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52-579: (Redirected from Bible Commentaries ) Commentaries on the Bible may refer to: List of Biblical commentaries Jewish commentaries on the Bible See also [ edit ] Bible commentary Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Commentaries on the Bible . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change

104-549: A Benedictine, was credited with the " Glossa Ordinaria " on the entire Bible. It is a brief explanation of the literal and mystical sense, based on Rabanus Maurus and other Latin writers, and was one of the most popular works during the Middle Ages, being as well known as "The Sentences" of Peter Lombard. Anselm of Laon , professor at Paris (twelfth century), wrote the Glossa Interlinearis , so called because

156-537: A Judeo-Christian point of view, with much concomitant error. His exegesis served to tide over the difficulty for the time amongst the Hellenistic Jews, and had great influence on Origen of Alexandria and other Alexandrian Christian writers. Frederic Farrar , in his Life of Christ , says that it has been suggested that when Christ visited the Temple , at twelve years of age, there may have been present among

208-728: A chain, a catena . The principal Latin commentators of this period were the Venerable Bede, Walafrid Strabo, Anselm of Laon, Hugh of Saint-Cher, St. Thomas Aquinas, and Nicholas de Lyra. The Venerable Bede (seventh to eighth century), a good Greek and Hebrew scholar, wrote a useful commentary on most of the books of the Old and the New Testament. It is in reality a catena of passages from Greek and Latin Fathers judiciously selected and digested. Walafrid Strabo (ninth century),

260-618: A compilation of Jewish traditional moral theology, liturgy, law, etc. There were other traditions not embodied in the work of Rabbi, and these are called additional Mishna. The discussions of later generations of rabbis all centred round the text of the Mishna. Interpreters or "speakers" laboured upon it both in Jerusalem and Babylonia (until 500), and the results are comprised in the Jerusalem and Babylonian Talmuds . The word Talmud means teaching, doctrine. Each Talmud consists of two parts,

312-494: A discussion of Ashmidai (Asmodai or Asmodeus ), referred to as the king of the shedim "demons". However, later generations did not make efforts to avoid harm from pairings, and their rabbis suggest various reasons why this is the case. The Tosafot ruled that the rules regarding pairs need not be followed as the shedim are no longer prevalent. The Arba'ah Turim included the rules about pairings in Orach Haim 170, but

364-528: A secular priest, and superior of the college at Douai. These two works are still of the greatest help to the student. Many other Jesuits were the authors of valuable exegetical works, e.g.: The Jesuits were rivalled by During the nineteenth century the following were a few of the Catholic writers on the Bible: Catholics have also published scientific books. There is the great Latin "Cursus" on

416-509: A supreme court of the Jews ( Sanhedrin ) as nasi ( נָשִׂיא or "prince", i.e. president) and Av Beit Din ( אָב בֵּית דִּין ‎, "chief of the beth din "), respectively. After this period, the positions nasi and av bet din remained, but they were not zugot. The title of av beit din existed before the period of the zugot. His purpose was to oversee the Sanhedrin . The rank of nasi

468-603: Is his Latin commentary on the Four Gospels, which is generally acknowledged to be one of the best ever written. When Maldonato was teaching at the University of Paris the hall was filled with eager students before the lecture began, and he had frequently to speak in the open air. Great as was the merit of the work of Maldonato, it was equalled by the commentary on the Epistles by Estius (born at Gorcum, Holland, 1542),

520-601: The Ashkenazi pronunciation , refers both to the two hundred year period ( c. 170 BCE – 30 CE, Hebrew: תְּקוּפַת הַזּוּגוֹת , romanized:  Təqūfaṯ hazZūgōṯ , lit.   'Era of the Pairs';) during the later Second Temple period , in which the spiritual leadership of the Jews was in the hands of five successions of "pairs" of religious teachers, and to each of these pairs themselves. In Hebrew,

572-617: The Franciscans in 1291 and brought to the service of the Church knowledge of Hebrew and rabbinical learning. He wrote short notes or Postillæ on the entire Bible, and set forth the literal meaning with great ability, especially of the books written in Hebrew. This work was most popular, and in frequent use during the late Middle Ages, and Martin Luther was indebted to it. A great impulse

