Abstract
In 1505, the humanist Johann Reuchlin (1455-1522) published a booklet titled Doctor iohanns Reuchlins tütsch missiue, warumb die Juden so lang im ellend sind (Johann Reuchlin’s German-language open letter [discussing] why the Jews have been in “exile” so long). One may debate whether or not Reuchlin’s “German open letter” is to be understood as merely repeating the “conventional view that they [the Jews] were suffering for the sins of their forefathers who had mur-dered Jesus.” However, such an interpretation is a far too simplified summary of this rather unusual, “somewhat mysteri-ous tract.” Reuchlin felt sincere concern over the continued suffering of the Jews and sought to understand it for many years.
Highlights
Some suggest that Reuchlin‘s Missiue was his response to the request of a nobleman looking for help ―on how to convert Jews.‖13 neither the text of the Missiue itself nor Reuchlin‘s other writings support such a claim
As Reuchlin had written at the beginning of the Missiue, his intention was not to ―cause offense,‖ but to achieve ―real improvement‖
Reuchlin‘s booklet likely functioned as a manual for nontheologians who wanted to prepare for dialoguing about the serious question
Summary
Some suggest that Reuchlin‘s Missiue was his response to the request of a nobleman looking for help ―on how to convert Jews.‖13 neither the text of the Missiue itself nor Reuchlin‘s other writings support such a claim. Made public in order to aid others like Reuchlin‘s anonymous nobleman who found themselves in similar situations For such private talks with ―his‖ Jews, noblemen could rely on the talking points that Reuchlin offered. In the spring of 1492 Loans arranged that Reuchlin received from the emperor a valuable 12-13th century Bible manuscript, a parchment codex of the Pentateuch in Hebrew with the Aramaic translation Targum Onqelos This priceless codex was the emperor‘s farewell present to Reuchlin who received it at the end of his diplomatic mission at the imperial court in Linz.[22] The encounter between Reuchlin and Loans, which developed into friendship, is a ―moment of world-historical significance,‖ as Ludwig Geiger convincingly wrote in his Reuchlin biography of 1871.23 Reuchlin‘s Missiue, written in the year of Loans‘ death in 1505, may be Reuchlin‘s literary monument to the memory of his Jewish. 22 known as Codex Reuchlin 1 or the ―Reuchlin Bible.‖ See Greschat, Johannes Reuchlins Bibliothek Gestern & Heute, 69-72, 92 (with illustrations)
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