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THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

editor in the

Maccabean time combined, prefixing the statement about Baruch. The obvious imitation of Job and Ecclus. (Sirach) in the second part of the book (see Job xxviii. Ecclus. (Sirach) xxiv.) makes it impossible to assign this piece to a time earlier than the second century B.C. and the conditions seem to accord with the



Date of Second Part.

early Maccabean period. Kneucker, Marshall, and several other recent critics,

however, place

its

composition

after the capture of Jerusalem

by

Ti-

holding that the " strange nation " of iv. 3 (" give not thine honor ... to a strange nation ") refers to the Christians, and relates to a time when the antagonism between Judaism and Christianity had become pronounced. While this is possible, the expression may also be understood tus,

to allude to the antagonism between Judaism and Hellenism in the second century b.c. The verse iii. 37 (" afterward did he [or it] show himself [or itself] upon earth and converse with men"), which was much quoted by early Christian writers, interrupts the connection and is undoubtedly a Christian

interpolation.

The second poem general period as the

(iv.

5-v. 9) belongs to the same It is divided into a num-

first.

ber of strophes, each beginning with the words " Be of good cheer." The people, scattered and afflicted, are exhorted to trust in God and Jerusalem, mourning over her children, is urged to take courage. The picture accords either with the late Maccabean period or with the time soon after the Roman capture of Jerusalem. The resemblance between iv. 36-v. 9 and Psalms of Solomon, xi.

Whichever may have been the borrower, the two probably belong to the same period and the Psalms of Solomon were composed not far from 48 b.c. The Book of Baruch was never accepted as canonical by the Palestinian Jews (Baba Batra lib). According to the " Apostolical Constitutions, " it was is

striking.

Canonic-

read in public worship on the tenth day of the month Gorpiaios (probably

Ab). This statement, however, can hardly be considered authoritative; and even if it be correct, it can refer only to the usage of some group of Hellenistic Jews. If, as is probable, the first part of the book was written in Hebrew, its exclusion from the Palestinian canon must have been owing to its supposed lack of prophetic authority. It was, however, accepted by the Alexandrian Jews as a work of edification and through the medium of the Septuagint it passed into the hands of the Christians, among whom it speedily became popular, being often quoted by Athenagoras, Clement of Alexandria, and many others as a work of Jeremiah and as sacred Scripture. In a number of early Christian canonical lists the work was included in Jeremiah, and together with the ity.



other Apocryphal books was pronounced canonical(dcuterocanonical) by the Council of Trent (1545Its canonicity, however, is not accepted by 63). the Protestant churches. Besides its value as a mirror of the time, the book, though devoid of new ideas, contains many liturgical and poetical passages of great beauty and power.

Baruoh, Book of Baruch. Baruch

The

Epistle of Jeremiah is usually printed as an to the Book of Baruch and marked as ch. of that book. It is, however, an independent

appendix vi.

work

(see

Jeremiah, Epistle

of).

Bibliography The Greek text Is given in Swete's Septuagint. Foran account of the Greek MSS-, see Swete and Gifford

for the other ancient versions (Latin, Svriac, Coptic, etc.) see Kneucker and Schilrer. There are modem Hebrew translations by Frankel, 1830; Plessner, 1833; Kneucker, 1879. The best general discussion of the book is that of Kneucker, Das Buch Baruch, 1879 ; the largest list of citations by early Christian writers is in Reusch, ErklUrunq des Bitches Baruch, 1853. Other authorities are Fritzscne, in BxegeUsches Handbuch zu den Apokryplien, 1851 ; Hitzig, in Hilgenfeld's Zeitschrift, 1860; Hilgenfeld, ib. 1879-1880; Ewald, Gesch. des Volhes Israel, 1864 idem, Propheten,im ; Bissell, Apocrypha, in the Lange series, 1880 ; Gifford, in Speaker's Commentary, 1888 ; Reuss, Gesch. der Heiliqen Schriften des Alien Testament.es, 1890; Schiirer, Hist. Jewish People, 1891 ; Ryle, in Smith's Diet, of the Bible, 1893 ; Marshall, in Hasting's Diet, of the Bible, 1898; Bevan, in Cheyne's Encycl. Bibl. 1899; Introductions of Eicbborn, Welte, and others. For other works attributed to Baruch see Charles, Apocal. of Baruch, 1896, and article Apocrypha, in Encycl.



Bibl.

T.

BARUCH

Polish mechanic of the beginning of the eighteenth century lived in Pogrebishche. He produced two magnificent brass candelabra for the synagogue there, which are still extant. One of them was intended for the Hanukkah festival, and " has the traditional form of the menorah " the other represents an upright, four-cornered tablet, from both sides of which project arms. Baruch was poor and earned a livelihood by repairing metal-work. For eight years he collected scraps of metal, which he used in the construction of the candelabra, on the work of which he was engaged for six years more. prayer-book, written on parchment and decorated with fine arabesques and initials, preserved in the same synagogue, seems to have been the work of a son of Baruch and to have been dedicated to the synagogue. Bibliography Mathias Bersohn, Kilka Slow, part ii., pp. 13,





A



14



Ost

und West,

BARUCH A

1901, No. 4, p. 287.

Jewish pioneer

settler in Spain,

whom the

tradition of the Ibn Albaliahs regarded as the ancestor of their family. See Ibn Daud, " Sefer

ha-Kabbalah," in Chronicles,"

i.

74,

Neubauer's "Medieval Jewish and Albalia. H. G. E.

g.

BARUCH, BARUCH

B.

MOSES IBN:

Ital-

ian philosopher, Talmudist, and Bible commentator; lived at the end of the sixteenth century. He belonged to the old noble Spanish family of Baruch, also called " Bet Ya'akob " (introduction to his work mentioned below, Sd). His father was apparently

a scholar and a rich man, and Baruch himself was (1598-99) a member of the Venetian rabbinate (I. c. 9i), where he speaks of the many legal questions which he had to answer in that city. He is also said to have been a proof-reader of Hebrew books. In 1602 he was at Constantinople (Joseph b. Moses Trani, Responsa, i. No. 89) in scientific intercourse with the scholars of that city. Baruch was a prolific author in the field of the Halakah, writing explanations and comments on the Tosafists, on Maimonides' " Yad haHazakah," etc. Very little has been preserved of these literary productions, except some extracts in the responsa of Joseph b. Moses Trani (Nos. 68, ,