Riemer Roukema / Hagit Amirav (ed.) The ‘New Testament’ as a Polemical Tool Studies in Ancient Christian Anti-Jewish Rhetoric and Beliefs © 2018, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen ISBN Print: 9783525593769 — ISBN E-Book: 9783647593760 NovumTestamentum et OrbisAntiquus / Studien zur Umweltdes Neuen Testaments In cooperation with the “Bibel und Orient” foundation, UniversityofFribourg (Switzerland) edited by Martin Ebner (Bonn), Peter Lampe (Heidelberg), Stefan Schreiber(Augsburg) and Jürgen Zangenberg (Leiden) AdvisoryBoard Helen K. Bond (Edinburgh), Thomas Schumacher (Fribourg), John Barclay(Durham), Armand Puig iTàrrech(Barcelona), RonnyReich (Haifa), Edmondo F. Lupieri(Chicago), Stefan Münger (Bern) Volume 118 Vandenhoeck &Ruprecht © 2018, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen ISBN Print: 9783525593769 — ISBN E-Book: 9783647593760 Riemer Roukema /Hagit Amirav(ed.) The ‘New Testament’ as a Polemical Tool:Studies in AncientChristian Anti-Jewish Rhetoric and Beliefs Vandenhoeck &Ruprecht © 2018, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen ISBN Print: 9783525593769 — ISBN E-Book: 9783647593760 Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data available online: http://dnb.d-nb.de. ISSN 2197-5124 ISBN 978-3-647-59376-0 You can find alternative editions of this book and additional material on our Website: www.v-r.de 2018, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Theaterstraûe 13, D-37073 Gçttingen www.v-r.de All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission from the publisher. Typesetting by Konrad Triltsch GmbH, Ochsenfurt © 2018, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen ISBN Print: 9783525593769 — ISBN E-Book: 9783647593760 Contents RiemerRoukema /Hagit Amirav Introduction................................ 7 Martin C. Albl AncientChristian Authors on Jews and Judaism ............. 15 Hagit Amirav/Cornelis Hoogerwerf WhyArgue? Paul and the Pauline Epistles in PatristicRhetoric............ 57 Harald Buchinger Melito,„Israel“ und die Bibel beider Testamente ............. 73 James Carleton Paget Barnabas’ anti-Jewish UseofSomeNew Testament Texts:Fact or Fiction?................................... 91 Maya Goldberg Theodore of Mopsuestia on Divine Paideia Syriac Fragments of his CommentaryonPaul’s Epistle to the Galatians 113 Wolfgang Grünstäudl Blutruf und Teufelskindschaft Beobachtungen zur(Nicht)Rezeption später neutestamentlicher Texte in Justins Dialog mit Trypho ........................137 Hans van Loon The Role of the NewTestamentinCyril of Alexandria’s Attitude towards Jews and Judaism .........................157 Gerard P. Luttikhuizen Anti-Judaism in Gnostic Texts?......................177 © 2018, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen ISBN Print: 9783525593769 — ISBN E-Book: 9783647593760 6 Contents Alban Massie, SJ LawvsGrace and Truth (John 1:17)? The TreatmentofLaw in Augustine’s Judgmentonthe Jews ......189 Brian J. Matz “Beware of the Leaven of the Pharisees” Jewish Teaching and Heresy in Early Christian Exegesisof Matt 16:6–12 ................................205 Martin Meiser Matt 27:25 in AncientChristian Writings .................221 RiemerRoukema Origen, the Jews, and the NewTestament .................241 List of Abbreviations ............................255 IndexofAncientand ModernAuthors ..................258 © 2018, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen ISBN Print: 9783525593769 — ISBN E-Book: 9783647593760 Riemer Roukema /Hagit Amirav Introduction In Late Antiquity, the Christian view of the Jews was ambiguous, to put it mildly.Christianityhad startedasasmall,new branch of Judaism, but soon its original Jewish identity had been generally eclipsed by the Gentile perspective of the Jews as another nation with another religionwhich,albeit legally legitimate,was outdated and obsolete. “Mainstream”, Gentile Christianityhad gratefully accepted the Jewish Scriptures as the source of stories, prescrip- tions, prayers,and prophecies that had predicted and moulded its own persuasions and piety. Occasionally,Christians had friendly and reverential relations with contemporaneousJews,but in general, acritical or rather hostile attitude toward them prevailed. In October 2013 aconferencewas held in Groningen that focused on the use of the writings of the “New Testament” in this tensional and polemical relationship.The use of the term“NewTestament”was not meantinits sense of acanonical collection,but referred to the writings that gainedrecognition from an early stage and thus influenced later authors. In some papers, moreover,Old Testament texts and traditions were