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The Jews and Christian Apologetics After Theodosius I Cunctos Populos

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 June 2011

Robert L. Wilken
Robert L. Wilken
Affiliation:
The University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556
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Extract

To the men and women of the Middle Ages the figure of Constantine loomed large over the fourth century. Born a pagan, he converted to Christianity and became the first Christian emperor, the convenor of councils, the defender of orthodoxy, the builder of churches, the herald of a new age, the founder of Christian Europe. But to the men and women of the later fourth century, the generation of John Chrysostom, it was not Constantine, but Julian, raised a Christian only to forsake his “hereditary piety,” Julian the pagan emperor, Julianus Apostata, whose deeds were alive in their memory. The age of Constantine was part of past history, but Julian's actions, abortive as they may have appeared to later generations, were still remembered not only by the old, says John Chrysostom, but also by the “young people” of our day.

Type
Articles
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 73 , Issue 3-4 , October 1980 , pp. 451 - 471
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1980

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References

1 John Chrysostom Homilia adversus Iudaeos 5.11 (PG 48. 900).

2 Lindner, Amnon, “The Myth of Constantine the Great in the West. Sources and Hagiographic Commemoration,” Studi Medievali 16 (1975) 48–95.Google Scholar

3 Bickermann, E., “Les Maccabées de Malalas,” Byzantion 21 (1951) 82.Google Scholar

4 Cyril of Alexandria, Contra Julianum, Preface (PG 76. 508c).

5 For a thorough discussion of the stories surrounding Julian's effort to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem see the recent dissertation by Levenson, David B., “A Source and Tradition Critical Study of the Stories of Julian's Attempt to Rebuild the Jerusalem Temple” (Ph.D. diss., Harvard University; Cambridge, 1979).Google Scholar

6 Origen Contra Celsum 4.22 (ed. Borret, (Paris, 1968]Google Scholar; trans. Chadwick, H., Contra Celsum [Cambridge, 1965) 199Google Scholar revised).

7 Demonstratio Evangelica 17a-c.

8 Oratio catechetica magna 18.

9 Jerome Commentary on Daniel 9:24 (CChr 75a. 888). For Matthew 24 see Cyril of Jerusalem Catechetical Lectures 15.15; Socrates, the ecclesiastical historian, mentions that on the occasion of Julian's attempt to rebuild the temple, Cyril preached a sermon in which he reminded people of the prophecy in Daniel and the words of Jesus in Matthew (Hist. Eccl. 3.20); see also Aphrahat Demonstration 19.11.

10 Eusebius Vita Constantini 3.33. See Linder, A., “Ecclesia and Synagoga in the Medieval Myth of Constantine the Great,” Revue beige de philologie et d'histoire 54 (1976) 1032–33Google Scholar; Stroumsa, Gedalia, “Which Jerusalem?” in Jerusalem between Judaism and Christianity in the Byzantine Period (ed. Linder, Amnon; Jerusalem, 1979) 122 (in Hebrew).Google Scholar

11 Oration 18.178. Reconstruction of the text of the Contra Galilaeos by Neumann, Charles J., Juliani Imperatohs librorum contra Christianos quae supersunt (Leipzig, 1880)Google Scholar. Text and translation by Wright, Wilmer Cave, The Works of the Emperor Julian (LCL; Cambridge: Harvard Unversity, 1923) 3Google Scholar. 319ff. For Julian's life, see the recent biography by Bowersock, G. W., Julian the Apostate (Cambridge, 1978).Google Scholar

12 For an understanding of Julian's Contra Galilaeos and his program to rebuild the temple, the fundamental study is Levy, J., “The Emperor Julian and the Rebuilding of the Temple,” Zion 6 (1940–1941) 1–32Google Scholar (in Hebrew). See also Vogt, J., “Kaiser Julian und das Judentum,” Morgenland 30 (1939) 1–74.Google Scholar

