A Tournament Of Shadows: Le Grand Sanhedrin

A Tournament Of Shadows:

XII. Le Grand Sanhedrin

Napoleon was relentless. At the Treaty of Presburg, Austria ceded her share of the Venetian lands to the Kingdom of Italy, and the Tyrol to Bavaria, which, with Württemberg, was recognized as a kingdom. On August 6, 1806, he dissolved the Holy Roman Empire. In its place, he established the Confederation of the Rhine. To add to his collection of German states, Napoleon began his campaign against the Prussians, roundly defeating them at the Battle of Saalfeld on October 10, and the Battles of Jena and Auerstadt on October 14.[1] On October 27, Napoleon and his army rode triumphantly through the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.[2]

Napoleon, meanwhile, had put into motion another chain of events further disrupting the established order. On October 9, 1806, a letter was published in the French newspaper, Moniteur, announcing the upcoming Sanhedrin and praising Napoleon. “Since our dispersion innumerable changes have signalized the inconsistency of human affairs,” the letter stated. “Nations have successfully expelled, intermingled with, and overwhelmed each other. We alone have resisted the torrent of ages and revolution.”[3]

1806 French print depicting Napoleon

granting freedom of worship to the Jews.

Following the Revolution, many French peasants were able to purchase the former real estate of the royalty and the Church with deflated paper currency (and by mortgaging their land.) In 1791 French Jews who, for generations, were confined to ghettoes, achieved political emancipation. In 1792, however, the Revolution turned against all religions, and the Jews were targeted for their adherence to religious practices. When Napoleon assumed control of France conditions gradually stabilized, though many peasants feared they would be unable to pay their debts with the new currency. They were particularly anxious that they might lose their land to the moneylenders, many of whom were Jewish. A strong anti-Jewish sentiment percolated in France, one which Napoleon could not ignore. In May 1806, Napoleon issued his first Decree on the Jews, which called for the creation of a new Sanhedrin, reviving the once important Jewish political body from Greco-Roman times.[4] The outcome of this council would see the greater integration of Jews into the wider cultural matrix of Europe.[5] The restoration of the Jews to Palestine was not an uncommon belief among Christians and Jews alike. Napoleon seemingly acknowledged Jewish rights to Palestine (though his reasons were more political.) As far back as 1799, during his campaign in Syria, Napoleon had issued a proclamation appealing to the Jews of Asia and Africa to join his army so they might assist in the re-establishment of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.[6] A year later a young Protestant minister named Johan Jakob Friedrich published A Glimpse Of The Faith And Hope Of God’s People In Anti-Christian Times Drawn From Biblical Prophecies And Dedicated To Those Who Wait For God’s Kingdom In The Year Of Christ 1800. Friedrich argued that the decades following 1800 would be the most important ones in the history of humanity for, in this short period (ending in 1836,) the great events foretold in the Book of Revelation would take place. The most dramatic part of these End of Days events would occur when the Children of Israel gathered once more in Palestine on Mount Zion, marking the beginning of Christ’s thousand-year reign.[7]

Not everyone was pleased with these changes and developments. A month before the meeting of the Sanhedrin, the King of Sweden ordered all the Jews who resided in Gothenburg to assemble before the Town Council. They were then required to declare whether they held any communication with the Sanhedrin of Jews in Paris. Those who did were ordered to leave the kingdom immediately, and if any Jews were discovered holding any such correspondence after declaring the contrary, they were not only to be banished from the kingdom, but their property was to be confiscated.[8] The Russians seized on this opportunity to level an attack on their French enemy. A kind of Ecclesiastical Manifesto against Napoleon was read in all the churches throughout Russia. In this paper, he was denounced as an enemy of the religion of Christ,  as of all legitimate Sovereigns and civilized States. It said in part:

He has ordered public honour to be shown to the Jewish Rabbis; he has established the Grand Hebrewish Sanhedrin, this infamous tribunal, who, old times, dared condemn to the agony of the cross our Savior Jesus Christ; and now strive to reunite the Jews, whom the wrath of God has dispersed over the face of the earth, to arm their rage against the Christian Church; and to fill up the, measure of his iniquities by an impiety which surpasses all, others, to get himself acknowledged as the Messiah expected by this proscribed people.[9]

