Language:
English
Year of publication:
2006
Titel der Quelle:
Speculum; a Journal of Medieval Studies
Angaben zur Quelle:
81,3 (2006) 734-753
Keywords:
Liber de Aseneth
;
Antisemitism History Middle Ages, 500-1500
;
Conversion History
;
Jews History Middle Ages, 500-1500
;
Christianity and antisemitism History To 1500
Abstract:
In the context of the period of the Crusades, when conversion was encouraged if not forced in England, discusses an apocryphal work, translated from Hellenistic Greek into Latin, that was included in a monastic anthology in Canterbury ca. 1250-60. The issue of the genuineness of Jewish conversions to Christianity was important both in terms of practice and in terms of doctrine. To combat reversion to Judaism, as well as Jewish resistance to Christian efforts to convert Jews in general, monks made use of Jewish apocryphal literature that included narratives about women like Esther and Judith. The manuscript in question, about the conversion of the pagan Egyptian Aseneth to Judaism in order to marry the biblical Joseph, is interpreted polemically to signify her conversion from Judaism to Christianity; in this interpretation, Joseph symbolizes Jesus. The "authentic" conversion portrayed by the "Book of Aseneth" was not a sufficient Christian victory; it was followed by the 1290 exile of Jews from England. This conversion narrative was paralleled by contemporary accounts of the conversion of Muslim women and their marriage to Christian men, who symbolized Christian values.
Note:
Based on MS 288, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.
URL:
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