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1 Adversus Iudaeos “new Israel” chosen by God over the Jews, with a new, universal interpretation of the old cov- ANDREW S. JACOBS enant and scriptures. MELITO OF SARDIS, in a later second-century homily, On Easter, introduced The body of literature “against the Jews” may additional themes that would become com- refer narrowly to specific treatises so entitled mon in adversus Iudaeos literature: the culpa- (by their authors or later editors) that bility of Jews for the murder of Jesus, the responded to real or imagined Jewish accu- continued persecution of Christians, and the sations against Christ, Christians, and Chris- persistent refusal of Jews to accept the spiritual tianity. Texts entitled Adversus Iudaeos were truth of their own scriptures. The idea of Jews written by, or later attributed to, Tertullian, as persecutors was taken up in several early Cyprian of Carthage, Gregory of Nyssa, John Christian martyrologies, such as the Martyrdom Chrysostom, Ambrosiaster, Augustine, and of Polycarp. Theodoret of Cyrus. Although varying in By the second century, the dialogue emerged format (from sermon to formal treatise to lists as a potent form of adversus Iudaeos literature, of testimonia, or “proof-texts,” drawn from the framing the dispute between Jews and Chris- Old Testament), these treatises shared com- tians as a literal debate. Celsus (a second- mon arguments: Jesus’ messiahship according century pagan critic of Christianity) referred to scripture, God’s repudiation of Jews as the to a now-lost Dialogue of Jason and Papiscus chosen people, and the rejection of Jewish that likely influenced later Jewish–Christian Law in light of a new, spiritual revelation. dialogues (cited by Origen C. Cels. 4.52). Adversus Iudaeos literature may also refer Justin Martyr’s Dialogue with Trypho the Jew more broadly to any text (including mar- portrayed Justin the Christian philosopher in tyrologies, letters, literary dialogues, apologetic a two-day debate with Trypho, a refugee from works, and biblical commentaries) that aggres- the Bar Kokhba revolt (see JUSTIN MARTYR). sively differentiated Christianity from Judaism Much of the Dialogue consisted of debates to establish the former’s superiority. Peter over biblical interpretation, such as the famous Scha¨fer traced many of the anti-Jewish themes interpretation of Isaiah 7:14 as a prophecy of found in Christian adversus Iudaeos literature the virgin birth. Justin chastised Trypho for to pre-Christian polemical works against Jews, not recognizing in Jesus the fulfillment of his particularly Egyptian Hellenistic writings. own scriptures, and intransigently sticking to These polemics anticipated later Christian overly literal interpretation of ritual laws. The accusations of Jewish exclusivism and misan- common patrimony of the Old Testament was thropy (Scha¨fer 1998; see APION; MANETHO, frequently at issue in adversus Iudaeos texts. EGYPTIAN HISTORIAN; JOSEPHUS). John Gager, how- Some scholars suggest that real debates ever, pointed out the ambivalent attitudes of between Jews and Christians lie behind adversus Greeks and Romans toward the venerable, yet Iudaeos literature (Simon 1986: 173–4). Tertul- odd, customs of Jews (Gager 1985). Rosemary lian and ORIGEN in the third century both Radford Ruether argued that the attitudes of referred to public dialogues between Jews and adversus Iudaeos literature are not only unique Christians (Tert. Adv. Iud. 1.1; Origen C. Cels. to Christian thought, but were theologically 1.45, 1.55). However, later literary dialogues, embedded in the earliest layers of Christianity such as the Altercation of Simon and Theo- (Ruether 1974). philus, the Dialogue of Timothy and Aquila, Early texts, such as the New Testament Epistle and the Teaching of Jacob, Recently Baptized, to the Hebrews and the noncanonical Epistle of were much more stylized. David Olster argued Barnabas (see BARNABAS, EPISTLE OF), emphasized that, in the Byzantine period, the “imagined a supersessionist theology: Christianity is the Jews” of these later literary dialogues served The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, First Edition. Edited by Roger S. Bagnall, Kai