On February 7, 1807, the Sanhedrin held their meeting. “Blessed be forever the Lord God of Israel who has placed on the Throne of France and Kingdom if Italy a Price after his own heart,” it was said at the beginning of the proceedings. “God saw the humiliation of the descendants of ancient Jacob, and he chose Napoleon the Great to be instrument of his mercy. The Lord judges thoughts. He alone commands consciences, and His beloved Anointed One had allowed everyone to worship the Lord according to their belief and faith. In the shadow of his name, security has entered our hearts and our homes; and we can now build, sow, harvest, cultivate the human sciences, belong to the great family of the State, serve it, and glory in its noble destinies. His high wisdom allowed this Assembly, celebrated in our annals, and whose experience and virtue dictated its decisions, to reappear after fifteen centuries and contribute to its benefits of Israel. Gathered today under his protection in his good city of Paris, seventy-one in number, doctors of the law and notables of Israel, we constitute ourselves as the Grand Sanhedrin, in order to find within ourselves the means and the strength to render religious ordinances in conformity with the principles of our holy laws, and which serve as a rule and an example to all Israelites.”[10]

The first law, according to the Children of Jacob, was given to the first two humans, Adam and Eve. Initially living in the Utopian Garden of Eden, their disobedience of the laws of their god, Yahweh, resulted in their exile from earthly paradise. A few generations of begat-ing occurred until Yahweh, disappointed in the sins of his creation, decided to flood the planet and end the project. A righteous man named Noah was allowed to build an Ark (a large boat,) on which he placed his family and two of each animal, thus carrying the seeds for life to begin again when the flood subsided. Noah’s three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, therefore, became the progenitors of the second attempt at humanity. During the time of Napoleon, the prevailing opinion among Western scholars was that Hebrew was the original language of mankind was Hebrew, and that all European languages were to be traced back to Japheth.[11] Napoleon was twelve years old when the word “Semitic” was coined by the German historian, August Schlözer (it being derived from Shem, the presumed ancestor of the “Semites.”)[12]

Le Grand Sanhedrin (1868) by Edouard Moyse.

The so-called “Semites,” however, were not yet “Jews” during the time of Noah. That term would come several centuries after Abraham, the founder of their faith. He was born in Ur of the Chaldeans (southern Mesopotamia) and migrated to Haran (northern Syria.)[13] On Yahweh’s instruction, Abraham migrated to the land of Canaan (modern-day Israel) where he was also told that descendants, numerous as “the stars of heaven,” would inherit the lands.[14] As both Abraham and his wife, Sarai, were childless and advanced in years, this news was difficult to comprehend. Sarai offered Abraham her Egyptian slave, Hagar, with the intention of her bearing a child. This arrangement went about as smoothly as one would imagine. Hagar became pregnant but was upset with Sarah, and Sarah, in turn, was upset with Hagar. The pregnant woman fled to the wilderness, but an angel told her to return to Abraham’s camp and give birth to her son, whom she was instructed to name Ishmael. This boy was destined to be a “wild man,” and his hand would be “against every man,” and “every man’s hand against him.”[15] (The commentators of Genesis would regard the Arabs as “Ishmaelites,” the descendants of Ishmael.)[16] Thirteen years later Abraham and Sarah were told that they would have a child whom they were told to name Isaac, and Yahweh once again reaffirmed his earlier promise of inheriting the land. It was at this time that Yahweh told Abraham that the males of his future peoples were to be circumcised as a sign of their covenant.[17] Isaac was born, and Abraham was put to the test. Yahweh instructed him to sacrifice the boy on an altar at Mount Moriah, but right before the act was complete, the god intervened, satisfied with Abraham’s obedient devotion.

Abraham leading Isaac to the altar.[18]

Isaac had a son named Jacob, who was renamed “Israel” after wrestling with Yahweh. Israel had twelve sons (Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin.) Joseph, sold into slavery by his jealous brothers, won the favor of his masters in Egypt and rose to prominence during a time of famine. Joseph then brought his entire family to Egypt. The brothers became the originators of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, with a few caveats. Joseph was double blessed, so his two sons were the progenitors of two of the twelve tribes (Ephraim, and Manasseh.) The other ten tribes were the descendants of (Reuben, Simeon, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Benjamin, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher.) The descendants of Levi, tasked with serving in the Tabernacle (and later the Temple,) would be given cities throughout the future Israel so they might adjudicate judicial cases. Generations later, a charismatic prophet among them named Moses lead them out of Egypt in a mass exodus. They would wander the desert for forty years, but within weeks Moses, as Yahweh’s mouthpiece, established a common law for the tribes, with a regularized judicial system and political system.[19] It was during this period when Yahweh gave Moses the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai, which he inscribed on two stone tablets with his finger. These tablets were carried in a sacred chest, the Ark of the Covenant, which was said to have supernatural properties. Sometime in the thirteenth century B.C.E. the Israelite tribes crossed the Jordan into Canaan (the land promised to them by Yahweh) and began a period of concentration in what was renamed Eretz Israel. For seven and a half centuries the Jews remained concentrated in their land under independent governments of their own. This is the classic period of their history as described in the Bible.[20]

