Disease and the Christian Discourse of Jewish Death in De Excidio Hierosolymitano 5, 2

Bay, Carson (2021). Disease and the Christian Discourse of Jewish Death in De Excidio Hierosolymitano 5, 2. Vox Patrum, 78, pp. 157-182. Institute of History of the Church and Patrology of John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin 10.31743/vp.12268

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The late-fourth century work called On the Destruction of Jerusalem (De Excidio Hierosolymitano), or “Pseudo-Hegesippus”, records the history of the Roman-Jewish War (66-73 CE) and particularly the destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple by the Romans in 70 CE. As a Christian version of this history based largely upon Flavius Josephus’ earlier Jewish War, De Excidio understands himself to be telling the story of the effective death of the Jews in history. One major aspect of this narrative, I argue, is a discourse of Jewish disease, wherein Ps-Hegesippus portrays the Jews as “sick” with the plague of civil insurrection and sedition. But this discourse goes much further as well, cutting to the very core of De Excidio’s narrative logic. Here I argue that this discourse of Jewish disease finds its most powerful expression in one particular chapter of the work, Book 5, Chapter 2. I show that De Excidio 5.2 epitomizes the work’s rhetoric of Jewish contagion, which can nevertheless be traced throughout the entirety of the work.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

01 Faculty of Theology > Institute of Jewish Studies
01 Faculty of Theology > Institute of Historical Theology

UniBE Contributor:

Bay, Carson Michael

Subjects:

200 Religion
200 Religion > 220 The Bible
200 Religion > 230 Christianity & Christian theology
200 Religion > 270 History of Christianity
400 Language
400 Language > 470 Latin & Italic languages
400 Language > 480 Classical & modern Greek languages
800 Literature, rhetoric & criticism
800 Literature, rhetoric & criticism > 870 Latin & Italic literatures
800 Literature, rhetoric & criticism > 880 Classical & modern Greek literatures

ISSN:

2719-3586

Publisher:

Institute of History of the Church and Patrology of John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin

Funders:

[4] Swiss National Science Foundation

Projects:

[UNSPECIFIED] Lege Iosephum! (SNF 180217)

Language:

English

Submitter:

Carson Michael Bay

Date Deposited:

11 Apr 2022 09:28

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 16:16

Publisher DOI:

10.31743/vp.12268

Additional Information:

ISSN 0860-9411 (print), 2719-3586 (online)

BORIS DOI:

10.48350/167897

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/167897

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