book reviews 109

Daniel Joslyn-Siemiatkoski Christian Memories of the Maccabean Martyrs. New York, ny: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. xii + 249 pp. ISBN: 978-0230602793.

In Christian Memories of the Maccabean Martyrs, Daniel Joslyn-Siemiatkoski examines how late-antique and medieval Christian writers from the eastern Mediterranean, North Africa, and northwestern Europe employed the marty- rological stories of Eleazar and the mother of the seven sons from Second and Fourth to address the theological, social, and political challenges of their time. Since Joslyn-Siemiatkoski assumes that imperial and colonial forces shaped these challenges, he incorporates postcolonial theories as a “heuristic point of departure” (6). According to Joslyn-Siemiatkoski, the two martyrological stories represent resistance against the colonizing efforts of the Seleucid Empire in 2 Maccabees 7 (17), and resistance to Hellenistic assimilation and cultural imperialism in 4 Maccabees (21). Early Christian writers utilized these stories to show separa- tion between a superior Christianity and an inferior Judaism. At the same time, these writers transformed the Maccabean martyrs into symbols of resistance in times of persecutions. of Alexandria (An Exhortation on Martyrdom) and of Carthage (Letter to Fortunatus) appropriated the Maccabean story to encourage Christians to resist imperial persecutions in the third century. With the emergence of Christianity as the religion of the Roman Empire, the memory of the Maccabean heroes assumed three additional functions:

(1) and of Milan utilized the Maccabean stories in the context of resistance to unjust imperial authorities. Attempts by Emperor Julian to restore paganism and strengthen Judaism and by Valentinian II to seize the Portian Basilica in Milan, led Gregory of Nazianzus and Ambrose of Milan to present the Maccabean martyrs as exemplars worth imitating (34, 41). (2) and utilized the Maccabean story to establish a clear Catholic Christian identity, superior to rival Jewish, Manichean, and Donatist groups. The two bishops “hybridized” the Maccabean martyrs to present them as “Jewish and non-Jewish, as both under the Law before Christ and Christians before Christ . . .” (42). Although Jewish in body, the Maccabean martyrs were considered Christian in spirit. John Chrysostom’s goal was to discourage his Antiochian community from associating with Jews and to strengthen its Christian culture and identity (75). Augustine exhibits a similar Christianization of the Maccabean martyrs, even though they had died

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���4 | doi ��.��6�/�57��674-���4��60 110 book reviews before Christ for the Law that he came to abolish. Augustine’s goal was three- fold: to combat the Manichean rejection of the Law; to “establish the boundary between Judaism and Christianity for his congregation” (55); and to refute the Donatists’ claim that they represented the true Christian body of Israel. Donatists saw themselves as the true defenders of Christianity for they fol- lowed in the footsteps of the Maccabean martyrs, whereas conceding Catholic bishops failed their duties during persecutions of Christians in North Africa. Augustine rebutted Donatists’ arguments by “spiritualizing” the title Israel for the and by rejecting their justification for actual martyrdom. “Contemporary Christians could be spiritual Jews and Jews, like the Maccabean martyrs, could be spiritual Christians” (62). (3) Bishops like John Chrysostom, , and Valerianus of Cemele pre- sented the Maccabean martyrs as ideal Christian models of virtue in imperial Catholic Christianity. The stories of the martyrs served as pedagogical models of how families, and especially women, should live moral lives and develop Christian virtues. Following Zygmunt Bauman’s and Sylvia Toamach’s understanding of allosemitism, Joslyn-Siemiatkoski argues that an allosemitic approach can be detected in the works of medieval western Christians. This approach rendered the martyrs’ Jewish identity “neither unambiguously negative nor positive,” while “ideologically colonizing Jewish narratives” (79). Rabanus Maurus’s posi- tive portrayal of the Maccabean martyrs served to support the Carolingian king Louis the German. At the same time, Rabanus reveals a “supersessionist ideological colonization of Jewish discourse for imperial purposes” (82). In contrast to Rabanus, Rupert of Deutz employed the Maccabean Martyrs to support ecclesiastical reforms and criticize the German Empire in the early twelfth century. Rupert viewed supporters of reforms as the “spiritual” Jewish Maccabean heroes, and opponents of reforms, as well as contemporaneous Jews, as “false” carnal Jews. Spiritual and carnal Jews represented authentic and inauthentic Christians, that is, supporters and opponents of the Church in its struggle with imperial authorities (94, 96). , John Beleth, and approved the com- memoration of the Maccabean martyrs in liturgy. Bernard justified the com- memoration of the Maccabean martyrs because they had died for an internal spiritual truth and in order to avoid idolatry. Yet, Bernard labeled the martyrs the old, carnal Israel, a negative Christian reference to medieval Jews. According to Joslyn-Siemiatkoski, twelfth-century liturgy and biblical scholarship contin- ued to exhibit an allosemitic approach. The Maccabean martyrs were pre- sented as hybrids of ideal Jews with a Christian spirit. This image perpetuated the negative image of contemporary Jews who rejected Christianity.

medieval encounters 20 (2014) 101-115