Peter J Barta | Jewish Theological Seminary-University of Jewish Studies, Hungary (original) (raw)
Papers by Peter J Barta
Humanities Bulletin, 2024
This paper explores the intentionality of a captivating Jewish-Christian encounter in Amsterdam d... more This paper explores the intentionality of a captivating Jewish-Christian encounter in Amsterdam during the spring of 1657. It features Rabbi Nathan Shapira ha-Yerushalmi and a group of millenarian Christians led by the mystical chiliastPeter Serrarius. Rabbi Shapira, a renowned Kabbalist from the circle of Jacob ben Hayyim Tsemaḥ, was on a mission to raise funds for the beleaguered Ashkenazi Jewish community of Jerusalem. He was convinced that their collective woes were the dramatic overture to the Messiah's grand debut. Meanwhile, the Collegiants–a radical Protestant Christian group –were eagerly awaiting apocalyptic events around 1656. Richard Henry Popkin famously described this meeting as a “touching moment”in Jewish-Christian relations, particularly noting the Rabbi’s surprisingly “philo-Christian”presentation of rabbinic texts. This study examines the source text by contextualisation and redaction.It shows that there was a shared intention, even if different agents participated for different reasons based on their own distinct religious tradition.
Orpheus Noster, 2024
The subject of our study are the various contexts and narratives presented in archaeological publ... more The subject of our study are the various contexts and narratives presented in archaeological publications interpreting the Hebrew-inscribed ring finds from the 11th century. Some scholars have linked the finds to a military stratum around the princely court of Khazar origin, which also practised Jewish religious customs, others to the Kabar ethnicity. Some archaeologists have categorized the early Árpád period strap rings as “runic rings”, regardless of the actual character set. The third trend is that of apotropaic rings with imitation scribal decoration, which are related to the western 11th-12th century polygonal rings with engraved groups of characters. The scientific debate is ongoing and new lines of research are emerging.
Az V. Interdiszciplináris Vallástudományi Hallgatói Konferencia tanulmánykötete. Eds. Nemes Márk, Balássy Petra Zsófia, Bialkó László Gergő, Dudás Róbert Gyula, Dr. Farkas Zsuzsanna, Gloviczky Zoltán, Kondorosi Noémi, Miklovicz Attila, and Tegzes Nóra Valentina., 2024
Peter Serrarius (Pierre Serrurier, 1600-1669), who came from a French Protestant family settled i... more Peter Serrarius (Pierre Serrurier, 1600-1669), who came from a French Protestant family settled in London and later in Amsterdam, was able to establish a special relationship through his sincere and supportive interest with a number of prominent Jewish scholars, such as R. Menasseh ben Israel (1604-1657), R. Nathan ben Reuven Sapira ha-Yerushalmi (c. 160?-1666), Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677), and Yishak de Rocamora (1601-1684), leading his contemporaries to describe him as 'the [Christian] friend who lives here in Amsterdam in friendship with the rabbis'.
Through Peter Serrarius's Jewish connections, I seek in this study to answer the question of how he could have been a good friend and ally of Amsterdam's Jews in the 17th century. In this study I will explore how Jewish-Christian scholarly discourse in the mid-third of the seventeenth century was shaped by personal connections in the context of Amsterdam's vibrant Jewish intellectual life; what influence Jewish scholars had on Serrarius and vice versa; how a millenarian Christian (and through him, his wide circle of correspondents) could become involved in Jewish messianic anticipation embodied in the figure and movement of the Ismiri pseudo-messiah, Sabbatai Zevi. The subject of my research is this conscious crossing of boundaries between religions.
Egyiptológiai Füzetek, 1989
The first system of the planetary tables was printed in 'De occulta philosophia' of Heinrich Corn... more The first system of the planetary tables was printed in 'De occulta philosophia' of Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim (14 September 1486 – 18 February 1535). These planetary tables as he called the seven magic squares distributed among the seven planets, were came from the Arab magic, where they were used in talismans for different purposes. In China, one of them: the Lo-shu was well-known and important mystical tradition attached to it, In Tibet, the magic squares were also involved into mandalas. In the West, they made a great carrier and they ultimately appeared in the famous kabbalistic alchemical treatise known as Esh Mezareph ("Purifying Fire"), which was preserved in the 'Kabbala Denudata' of Christian Knorr von Rosenroth (1636 –1689).
