From his ‘OF MODERN JEWISH THEOLOGY; (Herborne, 1694)’
Johann a Lent (1654–1696) was a German Reformed theologian and scholar who served as Professor of Church History, Hebrew, and Syriac at the Herborn Academy in Nassau, Germany, from 1686 until his death in 1696. A prominent figure in Reformed intellectual circles, Lent focused on historical theology and Semitic languages, contributing to critical studies of Jewish theology and messianic movements. His work De Moderna Theologia Judaica (Herborn, 1694) exemplifies his rigorous engagement with contemporary Jewish thought, analyzing theological developments and pseudomessianic claims within Judaism. Published in Latin, this text reflects Lent’s philological expertise and Reformed theological priorities, blending scriptural analysis with critiques of Jewish interpretations that diverged from Christian messianic expectations. Lent’s scholarship, rooted in the Reformed tradition, aligned with Herborn Academy’s role as a hub for post-Reformation theological education, emphasizing historical inquiry and linguistic precision. His other notable works include Schediasma historico philologicum de Judaeorum Pseudomessiis (1697), further cementing his legacy as a scholar of early modern Jewish-Christian theological discourse.
Table of Contents:
After the Jews consider the divine decrees, they turn their thoughts unto the external works of God, which are called Ma’aseh Bereshit, or the Works of Creation. Among the number of divine works, they set the creation of the world in the chief place, deeming it exceedingly necessary to believe therein, and thus worthy to be numbered among the articles of faith. This truth shineth forth plainly both from the first and the fourth articles of faith. For in the first it is expressly affirmed: “The first foundation is to believe in the existence of God, that He is the cause of all things, the first and the foundation of all foundations, and that all existences, both those beneath and those above, were created by Him and do consist in Him, as those things which He created and established by His simple will, and which He can abolish at His pleasure.” And in the fourth article, as Rabbi Menasseh Ben Israel doth not deny in his book On Creation, Problem 2, it is written: “The fourth foundation is that before this God, who is one and free of body, no thing did exist, but He is the first and the last.” Wherefore also in the Jewish Catechism, the disciple answereth the teacher to Question 13: “That the creation of the world is a great principle and the foundation of the whole Law, and if this be granted, the other foundations shall easily find faith.” Thus Rabbi Isaac Sangari in Kuzari, Part V, page 362, replieth unto the King of the Khazars, who desired to hear certain matters concerning the foundations of the Jewish faith, in this wise: “The first article: The newness of the world must be confirmed and held fast, and its antiquity or eternity must be cast down.” And Abarbanel in The Head of Faith, chapter 22, saith: “If any man should choose with judgment the articles to be established in the divine Law, he would establish but one article, to wit, the creation of the world: for this is the root and foundation whereon the Law and the heads thereof do rest, and the faith of all these, whether it concern the narrative of the first creation, or even the histories of the Patriarchs, and the wondrous and miraculous works, which have no place save with the faith of creation. Thus also a man cannot perfectly believe in the faith of omniscience, providence, reward, and punishment according to the precepts, except he also believe in the universal and voluntary creation of the world.” Therefore they ordain that he who denieth the creation of the world doth in the same moment take away the foundation of faith, and denieth the whole Law, and becometh a heretic and apostate, who in no wise ought to be called by the name of an Israelite. As we read in Rabbi Moses Gerundensis, who at the beginning of his commentary thus speaketh: “The creation of the world is the root of the whole Law: whosoever believeth not in it, and imagineth to himself that the world is from eternity, verily he denieth the foundation and hath no Law.” Like doctrine teacheth Rabbi Menasseh Ben Israel in On Creation, Problem 2, page 6: “From all these things therefore it is manifest that the history of creation is the foundation whereon the whole Law resteth: wherefore he who denieth any one of these thirteen articles is no otherwise to be called a heretic than he who denieth the creation of the world deserveth to be called a heretic. This indeed the ancient wise men thought, and have delivered unto us in the book of the Talmud.”
