, KING ARTHUR AND : STAFF, SWORD AND CROSS ACCORDING TO MIDRASHIC AND NON-JEWISH SOURCES

STANLEY SCHNEIDER

INTRODUCTION The staff plays a prominent role in the as it portrays the holder of the staff as an important person – a leader. The first use of the word mateh, staff, is in the Judah and Tamar story (Genesis, chapter 38). Judah has intimate relations with Tamar who had removed her widow’s garb from upon her, covered herself with a veil…and sat by the crossroads…he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law (Gen. 38:14-15). As a promise of payment, Judah leaves with her three valuable items, as per her request: your signet, your wrap and your staff that is in your hand (Gen. 38:18). Having the staff showed that Judah was a strong and important person. As the notes: “Judah who is a king sits at the head.”1 Judah eventually received ‘kingship’: The scepter shall not depart from Judah (Gen. 49:10).2 As to strength, notes: How is the strong staff broken (Jer. 48:17). Brown, Driver and Briggs (1962) on this verse write: “staff as a badge of a leader or ruler.”3 The staff was a symbol of leadership. The second time mateh, staff, appears in the Bible is when Moses approaches the and enters into a dialogue with . The purpose of this first encounter is to convince Moses of the urgency to go down to and extricate the Children of Israel from servitude in Egypt and the rule of Pharaoh. God asks Moses: What is that in your hand? And he [Moses] said: a staff.” (Ex. 4:2). The ensuing dialogue puts Moses on the defensive because he is fearful of the task at hand. God tells Moses: And this staff you shall take in your hand, and with it you shall perform the miracles (Ex. 4:17). Moses returns to , to Jethro his father-in-law, and tells him he is returning to Egypt to see if his people are still alive. Here the text reads: And Moses took the staff of God in his hand (Ex. 4:20). Where did Moses’ staff, which is later called ‘the staff of God,’ originate?

Stanley Schneider, PhD., a graduate of Yeshiva University and its rabbinical school, was Professor and former Chairman of the Integrative Psychotherapy Program, Hebrew University, 74 STANLEY SCHNEIDER According to the , Ethics of the Fathers (5:6), the staff was one of the “Ten things that were created on the of the in the twilight hours.”4 Yisrael Lifschitz5, in his commentary on this Mishnah notes: “this was the staff of Moses that was made of Sanpiron6 and it was created with God’s name engraved upon it,7 so it was able to perform the miracles.8 In the beginning Moses wasn’t aware of its power until God said, and this staff you shall take in your hand (Ex. 4:17).” How did Moses ‘acquire’ his staff?

PIRKEI DE ELIEZER The 8th century Midrash, Pirkei de Rabbi Eliezer (chapter 40), tells an interesting story of the staff’s provenance during the ‘journey’ from its creation on the Eve of the Sabbath until it reached Moses’ hands. In brackets are added some comments by Rabbi Luria.9 “The staff that was created in the twilight hours was given to the First Man, in the Garden of Eden {God gave the staff to Adam when he was banished from the Garden of Eden and he had to work in the fields. Some say the wood for the staff came from the Tree of Life in the Garden}. Adam gave it to Chanoch. And Chanoch gave it to {Chanoch never met Noah. There is a scribal error here and it should read: Chanoch gave it to Methuselah and Methuselah gave it to Noah}. And Noah gave it to Shem. And Shem gave it to . And Abraham gave it to . And Isaac gave it to {When Jacob ran away to Padan Aram (Genesis 28:5) and received the staff from Isaac. See also: for with my staff I crossed the Jordan (Gen. 32:11)}. And Jacob took it down to Egypt and gave it to , his son {This is hinted at in the allusion to the stick of Joseph in Ezekiel (37:15- 28)}. When Joseph died, his entire household {possessions} was taken to Pharaoh’s palace. And Pharaoh was one of the magicians of Egypt {Pharaoh is erroneously placed here. For why would Pharaoh want to plant a staff in Jethro’s garden in Midian? It must be referring to Jethro as he was one of the magicians of Pharaoh} and he saw the staff and the letters upon it {he couldn’t read the letters} and his heart desired it and he took it and planted it in Jethro’s {in his} garden. And no one could approach the planted staff {no one could pull the stick out of the ground – as this was a condition of Jethro for potential suitors for his daughters}. When Moses came to Jethro’s house,

