IBN BARUCH, BARUCH, a distinguished Jewish philosopher and commentator, flourished in the r6th century at Venice. He published a twofold commentary on Ecclesiastes, called by the double name of Zpr, .1171p, the Congregation of Yacob, and rip, Holy Israel (Venice 1599), the first of which is discursive and diffuse, and the second exegetical and brief. Based upon the first verse, the words of Coheleth, son of David, king in Jerusalem,' he maintains that two persons are speaking in its book, a sceptic named Coheleth, and a believer called Ben Davia', and accordingly treats the whole as a dialogue, in which these two characters are shown to discuss the most impor tant problems of moral philosophy, and the philo sophic systems of Greece and Arabia are made to furnish the two heroes of the dialogue with the necessary philosophic materials. The remarkable part of it is that the Qucestiones disputata de Anima of Thomas Aquinas, which were translated into Hebrew by Ali Xabillo, are used, both to put objections into the mouth of the sceptic, and to supply the believer with replies. Thus, when the
sceptical Coheleth questions the immortality of the soul (Eccl. 15, a), he uses the same objections which Thomas Aquinas uses with regard to the soul in question xiv. of his work: on the soul ; and the believing Ben David, in refuting these objec tions, employs the arguments of Aquinas (comp. also Commen/a/y, 65, a ; 71, b ; 96, a ; 97, c ; r7, a ; 118, b ; 119, a). This commentary is most important to the understanding of the Jewish philosophy, and must be added to the history of the interpretation of Ecclesiastes given by Gins burg, Historical and Critical Commentary on Ec clesiastes ; comp. Jellinek, Thomas von Aquino der jith'ischen Literatur, Leipzig 1853, p. 13 and vii.—C. D. G.