TY - JOUR
T1 - Wrestling with Spirits
T2 - A Medieval Internal Jewish Debate on the Nature of Biblical Angels and its Arabic and Latin Sources
AU - Schwartz, Yossef
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Brill Academic Publishers. All rights reserved.
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - The article’s point of departure is a debate that took place in about 1290 between Zeraḥyah b. Isaac Ḥen and Hillel b. Samuel, two Jewish-Italian thinkers, that presents us with a surprisingly great variety of Arab, Jewish, and Latin-Christian exegetical and cosmological approaches regarding angelic nature. Zeraḥyah, following the dominant attitude among Arab, Muslim, and Jewish philosophers, strives to interpret the biblical angel-figure either naturalistically or allegorically. Conversely, Hillel cleaves more closely to Christian scholastic conceptions, adhering to the biblical narrative in the literal sense. The struggle between Jacob and the angel (Gen 32) posed one of the most challenging cases, presenting the interpreter with a situation in which an angel did not only appear but was also engaged in bodily contact. In the case of Hillel, his dual commitment as a Jewish Maimonidean heavily influenced by Latin Scholasticism led to the development of a highly unique solution.
AB - The article’s point of departure is a debate that took place in about 1290 between Zeraḥyah b. Isaac Ḥen and Hillel b. Samuel, two Jewish-Italian thinkers, that presents us with a surprisingly great variety of Arab, Jewish, and Latin-Christian exegetical and cosmological approaches regarding angelic nature. Zeraḥyah, following the dominant attitude among Arab, Muslim, and Jewish philosophers, strives to interpret the biblical angel-figure either naturalistically or allegorically. Conversely, Hillel cleaves more closely to Christian scholastic conceptions, adhering to the biblical narrative in the literal sense. The struggle between Jacob and the angel (Gen 32) posed one of the most challenging cases, presenting the interpreter with a situation in which an angel did not only appear but was also engaged in bodily contact. In the case of Hillel, his dual commitment as a Jewish Maimonidean heavily influenced by Latin Scholasticism led to the development of a highly unique solution.
KW - Albert the Great
KW - Angels
KW - Avicenna
KW - Hillel b. Samuel
KW - Maimonides
KW - Medieval philosophy
KW - Thomas Aquinas
KW - Zerahhyah b. Isaac Hen
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85108307191&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1163/1872471X-BJA10022
DO - 10.1163/1872471X-BJA10022
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SN - 1025-9996
VL - 15
SP - 201
EP - 224
JO - European Journal of Jewish Studies
JF - European Journal of Jewish Studies
IS - 2
ER -