because of their sins, and Messiah had not yet come." Those who attempted to make any computation with respect to his coming were loaded with horrible imprecations. Some conscientious persons, however, undeterred by these curses, candidly confessed that "he was indeed born, but was not yet revealed, because of their sins and impenitence." This is the common belief of the greater number at this day. To this R. Schelomo Jarchi refers when he says, "Our forefathers thought that Messiah was born on the day when Jerusalem was last destroyed." Where he is concealed is a mystery; but some think that he lies in Paradise bound by a woman's hair, and distort the words of Solomon in the Canticles to this effect. This Rabbinical exposition is given by Jarchi. In the Talmud (Sanhed. c. ii. p. 98) he is said "to sit at the gates of Rome among the sick and lepers," from the passage in Isa. liii. 3. Ten portents or signs will precede his advent, to warn and arouse: they are enumerated in a book called "Aromatic Dust." In the Koran there are given eight lesser signs and seventeen greater signs. The first is Three apostate kings shall arise, who in the sight of men will maintain the true worship of GOD. They will seduce many from the faith, so that many in Israel will despair of redemption, will deny GOD and renounce His fear, as it is said, Isa. lix. 15. Those who love the truth will fly in crowds and hide in caves and dens; but in vain, for the tyrants will pursue and slay them, according to Hosea iii. 4. The heavens will be shut up, and there will be no food. These apostates, who will reign nine months, will continually increase the taxes upon their wretched subjects; and the man who cannot pay in money must acquit his debt in body. From the ends of the earth will come black, hideous, deformed beings, whose very sight will strike the beholder dead; for they have each two heads, seven fiery eyes, and can equal a deer in swiftness. This allowance of two heads and flaming eyes, we shall find, is liberally given to Antichrist also. The second sign: There will be a fearful drought and heat from the sun, which will produce plague, fever, pestilence, and the deaths of myriads of Gentiles and wicked Israelites; so that the very heathen will be alarmed, invoke death, and hide for thirst and agony in holes of the earth.2 The third sign: There will be a dew of blood for three days, which will appear most delicious in the eyes of the Christians and heathens, and they will drink of it and die; so will the impious Jews who despair of redemption, but the righteous Jew will be preserved.3 The Moslem believes in a great previous reign. (Sale, Prel. Disc. pp. 93, 98.) The fourth sign: The lukewarm Jews who have fallen sick by drinking the former dew will be cured by a soft rain.4 1 Song of Solom. vii. 5. 2 Mal. iv. 1; Numb. xxiv. 23. 4 Hos. vi. 3. The fifth sign: The sun will be turned into darkness for thirty days; but after thirty more days will resume its light.2 The Christians will be so terrified, that they will become converts.3 This will not avail them, probably, for they are certainly starved or put to death, according to the tenth sign and sixth consolation, as we shall see hereafter. The tenth Moslem greater sign is an eclipse of the moon. The sixth sign: The empire of the world will be given to Edom (Rome,) and one will rule for nine months at Rome over the whole earth. He will destroy great countries, tax the Jews heavily, and torment them. The Jews will be utterly helpless, and decrease in numbers. At the end of the nine months, Messiah, of the tribe of Joseph, called Nehemiah, the son of Husiel, will arrive, with the tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, Benjamin, and part of Gad. All the Jews from every quarter will flock to him.5 Messiah will then attack the King of Edom, (i.e. the Emperor of Rome or the Pope,) and after a severe contest put him to death, and an end to his empire. He will restore to Jerusalem the sacred vessels kept in the palace of the Emperor Elian (sic.) The King of Egypt will make peace with him, and put to death all the people who live near Jerusalem, Damascus, and Askalon, and horror will fall on the whole work. According to Moslem belief, Constantinople will be the object of attack. (Sale. Pr. Dis. c. sect. iv. 94.) The seventh sign is: An exquisite marble statue of a lovely woman at Rome, carved by superhuman art, will be clasped by the greatest rascals (sceleratissimi nebulones) of every nation. The marble will be rent in sunder, and disclose an infant, the