Tavus, Jacob ben Joseph

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TAVUS, JACOB BEN JOSEPH

TAVUS, JACOB BEN JOSEPH (16th century), author of a Judeo-Persian translation of the Pentateuch, written in Hebrew characters. This work was included in one edition of the polyglot Bible printed in Constantinople in 1546 by Eleazar b. Gerson *Soncino together with the Hebrew original, the Aramaic Targum, and the Arabic version of *Saadiah Gaon. Another edition comprises Judeo-Greek and Judeo-Spanish. It has not been established whether Tavus actually worked in Constantinople, for nothing else is known of his life. The Tavus Pentateuch translation was based on a long tradition of Judeo-Persian Bible translations. Transcribed into Persian characters, it was incorporated in Bishop Walton's polyglot Bible (London, 1654–57).

bibliography:

S. Munk, Notice sur R. Saadia Gaon… et sur une version persane (1838), 62–87; A. Kohut, Kritische Beleuchtung der persischen Pentateuch-Uebersetzung des Jacob ben Joseph Tawus (1871); Fischel, in: htr, 45 (1952), 3–45.

[Walter Joseph Fischel]