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[German Version] (“Letters of Obscure Men”), title of a two-part collection of fictitious letters that appeared in 1515–17. In 1514, in connection with the dispute concerning Jewish writings, J. Reuchlin had published the “Letters of Famous Men” ( Clarorum virorum epistolae) addressed to him in order to strengthen his position over against the Cologne Dominicans. The anonymous authors of the Epistolae obscurorum virorum (1I 1–41 [1515], esp. Crotus Rubeanus, 3I 42–48 [1516] and 1II [1517] mostly U. v. Hutten) belonged to the circle …

[German Version] (Johann Jäger; 1480, Dornheim near Arnstadt, Thüringen – c. 1545, Halberstadt), German humanist. He enrolled at the University of Erfurt in 1498, where he joined the circle of humanists around Mutianus Rufus, and lived in the same students' hostel as Luther. He became the mentor of U. v. Hutten around 1503, and earned his M.A. in 1507. He was the principal author of the first section of the Epistolae obscurorum virorum , which was written in Fulda in 1515. In 1517, he completed his Dr. theol. in Bologna, where he became a…

[German Version] (a Prato; c. 1460, Prato – Nov 5, 1558, Rome), a rabbi, who was converted before 1506; in Prato he joined the order of the Augustinian Hermits. He collaborated with D. Bomberg in Venice to produce the first printed rabbinic Bible (1517/1518), a copy of which Melanchthon acquired for the University of Wittenberg (now in the university library at Jena). Instead of a complete Bible translation, as an experiment Leo X allowed Felix to translated the Psalter from Hebrew (Venice 1515). …

[German Version] (Elias; 1469/1470, Ipsheim an der Aisch – Jan 5, 1549, Venice). The Jewish scholar in Hebraic studies and author Elijah Bokher Levita spent most of his life in Italy. From 1515 to 1527, he lived in Rome under the patronage of Aegidius (Giles) of Viterbo (general of the Augustinian order and cardinal), and worked with P. Fagius in Isny in 1540/1541. He is the author of lexicographical, grammatical, text-critical, exegetical and novelistic-poetic works written in Hebrew, some of which soon appeared in Latin translation. In his Masoret ha-Masoret [The tradition of trad…

[German Version] (Capnion; Feb 22, 1455, Pforzheim – Jun 30, 1522, Stuttgart), eminent Humanist (Humanism: III), studied in Paris in 1473 and from 1474 to 1477 at Basel, where he explored the philosophy of Nicholas of Cusa, earned his M.A., and wrote his Vocabularius breviloquus (1478), a Latin dictionary. In 1477 he studied Greek in Paris with Georgios Hermonymus. He began studying ius civile in 1479 in Orléans and finished in Poitiers in 1481 as a licentiate. Appointed to the council of Count Eberhard the Bearded of Württemberg and a member of the manoria…

[German Version] (Jan 20, 1488, Niederingelheim am Rhein – May 26, 1552, Basel), was received into the Franciscan order c. 1505, and in 1512 was ordained priest. He taught philosophy in Tübingen (1514–1518) and Basel (1518–1520). In 1520 he published a German translation of Luther's sermon on the Decalogue. In 1524 he was called to teach Hebrew at Heidelberg University. In 1529 he left his order, then worked until his death at Basel University (1547/1558 rector) as a Hebraist, professor of Old Tes…

[German Version] (1520, Siena – Sep 28, 1569, Genoa), possibly a convert from Judaism, initially a Franciscan, condemned to death as a heretic, then persuaded to recant and enter the Dominican order. He dedicated his principal work to Pius V: Bibliotheca sancta (Venice 1566, etc.; ed. P.T. Milante, 2 vols., Naples 1742), an introduction to the Bible focused strictly on its literal sense and drawing on Jewish exegesis. Sixtus demanded that the Talmud be burned but valued the kabbalistic Zohar, claiming that it supported belief in Christ. Siegfried Raeder Bibliography J.W. Montgomery, …

[German Version] (Faber, Jacob Stapulensis; c. 1455/1460, Étaples – 1536, Nérac). Lefèvre d'Étaples, a humanist and Reform theologian, is credited with having rediscovered Aristotle, whom he considered to be divinely inspired and whose texts he edited in newer translations beginning in 1492 with commentary added partly in his own hand and partly by his student, Jodocus Clichtoveus (c. 1472–1543). Lefèvre also edited writings by the church fathers (Patristics) and medieval authors. He was especiall…

[German Version] (von) (Nov 3, 1769, Zavelstein – Mar 23, 1826, Tübingen) was the grandson of J.A. Bengel. In 1806, he became professor of theology in Tübingen, in 1810 full professor, in 1820 prelate. He was the student of J.C. Storr. Bengel devoted himself especially to biblical studies and historical theology. His studies on Soci…

