Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Abenezra

Abenezra, or Ibn Ezra, is the name ordinarily given to Abraham ben Meir ben Ezra (called also Abenare or Evenare), one of the most eminent of the Jewish literati of the Middle Ages. He was born at Toledo about 1090; left Spain for Rome about 1140; resided afterwards at Mantua (1145), at Lucca (1154), at Rhodes (1155 and 1166), and in England (1159); and died probably in 1168. He was distinguished as a philosopher, astronomer, physician, and poet, but especially as a grammarian and commentator. The works by which he is best known form a series of Commentaries on the books of the Old Testament, which have nearly all been printed in the great Rabbinic Bibles of Bomberg (1525–6), Buxtorf (1618–9), and Frankfurter (1724–7). Abenezra's commentaries are acknowledged to be of very great value; he was the first who raised biblical exegesis to the rank of a science, interpreting the text according to its literal sense, and illustrating it from cognate languages. His style is elegant, but is so concise as to be sometimes obscure; and he occasionally indulges in epigram. In addition to the commentaries, he wrote several treatises on astronomy or astrology, and a number of grammatical works.