(Left) The Ark Of The Covenant.[21] (Right) The Temple Of Solomon.[22]

The Israelite leader, Joshua (of the tribe of Ephraim,) led the invasion into Canaan from the east by way of the fords of Jordan. The hill fortress they encountered, strong in its walls and guarding ravines, withheld the Israelite attacks throughout the whole period of the Judges and all through the long reign of King Saul (who was killed on Mount Gilboa.) Then came King David who, after seven years of conflict, defeated the last of Saul’s sons, and put an end to the Israelite civil war. With a united force, King David led an attack on the Canaanite fortress. After it was captured, King David transferred his capital there, where he ruled for thirty-three years. Aided by his friend, Hiram Abiff, King David then built a Tabernacle on the Rock of Zion.

The Temple which replaced the Tabernacle was built by his son, King Solomon, He chose the site of this temple, Mount Moriah, the spot where Isaac was nearly sacrificed by Abraham. It was an oblong building with the main entrance facing the sunrise, the Holy of Holies being at the western end, and the great altar near the middle. After Solomon’s death, around 930 B.C.E., the kingdom split in two. Ten of the Tribes of Israel formed the independent Kingdom of Israel in the north. The tribes of Judah and Benjamin established the Kingdom of Judah to the south. In 722 B.C.E. the Kingdom of Israel was conquered by Assyria. Ten of the twelve Tribes of Israel were “lost,” having been deported to other parts of the Assyrian Empire. Following this, in the first decades of sixth-century B.C.E., the neo-Babylonians, led by King Nebuchadnezzar, conquered the Kingdom of Judea. In 587 B.C.E. the invaders destroyed Solomon’s Temple, and many Judeans were exiled.

The Prophet Jeremiah warned the inhabitants of Jerusalem that a rebellion against King Nebuchadnezzar (the Babylonia king) was a rebellion against God, for Nebuchadnezzar was simply performing the will of God.[23] Jeremiah’s warnings added a novel element to the cosmology of Yahwism—immutable fate (which had not been articulated by any of their previous prophets.) The conquest of Jerusalem, and Babylon’s triumph, were not the consequence of sin, but rather demonstrations from a God who controlled the destiny of every nation and who, for reasons unknown, decided that Babylon should rise while Judah (and other states) should fall.[24] Babylonian ascendancy was only temporary, Jeremiah prophesied; their empire would fall, perhaps within three generations, or perhaps “seventy years,” but it would fall, and the Judeans would return home from their exile.[25] Forty-eight years later (539 B.C.E.,) Cyrus the Great of Persia conquered Babylon and issued an edict that permitted the Judeans to return home and rebuild their temple.[26] Having adjusted to life in Babylon, however, many Judeans decided to stay and resigned themselves there until God would redeem them. The diasporic communities of Judeans in Babylon and Egypt had developed corporate institutions to accommodate their spiritual and secular needs like the beit knesset (“assembly house,” or “town hall,” perhaps more widely recognized by its Greek appellation, “synagogue.”) It was a kind of surrogate temple for the once in Jerusalem.[27]

(Left) King Nebuchadnezzar.[28] (Right) Cyrus The Great.[29]

Conflicts arose after thousands of Jews returned from exile to rebuild Jerusalem’s walls and the Temple. They endeavored to reestablish a pre-exilic form of worship, assuming that in the process they would also reestablish themselves as the priests and ruling hierarchy of the Judeans. They encountered resistance, however, from the descendants of those who had remained in the land in 587 B.C.E., or who had returned soon afterward. They were adherents to the “syncretistic cult of Yahweh,” that is, those whose practices had incorporated elements and customs of neighboring peoples and religions.[30] It was during this period that the character of “Satan” began to appear among the community of Yahwists.[31] Meaning “adversary,” the figure was incorporated from Persian Zoroastrianism, a religion with a dualistic cosmology of a purely good deity, Ahura Mazda, and his adversary, Ahriman, his polar opposite. In fact, the Persian system of angelology and demonology had more than a passing influence on Yahwist thought.[32] Of all the nations exiled from their lands by the Babylonians, only the Judeans returned to their homeland. They continued as before, albeit without a king, and without possessing political autonomy.[33]