[German Version] (c. 1270/1275, Lyre near Evreux – Oct 1349, Paris), Franciscan and an influential exegete. Nicholas taught theology in Paris from 1308 to 1319 and again c. 1326; in 1319 he became the Franciscan provincial of Francia and in 1324 of Burgundy. He composed a Postilla literalis et moralis in Vetus et Novum Testamentum (1471/1472 and later), which went through many editions to 1660 and was partially translated into various vernaculars. He also wrote anti-Jewish works, quaestiones, and 259 sermones. Nicholas grounded his interpretation on the literal meaning of the text ( Pro…

[German Version] (died Aug 20, 1152, Toledo), originally from Gascony; he was appointed to the chapter of Toledo. Raymond became bishop of (Burgo de) Osma in 1109, and in 1124/1125 archbishop of Toledo and primate in Spain. In 1148 he took part in the Synod of Reims. After the end of Islamic rule (1085), Toledo became a center for translation from Arabic to Latin, around 1136, with Plato of Tivoli. The Corpus Toletanum, inaugurated by Peter the Venerable, includes the complete Qurʾān translated in 1143 by Robert Ketton and Hermann Dalmata. Still more than Raymond, h…

[German Version] (Eng.: Raymond martini, c. 1215/1220, Subirats, Catalonia – c. 1292, Barcelona), Dominican. In 1263 Ramón was present at a Christian-Jewish disputation (I) in Barcelona, and preached in Murcia to Jews and Muslims. In 1269 he was expelled from Tunis after a short stay. He maintained relations with the court of St. Louis IX in Paris, and with Thomas Aquinas. He spent his last years in Barcelona. His polemical magnum opus, Pugio fidei, written in 1278, is based on excellent knowledge of Jewish and Islamic sources and treats the following subjects: the e…

[German Version] (Santi Pagnini; Oct 18, 1470, Lucca – Aug 24, 1541, Lyon), Dominican friar who taught oriental languages in Rome; he was in Avignon from 1521 to 1524, and then in Lyon. He translated the Bible from the original languages into Latin (Lyon, 1527), with a strictly literal rendering of the Old Testament. He also wrote a Hebrew dictionary (Lyon, 1529) as well as extensive works on the OT. He followed ¶ Augustine in his emphasis on the mystical sense of Scripture. Siegfried Raeder Bibliography T.M. Centi, “L’attività letteraria di Santi Pagnini nel campo delle scienze bibliche,” A…

[German Version] (Feb 22, 1804, Balingen – Dec 28, 1878, Tübingen), son of a soap-boiler who was influenced by the Enlightenment and of a pietistic mother, Beck attended the Urach seminary from 1818 to 1822, studied theology at Tübingen (1822–1827), married Luise Fischer from Balingen, became a minister at Waldthann near Crailsheim in 1827, became town parson in 1829, and at the same time principal of the Gymnasium in Mergentheim, where he wrote his first academic publications for the TZTh after 1831. Supported by the Tübingen professors J.C.F. …

[German Version] (Kürschner, Kürsner; Pelicanus; Jan 8, 1478, Ruffach, Elsaß [Rouffach, Alsace] – Apr 1, ¶ 1556, Zürich), began his studies in 1491 at Heidelberg; in 1493 he became a Franciscan. After 1495 he studied at Tübingen with the Humanist P. Scriptoris; there he became acquainted with J. Reuchlin. In 1501 he wrote the first textbook on Hebrew to be produced by a Christian ( De modo legendi et intelligendi Hebraeum, publ. in G. Reich, Margarita philosophica, 1504). In 1502 he became a lector in the Franciscan house in Basel. In 1515 he began to assist Erasmus in …

[German Version] (Primus Truber; Jun 9, 1508, Raščica, near Ljubljana – Jun 28, 1586, Derendingen, near Tübingen), Slovenian Reformer. Trubar was a student of Pietro Bonomo, bishop of Trieste, who was favorable toward the Reformation. He became a pastor in Laško in 1530 and a canon in Ljubljana in 1542. He was influenced by both the Swiss (H. Bullinger, ¶ K. Pellikan) and the Lutheran Reformation. In 1548 he sought refuge in Nuremberg; through the good offices of V. Dietrich, he came to Rothernburg ob der Tauber as a preacher and became a pastor in Kempt…

[German Version] (Solomon ha-Levi; c. 1352 Burgos –Aug 29, 1435, Burgos) converted to Christianity in 1391, taking the name Pablo de Santa Maria. In 1403 he became bishop of Cartagena, in 1415 bishop of Burgos, and in 1416 archchancellor of Castile. He wrote 1,100 critical and supplementary Additiones to the Postilla of Nicholas of Lyra, on the grounds that Nicholas treated the exegesis of the saints as inferior to his own, and sometimes even to that of the Jews, that Nicholas’s knowledge of Hebrew was inadequate and that Nicholas generally fol…

[German Version] (Biblical Scholarship, Hermeneutics, Interpretation) I. Religious Studies – II. History of Religions – III. Greco Roman Antiquity – IV. Bible – V. Church History – VI. Practical Theology – VII. Biblical Scenes in Art – VIII. Judaism – IX. Islam I. Religious Studies Exegesis (for etymology see III below) is the explanation, interpretation, or analysis of sacred or otherwise religiously central documents by experts; it enables and encourages the access of a …