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(Continued
from Vol. I. Issue 12.)
But,
perhaps, no class of men felt greater concern in the event than the
laborious biblical critics of that time. To them the finding of some of
that nation "to whom were committed the oracles of God," yet
supposed to be of too ancient a separation to be cognizant of either the
Samaritan, Septuagint, or Masoretic texts of the Old Testament, yet
still guarding their copies of the law of Moses, was a circumstance most
pregnant with hopeful interest, and the more a matter of anxiety as
these Israelites were represented as almost ceasing to subsist, and
there was great possibility that with the failure of Hebrew reading,
consequent on the adoption of a novel creed, the manuscripts themselves
might be suffered to perish. The subject was referred to in the
Prolegomena (iii. § 41) of Walton's Polyglot Bible, and in the preface
to Jablonski's Hebrew Bible (§ 38), and further information as to the
text of the Chinese copies of the Pentateuch was ardently desired.
A
fuller account was afterwards received from Father Gozani, dated
Kae-fung-foo, November, 1704, and published in 1707.* During this
interval of more than sixty years' residence in the same city, with the
only known Synagogue in China, no intercourse had taken place between
the missionaries and them, beyond one visit from Rodriguez de Figueredo,
and another from Christian Enriquez,
but who had shown no curiosity to inspect the Hebrew books, and had made
no report on the subject to their superiors; the fact that they had made
any visit was only learned by Gozani from the people of the Synagogue.
It is true that the Jesuits had found abundant occupation in their
direct duties, in political intrigues, and in disputes with their rivals
of the monkish orders, but for these latter employments the wise and the
learned in Europe had but little cause to thank them.
From
the communication of Gozani, it appears that in 1702 he had intended to
visit the Taou-kin-keaou, i. e., "the sect who cut out the
sinew," as the Israelites were expressly designated, but was
deterred by some imaginary obstacles, and by the real difficulty in his
ignorance of the Hebrew language, but had resumed the task two years
afterwards in obedience to instructions sent from Rome. He commenced by advancing certain civilities; in return they visited him; and
then he proceeded to their Synagogue (Le-pae-sze), the distance being
only that of a few streets, where he found them assembled. They showed
him their religious books, and even led him to the most sacred part of
the edifice, to which only the rabbi (Chang-keaou) has right of access.
With great politeness they gave him all the explanations he requested as
to their Scriptures, their history, and their religious ceremonies. On
the walls he perceived inscriptions both in Chinese and Hebrew: these
they permitted him to copy, and he despatched the copies with his letter
to Rome. The whole reception testified that the unfriendliness of the
last half century between the neighbours was not attributable to the
Israelite community.
The
curiosity of Europeans being only the more excited from this narrative,
as there still remained much to learn, at the instance of Souciet, who
was compiling a large work upon the Bible, the missionaries Gozani,
Domenge, and Gaubil, were successively directed to procure additional
particulars on this subject, which they did. Domenge sketched a plan of
the Synagogue, and Gaubil copied afresh the inscriptions upon its walls.
Shortly after the last of these visits, in 1723, the missionaries were
expelled from that province by the Emperor Yong-ching.
An
effort was afterwards made by the celebrated Kennicott, of Oxford, to
obtain a collation of their Scriptures with our copies, when Sir F.
Pigou, being on his way to Canton, carried out for him a printed Hebrew
Bible of Amsterdam edition; but the only result has been a letter
received in 1769, from a friend there, promising to exert himself for
the purpose, and stating that the titular bishop of the province was
willing to render his assistance.
The
learned Tychsen, upon two later occasions, in 1777 and 1779, forwarded
letters to friends in Batavia, addressed to the Synagogue of
Kae-fung-foo, but no information has been returned as to their having
even reached China.
In
1815, the year previous to the last embassy from England to the
Celestial Empire, some Jews of London had despatched a letter in Hebrew
to Canton for this Synagogue. It was conveyed thence by a travelling
bookseller of the Ho-nan province. He delivered it at Kae-fung-foo, to a
person whom he found to understand the letter perfectly, and who
promised to answer it in a few days, but the bearer taking alarm at a
rumour of civil war, left the place without waiting for the reply.*
The
recent missionaries from England have learned nothing concerning this
colony, only in 1816 Dr. Morrison heard of them from a Mohammedan near
Pe-king,* as subsisting in Kae-fung-foo under their old name of
"the religion of cutting out the sinew," an appellation so
appropriately Jewish, that no other people than descendants of Jacob
could even assign a reason for its origin, if they were to assume the
name for any purpose.
Proceeding,
then, from the information given by the Jesuits already mentioned, the
account in the following chapters of the Synagogue, Scriptures,
inscriptions, &c., must be understood only of Kae-fung-foo, and upon
the statements there detailed must be based the after-inquiry, as to
whether the people are Jews or Israelites, that is, whether emigrants
from the Assyrian captivity or the Roman dispersion.
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