Christian Memories of the Maccabean Martyrs »

Daniel Joslyn-Siemiatkoski is Assistant Professor of Church History at Church Divinity School of the Pacific, a founding member of the Graduate Theological Union, in Berkeley, California. His research focuses on the history of Jewish-Christian relations in the late antique and medieval periods. He received his Ph.D. from Boston College.

This book examines late antique and medieval devotional texts and materials, ranging from the eastern Mediterranean to northwestern Europe, related to the Maccabean martyrs. This unique group of people were Jews who died for the Mosaic Law before the birth of Jesus. Joslyn-Siemiatkoski demonstrates that Christian thinkers constructed memories of the Maccabean martyrs that simultaneously appropriated Jewish traditions and obscured the Jewish origins of Christianity.

List of Abbreviations

Introduction Remembering the Maccabean Martyrs 1

1 The Earliest Memories of the Maccabean Martyrs and Resistance Culture 13

2 Late Antique Bishops and Memories of the Maccabean Martyrs 29

3 Memories of the Maccabean Martyrs in the Christian Medieval West 79

4 Jewish Saints and Christian Cities: Rhineland Traditions of the Maccabean Martyrs 121

Conclusion: Memories of the Maccabean Martyrs and Remembering History Ethically 161

Notes 175

Bibliography 217

Subject Index 239

Index of Biblical Sources 251