"That a Word existed among the Ancients is evident from the writings of Moses in which he mentions it, and gives quotations from it Num. xxi 14, 15, 27-30. Its historical parts were called THE WARS OF JEHOVAH, and the prophetical parts ENUNCIATIONS. ....In addition to these Books, mention is made by David and by Joshua of the prophetical Book of the Ancient Word, called the BOOK OF JASHER, or the BOOK OF THE UPRIGHT. David refers to it in the following passage:
David lamented ... over Saul and over Jonathan ... Also he bade them teach the children of Judah the use of the bow: behold, it is written in the Book of Jasher. 2 Sam. i 17, 18.
In Joshua it is mentioned in this passage:
Joshua said, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon: and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon! Is not this written in the Book of Jasher? Joshua x 12, 13.
Moreover, I was informed that the first seven chapters of Genesis, are extant in that Ancient Word, and that not the least word is wanting." (TCR 103).
The contents of the book of Jasher are clarified further in a later vision:
"Seven years ago, when I was collecting what Moses wrote in the twenty-first chapter of Numbers from the two books called The Wars of Jehovah and Enunciations, some angels were present who told me that those books were the ancient Word, the historical parts of which were called the Wars of Jehovah, and the prophetic Enunciations; and they said that this Word is still preserved in heaven, and in use among the ancient people there who had this Word when they were in the world. These ancient people, among whom that Word is still in use in heaven, were in part from the land of Canaan and the neighboring countries, as Syria, Mesopotamia, Arabia, Chaldea, Assyria, Egypt, Sidon, Tyre, and Nineveh; the inhabitants of all of which kingdoms had representative worship and consequently a knowledge of correspondences. The wisdom of that time was from that knowledge, and by it men had interior perception, and communication with the heavens. Those who knew the correspondences of that Word were called wise and intelligent, and afterward diviners and Magi.
[2] But because that Word was full of such correspondences as remotely signified things celestial and spiritual, and consequently began to be falsified by many, in course of time by the Lord's Divine Providence it disappeared, and another Word was given, written by correspondences not so remote, and this through the prophets among the sons of Israel. In this Word many names of the places, both in the land of Canaan and round about in Asia, are retained, all of which signified things and states of the church; but the significations were from the ancient Word. For this reason Abram was commanded to go into that land, and his posterity through Jacob were led into it.
[3] Of that ancient Word which existed in Asia before the Israelitish Word, I am permitted to state this new thing, namely, that it is still preserved there among the people who dwell in Great Tartary. In the spiritual world I have talked with spirits and angels from that country, who said that they have a Word, and have had it from ancient times; and that they conduct their Divine worship according to this Word, and that it consists solely of correspondences. They said, that in it also is the Book of Jasher, which is mentioned in Joshua (10:12, 13), and in 2 Samuel (1:17, 18); and that they have also among them the books called the Wars of Jehovah and Enunciations, which are mentioned by Moses (Num. 21:14, 15, and 27-30); and when I read to them the words that Moses had quoted therefrom, they searched to see if they were there, and found them; from which it was evident to me that the ancient Word is still among that people. While talking with them they said that they worshiped Jehovah, some as an invisible God, and some as visible.
[4] They also told me that they do not permit foreigners to come among them, except the Chinese, with whom they cultivate peaceful relations, because the Chinese Emperor is from their country; also that the population is so great that they do not believe that any region in the whole world is more populous, which is indeed credible from the wall so many miles in length which the Chinese formerly built as a protection against invasion from these people. I have further heard from the angels, that the first chapters of Genesis which treat of creation, of Adam and Eve, the garden of Eden, their sons and their posterity down to the flood, and of Noah and his sons, are also contained in that Word, and thus were transcribed from it by Moses. The angels and spirits from Great Tartary are seen in the southern quarter on its eastern side, and are separated from others by dwelling in a higher expanse, and by their not permitting anyone to come to them from the Christian world, or, if any ascend, by guarding them to prevent their return. Their possessing a different Word is the cause of this separation." (TCR 279)
An ancient Word in Tartary? Where is this? According to the Wikipedia:
Tatary or Great Tatary (Latin: Tataria or Tataria Magna) was a name used by Europeans from the Middle Ages until the twentieth century to designate a great tract of northern and central Asia stretching from the Caspian Sea and the Ural Mountains to the Pacific Ocean inhabited by Turkic and Mongol peoples of the Mongol Empire who were generically referred to as "Tartars", i.e. Tatars. It incorporated the current areas of Siberia, Turkestan (including East Turkestan), Greater Mongolia, Manchuria, and sometimes Tibet.
As of yet, this statement concerning Tartary from Swedenborg is unconfirmed. The main religion of the region is Tibetan Buddhism, but they have a different set of texts. However, the ancient book of Jasher may have been discovered among the Jews in Venice in the 17th century, and was translated into English rather recently, in 1840. Here is a history of the text according to the Wikipedia:
"Sefer haYashar (midrash), a Hebrew midrash known in English translation mostly as The Book of Jasher. The book is named after the Sefer HaYashar mentioned in Joshua and 2 Samuel.
