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222 THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Ass-Worship

222

when Antiochus Epiphanes conquered Jerusalem in the year 168 B.C. and entered the Temple, he found in the Holy of Holies the image of a man sitting upon an ass (iia&r//j.£vov ew' bvov) and holding a book in his hand; the king understood

rode,

and which was created at the close of the sixth day of Creation at dusk (Pirke R. El. xx.xi.). The old sources, as Abot v. 6, speak only of the creation of the "mouth of the ass" (Ginzberg, "Die Haggada bei den Kirchenvatera," pp. 49, 50; see Ba-

(died about 51 B.C.), that

laam).

In addition to the the statue to represent Moses. association of this story with an historical personage, Antiochus Epiphanes, and to the mention of a statue, this account is further distinguished by the element that not the head alone but the whole animal is reApion combined these ferred to, j ust as in Plutarch. accounts in stating that the Jews had in their Temple an ass's head set up, which was discovered when Antiochus Epiphanes penetrated into the sacred precincts (Josephus, "Contra Ap."ii. 7; all the passages referred to are given by Th. Reinach, "Pontes Re-

When

the Ass of Phinehas b. Jair, or, some say, of Hanina b. Dosa, was once stolen, she refused to eat the fodder laid before her because the tithe upon it had not been paid to the priest, whereupon the thieves set her free and she returned to her master (Yer. Dem. i. 2W, below; compare also Hul. 76;

Ab. R. N. viii. for variations of the legend). The Ass of Rabbi Jose would not enter his stall until a pair of shoes which were lying upon his back, and which did not belong to his master, had been re-

moved

Reinach (p. 131) Paris, 1895). remarks that it is clear from Josephus that Apollonius Molon, too, was acquainted with the calumny.

rum Judaicarum,"i.,

(Ta'an. 24a).

Ass -drivers were held 'in small repute



the current were rascals

opinion being that the majority of them (Kid. iv. 14, 83« but see Niddah 14a). An " assdriver's question" is equivalent to a "stupid question" (Yer. Sanh. vi. 236).

m



Bibliography 33, 140-143





Lewvsohn, Die Znolngie des Talmuds, pp.

y

33,

Rubin, Tehillat ha-Kcsilim, pp. 47-53.

L. G.

ASS-WORSHIP:

The accusation

that Jews for four centuries persistently

worshiped the ass was made by certain Greek and Latin writers. (1) Mnaseas of Patras (second century B.C.) is quoted by Josephus (" Contra Ap." ii. 9) as claiming that the Jews worshiped the head of a goldeD ass (Xfjvcqv

.

tov i(av$u)voc KeQaM/v).

The word

nav&uv,

instead of the usual ovoc, suggested by Various its similarity to the Kavdupo; (the scarAuthors of abs), worshiped in Egypt, betrays the the Egyptian standpoint of the author, it Calumny, being also used to denote the sign upon the tongue of the Egyptian god Apis. similar charge is made by Damocritus (Sui(2)

A

whose period is undetermined, but who certainly preceded Josephus. In his book " About the Jews " Damocritus asserts that the Jews reverenced the head of a golden ass (xpvaijv bvov nctyakip npootKvvovv), to which every seven years they das,

s.v. Aa/idKpirog),

QEQtsJ

whom they seized for that purpose, and cut his flesh into small pieces. Suidas (s.v. 'lobdac nai 'IowSaZoc) places the interval between these ritual-murders at three years instead of sacrificed a foreigner,

seven. (3) his "

The next writer

is

Plutarch (46-120), who, in

Quajstiones Conviviales,

" iv. 5,

states that the

Jews abstained from eating the flesh of the hare because it resembled the ass, which is an animal worshiped by them. Julius Floras, who lived under Antoninus Pius, speaks of the conquest of Jerusalem by Pompey, and mentions a secret place discovered in the Temple on that occasion, which contained, he says, an ass under a golden vine (" sub aurea vitecillum"). But the word "cillum," the most important word in the passage, is only a guess at a very much disfigured text, which, in its received form, gives no sense This author's testimony, therefore, hardly at all. deserves consideration. (5) Quite different from these accounts is that in Diodorus, " Eclogse," § 34, by Posidonius of Apamsea (4)

" The Mocking Crucifix." (From Garrucci, " Arte Christiana.")

As was the case with many another calumny against the Jews, Christianity, the daughter-religion of Judaism, was likewise charged Same with Ass- Worship (see Minucius Felix, Accusation "Octavius," ix., xxviii. ). As Ter-

Against Early

tullian tersely

("Apologia,"

xvi.)

remarks

and truthfully, the same accu-

Christians. sation was made against Christians because theirs was the nearest to the Jewish religion (" ut Judaicoe religionis propinquos "). Writing against the heathens, Tertullian further says, "Certain people out of your midst have dreamed that an ass's head is our God " (see also "Ad Nationes," i. 11). He quotes Tacitus, who, as is well known, contributed most to spread false reports concerning Judaism. Tacitus' story runs ("Historise," v. 3) that the Jews suffered from thirst in the wilderness, and that they followed a herd of