Jewish-Christian Disputations in Antiquity and the Middle Ages: Fictions and Realities

Description

Ancient and medieval literature has bequeathed to us dialogues between Jews and Christians. Though there can be no doubt that polemical exchanges existed between individuals in the context of private discussions or formal debates, the exact relation of the dialogical texts and historical reality is sometimes unclear. In the case of ancient Christian dialogues, contradicting analyses have been put forward. Some scholars think they represent reliable documents about the real debates. Others contend that such texts are purely literary entities, and that their purpose was self-definition. Certainly no general theory can be adduced to account for all early Christian dialogical texts against the Jews. The present book, however, tries to evaluate both views with a series of contributions on a neglected late antique Greek dialogue, the Dialogue of Timothy and Aquila (6th-7th c. AD). For the sake of comparison, the second part includes papers on a medieval latin dialogical text, the Dialogus written by Peter Alfonsi (11th-12th c. AD). The last part gathers studies about the less documented other side: Jewish polemical texts against Christianity. The book is introduced by a historiographical survey by William Horbury. Table of Contents Abbreviations Foreword Introduction Jewish-Christian Disputations: The Remaking of their Study, 1930-1950 • William Horbury 1. The Dialogue of Timothy and Aquila Timothy and Aquila: Actual Encounter or Scheinpolemik? • James Carleton Paget The Dialogue of Timothy and Aquila: a Catechetical Handbook? • Sébastien Morlet The Nine Textual Forms of the Dialogue of Timothy and Aquila. A Reminder • Patrick Andrist The Jewish Bible of Timothy and Aquila • Jim Aitken The Dialogue of Timothy and Aquila in Light of Contemporary Jewish Sources • Hillel I. Newman Shaming an Opponent in Debate: The Polemical Use of Emotions in Some Anti-Jewish Dialogues • Yannis Papadogiannakis 2. Petrus Alfonsi’s Dialogus Contra Iudaeos Reading Petrus Alfonsi before the Talmud Trials. The Manuscript Evidence • Carmen Cardelle De Hartmann – Darko Senekovic The Place of Petrus Alfonsi in the Medieval Culture of Disputation • Alex J. Novikoff Spoken and Unspoken in Petrus Alfonsi’s Dialogue • Claire Soussen 3. Jewish Polemical Writings against the Christians Types of Jewish Anti-Christian Polemic in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, and their Historical-Social Setting • Philip Alexander Jewish-Christian Dialogues and Polemics Written by Medieval Jews • Marc Saperstein Bibliography Indexes Biblical Index Index of Ancient and Medieval Names Thematic Index