JEWISH BIBLE QUARTERLY MOSES. KING ARTHUR AND LOT 75 he went into the garden and saw the planted staff and read the letters upon it. He stretched out his hand {this is hinted at in the verse: he put forth his hand and took of the Tree of Life (Gen. 3:22)} and took the staff out of the ground. Jethro saw this and said ‘this one will be the future redeemer of Israel from Egypt. Then he gave Tzipporah his daughter as a wife…”

YALKUT SHIMONI An elaboration of the story of the staff in Jethro’s house is found in an aggadic compilation of the early 13th century, the Yalkut Shimoni.10 The story begins with Moses running away from Egypt after killing the Egyptian and his fleeing to Cush where he lives and rules as king for approximately 40 years.11 Moses eventually leaves Cush and heads for Midian. “And Moses travelled to Midian because he was afraid to return to Egypt because of Pharaoh and he came to Reuel’s12 house and Moses told him that he had run away from Egypt, was ruler of Cush and how he was asked to leave Cush. When Reuel heard this, he thought to himself that he would imprison Moses and eventually turn him over to the people of Cush . . . He imprisoned him for ten years.13 During the time of his imprisonment, Tzipporah his daughter had compassion for Moses and secretly fed him food and gave him water. After the ten years imprisonment Tzipporah asked her father about Moses – no one in the ten years asked about Moses. They go to see, with Reuel thinking that no one could survive ten years without sustenance. But Tzipporah said to her father: “Haven’t you heard how the God of the Hebrews is great and mighty and provides for all. Abraham was saved from Ur Kasdim,14 Isaac from the sword15 and Jacob from the who wrestled with him.16 And for this one17 even more was done: he was saved from the of Egypt18 and from the sword of Pharaoh.19 And from this he can also be saved.” Reuel liked what Tzipporah said so he went to where Moses was imprisoned and saw that Moses was alive and praying to the God of his Fathers. He took him out, had him shaved and changed his clothes and gave him bread to eat. Moses went to Reuel’s garden which was behind the house, and prayed to his God who did for him so many miracles. While praying Moses saw a staff of sapphire standing straight planted firmly in the garden. He went to the staff and saw that engraved upon it was the Name of the Lord God. He called out the Name and uprooted the staff as one

Vo. 49, No. 2, 2021 76 STANLEY SCHNEIDER uproots a tree in the forest, and took the staff for himself. This was the mighty staff that was created by the acts of God after the creation of the heavens and earth and all the heavenly hosts, the seas and rivers and all the fish. When Adam was banished from the Garden of Eden, he took the staff in his hand and went to work the soil from which he was taken.20 The staff reached Noah, was left for Shem and his progeny until it reached Abraham the Hebrew. Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac including the staff that was engraved with the letters. And when Jacob ran away from Padan Aram he took the staff …and when he went to Egypt he took it and then gave it to Joseph, “one portion more than your brothers.”21 Jacob had succeeded, along the way, to keep the staff away from Esau, the father of Edom. And it came to pass after the death of Joseph that the Ministers of Egypt came to Joseph’s house and the staff reached the hands of Reuel the Midianite,22 and when he left Egypt he took the staff and planted it in his garden. Many suitors tried to pull the staff out of the ground so that they would be able to marry Reuel’s daughter, Tzipporah. But they couldn’t and the staff stayed in the garden until someone could pull it out. So when Reuel saw the staff in Moses’ hand he was amazed and he gave his daughter Tzipporah to Moses…” Both midrashic stories, Pirkei de Rabbi Eliezer and Yalkut Shimoni, write of the transmission of the staff until it reached Moses’ hands and of the amazing story of pulling the staff out of the ground. This very strong staff was engraved with God’s ineffable name and/or with the acronym of the ten plagues, dezach adash b’achav. The one who could uproot the staff became the winner – a suitor or the leader of the Jewish people. This story was told over a time span of several centuries, from the 8th to the 13th.

