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SummaryHaving surveyed the entire section on the liturgy, we can now summarize what this section tells us about the compilation of NY. First, Christian preachers quoted these Latin texts from the liturgy in order to make points about Christian belief. These texts were remembered by the compilers of NY, though only because of their interest in refuting them. As the Latin texts were handed down among Jews, whether orally or in writing, phrases dropped out, and unrelated quotations were run together into what looked like continuous texts. As these came to be written down, the transliterations of the Latin into Hebrew letters gave rise to further misunderstandings, some of which were incorporated into the Hebrew explanations and refutations that were the main purpose of NY. The German translations witness to an intermediate state of transmission, for they incorporate some of the corruptions of the Hebrew but not others. With the possible exception of the Apostles' Creed, therefore, the translations appear to be of Jewish origin and not, like the Latin, taken from Christian sermons or other sources. The German texts therefore confirm the impression that the NY was entirely a defensive document, drawn up by people who knew Christianity only second hand. From the point of view of the text critic, this part of the NY is of great interest as exhibiting an unusual kind of textual transmission. It shows us what can happen when texts are preserved and handed down among people who do not know the language well, are not familiar with the original context, do not agree or sympathize with what the texts mean, and indeed hold them in low esteem, for the only interest that the compilers of NY had in these texts was as self-defense against religious persecution. But a more fully humane view allows us to see much more: what some of the central and most respected rituals of one religious culture looked like to the minority in its midst—a community actively resisting intense and relentless pressure to dissolve into the mainstream society. To the Christian reader, or to one for whom the Latin Christian culture defines the normative Middle Ages, this section of the NY looks like no more than a motley collection of stray excerpts from the medieval Christian liturgy, corrupt and misunderstood. But seen from its own internal perspective, NY makes a consistent and intelligible statement. Under pressure to recognize themselves in the incomplete, distorted, and degraded depictions of Jews that the Christian society accepted and promoted, the compilers of the Old Polemic sought to turn the mirror around. What their text offers is not a weak protest—"We don't understand Latin very well, your liturgy makes no sense to us"—but rather a strong affirmation—"It is your worship, not ours, that is abominable and impure, corrupt, and even Satanic. It is we, not you, who are faithful to the revelation and commandments of God." |
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