THEODORE OF CYRUS AS BIBLICAL INTERPRETER AND THE PRESENCE OF JUDAISM IN LATER ROMAN SYRIA

Despite the increasingly Christian character of the Later Roman Empire, Judaism persisted as an important part of the social matrix. Archaeological, epigraphical and literary evidence suggests that particularly in the East Jews continued to build synagogues, participate fully in the social order and attract Christians to their rites and festivals even into the late fifth century.;Persistently Theodoret introduces a Jewish claim in the context of prophecies which he takes as oracular witness to the Messianic status of Christ, the place and significance of the Church and the emerging role of Jerusalem as a center of Christian piety.;At points he voices concerns that the Jews might shortcircuit the visions of the prophets by limiting them to a moment in the history of Israel. In this regard Theodoret says at one point; "Jews connect prophecies with Solomon or Zerubabbel to exhibit the groundlessness of the Christian position." Or the Jews might simply remove from a book the stature of prophetic as for example in assgining the Book of Daniel to the kethuviim. Theodoret also is concerned that Jews might "pull these prophets onto themselves" to substantiate their own future eschatological claims.;Christian interpretation of the Bible has always been responsive to social context and in so far as Judaism has been a part thereof, it has had an impact on the way Christians have read and explained the Biblical text. In the first three decades of the fifth century, Theodoret, the Bishop of Cyrus in northern Syria, wrote a series of commentaries on the Jewish scriptures. These commentaries composed apparently for the edification of the 'congregation' of the diocese offer historical and theological explanations of the text and demonstrate how the text serves as defense of certain Christian claims. In the course of Theodoret's exegesis there are numerous references to Jews and Judaism. A portion of these references reflect an intrusion of the sort of conflict to which we referred above.