Kaphar. Sec Kepiiar.
Kapharnaites. See Lord's Supper; Transub-
STANTIATION.
Kapila, the reputed author of the Sdnkhya (q. v.), one of the philosophical systems of the Hindus. As to the origin of Kapila, Hindu tradition is ratlier vague. Among his followers he is by some described as a son of Brahma, and by others, especially liis later followers, as an incarnation of Vishnu. He is also recomited to v.— B
have been bom as the son of Devahuti, and, again, is identified with one of the agnis or fires. Finally, it is said that there existed, in fact, two Kapilas — the first an embodiment of Vishnu ; the other, the igneous prin- ciple in human disguise. The probability is that Ka- pila was simply, like the great majority of his educated countrymen, a Brahman. Spence Hardy (Manual of Buddhism, p. 132) quotes a legend by which it may be shown that the Hindus regarded Buddha as a later ex- istence of our Kapila, and that therefore Buddliism is the Sankhj'a philosophy modified; but professor I\lax 31 tiller rejects this theorj^, and says that he has looked in vain for any similarities between the system of Kapila, as known to us in the Sankhya-sutras, and the Abhidhar- ma, or the metaphysics of the Buddhists. He adds, however, that if any similarity of the two systems could be established, such proofs would be very valua- ble. " They would probably enable us to decide whether Buddlia borrowed from Kapila, or Kapila from Buddha, and thus determine the real chronology of the philo- sophical literatiu-e of India, as either prior or subse- quent to the Buddhist a3ra." See Professor J. E. Hall, Bibliotheca Tndica, Sunkhyapr. p. 14 sq. ; Ballantyne, Lecture on the Sankhya Philosophy [Mirzapore, 1850] ; Hardwick, Christ and other Masters, i, 208 sq. ; Max Miiller, Chips from a German Workshop, i, 223 sq. See also Sankhva.
Kapitorists, a sect of the Russian Church. See Russian Ciiurcii.
Karaites (Ileb. D'^XIp, Karaim, i. e. Readers) is the name of one of the oldest and most remarkable sects of the Jewish synagogue, whose distinguishing tenet is strict adherence to the letter of the written law (i. e. sa- cred writings of the O. T.), and utter disregard of the authority of the oral law or tradition (q. v.).
Ori'/in. — Up to our own day it has been impossible to determine the age in which the Karaites originated; certain it is that they existed before the 8th centiuA", to which their origin was formerly assigned. The Kara- ites themselves claim to be the remains of the ten tribes led captive by Shalmaneser, The Rabbins (c. g. Aben- Ezra, Maimonides, etc.) unjustly assert that this sect is identical with the Sadducees (comp. Rule, Karaites, p. viii), and that they -were originated by Ahnan (about A.D. G40), because the latter was ignored in the election of a new Resh-Gelutha (q. v.) ; but the investigations of our day lead us to believe that the Karaites must have originated immediately after the return of the Jews from Babylonian captivity, although they did not organize into a distinct sect until after the collection of oral tra- dition, and that for this, and no other reason, we find no mention of them as such in the New-Test, writings,, nor in those of Josephus and Philo. Upon the comple- tion of the Talmud it is well known that a great agita- tion prevailed in the Jewish communitj', especially in the western synagogues, and particularly at Constanti- nople, where, on the ides of February, A.D. 529, Justin- ian was obliged to interfere, and actually prohibited the- reading of the Jlishna in the sj-nagogue. In the con- version of the Khazars (q. v.) to Judaism, the Karaites,, as we leani from the Sepher Chozri [see Judah Ha- Levi], already appear as a distinct sect. From inscrip- tions collected and examined by Abraham Firkovitch, the celebrated Russian Jew, within tlie last twenty' years, there are indications that in the Crimea at least Kara- ites may have flourished as early as the first half of the 4th century (compare Rule, p. 83 ; N. Y. Nation, June 7, 1800). The external unity, however, of the Jewish Church was not broken apparently imtU the time of Ahnan ben-David. It is true, even in the days of Christ, the internal peace of the Jewish fold was much disturbed ; synagogues ditTered greatly from each other,, but ostensibly these differences were provoked only by ignorance of the Hebrew, and the introduction of Greek and other foreign idioms; on doctrines and discipline there seemed to reign universal harmonv. Not so after
KARAITES
18
KARAITES
the publication of the Talmud. Tliore were many who inclined to jiay strict ckfercnce only to the inspired writings of the 0. T. ; and when, in the middle of the 8th centurj', a Luther in the form of Ahnan ben-David arose in the Jewish midst and declared his opposition to the Kabbinites, a party was formed in his favor at Je- rusalem itself, which soon extended throughout Pales- tine, and even far away through all the East, as well as towards the West. The jjcrsonal history of this great Jewish reformer is rather obscured by the fables of Arabs, and the calumnies of some Kabbinites ; and it re- mains to be settled whether, as the Karaites assert, he ■was born at Beth-tsur, near Jerusalem (and of the lineage of king David), or in Beth-tsur (Bazra) on the Tigris, and consequently imbibed his reformatory notions from the Arabian or Persian dissenters from IMohammedanism known as MutazilHes (q. v.). Certain it is, however, that at the time of the election of a new Resh-Geluiha Ahnan must have enjoyed some distinction, or he could never have presented claims for the office of '' leader in Israel." In the year 70 1 we find him at Jerusalem in a synagogue of his own, expounding the new doc- trine, and, after kindling great enthusiasm among a host of disciples who had quicklj' gathered about him, send- ing forth from this centre of Judaism "letters of admo- nition, instruction, and encouragement to distant con- gregations, with zealous preachers who proclaimed ev- erywhere the supreme authority of the Law, and the worthlessness of all that, in the Talmud or any other writings, was contrary to the law of Moses" (comp. Pin- skcr, Likule Kadinonioth, or Ziir Geschichte Ji. Litei: des Kariii.-^mus, Append, p. 33 and 90). Ahnan died in 7(55, yet within that astonishingly brief period the Karaites had spread over Palestine, Egj'pt,Greece, Barbary, Spain, SjTia, Tartary, Byzantium, Fez, IMorocco, and even to the ranges of the Atlas, and by all the Karaites in these distant lands his death was mourned as the loss of a second IMoses. Under Rabbi Salomon bcn-Jerukhim (born in 885) they prospered greatly in the 9th ccnturj% and even up to the 14th they seem to have increased, but thereafter their condition becomes obscure, and light first again breaks upon the Karaites' history with the opening of the present century (see below).