JONA, Jehudah, Ben Jishāq. - Converted rabbi, called in Italy Giovanni Battista Giuda Giona or more briefly Battista, born of Jews from Spain at Safed (Galilee) on 28 Oct. 1588, died at Rome on 26 May 1668. As a rabbi he visited the cities of Italy, then went to Poland, and thence to Amsterdam; at Hamburg he exercised the office of dajjān ("judge"). He received Baptism at Warsaw in 1625; then sent by the king of Poland to Constantinople to purchase gems there, he was captured by the Cossacks, from whom he was ransomed by the ambassador of Venice. He then came to Italy, taught Hebrew and Aramaic at the Academy of Pisa, and finally settled at Rome, where for about 25 years he was instructor of the catechumens, professor of Hebrew at the archigymnasium and at the college of Propaganda; from 1650 he was a writer of the Vatican Library and interpreter of the Holy See for the Semitic languages. He was the teacher of Giulio Bartolocci (v.), whose vast work he prepared and began.
His most important work is the translation into Hebrew (from Latin) of the 4 Gospels: Bērīth bādhāšāh, with a preface by Pope Clement IX (in-fol., Rome 1668); it is the oldest after that of Elias Hutter (Nuremberg 1600). He also published, in Hebrew and Latin, an extensive discourse read at the College of Propaganda at Pentecost 1653: Dērāf. Protoplastorum remedium, Messiae adventus, ac igneus Spiritus Sancti super Apostolos descensus (Rome 1653). His Limmādh ham-mēšīhām ("Doctrine of the Christians") is the Hebrew version of the catechism of St. R. Bellarmine, with the Italian text and with notes drawn from rabbinic writings, printed by Propaganda (Rome 1658); in the 2nd ed. (ibid. 1661; reprint 1664), he added, against the detractors of the version, a reply: Note d'alcuni errori della tradutione hebraica nel testo della dottrina christiana e nelle annotazioni aggiunte dall'autore di quella.
Bibliography3 works
Antonino Romeo