From Christian Hebraism to Jewish Studies

From Christian Hebraism to Jewish Studies
Author: Stephen G. Burnett
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 352
Release: 1996
Genre: History
ISBN: 9789004103467

This book explains how a form of 'Jewish studies' took root in Protestant universities during the seventeenth century through Johannes Buxtorf's pioneering work and why it fit so well into the curriculum of early modern universities.

From Christian Hebraism to Jewish Studies: Johannes Buxtorf (1564-1629) and Hebrew Learning in the Seventeenth Century

From Christian Hebraism to Jewish Studies: Johannes Buxtorf (1564-1629) and Hebrew Learning in the Seventeenth Century
Author: Stephen Burnett
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 334
Release: 2021-12-06
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004473556

This book examines how Johannes Buxtorf's works helped to transform seventeenth-century Hebrew studies from the hobby of a few experts into a recognized academic discipline. The first two chapters examine Buxtorf's career as a professor of Hebrew and as an editor and censor of Jewish books in Basel. Successive chapters analyze his anti-Jewish polemical books, grammars and lexicons, and manuals for Hebrew composition and literature, including the first bibliography devoted to Jewish books. The final chapters treat his work in biblical studies, examining his contribution to Targum and Massorah studies, and his position on the age and doctrinal authority of the Hebrew vowel points. The chapters on anti-Jewish polemics and the vowel points will interest Jewish historians and Church historians.

Christian Hebraism in the Reformation Era (1500-1660)

Christian Hebraism in the Reformation Era (1500-1660)
Author: Stephen G. Burnett
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 365
Release: 2012-01-05
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004222480

The Reformation transformed Christian Hebraism from the pursuit of a few into an academic discipline. This book explains that transformation by focusing on how authors, printers, booksellers, and censors created a public discussion of Hebrew and Jewish texts.

The Scandal of Kabbalah

The Scandal of Kabbalah
Author: Yaacob Dweck
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 297
Release: 2013-12-26
Genre: History
ISBN: 0691162158

The Scandal of Kabbalah is the first book about the origins of a culture war that began in early modern Europe and continues to this day: the debate between kabbalists and their critics on the nature of Judaism and the meaning of religious tradition. From its medieval beginnings as an esoteric form of Jewish mysticism, Kabbalah spread throughout the early modern world and became a central feature of Jewish life. Scholars have long studied the revolutionary impact of Kabbalah, but, as Yaacob Dweck argues, they have misunderstood the character and timing of opposition to it. Drawing on a rang.

Yudisher Theriak

Yudisher Theriak
Author: Morris M. Faierstein
Publisher: Wayne State University Press
Total Pages: 208
Release: 2016-11-14
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0814342493

Scholars and students of Jewish-Christian relations and early modern Jewish historical and cultural studies will appreciate the availability of this previously inaccessible text.

A Mirror of the Jewish Religion: a Critical Edition and Translation of Christian Petter Löwe's Speculum Religionis Judaicæ (1732)

A Mirror of the Jewish Religion: a Critical Edition and Translation of Christian Petter Löwe's Speculum Religionis Judaicæ (1732)
Author: Jonathan Adams
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 346
Release: 2024-01-29
Genre: History
ISBN: 3110986930

In 1732, Christian Petter Löwe, a Jewish convert to Lutheranism, published his Speculum Religionis Judaicæ (Mirror of the Jewish Religion), a description of the Jewish religion and ceremonies as practised at the time. Over 50 years before Jews were permitted to settle in Sweden in 1782, the genre of Christian ethnographical writing about Jews and Jewish rituals had arrived in Sweden from Germany. In this volume, Jonathan Adams (University of Gothenburg) introduces the background to Löwe's "mirror" by looking at both the earlier history of Jews in Sweden and the phenomenon of ethnographical writing about Jews. The text of Speculum is presented in its original Swedish with a translation into English facing on the opposite pages. This edition includes notes explaining technical terms, identifying people and places, and translating Hebrew words and phrases. The volume also includes two works published in Sweden prior to Speculum: Bezelius' Die Herrlichkeit des Christenthums (The Glory of Christianity [excerpts], 1684) and Seeligmann's Jüdischer Ceremonien (On Jewish Ceremonies, 1725). The volume should be of interest to students and researchers of Jewish and Scandinavian history as well as the history of Jewish-Christian relations.

