Account of the Disputation of the Bishop

Nestor the Priest is the fictional protagonist in this anti-Christian polemic, preserved in Judeo-Arabic under the title Account of the Disputation of the Bishop (Qiṣṣat mujādalat al-usquf) and in Hebrew under the title The Book of Nestor the Priest (Sefer Nestor ha-komer). The Hebrew version is a translation of the Judeo-Arabic original and erroneously ascribes the entire work to Nestor himself, whose conversion to Judaism from Nestorianism, a sect of Christianity from Asia Minor, is recounted in the work. The Judeo-Arabic original details claims made by an unnamed priest prior to his alleged conversion to Judaism; the author tackles many of the challenges leveled by Jews and Muslims against the doctrines of the trinity, the incarnation, and other aspects of Christian theology. This text uses traditional logical argumentation, such as a reductio ad absurdum, to undercut Trinitarian theology. In an effort to turn Christian scripture against Christianity, it also cites Mark 10:17 (though it cites the passage as the book of Matthew) for evidence that Jesus himself denied his divinity.