Quasi et ipsi nunc lapident iustos et occident prophetas: reflexiones críticas respecto de la motivación histórica del sermo XIII de Cromacio de Aquileia

Judaism and its followers are a usual target of the invectives of Chromatius of Aquileia. In fact, with reference to common stereotypes from aduersus Iudaeos literature, his Sermones and his Tractatus in Mathaeum offered an extremely depreciating image of the Jewish religion and its members. Nevertheless, several scholars have asserted that sermo XIII involved a reaction to the Jewish presence in the city, based principally on the fact that Chromatius linked the contemporary Jews to the stoning of the prophets and the murder of the Just. The aim of this paper is to reconsider this interpretation. I will maintain, on the one hand, that the crimes denounced by Chromatius in sermo XIII did not transcend the clichés of the aduersus Iudaeos literature; and on the other hand, that the imputation of these crimes to the contemporary Jews is not sufficient evidence to accept that the homily was historically motivated, since the attribution of the sins committed by the Jews of the past to the Jews of the present is a usual rhetorical practice in Chromatius’ work.