KING ARTHUR AND THE ARTHURIAN LEGENDS Another interesting story that parallels some of the ideas in the two midrashic stories is found in the Arthurian legends which are based on the fictional life of King Arthur of Britain, developed from stories in Celtic mythology.23 The legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, the Arthurian legend, became popular through the work of Sir Thomas Malory (1415-1471), in his classic Le Mort d’Arthur (The Death of Arthur). This was a re-working of earlier folkloric themes relating to a legendary King Arthur,

JEWISH BIBLE QUARTERLY MOSES. KING ARTHUR AND LOT 77 his wife Guinevere, his loyal knight Lancelot, the wizard Merlin, the castle and court of Camelot, and the famous sword Excalibur, the ‘sword in the stone’. The first mention of the ‘sword in the stone’ appears in the poem ‘Merlin’ by the French poet Robert de Boron (late 12th century).24 Excalibur25 was a legendary sword that had magical powers. In the Arthurian legend, Arthur 26 became the British king when he pulled the sword from inside an anvil that sat atop a huge stone. Merlin, the wizard, proclaimed that this act of strength could only be performed by the divinely appointed king and heir to the throne. In many versions of this story, Excalibur’s blade was engraved ‘in the oldest tongue of this world’ with phrases on opposite sides: ‘take me’ and ‘cast me away.’ 27 Interestingly, a Hebrew version28 of several stories of the Arthurian legend, Melech Artus, is found in one Vatican manuscript (late 12th-early 13th century). The text was edited by Berliner in 1985 and appears in translation by Gaster.29 Caroline Gruenbaum describes the Hebrew translation as putting “Hebrew in the mouths of knights.”30 In this story of King Arthur and Excalibur, an important person, the future king, was the winner who became king because he was able to pull the sword out of the stone. This act afforded legitimacy to the true heir to the throne/leadership. Also, the sword, similar to the staff of Moses, was strong and engraved with words that ‘spoke’ directly to the one who pulled/uprooted the staff/sword from its fixed place.

CHRISTIAN LEGENDS In the classic Christian tradition, the staff is in the hands of a disciple or apostle. In The According to Mark31, we find the following as summons his twelve disciples32 and “…instructed them that they should take nothing for their journey except a mere staff…”33 In the tradition of the , also known as the Syrian Nestorian Church, we have The Book of the Bee, a theological/historical compilation of several Biblical legends.34 It was written by a of the Church35 of the East, around the year 1222, and is written in Syriac, an language that emerged around the first century CE. The Book of the Bee gives us the Church of the East’s version of the transmission of the staff, called: “The History of Moses’ Rod.”36

Vo. 49, No. 2, 2021 78 STANLEY SCHNEIDER “When Adam and Eve went forth from , Adam, as if knowing that he was never to return to his place, cut off a branch from the tree of good and evil, which is the fig-tree, and took it with him and went forth; and it served him as a staff all the days of his life. After the death of Adam, his son Seth took it, for there were no weapons as yet at that time. This rod was passed on from hand to hand unto Noah, and from Noah to Shem; and it was handed down from Shem to Abraham as a blessed thing from the Paradise of God. With this rod Abraham broke the images and graven idols which his father made…Afterwards Isaac took it, and (it was handed down) from Isaac to Jacob…After Jacob, Judah his fourth son took it; and this is the rod which Judah gave to Tamar his daughter-in-law, with his signet ring and his napkin, as the hire for what he had done. From him (it came) to Pharez37…and an angel took the rod, and laid it in the Cave of Treasures38 in the mount of Moab, until Midian was built. There was in Midian a man, upright and righteous before God, whose name was Yathrô (Jethro). When he was feeding his flock on the mountain, he found the cave and took the rod by divine agency…When he gave his daughter to Moses, he said to him, 'Go in, my son, take the rod, and go forth to thy flock.' When Moses had set his foot upon the threshold of the door, an angel moved the rod, and it came out of its own free will towards Moses. And Moses took the rod, and it was with him until God spoke with him on … the son of Nun and the son of Yôphannâ (Jephunneh), they went into the promised land, and took the rod with them… And Phineas hid the rod in the desert, in the dust at the gate of Jerusalem, where it remained until…Christ was born. And He, by the will of His divinity, showed the rod to Joseph the husband of Mary, and it was in his hand when he fled to Egypt with our Lord and Mary, until he returned to Nazareth…Jacob Judas Iscariot, who was a thief, stole it. When {they} crucified {Jesus}, they lacked wood for the arms…; and Judas in his wickedness gave them the rod, which became a judgment and a fall unto them, but an uprising unto many…” In this Syrian Church story, the staff is given by ‘divine agency.’ And the staff eventually reaches the scene of the crucifixion of Jesus where the wood is used for part of the cross. Another fascinating story involving a staff relates to the three who came to visit a recovering Abraham three days after his circumcision.39