They deny Kedmut Olam, the eternity of the world, and strive earnestly to prove the beginning of all things, following the example of Abraham, who, as Maimonides witnesseth in Guide for the Perplexed, affirmed the beginning of the world against the Sabians and Arabs. Most especially do they oppose the Aristotelian philosophers, led by Maimonides in Guide for the Perplexed, Part II, Isaac Abarbanel in Miph’alot Elohim (The Works of God), Isaac Ben Arama in Akedat Yitzchak (The Binding of Isaac), and many others besides. They are moved hereto not only because the faith in Chidush Olam, the newness of the world, is received by all peoples as necessary, fundamental, and Mosaic, but also because the antiquity of the world standeth against all the articles of the Law. For by this reason, God is not necessarily independent, nor the cause of all causes; no thing can be coeternal with God and equal unto Him unless it be infinite; all things besides God have their beginning; all created things are finite; they were made in time; and nothing can be a sufficient cause of itself. Thus speaketh Rabbi Menasseh Ben Israel in On Creation, Problem 3, page 12: “But verily, all who follow the Mosaic Law must surely and steadfastly believe that nothing is coeternal with God, and that the first matter, no less than all other things, hath a beginning.” So Rabbi Isaac Sangari in Kuzari, Part V, page 363, proveth that the world is newly created because it is a body: “The world is newly created because it is a body; but a body cannot be without motion and rest, and these twain are accidents innovated therein and succeeding one another. But that which cometh unto it is new by its very coming, and that which passeth away is new; for if it were eternal, it would not suffer privation. Therefore both are new. But that which cannot be without accidents newly coming unto it is itself new, because it was not before the innovations; since therefore the innovations are new, it also is new.” Thus Isaac Orobio in his Philosophical Contest against that mouth of the devil, the ex-Jew Spinoza, showeth that if the world be not created but ancient and eternal, by that common axiom “From nothing, nothing cometh,” a great and unhappy gate is opened unto atheism. He writeth on page 11: “This axiom, ill understood, ‘From nothing, nothing cometh,’ hath opened an unhappy but great gate unto atheism. Thence they infer, who have fallen into this miserable pit, that the world was not created, since it could not be made from nothing; and consequently, that there is no God, the maker of this universe; that it was from eternity and of necessity, not the effect of infinite power, seeing no power could make it from nothing.”
The Jews affirm that the world was created, not from pre-existing matter, nor from first matter, forasmuch as the Scripture maketh no mention thereof. As Rabbi Menasseh Ben Israel showeth in On Creation, Problem 4, page 14: “But if the Scripture expressly saith that God created the heaven and the earth, making no mention of any matter which was coeternal with God, it altogether followeth that all things were created and produced from nothing by God, and that He alone existed before the heaven and the earth.” That God, the Blessed, is Elohei Kedem, the God of eternity, because He alone is ancient and eternal; that God is the first and the last, as it is written in Isaiah, chapter 44, verse 6; that before the world was created, only God, the Blessed, and His name did exist, as Rabbi Eliezer speaketh in Pirkei, chapter 3; that before creation, nothing was besides Him, as Rabbi Lipmann beareth witness in Nizzachon, page 77. But with one mouth all who believe in the Mosaic Law confess that the world was made from nothing. So Moses Maimonides in Guide for the Perplexed, Part II, chapter 13: “The first opinion is that of those who believe in the Law of Moses, our teacher of blessed memory, to wit, that the whole world, that is, all beings besides the Creator, after pure and utter privation (that is, after they were not, or were nothing), received their existence from God, and that aforetime God alone was, and besides God nothing at all—neither angels, nor heavens, nor the things contained therein—did exist, but afterward, according to His will and good pleasure, they began to exist as they are, and verily from nothing; moreover, that time itself is among the things created, for time followeth motion, and motion is an accident in the thing moved; and the thing moved, whose motion time followeth, is innovated and made after it was not.” So in Sefer Yetzirah, chapter 1, section 5: “He formed the solid from the void and made being from non-being.” In Tanchuma: “When the good and gracious God created the world, He made it from nothing, and brought it from potentiality into act.” So Rabbi Jedajah Happenini in Bakkashah, section 1: “He maketh existences to exist from nothing.” They show that if all things were not created from nothing, all miracles must be rejected; that creation from nothing is not repugnant to natural reason, as Rabbi Menasseh Ben Israel proveth in On Creation, Problem 5, page 21: “For that which cannot be done by a natural or artificial agent can be done by the divine agent, whose power is infinite.” And on page 21: “But we only mean to signify that the divine agent, by His immense power, gave being unto the world, and that the world was created by Him not from any pre-existing thing, but, so to speak, after universal privation. Wherefore we say not that nothing itself was reduced unto something, but that the world received its being when it had no being, or after non-being.” With which agree well the words of Isaac Orobio in Philosophical Contest, pages 13-14: “Thus God produced this whole universe, which is eminently contained in the infinite, from His infinity. It is said to be made from nothing because no concourse of matter preceded from which it was made. It was not from nothing as if nothing were converted into it, or even were in it in some manner, or exercised some causation; this indeed would be to be made from something; it was from nothing, that is, it was not aforetime it was made. Nor need we understand nothing otherwise, since it signifieth nothing else but that it was not before.”
They teach that the world is not of itself, but was created by God in time, forasmuch as, being innovated, it necessarily requireth an innovating cause by which it is innovated. As Rabbi Isaac Sangari speaketh in Kuzari, Part V, section 18: “That which is innovated cannot be without a cause innovating it. For that which is innovated cannot be without the assignment of a certain time, which might have been either earlier or later (or sooner or tardier). But the appropriation unto its time, that it be neither earlier nor later, necessarily requireth an appropriator.” Likewise they deliver that existing things are not of necessity, which, against Aristotle, Rabbi Moses Maimonides hath excellently proved in Guide for the Perplexed, Part II, chapter 22, but are from the intention of an intender, and therefore depend upon the will of God, the willer, according to His unsearchable wisdom. This Maimonides again proved in the cited Guide, Part II, chapter 19, when he saith that this very world teacheth that it is from the intention of an intender.
