LIPMANN, JOMTOB, of MiihThausen, also called MUHLITAUSEN after his native place, and TARJOMI (4C143U Z1L: Cr), author of the cele brated polemical work against Christianity called Nitzachon Va-tory), flourished 13So. Very little is known of the history of this remarkable man. His contemporary Stephen, the learned Bishop of Brandeburg, who undertook to refute his work, says that he lived in Cracow, whilst others will have it that he lived in Prague. The Nitzachan, which was finished about 1399, consist, of seven parts, according,' as he tells us, to the seven days of the week, and three hundred and fifty-four sections, according to the number of days in the lunar year, which is the Jewish mode of calculation to indicate that every Israelite is bound to study his religion every day of his life, and to remove every obstruction from the boun daries of his faith ' (comp. the end of the preffieo) He does not adopt any systematic plan, but dis cusses and explains every passage of the Hebrew Bible which is either adduced by Christians as a Messianic prophecy referring to Christ, or is used by sceptics and blasphemers to support their scep ticism and contempt for revelations, or is appealed to by mtionalistic Jews to corroborate their rejec tion of the doctrine of creation out of nothing, the resurrection of the body, etc., etc., beginning with Genesis and ending with Chronicles, according to the order of the books in the Hebrew Bible, so that any passage in dispute might easily be found. It was largely transcribed and circulated in MS. among the Jews throughout the world ; and in the numerous attacks which they had to sustain both from Christians and rationalists during the time of the Reformation, this book constituted their chief arsenal, supplying them with weapo»s to defend themselves. The copyists, however, not unfre quently made some additions of their own. The book, though so widely circulated among the Jews, was not printed till 1644, when Hacspan published it under the following circumstances. This erudite professor in the Bavarian University at Altorf was engaged, about 1642, in a controversy on the questions at issue between Judaism and Chris tianity with a neighbouring rabbi residing in Shneitach, who in his dissertations frequently re.
ferred to this Nitzachon, a MS. copy of which, made in 1589, he possessed, and which he refused to show to his Christian opponent. The learned Hacspan, however, was determined to see it, and, according to a prearranged plan, called with three of his students on the rabbi, when he pressed him in such a manner to produce the MS. that he could not 'refuse. He pretended to examine it, and when the students had fairly surrounded the rabbi, the professor made his way to the door, got into a conveyance which vvas waiting for him, had the MS. speedily transcribed and printed, with exten sive notes and an index, and then, after much earnest solicitation, returned it to the rabbi. This is the dastardly rnanner in which the Christian world first got to see the famous Nitzachon, and it needs hardly to be said that such disgraceful pro ceedings produced no favourable impression upon the mind of the rabbi whom the professor was anxious to bring over to Christianity. It was now rapidly reprinted, translated into Latin, corrected and refuted by Blendinger, Lipmanni Nizzachon in Chrishanos, etc., latine conversum, Altdorf 164.5 ; Wagenseil, Tela ignea Satance, Altdorf 1681 ; by the same author, Sota, Liber Mischnicus Uxore Adulterii Suspecta, Altdorf 1674, Appendix. The importance of this famous work to the Bibli cal student can hardly be overrated, inasmuch as it is a running commentary on all the most im portant Messianic prophecies and difficult portions of the Hebrew Bible. Comp. First, Bib/lot/zeta jua'aica, vol. ii. p. 403, ff. ; Steinschneider, Cala logus Libr. Nebr. Bibliotheca Bodleiana, col. Ivo -1414 ; Geiger, Proben yiia'. Vertheidigung segen Christliche Angriffe Mittelalter in Lieber mann's Deutscher Volks-Kalender, Brieg 1854, pp. 9, ; 47, ff.—C. D. G.