Semitic Christianity: St. Aphrahat & The Sages of Babylonian Talmud

This is a reading for serious students of Church and Jewish history. It is based on my Ph.D. dissertation at Stellenbosch University on the history of Jewish-Christian polemics. There I reconstruct the fourth-century polemic between sages of the Babylonian Talmud and a local Semitic Christian community. In this work, I compare what St. Aphrahat (who writes in the language of the Babylonian Talmud) with what Jewish sages had to say concerning 5 key topics (circumcision, prayer, Passover, kashrut and fasting). Regarding the nature of Aphrahat s encounters with the Jews, this book provides a set of additional or secondary conclusions that concern a variety of topics such as the nature of Jewish missions to (Jewish) Christians and Aphrahat s treatment of the Christian Pascha/Passover in relationship to the idea of the Christian Sabbath.