impious Armillus, whom the heathen and Christians call Antichrist. This exceeds the achievement of Pygmalion "He raised warm kisses on th' unconscious face, "Sculpture," by Sir E. L. Bulwer. He will be twelve cubits in height and breadth, with eyes of a deep red and a span wide apart, with hair of gold and green boots, and two heads. The Moslem speaks of a beast sixty cubits high, and of an Antichrist, a Cyclops branded with the word infidel, among the signs. He will approach the impious King of Rome (N.B., he was dead under the last sign,) and proclaim himself Messiah and King. The Romans will immediately believe in him, and acknowledge his royalty; all the Idumæans will regard and adhere to him. He will then desire the Idumæans (i. e. Christians) to pro 1 Joel ii. 31. 4 Isa. lix. 16. 2 Isa. xxiv. 22. 5 Jer. iii. 14. 3 Jonah ii. 8. duce the law which he gave them: on their bringing their Prayer Book he will declare it to be his own law, and bid them believe in him. His next act will be to desire Nehemiah the son of Husiel, and all Israel, to bring the law of the Jews, and prove his divinity from it. Israel will be plunged into the greatest apprehension and wonderment; but Nehemiah, at the head of thirty thousand firstrate soldiers of the tribe of Ephraim, will confront him with the book of the law, and read out in his presence these words, "I am the LORD thy God; thou shalt have no other gods but Me." Armillus will aver that the passage does not exist, and the bystanders will draw nigh and acknowledge his divinity, as the rest of the nations have done. Nehemiah will at once desire his followers to seize and bind the impostor, and with his troops march to battle and slay two hundred thousand of the enemy. Armillus, furious with rage, will assemble all his adherents into a deep valley, renew the battle, and destroy a great number of the Jews. Messiah son of Joseph will fall, and holy angels will bear him off and preserve him among the patriarchs: happily Armillus will not be aware of the fact, or he would make an end of the Israelites. Every nation will be set against them and expel them, and they will be in the direst straits; but then S. Michael will separate the wicked from Israel. The rest will be proved in the desert to which they have fled,2 and be purified, after a course of diet consisting of herbs, leaves, and grass during forty-five days.3 The chronology is ingeniously reckoned thus: the prophet mentions 1290 days, and the rabbins add these 45 days of fare resembling that of Nebuchadnezzar to complete the 1335 days. The impious Armillus will attack Egypt, and endeavour to destroy Jerusalem,5 pitch his tent on the holy mountain, and reach the summit of greatness. The eighth sign: S. Michael will rise, and thrice sound the trump.7 At the first blast the true Messiah son of David will manifest himself to the pious Jews in the deserts of Judah; they, the captives of Assyria, and others will join Messiah and Elias, and enter Jerusalem with joy, while the Christians and heathen will be stupified with terror, and struck down with horrible and deadly diseases. The impious Armillus will at once enrol the Christians, and head enormous armies to recover Jerusalem. But GOD will say to Messiah, "Sit at My right hand ;" and to Israel, "Be still, and behold the present strong help which the LORD will show you to-day." Then He will rain fire and brimstone from heaven.8 1 Dan. xii. 1. 3 Hos. ii. 14; Dan. xii. 11. 5 Dan. xi. 45. 2 Ezek. xx. 3, 4, 5; Dan. xii. 10. 6 Al Beidâw supposes that there will be two blasts, the number distinctly mentioned in the Koran (ch. xxxix. and 1.,) although others suppose there will be three. See Sale's Prel. Disc. s. iv. 97, 8. 7 Isa. xxvii. 13; Zech. ix. 14. 8 Ezek. xxxviii. 22. The impious Armillus and the Idumæans, (i.e. Christians,) "who destroyed the house of our GoD and led us into captivity,"-we had always thought that Titus had been a heathen,-will miserably perish under the vengeance of the Jews. According to the Book of Enoch, (ch. xlvi., xlviii., lxi.,) a Jewish composition B.C. 30, edited by Archbishop Laurence, the Messiah will overthrow all the kings of the earth; but the whole account is an evident imitation of the vision of Daniel. The ninth sign: At the second blast of the trump all the graves of the Hebrews will be rent asunder, and give back the dead alive. Messiah son of David and the prophet Elias will raise the Messiah son of Joseph, who was kept under the gate. All the kings of the earth in whose countries Jews were dispersed will bring them to