Papers by Natalie Latteri
The Apocalypse of St. John and the Sefer Zerubbabel [a.k.a Apocalypse of Zerubbabel] are among th... more The Apocalypse of St. John and the Sefer Zerubbabel [a.k.a Apocalypse of Zerubbabel] are among the most popular apocalypses of the Common Era. While the Johannine Apocalypse was written by a first-century Jewish-Christian author and would later be refracted through a decidedly Christian lens, and the Sefer Zerubbabel was probably composed by a seventh-century Jewish author for a predominantly Jewish audience, the two share much in the way of plot, narrative motifs, and archetypal characters. An examination of these commonalities and, in particular, how they intersect with gender and sexuality, suggests that these texts also may have functioned similarly as a call to reform within the generations that originally received them and, perhaps, among later medieval generations in which the texts remained important
Quidditas, 2017
This paper examines textual and iconographic representations of antichrist personae in medieval C... more This paper examines textual and iconographic representations of antichrist personae in medieval Christian and Jewish manuscripts. Through a common language of polemics, Christians and Jews conflated antichrist personae to represent a more generalized category of apocalyptic antagonist that reflected the most significant temptations and threats to each respective religious community. As will be argued here, the greatest temptation and threat for Christians and Jews alike were those posed by members of the other religious group. 1
Prognostication in the Medieval World, 2020
Book Review by Natalie Latteri on Tzahi Weiss\u27 Sefer Yesirah and Its Contexts: Other Jewish Vo... more Book Review by Natalie Latteri on Tzahi Weiss\u27 Sefer Yesirah and Its Contexts: Other Jewish Voices. This review was originally published in the Journal of Medieval Worlds, Vol. 1, Number 1, pp. 117-120
Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies, 2015
Toledot Yeshu, or "Stories about Jesus," have been transmitted by Jews for centuries but only rec... more Toledot Yeshu, or "Stories about Jesus," have been transmitted by Jews for centuries but only recently have begun to garner significant scholarly attention as part of a tradition of anti-Christian polemic. This paper contends that the varied depictions of Jesus' conception in the Toledot corpus reflect the intracommunal issues of forced conversion, apostasy, and overfamiliarity with non-Jews. The theme was neither new to the Toledot nor a product of the late-antique and medieval contexts that Jewish stories of Jesus first circulated in. Rather, it echoes biblical representations of, and admonishments against, illicit relationships with non-Jews which ancient authors commonly depicted through a typology of sexual promiscuity. It is only when viewing Toledot presentations of Jesus' conception in light of both contemporary events and the Jewish biblical literary tradition that we are able to grasp their previously unnoted functions as 1) Jewish selfcriticism regarding intercommunal relations; and, 2) a didactic warning to future generations against making similar mistakes. Once there was a Jewish woman, Miriam, who lay with a man other than her husband and conceived a child, Yehoshua, Yeshu for short. A bastard and thus a blemish on his family's reputation from the start, young Yeshu would grow to become the bane of his community as well: not only was he a precocious student who disrespectfully challenged his teachers' authority, he led many Jews to stray from Judaism due to his ability to perform wondrous acts. Indeed, it was only because of his wit and craft that many believed his claims that he was the awaited Messiah and the Son of God. But the wise leaders of the community were able to secure his execution by showing Yeshu was only able to perform wonders through magic rather than miracle. After his death, a Jewish gardener guarded Yeshu's body in order to prove that he had not been resurrected, as his followers believed he would be. Still, they continued to agitate the community with their protests that Yeshu was the Messiah. It was only after a pious and learned Jew, Paul, convinced those who persisted in their unorthodox beliefs to separate themselves from the community that the dissenters established a different religious identity as Christians.
Women in Judaism: A Multidisciplinary e-Journal, 2016
The Apocalypse of St. John and the Sefer Zerubbabel [a.k.a Apocalypse of Zerubbabel] are among th... more The Apocalypse of St. John and the Sefer Zerubbabel [a.k.a Apocalypse of Zerubbabel] are among the most popular apocalypses of the Common Era. While the Johannine Apocalypse was written by a first-century Jewish-Christian author and would later be refracted through a decidedly Christian lens, and the Sefer Zerubbabel was probably composed by a seventh-century Jewish author for a predominantly Jewish audience, the two share much in the way of plot, narrative motifs, and archetypal characters. An examination of these commonalities and, in particular, how they intersect with gender and sexuality, suggests that these texts also may have functioned similarly as a call to reform within the generations that originally received them and, perhaps, among later medieval generations in which the texts remained important.
