1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910826781403321

Autore

Drake Susanna

Titolo

Slandering the Jew [[electronic resource] ] : sexuality and difference in early Christian texts / / Susanna Drake

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Philadelphia, : PENN/University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013

ISBN

0-8122-0824-2

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (185 p.)

Collana

Divinations : rereading late ancient religion

Disciplina

261.2/609015

Soggetti

Christianity and other religions - Judaism - History

Church history - Primitive and early church, ca. 30-600

Judaism - Relations - Christianity - History

Sex - Religious aspects - Christianity - History of doctrines - Early church, ca. 30-600

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 141-163) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- Contents -- Introduction -- Chapter 1. The Making of Carnal Israel: Paul, Barnabas, Justin -- Chapter 2. Origen Reads Jewishness -- Chapter 3. Sexual/Textual Corruption: Early Christian Interpretations of Susanna and the Elders -- Chapter 4. "A Synagogue of Malakoi and Pornai": John Chrysostom's Sermons against the Jews -- Conclusion -- Abbreviations -- Notes -- Index -- Acknowledgments

Sommario/riassunto

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. Susanna Drake 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, at times literally seducing virtuous Christians into heresy, or as weak and effeminate, unable to control bodily impulses or govern



their wives. As Drake shows, these carnal caricatures served not only to emphasize religious difference between Christians and Jews 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, Slandering the Jew casts new light on the intersections of sexuality, violence, representation, and religious identity.