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Welcome to my wiki dedicated to Hebraica Veritas!
Historically Christian Hebraism has been understood as the use of Hebrew, rabbinic, or Cabbalistic sources for Christian religious purposes during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The use of such source material had dramatic results including the re-translation of the Old Testament, the re-interpretation of the New Testament, and the re-examination of historically central doctrines of Christianity. Paradoxically, these efforts entailed close intellectual cooperation with Jewish scholars who opposed Christianity in all its forms.
Scholarship might be roughly described along a spectrum of “minimalist” and “maximalist” approaches. Aaron Katchen's position can be used to define the maximalist end. His assertion is that Hebraism did not even necessarily imply a knowledge of Hebrew but was more closely tied up with biblicism, interest in Hebraica veritas, and use of Jewish exegesis. According to this wide defmition, few theologians of the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were not Hebraists.
According to this wide defition, few theologians of the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were not Hebraists. Leon Roth's position can be used to delineate the minimalist end of the spectrum. The implicit assumption of his article on seventeenth century Hebraists is that only those reading Talmudic and rabbinic literature in their original Hebrew and Aramaic, fluently and in large amounts (usually translating them and supplying commentary), are “real” Hebraists. This reduces the number of seventeenth-century Hebraists to, perhaps, a couple of dozen. (Matt Goldish, The Background of Newton’s Jewish Studies
Why is Hebraica Veritas, or Christian Hebraism important, someone might ask?
Well, the last time around “we” didn't get this right, it ended up costing the lives of millions of Jews and it left a stain on Christianity that can never be removed. Maybe, just maybe next time when people begin to make up their minds about things such as what is the source of the faith we hold so dear and what is right response to the people who gave us this faith, we will know better? I hope so.
