EPISTLE

...overturn the truth and devise false interpretations, as much against the genuine sense of Scripture as against the Rabbis, whom he holds in the highest esteem. Indeed, these Rabbis described the times of CHRIST so clearly that, among men of sound mind, the testimonies which the Talmudists provide concerning the Kingdom of CHRIST, His Passion, and Resurrection are irrefutable.

GALATINUS, certainly a prudent man and absolutely learned in Hebrew, Chaldaic, Greek, and Latin literature, aims his writings at a single goal (leaving the life of the Jews—devoted as it is to avarice, deception, and contaminated by various crimes—to God the judge). Nor could anyone more clearly set forth the promises made to the Fathers concerning CHRIST—namely those given to Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Moses, the Prophets, David, and countless other faithful servants of God. In addition, he describes the times in which the scepter was taken from the Jews, and their Judges (whom they called the Sanhedrin The supreme council and tribunal of the Jewish people during the Roman period.) were either driven out or killed. They lost the practice of Sacrifices; they are without a Priesthood, without the assembly of Levites, and without a King, ever since the temple was destroyed and all things were reduced to desolation. The miracles that once occurred both within and without the Temple have vanished, and those wretched people have been cast into every corner of the earth. These are certain signs that the CHRIST whom the holy Fathers awaited has come and has purged the world of sins.

Furthermore, their own Rabbis—whom they do not dare to disown—described those final times with such beautiful words that they might easily grasp the Truth, were they not driven to madness against the religion of CHRIST. Yet this blinded nation continues with an obstinate mind—even as their own conscience rebels—to defend and devise false interpretations, imagining an external Kingdom of CHRIST and the most splendid pomp with which their Messiah is supposed to arrive.

I tell you, kind Reader, our Author treats all these matters so skillfully in the form of a dialogue that you could desire nothing more in this regard. Anyone who reads this book with an attentive mind will find it of great use when they wish to study the Bible; the Author has focused all his efforts especially on obscure passages known to few, so that the reader may proceed through the Old Testament without hesitation. Everything is divided into chapters. Scriptural references are noted throughout, so that the Reader’s mind does not waver while searching for the cited passages.

Moreover, he brings forward whatever has been said of CHRIST anywhere, providing interpretations gathered not from common sources original: "non ex triuio collecta" — literally "not collected from the crossroads," meaning information that is not trivial or of low quality., but from the Jewish Rabbis who wrote about the Messiah’s kingdom before the birth of CHRIST, as well as from Christian Doctors. You have here (to put much into few words) a commentary on all the difficult passages of the entire Old Testament. Is this not a great treasure being offered, which a student of Theology cannot do without, except to his own great detriment? Furthermore, the diligence which Mr. Francis Stancarus Francesco Stancari (1501–1574), an Italian scholar of Hebrew and a theologian who edited this work., a man most skilled in Hebrew literature...