Note 41 — INTRODUCTION.

892–942. From the Chaldee paraphrase to R. Saadias Gaon, a period of about 350 years, thick darkness covers the annals of Jewish literature. With him, however, a new epoch begins to dawn. Saadias was born at Pithom, in Egypt, about the year 892, and died in the year 942. He was “Gaon,” or spiritual head of the Jews in Babylon, and is well known by his translation of the Bible into Arabic, the Pentateuch of which is inserted in Walton’s Polyglott.41 Among the many philosophical and exegetical works this eminent man bequeathed to posterity, is a commentary on the Song of Songs, which was originally written in Arabic, and was translated into Hebrew by some unknown individual. This work is exceedingly rare, and I have happily found a copy of the original Constantinople edition in the British Museum, of which Dukes was not aware when he wrote his “Literarische Mittheilungen.” The view that Saadias takes is that “Solomon relates in it the history of the Jews, beginning with their Exodus from Egypt, and extending it beyond the coming of the Messiah.” Thus far he agrees with the Targum, but his commentary on the text is entirely at variance with that paraphrase.