Language:
English
Year of publication:
1996
Titel der Quelle:
Medieval Encounters; Jewish, Christian and Muslim Culture in Confluence and Dialogue
Angaben zur Quelle:
2,3 (1996) 249-285
Keywords:
Christianity and antisemitism History To 1500
;
Jews
;
Judaism Relations
;
Christianity
;
Christianity and other religions Judaism
;
Messiah
Abstract:
The legend of the Antichrist, supported by Christian theology and shared by the broad masses in the Middle Ages, can be traced from late antiquity. From early on it was intertwined with antisemitic motifs. Christian theologians identified the Antichrist with the Jewish Messiah. Medieval exegetic literature, including learned treatises, popular works, and plays, maintained that the Antichrist would be born a Jew, that his host would consist of Gog and Magog (identified with the Ten Lost Tribes), and that the Jews would be the foremost adherents of the Antichrist and thus would take part in the destruction at the End of Time. Examines the medieval Western European Antichrist traditions and focuses on the sources in pre-Reformation Germany. Dwells on the German motif of the "Red Jews" who, together with the Jews, would make up the Antichrist's army. In some cases the legend might have influenced decision-making, as in the case of the expulsion of the Jews from Nuremberg in 1499.
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