Commentary: On Chronicles

Jonah Ibn Janāḥ

Commentary on 1 Chronicles 28:19, 29:2, 29:4

First Half of the 11th Century

Damaged manuscript page with intricate gold and brown geometric and floral designs forming a house shape, featuring geometric and floral patterns, with Hebrew micrography.
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Jonah Ibn Janāḥ was the foremost grammarian of his generation, and he here cites his own Book of [Hebrew] Roots to explain the meaning of the Hebrew word tavnit. He also adduces Arabic parallels, as he does elsewhere in his writings; in general, he was familiar with Arabic linguistics and philology. Here, too, Ibn Janāḥ deals with the controversial topic of lexical substitution. He held that certain words may be used when another, closely associated one is actually intended. Abraham Ibn Ezra, by contrast, deemed this nothing short of “madness,” out of concern that it could lead to interpretative anarchy.

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Creator Bio

Jonah Ibn Janāḥ

ca. 985/90–ca. 1055

Abū al-Walīd Marwān Jonah Ibn Janāḥ al-Isrā’īlī was a philologist, grammarian, and lexicographer probably born in Córdoba or nearby Lucena. He was educated in Lucena and around 1012 made a name for himself with his Book of Supplement, in which he criticized and “supplemented” the writings of the tenth-century grammarian Judah Ḥayyūj, precipitating a polemic with Ḥayyūj’s students. Ibn Janāḥ’s later Book of Minute Research, which includes both the Book of Variegated Flower Beds and the Book of [Hebrew] Roots, analyzes the Bible using methods similar to those employed in the study of Arabic and the Qur’ān. His works remained influential in the Hebrew translations by Judah Ibn Tibbon (ca. 1120–after 1190).

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