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JASHAR, BOOK OF

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Originally appearing in Volume V15, Page 277 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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JASHAR, See also:BOOK OF , in See also:Hebrew Sepher ha-yashar, a Hebrew See also:composition mentioned as though well-known in Josh. x. 13 and 2 Sam. i. 18. From these two passages it seems to have been a book of songs See also:relating to important events, but no See also:early collection of the See also:kind is now extant, nor is anything known of it. Various speculations have been put forward as to the name: (I) that it means the book of the upright, i.e. See also:Israel or distinguished Israelites, the See also:root being the same as in Jeshurun; (2) that Jashar (w') is a transposition of shir Ow, See also:song) ; (3) that it should be pointed Yashir (-c, sing; cf. Exod. xv. 1) and was so called after its first word. None of these is very convincing, though support may be found for them all in the versions. The See also:Septuagint favours (I) by its rendering $7ri 13LSA%ov Toii evOovs in See also:Samuel (it omits the words in See also:Joshua); the See also:Vulgate has in libro justorum in both places; the See also:Syriac in Samuel has Ashir, which suggests a Hebrew See also:reading ha-shir (the song), and in Joshua it translates " book of praises." The See also:Targum on both passages has " book of the See also:law," an explanation which is followed by the See also:chief Jewish commentators, making the incidents the fulfilment of passages in the See also:Pentateuch. Since it contained the lament of See also:David (2 Sam. i. 18) it cannot have been completed till after his See also:time.

If See also:

Wellhausen's restoration of I See also:Kings viii. 12 be accepted (from Septuagint I Kings viii. 53, iv OcAicu See also:Tic ciSits) where the reference is to the See also:building of the See also:Temple, the book must have been growing in the time of See also:Solomon. The See also:attempt of See also:Donaldson' to reconstruct it is largely subjective and uncritical. In later times when it became customary to compose midrashic See also:works under well-known names, a book of Jashar naturally made its See also:appearance. It need hardly be remarked that this has nothing whatever to do with the older book. It is an See also:anonymous elaboration in Hebrew of the early See also:part of the biblical narrative, probably composed in the 12th See also:century. The fact that its legendary material is See also:drawn from Arabic See also:sources, as well as from See also:Talmud, See also:Midrash and later Jewish works, would seem to show that the writer lived in See also:Spain, or, according to others, in See also:south See also:Italy. The first edition appeared at See also:Venice in 1625, and it has been frequently printed since. It was translated into See also:English by (or for) M. M. See also:Noah (New See also:York, 184o).

A See also:

work called The Book of ...

End of Article: JASHAR, BOOK OF

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