The contributors to this volume examine how Christian authors of the Middle Ages engaged with Rabbinic Judaism. The focus is on the Latin translation of the Talmud, its condemnation as a supposedly heretical work, but also its significance within Christian apologetics.
While polemics and dialogue between Judaism and Christianity are as old as the Christian religion itself, different periods, trends and intensities in the relations between the faiths can be distinguished clearly. A significant landmark in this long and complex history is the Christian engagement with Rabbinic Judaism which, during the thirteenth century, led to the Latin translation of large sections of the Talmud, the most important Jewish post-biblical text. The contributors to this volume explore Christian attitudes towards the Talmud from the Talmud trial in Paris in 1240 up to the time of the Disputation of Tortosa from 1412-1414, covering authors such as Ramon Martí, Nicholas of Lyra, Abner of Burgos and Jerónimo of Santa Fe. The case studies featured shed new light on the Latin translation of the Talmud, its condemnation as an allegedly heretical work, but also on the significance of Rabbinic Judaism for Christian apologetics.
Table of contents:
Alexander Fidora/Matthias Lutz-Bachmann: Christian Readings of Rabbinic Sources: Preliminary Considerations -
Ursula Ragacs: Lost in Translation? Example(s) from Paris 1240 and Beyond -
Isaac Lampurlanés Farré: The Papal Correspondence in the Latin Talmud Dossier -
Moisés Orfali: Examples of Christian Misunderstanding of Anthropomorphic Rabbinic Texts -
Chaim Hames: Barcelona 1263: Friar Paul's Reported Use of Rabbinic Sources -
Wilhelm Schmidt-Biggemann: Raimundus Martini as an Anti-Jewish Polemicist -
Thomas E. Burman: Ramon Martí, Nicholas of Lyra, Is. 48:16, and the Extended Literal Sense of Scripture -
Görge K. Hasselhoff: Ramon Martí, Moshe ha-Darshan, and the Midrash Bereshit Rabbah -
Diana Di Segni: The Victoria Porcheti adversus impios Hebraeos: Its Sources and Reception -
Ryan Szpiech: One Messiah or Two? The Messiah ben Joseph in Medieval Jewish-Christian Debate -
Alexander Fidora: Thomas Bradwardine and His Rabbinic Sources -
Yosi Yisraeli: Debating the »School of Elijah« at Tortosa: The Making of a Christian Apocryphon? -
Mònica Colominas Aparicio: Rabbis as Agents of Knowledge in Medieval Muslim Polemics: The Case of Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya's
Hidāyat al-ḥayārā (Guidance for the Confused)
