R. Judah Ibn Bal'am's Commentary on Isaiah (review)

Abstract

Hebrew Studies 35 (1994) 144 Reviews R. JUDAH IBN BAL'AM'S COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH. By Moshe Goshen-Gottstein. The Institute for the History of Jewish Bible Research: Sources and Studies 5. pp. vii + 267. Ramat-Gan: Bar-Han University Press, 1992. Cloth, $28.00. The scholarship of Professor Moshe Goshen-Gottstein encompassed diverse areas of expertise often combined by earlier generations but unusual among those teaching and writing into the final decades of the twentieth century . He made major contributions in areas such as biblical scholarship, Hebrew language and linguistics, Aramaic, and comparative Semitics. Moreover, he was a master teacher and the guiding force behind a number of projects, including the Institute for the History of Jewish Bible Research at Bar-Han University. The current volume is largely based on the doctoral dissertation of Goshen-Gottstein's student, Ma'aravi Perez, who examined Ibn Bal'am's commentary on Isaiah and compared it to Sa'adiah's (Bar-Ilan University, 1977/1978). This volume presents a significant work in the history of Jewish Bible scholarship, with consistent philological and Semitic-language concerns, emphasizing the explanation of grammatical and lexical points and using illustrations from Targum and Arabic sources. How fitting a tribute to Goshen-Gottstein's memory! Yehi zichro barukh. Judah Ibn Bal'am was among the earliest in the long chain of Spanish Bible commentators, and among the last to write in Arabic. Born in Toledo in the second half of the eleventh century, he lived most ofhis life in Seville. Ibn Ezra was aware of his work but did not cite it as much as, for example, Ibn Bal'am's contemporary Moshe ibn Gikatilla and Sa'adiah Gaon. Unlike Ibn Ezra, Ibn Bal'am's work never became part of the established Jewish canon of commentaries, and apparently has not been preserved in its entirety. The Arabic text of the commentary on Isaiah has been known for over a century and was published in two different versions by J. Derenbourg. Although Dr. Perez has published surviving sections from the commentary to the Pentateuch elsewhere, the present work is the first in a projected publication of the entire surviving commentary. This edition is bilingual, with the Judaeo-Arabic and a Hebrew translation appearing on the same page. The former is basically that of Derenbourg, with numerous corrections. The Hebrew translation is very readable and departs as necessary from being literal in order to clarify the sense of the original. The notes contain much of scholarly interest, with references to Midrash and Talmud, commentaries of Sa'adiah and R. David Kimchi, and the works of Jonah ibn Janah and David al-Fasi, Menachem and Dunash, Hebrew Studies 35 (1994) 145 Reviews selections from scholarly literature, comments and explanations, and so forth. Ibn Bal'am's commentary on the Pentateuch deals with halachah and thought, whereas his commentary on Isaiah is overwhelmingly philological. Most entries gloss the meaning of words and provide a grammatical analysis. The first comment may be taken as more or less typical: Uazon: A noun in the construct, whose third radical is weak (mu'lall alllimlshe -Iamed ha-po'al shelo nahah), and whose vov and nun are additions. Its root has the meaning of "vision." In the absolute case it occurs in halOn nir'ah elay (Daniel 8:1). The object of the construct [i.e., of hazon - S.W.) is the prophet because he received the revelation. R. Sa'adiah z"l added the name of God (in his translation). saying: "The revelation of God to Isaiah," but the text does not need this. (Isaiah I: I, p. 21, my translation) The note to this passage suggests that Ibn Bal'am objected to Sa'adiah's formulation as unnecessary because every vision was from God. Yet so typical is Ibn Bal'am's interest in grammar that I wonder whether there is not a different explanation: perhaps he saw, rather, no problem in having the object of a construct reflect a recipient of the action rather than its agent, possibly on the basis of the passive verb used in the example he gave from Daniel. But Ibn Bal'am's commentary is not...