book, of the antediluvian patriarch Cainan b.-Enos ; 8. Books of the Greeks, Medians, Persians, and Macedoni- ans; 9. Epistle of Alexander to Aristotle about the won- ders of India; 10. Treaties of alliance of the Romans: 11. Cicero, who was in the Holy of Holies of the Tem- ple during the reign of Pompey ; 12. The intercalary years of Julius Cajsar, composed for the Nazarites and Greeks ; 13. The chronicles of the Roman emperors ; 14. The constitutional diploma which Vespasian vener- ated so highly that he kissed every page of it; 15. The Alexandrian Library with its 995 volumes; 16. Jewish histories which are lost ; and, 17. The national tradi- tions which have been translated oraUy. The first printed edition of this work appeared in Mantua, 1 47G -1479, with a preface by Abraham ben-Salmon Cona- to. A reprint of this edition (the text vitiated), with a Latin version by IMUnster, was published at Basle, 1541. There appeared an edition from a MS. containing a somewhat different version of the work, and divided into iiincty-sovcn chapters, edited by Tarn Ibn-Jachja ben- I )a\ id (( 'iinstantinople, 1510). New editions of it were imbli^hcd iu Venice, 1544; Cracow, 1589; Frankfort-on- tlie-Main, 1G«9; Amsterdam, 1723; Prague, 1784; Zol- kiew, 1805; Vilna, 1819. It was partly translated into Arabic by Zechariah ben-Said el-Temeni about 1223, and into English by Peter Morwyng (Lond. 1558, 15G1, 1575, 1579, 1G02). There are two other Latin transla- tions, besides the one by Minister, 1541; one was made by the learned English Oiiintalist, John Gagnier (Ox- ford, 17IG), and one by l'.r.iili,iu]it; the last has also the Hebrew text and claliipr.-iic nniis, and will always con- tiiuic to be the stiidciu's ediiidn. There are German translations by jMi.hai'l Adam (Zurich, 154G), Moses b.- Bezaliel (Prague, 1(107), Aluahani bon-^Mordecai Cohen (Amsterdam, lGGl),and S(li;;inaini llcis (Fraukfort-on- the-Main, 1707). Compare. Inndes liie autliorities al- ready cited, Zunz, l)ie dotfrs,//, ,/.<//;.■/,< „ 1 -,ir/nu/o ,h r Ju- d,u ( P.erlin. 1x32). p. I4(i-ir>l; l)elil/.s,h. /»,■ '( :, ^rhirhl,' (/,r Jih/lsr/n^i, J'orslr ( Leip/ig, IKU; ), p. :;7 Id ; ( anii.ily iu ,l(i>t's Annalen. (Fraukfort-on-llie-Main, ls:;'.i), i, Id'J ».(. ; Milman, Hist. „fihr .hus, ill, i:;i ; Ftirst, JiihlLtheca Jnlaiva, ii, 111-111; Steiiiscluieider, ('(,/i,lu,/i,s Lihr. Ihhr. iu nihlinliun, /lu,l/,;„i,„, 1547-1552; Kitto, Bibl. (■;/r/op,nli„,ii.y. (J. II. \V)
Joseph ben-Isaac Kimchi. See Klmciii.
Joseph ben-Satia. See Saadia.
Joseph ben-Shemtob, a noted Jewish philoso- plur. |M,leinic, and ( imimentator, flourished in the mid- die ol the 15th cenlury in Castile, and was in high office at the court of Juan H. He was especially noted in his day as a plulosopher, and wrote many philosophical works, which form important contributions to the his- tory of Jewish philosophy. He was especially rigid in flelence of Judaism as a religious system, in opposition to the Clinstian, and in that line freelv used Profi-it Du-
ran's WTitings, upon which he commented. See Pro- fiat. In his later days he lost his position at o^jurt through the machinations of the papists and the so-call- ed converts from Judaism, and finally died the death of martyrdom about 1460. His works of especial interest to us are : (1) Commentart/ on the celebrated Epistle of Profiat Duran against Christianity (Constantinople, 1577) ; contained also in Geiger's d^msil "j^mp (Bres- lau, 1844): — (2) Course of Homilies delivered in the synagogue on different Sabbaths on various portions of the Bible, entitled Sniptl '^'''J, The Eye of the Reader (still in MS. in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, Codex Michael, 581): — (3) Commentary on Ldinentatim/s, com- posed at Medina del Campo in the year 1441 (j\IS. by Do Rossi, No. 177) : — (4) Commentary on Genesis i. 1-vi, 8, being the Sabbatic lesson which commences the Jewish year"[see Haphtakaii] :— and (5) Exposition of JJeuf, XV, 11. Comp. Steius( hueider, in Ersch und Gruber's Allgemeine Eiicf/L/np. see. ii, vol. xxxi, p. 87-93; Cuta- loyus Lihr. Ihbr. hi liibVintheca Bodleiana, col. 1529; Griitz, Gesch. d. Jiulen, viii, 179 sq. ; also note 4 in the Appendix; Kitto, Bibl. Cyclop, s.v. (J. H.W.)