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(xt) Moses, Samuel, Translator. Preface by M. M. Noah [Mordecai Manuel Noah] : [SEFER HA-YASHAR], OR, THE BOOK OF JASHER :REFERRED TO IN JOSHUA AND SECOND SAMUEL

New York : W. Reid Gould, 1840

2nd edition, Original stamped Cloth, 8vo, 23 cm. [4], xxiii, 267 pages. Singerman 0726. The 2nd edition includes a 4-page “ADVERTISEMENT TO THE SECOND EDITION, with promotional blurbs from Isaac Nordheimer, H.V. Nathan (“Minister of the Eng. and German Synagogue, Kinston, Jamaica”), Samuel H. Turner, Geo. Bush (relative of the US presidents) and favorable reviews from 11 American periodicals, including the New Era, a New York Jewish monthly. Mordecai Manuel was an American sheriff, playwright, diplomat, journalist, and utopian… He was the most important Jewish lay leader in New York in the early 19th century, and the first Jew born in the United States to reach national prominence.” The first translation into English “was published in 1840 by Mordecai Manuel Noah and A. S. Gould. The translator was not named but was lauded by one of the four Hebraists who commented in the preface.‘To Mssrs Noah and Gould. Gentlemen - I am acquainted with the 'Book of Jasher,' having read a considerable part of it while in the hands of the translator in England. The Hebrew is very purely written, and the translator is an eminent scholar.’— Rabbi H. V. Nathan, Kingston Synagogue, Jamaica, April 14, 1840Subsequently, the translator identified himself as Moses Samuel of Liverpool (1795–1860), who had obtained a copy of the 1625 Hebrew edition and become convinced that the core of this work truly was the self-same Book of the Upright referenced in Hebrew scriptures. He translated the document into English and, after the Royal Asiatic Society at Calcutta declined to publish it, sold the translation to New York City publisher Noah for £150 in 1839. Samuel later said of the absence of his name on the translation that "I did not put my name to it as my Patron [ie M.M.Noah] and myself differed about its authenticity" – Noah having had less confidence in the 1625 document than did Samuel.Even so, Noah enthusiastically claimed in his promotional materials that the historian Josephus had said of the Book of Jasher ‘by this book are to be understood certain records kept in some safe place on purpose, giving an account of what happened among the Hebrews from year to year, and called Jasher or the upright, on account of the fidelity of the annals.’ No such statement is found in Josephus's works. Noah's 1840 preface contained endorsements by Hebrew scholars of the day, all of whom praised the quality of the translation, but these said nothing to indicate they believed it to be the work referred to in Joshua and 2 Samuel. In fact one of them, Samuel H. Turner (1790–1861), of the General Theological Seminary in New York City, commented that ‘The work itself is evidently composed in the purest Rabbinical Hebrew, with a large intermixture of the Biblical idiom’, indicating he was not of the opinion that it was an ancient text....Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, acquired a copy in 1841 or 1842 and wrote in the September 1, 1842 edition of the Times and Seasons, in reference to the patriarch Abraham: ‘the book of Jasher, which has not been disproved as a bad author, says he was cast into the fire of the Chaldeans’. In 1886, Joseph Hyrum Parry of Salt Lake City acquired the rights to the translation from Mordecai Noah's estate. It was published by J. H. Parry & Company in Salt Lake City in 1887.A number of Mormon scholars consider this Book of Jasher to be of authentic ancient Hebrew origin. Some of these scholars suggest that the book likely contains many original portions of the Sefer HaYashar referenced in the Old Testament but also has a number of added interpolations. This Joseph Hyrum Parry edition of the Book of Jasher continues to be held in high repute by many Mormons. A number of Mormons have pointed to certain portions of the book that have commonalities to parts of the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible, particularly those parts dealing with the antediluvian period. The Bible has only scant information about pre-flood times, but both the Book of Jasher and parts of the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible contain additional information, some of which is strikingly similar" (wikipedia). This work has become important in most pseudo-Judeo Christian movements, including the Rosicrucians and modern New Age movements. SUBJECT(S): Aggada -- Early works to 1800. Bible. Hexateuch. OCLC: 23605582. Boards worn, especially at spine and corners, some darkening to blank front end pages and page edges; blank paper adhered to blank front pastedown. Good+ Condition. (AMR- 67- 7)

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