Brodersen, Craige B. Champion, Andrew Erskine, and Sabine R. Huebner, print pages 111–113. © 2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published 2013 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd. DOI: 10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah05005 2 to embody anxieties over power and loss for The fierce rhetoric of adversus Iudaeos liter- seventh-century Christians (Olster 1994). It is ature was highly effective. Scholars continue to likely that, whatever “real world” conflicts debate whether adversus Iudaeos literature prompted the production of adversus Iudaeos reflects a social reality of religious competition texts, they functioned throughout the early and vibrancy throughout the ancient period or Christian period to channel and process internal vigorous internal anxiety and debate (Wilken concerns as well as respond to perceived attacks 1983; Simon 1986; Taylor 1995; Jacobs 2008: from Jews (see APOLOGISTS). 170–3). By the Middle Ages, the Christian Some anti-Jewish Christian writing para- image of the Jew – intransigent, murderous, doxically relied on Jewish sources, exemplify- misanthropic, diabolical, and deicidal – had ing the complex of fears and desires that hardened into the chilling stereotype that characterized mainstream Christian attitudes would eventually feed into the racialized anti- toward Jews and Judaism throughout this Semitism of the modern era. period (see Jacobs 2008). Both Origen (d. ca. 254) and JEROME (d. ca. 420) produced volumi- SEE ALSO: Ebionites; Moses, Jewish and nous biblical commentaries in which they pagan image of. simultaneously decried Jewish interpretation as overly “fleshly” and “literal” and cited Jewish instructors who taught them Hebrew REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS language and rabbinic midrash. By construing Boyarin, D. (2004) Border lines: the partition of Jews as inherently scriptural, Christians could Judaeo-Christianity. Philadelphia. simultaneously demonize Jews and make a Gager, J. (1985) The origins of anti-Semitism: place for them in a Christian world. Such attitudes toward Judaism in pagan and Christian doubled appreciation and repudiation of Jews antiquity. Oxford. reached its pinnacle in the so-called “witness Jacobs, A. (2008) “Jews and Christians.” In theology” of Augustine (d. 430): Jews must S. A. Harvey and D. Hunter, eds., The Oxford remain in Christendom, marginalized and handbook of early Christian studies: 169–85. inferior, in order to bear witness to the truth Oxford. of Christian scriptures and their superiority Olster,D.(1994)Roman defeat, Christian response, (De civ. D. 18.46). and the literary construction of the Jew. Some adversus Iudaeos texts, such as the Philadelphia. Ruether, R. (1974) Faith and fratricide: the homilies of John Chrysostom (d. ca. 407) or theological roots of anti-Semitism. treatises of Cyril of Alexandria (d. 444), New York. portrayed Judaism as a theological threat hov- Scha¨fer, P. (1998) Judeophobia: attitudes ering at the margins of Christian society, toward Jews in the ancient world. threatening to infect the Christian religious Cambridge, MA. body with error. Well into the fifth century, it Simon, M. (1986) Verus Israel: a study of the seems, many Christians consulted Jews to cal- relations between Christians and Jews in the culate the date of Easter (decried as so-called Roman Empire, trans. H. McKeating: 135–425. Quartodecimanism) or attempted to integrate Oxford. the practice of Jewish Law into Christian life Taylor, M. (1995) Anti-Judaism and early (decried as so-called Ebionism). Daniel Christian identity: a critique of the scholarly consensus. Leiden. Boyarin has suggested that the social reality of Wilken, R. (1983) John Chrysostom and the Jews: “Judaeo-Christianity” may have been much rhetoric and reality in the late fourth century. messier on the ground than our sources Berkeley. suggest: adversus Iudaeos literature, on this Williams, A. L. (1935) Adversus Judaeos: reading, seeks to impose clean and utter dis- a bird’s-eye view of Christian Apologiae until the tinction where it did not exist (Boyarin 2004). Renaissance. Cambridge..
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