In the year 334 B.C.E., Alexander the Great led his army across the Hellespont into Asia. Victorious in his battles of Granicus and Issus, Alexander continued his march southward toward Jerusalem. Standing on the heights to the north of the city, the Greek warlord saw the North Gate flung open and the High Priest, clad in purple and scarlet, with a mitre on his head and bearing the name Yahweh on his breast, came forth to meet the conqueror. Behind him followed priests in fine linen robes, and a multitude of people clad in white. They all moved slowly up the hill toward him. Alexander saluted the High Priest with great reverence and taking him by the hand, they peacefully entered the Temple together. Like Cyrus before him, Alexander became the protector of the Holy City. After the death of Alexander, one of his Generals, Ptolemy, occupied Judea in 323 B.C.E., seizing Jerusalem on the Sabbath. In 320 B.C.E., he annexed Judea to Egypt, and garrisoned Jerusalem with Egyptian troops. This marked the Hellenic (Greek) period of the land.[34] It was during the Hellenic Period that the traditions of the prophet Hermes Trismegistus (Thrice Great) emerged, being a Hellenistic fusion of the Greek God Hermes and the Egyptian God Thoth.[35] Further syncretism among the Jews also occurred during this period. (Satan, for example, becomes “diablos,” meaning “accuser” in Greek.) It was around this time when the appellation “Jew” emerged. The Hebrew word “Yehudi,” meaning “of Judah,” was used after the Babylonian Exile. which evolved into “Ioudaios” under Greek influence (and later “Iudaeus” in Latin.) For now, to keep the religious character separate from the national aspect, we will keep the distinction between Yahwists and Judeans. A little over a century after Ptolemy, Antiochus, a descendant of another of Alexander’s Generals, defeated Ptolemy IV. Jerusalem sided with the victor and helped him expel the Egyptian garrison. Antiochus did much to restore and maintain the Second Temple. The interaction with the Hellenistic world was not confined to the realm of ideas, it played out in the public sphere of life. The land was radically transformed by the building of Greek cities and with it the creation of urban elites. In Greek political theory, for example, the power to declare festivals, appoint priests, etc., was vested in the people (demos,) but this idea was hitherto foreign to Yahwism and Judea. Judah the Maccabee, adopting this practice, had the Judeans declare, by acclamation, that Hanukkah be celebrated annually in remembrance of their victory over Epiphanes.[36] Simon the Maccabee, likewise, had himself declared high priest through acclamation.[37] The “gatekeeping” Maccabees, self-proclaimed opponents of foreign ways, had nevertheless adopted a Hellenistic practice for their own ends. Even the “Sanhedrin,” an important Yahwist political body, was modeled on the analogous Hellenic body, the “Synedrion.”[38]

The Maccabees, a group of Yahwist rebels who took control of Judea from the Seleucid Empire, had founded an independent kingdom and established the Hasmonean dynasty. They reasserted the Yahwist religion and even expanded the boundaries of Judea through conquest. Their rise to power, which coincided with the latter part of the Second Temple period, was one of the richest and most significant periods in Judean history. This was the age of sectarian literature and sects (Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, the Qumran community, Christians, Sicarii, Zealots, etc.) It was the epoch of apocalypses, and of eclectic speculations about the nature of Yahweh’s control of human events; inquiries into the nature of evil, explorations of “end times” secrets, the development of the synagogue, liturgical prayer, and scriptural study.[39]

The next power to cast their shadow over Jerusalem was the Romans. In the year 63 B.C.E., Pompey, commanding the Roman armies in the East, marched from Damascus to Jericho and. Approaching from the deep canyon of the Jordan, attacked Jerusalem on the western ridge. The Romans behaved magnanimously; he took no treasure from the Temple, encouraged the Judeans to purify it, and recognized Hyrcanus as High Priest. When Julius Caesar marched through Syria en route to Egypt, Antipater joined him as Ashkelon with a force of men, won his favor, and gained permission to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem. This Second Wall, as it was called, swallowed a new suburb to the north, the only direction in which the city could expand owing to the ravines on the three other sides. From Cassius, Antipater obtained the post of Governor of Galilee for his second son, Herod the Great. Marc Antony gave his support to Herod, but the Parthians aided Herod’s rival, Antigonus, in the capture of Jerusalem (which was once again plundered.) Augustus Caesar restored Herod to power and recaptured Jerusalem by making a breach in the fort which guarded the Second Temple. This was repaired, and under Herod the Great’s reign, Jerusalem reached the zenith of its wealth and magnificence.

