Hebraica Veritas Research Articles

Christian interpretation of Esther before the Reformation

This contribution to Review & Expositor’ s issue on “Esther as Christian Scripture” surveys Esther scholarship before the Reformation with a view to identifying trends and with particular interest in the degree of any continuity that may bridge the Reformation as a point of demarcation. Contrary to what might be expected, this brief survey of the history of Christian Esther interpretation before the Reformation demonstrates that many of the issues confronting contemporary Esther scholarship surfaced in some form prior to the rise of modern critical scholarship (historicity, genre, gender relations, theological significance, etc.). A focus on the hebraica veritas after Jerome influenced Christian interpretation of the book down the path of allegory. Apparently pioneered by Aphrahat, Rhabanus Maurus gave the allegorical reading of Esther a form that became virtually standard in the half-millennium prior to the Reformation. In it, the allegorical significance of Ahasuerus (Jesus), Vashti (Jewry), Esther (the Church, Mary), and a number of details remained constant. The following two features of Esther interpretation surveyed here stand out negatively: the entire absence of concern for the book’s violence and the perverse but persistent interpretation of a book celebrating the deliverance of Jews in a supersessionist, even anti-Semitic, fashion.

„Ich weiß, dass mein Erlöser lebt.“

Abstract This article investigates the Septuagint and the Vulgate texts of Job 19:25–27 which have both been used as “proof texts” for the Christian doctrine of the resurrection of the dead. The respective Greek and Latin texts are thoroughly compared to the Hebrew MT, assuming that the proto-massoretic text was the supposed parent text of both versions. Some of the differences between the parent text and the translations can be explained by the fact that the unvocalized Hebrew text gave reason to “intelligent guesses”. Most original readings of the versions, however, can be shown to have resulted from theological interpretation. The Vulgate version, notably, seems to build not on the Hebrew text only but also on the Septuagint, in spite of Jerome’s commitment to the idea of Hebraica veritas and his normal practice to use a Hebrew parent text.

Reception of the Septuagint in the early church

The aim of this paper is to portray the reception of the Septuagint in the early Church. Firstly, the synagogue view of the translation is provided, from the reports in which the origin of the translation is enthusiastically discussed, to the rejection of the Septuagint. A particular emphasis is placed on theological argumentation attempting to prove the divine inspiration of the translation of the Seventy. In this process, the prominent figures are: Justin Martyr, Irenaeus of Lyons, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Pseudo-Justin, Epiphanius of Salamis, Cyril of Jerusalem, John Chrysostom and Augustine. The paper deals with two textual disputes over the authenticity of the Septuagint text as the legitimate successor of the original Hebrew consonant text. Textual deviations were often a reason for such confrontations. The first dispute is between Julius Africanus and Origen. Within it, Origen clarifies textual issues of certain Old Testament books. Jerome and Augustine took part in the second dispute. Jerome leaned more towards the Hebrew truth (Hebraica Veritas), while Augustine put more stock into the translation of the Seventy. These confrontations clearly reflect the status of the Septuagint in the early Church. Finally, a concise review of the further status of the Septuagint in the Western and Eastern Churches is provided.

Tractatus in psalmum 15, 8 (Series altera)

The paper focuses attention on Jerome’s interpretation of Ps. 15,8 in Tractatus in psalmum 15. After an introduction dealing with the right way to translate the verse according to Hebraica veritas, which shows his philological skills, he reveals his exegesis. The opening and concluding parts of this exegesis follow closely the Origen’s Homily on Psalm 15, but the long central section about the righteous highlights the particularity of Jerome’s exegesis; he uses other interpretations of Origen’s, but subordinates them to his own concerns to achieve original results. The study offers further proofs in favour of a proposal for dating this text.

Hebrews, Apostles, and Christ: Three Authorities of Jerome’s Hebraica Veritas

Abstract Against many defenders of the LXX, such as Hilary of Poitiers and Augustine, Jerome tries to prove the superiority of the Hebrew text as a source text of translation. To do so, in his Preface to the Chronicles (iuxta Hebraeos), Jerome relies on three authorities: the Hebrews, the Apostles, and Christ. The Hebrews philologically endorse Jerome’s translation, by judging whether it literally agrees with the Hebrew text. The Apostles support Jerome’s position both philologically and theologically: sometimes their Old Testament quotations literally agree with the Hebrew text; at other times they spiritually agree with the Hebrew text, even though they do not literally. Christ functions as the highest authority. Relying on these three, Jerome’s real purpose concerning Hebraica veritas is not only the philological discussion between the Hebrew text and the LXX, but also the theological discussion between these two texts and the Old Testament quotations in the New Testament.