JEWISH BIBLE QUARTERLY MOSES. KING ARTHUR AND LOT 79 Christian tradition traces this story to the of the Cross in Jerusalem, which was founded in the 5th century CE and re-built in the 11th century by Georgian monks and eventually taken over by the Greek Orthodox. In this monastery there are beautiful medieval frescoes on the walls and pillars, and these frescoes tell the story. When the three Angels left Abraham, they gave him their three staffs: cedar, cypress and pine. After the destruction of Sodom, Lot returns to Abraham and tells him of his intimate encounters with his two daughters. Abraham gives him the three staffs and tells Lot to plant them and water them from the and he will receive absolution from God for having had intimate relations with his daughters. The watered staffs grow into one tree. Centuries later, the tree is cut down and the wood is used for the cross on which Jesus was crucified.40 East Orthodox Church tradition adds another twist to this story: the tree was cut down and the wood was used in ’s Temple in Jerusalem. When Herod enlarged the area and the Temple, the wood was returned and was later used for the cross on which Jesus was crucified.41

ISLAMIC LEGEND In the Islamic tradition, there is another twist to the Lot story. “After the angelic visitors had left, found that one of the angels had left his staff behind…Abraham gave this staff to Lot. Lot had asked Abraham what he could do to repent for all his transgressions. Abraham gave him the staff and told him to plant it in the ground and water it from the River Jordan. ‘When it blossoms,’ he said, ’that will be a sign that God has forgiven you.’ Abraham warned him, however, that if he should meet anyone who asks to quench his thirst to give the water freely, and then return to the river for fresh water for the staff he had planted. Lot followed Abraham’s instructions, and filled a water skin from the River Jordan. But the , not wanting to see Lot forgiven, found a way to hinder him. He disguised himself as a traveler and when he saw Lot with the water skin he begged for a drink. Lot offered it to him and the traveler emptied the skin, and Lot went back for more water. Each time the Devil stopped him and begged for water. Soon Lot was weary of going back and forth to the river, and then God took pity on him and blinded the Devil to keep him from finding Lot. At last Lot was able to water

Vo. 49, No. 2, 2021 80 STANLEY SCHNEIDER the staff, and as soon as he did it burst into blossom. Then Lot knew that God had forgiven him.”42

CONCLUSION Jewish, Christian and Islamic sources have parallel themes that manifest in a similar story relating to ownership of a staff. This story was told over a span of several centuries, from the 8th through the 13th. Another similar source appears in the Arthurian Legends that first appeared in the Welsh traditions in the early 8th to late 12th centuries. There are several central themes relating to ownership of a staff. This type of staff is not the standard shepherd’s staff which is a staff that “a person leans on {for support}.” 43 Rather it is a given to one who is chosen and gifted. In the sources that we have chosen, we note several important characteristics that pair the staff with the chosen person. 1. The staff in the garden: Moses, as the chosen one, is able to perform a feat that no others had succeeded in doing – he pulled out the staff that was embedded in the ground by Jethro/Reuel. The prize he won was , Jethro/Reuel’s daughter. This extraordinary feat meant, for Jethro/Reuel, that Moses was gifted and was worthy to receive his daughter and was destined for great things. 2. The sword in the stone: The parallel to the staff in the garden story is the Arthurian Legend of the sword in the stone. The one who can pull the sword out of the stone is destined to become king, to wit, King Arthur. In another version of this story, Lancelot, the trusted Knight of the Round Table, also pulls swords out of rocks and eventually has an adulterous affair with Guinevere, the wife of King Arthur. An alternative route to winning the prize by pulling a sword out of stone. 3. Letters engraved on the staff/sword: The ineffable name of God was engraved on the staff planted in the ground by Jethro/Reuel, or the letters dezach, adash, b’achav, the acronym of the ten plagues. In the Arthurian Legend, words were engraved on the sword written in ‘the oldest tongue of the world.’ The holiness of the staff and sword with its engravings attests to its importance. Therefore, the holder of the staff or sword is worthy.

