David gans (1541-1613) and the World Chronicle Tsemah David (1592): A Jewish Hhistorian in the Time of Confesionalization
Abstract
Published in 1592 - or in the year 5352 of the Hebrew Calendar (Anno Mundi) - the Hebrew world chronicle written by David Gans (1541-1613) under the title Tzemach David ("Offspring of David") is the only attempt to create a comprehensive account of history in the Early Modern period in the realm of East-Central European Judaism. Its author, David Gans, was born in Lippstadt in what is now North Rhine-Westphalia, and settled in Prague in 1564.
He received a comprehensive rabbinic education and, in addition, continued on to engage in mathematical, astronomical and geographical studies. Tzemach David is divided into two parts.
The first is devoted to Jewish history, including Biblical history; the second part is dedicated to Gentile, or non-Jewish, history. The sources for the first part include the Bible, traditional rabbinic literature and Jewish chronicles from the medieval and Early Modern periods.
In the second part, Gans utilised a large number of German-language non-Jewish resources, including primarily historiographical works by Protestant authors. This was considered quite unique for the field of contemporary Ashkenazi Judaism, where any pursuit of non-Jewish texts was seriously frowned upon.
Equally extraordinary within the Jewish context of the time was the openness with which Gans assimilated information about the history of the Christian religion in his work. Gans structured his annal-based representation clearly by using graphic means and invested considerable care in chronological questions.
To create a periodization outline, he utilised a structure based on six millennia, following a salvation history pattern from the Talmudic tradition. Contemporary Christian authors, including Philipp Melanchthon and his students, in particular, had also taken up this tradition under the title "traditio domus Eliae".
In the second part of the chronicle, Gans synchronised dates from non-Jewish history with those from the Biblical and rabbinic traditions. To this end, besides structuring his account according to the six millennia, he drew upon yet another periodization of world history also commonly used by Christian historians, by means of the sequence of the four kingdoms of Daniel (Daniel 7: 2-7).
In the second part of the chronicle, the one devoted to Gentile history, Gans employed not only the Anno Mundi calculus of the Jewish calendar, but additionally indicated the years according to the Christian Era. Gans' intention was to make a fundamental knowledge of non-Jewish history accessible to Jewish readers who lived as a minority community in a predominantly Christian environment.
At the same time, both of the periodization patterns that Gans applied refer to the expectation of a forthcoming Messianic salvation.