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Sixteenth century Hungarian Hebraists (Intro)

Robert Dan (1936-1986) was the first who discussed the relationship of the Hebrew language existing in sixteenth century Hungary. The Hungarian reformers and Anti-Trinitarians considered the Hebrew language and rabbinical literature as of importance to produce their own ideology and use it as a weapon in their debates and arguments (Dán 1973). By analysing Robert Dan heritage in the context of Jewish sources new relationships have emerged from the contacts between Hungarian and international science- scholarship, and the main trends of Hebrew literature of Christian hebraists in medieval and renessaince Europe (Newman 1966)

(Historical background)

It's a fact from Jewish sources, that the first cultural pattern data emerged in the Hebrew language concerning medieval Hungary: documents, epitaphs, even references from non-Hungarian authors provide conclusive evidences that as early as the Árpád dynasty, there thrived an active Hebrew literacy (Kohn 1884). Also we know from the writings of Hebrew authors of the XV-XVI.-th century that the Renaissance court of the Hungarian King Matthias had some foreign people, who lived here -at the invitation of this king- had shown keen interest in this branch of scholarship as well (Frank 2006). According to the Bibliotheca Corviniana contained even volumes written in the Hebrew tongue. Though for a short time only, that Petrus Niger (between 1581-1582) sat in full session over the 'Studium Generale' of Buda. It is believed that The Luminary of Maimonides (Deutsch-Hahn 1935) had been taken from Buda to Sebastian Munster..

(The first Hungarian hebraist, and the Rabbinical literature)

We know, that Janos Sylvester himself was convinced, that the Hebrew language was an ornament to humanist learning and a proficiency in it would promote the study of national language as well. Sylvester (Dán 1969, 1973) the first Hungarian hebraist (1504-?) of international repute studied at Cracow and Wittenberg. His "Grammatica Hungarolatina " contains numerous fragments of words printed Hebrew characters. The author intended in this way to illustrate similarities between the Hebrew and the Hungarian language. The only longer Hebrew text he quoted was Jes. 6/2a, however this is reproduced with full punctuation and accents. Sylvester became in 1542 professor of Hebrew in the University of Vienna. It's thanks to him that the first Hebrew characters appeared in print in Viennese publications. (Dán 1970). Under the impact of theological reforms of Luther, it was required of translators of the Bible and writers of commentaries to openly show their convictions. Protestantism with different interpretations arose of the Biblical text and the translators themselves were taking great pains to penetrate ever deeper into the text of the Hebrew Old Testament, and the doctrines of post-biblical Hebrew exegesis and interpretations too could emerge. Finally the Jewish theological conclusions too could assume a Christian form. István Székely was the first Hungarian translator of the Old Testament, who had used the Hebrew text of the Bible (Dán 1967). He studied Hebrew at Cracow, from 1528. Székely in his translation used medieval Jewish exegetes, for example: Rashi (Wellesz 1906), Abraham ibn Ezra, etc. Moreover, during the reformation years, it counted as an important accomplishment for a student, if he could read the original language of the Old Testament. Conclusion? Protestant schools of Hungary promoted primarily the study of Hebrew. The earlier places where Hebrew had been taught: Tolna, Kolozsvár, Debrecen. It was in 1549 that Stancaro first proposed that the city of Nagyszebeny should introduce Hebrew into school curriculum. At Nagyvárad it was in 1566, at Besztercebánya and Selmecbánya in 1574 Hebrew was studied. The situation must have been the same at Körmöcbánya, Eperjes, Kassa, and Sárospatak as well (Dán 1973). Even the Catholic Church, by then in a defensive position (Jerome-Vulgata) recognized the necessity of Hebrew studies (Lasker 1977).

(Publishers in the religious fights)

Gáspár Heltai and collaborators were (Hohlbach 1940) the first publisher of Pentateuch (1551), the Prophets (1552, 1565), and the Psalms (1560). The translators themselves professed that they relied in particular on the Hebrew Bible. In 1590 the Calvinist preacher of Gönc, Gáspár Károli published the first full translations of the Bible in Hungarian. In his introduction Károli criticized the Vulgate with Jerome. Károly acquired his knowledge of Hebrew and post biblical literature during his studies at Wittenberg. In the course of religious fights against reformation, and against the real or alleged followers of the rabbinical literature Peter Melius (Catholic conception) was the first to discover a common system or arguments in the medieval Jewish controversialisits, Albo (Husik 1946) and Servet (Friedmann 1980). After getting acquainted with certain writings of Albo and David Kimhi (Darom 1971) who attacked basic Christian dogma (Genebradus 1556), he noticed that views of the former occur again in the works of Servet, Blandrata, and Ferenc Dávid. According to Melius, the latter when refusing to believe in the Trinity and confirming the human birth of Jesus, simply voiced the views of "Rabbi Joseph and his companions."(Diet of Torda)

From the middle of the 16th century, in Transylvania too, the relative freedom of thought was gradually gaining ground. In the proclamation of the Diet of Torda, 1568, we have met the movement of religious tolerance for political reasons. Antitrinitarianism means here anti-dogmatism. It was a movement, led by David Ferenc and Blandrata, in the spirit of Erasmus and Castellio, and brought into practice by King Sigismund. In France people in favour of such tolerance were called 'les politiques'(Goudoever 1986, 63). The first hungarian steps in this direction were taken by Ferenc Dávid. The Anti-Trinitarians were trying to find their way towards the direct interpretation of the Bible. In their ideological background the Hebrew language occupied an adequately important place (Frank 2006, 17). David first attacked the trinity dogma -by relying on a grammatical and conceptual interpretation of the Hebrew biblical text-, and under the influence of his adherents he arrived at the doctrine of non-adoration of Jesus.