JEWISH BIBLE QUARTERLY MOSES. KING ARTHUR AND LOT 81 4. The staff is held by disciples: In the , the staff is mentioned as the most important possession of the disciple or apostle. According to the tradition of the Syrian Nestorian Church 44 the rod45 was a branch of the tree of good and evil in the Garden of Eden that eventually found its way to Moses and eventually to Joseph, Mary and Jesus. Eventually the rod was used as part of the wood needed for the crucifixion. In the chain of transmission, important people are listed that owned this very rod that had its source in the Garden of Eden. 5. The staff as a source of absolution: In the Islamic story of Lot is the suggestion by Abraham that the atonement for Lot’s sins for sleeping with his daughters can be rectified by taking the staffs of the three Angels who visited Abraham and planting and watering them. Eventually this ‘tree’ was used for building Solomon’s Temple and later for the cross upon which Jesus was crucified. The staff(s) were used for holy purposes in the quest for absolution from sins. The important personages were custodians of the staff until it was transmitted to the next important person in the ancestral line. The staff stories have many similarities that relate to the authority and power vested in the person owning/controlling/utilizing the staff.46 For the religious, this is God- ordained. And for the nationalistic/historical figure, it relates to power and control. Are these not qualities of leadership? Leadership has three main components: authority, power and hierarchy. “Authority is the right to assert control, and power is the possession of such control over others. Hierarchy, on the other hand, is the ranking of persons (or things), one above the other” (Schneider and Bina, 2002, p.258).47 The staff transmits its power to the rightful owner/heir. And he joins the ranks of the culture/people who accept his rightful position. Such were Moses, King Arthur and Lot, each in his own culture and position, as seen in the sources we have discussed.

NOTES 1. Midrash 92:5. 2. Onkelos translates this verse as: “kingship shall not depart from the House of Judah.” See also: Midrash Genesis Rabbah 99:8: The scepter shall not depart from Judah (Genesis 49:10), this is the throne of kingship, “the seat of God is forever, a scepter of equity is the scepter of thy kingdom” ( 45:7).” See S.Mandelkern, Concordantiae (Tel Aviv: Schocken,1967), viz. mateh, p.741: “sceptrum, imperium.”

