From Christian Hebraism to Jewish Studies: Johannes Buxtorf (1564-1629) and Hebrew Learning in the Seventeenth Century (Studies in the History of Christian Traditions, 68)

Book info: From Christian Hebraism to Jewish Studies: Johannes Buxtorf (1564-1629) and Hebrew Learning in the Seventeenth Century (Studies in the History of Christian Traditions, 68) (Leather Bound, 336 pages) – Brill, 1996. Language: English.

This book examines how Johannes Buxtorf's works helped to transform seventeenth-century Hebrew studies from the hobby of a few experts into a recognized academic discipline.The first two chapters examine Buxtorf's career as a professor of Hebrew and as an editor and censor of Jewish books in Basel. Successive chapters analyze his anti-Jewish polemical books, grammars and lexicons, and manuals for Hebrew composition and literature, including the first bibliography devoted to Jewish books. The final chapters treat his work in biblical studies, examining his contribution to Targum and Massorah studies, and his position on the age and doctrinal authority of the Hebrew vowel points.The chapters on anti-Jewish polemics and the vowel points will interest Jewish historians and Church historians. Editorial Reviews Review 'His is one of very few full intellectual biographies of a Hebraist, and there is a great deal hee to admire and use. This work will be a standard, and E.J. Brill should be praised along with the author for publishing it.'
Matt Goldish, Journal of Jewish Studies, 1998.
'This definitive work, for which the author is to be congratulated, is a worthy addition to a prestigious series.'
Gareth Lloyd Jones, Journal of Theological Studies.

This work has been awarded the 1994 Frank S. and Elizabeth D. Brewer Prize Essay of the American Society of Church History. About the Author Stephen G. Burnett, Ph.D. (1990) in Hebrew and Semitic Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison, has published extensively on Christian Hebraism, Jewish printing, and anti-Jewish polemics in Reformation era Germany and Switzerland