Introduction
In 1735, Immanuel Frommann, a converted Jew who was working at the Institutum Judaicum in Halle translated the book of Luke and wrote a commentary on the text. This text is probably the first printed Hebrew commentary on the New Testament. In his commentary, Frommann uses a wide range of Hebrew sources. He quotes regularly from the Babylonian and Palestinian Talmud, biblical commentaries, midrashim, legal treatises, philosophical texts and historical works. He also makes use of mystical and kabbalistic works. The commentary has several layers of interpretation: relatively short lexical or grammatical explanations of words or phrases; literary explanations of the text that are meant to make it more comprehensive to the readers; as well as “Christological interpretations”.
This text is unique because it was written in Hebrew thus mainly for a Jewish (male) audience and not in Latin or vernacular languages as was the case in earlier compositions that made use of Jewish texts like Johannes Lightfoot, Horae Hebraicae et Talmudicae or to Surenhusius Sefer haMashveh. In many ways, Frommann’s commentary is better described as a Jewish-Christian or perhaps a Christian-Jewish text. Instead of a total rejection of Jewish learning and writing, Frommann’s heavy use of the Jewish tradition in a Christian context is an attempt to reconnect Christianity and Judaism.
Bibliography
Biesenthal, Johann Heinrich Raphael. “Heinrich Christian Immanuel Frommann. Geschichte eines Proselyten,” Saat auf Hoffnung 6 (1869): 217-242
Carlebach, Elisheva. Divided Souls: Jewish Converts from Judaism in Germany, 1500- 1750, New Haven, 2001
Rymatzki, Christoph. Hallischer Pietismus und Judenmission. Johann Heinrich Callenbergs Institutum Judaicum und dessen Freundenkreis (1728-1736), Tübingen, 2004
Wolfson, Elliott R. “Immanuel Frommann’s Commentary on Luke and the Christianizing of Kabbalah,” in Glenn Dynner (ed.), Holy Dissent: Jewish and Christian Mystics in Eastern Europe, Detroit, 2011
Source 1 Translation
Evangelium Lucae pars prior ab erudito proselyto Henr. Christ. Imman. Frommanno Doct. Med. in linguam ebraeam transferri ac explicari curauit ediditque Io. Henr. Callenberg, Halle, 1735
A Gospel according to Luke the Evangelist that is taken from books known as the New Testament, copied from the Greek, to the holy tongue, and explained with a commentary, Part I, in the year 495 (1735)
1. Since many have taken to their hearts to set down an orderly account of the events which have been validated to us 2. Just as they were handed on to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word of God.1
1. Since - It was already explained in the introduction to this book why the books that tell about the birth of Jesus, the miracles he performed before all the people and his resurrection are called the good gospel and why the people who wrote them are called evangelists. And there you will also see that each and every book was written by the person to whom it is attributed although he did not disclose his name. And the intention of the narrator who tells us these things in the first four verses in this book, which are like an introduction to his book, is to announce the reason for writing this book.
And Since many have taken to their hearts to set down an orderly account of the events etc. until they were servants of the word of God - Namely they want to write everything according to its order, but because this did not (always) succeed and they wrote succinctly and sometimes omitted one or two stories, and the readers of these books could not understand the connection between all the stories and the right order in which they took place. Therefore “‘I too decided’ (lit. it seemed good to me)” etc. And he did not intend to invalidate what had been said before by earlier evangelists, to the contrary, for he includes himself among them when he writes: “I too decided” etc. And he only came to augment their words by learning and studying everything thoroughly from its origin, as it will be explained in the following verses, that this author wrote about many things that the former evangelists omitted, like the birth of John and similar things like that.
Many: Besides Mathew and Marcus who are called evangelists and lived before Luke and wrote their books. And in that time there were important people who fully heartedly believed in Jesus took upon themselves to write some events that they saw and heard. And because they were not necessary or useful, they were not counted among the books that are called in the New Testament Holy Writings, rather they were concealed. As the men of the Great Assembly (Anshey Kneset ha-Gdola) did to the books: Baruch, Tobias and Judith and to many others. And although some of these concealed books do not exist today it is impossible to argue from this that there was no divine providence over the New Testament books and this is proven from the ‘Book of God’s Wars’ mentioned in Numbers 21,14; the ‘Book of the Righteous’, Joshua 10,13 and many other books as it is mentioned in the introduction.
Have taken to their hearts: like “And all this I have taken to my heart” (Ecc 9:1).
To set down: this is taken from the Talmud as we learned in the fourth chapter of tractate Brakhot, page 28b: Simeon ha-Pakuli arranged the eighteen benedictions in order in Yavneh: he means to set down everything in its place.
those things which have been validated to us: in that time, all the things that he told were true and accurate, and no one doubted them, because there was a tradition about them from man to man as he explains.
2. Who from the beginning were eyewitnesses: this relates to the previous verse because it gives a reason why the truth of these things were proven to us because they were given to us from those people who saw everything with their own eyes and they are Jesus’s disciples and his apostles whom he chose to be witnesses to all his sayings, signs and miracles as it written in this book, chapter 24:48: and they always stood with him when he was tested. And these deeds were inscribed in the hearts of those who heard and saw them to such a degree that they were willing to risk their lives as we will interpret with God’s help.
And servants: a designation for disciples because they are used to serve and to assist their master like: the servant of Moses, [one] of his young men (Numbers 11,28); And young Samuel was in the service (1 Samuel 3,1); and as it is written: who poured water on the hands of Elijah (2 Kings 3,11). And from this they learned in the Talmud that the service of the Torah scholars is greater than the study thereof.2
Word of God: according to the (Aramaic) translation the saying of God: And I have already explained the issue of this phrase in the introduction and commented on the intentions of the translator when he translated the noun Hashem or the term God (Elohim) or “according to Hashem” (pi hashem) etc. as the saying (or word) of God, because he always means that the Ancient Wisdom which flows from the Highest Crown which is the Crown of Creation, the Splendor of the Unity equaling the Highest Crown or the Infinite in every aspect, according to the Kabbalah as it appears in the second path of Sefer Yetzirah.