The Disputation of Barcelona (July 20-24, 1263) was held at the royal palace of King James I of Aragon in the presence of the King, his court, and many prominent ecclesiastical dignitaries and knights, between a convert from Judaism to Christianity Dominican Friar Pablo Christiani and Rabbi Nachmanides (whose full name, Rabbi Moshe ben Nahman Gerondi, is often abbreviated as Ramban). The disputation was organized by Raymond de Penyafort, the superior of Christiani and the confessor of King James. Christiani had been trying to make Jews of Provence abandon their religion and convert to Christianity. Relying upon the reserve his adversary would be forced to maintain through fear of wounding the feelings of the Christian dignitaries, Christiani assured the King that he could prove the truth of Christianity from the Talmud and other rabbinical writings. Nahmanides complied with the order of the King, but stipulated that complete freedom of speech should be granted. In the scholastic system of education of the middle ages, disputations (in Latin: disputationes, singular: disputatio) offered a formalized method of debate designed to uncover and establish truths in theology and in other sciences. ... Location Coordinates : Time Zone : CET (GMT +1) - summer: CEST (GMT +2) General information Native name Barcelona (Catalan) Spanish name Barcelona Nickname Ciutat Comtal (Catalan) Ciudad Condal (Spanish) Postal code 08001–08080 Area code 34 (Spain) + 93 (Barcelona) Website http://www. ... July 20 is the 201st day (202nd in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 164 days remaining. ... July 24 is the 205th day (206th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 160 days remaining. ... Events Detmold, Germany was founded. ... James I of Aragon (Catalan: Jaume I, Spanish: Jaime I, Occitan: Jacme I) (Montpellier, February 2, 1208 – July 27, 1276) surnamed the Conqueror, was the king of Aragon, count of Barcelona and Lord of Montpellier from 1213 to 1276. ... Judaism is the religion of the Jewish people. ... Christianity is a monotheistic[1] religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented in the New Testament. ... A friar is a member of a religious mendicant order of men. ... Friar Paul Christian (Pablo Christiani) was born to a pious Jewish family wih the name Saul. ... Rabbi, in Judaism, means teacher, or more literally great one. The word Rabbi is derived from the Hebrew root word רַב, rav, which in biblical Hebrew means great or distinguished (in knowledge). Sephardic and Yemenite Jews pronounce this word רִבִּי ribbÄ«; the modern Israeli pronunciation רַבִּי rabbÄ« is derived from a recent (18th... Nahmanides is the common name for Moshe ben Nahman Gerondi; the name is a Greek translation of the Hebrew Ben Nahman, meaning Son of Nahman. He is also commomly known as Ramban, being an acronym of his Hebrew name and title, Rabbi Moshe ben Nahman, and by his Catalan name... The title confessor is used in the Christian Church in two separate ways. ... Coat of arms of Provence Provence (Provençal Occitan: Provença in classical norm or Prouvènço in Mistralian norm) is a former Roman province and is now a region of southeastern France, located on the Mediterranean Sea adjacent to the Italian border. ... Religious conversion is the adoption of new religious beliefs that differ from the converts previous beliefs; in some cultures (e. ... The first page of the Vilna Edition of the Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Berachot, folio 2a The Talmud (Hebrew: תלמוד) is a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, customs and history. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

Proceedings

The debate turned on the following questions:^[1]

1. whether the Messiah had appeared or not
2. whether, according to Scripture, the Messiah is a divine or a human being
3. whether the Jews or the Christians held the true faith.

In Judaism, the Messiah (מָשִׁיחַ Standard Hebrew Arabic: Al-Masih, المسيح), Tiberian Hebrew , Aramaic ) initially meant any person who was anointed by a prophet of God. ...

Had the Messiah appeared

Based upon several aggadic passages, Christiani argued that Pharisaic sages believed that the Messiah had lived during the Talmudic period, and that they ostensibly believed that the Messiah was therefore Jesus. Midrash (Hebrew: מדרש; plural midrashim) is a Hebrew word referring to a method of exegesis of a Biblical text. ... The Pharisees (from the Hebrew perushim, from parash, meaning to separate) were, depending on the time, a political party, a social movement, and a school of thought among Jews that flourished during the Second Temple Era (536 BCE–70 CE). ... This article is about Jesus of Nazareth. ...

