La Créquini`ere, de. The Agreement of the Customs of the East-Indians With those of the Jews, and other Ancient People. John Toland (transl.)

(INDIA)

W. Davis

London

1705

First English Edition. Four copper engravings illustrating ritual scenes as well as sacred buildings

Roth, Magna Bibliotheca Anglo-Judaica, p. 380, no. 6

The first English translation of this work, which compares Jewish customs with traditions from India. Includes essays on circumcision, eating and drinking habits, manners of warfare, paganism, sacred buildings, etc. The English deist John Toland (1670-1722) had a distinct interest in the comparative scholarship of Biblical Jewish culture with other ancient cultures. Other than the translation of the present work, he also published “Adesidaemon and Origines Judaicae” (1709), in which he maintained that Jews were originally Egyptian and that the true Mosaic Institutions perished with Moses. The last of his theological works were “Nazrenus, or Jewish, Gentile and Mahometan Christianity” (1718) and “Tetradymus” (1720), whereby he followed Reimarus and the rationalistic school in Germany of interpreting the Old Testament miracles by the naturalistic method. See Encyclopedia Britannica (1911), Vol. 26, p. 1049