Page:Judaism and Islam, a prize essay - Geiger - 1898.pdf/128

 110 JUDAISM AND ISllM.

given in accordance with rabbinical sources as follows : l " And Abraham commanded this to his sons, 2 even to Jacob : ' My children, verily God hath chosen this religion for you, therefore die not unless ye also be resigned.' Were ye present when Jacob was at the point of death ? When he said to his sons, ' Whom will ye worship after me ? ' they answered : ' We will worship thy God and the God of thy fathers Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac, one God, and to him will we be resigned.' " We find something similar in the Rabbinical writings : 3 " At the time when Jacob was leaving the world, he called his twelve sons and said to them : f Hear your father Israel, 4 is there any doubt in your hearts about God ? ' they said : ( Hear Israel our father, as in thy heart there is no doubt about God, so also there is in ours ; but the Lord is our God, the Lord is one.' 5 Then he spoke out and said : f Praised be the name of his glorious kingdom, for ever.' " 6 The sons of Jacob are not individually mentioned, but they appear in the list of the Patriarchs as "the tribes," 7 so called because of the subsequent division into tribes ; Joseph 8 alone enjoying an honorable exception. Besides

1 Sura II. 1267. 2 Compare perhaps Genesis, xviii. 19.

3 Midr. Eab. on Genesis, para, 98, and on Deuteronomy, para, 2,

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4 Genesis, xlix. 2. 5 Deuteronomy, vi. 4.

6 Comp. the two recensions of the Jerusalem Targum on Deuteronomy, vi. 4 5 also Tract Pesaohim, page 56,