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BIBL 46800: TRAGEDY AND THE TRAGIC VISION IN EARLY JEWISH AND CHRISTIAN LITERATURE

University of Chicago Professor: Jeff Jay (jeffreyj@uchicago.edu)

Divinity School Office: Swift 401
Spring Quarter 2018 Office Hours: F (by appointment via e-mail)
M/W 1:30-2:50 p.m. (Swift 208)

We will start by studying the tragic theories of Friedrich Nietzsche, George Steiner, Simone Weil, and David Tracy,
with special attention to how each theorist construes the contested relationship between tragedy and the Judeo-
Christian tradition, which is viewed variously as hostile or responsive to tragedy, incapable of anything approaching
“authentic tragedy” or productive of the best examples of its kind. In light of this conflict of interpretations we will
then study, discuss, and closely interpret a variety of early Jewish and Christian texts where tragic drama is
appropriated, interpreted, and/or composed, and where the tragic vision in some form is (arguably) alive. Authors
to be studied include (among others): Ezekiel the Tragedian (who dramatizes the Exodus in the form of Greek tragic
drama), Philo of Alexandria, Paul, Mark, John, Origen, Lucian, and Pseudo-Gregory’s Christus patiens (which is an
adaptation of poetic material from Euripides’ Bacchae for a presentation of Christ’s passion and resurrection).

COURSE SCHEDULE

Date Topics Readings

Depending on individual interest levels and time,
wide reading in the classical tragedies is highly
recommended; good texts to start with include:
Aeschylus’s Oresteia; Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex and
Antigone; Aristotle’s Poetics; and various tragedies
of Seneca.
Further reading and recommendations for deeper
research into particular areas are recommended
throughout the syllabus with reference to the last
name of individual scholars; for the full references,
see the select bibliography.

Introduction
3/26 Form, Vision, and Posing Some Questions
The problem of Jewish and Christian tragedy
Genre vs. sensibility, literary vs. philosophical
Tracy’s approach to tragic wisdom
David Tracy, “On Tragic Wisdom,” 13-24 (from
Wrestling with God and with Evil, ed. Hendrik M.
Vroom) (reserve)

Tragic Theory One: Simone Weil

3/28 De la force
What is force/might?
Where is/is there hope?
4/2 Greeks, Romans, Christians, Jews
What literature is capable/incapable of the vision
of force according to Weil? Why?
How to read Antigone with the workers
A Materialist Platonist? Is Weil an oxymoron?
Simone Weil, The Iliad or the Poem of Force (ed. and
trans. by James P. Holoka)
Simone Weil, “Antigone,” 18-23 (from Intimations of
Christianity Among the Ancient Greeks)
David Tracy, “Simone Weil and the Impossible: A
Radical View of Religion and Culture,” 208-22
(from The Critical Spirit, ed. Andrew Pierce and
Geraldine Smith) (all reserve) next p.
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Recommended: Holoka, Allen and Springstead,

Springstead, Gabriella, Pollard

An Example of Greek Tragedy with Which to Think

4/4 Euripides, Bacchae Euripides, Bacchae (trans. William Arrowsmith; from
Formal features the Complete Greek tragedies, ed. David Grene
Motifs and moods and Richmond Lattimore)
Tragedy as civic theology Courtney J.P. Friesen, “Reading Euripides’ Bacchae:
Some Meanings and Effects,” 40-56 (from Reading
Dionysus) (reserve)

