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RAMBAN
Jewish commentators should be familiar with the name Rabbi Nachmanides (whose full name, Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman Gerondi, is often abbreviated as Ramban), a leading 13th-century medieval Jewish scholar, philosopher, physician, kabbalist, and biblical commentator. Who solely took on the might of medieval European Christianity and won the debate for Judaism.
The debate turned on the following questions:
- ) whether the Messiah had appeared or not
- ) whether, according to Scripture, the Messiah is a divine or a human being
- ) whether the Jews or the Christians held the true faith.
However, the Christian antagonists at the time claimed they had the victory and those that would like to know more about this story of a lone Jewish scholar being forced to attend the disputation and treachery of the Christian clergy can follow the links below.
https://www.woodsideparksynagogue.org.uk/the-disputation-of-barcelona https://www.atlantajewishtimes.com/rambans-debate-skills-forced-his-exile/
The Disputation of Barcelona (July 20–24, 1263)
The Disputation of Barcelona was a formal debate between Dominican Friar Pablo Christiani, a convert from Judaism to Christianity, and Nachmanides, a leading medieval Jewish scholar, philosopher, physician, kabbalist, and biblical commentator. It was held at the royal palace of King James I of Aragon (1213-1276) in the presence of the King, his court, and many prominent ecclesiastical dignitaries and knights. (The kingdoms of Aragon and Castile would unite in 1469 and create the kingdom of Spain we know today.)
The disputation was organised by Raymond de Penyafort, the superior of Christiani and the confessor of King James I. Christiani had been preaching to Jews of Provence. Relying upon the reserve his adversary would be forced to maintain through fear of wounding the feelings of the Christian dignitaries, Christiani assured the King that he could prove the truth of Christianity from the Talmud and other rabbinical writings.
Nachmanides complied with the order of the King but asked that he should have complete freedom of speech and the king agreed to this.
Had the Messiah appeared?
Based upon several aggadic passages, Christiani argued that Pharisaic sages believed that the Messiah had lived during the Talmudic period and that they must therefore have believed that the Messiah was Jesus.
Nachmanides argued that Jews were not required to believe the aggadic materials found in the Talmud. He countered that Christiani’s interpretations of Talmudic passages were per se distortions; the rabbis would not hint that Jesus was Messiah while, at the same time, explicitly opposing him as such:
Nachmanides noted that prophetic promises of the Messianic Age, a reign of universal peace and justice had not yet been fulfilled. On the contrary, since the appearance of Jesus, the world had been filled with violence and injustice, and among all denominations, the Christians were the most warlike. He asserted that questions of the Messiah are of less dogmatic importance to Jews than most Christians imagine because it is more meritorious for the Jews to observe the precepts of the Torah under a Christian ruler, while in exile and suffering humiliation and abuse, than under the rule of the Messiah, when every one would perforce act in accordance with the Law.
Is the Messiah a divine or a human being?
Nachmanides demonstrated from numerous biblical and Talmudic sources that traditional (rabbinic) Jewish belief ran contrary to Christiani’s postulates, and showed that the Biblical prophets regarded the future messiah as a human, a person of flesh and blood, without ascribing his divine attributes.
“[… it seems most strange that… ] the Creator of Heaven and Earth resorted to the womb of a certain Jewish lady, grew there for nine months and was born as an infant, and afterwards grew up and was betrayed into the hands of his enemies who sentenced him to death and executed him, and that afterwards… he came to life and returned to his original place. The mind of a Jew, or any other person, simply cannot tolerate these assertions. If you have listened all your life to the priests who have filled your brain and the marrow of your bones with this doctrine, and it has settled into you because of that accustomed habit. [I would argue that if you were hearing these ideas for the first time, now, as a grown adult], you would never have accepted them.”
According to a report by Nachmanides,
Friar Paul claimed: “Behold the passage in Isaiah, chapter 53, tells of the death of the messiah and how he was to fall into the hands of his enemies and how he was placed alongside the wicked, as happened to Jesus. Do you believe that this section speaks of the messiah?
I said to him: “In terms of the true meaning of the section, it speaks only of the people of Israel, which the prophets regularly call ‘Israel My servant’ or ‘Jacob My servant.'”
Conclusion
As the disputation turned in favour of Nachmanides the Jews of Barcelona, fearing the resentment of the Dominicans, entreated him to discontinue; but the King, whom Nachmanides had acquainted with the apprehensions of the Jews, desired him to proceed. At the end of the disputation, King James awarded Nachmanides a prize of 300 gold coins and declared that never before had he heard “an unjust cause so nobly defended.”
Reports of the proceedings
Since the Dominicans claimed the victory, Nachmanides felt compelled to publish his own summary of the controversy. From this publication, Christiani selected certain passages which he construed as blasphemies against Christianity and denounced to his general Raymond de Penyafort. Ultimately the Church, not being a good loser tried to have Ramban tried for blasphemy, but the king tried to defend him. A capital charge was instituted, and a formal complaint against the work and its author was lodged with the King. James mistrusted the Dominican court and called an extraordinary commission, ordering the proceedings to be conducted in his presence. Nachmanides admitted that he had stated many things against Christianity, but he had written nothing which he had not used in his disputation in the presence of the King, who had granted him freedom of speech. Nevertheless, Ramban was forced into exile and went to settle in Israel where he died in 1270. What do you say?
Cofion
Jero Jones
Article URL : https://breakingnewsandreligion.online/discuss/