Between Jews and Heretics: Refiguring Justin Martyr’s Dialogue with Trypho(Routledge Studies in the Early Christian World)

Justin Martyr’s Dialogue with Trypho is the oldest preserved literary dialogue between a Jew and a Christian and a key text for understanding the development of early Judaism and Christianity. In Between Jews and Heretics, Matthijs den Dulk argues that whereas scholarship has routinely cast this important text in terms of "Christianity vs. Judaism," its rhetorical aims and discursive strategies are considerably more complex, because Justin is advocating his particular form of Christianity in constant negotiation with rival forms of Christianity. The striking new interpretation proposed in this study explains many of the Dialogue’s puzzling features and sheds new light on key passages. Because the Dialogue is a critical document for the early history of Jews and Christians, this book contributes to a range of important questions, including the emergence of the notion of heresy and the "parting of the ways" between Jews and Christians.

Table of Contents:
Introduction Chapter 1 Justin Martyr, Heresy Hunter Chapter 2 The Case for an Internal Audience Chapter 3 The Dialogue as an Anti-heretical Text Chapter 4 "Heresy" and the Composition of the Dialogue Chapter 5 In Favor of Heresiology Conclusion Appendix: Justin Martyr and the Acts of the Apostles

About the Author :
Matthijs den Dulk is Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Philosophy, Theology, and Religious Studies at Radboud University, The Netherlands.

Review :
"This may be the most important book on Justin Martyr’s work in a century, solving major problems with understanding the text that have been unsolved since Harnack." - Daniel Boyarin, University of California Berkeley, USA "Matthijs den Dulk’s outstanding Between Jews and Heretics sheds new light on the central questions of Christianity in the second century: mutual self-definition among rival groups, the development of heresiological discourse, literary images of Jews and Judaism, and appropriations of the Septuagint and of traditional philosophy. Its innovative reading of Dialogue with Trypho persuasively shows how all these themes converge in Justin Martyr’s project of inventing what he considered true Christianity. This is essential reading for all historians of early Christianity." - David Brakke, The Ohio State University, USA "Taking the title Dialogue with utmost seriousness, Den Dulk has written a truly innovative book on Justin’s work while grounding his arguments in both meticulous historical philology and in critical theory. This important book situates the Dialogue in the vibrant milieu of religious diversity, inside and between Christianities and Judaisms of the second century CE, and significantly contributes to our understanding of these religious identities." - Galit Hasan-Rokem, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel "[den Dulk] advances scholarship on several core issues of second-century CE Christianity, including heresiology, the relationship between Judaism(s) and Christianities, and Christian identity articulation ... This is a masterful work that is sure to influence scholarship on early Christianity for years to come." - Nathan L. Shedd, Religious Studies Review 2019 "Den Dulk skillfully examines Justin’s contemporary social, historical, and religious contexts and offers a rich and close reading of the Dialogue based on its focus on heresiology. Given that Justin belonged to a complex social context that required negotiation between various contemporary cultures and religions, Den Dulk rightly points out that the Dialogue must be read not as a monotonous evangelical text for Jews but as a multifaceted text pursuing a variety of purposes. Den Dulk’s refreshing interpretation shows modern readers Justin’s cultural intersection with Judaism and his contemporary Christians and redefines him as the expert of heresiology." - Review of Biblical Literature 2019 "[A] measured step forward in “refiguring the second century”—hat relatively under-researched age in which the foundations of both Judaism and Christianity in their extant forms were laid... [The book] is a sustained, disciplined balancing act of close literary analysis of the complex and seemingly contradictory features of the Dialogue with a keen eye on its literary and historical setting, without giving in to the temptation of assigning it to one of the settled positions in the crucially important late second century CE." - Journal for the Study of Judaism 2019 "There is much to applaud in his book: the courage to risk the promotion and defense of new labels for early Christian groups, away from the non-native label of “Gnosticism” is just one reason... Den Dulk does an excellent job at conveying the second-century fluidity of Christian identity, and the ever-negotiated role of Jewishness without Jews, and of the Septuagint without its Jews in early Christian literature." - Edward Iricinschi, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany "The emerging discourse is a sustained, disciplined balancing act of close literary analysis of the complex and seemingly contradictory features of the Dialogue with a keen eye on its literary and historical setting, without giving in to the temptation of assigning it to one of the settled positions in the crucially important late second century CE. It leaves the reader healthily unsatisfied, craving for further information about—indeed, for further research into—the various “Jewish,” “Christian,” “pagan,” and “heretical” trends and movements that were to result in the much better documented religious and cultural landscape of the third century...Further interrogation is irresistible, and I take this as one of the clear merits of the book." - Peter J. Tomson, KU Leuven, Belgium