Jewish-Christian Disputations in the Middle Ages
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> Scriptural Starting Places:
- John 5:16-18; 11:7-8; 19:15-16
- Acts 28:23 - 28
> Disputatio: (Latin) debate, argument. In French it becomes the familiar disputation. In the Middle Ages, a disputation was a formal debate between two sides in a philosophical or theological argument.
> There were three major (and several minor) disputations between Christian theologians and Jewish rabbis in the Middle Ages:
- The Disputation of Paris, 1240
- The Disputation of Barcelona, 1263
- The Disputation of Tortossa, 1413-1414
> Background
- During the Middle Ages, there were several massacres of Jews and Christian riots in Jewish sections of cities. One of the most infamous massacre came in 1096 with the “Rhineland Massacres.” As the People’s Crusade gathered momentum in the Rhineland between France and Germany, several Jewish areas of Speyer, Worms, and Mainz were ransacked by Christian peasants and nobles and many thousands of Jews were killed. In Franconia there was a large massacre of about 500 Jews in 1298. However, Church officials often protected Jews and Jewish communities; it was the common rabble whose anti-semitism flared up in violent acts against Jews. In 1391, many Jews were massacred in Spain. This was the largest pogrom against Jews in Spanish history.
- Jews were mistrusted in the Middle Ages. Certain areas, like Spain, afforded Medieval Jews much more freedom than places like Germany or England. Under Spanish nobles, Jews were often employed as teachers, bankers, and civic officials. In most places, Jews lived in fear of death, dispossession, persecution. Their books, especially their Talmuds, were often stolen and burned.
- Talmud: collection of ancient and early medieval Jewish writings (63 tractates). Divided between the Mishnah (earlier, rabbinic oral law) and Gamara (commentary on the law). There are two basic styles in the Talmud: halakah (statutes, laws) and aggadah (stories, narratives, riddles, folk tales).
> The Disputations in Detail
- Paris, 1240
- Debaters: Nicholas Donin, Franciscan priest, convert from Judaism. Rabbi Yechiel of Paris, Talmudic scholar from northern France. A few other rabbis who were also interviewed.
- Topics: The debate centered on the Talmud, especially its passages that were considered obtuse, outrageous, and blasphemous by the Christians. The result was a bull by Pope Gregory IX condemning the Talmud and ordering a destruction of every copy in Paris.
- Excerpt: Donin: “Here is another passage in which both Jesus and Mary are blasphemed. The passage says that someone called Ben Stada, otherwise known as Ben Pandira, was hanged in Lydda on the eve of Passover. His mother’s name was Miriam, ‘the hairdresser’; her husband’s name was Poppos ben Judah, and her lover’s name was Pandira. So Mary is called an adulteress by the Talmud. (The judges cry out in anger at this.) Yechiel: Do not be angry until you have heard my reply. Mary was our flesh and bone, and we have nothing to say against her, for the Talmud does not even mention her. The ‘Miriam’ mentioned in the passage quoted by Donin cannot be the same person as Mary, for the locality mentioned in Lydda, not Jerusalem, where Jesus’ death took place, and where his Sepulchre is still to be seen.”
- Barcelona, 1263
- Debaters: Pablo Christiani, Dominican friar and convert from Judaism. Nachmanides (aka, “Ramban”) a Jewish scholar, physician, and mystic from Girona, Spain. King James I of Aragon presided, gave Nachmanides protection. Later, the archbishop of Girona requested Nachmanides write a book containing his arguments from the debate. This has survived.
- Topics: The Talmud, particularly messianic passages from the Talmud; the coming of the Messiah and His divinity; the “Christian-ness” of the Talmud; the “Greek” ideas behind Christianity; the difference between literal and allegorical interpretations of texts
- Tortossa, 1413 -1414
- Debaters: Over 69 sessions, numerous rabbis from Aragon and Catolonia participated, as well as some 70 cardinals, hundreds of church dignitaries, and Antipope Benedict XIII. Geronimo (Hieronymus) of Santa Fe, a Jewish convert, was the Christian spokesman. Rabbi Astruk Halevi, the chief Jewish participant.
- Topics: The Messiah (including the question of why some Jews believe he has already come), religious toleration and religious autonomy, faith and reason, the “two tiers” of Talmud