The Romans Plundering Jerusalem.[40]

Herod Agrippa, the great-grandson of Herod the Great who came to power in 53 C.E., built the Third Wall, taking in a further extension of the city to the north. While the Romans initially favored ruling through vassal kings, they transitioned to rule through Roman administrators, called procurators or prefects. For the most part, these Roman administrators were not particularly sensitive to the needs of the Judean people. As a result of their mistakes, ethnic strife was rampant, and of severe economic problems developed. A war inevitably broke out against the Romans in 66 C.E. The Romans, taken by surprise, suffered a few serious defeats. This changed in the summer of 67 C.E. The Roman Emperor Vespasian marched from Syria into Galilee and began a slow and deliberate reconquest. By the year 68 C.E., the entire country of Judea (except for Jerusalem and a few isolated strongholds,) had been pacified.[41] Vespasian was in no hurry to storm Jerusalem. The Judeans were killing each other in their own power struggles. In the wake of Emperor Nero’s suicide (June of 68 C.E.) there was a power vacuum in Rome. Vespasian was proclaimed Emperor of Rome in July of 69 C.E. and spent the remainder of that year securing his power. As new emperors needed a victory to prove their worth, Vespasian entrusted the war in Judea to his son Titus. After a brutal siege, in the summer of 70 C.E. Jerusalem was retaken, and the Second Temple was destroyed.

Without the Temple, interfacing with Yahweh was re-interpreted, as the Temple cultus was ineffective without a Temple. The High Priesthood and the Sanhedrin vanished. The traditions of the Pharisee sect would evolve into Rabbinic Judaism, one of the successors of the cult of Yahweh.[42] Rabbinic Judaism would, in a sense, substitute Torah scholarship (and the Oral Torah codified in the Talmud) for the Temple. The Karaites, on the other hand, were another Judaic ethno-religion, one which recognized the Torah alone. It was alleged that the group was the remnants of the Sadducee sect.[43] The Judean cult that followed Jesus (who was crucified by the Romans around 33 C.E.,) found success by marrying the Hellenic concept of Christos to the martyred prophet. Paul the Apostle, a Greek-trained religious scholar of the “Tribe of Benjamin,” did much to spread proselytize this faith.[44] Removing the blood quantifiers and dietary restrictions opened the religion up to communities historically outside the tradition.[45] As the Gospel of Mark (the earliest known gospel written about Jesus,) appears just about the time the Second Temple was destroyed, one might conclude that this avenue of Yahwism, “Pauline Judaism,” gained appeal as a result. Whatever the case may be, the Temple cultus of Yahwism ceased to exist after 70 C.E., and its successors, (like Rabbinic Judaism and Christianity) could be interpreted as responses to, rather than continuations of, the previous religion.

Between 115-117 C.E., the Jews of Cyprus, Cyrenaica, and Egypt (the largest and most important Jewish community of the Roman diaspora) rebelled against the Romans. This resulted in the decimation of Egyptian Jewry. Then there was the rebellion of Bar Kokhba (132-135 C.E.,) which resulted in the paganization of the city of Jerusalem, which was rebuilt under the name Aelia Capitolina. On the site of the former Temple of Yahweh, the Romans built their own Temple to Jupiter.[46] Then they changed the region’s name from Judea to Palestine.[47]

A century later, a movement known as Neoplatonism emerged in the land, inaugurated by the philosopher Plotinus who reinterpreted the ideas of Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus, and Proclus. It promoted a rigid hierarchical framework that organized all matter and life. In Neoplatonism, the cosmos emanated from a single, all-powerful, unity called The One, from which all orderliness and structure in the universe was predicated. The belief argued that the world that humanity experiences is, in fact, only a facsimile, the simulacrum of the ideal reality that exists beyond the material world and composed of three levels. (Neoplatonism would be elaborated in medieval Christian Europe; a cosmological link that began with God and progressed downward through a series of angels, demons, celestial bodies, kings, nobility, commoners, wild and domesticated beasts, plant life, precious stones, metals, and minerals.)[48] Hermeticism would experience a certain rejuvenation during this period with the incorporation of Neoplatonic elements.[49]

Under Constantine the Great, Christianity became the religion of the Roman Empire, and Jerusalem experienced a new era of prosperity. (It was at this time that Constantine founded the ”New Rome,” Constantinople, in Byzantium.) It was Constantine’s Christian mother, St. Helen, who made a pilgrimage to Palestine to find Christ’s Holy Sepulcher. She found there a local Christian who had kept “records of his fathers” and “made known to her where the tomb was to be found.” (It was, apparently, concealed under the foundation of the edifices of Hadrian.) Here she built a church, and “contributed powerfully to the re-establishment of the holy places.”[50] The Empress Eudocia rebuilt the walls in 460 C.E. and, in the following century, Justinian built a beautiful church (but no trace of it remains.)The destiny of Jerusalem, however, turned once more to the East. In 614 C.E. Jerusalem was captured by Chosroes, King of Persia. Twenty years later (638 C.E.) the Caliph Umar brought Jerusalem under Muslim control. He showed himself tolerant and generous toward the inhabitants and built a wooden mosque on the site where Solomon’s Temple once stood. In 688 C.E. the “Blue Mosque” took its place.[51]