Hebrew and Aramaic Terms in the Extractiones de Talmud. The Term “Yeshivah” in the Thirteenth-Century Latin Translation of the Talmud

Abstract Translation is hardly an exceptional event. On the contrary, it is quite common and reflects the necessity of communication despite the obvious multiplicity of human languages. Therefore, it has often exhibited a practical and prescriptive nature – as a discourse characterised by instructions to translators about how, what and why to translate. In the present article, I will pay special attention to the treatment of Hebrew and Aramaic terms in the thirteenth-century Latin translation of the Talmud – better known as Extractiones de Talmud (‘Excerpts from the Talmud’). This translation is a large anthology from the Babylonian Talmud that was compiled by Christian authorities in consequence of the famous Paris process of 1240, when the Jewish convert Nicholas Donin confronted the prominent Rabbi Yehiel of Paris regarding the allegedly blasphemous, anti-Christian nature of the Talmud. This large anthology frequently emphasises linguistic difference and abounds in providing details about specific terms from Talmudic literature. Yet the Extractiones appear to neglect the complex nature of the Talmud. They never mention that the Talmud is bilingual – as it collects Hebrew and Aramaic texts – while emphasising that in it the Jews still employ the so-called ‘Holy Tongue’. I will argue that the Extractiones’ emphasis on Hebrew has both ideological and practical purposes. On the one hand, the notion that Hebrew abounds in the Talmud resonates well with the Christian expectation that Judaism is still bound to the “hebraica veritas” (‘Hebrew truth’). On the other hand, an unexperienced Christian reader might have found it difficult to come to terms with the linguistically and historically complex nature of the Talmud. Therefore, the focus on Hebrew may have been the result of an oversimplification for the readers’ sake. The case will be proven on account of one central example: the translation of the Hebrew term “yeshivah”. I will show that the treatment of this term illustrates how the Latin translator of the Talmud intended to emphasise the cultural difference between Jews and Christians, without abandoning the practical need of offering some form of cultural adaptation.

The Medieval Revision of the Ambrosian Hexateuch: Critical Editing between Septuaginta and Hebraica Veritas in MS Ambrosianus A 147 inf.FincatiMariachiara The Medieval Revision of the Ambrosian Hexateuch: Critical Editing between Septuaginta and Hebraica Veritas in MS Ambrosianus A 147 inf. De Septuaginta Investigationes 5Vandenhoeck & RuprechtGöttingen, 2016, 456, €110.00ISBN 978-3-525-53618-6

The Medieval Revision of the Ambrosian Hexateuch: Critical Editing between Septuaginta and Hebraica Veritas in MS Ambrosianus A 147 inf.FincatiMariachiara <i>The Medieval Revision of the Ambrosian Hexateuch: Critical Editing between Septuaginta and Hebraica Veritas in MS Ambrosianus A 147 inf.</i> De Septuaginta Investigationes 5Vandenhoeck &amp; RuprechtGöttingen, 2016, 456, €110.00ISBN 978-3-525-53618-6

A cuento del centenario del texto griego de la Poliglota complutense

The non-negligible volume of research subsequent to Delitzsch (1886) has removed long-standing prejudices and granted the CPB its true value not only as editio princeps of the Septuagint and the New Testament, but also as textual witness. It is no longer believed that the Complutensian publishers adapted the Greek text to the Vulgata’s or the Latin to the Hebraica veritas , or that they resorted to Ruckubersetzungen (‘back-translations’) from Latin into Greek for those passages that did no exist in the latter language (the so-called Spanish Greek). The ‘solitary’ readings of the CPB have considerably diminished once discovered that they featured, for instance, in the III century Washingtonian papyrus or in Ezekiel’s papyrus (II-III centuries), imposing the conclusion that Alcala’s humanists used manuscripts unknown to us and attesting to the CPB’s merits as textual witness.

Hebraica veritas in the Brest Bible

The Brest Bible is regarded traditionally as the first translation of the entire Scriptures from the original languages into Polish. This study assesses this claim. A cursory analysis reveals that the Brest translators generally followed the hebraica veritas. They made use of Stephanus's Latin Bible (1556/57) whose Old Testament text was the literal Latin translation of the Hebrew Bible by Santes Pagnini (Pagnino); the Vulgate text was also included. It is shown that where there are significant differences between the printed editions of the Hebrew Bible of the sixteenth century and Pagnini's version, the Brest Bible follows Pagnini. Its translators followed Pagnini in Stephanus's edition verse by verse, and also applied the latter's division into chapters and verses to the Polish text. It is, then, suggested that there is doubt whether the Brest translators translated directly from the original version, it being more likely that they availed themselves chiefly of Pagnini's Latin version.

