User:TMDrew/Disputation at Paris

The Disputation of Paris took place in 1240 in the court of the reigning king of France, Louis IX (St. Louis). The disputation had four rabbis defending the Talmud against the accusations of a Franciscan Order member.

Background
As part of its evangelistic efforts, the Church sought to win the beliefs of the Jews through debate. During the period of the dialogues, the European Christian world was less developed technologically and intellectually than the Middle East. Because many of the great Jewish thinkers lived in the latter region, they brought more of the intellectual and philosophical developments of that area to Europe than did Christianity. Because of this, Jews prided themselves in having a rationally superior faith. They also believed that Judaism could not be refuted by reason, but that Christianity was ultimately irrational. These disputations sought to correct this. Christianity in the 13th Century was developing its intellectual acumen, and had assimilated the challenges of Aristotle through the works of Thomas Aquinas. In order to flex its intellectual muscle, the Church sought to engage the Jews in debate, hoping that these Jews would see the intellectual superiority of Christianity and convert.

Philip Johnson states a significant difference between the Jewish and Christian sides of the debate. Christianity had developed a detailed theological system. The teachings were clear, and therefore vulnerable to attack. Judaism had a relative absence of dogmatic theology. Judaism did have many negative dogmas, mainly to combat idolatry. Judaism did not, on the other hand, have a developed positive theology. “The Jews usually avoided the positive dogmas which the vanity of theologians tends to create and which are the source of so much trouble. . .the Jews had a way of concentrating on life and pushing death—and its dogmas—into the background.”

Disputers
Nicholas Donin represented the Christian side of the debate and four of the most distinguished rabbis of France, Yechiel of Paris, Moses of Coucy, Judah of Melun, and Samuel ben Solomon of Château-Thierry, represented the Jewish side of the debate. Donin was a member of the Franciscan Order and a Jewish convert to Christianity. He had persuaded Pope Gregory IX to issue a bill ordering the burning of the Talmud. Louis IX, who soponsored the debate, was a sworn enemy of Judaism, at one time mentioning that the best way to conduct a disputaiton with a Jew was to plunge a sword into him.

Trial
The terms of the disputation demanded that the four rabbis defend the Talmud against Donin's accusations that the Talmud contains blasphemies against the Christian religion, attacks on Christians themselves, blasphemies against God, and obscene folklore. The attacks on Christianity were from passages referencing Jesus and Mary. There is a passage, for example, of someone named Jesus who was sent to Hell to be boiled in excrement for eternity. The Jews denied that this is the Jesus of the Bible, stating “not every Louis born in France is king.”

Maccoby gives his opinion that the Jewish representatives in the Paris disputation were less than forthcoming. There are ancient Jewish polemics against the Jesus of Christianity such as the Toledot Yeshu, and the Jesus who was portrayed in the Talmud fits that portrayal. Among the obscene and odd folklore, there are passages that Og of Bashan was a giant. There is also a story that Adam copulated with each of the animals before finding Eve. Noah, according to the Talmudic legends, was castrated by his son Ham. It was common for Christians to equate the religion of the Jews with the Israelite Mosaic Faith of the Old Testament. The Church was therefore surprised to realize that the Jews had developed an authoritative Talmud to complement their understanding of the Bible. Maccoby believed that the purpose of the Paris disputation was to rid the Jews of their belief in the Talmud, in order that they might return to Old Testament Judaism and eventually embrace Christianity.

The hostility of the Church during this disputation may have had less to do with the Church’s attitude and more to do with the Christian proponent, Nicholas Donin. The style of Donin’s argumentation exploited controversies that were debated within Judaism at the time. Maccoby also hints that the disputation may have been motivated by Donin’s previous affiliations with the Karaite Jews, who were the Jewish equivalent of Christian Protestants. One might conclude, as Maccoby has hinted, that Donin’s motivations for joining the Church may have involved his desire to attack rabbinic tradition.

Outcome
A commission of Christian theologians condemned the Talmud to be burned and on June 17, 1244 twenty-four carriage loads of Jewish religious manuscripts were set on fire in the streets of Paris.