THE BOOK OF JASHER
There are three versions of The Book of Jashar relative to Moses in the wilderness and the one that I find to be the most credible is by Flaccus Albinus Alcuinus, Abbot of Canterbury in 800 AC. Following are my notes, but I recommend that the manuscript personally be read.
Bishop Alcuinus went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and Persia to obtain this manuscript, which cost him about £500 in gold. The manuscript must have existed in the days of Joshua, as it is referred to by David, but after the Babylonian captivity is not referred to again; therefore it may not have been brought back to Judea. The roll, on which it was written in large Hebrew characters of the earliest form, 2’ 9" wide and 9’ long, was preserved in the original ark of gopher wood. It was not an inspired work. Jasher claimed he received the information about events before his birth from his father Caleb and mother Azuba. He later journaled events as they occurred. Jasher means "upright".
The Bishop was first shown a scroll entitled The Story of the Volume of Jasher that said he was born in Goshen, in Egypt, the son of Caleb, general of the Hebrews, during the years of Moses’ exile with Prince Jethro in Midian. As a member of the team to confront Pharoah, Jasher was appointed by Moses and Aaron to bear the rod. Jasher did not explain what the rod was or its function. The ark was made in his lifetime and before he died, he deposited his manuscript in it. His son Jazer safeguarded it during his life. During the Babylonian captivity, the book and ark fell into Persian hands and kept in the city of Gazma.
The following are my notes:
§
Chapters I through III are shortened versions of the events transpiring up to Pharaoh giving the land of Goshen to Jacob and his family. Jacob’s son, Joseph, ministered to Pharaoh.§
The children of Israel in time increased abundantly and waxed mighty. They asked a succeeding Pharaoh to allow them to return to Canaan because there were too many of them for the land of Goshen.§
An Egyptian seer advised Pharaoh that the Israelites increased daily and thirsted after dominion of Egypt and Goshen. In time they would fight the Egyptians, and counseled that the Israelites should take a census to determine the size of their population.§
Since the census established that there were many more Israelites than Egyptians, Pharaoh set Egyptian taskmasters over them for Egypt groaned under its heavy financial and physical burdens. Egyptians were taxed one-fifth of their increase for Pharaoh. The land of Goshen was then taxed one-tenth annually and the taxes of the Egyptians were reduced to one-tenth.§
Israelites became rebellious so Pharaoh set more taskmasters over them, but this only caused the Israelites to increase their population. To stem the tide, Pharaoh declared every newborn Hebrew male must die.§
Jochabed and Miriam went to Pharaoh’s daughter and Jochabed gave up her son Moses to the princess for adoption. While in her care, Moses became a prince and was educated in the sciences and magic of the Egyptians.§
Pharaoh and his daughter died, and the new Pharaoh did not know Moses or care about the Israelites. Since Moses no longer had a royal family to protect him, he moved to Goshen. Moses stirred up a rebellion against Pharaoh and had to flee to Midian to escape Pharaoh’s wrath. He dwelled there 37 years with Jethro, prince of Midian, and married his daughter Zipporah.§
The father of Jasher, Caleb, a mighty man of renown, invented the bow and taught Israelites to shoot and trained them to become warriors.§
Moses was age eighty when Pharaoh died. He returned to Goshen and told the Israelites that he heard a voice say to return to Goshen and take the people back to Canaan.§
The Israelites didn’t know him, wouldn’t listen to him, and condemned him for marrying a foreign wife, which was taboo under the Laws of Abraham. Moses put Zipporah and her children away and they returned to her father Jethro, in Midian.§
Moses approached the current Pharaoh, who had ruled for fifty years, and petitioned for the release of the Israelites to return to Canaan. Pharaoh, in retaliation, increased their tribute to one-fifth, payable in six days. The people grew angry with Moses for having incurred Pharaoh’s wrath.§
Moses, Aaron, and Jasher approached Pharaoh with the rod. Moses threw the rod down and it became a serpent. Then Egyptian magicians threw rods down that became serpents, but Moses’ rod was real, while the others were fakes. (Moses had been taught Egyptian magic, so was the rod a sleight of hand trick and he outsmarted the other magicians? Or was it an instrument with some type of power? This rod must not have been a slender wand if it needed another individual, such as Jasher, to carry it.) Moses smote the river and it became like blood. The Egyptian magicians did likewise.§
