From Testimonia to Testimony: Thirteenth-Century Anti-Jewish Polemic and the Mostrador de justicia of Abner of Burgos/Alfonso of Valladolid

Abstract

Abstract

From Testimonia to Testimony: Thirteenth-Century Anti-Jewish Polemic and the Mostrador de justicia of Abner of Burgos/Alfonso of Valladolid

Ryan Wesley Szpiech 2006

Born in the years following the Disputation of Barcelona of 1263, the Castilian Jew Abner of Burgos (c.1270-c.1347), known after his conversion to Christianity as Alfonso of Valladolid, wrote various anti-Jewish polemics in Hebrew that included arguments similar to those made previously by Dominican missionaries. Principle among his works is the Moreh Zedek (Heb. “Teacher of Righteousness”), which survives only in a contemporary Castilian translation as Mostrador de justicia. This dissertation examines the Mostrador de justicia in the context of thirteenth-century Dominican use of postbiblical Jewish sources in support of Christian arguments (rather than simply Biblical proof texts, or testimonia) in order to establish to what degree Abner/Alfonso’s work followed from earlier polemics and in what ways his writing can be seen as innovative. By looking at the question of how textual authority is constructed in polemical texts, I show that the elaboration of arguments from the Disputation of Barcelona by the Dominican polyglot Raymond Martini constituted a shift in focus away from direct, missionary engagement with real Jews towards a more theological, textual polemic meaningful more to Christian readers than to Jewish disputants. I then demonstrate that Abner/Alfonso, who appears not to know Martini’s texts, wrote polemics intended for a Jewish readership and developed the same arguments from the Disputation of Barcelona while keeping the rhetorical demands of real persuasion and appeal in mind. Specifically, by including his personal testimony as a convert and former Jew with the traditional exegetical use of proof texts, he expanded the basis of argumentative authority. By framing his polemic within the narrative of his own conversion and by addressing his Jewish reader directly, Abner/Alfonso puts his own testimony on par with textual sources and invites his reader to see his own struggle and conversion as a model to be emulated. I conclude that by implicating himself in his own text and by authenticating his use of textual authorities with his own personal testimony and imitation of Jewish textual norms and style, Abner/Alfonso introduces ambiguity and self-contradiction into his text that undermines his missionizing agenda.