Sefer Nizzahon Yashan (ספר ניצחון) "The (old) Book of Victory" is an anonymous 13th-century Jewish apologetic text that originated in Germany. The word "old" (Hebrew ''yashan'', Latin ''vetus'') has become attached to the title to distinguish the work from the ''Sefer Nizzahon'' of
Yom-Tov Lipmann-Muhlhausen Yom-Tov Lipmann ben Solomon Muhlhausen (Hebrew: יום טוב ליפמן מילהאוזן) was a controversial Talmudist, kabalist and philosopher of the 14th and 15th centuries (birth date unknown, died later than 1420). His religious and scholar ...
of
Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...
, written in the 15th century. A modern edition was published by Mordechai Breuer in 1978, and a critical edition by
David Berger in 2008.
The work was known and responded to by Protestant
Hebraists
A Hebraist is a specialist in Jewish, Hebrew and Hebraic studies. Specifically, British and German scholars of the 18th and 19th centuries who were involved in the study of Hebrew language and literature were commonly known by this designation, a ...
and
polemicists
Polemic () is contentious rhetoric intended to support a specific position by forthright claims and to undermine the opposing position. The practice of such argumentation is called ''polemics'', which are seen in arguments on controversial topics ...
including
Johann Reuchlin
Johann Reuchlin (; sometimes called Johannes; 29 January 1455 – 30 June 1522) was a German Catholic humanist and a scholar of Greek and Hebrew, whose work also took him to modern-day Austria, Switzerland, and Italy and France. Most of Reuchlin' ...
,
Sebastian Münster
Sebastian Münster (20 January 1488 – 26 May 1552) was a German cartographer and cosmographer. He also was a Christian Hebraist scholar who taught as a professor at the University of Basel. His well-known work, the highly accurate world map, ...
,
Wolfgang Capito
Wolfgang Fabricius Capito (also Koepfel) ( – November 1541) was a German Protestant reformer in the Calvinist tradition.
His life and revolutionary work
Capito was born circa 1478 to a smith at Hagenau in Alsace. He attended the famous Lati ...
,
Immanuel Tremellius
Immanuel Tremellius ( it, Giovanni Emmanuele Tremellio; 1510 – 9 October 1580) was an Italian Jewish convert to Christianity. He was known as a leading Hebraist and Bible translator.
Life
He was born at Ferrara and educated at the University o ...
,
John Calvin
John Calvin (; frm, Jehan Cauvin; french: link=no, Jean Calvin ; 10 July 150927 May 1564) was a French theologian, pastor and reformer in Geneva during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the development of the system ...
, and
Martin Luther
Martin Luther (; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, and professor, and Augustinian friar. He is the seminal figure of the Protestant Reformation and the namesake of Luther ...
.
[Hanne Trautner-Kromann ''Shield and Sword: Jewish Polemics Against Christianity and the'' 1993 p103 "The Sefer Nizzahon Vetus begins with a quite brief introduction where God's help is invoked. After this, the text follows the order of the ... Presumably the Nizzahon Vetus was much used because of its manageable and systematic form."]
See also
*
Judaism's view of Jesus
There is no specific doctrinal view of Jesus in traditional Judaism. Monotheism, a belief in the absolute unity and singularity of God, is central to Judaism, which regards the worship of a person as a form of idolatry. Therefore, considering J ...
*
Dialogue with Trypho
The ''Dialogue with Trypho,'' along with the First and Second Apologies, is a second-century Christian apologetic text, usually agreed to be dated in between AD 155-160. It is seen as documenting the attempts by theologian Justin Martyr to sho ...
References
Jewish apologetics
Jewish–Christian debate
Works published anonymously
13th-century literature
13th-century Judaism
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