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Chapter 11 Jewish and Christian Exegetical Controversy in Late Antiquity: The Case of and the Esther Narrative

Abraham Berkovitz

As many scholars have noted, Psalm 221 developed into a locus of exegetical controversy between and Christians during Late Antiquity.2 This paper will discuss the Jewish anti-Christian polemical identification of Psalm 22 with Esther and the Purim narrative. Earlier scholarship exploring this connection suffers from at least one criti- cal limitation. The insightful studies by Betinna,3 Dorival,4 Menn,5 and Tkacz,6 are focused on , a midrashic compilation redacted by the eleventh-century.7 Although it is partly true, as some of these studies mention,

1 Psalm 22 in the is equivalent to in the LXX. I will refer to this Psalm using the MT chapter and verse number. 2 Naomi Koltun-Fromm, “Psalm 22’s Christological Interpretive Tradition in Light of Christian Anti-Jewish Polemic,” JECS 6 (1998): 37–58; Rivka Ulmer, “Psalm 22 in Pesiqta Rabbati: The Suffering of the Jewish and ,” in The Jewish Jesus: Revelation, Reflection, Reclamation (ed. Z. Garber; West Lafayette: Purdue University Press, 2011), 115–122; Peter Schäfer, The Jewish Jesus: How and Shaped Each Other (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2012), 236–271. Bettina Wellmann, Von , Königin Ester und Christus: Psalm 22 im Midrasch, Tehillim und bei Augustinus (Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder, 2007): this Psalm was also used in internal Christian debate, which we will not discuss in this paper. See Gilles Dorival, “L’interpretation cncienne du Psaume 21 (TM 22),” in David, Jésus et la reine Esther: recherches sur le Psaume 21 (22 TM) (ed. G. Dorival; Paris: Peeters, 2002). 3 Wellmann, Von David, Königin Ester und Christus. 4 Gilles Dorival, “Les Sages ont-ils retouché certains titres des Psaumes?” VT 61 (2011): 374–387. 5 Esther M. Menn, “No : Relecture and the Identity of the Distressed in Psalm 22,” HTR 93 (2000): 301–341. 6 Catherine Brown Tkacz, “Esther, Jesus, and Psalm 22,” CBQ 70 (2008): 709–728. 7 On the late nature and date of Midrash Tehillim see the opinions of Zunz and Albeck in Leopold Zunz, in and their Historical Development (trans. H. Albeck; : Bialik Institute, 1947), 131–132. While Midrash Tehillim mostly quotes Palestinian Amoraim we be cautious with statements by named sages that do not have clear precedent in earlier rabbinic literature. Late midrash tends to be more pseudepigraphic than early midrash. See Myron Lerner, “The Works of Aggadic Midrash and the Esther Midrashim,” in The Literature of the Sages. Second Part: Midrash and , , , Mysticism, Contracts, Inscriptions, Ancient Science and the Languages of Rabbinic Literature (CRINT 3b; ed. S. Safrai; Assen: Van Gorcum, 2006), 152. For the most recent discussion, which examines the range of opinions,

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004383371_011 Jewish and Christian Exegetical Controversy in Late Antiquity 223 that “the Midrash on Psalms, like ‘all other Midrashim,’ is believed to contain mainly material that ‘goes back to the Talmudic period,’”8 scholars cannot with any degree of methodological rigor identify, contextualize, and sort out the tra- ditions that actually date to the Talmudic period from those produced or heav- ily reworked by a later redactor. Thus far, Midrash Tehillim lacks the detailed text, source, form and redaction critical analyses performed on other compi- lations of rabbinic literature. An anonymous statement or a named tradition unparalleled in actual late antique rabbinic literature cannot be taken as early. Midrash Tehillim’s popularity results from two factors: an English translation,9 and its lemmatic that comments on nearly every verse of a psalm. Scholars who privilege this late text fail to examine in detail earlier material found in rabbinic literature that links Esther and Purim to Psalm 22. This chapter will part from previous scholarship by discussing every early rabbinic source that connects Psalm 22 with Esther and the Purim narrative. These texts attest to the rise of a Jewish Passion counter-narrative featuring Esther simultaneously as a type and countertype of . While earlier studies have discussed the existence of this polemic, none have examined its earliest instantiations and development. This chapter will demonstrate that the rab- binic construction of the Purim story into an anti-Christian counter narrative began in the third century, earlier than scholars have previously recognized,10 and grew throughout Late Antiquity. This chapter will also situate this counter- narrative in its late antique setting, reading it alongside other Jewish and non- Jewish sources that depict the celebration of Purim and the use of the as Jewish anti-Christian polemic.

1 Psalm 22 in the and Early Christianity

In order to understand the content and context of Jewish counter-narratives involving Psalm 22, we must explore the psalm’s importance to early Christian

see Benedikt, “The Poetics of The Midrash on Psalms: Elements of Dialogical and Polemical Interactivity in Refracted Hermeneutics” (PhD diss., Monash University, 2015), 35–38. 8 Tkacz, “Esther, Jesus, and Psalm 22,” 721 citing William G. Braude, The Midrash on Psalms (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1959), xi, 1. See also Menn, “No Ordinary Lament,” 317, who understands Midrash Tehillim as a reliable source for understanding Amoraic material. 9 Braude, The Midrash on Psalms. 10 See, for example, Hanneke Reuling, “Rabbinic Responses to Christian Appropriation of the Hebrew : The Case of Psalm 22:1 (MT),” in Studia Patristica. Volume XLIV: Archaeologica, Arts, Iconographica, Tools, Historica, Biblica, Theologica, Philosophica, Ethica (ed. J. Baun, A. Cameron, and M. Edwards; Leuven: Peeters, 2010), 181.