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THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

the gift of prophecy had not been given to him.

"Why," he

my

said, "is

fate different. from that of

the other disciples of the Prophets? Joshua served Moses, and the Holy Spirit rested upon him; Elisha served Elijah, and the Holy Counted Spirit rested upon him. Why is it Among the otherwise with me?" God answered Prophets, him: "Baruch, of what avail is a hedge where there is no vineyard, or a shepherd where there are no sheep?" Baruch, therefore, found consolation in the fact that when Israel was exiled to Babylonia there was no longer occasion for prophecy. The "Seder 'Olam" (xx.), however, and the Talmud (Meg. 14ft), include Baruch among the Prophets, and state that he prophesied in the period following the destruction. It was in Babylonia also that Ezra studied the Torah with Baruch. Nor did he think of returning to Palestine during his teacher's lifetime, since he considered the study of the Torah more important than the rebuilding of the Temple (Meg. 16ft) and Baruch could not join the returning exiles by reason of his age (Cant. R. v. 5; see also Seder 'Olam, ed. Ratner, xxvi.). Baruch's grave became the subject of later legends. An Arabian king once ordered it to be opened but all who touched it fell dead. The king thereupon commanded the Jews to Baruch's open it; and they, after preparing themselves by a three days' fast, sucGrave. ceeded without a mishap. Baruch's body was found intact in a marble coffin, and appeared as if he had just died. The king ordered that it should be transported to another place but, after having dragged the coffin a little distance, the horses and camels were unable to move it another inch. The king, greatly excited by these wonders, went with his retinue to Mohammed to ask his adArrived at Mecca, his doubts of the truth of vice. the teachings of Islam greatly increased, and he and The king his courtiers finally accepted Judaism. then built a " bet ha-midrash " on the spot from which he had been unable to move Baruch's body and this academy served for a long time as a place

all







of pilgrimage.

Baruch's tomb is a mile distant from that of Ezenear Mashid 'Ali; and a strange plant, the leaves of which are sprinkled with gold dust, grows on it ("Gelilot Erez Yisrael," as quoted in Heilprin's "Seder ha-Dorot," ed. Wilna, i. 127, 128; variant in "Itinerary" of Pethahiah of Regensburg, ed. Jerusalem, 4ft). According to the Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch, he was translated to paradise in his mortal kiel,

body

(xiii.,

xxv.).

Ere? Zutta"

(i.)

The same is stated in "Derek Ebed-melech, and since, as

of

shown above, Baruch and Ebed-melech were held to be identical, the deduction is evident. j.

L. G.

sr.

Bartolocci, Giulio

Baruch, Apocalypse of

also ascribed to Baruch-Zoroaster (compare the complete collection of these legends in Gottheil, in "Classical Studies in Honor of H. Drisler," pp. 2451, New York, 1894; Jackson, "Zoroaster," pp. 17,

is

165

explain the origin of prophet with a magician, such as Zoroaster was held to be, among the Jews, Christians, and Arabs. De Sacy (" Notices et Extraits des MSS. de la Bibliotheque du Roi," ii. 319) explains it on the ground that in Arabic the name of the prophet Jeremiah is almost identical with that of the city of Urmiah, where, it is said, Zoroaster lived. However this may be, the Jewish legend mentioned above (under Baruch in Rabbinical Literature), according to which the Ethiopian in Jer. xxxviii. 7 is undoubtedly identical with Baruch, is connected with this Arabic-Christian legend. As early as the Clementine " Recognitiones " (iv. 27), Zoroaster was believed to be a descendant of Ham; and, according to Gen. x. 6, Cush, the Ethiopian, is a son of Ham. It should furthermore be remembered that, according to the " Recognitiones " iv. 28), the Persians believed that Zoroaster had been taken into heaven in a chariot (" ad coelum vehiculo sublevatum ") and according to the Jewish legend, the above-mentioned Ethiopian was transported alive into paradise ("Derek Erez Zutta," i. end), an occurrence that, like the translation of Elijah (II Kings ii. 11), must have taken place by means of a " vehiculum." Another reminiscence of the Jewish legend is found in Baruch-Zoroaster's words con" cerning Jesus: "He shall descend from my family ("Book of the Bee," ed. Budge, p. 90, line 5, London, 1886), since, according to the Haggadah, Baruch was a priest; and Maria, the mother of Jesus, was of Compare Ebed-melech in Rabpriestly family. et seg.).

It is difficult to

this curious identification of a



binical Literature, L. G.

g.

BARUCH, APOCALYPSE OF

(Greek)



An

apocryphal work, in which Baruch, the disciple of Jeremiah, gives an account of the revelation which he received in heaven. The existence of this work (which is wholly different from the Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch published by Ceriani in 1866, 1871, 1883, and translated by Charles in 1896 see Baruch, Apocalypse of [Syriac]) was unknown until 1886, when a Slavonic Baruch Apocalypse was published by Stojan Novakovic in the magazine " Starine "(vol. But the attention of scholars was first xviii.). drawn to this work through the German translation of the Slavonic text by N. Bonwetsch (" Nachrichten

von der Koniglichen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Gottingen, Philologisch-Historische Klasse," 1896, pp. 94-101); and a year later the world of learning was astonished by M. R. James's publica-

Greek text; until then entirely unknown, "Texts and Studies: Contributions to Biblical and Patristic Literature," edited by J. Armitage Robinson, v.. No. i., pp. 84-94, Cambridge, 1897. The Slavonic text is an abbreviated form of the Greek, sometimes merely an abstract of it. Consequently, the Greek text must be considered as the basis of the other, though the Slavonic text seems in some

tion of the in

In Arabic-Christian Legend



The

Arabic-

Christian legends identify Baruch with Zoroaster, and give much information concerning him. Baruch angry because the gift of prophecy had been denied

him, and on account of the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, left Palestine to found the religion The prophecy of the birth of Jesus of Zoroaster. from a virgin, and of his adoration by the Magi,

places to have preserved the correct reading. The contents of the Apocalypse are as follows: