Note (return) — Replies.

The only people known as descendants of any of the ten tribes are the Spomerim, or Samaritans; whose chief peculiarity is, that they acknowledge as sacred only the five books of Moses: for, although other books held sacred by the Jews are known to them, such books are not written in the same ancient alphabetic character as those of the Samaritan Pentateuch. The ten tribes were then taken captive B.C. 721 (2 Kings xvii. 24—41.). The inference is, therefore, that all the books, from Joshua to Malachi inclusive, had not been composed or admitted into the holy canon till after that date. The criterion then for ascertaining whether the Chinese Jews are descended from the ten tribes, appears to be their adherence to the Pentateuch alone as sacred. I. The Chinese Jews have not the ancient Hebrew character, but the comparatively modern square Chaldee one, as in our printed Bibles. II. Gozani states that the Jews of Kaafung Foo, in Honan, had some traditions from the Talmud. The Mishnah, constituting the text of the Talmud, is manifestly a compilation subsequent to the closing of the Jewish canon; the quotations from the books following those of Moses being constantly in use therein. III. On Gozani mentioning Jesus the Messiah, the Chinese Jew said they had a knowledge of Jesus the son of Sirach. As, however, the book of the last-named writer is unknown in Hebrew, Gozani, who was ignorant of that language, may have mistaken him for Jesus (=Joshua) the son of Nun, with which book the Chinese Jew was acquainted.[3] In either case, more books than the Pentateuch were undoubtedly held sacred by these Chinese Jews; therefore the connexion with the ten tribes (house of Israel), as distinct from the house of Judah (the Jews properly so called), cannot be inferred. The authorities for the Samaritans are Scaliger, Ludolf, Prideaux, Jahn, Huntington, Winer, Schnurrer, and Kitto. For the eastern Jews: Josephus, Peritsol, Manasseh, Basnage, Büsching; Fathers Ricci, Aleni, Gozani, and other Jesuits, in the Lettres édifiantes et curieuses, vol. xviii.; and the Chinese Repository, vol. i. pp. 8. 44., vol. iii. p. 175.