Paulus Weidner

Weidner, aged 38, in Sententiae hebraicae ad vitae institutionem perutiles (1563)

Christ on the cross worshiped by Weidner and his family (1559)

Paulus Weidner von Billerburg (né Nathan Ashkenazi; 1525–1585) was a Jewish convert to Christianity, a medical doctor, and professor of Hebrew at the University of Vienna.

Life

Born in Carinthia and of Jewish faith, he practiced medicine in Udine. From there he was called back to his homeland to practice there. During a six-year stay there, after careful study of his and the Christian religion, he decided to become a Christian. Realizing the danger that threatened him on the part of his co-religionists if he took this step, he kept his intention secret for a year, and having made up his mind, he left Carinthia and went to Vienna.

He joined the Roman Catholic Church in 1558, was professor of Hebrew at the Vienna University, and was appointed by imperial permission to preach occasionally to the Jews. He was ennobled, with the title "von Billerburg", in 1582. He died in Vienna in 1585.

Works

He wrote Loca Praecipua Fidei Christianae Collecta et Explicata (Vienna, 1559; 2nd edition 1562, with Epistola Hebr. ad R. Jehudam, Venet. Habitantem, cum Vessione Latina), which is particularly aimed at the Jews. He dedicated this work, in the preface to which he gives information about his life and conversion, to Emperor Ferdinand. Weidner's last published work was Sententiae Hebraicae (1563), a collection of proverbs.

Sources

• Pick, B. (1881). "Weidner, Paul". In McClintock, John; Strong, James (eds.). Cyclopædia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature. Vol. 10.—Su–Z. New York: Haper & Brothers. p. 899. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
• Skolnik, Fred; Berenbaum, Michael, eds. (2007). "Weidner, Paulus". In Encyclopaedia Judaica. 2nd ed. Vol. 20.—To–Wei. The Gale Group. p. 699. ISBN 978-0-02-865948-0.
• Wurzbach, Constantin von (1886). "Weidner, Paul". In Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich. Vol. 53. Vienna: K.K. Hof- und Staatsdruckerei. p. 275.