Aspects of Judaising in Pelagianism in Light of Rabbinic and Patristic Exegesis of Genesis

WILL AND GRACE: ASPECTS OF JUDAISING IN PELAGIANISM IN LIGHT OF RABBINIC AND PATRISTIC EXEGESIS OF GENESIS Burton L. Visotzky Jewish Theological Seminary Pelagius lived at Kardanoel And taught a doctrine there How, whether you went to heaven or to hell It was your own affair. It had nothing to do with the Church, my boy, But was your own affair. No, he didn’t believe In Adam and Eve He put no faith therein! His doubts began With the Fall of Man And he laughed at Original Sin.1 Poor Pelagius. It was not enough that he and his followers were roundly thrashed by the invective of St. Jerome and the political manoeuvres of St. Augustine in the scrum of Church doctrine; but even the likes of Hilaire Belloc felt free to lampoon him in the ensuing ruck centuries later. Pelagian theology may have helped shape Augustinian doctrine on Free Will, God’s Grace, and Original Sin, as Augustine reacted to the Pelagian challenge.2 Despite the Pelagian loss of the battle for 1 Belloc 1912, ‘The Song of the Pelagian Heresy for the Strengthening of Men’s Backs and the very Robust Out-Thrusting of Doubtful Doctrine and the Uncertain Intellec- tual.’ Belloc has a character reply to the song: ‘there is no such place as Kardanoel, and Pelagius never lived there, and his doctrine was very different from what you say.’ I first came across this ditty in 1985–86 during a sabbatical in Cambridge and Oxford, when I participated in Christopher Stead and Henry Chadwick’s ‘Senior Patristics Seminar.’ During those halcyon days, I wrote the better part of my collection, Fathers of the World: Essays in Rabbinic and Patristic Literatures (1995). I hoped then to write on the current topic, but thought at the time that the matter was too complex and I did not know enough. (The matter remains too complex and I still do not know enough; but as Hillel used to say, ‘If not now, when?’) I am grateful to the organizers of the conference on ‘The Exegetical Encounter between Jews and Christians in Late Antiquity’ for the opportunity to engage this topic. I am acutely aware of Belloc’s less- than-philo-semitic reputation, and open my essay with his Pelagian Drinking Song as an homage to the irony of history. 2 But see the argument of Clark 1988, esp. 100. 44 burton l. visotzky doctrinal orthodoxy, they may have won the war of ideas regarding these essential notions of religion. It behooves us to begin with a very brief overview of Pelagius’ and Augustine’s ideas on these topics in order to explore my thesis that rabbinic literature of early fifth century Palestine parallels Pelagian ideology on these topics and, when compared with Church discourse, that they will prove mutually illuminating.3 Pelagius is generally depicted as believing that God’s Grace was manifested through the dual gift of Free Will and the Law (and Gospel); so that one would know what is best to freely choose and would sin if, when choosing freely, one nevertheless disobeyed God. According to Pelagius, there is no indelible stain of Original Sin; rather, Adam’s error might be imitated by those who followed, but they in no way participated in the sin of Adam and Eve, either through the contagion of sex (as we will characterize later Augustinian thought about Original Sin as a sexually transmitted disease), or through some form of spiritual participation in sin with our common progenitor.4 Augustine, on the other hand, demurred. Adam’s sin brought mortal- ity and libidinous sexual desire upon all humanity, depriving all subse- quent generations of Free Will, leaving them unable to perform God’s laws without God’s Grace, freely given—independently of obedience or even faith—to an undeserving elect. Since all humanity is conceived through sexual desire, semen transmits the stain of Adam’s Original Sin and all (with certain doctrinal exceptions among the Holy Family) are born into a sinful state.5 Jerome, in Bethlehem, contributes his part 3 Rather than include a lengthy footnote of bibliography on these issues, I have included a selected bibliography below. While there is a plethora of scholarship on patristic doctrine, there is a paucity of writing on rabbinic views on the subject. Worse, the two works which do seem to take up these topics, Cohon 1948 and Urbach 1969, each may be characterized with Jacob Neusner’s review of Urbach, ‘methodologically, it is a giant step backward’ (Neusner 1978, 190 n. 20). Urbach takes up relevant sub- jects in chapters 11 (divine providence), 15 (sin and death, two inclinations) and 16 (Free Will) of his book. Yet Urbach mixes early and late texts, so long as they quote a common rabbinic attribution. This gives rise to an utterly a-historic survey. Cohon capably traces the idea of Original Sin from the OT through patristic literature before turning to rabbinic comparisons. When he surveys the rabbinic literature he mixes early with late, citing second century sources and thirteenth century sources as an undifferentiated whole. Neither of these secondary works can be used without extreme caution and thorough source analysis. 4 Inter alia: Frend 1985, 122; Kelly 1959, 358–361; Anderson 2001, 65–66; Brown 1967, 340–352; Brown 1988, 411; Pagels 1988, 129–131; Rees 1988, passim, esp. 135–142. 5 Pagels 1988, ibid.; Brown 1988, 387–427; Kelly 1959, 361–69; Clark 1996, 5–10; and Reuling 2006, 159–220. See also Schreiner who notes that Augustine ‘stressed the absence of concupiscence in paradise (. .) sexual procreation was literally commanded .

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