Teaching of Jacob

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Map of the Mediterranean region around the time of the writing of the Teaching of Jacob Byzantiumby650AD.JPG
Map of the Mediterranean region around the time of the writing of the Teaching of Jacob

The Teaching of Jacob [a] is a Greek Christian polemical tract set in Carthage and written in Syria Palaestina. The composition of the document is generally dated to 634 or shortly afterwards. [b] [4] [5] [6]

Contents

It supposedly records a weeks-long discussion ending on July 13, 634, among Jews who have been forcibly baptized by order of the emperor. One of them, Jacob, has come to believe sincerely in Christianity; he instructs the rest about why they should also sincerely embrace their new faith. Halfway through, a Jewish merchant named Justus arrives and challenges Jacob to a debate. In the end, all of the participants are convinced to embrace Christianity, and Jacob and Justus return east. [7] In addition to several partial Greek manuscripts, the text survives in Latin, Arabic, Ethiopic and Slavonic translations.

Content

The text provides one of the earliest external accounts of Islam, presenting a significantly different Islamic historiography than found in traditional Islamic texts. [8] It also shows Jacob comparing the Byzantine Empire to the fourth beast of the prophecy of Daniel from Judeo-Christian eschatology. Although not unfamiliar imagery, it is part of a series of Byzantine literature, from the early stages of the Islamic religion, of trying to reconcile Islam with the apocalyptic vision. [9] Further examples of this are contained in the pseudo-Athanasian's Quaestiones ad Antiochum ducem , and the Quaestiones et responsiones attributed to Anastasius of Sinai.

It records a prophet in Arabia who was waging war. According to Crone, who has presented a highly disputed account of the period, the document contradicts the notion in Islamic tradition that the prophet Muhammad was dead at the time of the conquest of Palestine but agrees with some traditions of other peoples of the time. [10]

When the candidatus [i.e., Sergios, commander of the Byzantine army in Palestine] was killed by the Saracens, I was at Caesarea and I set off by boat to Sykamina. People were saying "the candidatus has been killed," and we Jews were overjoyed. And they were saying that the prophet had appeared, coming with the Saracens, and that he was proclaiming the advent of the anointed one, the Christ who was to come. I, having arrived at Sykamina, stopped by a certain old man well-versed in scriptures, and I said to him: "What can you tell me about the prophet who has appeared with the Saracens?" He replied, groaning deeply: "He is false, for the prophets do not come armed with a sword. Truly they are works of anarchy being committed today and I fear that the first Christ to come, whom the Christians worship, was the one sent by God and we instead are preparing to receive the Antichrist. Indeed, Isaiah said that the Jews would retain a perverted and hardened heart until all the earth should be devastated. But you go, master Abraham, and find out about the prophet who has appeared." So I, Abraham, inquired and heard from those who had met him that there was no truth to be found in the so-called prophet, only the shedding of men's blood. He says also that he has the keys of paradise, which is incredible. [11]

Academic commentaries on the work

Notes

  1. ↑ Ancient Greek: Διδασκαλία Ἰακώβου, romanized: Didaskalia Iakobou; Latin: Doctrina Jacobi; Ge'ez: Sargis d'Aberga
  2. ↑ While some scholars, such as Sean W. Anthony and Déroche and Dagron have argued for datings several decades later, [1] [2] a majority agree with the c. 634 dating. [3]

References

  1. ↑ Anthony, Sean W. (2014-01-01). "Muḥammad, the Keys to Paradise, and the Doctrina Iacobi: A Late Antique Puzzle" . Der Islam. 91 (2). doi:10.1515/islam-2014-0010. ISSN   1613-0928.
  2. ↑ Thomas, David Richard; Roggema, Barbara; Sala, Juan Pedro Monferrer (2009). Christian-Muslim Relations: A Bibliographical History (600-900). BRILL. p. 117. ISBN   978-90-04-16975-3.
  3. ↑ Shoemaker, Stephen J. (2021). A Prophet Has Appeared: The Rise of Islam through Christian and Jewish Eyes, A Sourcebook (1 ed.). University of California Press. p. 37. ISBN   978-0-520-29961-0. [Specific references] seem to confirm that the text was indeed composed sometime very close to this date [July of 634], a matter on which there is a strong scholarly consensus.
  4. ↑ Kaegi, Walter E. (2010-11-04). Muslim Expansion and Byzantine Collapse in North Africa. Cambridge University Press. pp. 35–36. ISBN   978-0-521-19677-2. The skepticism about the authenticity of the Doctrina Jacobi is unwarranted.
  5. ↑ Crone, 3, It is set in 634 and was "in all probability written in Palestine within a few years of that date". 152³, Crone and Cook argue F. Nau's date of 640 is too late.
  6. ↑ Averil Cameron.
  7. ↑ Kaegi, Jr., 141
  8. ↑ Crone, 4
  9. ↑ Kaegi, Jr., 142
  10. ↑ Crone, 3-4
  11. ↑ Doctrina Jacobi V.16, 209. [p. 57]
  12. ↑ (Patricia Crone-Michael Cook 1976[ clarification needed ]
  13. ↑ Wells, Colin (2004-02-17). "Yehuda D. Nevo, Judith Koren, Crossroads to Islam: The Origins of the Arab Religion and the Arab State". Bryn Mawr Classical Review. Archived from the original on 2004-03-02. Retrieved 14 December 2006.

Works cited


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