Nathan ha-Babli, one of the most distinguished Mishnaic doctors, was a native of Meshan, in Babylo- nia. In consequence of his high birth, as his father was the prince of the captivity in Babylon, and his mar- vellous knowledge of the law, both divine and human, which he acquired as a student in the country of his adoption, he was created vicar ('"^n n^32X) of the patriarch Sim(m II ben-Gamaliel II, A.D. 140-1 G3. In the Talmud he is often quoted as a profound scholar of the law {Horajoth, 13 b; Baba Kama, 23 a; Baba Me- zia, 117 b), and he materially contributed to the com-
NATHAN, ISAAC
858
NATHAN, ISAAC
pilation of the Mishna, as he himself compiled a Mish- iia, which is referred to as Mix/math de Rabbi Nathan •,rD i^-in rj'rr), and which Jchudah the Holy (q.v.) made use of in the redaction of the present Mishna. Besides this corpus juris, he is also the author of, ], the Aboth of R. Xatluin (",r3 12^^ ri^S), being a com- pilation of the apothegms and moral sayings of the Jewish fathers (risX), interspersed with traditional explanations of divers texts of Scripture, consisting of forty-one chapters. Both the historian and moral ])hi- lusophcr will lind this work an important contribution to the literary and philosophical history of antiquity. It is printed in the different editions of the Talmud after the tractate Yebamot/i, and has also been published sepa- rately with various commentaries (Venice, 1G'2"2; Am- sterdam, 1778), and with two excellent commentaries (Wilna, 18;J3), translated into Latin, with notes, by Francis Taylor (Lond. IGo-l), under the title of R. Nu- thuim Tructatus de Patribus, Latiiw cum iiotis, but in its present form contains later interpolations :— 2, of the Forly-nine Rules (ri^^O rrni n-^rniX), a work of mathematical import, and which Geiger thinks was written by a later author of the same name. See Fiirst, li'dil. Jud. iii, I'J sq. ; Kultur- ii. Literaturgesch. dcr .hidiH ill Asim (Leips. 1849), p. IG sq. ; Zunz, Die Gntt<sdi<nsllirhm Vortrdrje dcr Judeii (Berl. 1832), p. 108 s(i. ; Steinschncider, Catalogus Libr. Hebr. in Bibli- olh. Jiodkiana, col. 2032 sq. ; Geiger, Wuisenschaftliche Zcitschrift (Leips. 18-17), vi, 19 sq.; (iriitz, Gesch. d. Jud, II. iv, 187, 201, 203, 204; Jost, Gesch. d. Judenlh. u. s. Selctcii, ii, 110 sq., 123; Etheridge, Introd. to llebr. Lit. ]i. 77 ; Dukes, Rabbin. Blumenlese (Leips. 1844 ), p. 39 ; Delitzsch, Zur Gesch. d. Jiid. Poesie, p. 33; Frankel, Ilodef/etica in Mischnam (Leips. 1859), p. 187-191 ; Gins- burg, The Kssenes, their History and Doctrines (Lond. 1804), p. 22; art. Sadducees, in the 3d ed. of Kitto's Ci/rlop. of Bibl. Lit. iii, 731 sq., note, reprinted in part in Smith's Diet, of the Bible (Amcr. ed.), iv, 2778, note. (15. 1'.)
Nathan, Isaac, bkn-Kalonyjios, a Jewish writer of great celebrity, flourished near the opening of the 15tli century. The exact date of either the birth or death of this author of the first Hebrew concordance, who traces his lineage to the royal family of David, has not as yet been ascertained. All that we know with certainty is that he lived at Avignon, Montpellier, or Aries in the time of Benedict XIH, and that his writ- ings were called forth by the conduct of this antipope towards the Jews, which was as follows. This pope, I'etcr de Luna by name, who was declared a schismatic, heretic, and perjurer, and who was deposed by the Coun- cil of I'isa (1409), but was still recognised on the Py- renean peninsula, thought that he would secure the general recognition of his claims to St. Peter's chair if he could bring about the conversion of the Spanish Jews. Ho therefore issued a summons (1412), with the sanction of his patron, Ferdinand the Just, king of Ara- gon, to all the learned rabbins to hold a public contro- versy at Tortosa, and appointed the learned Jewish physician, Joshua Lorqui — or Geronimo de Santa Fe, as lie was called after his conversion — to prove to them from tlie Talmud and other Jewish writings that the Jlossiah, whose advent the Jews were dailj' expecting, h.id already come in the person of Jesus Christ. To escajie the threatening dangers, sixty of the most cele- brated Jewish literati of Aragon answered the summons. Thej' were headed by don Bidal ben-Benevenisti, Ibn- Labi of Saragossa, Joseph Albo, the famous author of the Ihtrim, Sechariah ha-Levi Saladin, Astruc Levi, Bo- nastruc Desmaethc, Ibn-Joseph, Ibn-Jaclija, etc., and this most famous controversy of Tortosa lasted twenty- one months (from February, 1413, to November, 1414). Benedict XIH presided at the meetings, and in the first session, which was held Feb. 7, 1413, he thus addressed the Jews: " Yc learned Hebrews, kncnv that I have not