Vo. 49, No. 2, 2021 82 STANLEY SCHNEIDER 3. F. Brown, S.R. Driver & C.A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1962), viz. mateh, p.641. Also see S.Mandelkern, Concordantiae (Tel Aviv: Schocken,1967), viz. mateh, p.741: “sceptrum, imperium” {sceptor, rulership}. 4. The staff is not included as part of the ‘Ten things’ in TB Pesachim 54a. A later Midrash, Pirkei de Rabbi Eliezer, chapter 19, lists the same ten as the Mishnah in Ethics of the Fathers. 5. Rabbi Yisrael Lifschitz (1782-1860) was a German Rabbi who authored the commentary Tiferet Yisrael on the entire Mishnah. 6. Also known as: sanperinon or sampirinon. According to the Aruch of Nathan ben Yechiel of Rome (1035-1106) it is related to the Greek zafeiri (sapphire). According to on Exodus 17:6: “your staff with which you struck the rock,” sanperinon was very strong.” According to the Zohar 2:115a, it was from the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden, hence its strength. 7. Midrash Tanhumah (Buber edition), Va’erah, 8, “the staff… was made of saperinon. The acronym of the 10 plagues was carved on the staff, dezach adash b’achav.” Yonatan ben Uziel on the verse in Exodus 2:21 notes that the ineffable name of God was engraved upon the staff. See also: Pirkei de Rabbi Eliezer, chapter 42; Zohar 2:28a. In the splitting of the Reed Sea, The Zohar 2:48a notes: “…raise your staff” (Exodus 14:16) on which is engraved the Holy Name. Outstretch your hand to one side, and when the waters see the Holy Name, they will flee from it.” 8. Yalkut Shimoni on Psalms 110:2 (869) identifies ‘the staff of God’ as the staff that was in the hand of Moses…and the staff in the hand of …. We find in , 18:23: and the staff of Aaron (Numbers 17:21)…some say it is the staff that was in the hand of Moses and it blossomed by itself, as it says: “the staff of Aaron had blossomed” (Numbers 17:23)…and this staff was in the hand of every King {of the dynasty of the House of David} until the Temple was destroyed and the staff {of Aaron} was hidden {with its’ blossoms by King Josiah, TB Yoma 52b}, and this staff is destined to be in the hands of the …” 9. Rabbi David Luria (1798-1855) had a phenomenal memory and was able to compare many biblical, Talmudic and midrashic texts in his commentary on Pirkei de Rabbi Eliezer. 10. Exodus 2, section 168. See also Louis Ginzberg, The Legends of the (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America, 1968), 2:291-295, 5:411-412, fns. 88,95,96. George Sale in his notes on the Koran (Philadelphia: Thomas Wardle), 1833, writes: “The Mohammedans say, after the Jews, that Moses received from Shoaib {Shu’ayb, identified with Jethro} the rod of the prophets (which was a branch of a myrtle of paradise, and had descended to him from Adam)…and that this was the rod with which he performed all those wonders in Egypt” (p.183, note a). 11. See Stanley Schneider, “Moses in Cush: Development of the Legend.” JBQ, 47:2, 2019,113- 119. 12. According to RaSHI (Exodus 18:1) and the Halachic Midrash on Exodus, Mehiltah (Be’ha’alothah, 78), Reuel was one of the seven names that Jethro had. Or, Reuel was the grandfather of Tzipporah. See also: W.F.Albright, “Jethro, Hobab and Reuel in Early Hebrew Tradition,” The Catholic Biblical Quarterly, 25:1 (1963), 1-11. 13. Philo, the Hellenistic Jewish philosopher (20 BCE-50 CE), saw Jethro as a deeply committed idol worshipper. See: Louis H. Feldman, Philo’s Portrayal of Moses in the Context of Ancient Judaism (Notre Dame Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 2007), pp. 71-72, 394, fn. 82. Josephus, the first century Romano-Jewish historian (37-100 CE), saw an important side to

JEWISH BIBLE QUARTERLY MOSES. KING ARTHUR AND LOT 83 Jethro. As Feldman writes: “the non-Jew Jethro expresses admiration for Moses’ gallantry in helping his daughters…and even adopts Moses as his son.” In: Louis H. Feldman, Josephus’s Interpretation of the Bible (Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 1998), p.133. 14. According to Midrash Rabbah Genesis 38:13, Abraham was thrown into the furnace by , and was saved. See also: Yishai Kiel, “Why the Midrash has Abraham Thrown into Nimrod’s Furnace.”” Accessed at: https://www.thetorah.com/article/why-the-midrash-has- abraham-thrown-into-nimrods-furnace 15. Isaac was saved from the sword at his binding by Abraham on the altar, the Akeidah, when Abraham was following God’s command to offer up his son Isaac as a sacrifice to test his faith (Genesis 22). 16. Genesis 32:25. 17. Moses. 18. Moses was saved by Pharaoh’s daughter, Exodus 2:5,10. 19. Exodus 18:4. 20. Genesis 3:23. 21. Genesis 48:22. 22. According to TB Sanhedrin 106a, Jethro was, together with Bilam and , a consultant to Pharaoh. See also 1:12. 23. According to romance stories (Celtic/Breton, Welsh) which were told in cultural and family groups. 24. Merlin was a poem written in Old French (a linkage of Romance dialects from the 8th-12th century in Northern France). It ends with the ‘sword in the stone’ story. Only parts of this poem have been re-covered. Sir Thomas Malory collected many of the folklore themes of the Arthurian legend. See: T.H. White, The Sword in the Stone (New York: HarperCollins Children’s Books, 2008). 25. Excalibur from the old French Escalibor, probably has a Welsh or Irish etymology and means something hard or voracious. Or from the Greek chalyvas, meaning steel. A very strong blade. 26. King Uther was the father of (later to be king) Arthur. In old Welsh tales the lineage of Arthur is told with the mischievous wizard Merlin playing a major role in ‘creating’ illegitimate heirs to the throne. A distant relative, King Lot of Orkney (northern isles of Scotland), appears in these legends as an enraged father whose daughter was raped. These are only a few of the numerous infidelities and illegitimacies that abound in the pre-Arthurian legends. After the ascent of King Arthur, legitimacy and chivalry prevail. 27. “the sword…rich with jewels, elfin Urim on the hilt…the blade so bright that men are blinded by it. On one side, graven in the oldest tongue of this world, ‘take me’, but turn the blade and ye shall see, ‘cast me away’.” See: The Project Gutenberg eBook of Idylls of the King, ‘The Coming of Arthur’, by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892). Retrieved at: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/610/610-h/610-h.htm#link2H_4_0002 28. ‘the oldest tongue of this world.’ 29. Moses Gaster, “The History of the Destruction of the Round Table as Told in Hebrew in the year 1279,” Folk Lore vol. 20 (1909), 272-94. 30. Caroline Gruenbaum, “King Arthur’s Jewish Knights: The Many Faces of Medieval Hebrew Literature,” Pardes: Zeitschrift der Vereinigung für Jϋdische Studien, Heft 25 (2019), p.142.