Jerusalem on their shoulders and in coaches,-a sort of triumph of Sesostris ! The tenth sign: At the third blast the captives by the river Gozan, Lachlach, and Haber, the Jews of the cities of Judah, with the sons of Moses, will enter Paradise. Behind and before them the earth will be afire, and leave Christians and heathen destitute of any place or means to sustain life. This is a curious specimen of old grudges existing between the rival kingdoms. The Moslems promise themselves a prodigious slaughter of Jews. At the head of the ten tribes (where are the other two?) of Israel will go the cloud of the glorious majesty, and surround them,2 while a fountain flowing from the tree of life will give them drink.3 There are ten consolations corresponding to the troubles. The second: That all the Jews dispersed throughout the world will be gathered together,5 and the dumb and halt will be cured ;6 but it is clear that the man who died blind or deaf will be raised with his infirmities. The third: The dead will be raised.7 The fourth: The temple will be rebuilt according to the pattern shown to Ezekiel. : The fifth That Israel will exercise universal dominion,8 and the whole world be subject to their law.9 The sixth: All the enemies of Israel (i.e. Christians) will be utterly destroyed and exterminated. 10 The seventh: That Israel will have immunity from every disease.11 The eighth The life of the Israelites will equal that of an evergreen ;12 that is, if a man dies a centenarian, he will be said to die a boy. (Pesachim on the Talmud, c. vi. p. 68.) They will enjoy the life of an antediluvian, according to Aben Esra. 1 Obad. 18. 4 Zech. ix. 9. 7 Dan. xii. 2. 10 Ezek. xxv. 14. 2 Mic. ii. 13. 3 Isa. xli. 18; xlix. 10. 6 Isa. xxxv. 6. 9 Zeph. iii. 9. : The ninth They will see GoD face to face, and all will be prophets.2 What are they to prophesy, when hope is fulfilled? The tenth There will be no lust or evil longing.3 So far we have followed the "Aromatic Dust." But now we must see what will be the happy estate of the Jews under Messiah in the land literally flowing with milk and honey. He will give them all a kingly banquet, with great pomp and circumstance and merriment. Each Jew will sit down at a gold table, as the Talmud informs us at length in a treatise on fasting! (fol. 25, col. 1; Pesach. f. 119; Basra, 75.) The largest animals ever created will be provided by the courteous host; fish, flesh, and fowl will be killed, and the most generous and excellent wine provided, made from grapes in Paradise, and kept for the occasion in Adam's winecellar. Henceforth we must hear no more of Adam's ale as an euphemism for water. This is a severe blow to the teetotaller. The The first victim for the feast will be Schor Habbas, a bull of wonderful strength and size, by Job called Behemoth! rabbins say that it is the beast mentioned in the Psalms,5 that eats a thousand hills a day. Rabbi Schel. Jarchi and Khabvenaki anticipate the difficulty that long before this date he must have eaten up all the mountains, hills, and knolls of the earth, and consequently have died of pure inanition. "No," they reply, "he must be fatted; so what he eats by day grows up again as before by night"-strange as Odin's feast in the Edda, where the heroes ever eat roast pig, and still next day the feast is roast pig. Toujours perdrix indeed! Rabbi Jochanan is so good as to supply this monster with drink equivalent; he drinks at a single draught as much water as flows in the Jordan in six months.6 And Rabbi Simeon ben Jochaj says he drinks of the River Juval, that rises in Edom.7 The second dish is the whale, called Leviathan, or Lifjasan; he forms the course of fish-rather an Esquimaux taste. The third delicacies are a salt she-whale and salted cow-beef, furnished by the mates of the famous bull Schor Habbas and the whale Lifjasan.8 The cow-whale was at an early period of existence salted and cut up, to prevent the possibility of a shoal of offspring desolating creation, says Babba Basic (cap. v. p. 74.) A similar precaution was taken with the cow. (See also Gemara. Bava Bathra, f. 78; Rashi in Job i.) Next comes the poultry. Elias the Levite, in his "Tishbite," assures us that he was informed by the rabbins that at the feast would be a bird, spitted and cooked, called the Bar Juchne-our old friend the Roc of the Arabian Nights-a marvellous fowl, of which the Talmud says, (Bechores. cap. ult. p. 57,) when a single 1 Isa. xl. 5. 4 Job xl. 15. 7 Jer. xvii. 8. 2 Joel ii. 28. 5 Ps. 1. 10. 8 Job xli. 1; Isa. xxvii. 1. 3 Ezek. xxxvi. 26. |