The ''Chronicles of Jerahmeel'' is a Hebrew collection of

Jewish history Jewish history is the history of the Jews, their Jewish peoplehood, nation, Judaism, religion, and Jewish culture, culture, as it developed and interacted with other peoples, religions and cultures. Jews originated from the Israelites and H ...

texts covering a period of time between the creation of the earth and the death of

Judas Maccabeus Judas Maccabaeus or Maccabeus ( ), also known as Judah Maccabee (), was a Jewish priest (''kohen'') and a son of the priest Mattathias. He led the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire (167–160 BCE). The Jewish holiday of Hanukkah ("Ded ...

in 160 BCE. The primary author Jerahmeel or Yeraḥme’el ben Solomon is believed to have lived in 12th century in Southern Italy. It is a composite text or an

anthology In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs, or related fiction/non-fiction excerpts by different authors. There are also thematic and g ...

that contains in part the

historiographical Historiography is the study of the methods used by historians in developing history as an academic discipline. By extension, the term ":wikt:historiography, historiography" is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiog ...

Yosippon ''Josippon'' (or ''Sefer Yosippon'', the ''Book of Yosippon'', ) is one of the most influential medieval chronicles of Jewish history, translated into many languages and republished in many editions, and a landmark of Jewish national historiog ...

''. A later compiler Eleazar ben Asher ha-Levi assembled it around 1325. This voluminous work draws largely on Pseudo-Philo's earlier history of Biblical events and is of special interest because it includes

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

and

Aramaic Aramaic (; ) is a Northwest Semitic language that originated in the ancient region of Syria and quickly spread to Mesopotamia, the southern Levant, Sinai, southeastern Anatolia, and Eastern Arabia, where it has been continually written a ...

versions of certain

deuterocanonical The deuterocanonical books, meaning 'of, pertaining to, or constituting a second Biblical canon, canon', collectively known as the Deuterocanon (DC), are certain books and passages considered to be Biblical canon, canonical books of the Old ...

books in the

Septuagint The Septuagint ( ), sometimes referred to as the Greek Old Testament or The Translation of the Seventy (), and abbreviated as LXX, is the earliest extant Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible from the original Biblical Hebrew. The full Greek ...

. The book was compiled in Germany in the 1300s. The ''Chronicles'' were published in English as
The Chronicles of Jerahmeel Or, the Hebrew Bible Historiale
' by the

Royal Asiatic Society The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, commonly known as the Royal Asiatic Society, was established, according to its royal charter of 11 August 1824, to further "the investigation of subjects connected with and for the encourag ...

, translated by Moses Gaster, 1899. Gaster stated in his extensive preface his view (p. xx) that the ''Chronicles'' were compiled from several Hebrew sources, some quite ancient and others more recent. The actual compiler of the chronicles identifies himself as " Eleasar ben Asher the Levite" who, according to Gaster, lived in the

Rhineland The Rhineland ( ; ; ; ) is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly Middle Rhine, its middle section. It is the main industrial heartland of Germany because of its many factories, and it has historic ties to the Holy ...

in the 14th century. The most recent events depicted in the ''Chronicles'' refer to the time of the

Crusades The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding t ...

, but the entire rest of it pertains to the period before 70 CE. Among the early sources quoted in the work is the 1st century Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus. Gaster explained that he chose to title it "Chronicles of Jerahmeel" instead of "Chronicles of Eleasar" because of his analysis that Eleasar was merely a compiler, while Jeraḥmeel is the source most extensively reproduced, following the ''Yosippon'' which is otherwise extant.

References

External links

The Chronicles of Jerahmeel at sacred-textsThe Chronicles of Jerahmeel at archive.org
Hebrew manuscripts Hebrew-language chronicles Old Testament pseudepigrapha {{Hebrew-lang-stub