In the Service of Orthodoxy: Anti-Jewish Language and Intra-Christian Conflict in the Writings of Ephrem the SyrianSyriaca.org: The Syriac Reference PortalThe National Endowment for the HumanitiesThe International Balzan Prize FoundationDavid A. Michelsoncbsc_adminRecord added to Zotero bycbsc_adminSyriaca.org: The Syriac Reference Portalhttp://syriaca.org/cbss/DW5DK75A/tei
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CREATED: This bibl record was autogenerated from a Zotero record.Christine C.ShepardsonIn the Service of Orthodoxy: Anti-Jewish Language and Intra-Christian Conflict in the Writings of Ephrem the Syrianhttp://syriaca.org/cbss/DW5DK75Ahttps://www.zotero.org/groups/a_comprehensive_bibliography_on_syriac_studies/items/DW5DK75Ahttps://www.zotero.org/groups/4861694/items/DW5DK75A2003This dissertation is a study of the anti-Jewish rhetoric in the writings of the fourth-century Syriac poet and theologian Ephrem, "the Syrian". Primarily, it is an investigation of the social and political repercussions Ephrem's anti-Jewish rhetoric had in his controversies against Jews, allegedly Judaizing Christians, and so-called "Arians" in eastern Syria. It is also, however, a challenge to the traditional academic separation of Syriac Christianity from the study of Greek and Latin Christianity in late antiquity. Using literary and archaeological evidence, this study argues that Ephrem's anti-Jewish rhetoric addressed not only those in his church audience whom he accused of attending Jewish festivals, but also "heretical" Christians whose actions and subordinationist beliefs he called Jewish. Despite Syriac Christianity's marginalized position in modern scholarship, Ephrem's writings participated fully in "orthodox" Nicene leaders' efforts to gain political control of the Roman Empire. The critical analysis of Ephrem's ideological rhetoric reveals the ways in which he manipulated scriptural narratives of history and social descriptions of his own context to construct a new (Nicene) definition of Syriac Christianity that forced his Christian opponents into the non-Christian category of "Jews." The very boundaries of "Christianity" and "Judaism" that he purported merely to describe were, in fact, called into being by his rhetoric itself. This investigation complicates the reading of Ephrem's anti-Jewish rhetoric by recognizing its role against "Arian" Christians as well as allegedly Judaizing Christians. Comparing his rhetoric with that of his Greek contemporaries also reveals the significant role of anti-Jewish rhetoric in the "Nicene/Arian" conflict, as well as the Syrian Ephrem's self-conscious participation in the struggle to make Nicene "orthodoxy" the Christianity of the Empire.
Shepardson, Christine C. “In the Service of Orthodoxy: Anti-Jewish Language and Intra-Christian Conflict in the Writings of Ephrem the Syrian.” Ph.D. dissertation, Duke University, 2003.
Christine C. Shepardson, In the Service of Orthodoxy: Anti-Jewish Language and Intra-Christian Conflict in the Writings of Ephrem the Syrian (Ph.D. dissertation, Duke University, 2003).ArianismEphremIV CEJewish-Christian relationsanti-Judaismheterodoxyorthodoxy