Caleb stood before the Israelites and reminded them that they were warriors, trained, powerful, and strong, while the Egyptians were weak and soft. Pharaoh heard of this and was afraid. He said that the Hebrews could go, but they must leave their flocks, and herds, and any increase of the lands. He said the Egyptians would feed them and pay for what the Israelites left. (The book now intermingled the use of the terms "Hebrews" and "Israelites.")§
Miriam begged a male and female from every flock, herd, fowl, and beast, which she was given. But Egyptians lacked sufficient money to purchase everything so they turned over their jewelry, which financially depleted the Egyptians. Fear fell on the Egyptians when they saw the armed Israelites and were relieved to see them leave.§
Then the Egyptians discovered that the Israelites had cheated on the number of animals and produce they sold, and received more payment than the stock and crops were worth. Angry, Pharaoh pursued them.§
Caleb prepared to fight, but Moses sent word to Pharaoh that they would refund any overcharge and asked Pharaoh to wait twenty-four hours for them to calculate the amounts owing. While Pharaoh waited, the Israelites began passing through the Red Sea during the night. Six hundred thousand men, women, and children crossed with Miriam, their leader, first stepping into the Red Sea.§
The Egyptians were afraid to follow in their chariots for their wheels would sink in the mud of the sea. But when Pharaoh discovered that Moses had tricked him, out of frustration and anger he pursued them.§
The lord looked down through a pillar of fire and cloud, and troubled the Egyptians, which caused Pharaoh to flee because the Israelites’ god fought for them. (This is the first time that the lord has become an actor in this drama.) The lord told Moses to stretch out his hand so the sea would return and drown the pursuing Egyptians.§
The Israelites sang the lord’s praise and said he was a man of war. They said that the lord’s right hand was glorious in power, and with his blast of nostrils, water gathered together and congealed. Then didst flow with the wind…the greatness of thy arm. (Did the lord use some type of power from a spaceship to control the waters of the Red Sea?)§
The Israelites were in the desert without water for three days. Moses asked Miriam what to do. Miriam knew of a well, to which she took them and told them to dig it deeper. It raised enough water to become twelve wells in a valley of palm trees. She counseled that with her flocks and herds, new herds could be built up, they should settle in the area, till and cultivate the lands, and slay the wild beasts. She further advised them to take the gold and silver and buy the necessary food until their harvest. She also found fruit trees and herbs to plant. This allowed the people to become accustomed to their nomadic lifestyle.§
The people did settle there in their tents and farmed crops.§
It had been four hundred years since the Israelites had left Canaan, and in order to maintain peaceful relations, Miriam advised Moses to send messages to the inhabitants of Rephidim to buy food. Moses told King Amalek of the Amalekites to leave with his people, but that the Israelites would buy their increase of crops and animals. King Amalek refused. Caleb and Joshua fought him and pushed the Amalekites out of the land.§
When Jethro saw that Moses had become a prince, he and his daughter Zipporah and the children joined Moses at Mt.Horeb.§
Jethro advised Moses to set up a governing board to help manage this large body of people, which board would promulgate laws, rules, and religious rites. Jethro left. Moses gathered the people at Mt. Sinai and began to introduce the people to the new rules, but Miriam challenged Jethro’s right to instruct them. Moses sought to restrict Miriam and her influence from the congregation by imprisoning her for seven days, but the people demanded her release. During all the days of Miriam’s life, the people followed the regulations set down by Abraham. She died at Kadish and the people mourned her for 40 days.§
Jethro joined them again after Miriam’s death, and once again instructed Moses, who followed his advice. He appointed a council of seventy to help him administer laws with which to rule the people, and appointed Aaron and Joshua to be his aides.§
Moses, Jethro, Joshua, and the council of seventy went up onto the mountain and sounded a trumpet to alert the people that they were in session.§
Jethro, as the son of Esau and also the priest of Midian, gave Moses plans for a tabernacle and the regulations for administering the religious rites. Jasher told of them remaining on the mountain for forty days while these rules and regulations were being promulgated and written. Again, forty days indicates a time period.§