Nahmanides argued that Jews were not required to believe the aggadic materials found in the Talmud. He countered that Christiani's interpretations of Talmudic passages were per-se distortions; the rabbis would not hint that Jesus was Messiah while, at the same time, explicitly opposing him as such:

"Does he mean to say that the sages of the Talmud believed in Jesus as the messiah and believed that he is both human and divine, as held by the Christians? However, it is well known that the incident of Jesus took place during the period of the Second Temple. He was born and killed prior to the destruction of the Temple, while the sages of the Talmud, like R. Akiba and his associates, followed this destruction. Those who compiled the Mishnah, Rabbi and R. Nathan, lived many years after the destruction. All the more so R. Ashi who compiled the Talmud, who lived about four hundred years after the destruction. If these sages believed that Jesus was the messiah and that his faith and religion were true and if they wrote these things from which Friar Paul intends to prove this, then how did they remain in the Jewish faith and in their former practice? For they were Jews, remained in the Jewish faith all their lives, and died Jews - they and their children and their students who heard their teachings. Why did they not convert and turn to the faith of Jesus, as Friar Paul did? ... If these sages believed in Jesus and in his faith, how is it that they did not do as Friar Paul, who understands their teachings better than they themselves do?"^[2]

Nahmanides noted that prophetic promises of the Messianic Age, a reign of universal peace and justice had not yet been fulfilled. On the contrary, since the appearance of Jesus, the world had been filled with violence and injustice, and among all denominations the Christians were the most warlike. He asserted that questions of the Messiah are of less dogmatic importance to Jews than most Christians imagine, because it is more meritorious for the Jews to observe the precepts under a Christian ruler, while in exile and suffering humiliation and abuse, than under the rule of the Messiah, when every one would perforce act in accordance with the Law. It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Millennialism. ...

Is the Messiah a divine or a human being

Nahmanides demonstrated from numerous biblical and talmudic sources that traditional Jewish belief ran contrary to Christiani's postulates, and showed that the Biblical prophets regarded the future messiah as a human, a person of flesh and blood, without ascribing him divine attributes. Divinity has a number of related uses in the field of religious belief and study. ...

"[... it seems most strange that... ] the Creater of Heaven and Earth resorted to the womb of a certain Jewish lady, grew there for nine months and was born as an infant, and afterwards grew up and was betrayed into the hands of his enemies who sentenced him to death and executed him, and that afterwards... he came to life and returned to his original place. The mind of a Jew, or any other person, simply cannot tolerate these assertions. If you have listened all your life to the priests who have filled your brain and the marrow of your bones with this doctrine, and it has settled into you because of that accustomed habit. [I would argue that if you were hearing these ideas for the first time, now, as a grown adult], you would never have accepted them."

According to a report by Nahmanides,

Friar Paul claimed: "Behold the passage in Isaiah, chapter 53, tells of the death of the messiah and how he was to fall into the hands of his enemies and how he was placed alongside the wicked, as happened to Jesus. Do you believe that this section speaks of the messiah?

I said to him: "In terms of the true meaning of the section, it speaks only of the people of Israel, which the prophets regularly call 'Israel My servant' or 'Jacob My servant.'"^[2]

Who holds the true faith

Nahmanides used his freedom of speech to criticize some Christian doctrines. He asked: if Jesus was the Messiah, why did he have to hide from the Romans? And, once Rome accepted Christianity, why did it decline? Why was Islam the most powerful empire and not Christianity? And why were Christians responsible for more bloodshed than any other people?^[3]

An Anonymous Latin Report said:

"Deliberation was undertaken with the lord king and with certain Dominicans and Franciscans who were present, not that the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ - which because of its certitude cannot be placed in dispute - be put in the center of attention with the Jews as uncertain, but that the truth of that faith be made manifest in order to destroy the Jews' errors and to shake the confidence of many Jews.