The Karaites who propagated entirely different views from the central trend of the Jews had come into contact already during the Middle Ages Christian heretics. During the second half of the sixtennth century -in Poland- they lived in the centres of the Anti-Trinitarians. A book entitled "Chizzuk emuná" (Dán 1985) written by Jichak Troky naturally took over most of the arguments negating the Trinity from the pages of medieval rabbinical authors, yet it differs from its predecessors in so far that it extends its observations to the books of the New Testament as well. Thus we can find in Georges Enyedi's "Explicationes" much that derives from the mariginal notes of Troky's book, for example, his witty reply given to cabbalistic methods (Blau 1944).

(Matthias Vehe-Glirius)

The new quality of the "Jewish doctor" Matthias Vehe-Glirius, this German Antitrinitarian was built up of elements borrowed from the humanist philology, Protestant religious criticism and theses of post-Biblical Hebrew literature (Frank 2006, 181-185). His Antitrinitarian sympathies were aroused by books sent from Transylvania to Pfalz. Glirius alone chose the rabbinic religious philosophy as a starting point in elaborating his theory from the Protestant theoreticians of the sixteenth century (Dán 1975, 87-94). He filled the frames set up on basis of rabbinic exegesis with his arguments concerning the identity of Jesus with the Messiah. This meant at the same time he tried to unite Jewish and Christian conceptions which had separated during the first and the second century A.D. The German Antitrinitarian was named by his contemporaries as the "Jewish doctor", unequivocally and not without reason. For modern research, Vehe represents the ultra-radical personality, whose personal influance was felt in some of the radical Antitrinitarian movements, first of all in the unfolding of the Sabbatarian sect of Transylvania. The theological conception expounded in the Mattanjah (Glirius-reprint 1984) -Vehe's book- evoked responses in Transylvania and Poland, due to the presence of Vehe in these countries. András Eőssi and his Sabbatarian followers drew ideas from this book, in the wake of which literary works in Hungarian came into being extending to centuries after this time. Vehe's thoughts were propagated in verse and prose in Transylvania (Dán 1982). Ferenc Dávid, the Antitrinitarian bishop of Transylvania, gave consideration and attention to his ideas of non-adorantism (Dán 1980).

From the moment that Christianity and Judaism separated, the concept 'judaizare' became an accepted term, through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, of contemporary literature. A characteristic advocate of this emotionally loaded concept, interpreted in a variety of manners, was Matthias Vehe-Glirius (Dán 1979). Following Vehe-Glirius activity in Transylvania during 1578-79, there arose a movement known as Sabbatarianism which had a profound effect on history, literature, and culture. Early Sabbatarian propagators in Transylvania and their's ideological system thus evolved soon found its way to the Székelys, a Hungarian ethnic group. The first layer of Sabbatarian literature is composed of prose polemical writings. Their authors expound the teaching of Vehe-Glirius in Hungarian. Less is known about their authors who can only be identified with difficulty in spite of the fact they occasionally built their names into the text. One rare exception is András Eőssi, a notability of a small village called Szenterzsébet in Udvarhely county.

(Simon Péchi, and his activity)

Simon Péchi, born around 1570 in Pécs, was one of the persons, who was introduced to the princely court by Sabbatarian patron (Dán 1987). In his elaboration of a Sabbatarian ideology for a general 'Weltanschauung', individual and community life, Péchi accomplished a peculiar intellectual spiral movement of which the Old Testament was both the starting and the ending point. The Mosaic law, the writings of the prophets, the evangelists and the apostles underlined the basic Jesus-Messiah identity according to the classical Sabbatarian concept. But beyond this, he adhered firmly to the Jewish tradition. Simon Péchi applied the entire system of Jewish tradition to his Christology (Dán 1973, 81-98).

(Martin Seidel, the first Deist)

Martin Seidel's work, entitled 'Origo et fundamenta religionis christianae'-written 1570?- a rare and until recently an unexamined work -presents an unusual and radical philosophical treatment of the Old and New Testament. Robert Dán found the copy of Seidel's Origo (...) during his stay in Hamburg (1984), studying the collection of Johann Christoph Wolf, the famous 18th century hebraist (Dán 1985, 49). Though it was only an early reproduction, but Robert Dán knew that he could not rely upon more than that, as the autographic copy was burnt in public in Nuremberg 1616. The analysis of Origo shows that at the and of the 16th century from radical Antitrinitarianism various conceptions developed. Besides the Judaiser Vehe-Glirius and the atheist Franck appeared the Deist Martin Seidel, who was a special case: he represented the missing link between theological and philosophical thinking. According to Seidel, the ancient, perfect and true teaching on God and his will is that the Creator of the world is good, and created everything for the sake of Man, and Man was created "propter Deum". For it is only Man who is able to understand the existence of God. And as we know about his existence we have to act according to his will. (Frank 2006, 175-177).

Seidel's "religio universalis", based on the Laws of Nature and Reason, has no priests, churches, and still less, dogmas. It is nothing else but a kind of moral guidance and standard. Everyone is naturally good at birth, but can be led into evil only unnaturally. So, Society, having a moral basis, is responsible for the elimination of evil and its best means is education. This was no doubt partly the reason why Seidel, in 1584, corresponded with the Antitrinitarians of Cracow and applied for a job as teacher (Dán 1986, 55). So Seidel, leaving traditional theological conceptions behind, was by no means a theologian or an Antitrinitarian theoretician, but rather a moral philosopher, who was perhaps one of the first Deist thinkers in the 16th century, preceding by fifty years Lord Herbert of Cherbury, who is generally considered as the founder of Deism (Mühlechardt 1910).