The Ancient Book of Jasher in a Translation Based on the Original Hebrew with the Original Introductory Notes to the English Edition
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THE ANCIENT BOOK OF JASHER IN A TRANSLATION BASED ON THE ORIGINAL HEBREW WITH THE ORIGINAL INTRODUCTORY NOTES TO THE ENGLISH EDITION. THE ANCIENT BOOK OF JASHER referred to in JOSHUA AND SECOND SAMUEL t FAITHFULLY TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL HEBREW INTO ENGLISH ------- NEW YORK: PUBLISHED BY M. N. NOAH & A. S. GOULD, AT 144 NASSAU-STREET First edition 1840. 1 . O P The text of the BOOK OF JASHER starts at page 19 . Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year eighteen hundred and forty, by Mordecai M. Noah & Alexander S. Gould, in the office of the Clerk of the Southern District of New-York . ALEX S. GOULD, TYPOGRAPHER, 144 NASSAU-STREET STEREOTYPED BY R. C. VALENTINE, 45 GOLD-STREET O P 2 . P R E L I M E N A R Y R E M A R K S ADDED TO THE INTERNET EDITION OF 2011 g IN the Internet publication, lying in front of you, which is based on the first edition, most notes related to the translation work have been skipped. Those mentioned are placed between brackets within the text itself. In order to distinguish the Internet edition from the Pseudo-Jasher, it carries the title of The Ancient Book of Jasher. Otherwise, the transcript has been carried out faithfully except for a number of minor amendments. In issuing the second edition of the book, still bearing the year 1840, the publishers deemed it just and proper to subjoin a portion of the remarks from various sources that have been offered in relation to the merits of the work. Otherwise, the second edition was identical to the first. John P. Pratt wrote an article "How Did the Book of Jasher Know?", that appeared in the Meridian Magazine of January 7, 2002, a Mormon issue. It says: " There are at least three books published in modern times which have been called Book of Jasher, which are entirely different books. One is a Hebrew treatise on ethics, for which no one makes the claim of being a lost book of Scripture. Another is an easily detected fraud, published in 1751, which claims to have been translated into English by Flaccus Albinus Alcuinus. This edition is still in print, so if you obtain a copy of the Book of Jasher, make sure it is not that one. It is sometimes called Pseudo-Jasher. […] As early as 1629 the Puritans demanded that it be removed from the King James version, and in 1827 Protestant Bible societies took a definite stand against it. […] Ours – the one in front of you — is a legitimate Hebrew document [hardly known beyond Jewish circles in 1827] and is the subject of this article — in the Meridian. […] It was first translated into English by a Jewish scholar named Mr. Samuel of Liverpool, England. Mr. Samuel was in the process of translation when the above mentioned fraudulent work was republished in England in 1829. Before he saw it, he published a letter stating that he was also translating the same book, unaware that it was a complete hoax. By 1833 booklets were published to expose the fraudulent claims of the Pseudo-Jasher, making England a difficult locale for him to publish the legitimate version. […] Because of the hostile British climate, Samuel sold his translation to M. M. Noah & A. S. Gould, a New York publisher, and it was published there in 1840, away from the scandal." In Bibliographical Notes on the Book of Jasher by Thomas Hartwell Horne of St John's College in Cambridge, that was published in 1833, the Pseudo-Jasher is called " a literary forgery, contained in the volume or rather pamphlet [very cheap paper ], and prin- ted in the year 1751." This explains why copies of that edition are virtually non-existant. It was republished in 1829, and this is the edition normally found in libraries. The translation by Mr. Samuel was based on a printed version of 1625 in Venice and a much later one from Lemberg. The printer’s preface shows that it was a painful transcript, or copy of that transcript, based on a very old and almost illegible Hebrew record. The work for printing the Hebrew version started in 1613 by order of the Great Consistory of Rabbins at Venice. Important is that it was undertaken with their consent and under their aegis, for they alone had the authority to publish such works from the Hebrew records "as they deemed authentic." This alone testifies to the veracity of the document, but there are more arguments that speak in its favor, to be discovered when reading the text itself after having familiarised oneself with the introductory notes of the English edition by Noah & Gould. After this version