A Companion to the Premodern Apocalypse, 2000
A Companion to the Premodern Apocalypse, 2000
Journal of Medieval Worlds
Eschatology, based on the Greek word ἔσχατον, eschaton, or last, is typically defined as the doct... more Eschatology, based on the Greek word ἔσχατον, eschaton, or last, is typically defined as the doctrine, or collections of doctrines, regarding "last" or "final" things. As the ordinal nomenclature suggests, scholars of eschatology tend to conceive of last things as future agents, events, and phenomena which collectively punctuate a linear span of human history. Adding nuance to this definition, Moshe Idel has succinctly articulated that there are at least three types of eschaton conceived of within the Judaic tradition: a personal eschaton, as in death, that is followed by either post-mortem reward or punishment; a communal or collective eschaton, as in the decline of a religio-ethnic group or civilization, or the passing of one era to the next; and a cosmic eschaton, manifest in the natural phenomena of earthquakes, blood moons, the death of stars, and more. Idel, Henning Graf Reventlow, Bill T. Arnold, and many other scholars have illustrated that, though gruesome accounts of death and an unpleasant afterlife, and/ or foreboding signs signaling a devastated, blighted environment contribute broadly to Jewish eschatology, these elements are typically subsumed within a fundamentally communal eschatology.
This paper examines textual and iconographic representations of antichrist personae in medieval C... more This paper examines textual and iconographic representations of antichrist personae in medieval Christian and Jewish manuscripts. Through a common lan- guage of polemics, Christians and Jews conflated antichrist personae to represent a more generalized category of apocalyptic antagonist that reflected the most significant temptations and threats to each respective religious community. As will be argued here, the greatest temptation and threat for Christians and Jews alike were those posed by members of the other religious group.
The Apocalypse of St. John and the Sefer Zerubbabel [a.k.a Apocalypse of Zerubbabel] are among th... more The Apocalypse of St. John and the Sefer Zerubbabel [a.k.a Apocalypse of Zerubbabel] are among the most popular apocalypses of the Common Era. While the Johannine Apocalypse was written by a first-century Jewish-Christian author and would later be refracted through a decidedly Christian lens, and the Sefer Zerubbabel was probably composed by a seventh-century Jewish author for a predominantly Jewish audience, the two share much in the way of plot, narrative motifs, and archetypal characters. An examination of these commonalities and, in particular, how they intersect with gender and sexuality, suggests that these texts also may have functioned similarly as a call to reform within the generations that originally received them and, perhaps, among later medieval generations in which the texts remained important.
Toledot Yeshu, or “Stories about Jesus,” have been transmitted by Jews for centuries but have onl... more Toledot Yeshu, or “Stories about Jesus,” have been transmitted by Jews for centuries but have only recently begun to garner significant scholarly attention as part of a tradition of anti-Christian polemic. This paper contends that the varied depictions of Jesus’ conception in the Toledot corpus reflect the intracommunal issues of forced conversion, apostasy, and over-familiarity with non-Jews. The theme was neither new to the Toledot nor a product of the late-antique and medieval contexts that Jewish stories of Jesus first circulated in. Rather, it echoes biblical representations of, and admonishments against, illicit relationships with non-Jews which ancient authors commonly depicted through a typology of sexual promiscuity. It is only when viewing Toledot presentations of Jesus’ conception in light of both contemporary events and the Jewish biblical literary tradition that we are able to grasp their previously unnoted functions as 1) Jewish self-criticism regarding inter-communal relations; and, 2) a didactic warning to future generations against making similar mistakes.
Talks by Natalie Latteri
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Papers by Natalie Latteri
Talks by Natalie Latteri
While there is certainly validity to this interpretation, and I will share some of the most compelling arguments advanced by others, this paper focusses on what the intended message may have been for Jews residing in Christian lands who were regularly forced to confront a dominant Christian culture and, increasingly, pressures to conform to it through assimilation and ultimately apostasy. In exploring this topic, I will first provide an overview of the narratives and idiosyncrasies found within the best-known recensions of these texts which circulated in medieval Europe, concentrating specifically on representations, or the lack thereof, of Jesus’ mother, Mary. As the Mother of the Christian Messiah and a false or anti-Messiah for Jews, Mary occupies the unique position of the first Jewish convert to Christianity. This role has been understated in the scholarship of both the Toledot and the Sefer Zerubbabel, but it is in this position that Mary, more than any of the other personae save perhaps only Jesus, was implicated in the splintering of the Jewish community. I argue that, even as she provided the model of behavior for Christians of passivity and unquestioning acceptance of what she was led to believe was the will of God, she epitomized the type of behavior that the authors and redactors of Toledot and Sefer Zerubbabel critiqued and presumably sought to discourage within their own communities by maligning her as an adulteress, whore, damnably defiled, too easily acquiescent, and/or ignorant.