Since he [Moses Nahmanides] did not wish to confess the truth unless forced by authoritative texts, when he was unable to explain these authoritative texts, he said publicly that he did not believe these authoritative texts which were adduced against him - although found in ancient and authentic books of the Jews - because they were, he claimed, sermons in which their teachers often lied for the purpose of exhorting the people. As a result he reproved both the teachers and the scriptures of the Jews."^[2]

Conclusion

As the disputation turned in favor of Nahmanides the Jews of Barcelona, fearing the resentment of the Dominicans, entreated him to discontinue; but the King, whom Nahmanides had acquainted with the apprehensions of the Jews, desired him to proceed. At the end of disputation, king awarded Nachmanides a prize and declared that never before had he heard "an unjust cause so nobly defended."^[4]

Aftermath

Since the Dominicans claimed the victory, Nahmanides felt compelled to publish the controversy. From this publication Christiani selected certain passages which he construed as blasphemies against Christianity and denounced to his general Raymond de Penyafort. A capital charge was then instituted, and a formal complaint against the work and its author was lodged with the King. James mistrusted the Dominican court and called an extraordinary commission, ordering the proceedings to be conducted in his presence. Nahmanides admitted that he had stated many things against Christianity, but he had written nothing which he had not used in his disputation in the presence of the King, who had granted him freedom of speech.

The justice of his defense was recognized by the King and the commission, but to satisfy the Dominicans Nahmanides was sentenced to exile for two years and his pamphlet was condemned to be burned. The Dominicans, however, found this punishment too mild and, through Pope Clement IV, they seem to have succeeded in turning the two years' exile into perpetual banishment. Nahmanides left Aragon never to return again and in 1267 he settled in the Land of Israel. There he founded the oldest active synagogue in the Old City of Jerusalem, the Ramban Synagogue. Clement IV, né Gui Faucoi le Gros ( Guy Foulques the Fat or Guido le Gros) (Saint-Gilles-du-Gard, November 23, year uncertain – Viterbo, November 29, 1268), was elected Pope February 5, 1265, in a conclave held at Perugia that took four months, while cardinals argued over whether to call... Kingdom of Israel: Early ancient historical Israel — land in pink is the approximate area under direct central royal administration during the United Monarchy. ... A synagogue (from Ancient Greek: , transliterated synagogÄ“, assembly; Hebrew: ‎ beit knesset, house of assembly; Yiddish: , shul; Ladino: , esnoga) is a Jewish place of religious worship. ... Jerusalems Old City Walls encompass an area of barely 1 km². They were built in the 16th century (1535-1538) by the Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent of the Ottoman Turks after they had been razed in 1219 by al-Muazzim. ... Hebrew יְרוּשָׁלַיִם (Yerushalayim) (Standard) Yerushalayim or Yerushalaim Arabic commonly القـُدْس (Al-Quds); officially in Israel أورشليم القدس (Urshalim-Al-Quds) Name Meaning Hebrew: (see below), Arabic: The Holiness Government City District Jerusalem Population 724,000 (2006) Jurisdiction 123,000 dunams (123 km²) Jerusalem (Hebrew:  , Yerushaláyim or Yerushalaim; Arabic:  , al-Quds, the Holiness)[2... The Ramban Synagogue (Hebrew: ‎) is the oldest active synagogue in the Old City of Jerusalem. ...

King James appointed a censorship commission to remove the passages deemed offensive from the Talmud.^[5] It consisted of Bishop of Barcelona Arnoldo de Guerbo, Raymond de Penyafort, and the Dominicans Arnoldo de Legarra, Pedro de Janua and Ramón Martí (author of Pugio Fidei). Censorship is the removal or withholding of information from the public by a controlling group or body. ...

References

The Jewish Encyclopedia was an encyclopedia originally published between 1901 and 1906 by Funk and Wagnalls. ...

Further reading

• Nahmanides, Charles Chavel (Translator): Disputation at Barcelona (Ramban). Shilo Publishing House (NY) (January 1983) ISBN 0883280256, ISBN 978-0883280256
• The Disputation of Barcelona (1263) by Cecil Roth. The Harvard Theological Review, Vol. 43, No. 2 (Apr., 1950), pp. 117-144
• The Barcelona "Disputation" of 1263: Christian Missionizing and Jewish Response by Robert Chazan. Speculum, Vol. 52, No. 4 (Oct., 1977), pp. 824-842 doi:10.2307/2855376

This article incorporates text from the 1901–1906 Jewish Encyclopedia, a publication now in the public domain. Nahmanides (1194 - c. ... The Jewish Encyclopedia was an encyclopedia originally published between 1901 and 1906 by Funk and Wagnalls. ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ...