ABSTRACT
In the mid-seventeenth century Jewish history, practices and beliefs were highly charged subjects for English Protestants. Jewishness was often used to define what “Englishness” was not, but, at the same time, many Christian commentators noticed similarities between English and Jewish peoples. Despite the thirteenth-century banishment of Jews from England, there were increasing contacts and dialogue between Christians and Jews which lead to the debate about Jewish readmission in the 1650s. This article places Winstanley’s frequent use of metaphors of Jewishness in his writings within this history of increased contact between Christians and Jews in the period. It explores the extent to which Winstanley was using an historical Israelite identity as a metaphor for the situation and aspirations of the Diggers. It also questions whether the Diggers’ interest in Jewishness was purely historical, and examines the extent to which the movement engaged with contemporary Jewry.
