Mediating Jewish Knowledge

Cooperation between Christian and Jewish scholars was common in the world of Early Modern Christian Hebraica. Ever since Christians decided to study the Hebrew Bible, the Talmud, the Kabbala and the commentaries and treaties of the Medieval Jewish philosophers there were rabbis to teach them or to help them edit the Hebrew books they needed. Still, outside of grammars, only a few rabbis went as far as authoring books for Christian audiences. Menasseh ben Israel (1604-1657), the famous Amsterdam rabbi known above all for his negotiations with Oliver Cromwell and the London parliament about the renaturalization of the Jews to England, was one of the first systematically to publish Latin books for a Christian audience and to "translate" Judaism into Christian contexts. In my essay I explain how Menasseh proceeded, how he merged Jewish knowledge into the knowledge of the Christian Respublica litteraria, and how he finally interconnected his scholarly and his political activities. Of special interest is Menasseh's idea of an Abramite theology, a common subset of shared Jewish and Christian teachings which could be used as something like a "third space" in intercultural translation processes. Finally, I discuss some aspects of the failure of Menasseh's project, reflected in the ambivalent reactions of the Christian world, and reconsidered with regard to the conditions early modern cultural mediators generally had to meet, but which Menasseh didn't

Art · Hebrew · Jewish Christian · Judaism · Literature · Negotiation · Parliament · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · Talmud · Theology · Biblical Studies and Interpretation · Classics · Historical and Linguistic Studies · History · Law · Medieval and Classical Philosophy · Philosophy · Religious studies

• Spinoza and Menasseh ben Israel

  Steven Nadler•Journal of the History of Ideas•2019

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• The Christian Study of Judaism in Early Modern Europe

  Open Access•Theodor Dunkelgrün•Cambridge History of Judaism•2017

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• Menasseh ben-Israel and reason of state

  Josiah Rotenberg•History of European Ideas•2024

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• Predestination and Toleration

  Open Access•Alexander Van Der Haven•Renaissance Quarterly•2018

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• My friendship with her is by no means an ordinary one”

  Anne R Larsen•The Seventeenth Century•2022

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• An Iberian Covenant

  Ran Segev•The Journal of Religion•2022

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• The Geography of Conscience

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• The embarrassment of riches

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• Myth in History, History in Myth

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• Imperial Eyes

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• From Messianism to Realpolitik

  Ismar Schorsch•Proceedings of the American…•1978

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• Jewish Medieval and Renaissance Studies

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• Eternality of Punishment

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• The Uses of Curiosity in Early Modern France and Germany

  P J Bayley, Peter Bayley et al.•The Modern Language Review•2006

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• Jewish Christians and Christian Jews

  Open Access•Richard H Popkin, Gordon M Weiner•Jewish Christians and Christian…•1994

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• “A View of the Jewish Religion”. Conceptions of Jewish Practice and Ritual in Early Modern Europe

  Yaacov Deutsch•Archiv für Religionsgeschichte•2001

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• The Invention of the Eyewitness

  Mary C Ekman•Sixteenth Century Journal•2006

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• Curiosity

  Michael R Lynn•Sixteenth Century Journal•2004

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• Divided Souls

  Dean Phillip Bell•Sixteenth Century Journal•2002

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• Reluctant Cosmopolitans

  Benjamin Ravid•Sixteenth Century Journal•2002

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• Dying in the Law of Moses

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• Cultural Intermediaries

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• Life and work of Gerardus Joannes Vossius (1577-1649)

  C S M Rademaker•Grotiana•1981

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• A Scholar and a Gentleman

  Open Access•Steven Shapin•History of Science•1991

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