Isaac ben Mose Hallevi Profiat Duran

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Isaak ben Mose Hallevi Profiat Duran (called Efodi , * around 1350 probably in Perpignan ; † around 1415; "Duran" was a Jewish- Provençal family) was a philosophically educated grammarian and Hebrew in Spain who converted to Christianity during the persecutions of 1391 and then returned to Judaism .

In a rhyming prose epistle that begins with the words "al tehi ka-awotecha" ("Do not be like your fathers"), he castigated the apostasy of his friend David Bonet Bonjorn with biting irony and thus highlighted the irrational elements of the Christian faith that inexperienced readers could misunderstand it as pathetic praise of Christianity and even quoted the epistle as "Alteca Boteca".

In the extensive book "kelimmat ha-gojim" ("Disgrace of the Gentiles"), which he had written as a baptized person, he subjected passages from the New Testament and from the church fathers (especially from Hieronymus ) to a downright historical-critical examination, the many later apologists has served as a model. In twelve chapters, the book deals with the divinity of Jesus , the doctrine of the Trinity and the Incarnation , the irrevocability of the Torah , the papacy , sacraments and numerous passages of the Old Testament that Christians interpret differently . In it he criticizes the church fathers a. a. criticized the fact that her doctrine of the Trinity was based on false conclusions from the Kabbalah .

Profiat Duran also wrote “maasse efod”, a Hebrew grammar.

Literature (selection)

  • Heinrich Graetz : History of the Jews , Vol. VIII, Leipzig 1864.
  • Selig Gronemann : De Profiatii Durani Vita ac Studiis. Wroclaw 1869.
  • Angel Sáenz-Badillos, Judit Targarona Borrás: Yiṣḥaq ben Mošeh ha-Levi (Profiaṭ Durán, 'Efodi). In: Diccionario de autores judios (Sefarad. Siglos X – XV) (= Estudios de Cultura Hebrea, Volume 10). El Almendro, Córdoba 1988, ISBN 84-86077-69-9 , p. 165.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Norman Solomon: The A to Z of Judaism , Scarecrow Press, 2009, ISBN 978-0-8108-5555-7 , p. 100

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Isaac ben Mose Hallevi Profiat Duran
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Efodi
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Jewish scholar
DATE OF BIRTH around 1350
PLACE OF BIRTH unsure: Perpignan
DATE OF DEATH around 1415