ABSTRACT
This chapter argues in support of the position that a plausible Sitz im Leben for this work is the period between the triumph of Caleb in South Arabia and the Muslim conquest of Palestine, Syria, and Egypt, and that it may in fact be one of a series of anti-Chalcedonian polemics produced in Monophysite circles between 451 and the Muslim conquests of the early seventh century. The Monophysite communities of the Near East had a demonstrable interest in the events surrounding the Axumite-Himyarite wars. In addition, the Monophysites looked upon the Chalcedonian settlement as a capitulation to Nestorianism, and they put it about that the Jews rejoiced at the council's dogmatic formula because now Christians believed as they did. The anti-Jewishness of the Kebra Nagast is not the fundamental tension of a Christian theological apologetic that needs the validity of Judaism while at the same time needing to disengage from it.