Meanwhile back at camp, the people complained about Jethro, a Midianite and an outsider, being in their midst, and they rebelled, accusing Moses of seeking to become their king. This angered Moses greatly when he heard of their mutinous discontent, and commanded Joshua and all the others to say unto the people, "We have seen the lord in the mountain. We have ate and drank in his presence, and the words which he spoke we now deliver to you."§
Nadab and Abihu, sons of Aaron, who were with Moses on the mountain, didn’t approve of such a lie so they were banished from the group and ordered to return to the people.§
When Moses and his council were ready to come down, they sounded the trumpet and descended.§
Moses told Aaron that the lord had selected Aaron and his tribe of Levi to minister to the lord in the tabernacle. Moses ordered the men of the tribe of Levi to slay all who had rebelled, including Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu. They killed three thousand people, including Aaron’s sons, but Aaron held his peace.§
Fear prevailed and quieted the people, they repented of their error, and Moses commanded them to build a tabernacle for the lord. When it was built, for it had to be portable and consist of a tent that could be assembled and dismantled, Moses entered the tabernacle and later came out to the people, making a speech describing how the lord laid down rules of worship for the people, and had appointed Aaron and the men of Levi to be priests. The following day Moses read to the people all of the new laws and ordinances, and said that the lord had commanded that these were to be observed from henceforth.§
Moses ordered the people to build an ark, and Bezaliel and Ahaliab made it according to the instructions received from Jethro on Mt. Sinai.§
Korah and others complained and openly said that these rules, regulations, and appointments were not of the lord. They questioned why the tribe of Levi did not labor like the rest of the tribes, but would live a much better lifestyle provided by the sweat of the other tribes. Moses commanded the men of the tribe of Levi to slay Korah and his followers by fire before the tabernacle. This action had its proper affect and great fear fell on the people. Thus did Moses establish the priesthood in his brother’s tribe of Levi.§
From that time on, no Hebrew complained about Zipporah, a foreigner, being with them, or any of the women of Moab who intermarried with Hebrew men. The foreign women influenced their husbands in ways that were abominations in the eyes of the Hebrews.§
Moses set out laws to be followed, which included penance through offerings of the best of animals, crops, and silver to be given to the priesthood for their consumption and use. Women had to bring peace offerings after childbirth because they were considered unclean.§
A man challenged Moses by declaring that the lord had not spoken these things, but that Moses invented them. Moses encouraged the people to stone him, telling them that the man had blasphemed.§
As a trained military man, Moses sent men to spy out the kingdoms of Canaan. Upon their return, they described the people as being strong, living in thick walled cities, peopled by the Amalekites, Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites. The Amalekites were giants and frightening to the Hebrews. But Caleb and Joshua, in order to counteract the fear, said that the men lied, and with the lord on their side, they would win. (Looking at a map of this ancient area, Canaan is a small land mass, so these were actually different tribes of people, each claiming a territory within Canaan.)§
Moses encouraged the people to stone those men who incited fear.§
Jethro, Zipporah, and Aaron died, but Moses conscripted men from each of the tribes to go to war against the tribes in Canaan, making Caleb and Joshua the military commanders. They fought the Midianites (Jethros’ kingdom), killing all the males and taking into custody all wives and virgins of the Midianites, Moabites, and Amorites. Hebrew men found them desirable, mated with them, and children of mixed tribal ethnicity were born.§
Moses told the priests of Levi to hang all Hebrew men who had defiled themselves with foreign women, and 24,000 were killed. Then he ordered that all foreign women except virgins be killed and 30,000 were slain.§
Moses divided the spoils of the kingdoms among the soldiers, people, and priests.§
As Moses lay dying, he chose Joshua to be his successor. He instructed Joshua that when the Hebrews crossed the river into Jordan, all of the invaded people were to be killed or driven out lest Israel be corrupted by their pagan ways. He further instructed that all lands conquered were to be divided among the tribes.The rest of the book continues through the life of Jasher until his death.
