''Milhamoth ha-Shem'' ( he, מלחמות השם) or ''Milhamoth Adonai'' (Wars of the Lord) is the title of several Hebrew polemical texts. The phrase is taken from the

Book of the Wars of the Lord The Book of the Wars of the Lord () is one of several non-canonical books referenced in the Bible which have now been completely lost. It is mentioned in Numbers 21:13–14, which reads: David Rosenberg suggests in ''The Book of David'' that ...

referenced in .

''Milhamoth ha-Shem'' of Salmon ben Jeroham, 10th century

Solomon ben Jeroham's ''The Book of the Wars of the Lord'' (also Milhamoth Adonai מלחמות אדוני), is a refutation of

Saadya Gaon Saʻadiah ben Yosef Gaon ( ar, سعيد بن يوسف الفيومي ''Saʻīd bin Yūsuf al-Fayyūmi''; he, סַעֲדְיָה בֶּן יוֹסֵף אַלְפַיּוּמִי גָּאוֹן ''Saʿăḏyāh ben Yōsēf al-Fayyūmī Gāʾōn''; ...

''Milhamoth ha-Shem'' of Jacob ben Reuben, 12th century

The ''Milhamoth ha-Shem'' of Jacob ben Reuben, is a 12th-century Jewish apologia against conversion by Christians, consisting of questions and answers from selected texts of

Gospel of Matthew The Gospel of Matthew), or simply Matthew. It is most commonly abbreviated as "Matt." is the first book of the New Testament of the Bible and one of the three synoptic Gospels. It tells how Israel's Messiah, Jesus, comes to his people and form ...

, including Matt. 1:1–16, 3:13–17, 4:1–11, 5:33–40, 11:25–27, 12:1–8, 26:36–39, 28:16–20. It served as a precedent for the full Hebrew translation and interspersed commentary on Matthew found in

Ibn Shaprut Shem-Tob ben Isaac Shaprut of Tudela ( he, שם טוב אבן שפרוט) (born at Tudela in the middle of the 14th century) was a Spanish Jewish philosopher, physician, and polemicist. He is often confused with the physician Shem-Tob ben Isaac ...

's '' Touchstone'' c. 1385.

''Milhamoth ha-Shem'' of Abraham, son of Maimonides, 13th century

Abraham ben Moses ben Maimon's ''Wars of the Lord'' is a treatise defending his father

Maimonides Musa ibn Maimon (1138–1204), commonly known as Maimonides (); la, Moses Maimonides and also referred to by the acronym Rambam ( he, רמב״ם), was a Sephardic Jewish philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Tora ...

against slander.

''Milhamoth ha-Shem'' of Nachmanides, 13th century

Nachmanides's ''Wars of the Lord'' is a Halakhic treatise attacking Zerahiah ha-Levi's commentary on Alfasi. The treatise goes in great detail on the piece of Talmud at hand.

''Milhamoth ha-Shem'' of Levi ben Gershom, 14th century

The ''Wars of the Lord'', also ''Milhamoth Adonai'' (מלחמות אדוני), of Levi ben Gershom, or

Gersonides Levi ben Gershon (1288 – 20 April 1344), better known by his Graecized name as Gersonides, or by his Latinized name Magister Leo Hebraeus, or in Hebrew by the abbreviation of first letters as ''RaLBaG'', was a medieval French Jewish philosoph ...

, or "RaLBaG", (1288–1344) is a religious, astronomical and philosophical treatise.

''Milhamoth ha-Shem'' of Abner of Burgos (Alfonso of Valladolid), 14th century.

Abner of Burgos Abner of Burgos (c. 1270 – c. 1347, or a little later) was a Jewish philosopher, a convert to Christianity and polemical writer against his former religion. Known after his conversion as Alfonso of Valladolid. Life As a student he acquired a ce ...

(ca1260-ca1347) was a convert to Christianity who wrote polemical works in Hebrew between 1320–1340. This text is Hebrew anti-Jewish polemic that is now lost but quotations of it survive in the Latin writing of the fifteenth-century convert Paul of Burgos (Scrutinium Scripturarum) and the polemicist Alonso de Espina (Fortalitium fidei). It served as a template for Abner's later work ʾ''Moreh Zedek'', which now survives in a Castilian translation as ''Mostrador de justicia'' and much material from the Sefer is repeated there. Abner translated the work into Castilian himself at the behest of Blanca, Lady of Las Huelgas in Burgos around the year 1320, and a copy of this translation was seen by traveller Ambrosio de Morales in Valladolid in the 16th century.

''Milhamoth ha-Shem'' of Yiḥyeh Qafeḥ, 1931

The seminal work composed by Yiḥyeh Qafeḥ (Hebrew: ), Chief Rabbi of

Sana'a Sanaa ( ar, صَنْعَاء, ' , Yemeni Arabic: ; Old South Arabian: 𐩮𐩬𐩲𐩥 ''Ṣnʿw''), also spelled Sana'a or Sana, is the capital and largest city in Yemen and the centre of Sanaa Governorate. The city is not part of the Gover ...

, Yemen and protagonist of the Dor Deah movement in Orthodox Judaism. Qafeḥ's ''Milḥamot HaShem'' (1931), which he began to write in 1914, argues that the Zohar is not authentic.

References

{{reflist Jewish apologetics Medieval Jewish history Jewish medieval literature