Jewish-Christian Dialogues on Scripture in Late Antiquity
Heretic Narratives of the Babylonian Talmud

Marshalling previously untapped Christian materials, Bar-Asher Siegal offers radically new insights into Talmudic stories about Scriptural debates with Christian heretics.

Michal Bar-Asher Siegal (Author)

9781316646816, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 11 August 2022

238 pages
21.4 x 13.8 x 1.4 cm, 0.32 kg

'A heretic approaches a rabbi and asks a question about Scripture. 'Fool' answers the rabbi, and then he wins the ensuing argument by a knockout. Who were the 'fools' and who had the Full Torah? How much did the Babylonian Talmud know about the burning issues of Christian biblical interpretation and theology? Of Christian readings of verses and motifs? Did the rabbis imagine themselves as participating in discussions on such matters? With Christians? Minim? Heretics? Perhaps with themselves? These are just a few of the questions which Michal Bar-Asher Siegal examines in this new and riveting work on literary contacts between rabbinic and Christian tradition in the Babylonian Talmud as seen through minim narratives and the lens of Christian writings.' Joshua Schwartz, Bar-Ilan University, Israel

Stories portraying heretics ('minim') in rabbinic literature are a central site of rabbinic engagement with the 'other'. These stories typically involve a conflict over the interpretation of a biblical verse in which the rabbinic figure emerges victorious in the face of a challenge presented by the heretic. In this book, Michal Bar-Asher Siegal focuses on heretic narratives of the Babylonian Talmud that share a common literary structure, strong polemical language and the formula, 'Fool, look to the end of the verse'. She marshals previously untapped Christian materials to arrive at new interpretations of familiar texts and illuminate the complex relationship between Jews and Christians in Late Antiquity. Bar-Asher Siegal argues that these Talmudic literary creations must be seen as part of a boundary-creating discourse that clearly distinguishes the rabbinic position from that of contemporaneous Christians and adds to a growing understanding of the rabbinic authors' familiarity with Christian traditions.

1. Mimin stories in the Talmud: introductory discussion
2. 'A fool you call me?': On insult and folly in Late Antiquity
3. 'He who forms the mountains and creates the wind': Amos 4:13 and the Jewish-Christian argument in b. ?ullin 87a
4. 'Rejoice, O barren one who bore no child': Isaiah 54:1 and the Jewish-Christian argument in b. Berachot 10a
5. 'The best of them is like a brier': Micah 7:4 and the Jewish-Christian argument in b. 'Eruvin 101a
6. 'He has drawn off from them': Hosea 5:6 and the Jewish-Christian argument in b. Yevamot 102b
7. Reflections.

Subject Areas: Judaism [HRJ], Biblical studies & exegesis [HRCG], Bibles [HRCF], Christianity [HRC], History of religion [HRAX], Religion: general [HRA], Religion & beliefs [HR], Humanities [H]