Profiat Duran

Isaac ben Moses Hallevi Profiat Duran ( called Efodi, * about 1350 probably in Perpignan, † 1415; "Duran " was a Judeo- Provencal family ) was a philosophically educated grammarian and Hebrew scholar in Spain, which was forcibly baptized during the persecutions of 1391 then returned to Judaism.

In a rhyme prose epistle ( " not as your fathers Be " ) begins with the words " al Tehi ka- awotecha ," he lashed out with biting irony, the apostasy of his friend David Bonet Bonjorn and raised the irrational elements of the Christian faith out such that unsuspecting readers could misunderstand it as pathetic praise of Christianity and cited the epistle as " Alteca Boteca " even.

The comprehensive book " kelimmat ha - goyim " ( " shame of the Gentiles " ), which he had written as Zwangsgetaufter, he underwent passages of the New Testament and of the Church Fathers (especially of Jerome) a downright historical-critical examination, which many later apologists has served as a model. The book covers in twelve chapters, the divinity of Jesus, the Trinity and incarnation doctrine that irrevocability of the Torah, the papacy, the sacraments, and many of the Christians differently interpreted passages of the Old Testament.

Profiat Duran wrote including " maasse ephod ," a Hebrew grammar.

Literature (selection )

• Blessed Grone man, De Vita Profiatii Durani ac Studiis, Wroclaw, 1869
• Angel Sáenz - Badillos; Judit Targarona Borrás: Yiṣḥaq Mošeh ben ha -Levi ( Profiaṭ Durán, ' Efodi ). In: Diccionario de autores judios ( Sefarad. Siglos X - XV). El Almendro, Córdoba 1988 ( Estudios de Cultura Hebrea, Volume 10 ), pp. 165 ISBN 84-86077-69-9.