The eleventh century saw increased Jewish migration to both Northern and Southern Europe. The Iberian Peninsula and West Central Europe became centers of Jewish life. The Sephardim (Spanish Jewry,) under Muslim rule, followed the Babylonian pattern of governance, with local communities subordinate to regional leadership. The Ashkenazim (West Central European Jewry) were organized into loose leagues of confederated communities. A combination of expulsions and better opportunities compelled both the Sephardim and Ashkenazim to migrate once more in the fifteenth century. Iberian Jewry formed new concentrations in the Ottoman Empire (particularly in the Balkans,) while Central European Jewry concentrated in Poland.[52]

SOURCES:

[1] De Bourrienne, Louis Antoine Fauvelet. Memoirs Of Napoleon Bonaparte: Vol. I. Charles Scribner’s Sons. New York, New York. (1892): xliii-lii. [Chronology Of Bonaparte’s Life.]

[2] Henderson, W.O. “The Pan-German Movement.” History. Vol. XXVI, No. 103 (December 1941): 188-198; Masur, Gerhard. Imperial Berlin.  Basic Books, Inc. New York, New York. (1970): 31-33.

[3] “From The Bombay Courier.” The Calcutta Gazette. (Calcutta, West Bengal, India) March 12, 1807.

[4] Cohen, Shaye J. D. From The Maccabees To The Mishnah. Westminster John Know Press. Louisville, Kentucky. (2006): 36.

[5] Newman, Aubrey. “Napoleon and The Jews.” European Judaism: A Journal for the New Europe. Vol. II, No. 2 (Winter 1967): 25-32.

[6] Shulim, Joseph J. “Napoleon I As The Jewish Messiah: Some Contemporary Conceptions In Virginia.” Jewish Social Studies. Vol. VII, No. 3 (July 1945): 275-280.

[7] Lehmann, Hartmut. “Pietistic Millenarianism In Late Eighteenth-Century Germany.” In: (ed.) Hellmuth, Eckhart. The Transformation Of Political Culture: England And Germany In The Late Eighteenth Century. Oxford University Press. Oxford, England. (1990): 327-338.

[8] “A Gottenburgh Mail.” The Star. (London, England.) January 23, 1807.

[9] “London.” Saint James’s Chronicle. (London, England) March 7, 1807.

[10] Grand Sanhédrin. Décisions Doctrinales Du Grand Sanhédrin. L.-P. Sétier Fils. Paris, France. (1812): 4-6.

[11] Lubelsky, Isaac. Celestial India. Equinox Publishing. Sheffield, England. (2012): 15.

[12] Philip Schaff (ed.) A Religious Encyclopedia: Or Dictionary of Biblical, Historical, Doctrinal, and Practical Theology. Vol. IV. Funk & Wagnalls. New York, New York. (1891): 2153.

[13] Elazar, Daniel J. “Land, State And Diaspora In The Jewish Polity.” Jewish Political Studies Review. Vol. III, No. 1/2 (Spring 1991): 3-31.

[14] “Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I swear unto Abraham thy father; And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” [Genesis 26:3-4. (KJV.)]

[15] “And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the LORD hath heard thy affliction. And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man’s hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.” [Genesis 16:11-12. (KJV.)]

[16] Sprenger, A. “The Ishmaelites, And The Arabic Tribes Who Conquered Their Country.” The Journal Of The Royal Asiatic Society Of Great Britain And Ireland. Vol. VI, No. 1 (1873): 1-19.

[17] “And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly. And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying, As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee. And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God. And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations. This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised. And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you. And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed. He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant. And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be. And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her. Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear? And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee! And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation. But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year.” [Genesis 17:1-21. (KJV.)]

[18] Geikie, John Cunningham. “Glances At Bible History: Part II.” Frank Leslie’s Sunday Magazine. Vol. XVII, No. 2 (February 1885): 128-136.

[19] Elazar, Daniel J. “Land, State And Diaspora In The Jewish Polity.” Jewish Political Studies Review. Vol. III, No. 1/2 (Spring 1991): 3-31.

[20] Elazar, Daniel J. “Land, State And Diaspora In The Jewish Polity.” Jewish Political Studies Review. Vol. III, No. 1/2 (Spring 1991): 3-31.

