Jews and miracles in tales from the Legenda Aurea

Abstract

The medieval Christian attitude towards Jews cannot be easily characterised. Legend often portrayed Jews as hostile, grotesque and murderous. Yet close reading of medieval Christian stories about Jews reveals a more complex picture. The Legenda Aurea, compiled by Jacobus de Voragine in the thirteenth century from earlier sources, includes among its recitals of saints' lives, miracles and related religious themes a number of tales in which Christian miracles are brought forth, albeit perhaps unwittingly, by the agency of Jews. In these tales, Jews may be shown engaging in 'hostile' behaviour such as the desecration of Christian images, but also in surprisingly 'benign' behaviour, such as invoking the protection of the cross. In either case, Jewish characters always play a significant role in enabling the occurrence of miraculous events. These miracles then restore order by silencing unbelief, causing the reform of erring Christians, and bringing about the conversion of the Jewish protagonists. Thus, the portrayal of Jews in the Legenda Aurea is not merely a series of denunciations of Jews, but rather a complex attempt to invoke Jewishness in situations that inevitably lead to the transformation of Jewish identity into Christian identity.Christian theological and social ambivalence toward Jews (discussed in Chapter One) developed from the Pauline doctrine ofthe Jews as the first, though undeserving, recipients of Christianity, and the Augustinian concept of Jews as outcast and subjugated, but still crucial witnesses to Christian truth. This truth was attested to in early and medieval rhetoric about miracles (Chapter Two); miracles involving saints, icons and Christian symbols were cited to affirm divine sanction for Christ and Christianity, and could be instrumental in converting Jews. Following this discussion of Jews and of miracle, the three final chapters discuss tales from the Legenda Aurea that depict miracles being enabled by Jewish actions. These could be hostile Jewish attacks on Christian images or personages (Chapter Three). However, other tales depict Jews inviting miracles by behaving as ifthey had some belief in, or secret knowledge of, Christ or the cross (Chapter Four). Finally, the 'Silvester' legend (Chapter Five) depicts Jews disputing with Christians and turning to magic when rhetoric fails, but being vanquished by a Christian miracle that they themselves have challenged the saint to perform.In these various tales, Jews inhabit a transformative space in which icons are prompted to bleed or speak, Christ's cross appears from the ground, and a dead bull is brought to life. Individual Jewish characters refer to the role ofthe Jewish people in Christian salvific history, with emphasis on the Crucifixion and Resurrection and on the conversion of all Israel at the end oftime. Jews are connected to death and resurrection, symbolised by the burial, unearthing and transformation of people and objects, and to blood, whether in genealogical or literal terms. Ultimately, while the Legenda Aurea tales may have sought to marginalise Jews and distance Christian practices and attitudes from those, real or imagined, of Judaism, they nonetheless return again and again to ideas ofthe Jew, which they show to be inescapably intertwined with the fundamentals of early and medieval Christian beliefs.