Jewish-Christian-Pagan Polemics in Antiquity

MA seminar, two semesters

Syllabus -- the rise of Christianity created great shockwaves in the first few centuries CE, and generated many objections. One way in which these objections manifested themselves is the spread of nasty stories about Jesus: Whereas the Christians claimed that he was the Messiah and the Son of God, who was crucified for the salvation of humanity, their opponents claimed that he was an impostor, a lier, a mamzer and a magician, who was executed in the most shameful manner. During the seminar, we shall read many of these stories, and try to place them in their wider social and historical contexts. We shall begin by reading the New Testament Gospels, so see what stories the Christians told about Jesus, and with which nasty stories they tried to cope. We shall then read some of the pagan polemical literature of Antiquity (and esp. the writings of Celsus, as preserved by Origen), and we shall devote much time to reading the earliest versions of ''Toledoth Yeshu'', the Jewish work that purports to relate ''the true story'' about the deeds and death of Jesus. We shall read the Greek and Judaeo-Arabic texts in Hebrew and English translations, and the Aramaic and Hebrew texts in the original languages. 

Course requirements - active participation in class, and a research paper (referat or avodah seminarionit) at the end of the year.