RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Israel, History of
known where or by whom this was done. In the declining Roman empire the situation of the Jews was not favorable. Theodosius sought to protect them, though foiled by the opposition of Ambrose, and his successors also tried to secure their peace. Under Theodosius II., Cyril of Alexandria had the Jews expelled from the city and their possessions given to the rabble, while their synagogue in Antioch was sacked. Enmity between Jews and Christians became acute. Jerome's Hebrew teacher could attend his pupil only in secret. Palestinian Judaism meanwhile did not perish without leaving one more monument of exceeding value in the Massorah — i.e., the addition of vowels, accents, and marks of division or distinction to the consonantal text of the Old Testament, with annotations on the text. In 470 there began an official persecution of the Jews of Persia, and many were compelled to emigrate to India. Later, in Malabar they received privileges which are chronicled on a tablet still extant, inscribed in Hebrew and early Indian. The end of the period of the Amoraim fell at the close of the fifth century. 3. The Middle Period : For the Jews of the Byzantine empire this period began with the reign of Justinian, whose laws were the basis o i *!■ °A °^ *^e treatment of the Jews during the Italy Middle Ages. Under his code Jewish testimony against a Christian was not received, a Christian might not become a proselyte to Judaism, Jews had to support highly paid city officials from whom they received no benefits or immunities, they might not celebrate their Passover before the Christian Easter, might read the Scriptures in the synagogue on the Sabbath only in Greek or Latin, while they were subjected at the hands of the rabble to frequent riots with all attendant evils. On the other hand, the Jews lost no opportunity for vengeance, which in turn excited new animosity. At this time the Jews of the Orient dropped out of history and those of the Occident became prominent, especially those of Spain. In Italy, under the great movements of the Germanic peoples, Jews suffered as did the Christians. During the Gothic rule the laws of Theodosius were in force; Jews controlled the slave-trade and held Christians in slavery, and were largely autonomous besides disregarding the laws designed to protect Christians. Still, the highest authorities did all possible to protect the Jews, and the efforts of the popes to this end were constant. Gregory the Great was especially kind to them, compelling indemnification for destroyed synagogues, but he forbade the holding of Christians as slaves, and wrote to several of the kings of his day to make an end of the trade in Christian slaves carried on by the Jews.
Of all the countries of Europe none was so favorable to the Jews as Spain. There the highest products of Jewish industry, intellect ®" *n and skill were in evidence; in wealth, Spam; honor> philosophy and poetry the days Jewish °^ *^e Jews >n Spain still mark for them Culture. an ePocn- On the other hand, in the reaction nowhere was the suffering so great as there. Jewish settlements in the Spanish peninsula were very ancient, made perhaps under the Phenicians; certainly after the destruction of
Jerusalem great numbers of Jews were sold into Spain, and Granada was so largely settled by them as to be called a Jewish state. Christianity also made early and great conquests there, and laws similar to those mentioned above were enacted to prevent holding of Christian slaves by Jews and proselyting by force. Later King Sisebut ordered all Jews to receive baptism or to give up their holdings of land, and many Jews complied, while many others migrated to France or Africa. The Jewish question came under discussion at the Synod of Toledo (633 a.d.). Isidore of Seville opposed forcible conversion of the Jews, but forbade that Christians should become Jews and prohibited intercourse between Jews and Christians. The situation changed from time to time. Under one king the Jews would enjoy religious liberty, and Jews who had nominally accepted Christianity were permitted to return to their old faith; under another the menace to the Church of so large a population of Jews was felt, and severe laws against them were put in force. Under King Egica a conspiracy of Spanish and African Jews with the Arabs to overthrow the Gothic kingdom was discovered, but too late; Jews and Arabs made common cause, and the Mohammedan conqueror, Tarik, brought the Gothic kingdom of Spain to an end in 711 a.d. The relations between Jews and Mohammedans was peculiar. Jews regarded Islam as a younger daughter of Judaism, as was Christianity, but they felt more closely related to Islam and never made common cause with Christians against Mohammedans. In Arabia they had made ineffective Constantine's efforts for the spread of Christianity. They had many important settlements there which were governed by Jewish princes, and they had a school of the law and possessed Talmudic learning. When Mohammed proclaimed his faith as that of Abraham, the Jews had faith in him and he called them " helpers." But differences arose, and Mohammed published parts of Suras against them in which he called them murderers of prophets and falsifiers of revelation. Then there came war with the Jewish tribe of the Banu-Kainuka, and one of the two Jewish women whom the prophet brought back tried to poison him. After his death the strife between Mohammedans and Jews continued. In Spain the Jews opened the gates of Toledo to Tarik and took bloody vengeance upon the Christians, while they received many favors from the conquerors. In this period occurred the founding of the sect of the Karaites (q.v.) by Anan ben David (cf. JE, i. 553 sqq.), who, in Babylon and Palestine, opposed the Talmudic learning and would have the Old Testament alone authoritative. He was the first Jew to compose a commentary on the Pentateuch. In Palestine there was propounded also a Jewish mysticism and system of ascetics whose followers called themselves " men of faith," claimed miraculous powers, and influenced all medieval Judaism. The Karaites were opposed by Saadia of Egypt, who founded Jewish science and translated the Old Testament into Arabic. His philosophic-religious system is contained fully in his Emunoth wedeoth, written in 943 a.d., in which he introduced Greek-Christian philosophy to the Orient.
Israel, History of