Rahabi Ezekiel

Rabbi Rahabi Ezekiel,^[1] or Ezekiel Rahabi, (fl. 1750s) was a rabbinical writer known only through his polemical Hebrew translation of the New Testament - The Book of the Gospel Belonging to the Followers of Jesus (c.1750).

To be distinguished from David Ezekiel Rahabi (1694–1772), of Cochin who revived Judaism among Bene Israel Jews of India.

The translation is "in an uneven and faulty Hebrew with a strong anti-Christian bias."^[2] Oo 1:32 reads: "Heaven is my witness that I have not translated this, God forfend, to believe it, but to understand it and know how to answer the heretics . . . that our true Messiah will come. Amen." The 1750 edition appears to be the work of two different translators - a less educated Sephardi writer (Matthew-John) and a more educated German rabbi (Acts-Revelation).

References

1. Hebrew in the church: the foundations of Jewish-Christian dialogue Pinchas Lapide - 1984 "appears as kbwd m'lt hrb rby rhby yhzql nwhw 'dn "Honored to the degree of the great Rabbi Rahabi Ezekiel, may he rest in peace. "
2. Hebrew in the Church: The Foundations of Jewish-Christian Dialogue 1984 p76 Pinchas E. Lapide, Helmut Gollwitzer - 1984 "It contains all the books of the New Testament and was translated about 1750 by a certain Ezekiel Rahabi (not R'dkibi,pace Franz Delitzsch p.108) in an uneven and faulty Hebrew with a strong anti-Christian bias.