Commentary on Obadiah and a Philological Study of Enoch

...Gauls, Goths, Huns, and others. How long then would the Italians have remained Idumeans? Away with such nonsense then!

III. Nevertheless, Abarbanel Isaac Abarbanel (1437–1508), a statesman and theologian, in the place cited, according to the sharpness of his own mind, proposes another conjecture original Greek: στοχασμὸν (stochasmon) and wildly guesses that Lotan (from Genesis 36:20) was the Latin King of Italy.

Response: 1. This is nothing but an uncertain allusion. 2. Moreover, the insufficiently cautious Rabbi did not notice that Lotan was not from the Idumeans Edomites, but from the Horites, who were driven out by the Idumeans, according to Deuteronomy 2:12.

IV. Arias Montanus Benito Arias Montano (1527–1598), a Spanish scholar, following the Son of Gorion referring to the Josippon, a medieval history of the Jews as cited by Christoph de Castro (Commentary on Obadiah, p. 278) and Cornelius a Lapide (ibid., p. 352), reports that Aeneas, the King of Latium, was an Idumean, and that he fled into Egypt, then into Libya, and from there into Italy—a story that Abarbanel had previously attributed to Janus or Saturn based on the same Son of Gorion. Certainly, it is a wonder if the "Son of Gorion," being torn into so many different versions, could pull anyone over to his side.

V. But there is no end to this storytelling yet. Even Julius Caesar, when it pleases the Rabbis, was an Idumean. Therefore, all Romans are Idumeans, and the Roman Empire is an Idumean kingdom, since its first Emperor was such. Rabbi David Kimchi Known as Radak (1160–1235), a prominent biblical commentator asserts this premise in clear words in his commentary on Joel 3:19: And King Caesar was an Idumean, and likewise all the kings after him who were in Rome.

Response: 1. The premise is false. Julius Caesar was born of the very famous Roman Julia family, as Johann Glandorp A 16th-century German historian shows in his Roman Onomasticon, page 425. 2. And the conclusion does not follow.

If the Romans are Idumeans, rightly says Francisco de Ribera (Commentary on Obadiah, no. 5, p. 318), it would be because Julius Caesar reigned among them as an Idumean, and they themselves should be called Idumeans because they had Herod as King, whom it is established was an Idumean by lineage. And elsewhere [the Jews] say they have no king but Caesar.

And what then? Were the Idumeans themselves actually Jews when David, the King of the Israelites, ruled over them? (2 Samuel 8:14). Compare B. Gesner on Obadiah, page 82.

VI. Indeed, even Titus Vespasian The Roman General and Emperor who destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem was an Idumean, if we believe the Jews. For in the Talmudic tractate Gittin (Chapter 5), he is called: The wicked one, son of the wicked one, grandson of Esau the wicked. See also Beth Jacob, folio 31, 4, and Kimchi on Obadiah 11. Therefore, [they argue] the Roman Empire is Idumean.

Response: Scaliger Joseph Justus Scaliger (1540–1609), a leading scholar of the Renaissance, in his notes on the Chronicle of Eusebius (no. 2152), says:

The Jews, both ancient and modern, believe that Titus was an Edomite, and whenever anything is mentioned by the Prophets regarding the Edomites, they often interpret it as referring to Titus.

But I would be doing nothing less than playing with trifles if I were to linger over these fables, just like the Jews who invent them. We could likewise mock this fabrication, yet these "Apellae" A Roman slang term for Jews, often used derisively in literature to mean "the circumcised" shall not lie with impunity. 1. Again, the premise is most false. Titus Vespasian was born from the Roman Flavian family...