A younger contemporary of Abarbanel was also an apostle of the same view. This was Elias Levita (1469-1549). He was a Grammarian, or Massorite, i.e. a student of the tradition (_Massorah_) as to the Hebrew text of the Bible, and he was an energetic teacher of Christians. In the sixteenth century the study of Hebrew made much progress in Europe, but the Jews themselves were only indirectly associated with this advance. Despite Abarbanel, Jewish commentaries remained either homiletic or mystical, or, like the popular works of Moses Alshech, were more or less Midrashic in style. But the Bible was a real delight to the Jews, and it is natural that such books were often compiled for the masses. Mention must be made of the _Zeëna u-Reëna_ ("Go forth and see"), a work written at the beginning of the eighteenth century in Jewish-German for the use of women, a work which is still beloved of the Jewess. But the seeds sown by Abarbanel and others of his school eventually produced an abundant harvest. Mendelssohn's German edition of the Pentateuch with the Hebrew Commentary (_Biur_) was the turning-point in the march towards the modern exposition of the Bible, which had been inaugurated by the statesman-scholar of Spain. BIBLIOGRAPHY ABARBANEL. Graetz.--IV, II. I.S. Meisels.--_Don Isaac Abarbanel_, _J.Q.R._, II, p. 37. S. Schechter.--_Studies in Judaism_, p. 173 [211]. F.D. Mocatta.--_The Jews of Spain and Portugal and the Inquisition_ (London, 1877). Schiller-Szinessy.--_Encycl. Brit._, Vol. I, p. 52. EXEGESIS 16th-18th CENTURIES. Steinschneider.--_Jewish Literature_, p. 232 _seq._ BIUR. _Specimen of the Biur_, translated by A. Benisch (_Miscellany of the Society of Hebrew Literature_, Vol. I). CHAPTER XXIII THE SHULCHAN ARUCH Asheri's Arba Turim.--Chiddushim and Teshuboth.--Solomon ben Adereth.--Meir of Rothenburg.--Sheshet and Duran.--Moses and Judah Minz.--Jacob Weil, Israel Isserlein, Maharil.--David Abi Zimra.--Joseph Karo.--Jair Bacharach.--Chacham Zevi.--Jacob Emden.--Ezekiel Landau.