Slandering the Jew
Subtitle: sexuality and difference in early Christian texts
By: Susanna Drake
Edition: 1st ed.
Series: Divinations : rereading late ancient religion; Divinations
Publisher: PENN/University of Pennsylvania Press
Published: 2013
Place of publication: Philadelphia
Language: eng
Number of pages: 176
ISBN-13: 9780812245202; 9780812208245
Subjects: Primitive and early church; History; Sex; Judaism; Sexualverhalten; Relations; Christianity; Church history; Antijudaismus; Verunglimpfung; Leiblichkeit; History of doctrines; Christianity and other religions; Frühchristentum
Description: As Christian leaders in the first through fifth centuries embraced ascetic interpretations of the Bible and practices of sexual renunciation, sexual slander--such as the accusations Paul leveled against wayward Gentiles in the New Testament--played a pivotal role in the formation of early Christian identity. In particular, the imagined construct of the lascivious, literal-minded Jew served as a convenient foil to the chaste Christian ideal. The author examines representations of Jewish sexuality in early Christian writings that use accusations of carnality, fleshliness, bestiality, and licentiousness as strategies to differentiate the "spiritual" Christian from the "carnal" Jew. Church fathers such as Justin Martyr, Hippolytus of Rome, Origen of Alexandria, and John Chrysostom portrayed Jewish men variously as dangerously hypersexual, often seducing virtuous Christians into heresy, or as weak and effeminate, unable to control bodily impulses or govern their wives. These carnal caricatures served not only to emphasize religious difference but also to justify increased legal constraints and violent acts against Jews as the interests of Christian leaders began to dovetail with the interests of the empire. Placing Christian representations of Jews at the root of the destruction of synagogues and mobbing of Jewish communities in the late fourth and early fifth centuries, the book casts new light on the intersections of sexuality, violence, representation, and religious identity.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 141-163) and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction; title: The making of carnal Isreal: Paul, Barnabas, Justin; title: Origin reads Jewishness; title: Sexal/textual corruption: Early Christian interpretations of Susanna and the Elders; title: "A synagogue of Malakoi and Pornai": John Chrysostom's sermons against the Jews.