Jews, Christians, and Others in Late Antiquity (3 cr)
Jeremy Schott
JSTU-J 316 #16587/ REL-A 316 #29944 / REL-R 521 #29945
TR 4:00-5:15 (BH 135)
CASE A&H; CASE GCC; credit given for only one of J316 or REL-A 316
Meets with REL-R 511
This course explores the interactions between Jews, Christians, and other religious groups in late antiquity, especially in Roman Palestine and Sasanian Persia circa the first through seventh centuries C.E. In this class we pay particular attention to the portrayals of Christians in ancient Jewish literature, but we also draw from early Christian and other sources that help add breadth to our understanding of late antique religious developments. Students explore such questions as: How did Jews define themselves in relation to Christians, and vice versa? In what ways did Jews and Christians part ways with one another, as scholars often maintain? And, lastly, what role did other groups, such as Zoroastrians, Gnostics, and Manichaeans, play in this development? This course has no prerequisites and assumes no prior knowledge of ancient studies or Bible.