discussed as well. The conference, hosted by the ProtestantTheological University, wasthe fifth annual meeting of the collaborators of the series NovumTestamentum Patristicum, based at the University of Regensburg,incollaboration with HagitAmirav’s ProjectonPatristic Exegesis, “The Christian Appropriation of the Jewish Scriptures”, which was funded by the EuropeanResearchCouncil between 2008 and 2014. The presentvolume contains the collection of papers presented in the conference and workedout for publication. We shall briefly introduce them in an alphabetical order. The contribution by MartinAlbl givesageneral, systematic introductionto the huge varietyofopinions that ancientChristian authors held on Jews and Judaism, either critical and polemical, or more appreciative. He discusses, e.g., the so-called adversus Iudaeos literatureand its intended readership,the Christian distinction between the ‘three races’ of Pagans,Jews, and Christians, and between Jews andtheir pre-Mosaic ancestors, the presumed purposes of the Mosaiclaw,its Christian, spiritual interpretation and supersessionbythe “lawofChrist”,the polemical or,incidentally, non-polemical role of the Jews in Christ’s passion, the unfortunate fate of contemporaryJews due to their rejection of Christ, the Christian feeling that Jews were arrogant, but also their positiverole as keepers of the Scriptures, the recognition of their highmoral © 2018, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen ISBN Print: 9783525593769 — ISBN E-Book: 9783647593760 8 Riemer Roukema /Hagit Amirav plane,aswell as the recognition that Jesus and his disciples were Jewish,and that many Jews in the past had become followers of Christ, and to conclude, the use of the term“Jewish” fornon-orthodox Christians. This broad survey is filled with numerous references from authors writinginGreek, Latin, and Syriac. The contribution by HagitAmiravand Cornelis Hoogerwerffocuses on the formofpolemical discourses, in order to explore the rhetorical and technical arsenal which the ancientChristian exegete had at his disposal. First they discuss howBiblical exegesis was involved in polemics: it established an authoritativediscourse concerning the rightway of explaining the sacred texts over against “heretics”, “pagans” and Jews. They argue that in this context, the Antiochene approach of Diodore of Tarsus and Theodore of Mopsuestia used Paul and his literarylegacyasakey methodological elementthat directed their interpretation of the Old Testamentand attempted, at least as far as their exegetical technique was concerned, to discredit the Alexandrian approach, which embraced allegorical interpretation. They then turntoanotherkindof polemical discourse which is found in some of the homilies of John Chrysostom, also apupil of Diodore. The infamous Discourses against the Jews,althoughthey quicklyshifttorhetoric of invectivesand abuse, display Paul as the supreme teacher and pedagogue, wholegitimises the lofty theological principlesinvolved. The militantand undiplomatic tone is not surprising,asitbelongs to the basic forms of classicalrhetoric. However,they note that Chrystostom strategicallyemploys the persona of Paul and his writings as arhetorical tool to provide the audience with an authoritative frame of reference. Harald Buchinger analyses BishopMelito of Sardes’ polemical Paschal homily,inwhich the death of Christ, for which the Jews are blamed, is paralleled with their Passover celebration. First he argues that thishomily does not hintatany particular elements of the contemporaneous Jewish Paschal liturgy, but merely refers to its description in the bookofExodus. Second, he clarifies whyhedisagrees with the view that Melito’s severeanti-Judaism was inspired by social tensions with the local Jewish community. Instead, he maintains that the bishop’s polemics had atheological motivation. As regards Melito’s biblicalhermeneutics, Buchinger discusses the typological interpre- tation of the Old Testament expressed in the homily,which,infact, entails its complete devaluation in favour of the truth and realityofChrist. This implies that the Jewish religionhas become void and useless and its temple has been destroyedasaconsequence of the Jews’ murder of Christ. Likewise, although the precise contents of Melito’s “New Testament” cannot be established, his writings demonstrate that he acceptsabipartite Bible, the second partof which clearly surpasses and supersedes the first part. This implies that in this homily NewTestamenttraditions are alluded to in order to showtheir superiorityover the Old Testamentand to blame Israel for its ungratefulness for Christ’s passion.Buchinger