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624-513: The Gospels and the Epistles of St. Paul , but heavily influenced by the writings of Alexandrian Jews, especially of Philo. The great representative of this school was Origen (died 254). Origen was the son of Leonides of Alexandria , himself a saint and martyr. Origen became the master of many great saints and scholars, one of the most celebrated being St. Gregory Thaumaturgus ; he was known as

676-576: The Hexapla he wrote scholia, homilies, and commentaries on the Old and the New Testament. In his scholia he gave short explanations of difficult passages after the manner of his contemporaries, the annotators of the Greek classics. Most of the scholia, in which he chiefly sought the literal sense, are unfortunately lost, but it is supposed that their substance is embodied in the writings of St. John Chrysostom and other Fathers. In his other works Origen pushed

728-664: The Talmud and commentary on the Tanakh . Hillel and Shammai were the last "pair" of several generations of "pairs" ( Zugot ) of teachers. These pairs were the successors of the early scribes who lived after the Exile. These teachers are said to have handed down and expanded the Oral Law , which, according to the uncritical view of many Jews, began with Moses. This Oral Law consists of legal and liturgical interpretations and applications of

780-440: The " Adamantine " on account of his incessant application to study, writing, lecturing, and works of piety. He frequently kept seven amanuenses actively employed; it was said he became the author of 6000 works ( Epiphanius , Hær., lxiv, 63); according to St. Jerome , who reduced the number to 2000 (Contra. Rufin., ii, 22), he left more writings than any man could read in a lifetime (Ep. xxxiii, ad Paulam). Besides his great labours on

832-640: The "Biblische Zeitschrift', published by Herder (Freiburg im Breisgau). For further information concerning the principal Catholic commentators see respective articles. The commentaries of the first Reformers, Luther , Melanchthon , Calvin , Zwingli and their followers wrote on Holy Scripture during the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. During the nineteenth century: Zugot The Zugot ( / ˌ z uː ˈ ɡ ɒ t / ; Hebrew : הַזּוּגוֹת , romanized :  hazZūgōṯ , lit.   'the Pairs'), also called Zugoth / ˈ z uː ɡ ɒ θ / or Zugos / ˌ z uː ˈ ɡ ɒ s / in

884-466: The Apostle St. Paul could have used Attic speech he would have explained his own Epistles in the identical words of St. John Chrysostom. Other writers combined both these systems, some leaning more to the allegorical and some to the literal sense. The principal contributors were Jerome, besides his translations of Scripture and other works, left many commentaries, in some of which he departed from

936-574: The Bible was of the supernatural. There were the two Kimchis, especially David (died 1235) of Narbonne, who was a celebrated grammarian, lexicographer, and commentator inclined to the literal sense. He was followed by Nachmanides of Catalonia (died 1270), a doctor of medicine who wrote commentaries of a cabbalistic tendency; Immanuel of Rome (born 1270); and the Karaites Aaron ben Joseph (1294), and Aaron ben Elias (fourteenth century). Isaac Abarbanel (born Lisbon , 1437; died Venice , 1508)

988-755: The Catholic Schoolmen. Solomon ben Isaac , called Rashi (born 1040), wrote very popular explanations of the Talmud and the Bible. Tobiah ben Eliezer , a Romaniote scholar and paytan in 11th century Kastoria ( Greece ), wrote the Leḳaḥ Ṭov or Pesiḳta Zuṭarta , a midrashic commentary on the Pentateuch and the Five Megillot . Abraham Ibn Ezra of Toledo (died 1168) had a good knowledge of Semitic languages and wrote learned commentaries on

1040-521: The Jewish Scriptures with Greek philosophy , and for this purpose he made extensive use of the allegorical method of interpretation . He taught that many passages of the Pentateuch were not intended to be taken literally. In fact, he said that they were literally false, but allegorically true. He did not make the distinction between natural and revealed religion. For example, Pagan systems may have natural religion highly developed, but, from

1092-864: The Mishna (in Hebrew), in sixty-three tractates, and an explanation of the same ( Gemara ), ten or twelve times as long. The explanatory portion of the Jerusalem Talmud is written in NeoWestern Aramaic and that of the Babylonian Talmud in Eastern Aramaic , which is closely allied to Syriac or Mandaic . The passages in the Gemara containing additional Mishna are, however, given in New Hebrew. Only thirty-nine tractates of

