NATHAN B. JECHIEL B. ABRAHAM, also called Aruch (1111)) or Baal Ha-Aruch , from the fact that he is the author of the celebrated lexicon denominated Aruch. This tinguished lexicographer was born in Rome about 1030, where, like his ancestors before him and his descendants after him, he was held in the highest veneration for his extraordinary learning, and where he died circa I too. Though busily engaged in faithfully discharging the responsible duties ing upon him as rabbi of the Jewish community in the eternal city, and in attending to the Hebrew academy of which he was the president, R.• Nathan devoted all his spare time for the greater part of his life to the writing of that important lexicon which has obtained such a world-wide celebrity. From the words in the epilogue which R. Nathan himself appended to it ("VI7 r13.1L911Z LbvIrl tiN) rroy4Nntini rovn,i)17 rim= nm rninv r.i+b5 "19:21 rn+, inn cry ron pir6, this lexicon was completed on Tuesday, the nineteenth day of the month on which the temple was destroyed by the despised one (i. e., Ab = end of July), 4861 after the creation (= A.D. niter the struction of the burnt temple, 1413 of the Seleucian era), it will be seen that he finished this lexicon A.D. I 10 I. The lexicon is denominated Amick (11111 from IV, to arrange, to set in order) i.e., ment of the words in alphabetical order, and ex tends over the Mishna, both the Gemaras, the Midrashim, and all the Chaldee paraphrases of the O. T. The importance of this work both to the understanding of the ancient expositions of the Bible and to the criticism of the text of the Chaldee paraphrases can hardly be overrated, inasmuch as R. Nathan, in explaining the words, embodied the interpretations of the ancient sages guaranteed by tradition, and adopted the ancient and correct read ings. So comprehensive is this lexicon, and so highly was it appreciated, that it not only super: seded and buried in oblivion a lexicon also called Aruch, compiled by Zemach b. Paltoi, who was gaon in Pumbadita A. D. 871-89o, but simply left for his future supplementors to compile and re arrange the rich materials which R. Nathan amassed. In this, however, they did not always succeed.
Our space does not admit of our tracing the Aruch through the various additions and modifica tions to which it has been subjected, both whilst in MS. and since it was first printed in the end of the 15th century. After Samuel b. Jacob Gama (flor. 16o), Abraham Saccuto, Elias Levita, Menahem de Lonsano, Buxtorf, Mussafia, David Cohen di Lara, and others, it has of late years engaged the care of several learned scholars.
M. J. Landau, wishing to avail himself of all the labours of his predecessors, published an edition ,.1f R. Nathan's A ruck with Mussafia's supplement. with his own notes, in five volumes, entitled or Rabbinisch-aramiiisch-deznsehes Worter buck zur Kenntnirs des Talmuds, der Targurnim send Ilfidraschim; Anmerkungen !lir Philologie, Geschiehte, Archaologie, Geographic, Nailer mid Kunst, Prague 1819-24, ibid. 1834-35, mixing up
the subsequent labours with the text of the original work, for which he has justly been censured by the recondite Rapaport. At no time, however, have all the separate departments of the Aruch been so learnedly and efficiently handled as in modern days by Geiger, who, in his Lehr-and Lesebuch zur Sprache der Mishna, Breslau 1845, and Leopold Dukes, in his Die Sprache der Mishna, lexieograph isch und grammatisch betrachtet, Esslingen 1846, confine themselves to the language of the Mishna ; by David Loewy, who takes up the Hebrew element of the post-biblical literature in his lirdrterbush, enthaltend hebr. Worter and Redensarten die sieh im Talmud befinclen, two parts, Prague ; by Rapaport, who treats on the history, geography, archaeology, etc., in his 7111 Prague 1852 ; and by Sachs, who devotes himself to the foreign words and the antiquities, in his Beitriige zur Sprach-:end Alterthums,forsehung; two parts, Berlin 1852-54. It only remains to be added, that a convenient edition of the Aruch, with the supplement of Mussafia, De Lonsano, and Berlin (only first part of his), has been published by H. Sperling, under the title Rabbinisch aramaisch deutsches Whrterbuch, etc., Lemberg 1857 ; where, however, with the exception of the title-page, not a single word of German occurs in the whole work, though it is denominated German as well ; that an notations to the Aruch, with emendations and criti cal notes by Reinon Lindermann, rabbi at Berlin, have just appeared, entitled Berlin 1864 ; and that it is absolutely necessary to attend to the various changes which the A 'itch suffered in the process of time, as well as to posses the different supplements and additions as above described, if the Biblical student wishes to acquire a knowledge of the Mishna, the Talmud, the ancient Jewish expositions of the Bible called Midrashim [MIDRAsx], and the Chaldee paraphrases of the O. T. To the honour of R. Nathan be it said— though it does not redound to the glory of modern scholarship—that his is still the only clue to the ancient Jewish writings which are so important to Biblical literature arid exegesis. Comp. the masterly biography of R. Nathan by Rapaport in the Hebrew Annual entitled Bikure 1-1a-itim, vol. x., Vienna 1829, p. 1-79 ; vol. xi., ibid., sS3o, p. 81-90 ; Geiger, in Zeitschrift der Deutschen Aforgen hindischen Gesellschaft, vol. xii. 142, ff 1 357, ; xiv. 318, ff. ; Steinschneider, Catalogus Libr. Hebr. irz Bibliotheca Bodleiana, vol. 2040-2043 ; Ffirst, Bibliotheca 7udaica, iii. 20-23.—C. D. G.