Sefer Nizzahon Yashan Explained

Sefer Nizzahon Yashan (ספר ניצחון) "The (old) Book of Victory" is an anonymous 13th-century Jewish apologetic text that originated in Germany. The word "old" (Hebrew yashan, Latin vetus) has become attached to the title to distinguish the work from the Sefer Nizzahon of Yom-Tov Lipmann-Muhlhausen of Prague, written in the 15th century.^[1] A modern edition was published by Mordechai Breuer in 1978, and a critical edition by David Berger in 2008.^[2]

The work was known and responded to by Protestant Hebraists and polemicists including Johann Reuchlin, Sebastian Münster, Wolfgang Capito, Immanuel Tremellius, John Calvin, and Martin Luther.^{[3] [4] [5]}

See also

• Judaism's view of Jesus
• Dialogue with Trypho

Notes and References

1. Allison Coudert and Jeffrey S. Shoulson, Hebraica veritas?: Christian Hebraists and the Study of Judaism in Early Modern Europe, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004,, p. 177: "An earlier book named Sefer ha-Nizzahon was written in Germany in the late thirteenth century. The Christian Hebraist Wagenseil called it Nizzahon Vetus in order to make a distinction between it and Lipmann's book."
2. 1st ed., Philadelphia, Jewish Publication Society, 1979
3. Stephen Burnett, "Calvin’s Jewish Interlocutor: Christian Hebraism and Anti-Jewish Polemics during the Reformation," Bibliothèque d’Humanisme et Renaissance, Vol. 55, No. 1 (1993); http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/classicsfacpub/123
4. Ora Limor, Guy G. Stroumsa Contra Iudaeos: Ancient and Medieval Polemics Between Christians ... 1996, p. 196: "When one thinks of a typical Ashkenazic polemic, one generally looks to a book such as Sefer Nizzahon Yashan, ... 8 A critical edition of Sefer Nizzahon Yashan, with English translation and notes, can be found in David Berger, The Jewish-Christian Debate in the High Middle Ages 2008 "
5. Hanne Trautner-Kromann Shield and Sword: Jewish Polemics Against Christianity and the 1993 p103 "The Sefer Nizzahon Vetus begins with a quite brief introduction where God's help is invoked. After this, the text follows the order of the ... Presumably the Nizzahon Vetus was much used because of its manageable and systematic form."