Christian and Jewish Communities of Aquileia through the Works of Fortunatian and Chromace

Abstract

The article deals with the complex relations between the Jewish and Christian communities in the late antique Aquileia, one of the most important cities of the Roman empire at the time. After synthetizing the historical evidence for the existence of the Jewish community and the beginnings of the encounters between the two competing religious groups, our research focuses on the two most important sources for understanding the Christian viewpoint on the Aquileian Jews: a newly discovered (2012) work Commentarii in evangelia, composed by the bishop Fortunatian of Aquileia († ca. 369), the earliest Christian written source in Aquileia, and the opus of Chromace of Aquileia († 407; Sermones and Tractatus in Matthaeum). Especially in the context of the New Testament exegesis we face a strong emphasis on the rival relations between the synagogue and the Church, henceforth the aim of the paper is to offer a genuine interpretation of the relations between Jews and Christians, based on the two fascinating documents, in the light of the literary and historical critique.

Keywords

• judaism
• commentarii in evangelia
• anti-judaistic exegesis
• supersessionism
• early christianity