ABSTRACT
THE rebuttal of christological interpretations of chapters and verses of the Hebrew Bible is not, as might at a first glance appear, a mere by-product of the activity and intention of the medieval Jewish commentators. It is an integral part of their work. Understood as such it represents a positive, important facet of the aim of all Jewish exegesis: to promote the knowledge and understanding of the true meaning of the Bible and thereby to keep the Jewish people, frequently subjected to fierce attack and persecution, alive and strong. The commentators were responsible spiritual leaders who wrote their commentaries in order to strengthen the faith of their generation in the future redemption, and to foster their trust and confidence in the truth of Judaism and in the divine promise of the coming of the Messiah and the Kingdom of God. Rashi, Samuel b. Me’ir (Rashbam), Ibn Ezra, Qimḥi, Moses b. Naḥman (Ramban), Abravanel and many others in Spain, Northern and Southern France and Germany—most of them disciples of Rashi—were alive to the great issues of their time and strove valiantly to maintain a living Judaism. This struggle amidst a hostile, aggressive Christian environment—characterized by the Crusades and religious disputations—was thus a positive force even where defensively arrayed around the plain, literal meaning of the Bible as against christological typology and the allegorizing tendency proferred by contemporary Latin exegetes; it displays itself in a Jewish-Christian dialogue which flourished the more vigorously the more hostile the Church showed itself, and in disputations forced upon an unwilling Jewry. On the other side, the Church tried not only to convert the Jews; it was also combatting Judaizing tendencies discernible in various sects and heresies in its own midst.
