Adversus Adversus Iudaeos?: Countering Christian Anti-Jewish Polemics in the Gospel of Nicodemus

The critique of the “Parting of the Ways” model of Jewish-Christian relations has paved the way for many new questions. How were the ideas of Christian “separatists” received in different locales? Can we recover other strategies of distinction? This essay explores these questions through a focus on...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Fackler, Phillip J. A. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press [2015]
In: Journal of early Christian studies
Year: 2015, Volume: 23, Issue: 3, Pages: 413-444
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Nikodemusevangelium / Judaism / Polemics
IxTheo Classification:BH Judaism
KAB Church history 30-500; early Christianity
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
Volltext (doi)
Parallel Edition:Non-electronic
Description
Summary:The critique of the “Parting of the Ways” model of Jewish-Christian relations has paved the way for many new questions. How were the ideas of Christian “separatists” received in different locales? Can we recover other strategies of distinction? This essay explores these questions through a focus on the Gospel of Nicodemus. It argues that this apocryphal gospel functions as a counter-history that challenges the depiction of Jews in the Adversus Iudaeos tradition. Through its narrative, the Gospel of Nicodemus constructs the true “Israel” as a collective identity achieved only through reconciliation between Jews with divergent attitudes toward Jesus. By exploring the efforts of one late antique text to counter memories of Jesus' death and resurrection that vilified Jews and claimed the church as the true Israel, this essay adds to the emerging picture of the fourth and fifth centuries as a period when interest in delineating Jewish and Christian identities intensified.
ISSN:1086-3184
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of early Christian studies
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1353/earl.2015.0043