Tragedy and the Tragic in Early Jewish Literature

4/9 The Early Jewish Turn to Greek Poetry Aristobulus (OTP, 831-42)
Aristobulus Fragments of Pseudo-Greek Poets (OTP, 821-30)
Jewish Poetic Forgeries Ezekiel the Tragedian, Exagoge (OTP, 803-19)
A context for introducing Ezekiel the Tragedian (all reserve)
4/11 An Early Jewish Tragedy: Ezekiel the Tragedian, Ezekiel the Tragedian, Exagoge (OTP, 803-19)
Exagoge Review Euripides, Bacchae, 1-63
From fragments to whole Aeschylus, Persae, 176-230, 249-514
Tragic form: prologue, messenger speech, dream Georgia Xanthakis-Karamanos, “The Exagoge of
Tragic vision? Ezekiel and fifth-century tragedy. Similarities of
theme and concept,” 223-39 (from Rezeption des
antiken Dramas auf der Bühne und in der Literatur,
ed. Bernhard Zimmermann) (all reserve)
Recommended: Jacobson, Lanfranchi, Snell
4/16 Philo of Alexandria, In Flaccum: Theater, Philo, In Flaccum
Spectacle, and Stage-Craft Pieter W. van der Horst, “Introduction,” 1-53 (from
The theater in the early Jewish diaspora Philo’s Flaccus: The First Progrom)
Introducing the In Flaccum Philo, De ebrietate, 177
Philo, Quod omnis probus liber sit, 141
Jeff Jay, “The Problem of the Theater in Early
Judaism,” JSJ 44 (2013): 218-53 (all reserve)
4/18 Philo of Alexandria, In Flaccum: The Tragic Jeff Jay, “Spectacle and Stage-Craft in Philo’s In
Mode vs. genre Flaccum,” (forthcoming) (from Jews and Drama:
Tragic historiography Ancient Jewish Attitudes to, and Engagements
The tragic as a mode in In Flaccum with, Performance on the Stage and on the Page,
ed. Sandra Gambetti and Lutz Doering) (reserve)
Recommended: van der Horst, Gambetti

Tragic Theory Two: The Early Nietzsche

4/23 A Vision of the Dionysiac Nietzsche, Birth of Tragedy (trans. Spiers; Cambridge
What is the Dionysiac? Texts in the History of Philosophy)
Apollonian vs. Dionysiac
Dialogue vs. chorus
4/25 Birth, Death, Re-birth of Tragedy Nietzsche, Birth of Tragedy
Nietzsche’s narrative of tragedy’s literary history Recommended: Silk and Stern, Lensen, Benjamin
in the West
What’s wrong with Socrates and Euripides?
Nietzsche’s retrospective attempt at self-
critique: an all too Christian vision!

Tragedy and the Tragic in Early Christianity
4/30 Paul
“We have become a theater to the world” (1 Cor
4:9)
Tragedy in the Pauline critique of factionalism
Dionysus and Christ in the Christ Hymn (Phil 2)
5/2 Mark
From Paul to Mark
The tragic in the story of John the Baptist
5/7 Mark
The tragic in the story of Jesus and the disciples
The end of Mark (16:8)
5/9 John
Living death
Departure, farewell, consolation
5/14 John
What’s Dionysius have to do with Jesus?
Assessing MacDonald’s argument and approach
5/16 Lucian and Celsus: Pagan Critiques of the Gospel
Peregrinus and Christ as tragic figures
Lucian’s knowledge of Christian books
Ridiculing tragedy as fiction
Tragic Theory Three: George Steiner
5/21 The Death of Tragedy
Steiner and Nietzsche
Steiner’s narrative of tragedy’s death
What’s wrong with secular liberalism?
Steiner’s nihilism (and hope in spite of himself)
The Christus patiens
5/23 Christ Meets Dionysus, John Meets Euripides
5/30 Christian Tragedy Beyond Antiquity
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1 Corinthians 1-4, 15; Philippians 1-2
Courtney J. P. Friesen, “Paulus Tragicus: Staging
Apostolic Adversity in 1 Corinthians,” JBL 134
(2015): 813-32 (reserve)
Michael Benjamin Cover, “The Death of Tragedy:
The Form of God in Euripides’s Bacchae and Paul’s
Carmen Christi,” HTR 111 (2018): 66-89 (reserve)
The Gospel of Mark
Jeff Jay, “The Tragic in John’s Story,” 205-29 (from
The Tragic in Mark) (reserve)
The Gospel of Mark
Jeff Jay, “Interpreting the Tragic as a Mode in the
Gospel of Mark,” 179-204 and “The Tragic in the
Passion,” 231-61 (from The Tragic in Mark)
(reserve)
The Gospel of John
George L. Parsenios, “‘No Longer in the World’
(17:11): The Transformation of the Tragic in the
Fourth Gospel,” HTR 98 (2005): 1-21 (reserve)
George L. Parsenios, “Arise, Let Us Go Forth!” 49-76
(from Departure and Consolation) (reserve)
Dennis R. MacDonald, The Dionysian Gospel: The
Fourth Gospel and Euripides, 23-123 (reserve)
Recommended: Brant, Parsenios, Verburg
Lucian, Life of Peregrinus Proteus
Courtney J. P. Friesen, “A God Dismembered or
Dismembering? Divine Retribution Between
Celsus and Origen,” 149-72 (from Reading
Dionysus)
Margaret M. Mitchell, “Origen, Celsus, and Lucian
on the ‘Denouement of the Drama’ of the
Gospels,” 215-36 (from Reading Religions in the
Ancient World, ed. David E. Aune and Robin
Darling Young)
Jeff Jay, “Lucian of Samosata,” 62-70 (from The
Tragic in Mark) (all reserve)
George Steiner, The Death of Tragedy, 3-10, 351-54
George Steiner, “Note on Absolute Tragedy,”
Journal of Literature and Theology 4 (1990): 147-
56 (all reserve)
Pseudo-Gregory, Christus patiens (trans. Fishbone)
Courtney J. P. Friesen, “Towards a Pious Poetics:
Pseudo-Gregory’s Christus patiens,” 251-60 (from
Reading Dionysus (all reserve)
James A. Parente, “The Development of Religious
Tragedy: The Humanist Reception of the Christos
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Paschon in the Renaissance,” The Sixteenth

