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Jonah Ibn Genach




He had training as a Physician and is mentioned elsewhere as the author of a medical text, but seems to have found his true calling in the investigation of the Hebrew Language and in Scriptural Exegesis . Although he wrote no actual commentary on the Hebrew Bible , his philological works exercised the greatest influence on Judaic Exegesis and form the basis of many modern interpretations. His work was is considered to have laid the foundations for scholarly Biblical exegesis .

Rabbi Jonah's first work, ''al-Mustalha'' ("Complement"), is a critique and expansion of the work of David Hayyuj , the founder of systematic Hebrew grammar studies. He is best known for the ''Kitab al-tanqih'' ("Book of Exact Investigation"), which is divided into two parts: the ''Kitab al-luma'' ("Book of the Many-Coloured Flower Beds") and the ''Kitab al-usul'' ("Book of the Roots"). The first focuses on the grammar of Hebrew, the second its lexicon. Rabbi Jonah's last work, his ''Kitab al-Tashwir'' ("Book of Refutation"), is largely lost.
Like most Spanish Jews Of The Time , his works were written in Arabic .


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  First Glatzer
  Last Nahum M
  Editor-last Altmann
  Editor-first Alexander
  Contribution The beginnings of modern Jewish studies
  Title Studies in Nineteenth-Century Jewish Intellectual History
  Year 1964
  Pages 27–45
  Place Cambridge, MA
  Publisher Harvard University Press