Jasher

Jasher, BOOK OF (Jashar in Revised Version; Heb. Sepher ha-yashar, 'the Book of the Upright'; translated by the LXX. Biblion tou Euthous, and by the Vulgate Liber Justorum; but the Peshito has Sepher Hashir, 'Book of Praises or Hymns'), is one of the lost books of the ancient Hebrews, which is quoted twice (Joshua, x. 13; 2 Samuel, i. 18). Regarding its character and contents there has been much speculation. Talmudic and later Jewish authorities identified it variously with Genesis (sometimes called 'the Book of the Upright'), Deuteronomy, Judges, &c., to all which notions there is the obvious and fatal objection that the two quotations from it which survive are not to be found in any of these books, and could not possibly be found in the first two, as they refer to incidents which occurred at a subsequent period in the national history. The conjecture of the Syriac and Arabic translators has been adopted by Dr Lowth, Herder, and other scholars—viz. that the Book of Jasher was a collection of national ballads, recording the warlike deeds of the national heroes or singing the praises of otherwise celebrated men. Gesenius is inclined to adopt the same view, and suggests that it may have acquired its name, 'the Book of the Upright,' from having been written chiefly in praise of upright men. Donaldson, in an over-ingenious work, Jashar (1854), contended for its being a composition of the age of Solomon, and a work of Nathan and Gad. He conceived that it originated in the desire of the more religious of the community to possess a record of the national history which should chiefly set forth the righteousness of the true Hebrews, and he attempted to extract from the so-called canonical books of the Old Testament such passages as he believed to have originally formed part of it. The actual book could not have been earlier than the age of Solomon, especially if a fragment relating to the building of the temple in the Septuagint of 1 Kings, viii. be from that work. In the 12-14th centuries no less than three different works professing to be the lost Book of Jasher were produced; and in 1751 a preposterous forgery under this name (and ultimately traced to one Ilve, a London printer) created some excitement. It claimed to have been translated from Hebrew by 'Alcuin of Britain,' and was reprinted in 1829.