Century Journal 16 (1985): 351-68.
Marigo Alexopouou, “Christus patiens and the
Reception of Euripides’ Bacchae in Byzantium,”
123-37 (from Dialogues with the Past 1: Classical
Reception Theory and Practice, ed. Anastasia
Bakogianni) (all reserve)
Recommended: Tuilier, Brambs

NOTE ON BOOKS

Most of the material for this course will be available on reserve, which you can access via Canvas. However, I
recommended for purchase: Simone Wiel, The Iliad or the Poem of Force, ed. and trans. James P. Holoka (Peter Lang,
2003) (available at SemCoop); Friedrich Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy and Other Writings, ed. Raymond Geuss and
Ronald Speirs (Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy, 1999) (available at SemCoop); and Euripides, Bacchae,
trans. William Arrowsmith (The Complete Greek Tragedies, Euripides V; ed. David Grene and Richmond Lattimore)
(available cheaply from on-line sellers). For the texts of the New Testament, I recommend the NRSV either in the
HarperCollins Study Bible or the New Oxford Annotated Bible. Philo’s In Flaccum and Lucian’s Peregrinus Proteus
are available on-line via the Loeb Classical Library (a link is available on reserve); however, the on-line Loeb can be
cumbersome for consultation in class discussion, and so you may consider purchasing these texts for your personal
library or checking these volumes out from the library or interlibrary loan.

ASSIGNMENTS AND GRADES

Discussion and Participation (12%): Attendance, participation, and attentiveness are mandatory.

Paper (88%): 15 pp. double spaced standard font (though the paper may be longer); write on any topic of your
choosing pertaining to the course. I would be delighted to discuss your topics with you during office hours. Due last
day of finals week spring quarter (for extensions, speak with me first; no extensions past June 30, 2018).