13 A. von Harnack, ed., Porphyrius, “Gegen die Christen,” 15 Buecher. Zeugnisse, Fragmente und Referate (Abhandlungen d. koen. preuss. Akad. d. Wissenschaft. Phil.-hist. Klasse 1; Berlin, 1916) frg. 1. In this connection see Rokeah, David, “People of Israel and Torah of Israel in Pagan-Christian Polemic in the Roman Empire,” Tarbiz 40 (1971) 462–71 (in Hebrew).Google Scholar

14 This passage is included in Neumann, but not in the Wright edition; text can be found in Neumann, Juliani Imperatoris librorum, 229, and in Cyril of Alexandria Contra Julianum 351a-b (PG 76. 1041a-b).

15 See Alon, Gedalia, “Toward Clarification of the Problem of Emperor Julian's Knowledge of Judaism,” in Studies in the History of Israel (Israel, 1970) 2. 313–14 (in Hebrew).Google Scholar

16 Julian's attempts to restore sacrificial worship to the Jews had another purpose. Under the influence of lamblichus and his followers, Julian thought animal sacrifices were central to worship, for the life-blood of the animal animated the words of prayer. The restoration of Jewish sacrifices would reinforce his program to restore pagan sacrifices and would further isolate Christians who would be alone in offering only spiritual worship to God. See Levy, “Emperor Julian,” 8–10.

17 Socrates Hist. Eccl. 3.20

18 Ephraem Syrus Contra Julianum 1.16; 2.7; Gregory Nazianzus Oratio 5.4; Rufinus Hist. Eccl. 10.38. Contemporary Jewish sources are silent; what evidence there is in Jewish writings comes from a later period (Levenson, “Julian's Attempt to Rebuild,” 164–68).

19 Adversus Iudaeos 7.1.

20 Meeks, Wayne A. and Wilken, Robert L., Jews and Christians in Antioch (SBL Sources for Biblical Study 13; Missoula, 1978) 31–32Google Scholar; the recently published translation of the sermons Adversus Iudaeos by Paul Harkins entitles the homilies, The Eight Discourses against Judaizing Christians (Washington, 1979)Google Scholar. See also Ritter, Adolf Martin, “Erwägungen zum Antisemitismus in der alten Kirche,” in Bleibendes im Wandel der Kirchengeschichte, ed. Moeller, B. and Ruhbach, J. (Tübingen, 1973) 77–79.Google Scholar

21 Adv. lud. 5.1; see also 4.6; 6.3.

22 Grego, Igino, La reazione at Giudeo-Cristiani nel IV secolo (Jerusalem, 1976)Google Scholar; Saunders, Ernest W., “Christian Synagogues and Jewish-Christianity in Galilee,” Explor 3 (1977) 70–79Google Scholar; Simon, Marcel, Verus Israel (Paris, 1964) 356–93.Google Scholar

23 Jerome Comm. in Isa. 35:10 (CChr 73. 427).

24 Comm. in Zach. 14:10 (CChr 76a. 885); see also Jerome Comm. in Isa. 66.20 (CChr 73a. 792–93); Comm. in Joelem 3.7 (CChr 76. 202).

25 Comm. in Isa. 35:9–10 (par. 210; ed. Ziegler, 230). See also Comm. in Isa. 25:6–8 (par. 85; ed. Ziegler, 162).

26 See, e.g., Smallwood, E. Mary, The Jews under Roman Rule (Leiden, 1976)Google Scholar, and Grant, Michael, The Jews in the Roman World (New York, 1973).Google Scholar

27 See Lieberman, Saul, “Palestine in the Third and Fourth Centuries,” JQR 36 (1945–1946) 329–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

28 Lifshitz, B., Donateurs etfondateurs dans les synagogues juives (Paris, 1967)Google Scholar; Kraabel, A. T., “The Diaspora Synagogue: Archaeological and Epigraphic Evidence since Sukenik,” in Haase, W., ed., Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt (Berlin, 1980) section IIs.19, 477–510.Google Scholar

