Isaac Abendana
Isaac Abendana | |
|---|---|
| Born | Isaac Abendana c. 1640 Spain |
| Died | July 17, 1699 London, England |
| Nationality | Spanish (by birth) English resident |
| Other names | Rabbi Isaac Abendana |
| Occupation(s) | Hebrew scholar, translator, religious leader |
| Years active | 1662–1699 |
| Known for | First complete Latin translation of the Mishnah Hebrew teaching at Cambridge and Oxford Discourses on the Ecclesiastical and Civil Polity of the Jews |
| Notable work | Discourses on the Ecclesiastical and Civil Polity of the Jews (1706) Latin translation of the Mishnah (1671, unpublished) |
| Relatives | Jacob Abendana (brother) David Abendana (grandfather) |
Isaac Abendana (c. 1640–1699) was a Spanish-born Jewish scholar, translator, and religious leader who became a pioneering figure in Hebrew studies at English universities during the Restoration period.[1][2] Born into a Marrano family that had been forced to convert from Judaism to Christianity during the Spanish Inquisition, he was the younger brother of Jacob Abendana and the grandson of David Abendana, one of the founders of Amsterdam's first synagogue.[3] He became hakam of the Spanish Portuguese Synagogue in London after his brother died.[4][5]
Early life
Isaac Abendana was born in Spain around 1640. He was the younger brother of Jacob Abendana.[1] Abendana arrived in England in 1662 before his brother, making him one of the first practicing Jews to teach at English universities since the medieval expulsion of 1290.[1][6]
Academic career
From 1663, Isaac taught Hebrew at both Cambridge and Oxford universities, receiving an annual retaining fee of £6 from Trinity College, Cambridge during 1664-66.[7] His most significant scholarly achievement was producing the first complete Latin translation of the Mishnah in 1671, a six-volume manuscript work commissioned by Cambridge University that remained unpublished but was later used by Christian scholar Guilielmus Surenhusius for his own Latin edition.[8] While he was at Cambridge, Abendana sold Hebrew books to the Bodleian Library of Oxford. After relocating to Oxford in 1689, Abendana taught Hebrew at Magdalen College.
Religious leadership
Following his brother Jacob's death in 1695, Isaac served as hakham (chief rabbi) of London's Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue until his own death on July 17, 1699.[9]
Scholarly work and legacy
At Oxford, Isaac compiled annual Jewish calendars (almanacs) for Christian readers from 1692 to 1699, which he later republished as Discourses on the Ecclesiastical and Civil Polity of the Jews (1706)—one of the first comprehensive explanations of Judaism written in English.[10] He maintained extensive correspondence with leading Christian scholars, including with the philosopher Ralph Cudworth, master of Christ's College, Cambridge. Abendana contributed significantly to Jewish-Christian intellectual dialogue during a formative period in Anglo-Jewish history.[11]
References
- ^ a b c . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 1 (11th ed.). 1911. p. 42.
- ^ Dunkelgrün, Theodor (2022). "The First Complete Latin Translation of the Mishnah (1663–1676): Isaac Abendana and Rabbinic Erudition in Restoration England". The Mishnaic Moment: Jewish Law among Jews and Christians in Early Modern Europe. Oxford University Press: 89–113.
- ^ Comerford, Patrick (6 September 2024). "The Abendana brothers and the early years of Jewish studies in Cambridge and Oxford". Retrieved 1 August 2025.
- ^ Katz, David S. "Abendana, Isaac". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/37091. (Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ "The Digital Ark: Isaac Abendana". Retrieved 3 August 2025.
- ^ Katchen, Aaron L. (1984). Christian Hebraists and Dutch Rabbis: Seventeenth Century Apologetics and the Study of Maimonides' Mishneh Torah. Harvard Judaic Texts and Studies. Vol. 3. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Center for Jewish Studies. ISBN 0674128656.
- ^ "Abendana, Isaac". Jewish Encyclopedia. JewishEncyclopedia.com. Retrieved 1 August 2025.
- ^ Surenhusius, Guilielmus (1698–1703). Mischna sive totius Hebraeorum juris, rituum, antiquitatum, ac legum oralium systema. Vol. 6 volumes. Amsterdam: Gerardus Borstius and Jacobus Borstius.
- ^ Barnett, L. D. (1931). El Libro de los Acuerdos: Being the Records and Accompts of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue of London from 1663 to 1681. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- ^ Abendana, Isaac (1706). Discourses of the Ecclesiastical and Civil Polity of the Jews: Viz. Of Their Courts of Judicature. Laws Concerning Tithes. Institution of the Priesthood. Their Liturgy. Their Schools. Their Feasts, Fasts, Coins, Weights, and Measures. London: Samuel Ballard. p. 200.
- ^ Roth, Cecil (1932). A History of the Marranos. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America. p. 422.
