The History of the Curse on the Minim, a Jewish Prayer against Christians

• Main Author: Maria Maksimova
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: St. Philaret’s Christian Orthodox Institute 2016-05-01
• Series: Вестник Свято-Филаретовского института
• Subjects: minim; nozerim; prayer against christians; jewish-christian relations; the early church; rabbinate; synagogue; миним; назореи; молитва против христиан; иудео-христианские отношения; ранняя церковь; раввины; синагога
• Online Access: https://psmb-neos-resources.hb.bizmrg.com/target/sfi/58e2360369e0c893647be5edca2adf86102f8fde/%D0%90%D0%BB%D1%8C%D0%BC%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B0%D1%85%D0%A1%D0%A4%D0%98_%D0%92%D1%8B%D0%BF18.65-77.pdf
• ISSN: 2658-7599; 2713-3141

The article analyses the scholarly debate on the origins of the curse on the minim and on whether it was uttered against Judeo-Christians. The curse on the minim is traditionally believed to have appeared in the late I century against Judeo- Christians. This presumption is based on the Talmud text of the V century and on the writings of two Church Fathers of the IV–V centuries. To whom was the term “minim” referred in the II–III centuries? In the course of several centuries, no Christian writers, except St Epiphanius and St Jerome who lived in Palestine among Jews in the late IV–V centuries, mentioned this prayer in their writings. It is possible that only in the Byzantine period the curse on the minim in Palestine started being uttered directly against Judeo-Christians, named nozerim.