The following is a quotation from Hur out of The Book of Aaron relative to Moses’ sister, Miriam:
"She taught Israel, tutored the children of Jacob, she was called teacher. She studied for the good of the nation and Aaron and the people listened. Miriam was 95 when Moses returned from Midian, Aaron was 83, and Moses was 80. Jethro was a great man, both as a king and priest. He worshipped the one true God, but did not practice circumcision. He created a priesthood, ordained priests, and created a series of rites and holy days. There was some enmity between the descendants of Jacob, of whom Moses was one, and the descendants of Esau, of whom Jethro was one."
An interesting feature of the ark is the set of explicit descriptions for the construction of the Ark of the Covenant, together with the fact that only special persons, the priests, were allowed to carry it, and only the High Priest could enter the Holy of Holies where it sat when they were not traveling. The Bible says that anyone who touched the Ark, except the priests, died. There has to be a valid reason why the Ark was dangerous. Was this just another rumor fed to the people by Moses to maintain an air of secrecy and mystique about the lord communicating in the Holy of Holies within the Ark, or did the High Priest wear some type of protective covering? We can only speculate and many authors have penned books about these discrepancies.
In the sixties when our metaphysical group were first using the Ouija board, I asked about Moses as my Sunday School class was studying Exodus in the Bible. The answer was, "The great and terrible primitive." No further explanation followed this enigmatic statement, and it remained a puzzle to me until I read the foregoing version of Jasher.
For those who desire to indulge in more Jewish religious studies, there are many websites on the Internet or books in the library. The Torah and Talmud are important to the main branches of Judaism, and the Quabalah, containing the mysteries of Judaism, is extensive, deep, full of the mysteries, and differs, depending upon the philosopher or historical age in which the ideas were promulgated. I have not made a study of Judaism and am no authority or student.
I find any information that challenges our hundreds of years of religious programming to be important to the extent that when we truly analyze it, we realize that perhaps what is taught in metaphysical schools is not taboo and enables us individually to become more than what we have been taught to believe we are.
* * * * *
For the convenience of the reader, we are listing many of the major religions and philosophical school that have been or are still existing, according to recorded historical texts. There are others that have not been named simply because there are many diverse branches of religion, and for those readers who wish to research further information on any one, the Internet has a plethora of websites, and public libraries and bookstores are filled with such books.
Hinduism: date unknown, no known founder:
Krishna: 3000 BC:
Taoism: 600 BC, Lao Tzu, founder:
Zoroasterism: 630 BC, Zarathustra and Zoroaster, founders:
Buddhaism: 563 BC, Guatama Buddha, founder:
Confuciusism: 551 BC, Confucius, founder:
Zen: A form of Buddhism, approximately 500 BC, Bodhidarma, founder:
Shinto: approximately 500 BC:
Essenes: 300 BC, The Great Teacher, unidentified, is
Gnosticism: 100 BC, founder unknown:
The Way: 30 BC (approximately), Jeshua ben Joseph, founder (Jesus)
Christianity:? AC, disciples of Jesus, a continuation of the teachings of The Way:
Culdees and/or Druids:? BC, founder unknown:
Islam: 570 AC, Mohammed, founder
Sufism: after 570 AC, the mystic branch of Islam
Sikh: 1469 AC, Guru Nanek, founder:
Bahái: 1817 AC, Bahá'u'lláh, founder:
This is what my book is about—new perspectives to contemplate.
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