Books by Peter J Barta
The Ḥôṯam Toḵnît or Seal-ring of Proportion described in Ezekiel 28:12-13, is considered as an ar... more The Ḥôṯam Toḵnît or Seal-ring of Proportion described in Ezekiel 28:12-13, is considered as an archetype of magic rings. Its pattern with three rows and-three columns based on the simplest magic square, which was described as a child-bearing charm since its first literary appearances in the woks of Jābir ibn Hayyān (fl. c. 721– c. 815) and al-Ghazālī (1058–1111). This connection with the female reproductivity makes this signet a precursor of a series of literary examples, like the Draupnir and the Andvaranaut of the Edda and their modern literary interpretations in the works of de la Motte-Fouque, Richard Wagner and J.R.R. Tolkien, who connected it with the invisibility ring mentioned in Plato's Politeia 359d-360b and also with the seal of Solomon (mentioned first in Josephus Flavius, Antiquitates Judaicae 8, 46-49, and in the Testamentum Solomonis, elaborated in Jewish, Islamic and Christian traditions), which gives power over the spiritual beings. They were not pioneers at all, because from the late Antiquity there were several author (e.g. Josephus Flavius, ibn Ezra, Eleazar of Worms, Pliny, the Church Fathers, Marsilio Ficino, H.C. Agrippa, Éliphas Lévi, the various writers of the Antique and medieval lapidaries, kabbalistic works, astro magical tracts and beau-letters, including the Welsh and French Arthurian romans and the Arabian Nights) who provide for this the necessary theological, philosophical as well as literary draw matters. The main aim of this study, which is written in an exceptional form as a last will of a fictional Kabbalist, is to demonstrate a concept of the Ḥôṯam Toḵnît as the Šegal described in Psalm 45, and its erroneous literary interpretations.
Humanities Bulletin, 2024
This paper explores the intentionality of a captivating Jewish-Christian encounter in Amsterdam d... more This paper explores the intentionality of a captivating Jewish-Christian encounter in Amsterdam during the spring of 1657. It features Rabbi Nathan Shapira ha-Yerushalmi and a group of millenarian Christians led by the mystical chiliastPeter Serrarius. Rabbi Shapira, a renowned Kabbalist from the circle of Jacob ben Hayyim Tsemaḥ, was on a mission to raise funds for the beleaguered Ashkenazi Jewish community of Jerusalem. He was convinced that their collective woes were the dramatic overture to the Messiah's grand debut. Meanwhile, the Collegiants–a radical Protestant Christian group –were eagerly awaiting apocalyptic events around 1656. Richard Henry Popkin famously described this meeting as a “touching moment”in Jewish-Christian relations, particularly noting the Rabbi’s surprisingly “philo-Christian”presentation of rabbinic texts. This study examines the source text by contextualisation and redaction.It shows that there was a shared intention, even if different agents participated for different reasons based on their own distinct religious tradition.
Orpheus Noster, 2024
The subject of our study are the various contexts and narratives presented in archaeological publ... more The subject of our study are the various contexts and narratives presented in archaeological publications interpreting the Hebrew-inscribed ring finds from the 11th century. Some scholars have linked the finds to a military stratum around the princely court of Khazar origin, which also practised Jewish religious customs, others to the Kabar ethnicity. Some archaeologists have categorized the early Árpád period strap rings as “runic rings”, regardless of the actual character set. The third trend is that of apotropaic rings with imitation scribal decoration, which are related to the western 11th-12th century polygonal rings with engraved groups of characters. The scientific debate is ongoing and new lines of research are emerging.
