Christian and Muslim scholars persistently consulted Jewish sages despite denunciation

Evidence

In a sense Christian and Muslim civilization were pupils of Judaism, not only in an historical and metaphorical sense, but even in the most literal and personal sense. Christian and Muslim men of learning and even theologians turned to Jewish sages for guidance on many issues. Sometimes they were denounced for this, but they nevertheless persisted. When Jerome was preparing his Latin trans­ lation of the Hebrew Bible, he naturally, and wisely, sought the help of Jewish scholars—and was denounced for his pains as a Judaiser. This resort to Jewish help continued through the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Reformation, and to the beginnings of modern Hebrew scholarship in the universities of the Chris­ tian world. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 319

Categorization

• XREF: Jerome’s ‘Judaizer’ denunciation contradicts clean communal boundaries — relevant to Orientalist cluster about how transmitters of sacred knowledge get policed.