Speaking as the Other: Late Ancient Jewish and Christian Multivocal Texts and the Creation of Religious Legitimacy

Abstract

This dissertation considers Adversus Iudaeos dialogues and rabbinic multivocal narratives side by side and investigates how and why the anonymous authors of these texts deployed “other” characters and “other” narratives, constructing around them a plot of realistically portrayed encounters. Scholars of late antique Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism have examined separately these works that portray two or more interlocutors discussing with each other on topics that concerned their authors. Their scholarship has interpreted the function of these compositions, seeing them as ways of providing self-definition or opinion making (in the case of Adversus Iudaeos dialogues), or as demonstrating internalization of and anxiety over others’ criticisms, or as parodies (in the case of selected rabbinic multivocal narratives). These two kinds of texts, however, have not often been studied in tandem, nor has the purposeful deployment of “other” interlocutors or “other” narratives in them.

Specifically, this study examines the reasons for the deployment of contrasting characters and narratives in texts where interlocutors discuss topics of belief and practice with each other. From the corpus of the Christian Adversus Iudaeos dialogues, this study analyzes excerpts written in Greek, Syriac, and Latin between the early fifth to the tenth centuries CE; from the corpus of rabbinic literature, it analyzes multivocal narratives from works written in Mishnaic Hebrew and Babylonian Aramaic between the early third and the early eighth centuries CE. The topics in the excerpts from both corpora are conceptually similar, pertaining to icons, idols, and idolatry (Chapters 2 and 3) and the divinity of Jesus, his virgin birth, and his origins (Chapters 4 and 5). The analysis draws on the literary concept of foil which allows one to interpret by means of contrast the qualities of characters and stories.

This study argues that the anonymous Christian and rabbinic authors deployed the “other” (whether a character or a narrative) as a foil to another character or narrative, respectively, to claim legitimacy of opinion on matters of practice and belief. By weaving contrasting opinions between discussants and between narratives in the context of dialogues, these texts propose an authoritative stance towards the interlocutors’ opinions and attitudes, predisposing what the correct or legitimate view, attitude, or teaching is according to them. Comprehending the role of foil characters and foil narratives in the Adversus Iudaeos dialogues and rabbinic multivocal narratives allows us to understand how “others” were an integral component in the rhetoric used by the authors of these works.