Language:
Hebrew
Year of publication:
2015
Titel der Quelle:
תרביץ
Angaben zur Quelle:
פג,א-ב (תשעה) 51-70
Keywords:
Bible. Criticism, interpretation, etc.
;
Bible. Criticism, interpretation, etc., Christian
;
Bible. Criticism, interpretation, etc., Jewish
;
Midrash Tanhuma Criticism, interpretation, etc.
;
Berit milah Biblical teaching
Abstract:
This article seeks to clarify the motives underlying ancient Jewish and Christian interpretations of Exod 4:24-26. Most of the ancient Jewish sources emphasize the apotropaic importance of circumcision in this passage. Some ancient Christian commentators accept this basic assumption and explain it in a limited, temporal context, whereas other early Christian commentators deny any independent value to circumcision; instead, those latter emphasize the broader context of the surrounding verses, or the social value of circumcision (so that the Hebrews will receive Moses). From the early Christian commentators we learn that this passage was important in Jewish-Christian controversy, one of whose foci was circumcision. Analysis of the interpretation of Ephrem to this pericope shows that it intertwines Jewish elements with those that were originally anti-Jewish Christian arguments. The article expands on the matter of Moses' sexual abstinence, which is emphasized in Ephrem's commentary on this pericope. It discusses the Syriac sources (Ephrem, and Aphrahat) in their relation to Jewish sources (Philo and rabbinic midrashim of divergent periods). Two Jewish midrashim (Midrash Yelamdenu and a midrash known as Midrash Hadash ʿ al ha-Torah) are, ironically, very close in their wording to anti-Jewish Christian passages. In the opinion of the author of this article, Christian exegetical tradition probably influenced these midrashim, but that which had possessed polemical significance in the Christian context became in them a simple, non-polemical aggadic statement. This analysis of the interpretations of Exod 4:24-26 demonstrates the complexity of relations between Judaism and Christianity in late antiquity, as expressed in interrelated biblical interpretation, theology, mutual borrowing, and polemics. From a different perspective, this article also demonstrates the convoluted dynamics between the endeavor to interpret the
URL:
אתר את הפרסום בקטלוג המאוחד של ספריות ישראל
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