Everything about Sefer Hayashar Midrash totally explained
Sefer haYashar (midrash), a
Hebrew midrash known in English translation mostly as
The Book of Jasher. The book is named after the
Sefer HaYashar mentioned in
Joshua and 2
Samuel.
History
The Hebrew version was printed in
Venice in
1625 and the introduction refers to an earlier
1552 edition in
Naples of which neither trace or other mention has been found. The printer Joseph ben Samuel claimed the work was copied by a scribe named Jacob the son of Atyah from an ancient manuscript whose letters could hardly be made out.
This work isn't to be confused with an ethical text by the same name, which, according to the
Encyclopaedia Judaica, Volume 14, p. 1099, was "probably written in the
13th century." Scholars have proposed various dates between the 9th century and 16th century.
Some
Mormon scholars consider this to be the authentic
Sefer HaYashar referenced in the
Old Testament (though in recent decades this has become a minority view). That belief comes from the preface to the
1625 version which says its original source book came from the ruins of
Jerusalem in 70AD. A
Roman officer named
Sidrus discovered a
Hebrew scholar hiding in a hidden library. The officer reportedly took the scholar and all the books safely back to his estates in
Seville,
Spain, which in
Roman times was known as
Hispalis, the provincial capital of Hispalensis (cf.
Hispania Baetica). At some uncertain point in history (presumably after the Islamic conquest of Iberia (cf.
Al-Andalus)), the manuscript was transferred or sold to the
Jewish college in
Cordova,
Spain. Scholars apparently had preserved the book until its printings in
Naples in
1552 and in
Venice in
1625. Oustide of the preface to the
1625, there's no evidence to support any of this story.
Content
The book covers
Biblical history from the creation of
Adam and Eve to a summary of the initial
Israelite conquest of
Canaan in the beginning of the
book of Judges. It contains references that fit those cited in the Biblical texts, both the reference about the sun and moon found in Joshua and also the reference in 2 Samuel (in the Hebrew but not in the
Septuagint) to teaching the Sons of
Judah to fight with the bow. This appears in Jasher 56:9 among the last words of
Jacob to his son Judah:
» Only teach thy sons the bow and all weapons of war, in order that they may fight the battles of their brother who will rule over his enemies.
But the book in its entirety can't be so old as shown by chapter 10, covering the descendants of
Noah, which contains
medieval names for territories and countries, perhaps mostly obviously
Franza for
France and
Lumbardi in
Italia for
Lombardy. The text of this chapter closely follows the beginning of
Josippon, a
tenth century rabbinic text that lists the various peoples living in Europe in ca.
950.
Most of its extra-Biblical accounts are found in nearly the same form in either other medieval compilations, or in the
Talmud, or in other midrash or in
Arabic sources. For example it contains the common tale that
Lamech and his son
Jabal accidentally killed
Cain, thus requiting his wickedness for slaying
Abel.
The Arabic connections suggest that if the preface to the
1625 version is an "exaggeration", it was then probably written by a Jew who lived in
Spain or southern
Italy. The work was used extensively but not especially more than many other sources in
Louis Ginzberg's
Legends of the Jews.
In the
19th century, Moses Samuel of
Liverpool,
England, was given a copy of the Hebrew work and became convinced that the core of this work truly was the self-same
Book of the Upright referenced in Hebrew scriptures. He translated it into English and, in
1839, sold it to
Mordecai Manuel Noah, a Jewish
New York publisher who published it the following year.
Samuel's name didn't appear on the translation. "I didn't put my name to it as my Patron and myself differed about its authenticity", Samuel later explained. Yet M. M. Noah did enthusiastically claim that the historian
Josephus had stated on the
Book of Jasher: "by this book are to be understood certain records kept in some safe place on purpose, giving an account of what happened among the Hebrews from year to year, and called Jasher or the upright, on account of the fidelity of the annals." No such statement is found in Josephus' works.
Noah's published book also contained within it endorsements by four top American Hebrew scholars of the day, all of whom praised the quality of the translation but said nothing to indicate they believed it to be the work referred to in Joshua and 2 Samuel. Indeed one of them, Samuel H. Turner, referred to the "Rabbinical writer" in this way:
» The work itself is evidently composed in the purest Rabbinical Hebrew, with a large intermixture of the Biblical idiom, ...
Joseph Smith, Jr., founder of
Mormonism and the
Latter Day Saint movement, wrote somewhat diffidently in
Times and Seasons,
Sept. 1,
1842, in reference to the patriarch
Abraham: "the book of Jasher, which hasn't been disproved as a bad author, says he was cast into the fire of the Chaldeans". (
External Link: Times and Seasons, Volume 3, Number 21
.)
Subsequently copyright of the translation was obtained by J. H. Parry & Company in
Salt Lake City who published it in
1887. It has continued to be held in high repute by many
Mormons but isn't officially endorsed.
It is sometimes confused with the very different
Book of Jasher (Pseudo-Jasher), which is said to be an obvious forgery. Pseudo-Jasher claims to have been translated by the Anglish monk
Alcuin. That version was printed by Jacob Ilive in
1751 in
Early Modern English.
Alcuin spoke
Old English (or Old Anglish), which, coupled with the printer's seeming anti-Christian sentiments, would suggest that it was a fraud.
For other works of the same name see
Sefer haYashar.
Bibliography
- Hebrew:
- Sefer ha-Yashar, ed. Rosenthal, Berlin, 1898,
- English translation:
- Book of Jasher Referred to in Joshua and Second Samuel (1887), edited by J. H. Parry (Kessinger Publishing Company, 1998). ISBN 0-7661-0260-2
- The Authentic Annals of the Early Hebrews: Also Known as the Book of Jasher, edited by Wayne Simpson (Morris Publishing (NE), 1995) (Hardcover - January 1995) ISBN 1-57502-962-6 hardcover; (Lightcatcher Books, 2003) ISBN 0-9719388-3-0 paperback
External links to Harvard's translation
http://books.google.com/books?vid=OCLC13715800&id=8AHZ-l0u4n8C&pg=RA1-PR17&lpg=RA1-PR17&dq=sefer+ha+yashar&ie=ISO-8859-1#PRA1-PA146,M1
External links to Samuel's English translation
Plain text: Cumorah Project: LDS and World Classics (Includes translator's preface.)
HTML:
PDF: Dubroom: Books
Further Information
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