Endnote 1 – Bah, Humbug!

Handel deserves particular credit for popularizing the Old Testament and its Apocrypha in a string of oratorios: Alexander Balus, Athalia, Belshazzar, Deborah, Esther, Israel in Egypt, Jephtha, Joseph and His Brethren, Joshua, Judas Maccabaeus, Samson, Saul, Solomon and Susanna. It is not surprising that, even in Handel’s day, his work was especially popular among Jews.