was introduced to the world, the story was invented, just as with the Zohar, that the book was most likely written in Spain in about the twelfth century of our age, obviously to put the general public on the wrong track, because there is no trace of the claim in the 1625 Hebrew edition. It so happens that no finds are accepted of the Jewish literature predating the Mishna [first Talmudic writing of c. 220 AD ], by fear of contradictions. There are ancient works still to be found, but something that in the mind does not exist, is more difficult to find, and if found, is more easily dismissed. n 3 . I N D E X g Certificates pp. 4 - 5 Preface pp. 6 - 8 Translator’s Preface pp. 9 - 12 Translation of Preface to Hebrew Edition pp. 13 - 16 The Printer’s Preface to the Hebrew Edition of 1625 pp. 17 - 18 The Ancient Book of Jasher (ch. 1 to 91) pp. 19 - 187 A Final Note on Second Samuel p. 188 Analytical Index pp. 189 - 201 ------- 4 . CERTIFICATES. University of New York, April, 10, 1840. I have compared a large portion of the translation of the Book of Jasher with the ori- ginal Hebrew, and find it faithgfully and eloquently rendered into English. The Hebrew itself is of a very pure character. ISAAC NORDIEMER Professor of Oriental Literature ------- To Messrs. Noah and Gould, GENTLEMEN, I am acquainted with the Book of Jasher, having read a considerable part of it while in the hands of the translator in England. The Hebrew is very purely written, and the trans- lator is an eminent scholar and has done it ample justice. It is full of interest throughout, and breathes a pure spirit of piety and religion, and I am satisfied that this is the first Eng- lish translation ever made of that work, the Royal Asiatic Society at Calcutta never having completed the translation of their copy as anticipated. April 14, 1840. H. V. NATHAN ------- The followng letter is from Professor Turner, an able Hebrew scholar. Theological Seminary, Chelsea Square, N. Y., April 28 1840. GENTLEMEN, Agreeably to a request made to me yesterday by Mr. Noah, I have sufficiently exami- ned the English version of the Rabbinical work, which heads the title of "the Book of Jasher", to satisfy myself of its general correctness. I have carefully compared three chap- ters of the translation with the original, and have no hesitation in saying that in general they give a correct representation of the author’s meaning, and as literal as the different idioms of the two languages would allow. In some instances however, it would have been desirable that every word of the Hebrew should have been rendered into English. For instance, in ch. i, v. 2, the translator has omitted the word dust, in mentioning man’s for- mation "from the ground", and in v. 4, the literal version after middle part would be “and he took away one of his ribs and built flesh upon it, and made a woman and brought her to the man.” In v. 6 also, the Rabbinical writer does not say “called their names Adam and Eve, "but in the very words of the Hebrew bible, v. 2, “called their name Adam." In ch. xx, v. 4, the version reads thus ; “and the servants of Abimelech went to Abimelech, saying”, in the original it is "and the servants of Abimelech came and praised Sarah to the kin, saying, &c." In v. 19, the name of Pharaoh is omitted, and occasionally the word "subjects", is substituted for "servants". It is possible that the translator made use of a copy of some other edition which may have varied in a few words from that examined by me. The points referred to, are, on the whole, unimportant, and do not detract from the general accuracy of the translation. I am respectfully, Your obt. Serv't SAMUEL H. TURNER To Messrs. Noah & Gould 5 . The following is from Professor Bush of New York. New York, April 30, 1840. GENTLEMEN, I have examined portions of several chapters of the "Book of Jasher" in the original, cartefully comparing with it the translation put into my hands by the publishers. The work itself is evidently composed in the purest Rabbinical Hebrew, with a large intermixture of the Biblical idiom, and I consider the translation as a whole, not only as decidedly faith- ful, but as peculiarly happy in retaining the air of antique simplicity which distinguishes the original, and which constitutes the matchless excellence of our English version of the Hebrew Scriptures. In a few instances I have noticed slight verbal variations from the ori- ginal, similar to those adverted to by Prof. Turner, as in one case "choice of our sepul- chres" for "choice of our land" ; but they are of too little moment to detract from the cha- racter of general fidelity which I do not hesitate to assign to the translation.