Sefer Nizzahon Yashan (ספר ניצחון) "The (old) Book of Victory" is an anonymous 13th-century Jewish apologetic text that originated in Germany. The word "old" (Hebrew ''yashan'', Latin ''vetus'') has become attached to the title to distinguish the work from the ''Sefer Nizzahon'' of

Yom-Tov Lipmann-Muhlhausen Yom-Tov Lipmann ben Solomon Muhlhausen (Hebrew: יום טוב ליפמן מילהאוזן) was a controversial Talmudist, kabalist and philosopher of the 14th and 15th centuries (birth date unknown, died later than 1420). His religious and scholarl ...

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

, written in the 15th century. A modern edition was published by Mordechai Breuer in 1978, and a critical edition by David Berger in 2008. The work was known and responded to by Protestant Hebraists and

polemicists Polemic () is contentious rhetoric intended to support a specific position by forthright claims and to undermine the opposing position. The practice of such argumentation is called ''polemics'', which are seen in arguments on controversial topics ...

including Johann Reuchlin, Sebastian Münster,

Wolfgang Capito Wolfgang Fabricius Capito (also Koepfel) ( – November 1541) was a German Protestant reformer in the Calvinist tradition. His life and revolutionary work Capito was born circa 1478 to a smith at Hagenau in Alsace. He attended the famous Latin ...

, Immanuel Tremellius,

John Calvin John Calvin (; frm, Jehan Cauvin; french: link=no, Jean Calvin ; 10 July 150927 May 1564) was a French theologian, pastor and reformer in Geneva during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the development of the system ...

, and

Martin Luther Martin Luther (; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, and professor, and Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinian friar. He is the seminal figure of the Reformation, Protestant Refo ...

. Hanne Trautner-Kromann ''Shield and Sword: Jewish Polemics Against Christianity and the'' 1993 p103 "The Sefer Nizzahon Vetus begins with a quite brief introduction where God's help is invoked. After this, the text follows the order of the ... Presumably the Nizzahon Vetus was much used because of its manageable and systematic form."

References

Jewish apologetics Jewish–Christian debate Works published anonymously 13th-century literature 13th-century Judaism {{Judaism-book-stub

See also

References