Page - 14 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 05/01

The Jewish-Christian controversy, as it is known, includes reflection on the fig- ure of the Nazarene. The richest and most systematic contributions by Jewish tradition to this discourse in the medieval and early modern period are found in Jewish anti-Christian polemical literature.1 In this article I trace the figure of Jesus that was hidden through the polemical and apologetic strategy of the text Sefer Ḥizzuq Emunah (Strengthening of the Faith), composed by Lithuanian Karaite scholar Isaac ben Abraham Troki (c. 1533–1594) at the end of the 16th century. The article reflects on this particular portrait of Jesus, which was read by leading European intellectuals and philosophers.2 Furthermore, the extraor- dinary reception history of this text indicates that Sefer Ḥizzuq Emunah was for a long time a privileged example of what Christians knew about Jewish anti-Chris- tian literature.3 Although Isaac ben Abraham Troki’s biography remains a desideratum, we know that he came from a line of great Karaite scholars and became a leader of his own Karaite community in Troki (Lithuania),4 one of the most important cultural and religious centers of Karaism in the 16th century.5 Isaac ben Abraham Troki was a prolific writer. His literary production covered liturgical poems that include piyutim (םיטויפ), composed in a Turkic language with Hebrew script known as karaim language,6 derushim (םישרד), a homilet- ic interpretation of the Bible, biblical commentaries and a treatise against the Rabbanite.7 Although he belonged to a Karaite group, Isaac ben Abraham knew Talmudic literature well and often cited rabbinic quotations and Jewish classi- cal commentators, an approach found in his main work, the polemical treatise against Christianity Sefer Ḥizzuq Emunah.8 This material was therefore intelligi- ble to a wider Jewish community. Sefer Ḥizzuq Emunah was written in response to a specific need that emerged from social and cultural circumstances: according to its author, the people of Is- 1 For a general overview of Jewish anti-Christian polemical literature and its main themes see Schoeps 1963; Trautner-Kromann 1993; Krauss/Horbury 1995; Lasker 1999; Lasker 2007. 2 Popkin 1992, 159–181; Mulsow 2015, 32–38. 3 The author’s in-depth study of Sefer Ḥizzuq Emunah will be published shortly. See Benfatto 2018. 4 Mann 1935, 715; 583. 5 Mann 1935, 566–574. Karaite Judaism is a Jewish religious movement characterized by the recognition of the Bible alone as its only authority. The Karaites therefore reject the Talmud and the rabbinical tra- ditions. Recent scholarship (Polliack 2003, xvii–xviii) has defined Karaite Judaism as “a Jewish religious movement of a scripturalist and messianic nature, which crystallized in the second half of the ninth century in the areas of Persia-Iraq and Palestine […] Karaism, in its spiritual essence and in the grain of its history, should be regarded […] as one manifestation of the multi-faceted nature of Jewish culture and identity”. 6 Kizilov 2007. 7 Akhiezer 2006. The term “Rabbanite” indicates Jews who receive the Talmudic tradition and its teach- ing. 8 Schreiner 2002. 14 | Miriam Benfatto www.jrfm.eu 2019, 5/1