Abraham ibn ezra astrology

See above, n. In fact, he wrote most of his astrological treatises in at least two different versions.

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I intend to discuss this in a future study. Yardeni Leiden, , 3— Sefer ha-Moladot , fols. Sefer ha-Mispar above, n. AII fols. Moshe Greenberg Jerusalem, , 47—60, Google Scholar. Sergio J. Sierra Bologna, , — Thus, it is reasonable to assume that when he arrived in a new town, he would write new versions of old works for his new audience.

Isadore Twersky and Jay M.

Harris Cambridge, Mass. See, for example, his long commentary on Exodus. The scientific branches are mentioned in this order: metallurgy, botany, zoology, anatomy, physiology, astronomy, and astrology. Perhaps the best example is the excursus that Ibn Ezra wrote in the long commentary on Exodus , where he explains the secret meanings underlying the numeric values of the letters of the Tetragrammaton.

This excursus is neatly divided into three chapters. Ibn Ezra begins with a grammatical analysis, continues with a mathematical explanation and finishes with a cosmological-astrological inquiry. See also the parallel excursus in the short commentary ad loc. See further, the excursus in the long commentary on Exodus , , and esp. Norman Strickman and Arthur M.

Does a new moon start when the moon completes circling the sphere of the zodiac, i. Ibn Ezra trod the reverse path. Afterwards he wandered through Italy, France, and England, and conducted a remarkable and multifarious literary career. True, these texts are mainly textbooks and the contents are brought essentially as quotations and as paraphrases of earlier Arabic sources.

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Nevertheless, we have to do justice to Ibn Ezra. The following features, inter alia, reveal the unique contribution and personality of the author.

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Second, Ibn Ezra commonly avoids a narrow and unilateral presentation of issues. Third, Ibn Ezra adds a very personal note when he sharply criticized his sources. He does not even abstain from criticizing Claudius Ptolemy, his most important and admired source, and the only one whom he was ready to mention explicitly in his biblical commentaries. Fourth, and in my opinion the most outstanding feature, Ibn Ezra reveals a very original spirit when he confronts the colossal task of conveying into a Hebrew mold the scientific data that he received in the Arabic language.

The result of this effort is the creation of a new Hebrew scientific terminology. See the long and short commentaries on Genesis 1. David C. Lindberg Chicago, 37— Personalised recommendations. Members of his family seem to have held important official posts in Andalucia, but, like many poets and scholars, Abraham disclaimed any skill at earning a living: ' If I sold candles ', he wrote, ' the sun would never set; if I dealt in shrouds, men would become immortal '.

No doubt as a result of the conditions in Spain, he spent most of his life abroad. Up to the s, he made many journeys to North Africa and even to Iraq. The rest of his life was spent moving around Italy and France, and from to he even lived in London. He appears to have relied on the hospitality earned by his poetry and teaching, though the welcome was not always warm: I come at morn to the nobly born: they say 'He's away' I return at night: 'He needs his rest', they say.

Abraham ibn Ezra

Nor was the traveling always comfortable: To whom shall I cry in my anguish? Jews in Arab lands normally wrote in Arabic, the language of both literature and everyday urban speech, but Abraham like the Jews of Christendom always used Hebrew. His poetry was nevertheless much influenced by Arabic verse in its style. It covered a great range of moods and themes: love, wine, religion, didactic topics, and occasional verse.

He even anticipated 'the Mouse's Tale' in Alice in Wonderland , with a poem in the shape of a tree. His prose works, numbering over one hundred, were produced after his move to Italy. The most famous was his complete Bible commentary. Most of this survives and is still used today. It sometimes appears rather modern: ancient and medieval exegesis usually involved the assumption that the text means more than it says; Abraham said that all that is necessary is to define the words, sort out the grammar, and accept that the sentence means exactly what it says.

In practice, he often went a great deal further, but his Platonist philosophy was discreetly veiled so as not to offend the ultra-orthodox. Thus in commenting on the first verse of Genesis, he showed that the verb bara 'to create' can also mean 'to shape' or 'to divide' and then added a favourite comment: ' let him who can understand, do so '. In other words, without actually saying so, he implied that the physical world was shaped from pre-existing elements, rather than created from nothing.

Most of his philosophy was presented obliquely in this fashion. In the exact sciences, he covered mathematics, the calendar, and the use of the astrolabe and planetary tables. Other books dealt with such diverse fields as nutrition, how to play chess, and the relation between the Hebrew and Arabic languages. Ibn Ezra died in some say in Rome, others that, knowing his end was approaching, he set out for his native Spain and died just over the frontier.

Abraham and Astrology Abraham's writings on astrology comprise about a dozen short books, covering natal, electional, horary, medical, and mundane astrology. They naturally rely on earlier Arabic sources but Abraham normally added his own opinions. In the 13th century some of these works were translated into French; later, all were rendered into Latin by the astrologer Pietro d'Abano.

Ezra's Critical Days has long been available in English, having been reproduced within Culpepper's 17th century text The Astrological Judgement of Disease. Following Aristotle and the Platonists, Abraham divided the universe into three parts: the spiritual, celestial, and sublunary worlds. The celestial world serves to link the two others, transmitting God's will to earth. This is why astrology played such a central part in medieval thought, providing a basic framework for explanation and classification: e.

Like all medieval philosophers, Abraham accepted that the stars exercised a direct influence; but only on the body, for the soul belongs to the spiritual world.

This influence can only be altered miraculously, but that can be done not just by God, but also by virtuous people like the prophets of Israel who have united themselves to God. Like many modern astrologers, Abraham also held that it is possible to modify the influence of a planet by accepting it. In other words, if you have a transit of Saturn, any sort of Saturnian activity voluntarily undertaken will fulfil the requirements of fate and prevent further, less welcome, Saturnian experiences. In this context, he explained the ancient Jewish ritual of driving out and stoning the scapegoat on the Day of Atonement as an acceptance of the influence of Mars for the year, by a Martian action towards a Martian animal.

Similarly, he held that it was possible to attract the favourable influences of the planets by the use of things ruled by them - i. Abraham frequently went his own way in astrology: he was one of the few to follow Ptolemy on the calculation of the Part of Fortune.

He also wrote ' If you come across a book by Albumassar on the conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn, ignore it: no sensible man would agree with it.

Abraham Ibn Ezra's Introductions to Astrology : Shlomo Sela :

It is notable that such a conjunction did occur in 7 BC. Somewhere he encountered what we now know as the Placidian house system, for he outlines its connection with directions in his book on the astrolabe. The instructions for finding the cusps which follow are, however, for the Alcabitius system, but this may be the work of a copyist who thought he was correcting a mistake. The Beginning of Wisdom summarises the foundations of astrology, rather like the first book of the Tetrabiblos. Abraham gives a condensed but detailed account of the signs of the zodiac and their subdivisions; the aspects; the houses; the planets and how their natures are affected by position, phase, and aspect; and the planetary parts.

The chapter on the parts is based on the well known work of Albumassar, but unlike Albiruni, who gave the same list with a distinct lack of enthusiasm, Abraham found space to explain the use of the less obvious parts in mundane astrology, such as the part of rain and the various parts of commodities.