Az V. Interdiszciplináris Vallástudományi Hallgatói Konferencia tanulmánykötete. Eds. Nemes Márk, Balássy Petra Zsófia, Bialkó László Gergő, Dudás Róbert Gyula, Dr. Farkas Zsuzsanna, Gloviczky Zoltán, Kondorosi Noémi, Miklovicz Attila, and Tegzes Nóra Valentina., 2024
Peter Serrarius (Pierre Serrurier, 1600-1669), who came from a French Protestant family settled i... more Peter Serrarius (Pierre Serrurier, 1600-1669), who came from a French Protestant family settled in London and later in Amsterdam, was able to establish a special relationship through his sincere and supportive interest with a number of prominent Jewish scholars, such as R. Menasseh ben Israel (1604-1657), R. Nathan ben Reuven Sapira ha-Yerushalmi (c. 160?-1666), Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677), and Yishak de Rocamora (1601-1684), leading his contemporaries to describe him as 'the [Christian] friend who lives here in Amsterdam in friendship with the rabbis'.
Through Peter Serrarius's Jewish connections, I seek in this study to answer the question of how he could have been a good friend and ally of Amsterdam's Jews in the 17th century. In this study I will explore how Jewish-Christian scholarly discourse in the mid-third of the seventeenth century was shaped by personal connections in the context of Amsterdam's vibrant Jewish intellectual life; what influence Jewish scholars had on Serrarius and vice versa; how a millenarian Christian (and through him, his wide circle of correspondents) could become involved in Jewish messianic anticipation embodied in the figure and movement of the Ismiri pseudo-messiah, Sabbatai Zevi. The subject of my research is this conscious crossing of boundaries between religions.
Egyiptológiai Füzetek, 1989
The first system of the planetary tables was printed in 'De occulta philosophia' of Heinrich Corn... more The first system of the planetary tables was printed in 'De occulta philosophia' of Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim (14 September 1486 – 18 February 1535). These planetary tables as he called the seven magic squares distributed among the seven planets, were came from the Arab magic, where they were used in talismans for different purposes. In China, one of them: the Lo-shu was well-known and important mystical tradition attached to it, In Tibet, the magic squares were also involved into mandalas. In the West, they made a great carrier and they ultimately appeared in the famous kabbalistic alchemical treatise known as Esh Mezareph ("Purifying Fire"), which was preserved in the 'Kabbala Denudata' of Christian Knorr von Rosenroth (1636 –1689).
The Ḥôṯam Toḵnît or Seal-ring of Proportion described in Ezekiel 28:12-13, is considered as an ar... more The Ḥôṯam Toḵnît or Seal-ring of Proportion described in Ezekiel 28:12-13, is considered as an archetype of magic rings. Its pattern with three rows and-three columns based on the simplest magic square, which was described as a child-bearing charm since its first literary appearances in the woks of Jābir ibn Hayyān (fl. c. 721– c. 815) and al-Ghazālī (1058–1111). This connection with the female reproductivity makes this signet a precursor of a series of literary examples, like the Draupnir and the Andvaranaut of the Edda and their modern literary interpretations in the works of de la Motte-Fouque, Richard Wagner and J.R.R. Tolkien, who connected it with the invisibility ring mentioned in Plato's Politeia 359d-360b and also with the seal of Solomon (mentioned first in Josephus Flavius, Antiquitates Judaicae 8, 46-49, and in the Testamentum Solomonis, elaborated in Jewish, Islamic and Christian traditions), which gives power over the spiritual beings. They were not pioneers at all, because from the late Antiquity there were several author (e.g. Josephus Flavius, ibn Ezra, Eleazar of Worms, Pliny, the Church Fathers, Marsilio Ficino, H.C. Agrippa, Éliphas Lévi, the various writers of the Antique and medieval lapidaries, kabbalistic works, astro magical tracts and beau-letters, including the Welsh and French Arthurian romans and the Arabian Nights) who provide for this the necessary theological, philosophical as well as literary draw matters. The main aim of this study, which is written in an exceptional form as a last will of a fictional Kabbalist, is to demonstrate a concept of the Ḥôṯam Toḵnît as the Šegal described in Psalm 45, and its erroneous literary interpretations.