[21] Whitfield, Frederick. The Tabernacle, Priesthood And Offerings Of Israel. Seeley, Jackson, And Halliday. London, England. (1875): 124.

[22] Paine, Timothy Otis. Solomon’s Temple. H. H. & T. W. Carter. Boston, Massachusetts. (1870): 96.

[23] “The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, that was the first year of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon; The which Jeremiah the prophet spake unto all the people of Judah, and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, even unto this day, that is the three and twentieth year, the word of the LORD hath come unto me, and I have spoken unto you, rising early and speaking; but ye have not hearkened. And the LORD hath sent unto you all his servants the prophets, rising early and sending them; but ye have not hearkened, nor inclined your ear to hear. They said, Turn ye again now everyone from his evil way, and from the evil of your doings, and dwell in the land that the LORD hath given unto you and to your fathers for ever and ever: And go not after other gods to serve them, and to worship them, and provoke me not to anger with the works of your hands; and I will do you no hurt. Yet ye have not hearkened unto me, saith the LORD; that ye might provoke me to anger with the works of your hands to your own hurt. Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Because ye have not heard my words, 9Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the LORD, and Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and a hissing, and perpetual desolations.” [Jeremiah 25:1-9. (KJV.)]

[24] “Thus saith the LORD to me; Make thee bonds and yokes, and put them upon thy neck, And send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to the king of the Ammonites, and to the king of Tyrus, and to the king of Zidon, by the hand of the messengers which come to Jerusalem unto Zedekiah king of Judah; And command them to say unto their masters, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Thus shall ye say unto your masters; I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the ground, by my great power and by my outstretched arm, and have given it unto whom it seemed meet unto me. And now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant; and the beasts of the field have I given him also to serve him. And all nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son’s son, until the very time of his land come: and then many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of him. And it shall come to pass, that the nation and kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will I punish, saith the LORD, with the sword, and with the famine, and with the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand..”

[Jeremiah 27:2-8. (KJV.)]

[25] “And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the LORD, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations.” [Jeremiah 25:12. (KJV)]; “For thus saith the LORD, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.” [Jeremiah 29:10. (KJV.)]

[26]  “Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying, Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The LORD God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he hath charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people? his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the LORD God of Israel, (he is the God,) which is in Jerusalem. And whosoever remaineth in any place where he sojourneth, let the men of his place help him with silver, and with gold, and with goods, and with beasts, beside the freewill offering for the house of God that is in Jerusalem.” [Ezra 1:1-4. (KJV.)]

[27] Elazar, Daniel J. “Land, State And Diaspora In The Jewish Polity.” Jewish Political Studies Review. Vol. III, No. 1/2 (Spring 1991): 3-31.

[28] Geikie, John Cunningham. “Glances At Bible History: Part X.” Frank Leslie’s Sunday Magazine. Vol. XVIII, No. 4 (October 1885): 347-356.

[29] Geikie, John Cunningham. “Glances At Bible History: Part XII.” Frank Leslie’s Sunday Magazine. Vol. XVIII, No. 6 (December 1885): 541-547.

[30] Pagels, Elaine. “The Social History Of Satan, The ‘Intimate Enemy’: A Preliminary Sketch.” The Harvard Theological Review. Vol. LXXXIV, No. 2 (April 1991): 105–128.

[31] Stepaniants, Marietta. “The Encounter Of Zoroastrianism With Islam.” Philosophy East And West. Vol. LII, No. 2 (April 2002): 159-172.

[32] Philipson, David. “The Beginnings Of The Reform Movement In Judaism.” The Jewish Quarterly Review. Vol. XV, No. 3. (April 1903): 475-521.

[33] Cohen, Shaye J. D. From The Maccabees To The Mishnah. Westminster John Know Press. Louisville, Kentucky. (2006): 21.

[34] Johnston, Charles. “Jerusalem In 4,000 Years Of War.” Current History. Vol. VII, No. 1. Part II. (January 1919): 101-107; Gruen, Erich S. The Construct Of Identity In Hellenistic Judaism. De Gruyter. Berlin, Germany. (2016): 21-75.

[35] Faivre, Antoine. “Renaissance Hermeticism And The Concept Of Western Esotericism.” in Gnosis And Hermeticism From Antiquity To Modern Times. Roel van den Broek and Wouter J. Hanegraaff. State University of New York Press. New York, New York. (1998): 109-123; Magee, Glenn Alexander. Hegel And The Hermetic Tradition. Cornell University Press. Ithaca, New York. (2008): 8; Copenhaver, Brian P. Magic In Western Culture: From Antiquity to the Enlightenment. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge, England. (2018): 261.

