II. THE BIBLE AND THE ANCIENT CLASSICS

III. ART AMONG THE ANCIENT HEBREWS

IV. THE LIFE OF THE HEBREW WOMEN OF OLD

43

47

V. CURIOSITIES OF CERTAIN PROPER NAMES IN THE Bible

VI. SKETCH OF THE TALMUD

VII. THE HUMOUR OF SOME MEDIAEVAL AND Modern

HEBREW WRITERS

VIII. YEDAYA BEDARESI, A FOURTEENTH-CENTURY HEBREW

POET AND PHILOSOPHER

58

71

IX. IMMANUEL DI ROMA, A Thirteenth-CeNTURY HEBREW

HUMORIST, AND A FRIEND OF DANTE

X. KALONYMOs ben KalonyMOS, A THIRTEENTH-CENTURY

SATIRIST

82

XI. ABRAHAM IBN CHASDAI, AND HIS BOOK "THE PRINCE

AND THE DERVISH

XII. ISAAC ERTER, A MODERN HEBREW HUMORIST

XIII. LEOPOLD Zunz.

103

I

HUMOUR OF THE BIBLE

ERRATA

Page 34, line 28, read Philo instead of Plato.

Page 37, line 27, read conjux instead of coniux.

.פרוש ... ופרוש instead of פירוש ... ופירוש Page 79, line 14, read

Carmel, when Elijah, the true prophet of God, gathered round him the false prophets of Baal. After they had leapt on the altar from morning unto even, crying incessantly, “Oh, Baal, hear us," Elijah stepped forth, and exclaimed mockingly, "Cry ye louder, for he is a god; perhaps he talketh or walketh, or is on a journey; or peradventure he sleepeth and must be awaked" (1 'Kings xviii. 27). The Aristophanic punning on proper names is paralleled not infrequently in the Bible. Thus, for example, the Hebrew word Nabal (1 Sam, xxv. 3), which means "rogue," is well applied as the proper name of a man, who was noted for the baseness of his character. Characteristic, too, is the name of one of Job's fair daughters, Keren-happuch (Job xlii. 14), which literally means "a horn (or box) of cosmetics," suggesting the means by which the owner of

B