How to Correct the Sacra Scriptura? Textual Criticism of the Bible between the Twelfth and Fifteenth Century. By CORNELIA LINDE.

This is an important book. It addresses a number of frequently raised questions which have been awaiting an attempt at a coordinated answer. In Part I Dr Linde begins by looking at the basic vocabulary. What does vulgata mean in the Middle Ages, or septuaginta or Hebraica veritas or Graeca veritas? Part II examines the Vulgate and the lingering use of the Vetus Latina until the ninth century. Medieval respect for Jerome sharpened only with the fourteenth century. The medieval ‘editions’ of the Bible in which attempts were made to restore corrupted text are explored. In some cases, these efforts had puzzlingly little influence. The work of Isidore in this area has not survived and that of Cassiodorus seems to have faded from medieval notice. Alcuin’s attempt was more influential, partly because he could command the assistance of the scribes at St Martin’s Tours—where he was abbot—in making copies. Yet he seems to have gone about the work without any clear plan, making corrections of obvious scribal errors but not ‘emending’ in the sense attempted by Theodulf of Orleans. Theodulf considered variant readings. The ‘Paris Bible’ of the twelfth–thirteenth century was the product of a quite different milieu, and met a need in a university context (and probably with university approval) for finding-aids such as what became the modern chapter divisions and study-aids such as a glossary. It remains unclear which basic text was used for the Paris Bible.

The Jews’ Mirror (Der Juden Spiegel) by Johannes Pfefferkorn (review)

Reviewed by: The Jews’ Mirror (Der Juden Spiegel) by Johannes Pfefferkorn Fabrizio Lelli The Jews’ Mirror (Der Juden Spiegel) by Johannes Pfefferkorn. Translated by Ruth I. Cape. Historical Introduction by Maria Diemling. [Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, Vol. 390.] (Tempe: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. 2012. Pp. xiv, 114. $45.00. ISBN 978-0-86698-438-6.) The late-fifteenth and early-sixteenth centuries witnessed on the part of the Christians in Western Europe a revival of genuine interest in the original text of the scriptures. Such a critical approach to the Bible was mainly grounded in the contemporary trends circulating mainly among Italian humanists, who finalized their intellectual research to the critical reading of the sacred book according to the same principles that inspired their reappraisal of Latin and Greek works. However, this seemingly modern attitude to the Hebrew text was often accompanied by a still-medieval use of the scriptures as a theological weapon against the Jews. In this perspective, the rediscovery of the “Hebrew truth” or Hebraica Veritas aimed only to refute the “stubbornness” of the Jews and lead them to conversion. The medieval iconography of the “blind” Synagogue resurfaced thus at the eve of the modern age, this time nurtured by a critical approach to the book that constitutes the foundation for both Judaism and Christianity. Those were years of political troubles, animated by hopes of messianic redemption for both Jews and Christians. In such a tense expectation for a better future, the adherence to the true Hebraic law could be sought as a [End Page 149] useful tool to accelerate the course of human history. Jewish scholars could be hired by Christian humanists, both secular and religious, to delve into Hebrew studies. Jews fleeing persecutions from all over Europe could seek shelter and employment under the auspices of the Church, and the case of a Jewish scholar teaching a prelate was not rare. More frequent was the case of Jewish converts to Christianity who took vows and wrote books of Hebrew erudition addressed to their former coreligionists from their convents. This is the background against which the story of Johannes Pfefferkorn can be better understood. Born in Central Europe around 1468, Joseph Pfefferkorn converted from Judaism in 1504/05 and became an itinerant preacher. Between 1507 and 1521 (he probably died around 1523), he wrote several works aimed at convincing Jews to convert. Pfefferkorn is better known for his involvement in the harsh polemic against the German Hebraist Johannes Reuchlin, a Christian who supported the circulation of Rabbinic literature. The polemic started a few years after Pfefferkorn had published his first anti-Jewish pamphlet, Der Judenspiegel (The Jews’ Mirror), printed in both German and Latin by various publishers between 1507 and 1508. The short treatise, which once enjoyed wide circulation, is now rescued from historical oblivion thanks to this first unabridged translation in modern German and English, edited by Ruth I. Cape, assistant professor of German at Austin College in Texas, and provided with a dense and very rich introduction by Maria Diemling, who sets the work and its author against the contemporary historical background. Both the modern German and the English translation are very faithful to the original—whereas the first one tries to keep as much as possible the flavor of the Middle High German text, the English rendering (fully annotated) allows the contemporary reader to perfectly understand the author’s meanings. Pfefferkorn’s work is divided into three main parts. The first one is more theological and explicitly addresses the Jews: its topics constituted the center of the Judeo-Christian polemic literature of previous centuries. In the second part, the author advises his Christian contemporaries on the means to proselytize Jews. The third part contains an interpretation of the messianic signs in Pfefferkorn’s times. Besides the interesting details provided by the author on the habits of German Jews, this short work reflects a significant tendency: the birth of a “Christian ethnography of Judaism.” Jewish rituals have been the target of Christian polemics starting with St. Paul. From the sixteenth century onward, however, a more systematic interest in the habits of the Jews developed among Christians, possibly motivated also...