But it is objected unto the Jews that if only God existed afore the world was created, how then do they everywhere affirm that other things were afore the beginning of the world? Is there not an ancient tradition of the Talmudists that seven things were created afore the world was made? Read ye not in Pesachim, folio 54, column 1, and Nedarim, folio 39, column 2: “Seven things were created afore the world was created, and these be they: the Law, Repentance, the Garden of Eden, Gehenna, the Throne of Glory, the House of the Sanctuary, and the Name of the Messiah”? Do ye not bring forth the words of Scripture, upon which ye build each of these, in Rabbi Eliezer’s Pirkei, chapter 3, pages 3-4? Do ye not thus teach things contrary and false? Unto which they answer in many places, denying that these Talmudic sayings and those of the Masters be contrary unto the received and common opinion concerning the newness of the world, but that they can easily be reconciled, since they are not to be interpreted according to the letter after the manner of the nation, but are allegorical, signifying that these seven things were not in very deed created afore the world, but did exist in the mind of God and were chiefly considered in the divine decree, so that they refer these unto the purpose and eternal intention of God. As Rabbenu Nissim beareth witness, when he writeth inNedarim: “It was the intention of God to create these afore He created the world.” The true sense of this tradition is confirmed by the author of Caphtor VaPherach, when on folio 105, column 2, he thus expoundeth the words: “They designate the final cause, which preceded the thought of God, the Blessed, in the creation of the world.” Which the author of Nizzachon, section Bereshit, paragraph 3, also excellently proveth: “That which our doctors of blessed memory said, that seven things preceded the world, seemeth unto me to be thus explained: that, to wit, by reason of their excellence and the goods of those things, those things are said to have preceded and to have come first of all into the mind.” Unto which we add Rabbi Isaac Sangari, who, as he varieth in the things created afore the world, so also he setteth forth the reconciliation in this manner in Kuzari, page 254: “Finally, some of them are such as at first sight seem false, yet whose sense, if a little diligence and study be applied, is manifest, as when they say that seven things were created afore the world: the Garden of Eden, the Law, the Just, the Israelites, the Throne of Glory, Jerusalem, and the Messiah, the son of David. Which agreeth with that which the philosophers say: The first in thought is the last in work. Seeing therefore the intention of the Wisdom of God in the creation of the world was the Law, which is the body of wisdom, the bearers of it (its subject) are the Just; among these is the Throne of Glory; but the Just are none save of the peculiar people (the peculiar people of God), who are the Israelites; for these, no place is worthy save the most excellent place of all, which is Jerusalem; no one can join them save the most excellent of all creatures, who is the Messiah, the son of David; and their end shall be in the Garden of Eden; rightly therefore are these creatures established in potentiality afore the world was created.”
The Jews conceive of a double world: one ancient, which was wholly dissolved and destroyed, and another new, which is our present world, likewise created from nothing. They hold that this doth not gainsay the Jewish faith, but may easily be shown from the letter Bet in the word Bereshit (in the beginning), with which the Law beginneth, for it is the sign of the number two. Thus the ancient Kabbalists speak in Tikkune HaZohar, and thus thought the ancients Rabbi Abhu and Rabbi Yehuda, as it is handed down in Bereshit Rabba, Parashah 2. So also Rabbi Eliezer Germanus, head of the Synagogue in Poland, in Ma’aseh Adonai, holdeth that we live in the second path, that is, world. Likewise among the more recent, Isaac Abarbanel raved when in Miph’alot Elohim he affirmed that this world is another and distinct from the old one. Which very thing Rabbi Menasseh Ben Israel also raved, when in favor of Abarbanel in On Creation, Problem 12, he thus writeth: “Since it can be said that this present world was created from nothing and from total privation, but that world which preceded this was wholly dissolved and destroyed, which in no wise repugneth faith. Moreover, since the Kabbalists will that the terrestrial world is destroyed every Sabbatical year, or every seven thousand years, who shall surely tell us whether we stand in the first revolution, or in the second or third?” Yet excellently doth Rabbi Moses Maimonides oppose himself unto this opinion, and showeth with other Rabbis that it is contrary unto the Mosaic Law and the articles of faith, that thus from this opinion the world was not created from nothing, but from pre-existing matter, and therefore coeternal with God. As we read in Guide for the Perplexed, Part II, chapter 30: “But the Kabbalists have gone further, while they have forged in their brain seven worlds, willing that every great Sabbatical year, or every seven thousand years, the old world is destroyed, and another created by God, but in the seventh world there shall be a perpetual Sabbath.” As it is in Pirkei Rabbi Eliezer, chapter 18: “The Holy Blessed One created seven worlds, but out of all these He chose not save the seventh. Six are for going out and coming in, or of death and birth; but one is all Sabbath and rest in eternal life.”