29 Meeks and Wilken, Jews and Christians, 53–56.

30 Meyers, Eric, Jewish Ossuaries: Reburial and Rebirth (Rome, 1971) 71ff.Google Scholar

31 Meeks and Wilken, Jews and Christians, 59–66.

32 Ep. 1098 (Meeks and Wilken, Jews and Christians, 62).

33 Ep. 1251 (Meeks and Wilken, Jews and Christians, 60).

34 John Chrysostom Adv. Iud. 3.1; 1.3. See also Libanius Oration 47.13 (Meeks and Wilken, Jews and Christians, 71).

35 Levine, Lee I., Caesarea under Roman Rule (Leiden, 1975).Google Scholar

36 See the articles by Meyers, Eric, Strange, James F., and Groh, Dennis in Galilee and Regionalism (Explor 3 [1977]).Google Scholar

37 Meyers, Eric, Kraabel, A.Thomas, and Strange, Thomas, Ancient Synagogue Excavations at Khirbet Shema’ Upper Galilee, Israel, 1970–72 (Durham, 1973) 260.Google Scholar

38 Linder, Amnon, “Roman Imperial Authority and the Jews in the Constantinian Age,” Tarbiz 44 (1974) 95–143Google Scholar (in Hebrew).

For a somewhat different perspective on the legislation concerning the Jews in the fourth and fifth centuries see, most recently, Reichardt, Klaus Dieter, “Die Judengesetzgebung im Codex Theodosianus” Kairos 20 (1978) 16–39Google Scholar. The article is a useful survey of the legislation, but, while acknowledging the ambivalence toward the Jews reflected in the laws, Reichardt tends to picture the legislation as a continuous and gradual process of exclusion of Jews beginning with Constantine. Little is said about the relation of the legislation of the Christian emperors to earlier legislation on the Jews, about the situation of the Jews in the Empire as reflected, for example, in the archaeological evidence, about the actual impact of the laws on Jewish life, or about the more general point raised by Linder, i.e., whether Constantine can be seen as the initiator of a policy of exclusion.

39 In Danielem Prefatio. PG 81. 1257–60.

40 Interpretation in Michaeae Prophetae 5:2 PG 81. 1768. For the importance of the Jews in fifth-century Syria and as a factor in shaping Theodoret's exegesis see McCollough, C. Thomas, “Judaism in the Later Roman Empire and Christian Exegesis of the Hebrew Scriptures” (Ph.D. diss., University of Notre Dame, 1980).Google Scholar

41 Wilken, Robert L., Judaism and the Early Christian Mind (New Haven, 1971) 69–92.Google Scholar

42 Kelly, J. N. D., Jerome (New York, 1975) 160. Text cited by Kelly is from Jerome's Preface to Psalms (PL 28. 1123–28).Google Scholar

43 Schatkin, M. A., Critical Edition of, and Introduction to St. John Chrysostom's De sancto Babyla, Contra Julianum et Gentiles (Ann Arbor Microfilms, 1968). Text also in PG 50. 533–72, par. 22–23.Google Scholar

44 McKendrick, N. G., Quod Christus sit Deus of Saint John Chrysostom (Ann Arbor Microfilms, 1967)Google Scholar. Text also in PG 48. 813–38, par. 16. See Harkins, Paul W., “Chrysostom the Apologist: On the Divinity of Christ,” Kyriakon. Festschrift Johannes Quasten, ed. Granfield, P. and Jungmann, J. A. (Munster, 1970) 441–51.Google Scholar

45 Compare Adv. Iud. 6.5; 1.7; 8.6–7; Hom. in Rom. 12.20 (PG 51. 176).

46 Adversus oppugnatores vitae monasticae 2.9 (PG 47. 344).

47 De sancto Babyla 3 (PG 50. 537).

48 Adversus oppugnatores vitae monasticae 2.9 (PG 47. 344).