This book constitutes a critical edition of the Karaite Yefet ben ʿEli's commentary on the prophetic books Amos, Haggai, and Malachi, with a comprehensive introduction discussing the characteristics of his commentaries and translations.
"A critical scholarly edition of the Karaite Yefet ben 'Eli ha-Levi's (10th-century) Judaeo-Arabic translation of and commentary on the prophetic books Amos, Haggai, and Malachi, including a comparison of 19 manuscripts and an extensive introduction. The introduction discusses Yefet's exegesis of the three books, his approaches to the biblical narratives, his polemic with the Rabbanites, and the exegetical principles he uses in his translation of the verses. Yefet ben 'Eli was one of the most important biblical commentators of the early Middle Ages. He translated all the books of the Bible into Judaeo-Arabic and composed a long commentary on them. His commentaries on the books of Amos, Haggai, and Malachi reflect his method of biblical exegesis and present unique interpretive ideas"--
This volume consists of a critical edition of the Arabic translation and commentary of Yefet ben Eli the Karaite on the entire Abraham narrative. The edition is preceded by an extensive introduction in which the author discusses various facets of Yefet’s exegesis.
Jewish Bible commentary in the Middle Ages took on two aspects, the Sephardic and the Ashkenazic. The first, Spanish interpretation, developed in a Muslim surrounding, which appreciated secular studies, the sciences, and Arabic literature, much of which it had translated from Greek. These studies made their mark on Bible exegesis, which sought the simple straightforward sense (peshat) of a verse and its grammatical meaning. The Ashkenazic school, however, situated in France and Germany, was firmly anchored in the rabbinic study hall and its exegesis was a continuation of the methods of Midrash and Aggadah as practiced in Mishnah and Talmud. In the beginning of the twelfth century, Ashkenazic commentary in northern France took on a new face. Contact with the outside world, including Christian scholarship, and partial knowledge of general studies, brought the Ashkenazi Jewish commentators to the realization that the Bible, besides being a religious text, was also literature. As literature, many features including the order of biblical pericopes or units attracted attention. The classic commentators, Rashi in France, Ibn Ezra in Toledo and Ramban (Nahmanides) in northern Spain all dealt with biblical order. Order as Meaning cites many cases of sequential arrangement and juxtaposition taken from the rabbinic period as well as from the above three commentators, explaining what there was to learn from such a study.
The book is concerned with a so called ethical midrash, Seder Eliyahu (also known as Tanna debe Eliyahu), a post-talmudic work probably composed in the ninth century. It provides a survey of the research on this late midrash followed by five studies of different aspects related to what is designated as the work’s narratology. These include a discussion of the problem of the apparent pseudo-epigraphy of the work and of the multiple voices of the text; a description of the various narrative types which the work, itself as a whole of non-narrative character, makes use of; a detailed treatment of Seder Eliyahu’s parables and most characteristic first person narratives (an extremely unusual form of narrative discourse in rabbinic literature); as well as a final chapter dedicated to selected women stories in this late midrash. As it emerges from the survey in chapter 1 such a narratologically informed study of Seder Eliyahu represents a new approach in the research on a work that is clearly the product of a time of transition in Jewish literature.
The understanding of God's name YHWH is so controversial that it is eventually the controversy of controversies, or the ultimate controversy. Indeed, why most of competent Hebrew scholars propagate patently false explanations about God's name? Why do the Jews refuse to read God's name as it is written and read Adonay "my Lord" (a plural of majesty) instead of it? Why God's name is usually punctuated e, â (shewa, qamats) by the Masoretes what makes its reading impossible, because the 4 consonants of the name YHWH must have at least 3 vowels (long or short) to be read, like the words 'aDoNâY and 'eLoHîM "God" (a plural of majesty), which have 4 consonants and 3 vowels? At last, why the obvious reading "Yehowah", according to theophoric names, which all begin by Yehô-, without exception, is so despised, and why the simple biblical meaning, "He will be" from Exodus 3:14, is rejected.
This volume deals with three themes: medieval Judaism, Arabic and Hebrew sociolinguistics, and Arabic Bible translation. Within Medieval Judaism, the Karaite Jews became a prosperous community under the banners of Islam. One of the most salient signs of the Karaite community's strength and internal cohesion was the extensive scientific contribution that it made to the fields of Biblical studies, Hebrew philology and philosophy. This book presents for the first time a critical edition of one of the works of the leading Karaite scholars in biblical exegeses and translation, Japheth ben Ali's Judaeo-Arabic translation of the "Book of Jeremiah", drawing on five medieval manuscripts. As the majority of Karaite works, including Bible manuscripts, are in Judaeo-Arabic, relatively few of them have been published. A number of the Karaite Bible manuscripts were written in Arabic script, resulting in their being neglected by scholars, despite the significance of these manuscripts to the history of medieval Judaism and Bible textual Studies. The author of this volume focuses on some of the most important issues in the field of sociolinguistics, namely language-contact, diglossia and the status of both Arabic and Hebrew in the medieval Jewish literary system. Equally important is the issue of the script-in-use (Hebrew or Arabic), which was a major subject of debate among the Rabbinates and the Karaites. Indeed, the language and the script used in these manuscripts will help us re-evaluate the established theories about the language-situation and literary systems in medieval Islamic and Jewish societies. The value of translating the Hebrew Bible into Arabic was unparalleled in medieval inter-religious scholarship. For Muslim scholars it was their only access to the Jewish Bible. The contribution of the Karaites to this field is enormous, and this work offers us a unique window into the Karaite theory of Biblical hermeneutics.
This volume includes contributions presented at two conferences, in Mainz and Jerusalem, and presents new discoveries of binding fragments in several European libraries and archives and abroad. It presents newly discovered texts with unknown Jewish writings from the Middle Ages and analyses fragments of well-known texts, such as textual witnesses of Midrashim. One chapter overviews recent discoveries in certain collections, some of them far beyond the geographical horizon of the original project, but certainly all of European origin. Other chapters study palaeographical and codicological issues of manuscript fragments and Ashkenazic inscriptions. A final article refers to the beginnings of scholarly interest in Hebrew binding fragments in Germany and sheds light on the part played by Christian Hebraists in its development.
An accessible point of entry into the rich medieval religious landscape of Jewish biblical exegesis s Medieval Judeo-Arabic translations of the Hebrew Bible and their commentaries provide a rich source for understanding a formative period in the intellectual, literary, and cultural history and heritage of Jews in Islamic lands. The carefully selected texts in this volume offer intriguing insight into Arabic translations and commentaries by Rabbanite and Karaite Jewish exegetes from the tenth to the twelfth centuries CE, arranged according to the three divisions of the Torah, the Former and Latter Prophets, and the Writings. Each text is embedded within an essay discussing its exegetical context, reception, and contribution. Features: Focus on underrepresented medieval Jewish commentators of the Eastern world A list of additional resources, including major Judeo-Arabic commentators in the medieval period Previously unpublished texts from the Cairo Geniza