Book of Jasher (Pseudo-Jasher)

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The Book of Jasher, also called Pseudo-Jasher, is an eighteenth-century literary forgery by Jacob Ilive.[1] It purports to be an English translation by Flaccus Albinus Alcuinus of the lost Book of Jasher. It is sometimes called Pseudo-Jasher to distinguish it from the midrashic Sefer haYashar (Book of the Upright, Naples, 1552), which incorporates genuine Jewish legend.

Details[]

Published in November 1750, the title page of the book says: "translated into English by Flaccus Albinus Alcuinus, of Britain, Abbot of Canterbury, who went on a pilgrimage into the Holy Land and Persia, where he discovered this volume in the city of Gazna." The book claims to be written by Jasher, son of Caleb, one of Moses's lieutenants, who later judged Israel at Shiloh. The book covers biblical history from the creation down to Jasher's own day and was represented as the Lost Book of Jasher mentioned in the Bible.

The provenance of the text was immediately suspect: the eighth-century cleric Alcuin could not have produced a translation in the English of the King James Bible. There is an introductory account by Alcuin of his discovery of the manuscript in Persia and its history since the time of Jasher, and a commendation by John Wycliffe.

Reception[]

The supposed lost book was declared an obvious hoax by the Monthly Review in the December of the year of publication, and the printer Jacob Ilive was sentenced in 1756 to three years in jail for this fraud and for his radical anti-religious pamphlets.[citation needed]

In 1829, a slightly revised and enlarged edition was published in Bristol, provoking attacks against it. Photographic reproduction of this 1829 edition was published in 1934 by the Rosicrucians in San Jose, California,[2] who declared it an inspired work.

See also[]

  • Sefer haYashar for other books with similar titles.

References[]

  1. ^ Constitutional free speech defined and defended Theodore Schroeder - 1970 JACOB ILIVE — 1756.63 Jacob Ilive (1705-1763) was a type founder, printer, publisher of a magazine and a voluminous author, .. fictitious, and chimerical, and as a gross Piece of Forgery and Priestcraft, and thereby to weaken, enervate
  2. ^ "Part 1, Groups, Book 1". Catalog of Copyright Entries. Volume 31 (New Series). Washington. 1935. pp. 1691–1692. |volume= has extra text (help)

Bibliography[]

  • The Book of Jasher: One of the Sacred Books of the Bible Long Lost or Undiscovered, Flaccus A. Alcuinus (translator) (Kessinger Publishing Company, 1993) ISBN 1-56459-340-1
  • The Book of Jasher: with Testimonies and Notes by Flaccus Albinus Alcuinus of Britain (CPA Books, 1998). ISBN 0-944379-20-6

External links[]


While the above is an accurate description of the "forged" version as noted, there are 2 other versions as well as additional deliberations on this book. For a wider view and expanded understanding one may refer to: r#yh rps Sefer HaYashar “The Book of Jasher” or The Upright Book Referred to in Yahushua and Second Samuel

Translated from the Original Hebrew By James Scott Trimm

"Is not this written in the Book of Jasher?" --Yahushua, x. 13. "Behold it is written in the Book of Jasher." --II Samuel, i. 18

Published by: The Institute for Nazarene Jewish Studies PO Box 471 Hurst, TX 76053 © Copyright 2008 James Scott Trimm

A PDF version is available at: [1]

In his book's introduction, Mr. Trimm discuses that there has been 3 versions of said work, one of which is the forgery noted above, while he provides a translation from Hebrew to English of a 1625 Hebrew copy.

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