There are elaborate rules in the Talmud with regard to dreams, both as to how they are to be obtained and how interpreted.1 Fasts were enjoined in order to secure good dreams, and these fasts were not only observed by the ignorant, but also by the principal Rabbins, and they were permitted even on the Sabbath, which was unlawful in other cases. Indeed, the interpretation of dreams became a public profession.3 It would be impossible within our limits to convey an adequate idea of the general superstition prevalent amongst the Jews regarding things and actions lucky and unlucky, or the minute particulars in regard to every common act prescribed for safety against demons and evil influences of all kinds. Nothing was considered indifferent or too trifling, and the danger from the most trivial movements or omissions to which men were supposed to be exposed from the malignity of evil spirits was believed to be great.* Amulets, consisting of roots, or pieces of paper with charms written upon them, were hung round the neck of the sick, and considered efficacious for their cure. Charms, mutterings, and spells were commonly said over wounds, against unlucky meetings, to make people sleep, to heal diseases, and to avert enchantments.5 The Talmud gives forms of enchantments against mad dogs, for instance, against the demon of blindness, and the like, as well as formulæ for averting the evil eye, and 1 Bab. Beracoth, 56 ff.; Schwab, Traité des Berakhoth, p. 457 ff. 2 Bab. Schabbath, 11, 1; Beracoth, 14, 1; Lightfoot, ib. xi. p. 299 f., p. 163. Bab. Beracoth, 55, 2, 56, 1; Maasar Sheni, 52, 2, 3; Lightfoot, ib. xi. p. 300; Schwab, Traité des Berakhoth, p. 457 ff. See, for instance, Bab. Beracoth, 51, 1; Schwab, Traité des Berakhoth, p. 433 f. Lightfoot, ib. xi. p. 301 f. "2 3 mutterings over diseases.1 So common was the practice of sorcery and magic that the Talmud enjoins "that the senior who is chosen into the Council ought to be skilled in the arts of astrologers, jugglers, diviners, sorcerers, &c., that he may be able to judge of those who are guilty of the same.' Numerous cases are recorded of persons destroyed by means of sorcery. The Jewish women were particularly addicted to sorcery, and indeed the Talmud declares that they had generally fallen into it. The New Testament bears abundant testimony to the prevalence of magic and exorcism at the time at which its books were written. In the Gospels, Jesus is represented as arguing with the Pharisees, who accuse him of casting out devils by Beelzebub, the prince of the devils. "If I by Beelzebub cast out the demons (rà Saiμóvia) by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore let them be your judges.' "5 The thoroughness and universality of the Jewish popular belief in demons and evil spirits, and in the power of magic, is exhibited in the ascription to Solomon, the monarch in whom the greatness and glory of the nation attained its culminating point, of the character of a powerful magician. The most effectual forms of invocation and exorcism, and the most potent spells of magic, were said to have been composed by him, and thus the grossest superstition of the nation acquired the sanction of their wisest king. Rabbinical writings are 1 See references, Lightfoot, ib. xi. p. 301; Bab. Beracoth, 57, 2,&c.; Schwab, ib. p. 302, p. 456 f., &c. &c. 2 Lightfoot, ib. xi. p. 301. 3 Hieros. Schab., 14, 3; Sanhedr., 18, 3; Lightfoot, ib. xi. p. 301 f. Hieros. Sanhedr., 23, 3; Bab. Sanhedr., 44, 2; Bab. Beracoth, 53, 1; Lightfoot, ib. xi. p. 302; Gfrörer, ib. i. p. 413; Schwab, ib. p. 444. • Matt. xii. 27; cf. Luke xi. 19, ix. 49; Mark viii. 38; Acts xix. 13 ff. 2 never weary of enlarging upon the magical power and knowledge of Solomon. He was represented as not only king of the whole earth, but also as reigning over devils and evil spirits, and having the power of expelling them from the bodies of men and animals, and also of delivering people to them. It was indeed believed that the two demons Asa and Asael taught Solomon all wisdom and all arts. The Talmud relates many instances of his power over evil spirits, and amongst others how he made them assist in building the Temple. Solomon desired to have the help of the worm Schamir in preparing the stones for the sacred building, and he conjured up a devil and a she-devil to inform him where Schamir was to be found. They referred him to Asmodeus, whom the King craftily captured, and by whom he was informed that Schamir is under the jurisdiction of the Prince of the Seas, and Asmodeus further told him how he might be secured. By his means the Temple was built, but, from the moment it was destroyed, Schamir for ever disappeared.3 It was likewise believed that one of the Chambers of the second Temple was built by a magician called Parvah, by means of magic. The Talmud narrates many stories of miracles performed by various Rabbins.5 The Jewish historian, Josephus, informs us that, amongst 1 Gittin, 68, 1, 2; Succah, 53, 1; Eisenmenger, ib. i. pp. 355, 358; ii. pp. 416, 440; Lightfoot, ib. xii. p. 428. 