Bible Encyclopedias
Kalti, Joseph

The 1901 Jewish Encyclopedia

Greek grammarian and lexicographer; flourished at the end of the thirteenth or about the middle of the fourteenth century. He was the author of a still unpublished work entitled "Menorat ha-Ma'or," a Hebrew lexicon preceded by a short grammar, the latter being dedicated to a certain Elijah b. Hananeel ha-Levi. The lexicon reached no further than the root . Joseph often quotes Judah Ḥayyuj, Ibn Janaḥ, Rashi, Ḳimḥi, Abraham ibn Ezra, and others; but Saadia, Sherira, and Hai are quoted less frequently. He quotes also the poets, as Moses ibn Ezra and Judah ha-Levi, giving occasionally some of their verse. In his grammar Joseph explains allegorically the forms of the Hebrew letters, using chiefly Judah ibn Matḳah's "Midrash ha-Ḥokmah"; and he complains of the indifference with which Hebrew grammar was regarded by the Jews. Extracts from the lexicon were published by Dukes in "Orient, Lit." (11:173,183,215), but Dukes erroneously placed Joseph at the beginning of the thirteenth century, though the "Midrash ha-Ḥokmah" quoted by Joseph was first written in Arabic in the middle of the thirteenth century (see Ibn Matḳah). The sale-contract at the head of the manuscript (Neubauer, "Cat. Bodl. Hebr. MSS." No. 1485) is dated 1649 Seleucidan era (=1337 C.E.). Both Benjacob ("Oẓar ha-Sefarim," p. 338, No. 1442) and Fürst ("Bibl. Jud." 2:168) confounded the author of the "Menorat ha-Ma'or" with Joseph b. Moses Kalti, a Greek of the second half of the fifteenth century, and author of a treatise on logic entitled "Minḥat Yehudah" (still unpublished; comp. Zunz, Notes to Benjamin of Tudela, ed. Asher, 2:29).