

Aben Ezra

Aben Ezra, or Ibn Ezra (Abraham Ben Meir Ben Ezra), one of the ablest Jewish grammarians and commentators, and celebrated also as an astronomer and physician; he was born at Toledo about 1090, and lived in Italy and England, dying in 1168. His Commentaries on the Old Testament form the starting-point of scientific Biblical exegesis. Without neglecting Rabbinical tradition, he adopts the literal rather than the cabalistic method of interpretation, bringing to bear on the text a profound knowledge of Chaldee and Arabic.