2 Eisenmenger, ib. i. p. 361 f, 3 Gittin, 68, 1, 2; Sotah, 48, 2; Eisenmenger, ib. i. p. 350 ff.; Gfrörer, ib. i. p. 414 f.; Buxtorf, Lexic. Talmud, p. 24, 53. Moses is also said to have made use of Schamir. Fabricius, Cod. Vet. Test., ii. p. 119. 4 Gloss on Middoth, cap. 5, hal, 3; Lightfoot, ib. xi. p. 301. 5 Bava Mezia, 59, 1, 2; Bab. Beracoth, 33, 34, 54, 1; Hieros, Sanhedr., 25, 4; Bab. Taanith, 24; Juchas., 20, 1; 56, 2; Lightfoot, ib. xi. p. 301 f.; Eisenmenger, ib. i. 14 f; Schwab, ib. p. 358 ff., p. 448 f. other gifts, God bestowed upon King Solomon knowledge of the way to expel demons, an art which is useful and salutary for mankind. He composed incantations by which diseases are cured, and he left behind him forms of exorcism by which demons. may be so effectually expelled that they never return, a method of cure, Josephus adds, which is of great efficacy to his own day. He himself had seen a countryman of his own, named Eliezer, release people possessed of devils in the presence of the Emperor Vespasian and his sons, and of his army. He put a ring containing one of the roots prescribed by Solomon to the nose of the demoniac, and drew the demon out by his nostrils, and, in the name of Solomon, and reciting one of his incantations, he adjured it to return no more. In order to demonstrate to the spectators that he had the power to cast out devils, Eliezer was accustomed to set a vessel full of water a little way off, and he commanded the demon as he left the body of the man to overturn it, by which means, says Josephus, the skill and wisdom of Solomon were made very manifest.' Jewish Rabbins generally were known as powerful exorcisers, practising the art according to the formula of their great monarch. Justin Martyr reproaches his Jewish opponent, Tryphon, with the fact that his countrymen use the same art as the Gentiles, and exorcise with fumigations and charms (karádeσμoi) and he shows the common belief in demoniacal influence when he asserts that, while Jewish exorcists cannot overcome demons by such means, or even by exorcising them in the name of their Kings, Prophets, or Patriarchs, though he admits that they might do so if they adjured them in the name of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and 1 Antiq., viii. 2, § 5. Jacob, yet Christians at once subdued demons by exorcising them in the name of the Son of God.' The Jew and the Christian were quite agreed that demons were to be exorcised, and merely differed as to the formula of exorcism. Josephus gives an account of a root potent against evil spirits. It is called Baaras, and is flame-coloured, and in the evening sends out flashes like lightning. It is certain death to touch it, except under peculiar conditions. One mode of securing it is to dig down till the smaller part of the root is exposed, and then to attach the root to a dog's tail. When the dog tries to follow its master from the place, and pulls violently, the root is plucked up, and may then be safely handled, but the dog instantly dies, as the man would have done had he plucked it up himself. When the root is brought to sick people, it at once expels demons.2 According to Josephus, demons are the spirits of the wicked dead; they enter into the bodies of the living, who die, unless succour be speedily obtained.3 This theory, however, was not general, demons being commonly considered the offspring of the fallen angels and of the daughters of men. The Jewish historian gives a serious account of the preternatural portents which warned the Jews of the approaching fall of Jerusalem, and he laments the infatuation of the people, who disregarded these Divine denunciations. A star in the shape of a sword, and also a comet, stood over the doomed city for the space of a whole year. Then, at the feast of unleavened bread, before the rebellion of the Jews which preceded the war, at the ninth hour of the night a 1 Dial. c. Tryph., 85; cf. Apol., ii. 6; Acts xix. 13 ff. |