Page:Jewish Encyclopedia Volume 1.pdf/20

xii within the Jewish community, have, for one reason or another, abandoned it. As the present work deals with the Jews as a race, it was found impossible to exclude those who were of that race, whatever their religious affiliations may have been. It would be natural to look in a Jewish encyclopedia for such names as Heinrich Heine, Ludwig Börne, Theodor Benfey, Lord Beaconsfield, Emin Pasha: to mention only a few. Even those who have Jewish blood only on one side of their parentage—as Sir John Adolphus, Paul Heyse, and Georg Ebers—have been included.

In treating of these Jews whose activities have lain outside of distinctly Jewish spheres, it has been deemed sufficient to give short sketches of their lives with a simple indication of what their contributions have been to their particular fields of labor. Only occasionally, and for reasons of weight, has a departure been made from this policy. A summary of the contributions thus made to the various sciences will be found under the respective headings.

How to deal with the vast amount of literary material that offered itself to the pages of a Jewish encyclopedia was a serious problem. While the Old Testament is the foundation of Jewish Literature in all its aspects, as well as of Jewish life and thought, information on Biblical subjects is so readily accessible elsewhere that it did not seem desirable to develop the treatment of purely Biblical topics in these pages to the length which would be demanded in a work whose scope was confined to the Bible alone. In particular, it was considered unnecessary to compete with the "Dictionary of the Bible," prepared under the direction of Dr. Hastings, or with the "Encyclopdia Biblica" of Professor Cheyne, both published simultaneously with this While all sides  of Biblical research  are represented in these pages, they are treated concisely and, in many cases, with little reference to disputed points. While all sides of Biblical research are represented in these pages, they are treated concisely and, in many cases, with little reference to disputed points. With regard, however, to two special aspects of Biblical subjects, it has seemed desirable to treat the Scriptures on somewhat novel principles. Among Jews, as among Christians, there exists a wide diversity of opinion as to the character of the revelation of the Old Testament. There are those who who hold to the literal inspiration, while others reject this view and are of the opinion that the circumstances under which the various texts were produced can be ascertained by what is known as the Higher Criticism. It seemed appropriate in the more Biblical articles to distinguish sharply between these two points of view, and to give in separate paragraphs the actual data of the Masoretic text and the critical views regarding them. Again, there exists nowhere a full and adequate account of the various rabbinical developments of Bible exegesis—which would be of especial value to the Christian theologian and Bible exegete—and it was evidently desirable in a Jewish encyclopedia to devote a considerable attention to this aspect of Biblical knowledge. The plan was adopted of treating the more important Biblical articles under the three heads of (a) Biblical Data, giving, without comment or separation of "sources," the statements of the text; (b) Rabbinical Literature, giving the interpretation placed upon Biblical facts by the Talmud, Midrash, and later Jewish literature; (c) Critical View, stating concisely the opinions held by the so-called Higher Criticism as to the sources and validity of the Biblical statements. As kindred to the rabbinical treatment of Bible traditions, it has been thought well to add occasionally (d) a statement of the phases under which they appear in the Koran and traditions of Islam generally.

It is here proper to point out that, inasmuch as the treatment of Biblical passages is mainly from the Jewish point of view, the chapter and verse divisions of the Hewbrew