John Owen and Hebrews

John Owen and Hebrews
Author: John W. Tweeddale
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 201
Release: 2019-01-24
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0567685055

John W. Tweeddale reappraises John Owen's work as a biblical exegete, offering the first analysis of his essays, or “exercitations,” on Hebrews. Owen is frequently acknowledged as a leading figure of the puritan and nonconformist movements of the seventeenth century. However, while his reputation as a statesman, educator, pastor, polemicist, and theologian is widely recognized, he is not remembered as an exegete of Scripture. Yet throughout his life, Owen engaged in the task of biblical interpretation. His massive commentary on Hebrews in particular represents the apex of his career and exemplifies many of the exegetical methods of Protestants in early modern England. Although often overlooked, Owen's writings on Hebrews are an important resource for understanding his life and thought. Beginning with an evaluation of the state of research on Owen's commentary, as well as suggesting reasons for its neglect in current scholarship, Tweeddale then places Owen's work on Hebrews within the context of his life. What follows is a consideration of the function of federal theology in Owen's essays, and how his hermeneutic fits within the broader scope of reformed discussions on the doctrine of covenant. Tweeddale further examines Owen's attempts to resolve the challenge posed by a Christological reading of the Old Testament to a literal interpretation of Scripture. He then explores how Owen's essays represent a refining of the exegetical tradition of the Abrahamic passages in Hebrews, and how his exegesis distinguishes himself from the majority of reformed opinion on the Mosaic covenant. By focusing on the relationship of Christology, covenant theology, and hermeneutics in his commentary, this book argues that neither Owen's biography nor theology can be fully understood apart from his work on Hebrews and efforts in biblical interpretation.

Jewish Books and their Readers

Jewish Books and their Readers
Author: Scott Mandelbrote
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 394
Release: 2016-05-23
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9004318151

Jewish Books and their Readers discusses the transformative effect of the circulation and readership of sacred and secular texts written by Jews on Christian as well as Jewish readers in early modern Europe. Its twelve essays challenge traditional paradigms of Christian Hebraism and undermine simplistic visions of the unchanging nature of Jewish cultural life.They ask what constituted a ‘Jewish’ book: how it was presented, disseminated, and understood within both Jewish and Christian environments (and how its meanings were contested), and what effect such understanding had on contemporary views of Jews and their intellectual heritage. They demonstrate how the involvement of Christians in the production and dissemination of Jewish books played a role in the shaping of the intellectual life of Jews and Christians. Contributors are: Michela Andreatta, Andrew Berns, Theodor Dunkelgrün, Federica Francesconi, Anthony Grafton Alessandro Guetta, William Horbury, Yosef Kaplan, Scott Mandelbrote, Piet van Boxel, Joanna Weinberg Benjamin Williams.

Books in Early Modern Norway

Books in Early Modern Norway
Author: Gina Dahl
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 263
Release: 2011-07-12
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9004207201

During recent decades much has been written about early modern book distribution, but until now Norway has been absent from the discussion. Drawing on book listings, this study seeks to fill this lacuna by exploring the market for books in early modern Norway. Its approach is multifaceted: consideration of the types of books accessed by different elements of Norwegian society is set alongside developments within the book market itself, such as the extended life of popular books, the gradual replacement of Latin by the vernacular and the rise in the eighteenth century in the number of books available on the market. The study demonstrates the internationality of the Norwegian book market while acknowledging specific patterns that determine its Norwegian character.

Beyond Expulsion

Beyond Expulsion
Author: Debra Kaplan
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2011-07-26
Genre: History
ISBN: 0804774420

Beyond Expulsion is a history of Jewish-Christian interactions in early modern Strasbourg, a city from which the Jews had been expelled and banned from residence in the late fourteenth century. This study shows that the Jews who remained in the Alsatian countryside continued to maintain relationships with the city and its residents in the ensuing period. During most of the sixteenth century, Jews entered Strasbourg on a daily basis, where they participated in the city's markets, litigated in its courts, and shared their knowledge of Hebrew and Judaica with Protestant Reformers. By the end of the sixteenth century, Strasbourg became an increasingly orthodox Lutheran city, and city magistrates and religious leaders sought to curtail contact between Jews and Christians. This book unearths the active Jewish participation in early modern society, traces the impact of the Reformation on local Jews, discusses the meaning of tolerance, and describes the shifting boundaries that divided Jewish and Christian communities.