62 Popes and Jews, 1095–1291
form, written from Nachmanides’ perspective and almost certainly by Nachmanides
himself, relates in great detail how he debated with pablo Christiani, a Jewish
convert to Christianity, at the Disputation of Barcelona in 1263.194 As we shall
examine in Chapter Six, this disputation had been promoted by Dominicans and
Franciscans who petitioned James i of Aragon (1213–1267) for the right to stage
it in public, and it was fully endorsed by pope Urban iV (1261–1264).195 in his
Vikuah Ha-Ramban Nachmanides reports that it occurred after pablo Christiani
had assured James that he could prove the truth of Christianity from the talmud
and other rabbinical writings.196 According to Nachmanides, the presiding judge
questioned him as to whether he believed the Messiah had already come, as the
New testament declared.197 He replied that there was a difference between saying
that the Messiah had been born and that he had come and continued:
‘and so the Messiah, when the end will come, will come to the pope as ordained by
god and will say “Let my people go and worship me”’198to this, citing isaiah 52, pablo Christiani replied that although Jews said that
the Messiah was more elevated than the angels, this was impossible unless the
Messiah referred to was Jesus, who was himself god.199 And in response to that
Nachmanides explained:
‘Abraham our father brought the nations into the correct faith and spread the law of
god and disputed with Nimrod the king and did not fear him, and Moses has done
more than him, standing humbly before the great king pharaoh, and smiting him with
the ten great plagues and bringing out His people from his hands.’200Citing Daniel 10: 20–21 he also argued that although even the ministering angels
and the archangel Michael himself worked for their redemption, yet:
194 Nina Caputo, Nahmanides in Medieval Catalonia: History, Community and Messianism (Notre
Dame, ind., 2007), pp.91–2. For the Disputation of Barcelona see, for example, Chazan, Barcelona
and Beyond, passim. For Nachmanides see, for example, Baron, A Social and Religious History of the
Jews, Vol. 9, p.104; Abulafia, Christians and Jews in the Twelfth-Century Renaissance, p.140; Chazan,
Barcelona and Beyond, passim; Judaism on Trial, ed. Maccoby, passim; Chazan, Daggers of Faith, passim;
Cohen, The Friars and the Jews, passim. For the ‘pugio Fidei’ of raymond Martin, see Funkenstein,
Perceptions of Jewish History, p.196.
195 Caputo, Nahmanides in Medieval Catalonia, pp.172–3.
196 The following are my translations. For further English translations of the ‘Vikuah ha-ramban’
of Nachmanides, see oliver rankin, Jewish Religious Polemic of the Early and Late Centuries: A Study of
Documents here Rendered in English (Edinburgh, 1956), pp.178–210 and more recently Judaism on
Trial, ed. Maccoby, pp.102–46. For a translation of the Christian version of events, see Judaism on
Trial, ed. Maccoby, pp.147–50. See also the discussion of Nachmanides in Saperstein, Decoding the
Rabbis, p.105.
197 Nachmanides, ‘Vikuah ha-ramban’, in Osar wikuhim, ed. Eisenstein, p.88; Kitve rabenu
Mosheh ben Nahman, ed. Chavel, Vol. 1, p.306.
198 Nachmanides, ‘Vikuah ha-ramban’, in Osar wikuhim, ed. Eisenstein, p.88; Kitve rabenu
Mosheh ben Nahman, ed. Chavel, Vol. 1, p.306; see also translations in rankin, Jewish Religious Polemic
of Early and Late Centuries, p.185; Judaism on Trial, ed. Maccoby, p.111.
199 Nachmanides, ‘Vikuah ha-ramban’, in Osar wikuhim, ed. Eisenstein, p.90; Kitve rabenu
Mosheh ben Nahman, ed. Chavel, Vol. 1, p.312.
200 Nachmanides, ‘Vikuah ha-ramban’, in Osar wikuhim, ed. Eisenstein, p.90; Kitve rabenu
Mosheh ben Nahman, ed. Chavel, Vol. 1, p.312; see also translations in rankin, Jewish Religious Polemic
of Early and Late Centuries, p.193; Judaism on Trial, ed. Maccoby, p.122.