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

Marigo Alexopouou, “Christus patiens and the Reception of Euripides’ Bacchae in Byzantium,” 123-37 (Dialogues
with the Past 1: Classical Reception Theory and Practice, ed. Anastasia Bakogianni; Institute of Classical Studies;
School of Advanced Study, 2013).
Allen Allen and Eric Springstead, Spirit, Nature, and Community Issues in the Thought of Simone Weil(State
University of New York Press, 1989).
Walter Benjamin, Origin of German Tragic Drama (trans. J. Osborne; New Left Books, 1977).
J.G. Brambs, Christus patiens: tragoedia Christiana (Teubner, 1885).
Jo-Ann A. Brant, Dialogue and Drama: Elements of Greek Tragedy in the Fourth Gospel (Hendrickson, 2004).
Michael Benjamin Cover, “The Death of Tragedy: The Form of God in Euripides’s Bacchae and Paul’s Carmen
Christi,” HTR 111 (2018): 66-89.
Euripides, Bacchae, trans. William Arrowsmith (The Complete Greek Tragedies, Euripides V; ed. David Grene and
Richmond Lattimore).
Courtney J. P. Friesen, Reading Dionysus: Euripides Bacchae and the Cultural Contestations of Greeks, Jews,
Romans, and Christians (Mohr Siebeck, 2015).
------ “Paulus Tragicus: Staging Apostolic Adversity in 1 Corinthians,” JBL 134 (2015): 813-32.
Fiori Gabriella, Simone Weil: An Intellectual Biography (trans. Joseph Berrigan; University of Georgia, 1989).
Sandra Gambetti, The Alexandrian Riots of 38 C.E. and the Persecution of the Jews: A Historical reconstruction (Brill,
2009).
Pieter W. van der Horst, Philo’s Flaccus: The First Pogrom (Society of Biblical Literature, 2003).
Howard Jacobson, The Exagoge of Ezekiel (Cambridge, 1983).
Jeff Jay, The Tragic in Mark: A Literary-Historical Interpretation (Mohr Siebeck, 2014).
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------“Spectacle and Stage-Craft in Philo’s In Flaccum,” (forthcoming) (from Jews and Drama: Ancient Jewish
Attitudes to, and Engagements with, Performance on the Stage and on the Page, ed. Sandra Gambetti and Lutz
Doering).
------“The Problem of the Theater in Early Judaism,” JSJ 44 (2013): 218-53.
Pierluigi Lanfranchi, L’ Exagoge d’ Ézechiel le Tragique (Brill, 2006).
David Lensen, The Birth of Tragedy: A Commentary (Twayne, 1987).
Dennis R. MacDonald, The Dionysian Gospel: The Fourth Gospel and Euripides (Fotress, 2017).
Margaret M. Mitchell, “Origen, Celsus, and Lucian on the ‘Denouement of the Drama’ of the Gospels,” 215-36
Reading Religions in the Ancient World, ed. David E. Aune and Robin Darling Young; Brill, 2007).
Friedrich Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy and Other Writings, ed. Raymond Geuss and Ronald Speirs (Cambridge
Texts in the History of Philosophy, 1999).
David Pollard, The Continuing Legacy of Simone Weil (Hamilton Books, 2015).
George L. Parsenios, Rhetoric and Drama in the Johannine Lawsuit Motif (Mohr Siebeck, 2010).
------Departure and Consolation: The Johannine Farewell Discourses in Light of Greco-Roman
Literature (Brill, 2005).
------“‘No Longer in the World’ (17:11): The Transformation of the Tragic in the Fourth Gospel,” HTR 98 (2005): 1-
21.
M.S. Silk and J.P. Stern, Nietzsche on Tragedy (Cambridge Philosophy Classics, 1981).
Bruno Snell, “Ezechiels Moses-Drama,” Antike und Abendland 13 (1967): 156-64.
Eric Springstead, Christus Mediator: Platonic Mediation in the Thought of Simone Weil (Scholars Press, 1983).
George Steiner, “Tragedy Pure and Simple,” 534-46 (Tragedy and the Tragic: Greek Theater and Beyond, ed. M. S.
Silk; Clarendon, 1996).
------“Note on Absolute Tragedy,” Journal of Literature and Theology 4 (1990): 147-56.
------Antigones: How the Antigone Legend Has Endured in Western Literature, Art, and Thought (Oxford University
Press, 1984).
------The Death of Tragedy (Knopf, 1961).
David Tracy, “On Tragic Wisdom,” 13-24 (Wrestling with God and with Evil, ed. Hendrik M. Vroom; Rodopi, 2007).
------“Simone Weil and the Impossible: A Radical View of Religion and Culture,” 208-22 (The Critical Spirit, ed.
Andrew Pierce and Geraldine Smith; Columbia, 2003).
------Plurality and Ambiguity: Hermeneutics, Religion, Hope (Chicago, 1987).
------The Analogical Imagination: Christian Theology and the Culture of Pluralism (Crossroad, 1981).
------Blessed Rage for Order: The New Pluralism in Theology (Chicago, 1975).
André Tuilier, Grégoire de Nazianze, La Passion du Christ, Tragédie: Introduction, texte critique, traduction, notes et
index (SC; Les Éditions du Cerf, 1969).
Winfried Verburg, Passion als Tragödie? Die literarische Gattung der antiken Tragödie als Gestaltungsprinzip der
Johannespassion (Kath. Bibelwerk, 1999).
Simone Wiel, The Iliad or the Poem of Force, ed. and trans. James P. Holoka (Peter Lang, 2003).
------Intimations of Christianity Among the Ancient Greeks (Routledge, 1957).
------Gravity and Grace (trans. Emma Crawford and Marion von der Ruhr; Routledge, 1952).