thirteenth
century, and seems to be originally the work of a Jewish author. Standing
between the two powerful faiths with their appeal to the temporal arm, the
Jew had to resort to his wit as almost his only resource for escape. Two
Jewish works have preserved earlier forms of the parable. In Ibn Verga's
collection of histories of the fifteenth century, it is related that "Don
Pedro the Elder, King of Aragon (1196-1213), asked Ephraim Sancho, a
Jewish sage, which of the two religions, the Jewish or Christian, was the
better one. After three days' deliberation, the sage told the king a story
of two sons who had each received a precious stone from their father, a
jeweler, when he went on a journey. The sons then went to a stranger,
threatening him with violence, unless he would decide which of the jewels
was the more valuable. The king, believing the story to be a fact,
protested against the action of the two sons, whereupon the Jew explained:
Esau and Jacob are the two sons who have each received a jewel from their
heavenly Father. Instead of asking me which jewel is the more precious,
ask God, the heavenly Jeweler. He knows the difference, and can tell the
two apart."(1393)

An older and probably more original form of the parable was discovered by
Steinschneider in a work by Abraham Abulafia of the thirteenth century,
running as follows: "A father intended to bequeath a precious jewel to his
only son, but was exasperated by his ingratitude, and therefore buried it.
His servants, however, knowing of the treasure, took it and claimed to
have received it from the father. In the course of time they became so
arrogant that the son repented of his conduct, whereupon the father gave
him the jewel as his rightful possession." The story ends by stating that
Israel is the son and the Moslem and Christian the servants.

Beside this witty solution of a delicate problem, some Mohammedans made
attempts very early, doubtless on account of discussions with learned
Jews, to prove the justification of the three religions from the Jewish
Scriptures themselves. Thus they referred the verse speaking of the
revelation of God on Sinai, Mount Seir, and Mount Paran(1394) to the
religious teachings of Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed. Naturally, the Jewish
exegetes and philosophers objected vigorously to such an interpretation.

6. The question which religion is the best, has been most satisfactorily
answered for Judaism by R. Joshua ben Hanania, who