Works
Immanuel's varied scientific activity corresponded with his wide scholarship, though he confined his activity exclusively to Jewish subjects. With the exception of an introductory poem, his first work, dealing with the letter symbolism (see Hebrew alphabet) popular at that time, is lost. A second work, Even Bohan ("Touchstone") concerns biblical hermeneutics, dealing with the different meaning of verbs in different constructions, with the addition, omission, and interchange of letters, and with other linguistic questions. More important are his biblical commentaries, which cover all the books of the Bible, though some have since been lost. Following his Jewish and Christian contemporaries, he interpreted the Bible allegorically, symbolically, and mystically, endeavoring to find in it his own philosophical and religious views, though not disregarding the simple, literal meaning, which he placed above the symbolic. The sole value of his commentaries lies in the fact that his wide range of reading enabled him to make the works of other exegetes and philosophers accessible to his contemporaries and countrymen.
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“His character as one of the fathers of the English language would alone make his works important, even those which have little poetical merit. He was as simple as Wordsworth in preferring his homely but vigorous Saxon tongue, when it was neglected by the court, and had not yet attained to the dignity of a literature, and rendered a similar service to his country to that which Dante rendered to Italy.”
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