Language:
English
Year of publication:
1997
Titel der Quelle:
Speculum; a Journal of Medieval Studies
Angaben zur Quelle:
72,4 (1997) 1019-1036
Keywords:
Leontius,
;
Jewish art and symbolism Medieval, 500-1500
;
Synagogue art
;
Mosaics, Ancient
;
Christianity and antisemitism History To 1500
;
Na'aran (West Bank) Antiquities
;
Eretz Israel Antiquities
Abstract:
Discusses how attitudes toward religious imagery played a role in the construction of cultural identity, and possible causes of Jewish iconoclasm, in the 7th century. Focuses on a mosaic floor in a synagogue at Na'aran in Israel, similar to mosaic floors in other 4th-6th-century synagogues. It contained human and animal figures, and even pagan imagery, which were removed in the 7th century. Reviews 7th-century texts that purport to describe disputations between Christians and Jews, concentrating on a text by Leontios of Neapolis, taken from his "Against the Jews" (ca. 630). Leontios states that the acceptance of religious images by Christians, as central to the act of remembering and as a medium for worship, is essential to their faith; the Jews rejected images and forgot their God as a result. His arguments in favor of Christian imagery indicate that the Jews considered it a form of paganism; this view led many Jews to a retreat from imagery and to the removal of living creatures from mosaics, leaving only writing and symbols of Judaism.
Note:
With reference to the synagogue at Naaran and Christian anti-Jewish polemics, especially by Leontios of Neapolis.
URL:
Locate this publication in Israeli libraries
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