The Christian Appropriation of Jerusalem in the Fourth Century: The Case of the Bordeaux Pilgrim

IN THE PAST THREE or so decades there has been a noticeable increase of scholarly interest in the world of Christian pilgrimage in general and that leading to the Holy Land in particular.1 Indeed the birth of Christian pilgrimage to Roman Palestine during the third and fourth decades of the fourth century took place not in the least due to the brilliant Holy Land plan of Constantine, which was, among other matters, aimed at diverting the attention of the Christian masses from what only just recently had been their lot - horrifying persecutions at the hands of the heathen Roman Empire. At the same time it served to invigorate their interest in their recent heroic, historic, and mythic past that took place in the Holy Land and particularly in Jerusalem.2 In addition to its avowed interest in a new Christian self-identity it seems to me that Constantine's plan served too as yet another component in the overall scheme to tilt the political and religious center of gravity from the Occident to the Orient - from Rome the civitaa aeterna to Roma Nova, which he founded in Byzantium on the banks of the Bosphoran straits and renamed Constantinopolis.3In no time the massive construction work carried out predominantly in (the Holy Sepulcher) and around Jerusalem (Mount of Olives, Mamre [near Hebron] and Bethlehem) was being augmented by the creation of yet another configuration of a spiritual nature, the holy Jerusalem liturgy, which no doubt when finally formed merited the title the Fifth Gospel given it by Peter Walker.4 The pilgrims who flocked by the hordes to the holy city were the backbone of the unique religious and cultural transformation that is the Christianization of Jerusalem and of the Holy Land. They captured and disseminated its message as well as its scents. It seems that it must have been to them, as well as to the neophytes gathering in Jerusalem to convert to the new religion, that Cyril the local bishop addressed the following: One should never grow weary of hearing about our crowned Lord, especially on this holy Golgotha. For others merely hear, but we see and touch5The end product, so to say, of the Christian appropriation of the Holy Land in general and of Jerusalem in particular was demonstrated cartographically on the famous mosaic floor of the Madaba Church east of the Jordan River, better known as the Madaba Map.6 This map and possibly other maps7 as well as other components of the Christian Holy Land edifice (relics and tombs) were to an extant a reflection of the circulating verbal accounts of the early pilgrims to Byzantine Palestine. The centrality of these accounts to the understanding of Christian views on pilgrimage and the Holy Land is beyond doubt, but before we take a closer look at segments of the earliest description of the Holy Land known to us, the one written by the anonymous pilgrim from Bordeaux (333 CE.), a short precis of the statua quaestionis of the early Christian pilgrimage to Palestine and its literary accounts is in order.Scholars like David Hunt and Zeev Rubin have scoured the intricate historical terrain of Late Antiquity in order to depict for us the hitherto unknown picture of Christian Palestinian pilgrimage set in the unique political and religious circumstances of the empire and in particular in the province of Roman Palestinian.8 Others, like Peter Walker, Robert Wilken, and Robert Markus as well as Piere Maraval, to mention only a few, immersed themselves in the conceptual world of pilgrimage and in the notion of the Holy Land as portrayed in the writings of the Church fathers.9 Still others like John Wilkinson and Ora Limor, took upon themselves to translate and annotate the pilgrims' accounts.10 In more recent years a more specific venue has been explored, namely, the Jewish component of Christian pilgrimage. Recent studies have looked into the following set of topics. On the one hand, for instance, Ora Limor has explored the role of the Hebraica Veritas (that is, the intrinsic and concealed knowledge of the Jews of local Judeo-Christian traditions) in the construction of Palestinian Christian sacred topography, and others like Elchanan Reiner have been tracing hints of possible Jewish reactions to this rather new religious and cultural intrusion into their land. …

