The Medieval Rabbi Who Talked Torah with Christians

This week’s Torah reading of Vayera begins with the appearance of three angels in front of Abraham’s tent—a passage that is surprisingly confusing. At times it is not clear who is being addressed, and verbs switch unexpectedly from singular to plural. Since the 2nd century, Christian exegetes have interpreted these verses as referring to the Trinity. The Sephardi commentator Abraham ibn Ezra (1089–1164) in fact cites this interpretation to refute it. By contrast, Samuel ben Meir (a/k/a Rashbam, ca. 1080–1160)—the grandson of the great exegete Rashi and uniquely committed to literal readings of Scripture—seems to draw on the standard Christian reading while rejecting its Christological implications. Or so Martin Lockshin argues: