عنوان

'There Is No One Who Does Not Fear': The Influence of Pagan Magic-Use Accusations on Jewish Anti-Christian and Christian Anti-Jewish Polemics in the Late Antique Period

Number

TL48570

.Language of Text, Soundtrack etc

انگلیسی

Title Proper

'There Is No One Who Does Not Fear': The Influence of Pagan Magic-Use Accusations on Jewish Anti-Christian and Christian Anti-Jewish Polemics in the Late Antique Period

General Material Designation

[Thesis]

First Statement of Responsibility

Ian A. Sundwall-Byers

Subsequent Statement of Responsibility

Jacobs, Andrew

Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.

The Claremont Graduate University

Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.

2015

Specific Material Designation and Extent of Item

335

Text of Note

Committee members: Gabra, Gawdat; Gilbert, Gary; Schneider, Tammi J.; Torjesen, Karen J.

Text of Note

Place of publication: United States, Ann Arbor; ISBN=978-1-339-31816-5

Dissertation or thesis details and type of degree

Ph.D.

Discipline of degree

School of Religion

Body granting the degree

The Claremont Graduate University

Text preceding or following the note

2015

Text of Note

Christianity and Judaism developed robust, parallel traditions of magic-use accusations as a means of discrediting or otherwise criticizing one another. Yet far from creating a new dynamic in their employment of magic-use accusations, they in fact adopted and adapted two pre-existing dynamics. The ancient pagan peoples of the Mediterranean had a vibrant tradition of criticizing - even slandering - the Jewish people long before Christianity came into existence. Likewise, the ancient Mediterranean pagans developed their own tradition of polemics against Christianity per se, arguably before Christianity really had become a religion distinct from its Jewish origin. Christian anti-Jewish and Jewish anti-Christian rhetoric had their roots in pagan anti-Jewish and anti-Christian rhetoric, especially when it came to accusations of magic use. Such accusations abounded in the ancient Mediterranean, so common that they were incorporated into the most famous writings of Plato and the foundational tables of Roman law. The word "magic" had its roots in the military conflict between two ancient Mediterranean military powers, almost every synonym of "magic" seems to have carried a deeply negative connotation, and whole peoples were written off as inherently dangerous because they were perceived to be inherently sorcerous. Just as the Christian anti-Jewish blood libel has lived on into the 21st century C.E. among modern Muslims, the very accusations lobbed by Jews at Christians, and by Christians at Jews, were all-too-often mere restatements of or elaborations on those already being made by Hellenistic and Roman accusers, first against foreigners in general, then against supposedly-untrustworthy locals, then against Jews and Christians in particular.

Religion; Religious history; Ancient history

Subject Term

Philosophy, religion and theology;Social sciences;Christianity;Jewish;Late Antique period;Magic;Mediterranean;Polemics

Krayem, Zaher

Jacobs, Andrew

Subdivision

School of Religion

The Claremont Graduate University

Call Number

1750074970; 3739935

Electronic name

p

[Thesis]

276903

a

Y