Thesis 11>24
Latin
Per responsionem Cabalistarum ad quaestionem quare in libro numerorum coniuncta est particula mortis Mariae particulae uitulae ruffae, et per expositionem eorum super eo passu ubi Moyses, in peccato uituli, dixit: Dele me; et per dicta in libro Zoar super eo textu: Et eius liuore sanati sumus, redarguuntur ineuitabiliter Hebrei dicentes non fuisse conueniens ut mors Christi satisfaceret pro peccato humani generis.
The sheet's line-broken 'particu/lae' is rejoined as 'particulae', a hyphenation repair.
English
The Cabalists' answer to why the Book of Numbers sets the section on Miriam's death beside the section on the red heifer, together with their reading of the place where Moses, over the sin of the calf, cried, Blot me out, and with what is said in the Zohar on the text By his bruises we are healed, leaves those Jews who deny that Christ's death could make satisfaction for mankind's sin without a way to stand.
'Mariae' is rendered 'Miriam', the figure of Numbers 19-20 whose death the passage concerns (Num. 19:2-10, 20:1; farmer1998:26943); Farmer's note holds that Pico, following the Vulgate's single form 'Maria', means the thesis to resonate with the New Testament Mary as well. The Zohar citation is Isa. 53:5 as quoted there (farmer1998:26943).
Discussed in
- Chaim Wirszubski, Pico della Mirandola's Encounter with Jewish Mysticism (1989)