Die Problematik des Begriffes hebraica veritas

The formal problematic of the concept hebraica veritas &#x0D; &#x0D; Proceeding from the importance of the concept of hebraica veritas in terms of both its original intention and of the opposing positions on Holy Scripture entertained by the Roman Catholic tradition and the emerging Protestant views during the Reformation, a brief discussion of the meaning and early context of the concept is given. The formal problematic of the hebraica veritas as found in the Tanak is addressed vis-à-vis its latinised version in the Greek text tradition. Jerome’s use of the concept is analysed on the basis of his textual justification for it. Pneumatological and salvation-historical dimensions are identified, and the function of the concept as self-identification over against Judaism is discussed, as well as its implications for delimiting the canon. It is concluded that the concept needs to be foregrounded anew in light of its significant impact in the context of accounting for the concepts of Holy Scripture, canon and therefore canon-based endeavours to construe a “biblical theology” of the “whole Bible”.

Martin Bucer as Interpreter of the Old Testament: A Re-examination of Previous Scholarship in Light of Bucer's Enarrationes in librum Iudicum (ca. 1540)

The Alsatian reformer, Martin Bucer (1491-1551), lectured on the Old Testament book of Judges, probably in the early 1540s. Fragments of these lectures have been preserved because they were included in the 1554 edition of his Psalms commentary. In the present article an attempt is made to elucidate some aspects of Bucer's method of interpretation and of the theological motives underlying his exegesis. The Enarrationes in librum Iudicum generally seem to support the observation that Bucer's exegesis moves between the two poles of adherence to the Hebraica veritas on the one hand, and a focus on the internal and ethical meaning underlying the text on the other. However, they also suggest that Bucer in practice could resort to allegorizing exegesis in order to defend emerging, more characteristically ‘Reformed’ doctrine and that he could appeal to an authority even beyond the internal meaning of the text, viz., God's hidden will.

Allison P. Coudert and Jeffrey S. Shoulson, Hebraica Veritas? Christian Hebraists and the Study of Judalism in early modern Europe

Allison P. Coudert and Jeffrey S. Shoulson, Hebraica Veritas? Christian Hebraists and the Study of Judalism in early modern Europe

:Hebraica Veritas? Christian Hebraists and the Study of Judaism in Early Modern Europe

:<i>Hebraica Veritas? Christian Hebraists and the Study of Judaism in Early Modern Europe</i>

Hebraica Veritas? Christian Hebraists and the Study of Judaism in Early Modern Europe

Hebraica Veritas? Christian Hebraists and the Study of Judaism in Early Modern Europe

Hebraica Veritas? Christian Hebraists and the Study of Judaism in Early Modern Europe. Edited by Allison P. Coudert and Jeffrey S. Shoulson. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004. (Jewish Culture and Contexts). x + 317 pp. $49.95/£32.50 (hbk).

Hebraica Veritas? Christian Hebraists and the Study of Judaism in Early Modern Europe. Edited by Allison P. Coudert and Jeffrey S. Shoulson. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004. (Jewish Culture and Contexts). x + 317 pp. $49.95/£32.50 (hbk).

Hebraica Veritas? Christian Hebraists and the study of Judaism in Early Modern Europe Edited by Allison P. Coudert and Jeffrey S. Shoulson

<i>Hebraica Veritas? Christian Hebraists and the study of Judaism in Early Modern Europe</i> Edited by Allison P. Coudert and Jeffrey S. Shoulson

REVIEWS OF BOOKS

Books reviewed:Allison P. Coudert and Jeffrey S. Shoulson (eds.), Hebraica Veritas? Christian Hebraists and the study of Judaism in Early Modern Europe.Kenneth D. Farrow, John Knox: Reformation Rhetoric and the Traditions of Scots Prose 1490–1570.Trevor McNeely, Proteus Unmasked: Sixteenth‐Century Rhetoric and the Art of Shakespeare.Matthew Woodcock, Fairy in The Faerie Queene: Renaissance Elf‐Fashioning and Elizabethan Myth‐Making.Fernando Bouza, Communication, Knowledge, and Memory in Early Modern Spain.Ingrid D. Rowland, The Scarith of Scornello: A Tale of Renaissance Forgery.Mark Crane, Richard Raiswell, and Margaret Reeves, Shell Games: Studies in Scams, Frauds, and Deceits (1300–1650).Hilaire Kallendorf, Exorcism and Its Texts: Subjectivity in Early Modern Literature of England and Spain.Donatella Calabi, The Market and the City: Square, Street and Architecture in Early Modern Europe.Barney Sloane and Gordon Malcolm, Excavations at the priory of the Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem, Clerkenwell, London. Museum of London Archaeology Service Monograph 20.Louise Bourdua, The Franciscans and Art Patronage in Late Medieval Italy.