[36] “Then Judas and his brothers and the entire congregation of Israel decreed that the days of the dedication of the altar should be observed with joy and gladness on the anniversary every year for eight days, from the twenty-fifth day of the month Chislev.” [1 Maccabees 4:59. (New American Catholic Bible.)]

[37] “The Jewish people and their priest have, therefore, made the following decisions. Simon shall be their permanent leader and high priest until a true prophet arises. He shall act as governor general over them, and shall have charge of the temple, to make regulations concerning its functions and concerning the country, its weapons and strongholds.” [1 Maccabees 14:41-42. (New American Catholic Bible.)]

[38] Cohen, Shaye J. D. From The Maccabees To The Mishnah. Westminster John Know Press. Louisville, Kentucky. (2006): 36.

[39] Cohen, Shaye J. D. From The Maccabees To The Mishnah. Westminster John Know Press. Louisville, Kentucky. (2006): 5.

[40] Whitfield, Frederick. The Tabernacle, Priesthood And Offerings Of Israel. Seeley, Jackson, And Halliday. London, England. (1875): 364.

[41] Hall, John F. “The Roman Province of Judea: A Historical Overview.” Brigham Young University Studies. Vol. XXXVI, No. 3 (1996-1997): 319-336.

[42] Cohen, Shaye J. D. From The Maccabees To The Mishnah. Westminster John Know Press. Louisville, Kentucky. (2006): 2180-221.

[43] Greenspahn, Frederick E. “Sadducees And Karaites: The Rhetoric Of Jewish Sectarianism.” Jewish Studies Quarterly. Vol. XVIII, No. 1 (2011): 91-105.

[44] “Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more: Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.” [Philippians 3:4-6. (KJV.)]

[45] “For meat destroy not the work of God. All things indeed are pure; but it is evil for that man who eateth with offence.” [Romans 14:20. (KJV)]; “And certain men which came down from Judaea taught the brethren, and said, Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved. When therefore Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas, and certain other of them, should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders about this question. And being brought on their way by the church, they passed through Phenice and Samaria, declaring the conversion of the Gentiles: and they caused great joy unto all the brethren. And when they were come to Jerusalem, they were received of the church, and of the apostles and elders, and they declared all things that God had done with them. But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying, That it was needful to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses. And the apostles and elders came together for to consider of this matter. And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up, and said unto them, Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe.” [Acts 15:1-7. (KJV.)]

[46] Johnston, Charles. “Jerusalem In 4,000 Years Of War.” Current History. Vol. VII, No. 1. Part II. (January 1919): 101-107; Bainbridge, Joseph. “A Pilgrimage To Jerusalem.” The Star. (Guernsey, Guernsey) July 6, 1882.

[47] Gerber, Haim. “‘Palestine’ And Other Territorial Concepts In The 17th Century.” International Journal Of Middle East Studies. Vol. XXX, No. 4 (November 1998): 563-572; Cohen, Shaye J. D. From The Maccabees To The Mishnah. Westminster John Know Press. Louisville, Kentucky. (2006): 4-5.

[48] Lovejoy, Arthur. Great Chain Of Being: A Study Of The History Of An Idea. Harvard University Press. Cambridge, Massachusetts. (2009): 65, 236; Mix, Lucas John. Life Concepts From Aristotle To Darwin: On Vegetable Souls. Palgrave Macmillan. London, England. (2018): 72.

[49] Faivre, Antoine. “Renaissance Hermeticism And The Concept Of Western Esotericism.” in Gnosis And Hermeticism From Antiquity To Modern Times. Roel van den Broek and Wouter J. Hanegraaff. State University of New York Press. New York, New York. (1998): 109-123; Magee, Glenn Alexander. Hegel and the Hermetic Tradition. Cornell University Press. Ithaca, New York. (2008): 8; Al-Khalili, Jim. The House of Wisdom: How Arabic Science Saved Ancient Knowledge and Gave Us the Renaissance. Penguin Books. London, England. (2012): Chapter 4; Copenhaver, Brian P. Magic in Western Culture: From Antiquity to the Enlightenment. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge, England. (2018): 261.

[50] S. M. S. The Holy Sepulchre Of Our Lord. Thomas Richardson And Son. London, England. (1847): 8-9.

[51] Johnston, Jas. Bainbridge. “A Pilgrimage To Jerusalem.” The Star. (Guernsey, Guernsey) July 6, 1882.

[52] Elazar, Daniel J. “Land, State And Diaspora In The Jewish Polity.” Jewish Political Studies Review. Vol. III, No. 1/2 (Spring 1991): 3-31.