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36* Sammaries

on Obadiah is distinguished by various characteristics, including its clear
anti-Christian tendency, which stems from the book’s character as a prophecy
on Edom.

There are six extant manuscripts of Japheth’s commentary on Obadia, some
of them complete and some partial. The author has chosen Oxford-Bodleian
Library Ms. Opp. Add. Qu 168-169 for this edition, which is a complete
manuscript and, in addition to preserving the text with relative precision,
also preserves dialectical punctuation. He has also relied on manuscripts and
critical editions of commentaries Japheth wrote on other books, in order to
examine points of similarity and difference and thus to portray his exegetical
work more broadly.

The author has compared Japheth’s commentary to other commentaries
on Obadiah, especially that of Tanhum ben Joseph ha-Yerushalmi of the
thirteenth century. The author has also dealt with grammatical and linguistic
issues in Japheth’s commentary, and has shown, for instance, that while he
translates the verses extremely literally, he tends to simplify the language of
the Bible in his interpretations. An additional linguistic examination has been
the comparison of the way Japheth translates certain words in Obadiah with
the way he translates them in other commentaries.

This article comprises one more step on a long road towards a full
concordance of Japheth’s writings and the beginning of a more complete
study of the writings of this great exegete.