Staffelsteiner, Paul

Staffelsteiner, Paul (originally Nathan Ahron), a convert from Judaism, was professor of Hebrew at Heidelberg in the 16th century. The program in which the rector of the university invited the students to attend his lectures is still preserved, and from the following passage we may judge as to the lectures Staffelsteiner was to deliver: "Idem hic auspicabitur eras ab enarratione celebris dicti quod de mundi duratione in domo Heliae sonuisse traditur. Grammatica deinceps tractabit compendia ac praecepta e scriptura petitis exemplis illustrabit idque curabit sedulo, ut ad phrasin, quae multos a philologicis lectionibus arcet, adsuefieri auditor possit vetustissimamque illam paulatim amare theologiam." Staffelsteiner published Tractat vom Messias (Heidelberg, 1560): — Adhortatio ad Judoeos ad Opinionem de Messia Curandi Diss. (ibid. 1560): — Refutatio Corruptionis Ps. 22, Judoeis Factoe (ibid. 1560): — Vortrag über die Wahrheit des Chistenthums, being an introduction to his lectures (ibid. 1551). See Kalkar, Israel und die Kirche, p. 88; Fürst, Bibl. Jud. 3, 377; Geiger, Das Studium der hebr. Sprache in Deutschland, p. 90. (B.P.)