ABSTRACT

According to Church dogma, the Jews lost their standing as the “chosen people” to the Christians because they refused to embrace Jesus. There is a pair of contrasting medieval Christian discourses regarding Jewish sexuality: the Jews as lascivious and sexually potent; and Jewish men as effeminate, namely weak, feeble, pale, and even menstruating. The new details and alternatives put forth over the years by the Christian and Jewish copyists-cum-editors served their respective communities’ changing political, ideological, theological, and social needs. In Augustine’s estimation, the Jews’ lack of autonomy, dispersion, and hardships substantiated the Church’s triumph over Judaism. While citing different reasons for the state of affairs, both Jews and Christians agree that the Tribes remain moored to their land. The association of the Jews with the nations, as well as the devil, in the era’s Christian discourse was part and parcel of a dehumanization campaign against Jewish society.