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1144-590: The Mishna have Gemara. The Talmud, then, consists of the Mishna (traditions from 450 BC till 200 AD), together with a commentary thereon, Gemara, the latter being composed about 200-500 AD. Next to the Bible the Babylonian Talmud is the great religious book of orthodox Jews, though the Palestinian Talmud is more highly prized by modern scholars. From the year 500 till the Middle Ages the rabbis (geonim) in Babylonia and elsewhere were engaged in commenting on

1196-545: The Old Testament. He was the first to maintain that Isaiah contains the work of two prophets. Moses Maimonides (died 1204), the greatest Jewish scholar of the Middle Ages, of whom his coreligionists said that "from Moses to Moses there was none like Moses", wrote his "Guide to the Perplexed", which was read by St. Thomas . He was a great admirer of Aristotle, who was to him the representative of natural knowledge as

1248-535: The Pentateuch. As no part of it was written down, it was preserved by constant repetition (Mishna). Upon the destruction of Jerusalem, several rabbis, learned in this Law, settled at Jamnia , near the sea, 28 miles (45 km) west of Jerusalem. Jamnia became the headquarters of Jewish learning until AD 135 , due to the Third Jewish Revolt . Then schools were opened at Sepphoris and Tiberias to

1300-528: The Talmud and reconciling it with the Bible. A list of such commentaries is given in The Jewish Encyclopedia . Simultaneously with the Mishna and Talmud there grew up a number of Midrashim , or commentaries on the Bible. Some of these were legalistic, like the halakhic sections of the Talmud, but the most important were of an edifying, homiletic character ( Midrash Aggadah ). These latter, although chronologically later, are important for

1352-634: The allegorical interpretation to the utmost extreme. In spite of this, however, his writings were of great value, and with the exception of St. Augustine, no writer of ancient times had such influence. The writers of the Antiochene School disliked the allegorical method, and sought almost exclusively the literal, primary, or historical sense of Holy Scripture. The principal writers of this school were The great representatives of this school were Diodorus, Theodore of Mopsuestia, and St. John Chrysostom. Diodorus, who died Bishop of Tarsus (394), followed

1404-451: The books of the Old and the New Testament. When St. Thomas Aquinas was asked by one of his brethren whether he would not like to be the owner of Paris , so that he could dispose of it to the King of France and with the proceeds promote the good works of his order, he answered that he would prefer to be the possessor of Chrysostom's Super Matthæum . St. Isidore of Pelusium said of him that if

1456-511: The corroborative light which they throw on the language of the New Testament. The Gospel of John is seen to be steeped in early Jewish phraseology, and the words of Psalm 109 LXX Hebrew Bible 110], "The Lord said to my Lord", etc. are in one place applied to the Messiah , as they are in Gospel of Matthew 22:44 (referenced from Psalm 110:1), though Rashi , following the rabbis, interpreted

1508-616: The doctors Jonathan ben Uzziel , once thought to be the author of the Yonathan Targum , and the venerable teachers Hillel and Shammai , the handers-on of the Mishna . The Targums (the most famous of which is that on the Pentateuch erroneously attributed to Onkelos, a misnomer for Aquila , according to Abrahams) were the only approach to anything like a commentary on the Bible before the time of Christ. They were interpretative translations or paraphrases from Hebrew into Aramaic for

1560-526: The explanation was inserted between the lines of the Vulgate. Hugh of Saint-Cher (Hugo de Sancto Caro), thirteenth century), besides his pioneer Biblical concordance , composed a short commentary on the whole of the Scriptures, explaining the literal, allegorical, analogical, and moral sense of the text. His work was called Postillæ , i. e. post illa ( verba textus ), because the explanation followed

1612-458: The fall of Constantinople, the Christian and anti-Christian Renaissance, the invention of printing, the controversial excitement caused by the rise of Protestantism, and the publication of polyglot Bibles by Cardinal Ximenes and others, gave renewed interest in the study of the Bible among Catholic scholars. Controversy showed them the necessity of devoting more attention to the literal meaning of

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1664-512: The first companions of Ignatius Loyola , and the pope's theologian at the Council of Trent, was a distinguished Hebrew scholar and voluminous commentator. Bellarmine , one of the first Christians to write a Hebrew grammar, composed a valuable commentary on the Psalms , giving an exposition of the Hebrew, Septuagint, and Vulgate texts. It was published as part of Cornelius a Lapide 's commentary on

