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Athias Athletes

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

taking two Christian partners, the alderman Wilhelm Blau and the jurist Laurens Ball. Through their influence he obtained from John III. JudaeoSobieski of Poland the further priv-

German Bible.

Judseo-German translahave copyright in Poland

ilege that this

tion

was

to

for twenty years (Oct., 1677). The work was not completed, when one of his compositors, impelled by envy, robbed him of the fruits of his

hem

Athias (see Steinschneider, "Cat. Bodl." No.

6215).

M.

g.

Moses Israel Athias

Was the

K— G.

rabbi of the Marano congregation in London that is, of the secret synagogue which existed in 1658 in Cree Church

first



labor.

Lane, where he and his wife Sarah resided. He was a cousin of the wealthy and respected Antonio Fernandez Cakvajal, who mentioned him generously in his will (" Transactions of the Jewish Historical

sen, himself

Society,

This compositor, Josel (Joseph) Witzenhaumade a translation for which he secured Athias as printer and publisher. Athias through his wealth possessed certain advantages over his

and was also able to obtain privileges for his translation from Holland and Zealand, and even succeeded, through a Jewish agent of the Polish crown in Holland, Simon by name, in gaining still more favorable protection from the Council of the Four Lands (Jaroslaw, Sept. 21, 1677; Lublin, April 27, Although Witzenhausen was warned not to 1678). compete with Phcebus and Blitz (Oct. 13, 1676), neither he nor Athias paid any attention to the injunction, and they began to print as early as Dec. 5, 1678. The edition of Phoebus appeared at Amsterrival,

dam

in 1678 that of Athias, in its complete form, The latter contained a Latin preface dediin 1679. cated to the Great Elector, in which Athias praises the condition of the Jews in Prussia.

A

justification for Athias' conduct in the fact that ten years had elapsed

was claimed

between the and second approbations given by the Council of the Four Lands. Whether Meyer Stern, first at

first

Frankfort-on-the Main, then chief rabbi of the Ger-

man community

at Amsterdam, was proof-reader for Athias' edition as well as for that of Phcebus, and whether he thus lent his countenance to the unjustifiable wrong done to the latter, is uncertain, despite Witzenhausen's mention of him as proof-reader for

Athias. cussed,

The matter has been

so fancifully dis-

and so much that has been written concern-

such pure invention, that nothing can now be accurately determined. The literature on the affair is now rare, having consisted mainly of loose leaflets and broadsides. ing

it is

Wolf, Bibliotheca Hehrcea, Hi. 944: SteinCat. Bodl. Nos. 5886, 7828; Kayserling, Btbl. Espan.-Portug.-Jua: p. 14; Gratz, Gesch. der Juden, 3d

Bibliography schneider,

Woord en

Beeld, Sept., 1897, pp. de IsraWiten. 1835, Iv. 29 Nederland, p. 326. in Koenen, Geschiedenis der Joden

ed., x. 244, 299; T. Tal, in 316 et sea.: Jaarhoeken voor

J-

G.

Menahem Athias



Rabbi

VB.

at Leghorn, Italy, in

1728.

M. K.

g.

"

55).

i.

Samuel Athias



A contemporary of Joseph Caro whom

and Moses de Trani, with

he corresponded

He wrote lived at Nicopolis, Bulgaria, about 1550. indices to Maimonides' Yad ha-Hazakah, Mantua, 1563 (see Steinschneider, " Cat. Bodl. " No. 7008). He was contemporary of Shem-Tob Athias. Solomon ben Shem-Tob Athias

(Athia, riTlV)



Lived in Jerusalem during the sixteenth century. He was a brother of Samuel Athias, and disciple of Joseph Fazi of Salonica, Abraham Shamsuli, and Levi ibn H a hib. For several years he followed a mercantile career, but did not succeed and became reduced to poverty. He then returned to the pursuit of learning, and wrote a commentary on the Psalms which is, in the main, a compilation of Rashi and David Kimhi (VenIn the preface he tells of his travels in ice, 1549). Turkey and Italy, as well as of the scholars with whom he had come in contact. His contemporary

was Yom-Tob

Athias.

Rossi, Dizionario Storico, transl. by Bamberger, p. 50 ; steinscbneider, Cat. Bodl. No. 6900 ; Zedner, Cat. Hear. Books in Brit. Mus. p. 126; Azulai, Shem ha-Gednlim, i. 171, 176; Cod. Oxford 1208 on Rieger, Gesch. der Juden in Bom, ii. 80, 97.

Bibliography:

G

M.

.

Yom-Tob ben Levi Athias of the Spanish translation, Pentateuch, known as the



One

K.— G.

of the editors

from the Hebrew, of the Ferraka Bible, which

at Ferrara, Italy, in 1553, he having, Abraham Usque, established there % On the colophon of the work, his printing-office.

was printed

together with

" Yom-Tob Atias, hijo de is given in full as Levi Atias, Espafiol." Nothing is known of him beyond the fact that he helped defray the cost of this Gratz ("Gesch. der Juden," ix. 562) and, Bible. following him, Steinschneider and Kayserling identify Athias with Jeronimo de Vargas, another name

name

mentioned in some of the copies of the Ferrara Bible but such an identification is entirely unwarranted.

w M

g.

-

-

ATHLETES, ATHLETICS, AND FIELDSPORTS Men who perform feats of strength, or

Michael Athias:

Jewish merchant; born at Though engaged in com-

Constantinople, 1853. merce, he applied himself to literary pursuits. He is the author of a Jewish-Spanish translation from the Arabic of a novel entitled " Saif Dhu-1 Tazan," treating of the manners and customs of the Arabs and Abyssinians (Constantinople, 1873).

Bibliography



Franco, Histoire des Israelites.

M. PR.

Mordecai ben Isaac Athias Author of " Mor Talmud, Deror " (Pure Myrrh), a commentary on the MenaSmyrna, 1730. He was a contemporary of

practise

games and sports the pursuit of which

pends on physical strength



de-

the feats, games, and

sports themselves.

Long before the Greeks made Biblical Data Athletics a compulsory branch of their curriculum, " giants " and " mighty hunters, " whose achievements not excel, the Greeks even with their training could the son are mentioned in the Bible, such as Nimrod, Lord " (Gen. of Cush, " a mighty hunter before the the x 9); and Esau, "a cunning hunter, a man of In his "Jewish Life in the (Gen. xxv. 27).

field"

Middle Ages,"

Israel

Abrahams says

(p.

375):