IBN EZRA, ABRAHAM R. MEIER, also called by the Jews Rabe (.1).11:1), from the initials of Rabbi Abraham ben Ezra (trIty and by the scholastics Eberlare or Evenare, one of the most remarkable of the Jewish literati of the middle ages, who commanded the whole cycle of knowledge of his time, was born in Toledo in 1088 to89, and very soon distinguished himself as a mathematician, astronomer, philosopher, poet, physician, traveller, theologian, grammarian, and commentator. It is, however, with his labours as a Biblical commentator and grammarian, to which he consecrated his varied learning, that we have to deal. Upon those labours he first entered in the eternal city, where he published, in his fiftieth year (it4o), Conzmentaries 071theFiveMegilloth n&an), viz., The Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamenta tions, Coheleth, and Esther, which were immedi ately followed by an Exposition of Yob, and two grammatical treatises on the language of the Sacred Scriptures, one being a Hebrew translation ot Chajug's Arabic work [CHAjt70], and the other an original production called C4.;114C, the balance. These were succeeded by another Hebrew Grammar entitled rysv, on the purity of the flebrru. style, which he published whilst in Mantua, in 1145.
From Mantua this erratic genius emigrated to Lucca, where he wrote in 1154 and 155 his mas terly commentaries on Isaiah and the Pentateuch, as well as two grammatical treatises—one inde pendent, called 1•1:7', and the other polemic, en titled in+ nttz being a rejoinder to Ibn Librat's attack on Saadia [1BN LIBRAT; SAADIA].
then find him in 1155-1157 issuing commentaries on Daniel, the Psalms, and the .111Thor Prophets, in Rhodes, then in 159 publishing an energetic de fence of the Sabbath in London, and then again in Rhodes, where he issued in 1166 a second edition of his commentary on the Pentateuch, and another grammatical work called rronz rinv. He now determined to return to Spain, at the advanced age of seventy-eight ; but died on his journey when he arrived at CaIahorra, on the borders of Navarre and Arragon, in 1176.
2. His principles of interpretation ana' the merits of kir commentaries.—The contradictions of which human nature is composed appear more glaringly in the commentaries of Ibn Ezra than in the writ ings of the majority of great men. His keen and daring researches brought him to the very verge of Pantheism, yet his faith in revelation was at times perfectly fanatical. He questioned the genuineness
of many portions of the Pentateuch, as well as the latter part of Isaiah, regarded the history of Jonah as a dream, and charged the chronicles with a blunder (Exod. xxv. 29), yet he anathematized Itzchaki for doing the same thing (comp. Gen. xxxvi. 30), and denounced free inquiry as heretical. His confidence in God, and resignation to the gracious dealings of Providence, were almost un bounded, yet he fully believed in the irresistible influence of the stars on human actions. He traced every phenomenon in the Bible to a natural origin, yet he propounded a mystical theory, according to which all things are wrapped up in profound darkness, and execrated Chavi El Balchi for doing similar things (comp. Exod. xiv. 27 ; xvi. 3 ; xxxiv. 29)—he was a rigid literalist yet a great mystic. Notwithstanding these contradic tions, Ibn Ezra was born a commentator, and was the first who raised Biblical exegesis to a science, interpreting the text according to the laws of lan guage. In his commentary on the Song of Songs, which, as we have seen, was one of his ealliest exegetical productions, Ile already laid down the principle that in the interpretation of unique ex pressions in the Hebrew Scriptures we may derive great help from cognate languages : As the Bible,' says he, is all the Hebrew we possess containing the limited vocabulary used by; the inspired men to express their wants, and as the Arabic very much resembles the Hebrew, the conjugations, vowel (41rIN), and servile letters, the Niphal and the Hithpael, the construct state and the numerals being alike in both languages, and more than half of the Arabic vocabulary being found in the Hebrew, therefore eveiy eirctE Ne-yop,. in the Hebrew which occurs in Arabic may be supposed to have the same sense in the former which it has in the latter ; still you cannot always rely upon it ' (Comment. on Song of Sonss,viii. ii). Hence we find him constantly illustrating peculiar forms in the Hebrew Bible by examples from the Arabic (comp. on Gen. xi. 3 ; xx. 16 ; xxxvi. 20; Exod. 3 ; 3 ; ix. 3 ; xii. 9, 43 ; xiii. 17 ; xv. 2; xvi. I ; xxi. IS ; xxiv. 6 ; xxv. 4 ; xxviii. 20 ; xxix. 2 ; xxxi. 2 ; xxxvi. ; Levit. 1; vi.