1716-455: The greatest Karaite commentator of the tenth century; and Judah Hadassi (died 1160). Saadiah of Fayûm (died 942), the most powerful writer against the Karaites, translated the Bible into Arabic and added notes. Besides commentaries on the Bible, Saadiah wrote a systematic treatise bringing revealed religion into harmony with Greek philosophy. He thus became the forerunner of Maimonides and

1768-422: The link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Commentaries_on_the_Bible&oldid=932771909 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages List of Biblical commentaries Philo tried to reconcile

1820-475: The literal meaning of the text. At times he did not always indicate when he was quoting from different authors, which according to Richard Simon accounts for his apparent discrepancies. The medieval writers were content to draw from the rich treasures left them by their predecessors. Their commentaries consisted, for the most part, of passages from the Church Fathers, which they connected together as in

1872-407: The literal to the exclusion of the mystical or allegorical sense. Theodore was born at Antioch, in 347, became Bishop of Mopsuestia, and died in the communion of the Church, 429. He was a powerful thinker, but an obscure and prolix writer. He felt intense dislike for the mystical sense, and explained the Scriptures in an extremely literal and almost rationalistic manner. His pupil, Nestorius , became

1924-687: The subject of the Nestorian controversy; the Nestorians translated his books into Syriac and regarded Theodore as their great "Doctor". This made Catholics suspicious of his writings, which were finally condemned after the famous controversy on The Three Chapters . Theodore's commentary on St. John's Gospel , in Syriac, was published, with a Latin translation, by a Catholic scholar, Dr. Chabot. St. John Chrysostom, priest of Antioch, became Patriarch of Constantinople in 398. He left homilies on most of

1976-534: The text, according to the wise principle laid down by St. Thomas in the beginning of his "Summa Theologica". It was then that the Jesuits, founded in 1534, stepped into the front rank to counter the attacks on the Catholic Church. The Ratio Studiorum of the Jesuits made it incumbent on their professors of Scripture to acquire a mastery of Greek, Hebrew, and other Semitic languages. Alfonso Salmeron , one of

2028-537: The use of the synagogues when, after the Exile , the people had lost the knowledge of Hebrew. It is doubtful whether any of them were committed to writing before the Christian Era. They are important as indicating the character of the Hebrew text used. Shlomo Yitzchaki (1040–1105), more commonly known as Rashi ( RA bbi SH lomo I tzhaki), was a medieval French rabbi and author of a comprehensive commentary on

2080-709: The west of the Sea of Galilee . The rabbis comforted their countrymen by teaching that the study of the Law (Oral as well as Written) took the place of the sacrifices. They devoted their energies to arranging the Unwritten Torah, or Law. One of the most successful at this was Rabbi Akiba who took part in the Third Jewish Revolt of Bar Kochba against the Romans , and lost his life (135). The work of systematization

2132-547: The whole Bible. Cornelius a Lapide, S. J. (born 1566), was a native of the Low Countries, and was well versed in Greek and Hebrew. During forty years he devoted himself to teaching and to the composition of his great work, which has been highly praised by Protestants as well as Catholics. Juan Maldonato , a Spanish Jesuit, born 1584, wrote commentaries on Isaias, Baruch, Ezechiel, Daniel, Psalms, Proverbs, Canticles (Song of Solomon), and Ecclesiastes. His best work, however,

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2184-546: The whole of the Bible by the Jesuit Fathers, Karl Cornely , Joseph Knabenbauer , and Franz Hummelauer . The writings of Marie-Joseph Lagrange (Les Juges), Albert Condamin (Isaïe), Theodore Calmes (Saint Jean), Albin van Hoonacker (Les Douze Petits Prophètes). For a list of Catholic publications on the Scripture, the reader may be referred to the "Revue biblique", edited by Lagrange (Jerusalem and Paris), and

2236-496: The word zuḡoṯ indicates pairs; it is the plural of zuḡ , one half of a pair. Like Arabic : زوج , romanized :  zawj , it was borrowed from Koinē Greek : ζυγόν , romanized:  zugón , lit.   'yoke' via Imperial Aramaic : זוגא , romanized:  zoḡā and was commonly used to refer to a spouse (cf Yiddish : זוגותי , romanized :  zugósi , lit.   'my wife'). The zugot were five pairs of scholars who ruled

