Two Nations in Your Womb: Perceptions of Jews and Christians in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages

Since it was first published in Hebrew in 2000, this provocative book has been garnering acclaim and stirring controversy for its bold reinterpretation of the relationship between Judaism and Christianity in the Middle Ages, especially in medieval Europe. Looking at a remarkably wide array of source material, Israel Jacob Yuval argues that the inter-religious polemic between Judaism and Christianity served as a substantial component in the mutual formation of each of the two religions. He investigates ancient Jewish Passover rituals; Jewish martyrs in the Rhineland who in 1096 killed their own children; Christian perceptions of those ritual killings; and events of the year 1240, when Jews in northern France and Germany expected the Messiah to arrive. Looking below the surface of these key moments, Yuval finds that, among other things, the impact of Christianity on Talmudic and medieval Judaism was much stronger than previously assumed and that a "rejection of Christianity" became a focal point of early Jewish identity. Two Nations in Your Womb will reshape our understanding of Jewish and Christian life in late antiquity and over the centuries.

"Two Nations in Your Womb" confronts the historic relationship between Judaism and Christianity from a non-polemical orientation.

Israel Jacob Yuval is a professor for Jewish History and the Academic Head of "Scholion-Interdisciplinary Research Center in Jewish Studies" at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is author of Scholars in Their Time: The Religious Leadership of German Jewry in the Late Middle Ages (1988).

List of Illustrations

Preface to the Hebrew Edition

Preface to the English Edition

1. Introduction: Et Major Serviet Minori

(And the Elder Will Serve the Younger)

The Thematic Framework

The Early Typology: Esau Id Est Edom

The Late Typology: Edom Id Est Roma

The Conciliatory Approach of Modern Research

The Mother, the Daughter, and the Sister

2. Rome or Jerusalem: The Foundations of Jewish-Christian Hostility

The Sons of Ephraim and the Son of Joseph

Vindicta Salvatoris (The Vengeance of the Savior)

Legends of the Destruction--Anti-Christian?

The Passover of Egypt and the Passover of Jerusalem

Development of the Stories

Parallels between the Jewish Haggadah and the Christian "Haggadahs"

The "Midrash" of the Haggadah

Conclusions

A Note on the Research

3. The Vengeance and the Curse: Hostility to Christianity

among Ashkenazic Jewry

Vengeful Redemption

Proselytizing Redemption

The Curse

The Curse on Yom Kippur

Pour Out Thy Wrath

The Impression of the Curses on Christians

4. Intersecting Stories: From Martyrdom to Ritual Murder Accusations

The Blood

Self-Sacrifice

Sacrifice of Children

The Libel

The Impact of the Blood Sacrifice on Christians

The Libel of Blois and the Story of Bristol

5. Inverted Ceremonies: The Host, the Matzah, and the Quarrel

The Great Sabbath

The Burning of Leaven

The Eruv of Courtyards

The Afikoman

Haroset

Summary

6. The End of the Millennium (1240): Jewish Hopes, Christian Fears

Calculations of the End at the Turn of the Jewish Millennium

Messianism, Immigration to the Land of Israel, and Settling the Land

Fulda 1235, Paris 1240: Christian Reactions?

The Mongolian Threat: The Ten Tribes? Gog and Magog?

A Synchronic Overview

A Jewish End and a Christian End

Index