The Hebrew version was printed in Venice in 1625 and the introduction refers to an earlier 1552 edition in Naples of which neither trace or other mention has been found. The printer Joseph ben Samuel claimed the work was copied by a scribe named Jacob the son of Atyah from an ancient manuscript whose letters could hardly be made out.
This work is not to be confused with an ethical text by the same name, which, according to the Encyclopaedia Judaica, Volume 14, p. 1099, was "probably written in the 13th century." Scholars have proposed various dates between the 9th century and 16th century.
Some Mormon scholars[citation needed] consider this to be the authentic Sefer HaYashar referenced in the Old Testament (though in recent decades this has become a minority view). That belief comes from the preface to the 1625 version which says its original source book came from the ruins of Jerusalem in 70AD. A Roman officer named Sidrus discovered a Hebrew scholar hiding in a hidden library. The officer reportedly took the scholar and all the books safely back to his estates in Seville, Spain, which in Roman times was known as Hispalis, the provincial capital of Hispalensis (cf. Hispania Baetica). At some uncertain point in history (presumably after the Islamic conquest of Iberia (cf. Al-Andalus)), the manuscript was transferred or sold to the Jewish college in Cordova, Spain. Scholars apparently had preserved the book until its printings in Naples in 1552 and in Venice in 1625. Oustide of the preface to the 1625, there is no evidence to support any of this story.
The book covers Biblical history from the creation of Adam and Eve to a summary of the initial Israelite conquest of Canaan in the beginning of the book of Judges. It contains references that fit those cited in the Biblical texts, both the reference about the sun and moon found in Joshua and also the reference in 2 Samuel (in the Hebrew but not in the Septuagint) to teaching the Sons of Judah to fight with the bow. This appears in Jasher 56:9 among the last words of Jacob to his son Judah:
- Only teach thy sons the bow and all weapons of war, in order that they may fight the battles of their brother who will rule over his enemies.
But the book in its entirety cannot be so old as shown by chapter 10 covering the descendants of Noah which even contains medieval names for territories and countries, perhaps mostly obviously Franza for France and Lumbardi in Italia for Lombardy."
As for the statement above concerning the Franks and Lombards, it is my opinion that these are later interpolations. It was customary for the Jews to refer to place names or peoples by the names they were known by, which often led to anachronisms from those who did not recognize that. For example, since the book of Exodus mentions the name of the Pharoah Ramesses, many falsely conclude that the Exodus occured during his reign. It was actually much earlier, but the reference to Ramesses gives a clue when the book was finalized. Wikipedia continues further on the book of Jasher:
"Most of its extra-Biblical accounts are found in nearly the same form in either other medieval compilations, or in the Talmud, or in other midrash or in Arabic sources. For example it contains the common tale that Lamech and his son Jabal accidentally killed Cain, thus requiting his wickedness for slaying Abel.
The Arabic connections suggest that if the preface to the 1625 version is an "exaggeration", it was then probably written by a Jew who lived in Spain or southern Italy. The work was used extensively but not especially more than many other sources in Louis Ginzberg's Legends of the Jews.
In the 19th century, Moses Samuel of Liverpool, England, was given a copy of the Hebrew work and became convinced that the core of this work truly was the self-same Book of the Upright referenced in Hebrew scriptures. He translated it into English and 1839 sold it to Mordecai Manuel Noah, a Jewish New York publisher who published it the following year.
Noah's published book also contained within it endorsements by four top American Hebrew scholars of the day, all of whom praised the quality of the translation but said nothing to indicate they believed it to be the work referred to in Joshua and 2 Samuel. Indeed one of them, Samuel H. Turner, referred to the "Rabbinical writer" in this way:
- The work itself is evidently composed in the purest Rabbinical Hebrew, with a large intermixture of the Biblical idiom, ...
It is sometimes confused with the very different Book of Jasher (Pseudo-Jasher), which is said to be an obvious forgery. Pseudo-Jasher claims to have been translated by the Anglish monk Alcuin. That version was printed by Jacob Ilive in 1751 in Early Modern English. Alcuin spoke Old English (or Old Anglish), which coupled with the printer's seeming anti-Christian sentiments would suggest that it was a fraud."
Although the actual text for this book of Jasher is late, one thing that the Wikipedia article does not mention is that the other translators thought the Hebrew it contained was quite ancient. Moreover, the book of Jasher solves quite a few historical problems, such as that of the Exodus - I believe some of its content was used in the work, The Riddle of the Exodus. Basically the Exodus occurred during the sudden collapse of the Old Kingdom of Egypt, not during the Hyksos period as so many have believed. Much of the chronology of the ancient world is quite messed up, according to several works by Immanuel Velikovsky.This work deserves more attention. As stated in the visions of Swedenborg, it does contain a detailed account of the early chapters of Genesis. It is so detailed, and so extensive, internal evidence does indicate that Moses indeed used it to compose the Torah. Although there are likely some later interpolations, from reading it I think the underlying ancient text of Jasher is preserved here.
Don't take my word for it, read it for yourself! You can find it online at http://www.ccel.org/a/anonymous/jasher/home.html.
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