2288-649: The words in the sense of applying them to Abraham . Anan ben David , a prominent Babylonian Jew in the eighth century, rejected Rabbinism for the written Old Testament and became the founder of the sect known a Karaites (a word indicating their preference for the written Bible). This schism produced great energy and ability on both sides. The principal Karaite Bible commentators were Nahavendi (ninth century); Abu al-Faraj Harun (ninth century), exegete and Hebrew grammarian; Solomon ben Yerucham (tenth century); Sahal ben Mazliach (died 950), Hebrew grammarian and lexicographer; Joseph al-Bazir (died 930); Japhet ben Ali ,

2340-507: The words of the text. Thomas Aquinas (thirteenth century) left commentaries on Job, Psalms, Isaiah, Epistles of St. Paul, and was the author of the well-known Catena Aurea on the Gospels. This consists of quotations from over eighty Church Fathers . He throws much light on the literal sense and is most happy in illustrating difficult points by parallel passages from other parts of the Bible. Nicholas de Lyra (thirteenth century), joined

2392-424: Was a new institution begun during this period. There were five pairs of these teachers: Zugot refers to pairs generally. The Babylonian Talmud contains an extensive discussion of the dangers of pairs and of performing various activities in pairs. The discussants expressed belief in a demonology and in practices of sorcery from which protection was needed by avoiding certain activities. The demonology included

2444-523: Was a statesman and scholar. None of his predecessors came so near the modern ideal of a commentator as he did. He prefixed general introductions to each book, and was the first Jew to make extensive use of Christian commentaries. Elias Levita (died 1549) and Azarias de Rossi (died 1577) have also to be mentioned. Moses Mendelssohn of Berlin (died 1786), a friend of Lessing , translated the Pentateuch into German. His commentaries (in Hebrew) are close, learned, critical, and acute. He had much influence, and

2496-550: Was by a Gnostic named Heracleon in the 170s  CE . Most of the patristic commentaries are in the form of homilies, or discourses to the faithful, and range over the whole of Scripture. There are two schools of interpretation, that of Alexandria and that of Antioch. The chief writers of the Alexandrian School were: To these may be added Its chief characteristic was the allegorical method. The 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia considers it to be founded on passages in

2548-681: Was completed and probably committed to writing by the Jewish patriarch at Tiberias , Rabbi Jehudah ha-Nasi "The Prince" (150–210). He was of noble birth, wealthy, learned, and is called by the Jews "Our Master the Saint" or simply Rabbi par excellence. This compilation, called the Mishna, is written in Mishnaic Hebrew and consists of six great divisions or orders, each division containing, on an average, about ten tractates, each tractate being made up of several chapters. The Mishna may be said to be

2600-508: Was followed by Wessely , Jarosław , Homberg , Euchel , Friedlander , Hertz , Herxheimer , Ludwig Philippson , etc., called " Biurists ", or expositors. The modern liberal school among the Jews is represented by Salomon Munk , Samuel David Luzzato , Leopold Zunz , Geiger, Julius Fürst , etc. Rabbi Pesach Wolicki (born 1970) is a biblical scholar and commentator. His book, Cup of Salvation , also known as Cup of Salvation: A Powerful Journey Through King David's Psalms of Praise , which

2652-463: Was given to exegetical studies by the Council of Vienne which decreed, in 1311, that chairs of Hebrew, Chaldean, and Arabic should be established at Paris, Oxford, Bologna, and Salamanca. Besides the major writers already mentioned the following are some of the principal exegetes, many of them Benedictines, from patristic times till the Council of Trent: The influx of Greek scholars into Italy after

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2704-629: Was published by the Center for Jewish–Christian Understanding and Cooperation (CJCUC) in 2017, is a devotional biblical commentary on Psalms 113-118 otherwise known as the Hallel . The history of Christian exegesis may be roughly divided into three periods: the Age of the Fathers, the Age of Catenæ and Scholia (seventh to sixteenth century), and the Age of Modern Commentaries (sixteenth to twentieth century). The earliest known commentary on Christian scriptures

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