Vo. 49, No. 2, 2021 84 STANLEY SCHNEIDER 31. The Gospel According to Mark was presumably written during the decade preceding the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE. It is the earliest of the four . Gospel is derived from the Anglo-Saxon (a mixture of Celtic and Germanic) term god-spell, meaning: a good story. This was corrupted into the Latin evangelium and the Greek euangelion, meaning: good news or good tale. 32. Whom he named apostles (Mark 3:14-19). Apostle is an emissary to spread teachings of his teacher to others. From the Greek: apόstolos, meaning: one who is sent off. 33. Mark 6:7. 34. Creation, heaven and earth, the angels, darkness, paradise, Old and New Testament personages and historic events etc. It was called The Book of the Bee: “… because we have gathered of the blossoms of the two Testaments and of the flowers of the holy Books…As the common bee with gauzy wings flies about, and flutters over and lights upon flowers of various colours, and upon blossoms of divers odours, selecting and gathering from all of them the materials which are useful for the construction of her handiwork.” In: Ernest A. Wallis Budge (Editor/Translator), The Book of the Bee (1886), p.8. Accessed at: https://www.globalgreyebooks.com/book-of-the-bee-ebook.html 35. Bishop Solomon of Akhlat who served as Bishop of Basrah, an Iraqi port city. 36. Chapter 30. 37. Peretz. 38. Ernest A. Wallis Budge (Translator), The (London: The Religious Tract Society), 1927. This is a late 6th-early 7th century Syrian work that describes tales in the Bible. 39. Genesis 18:2; TB Sotah 14a. 40.See:https://web.archive.org/web/20150923203245/http://www.christusrex.org/www1/ofm/ma d/articles/SallerLot.html#Sallb34 41. See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QVWmwyfJKg 42. Iner Bushnaq (Translator and Editor), “Lot and the Devil,” Arabtales. (New York: Pantheon), 1986, p.292. See also: Howard Schwartz, “Abraham’s Tent: Shared Traditions of the Desert in Jewish and Islamic Lore.” Storytelling, Self, Society, 5:1, pp. 23-34. 43. R. David Kimchi (RaDaK). Sefer HaShorashim (Berlin: G.Bethge,1847), viz. nateh, p.433. 44. The language of the Syrian Nestorian Churches is Syriac, an Eastern Aramaic dialect. Their Standard Syriac Bible is called the Peshitta. 45. In the (KJV), rod is the term used for the Hebrew mateh. In the older versions of the Septuagint (LXX), it is a staff. Newer versions of the Septuagint have a rod. 46. “This staff was with Judah …and in the hand of Moses…and in the hand of Aaron, and in the hand of David…and in the hand of each and every King. And in the future it will be in the hand of the King the Messiah.” In: Reuven Hoshke HaCohen Sofer, Yalkut Reuveni, p.56a. 47. Stanley Schneider and Rena Bina (2002). “The Hierarchical Authority Pyramid in a Therapeutic Milieu.” In: J.H.Berke, M.Fagan, G.Mak-Pearce & S.Pierides-Mϋller (eds.), Beyond Madness: PsychoSocial Interventions in Psychosis. London: Jessica Kingsley.

JEWISH BIBLE QUARTERLY