Exile in the Eye of the Beholder: Jews, Christians, and the Embrace of Exile in Medieval Europe

Medieval Christians and Jews shared a similar understanding of the nature of Jewish exile, although they came to quite different conclusions about the significance of that exile. Both Christians and Jews understood exile as a spiritual rather than simply a geographic state, and they agreed that it was divinely ordained. But in spite of the fact that Jews as well as Christians understood exile in some sense as just punishment, they did not share an understanding of the root of that punishment, and the Jewish community read exile as a sign of God’s continuing care, while the Christian community read it as a sign of God’s displeasure and commitment to a “new Israel.” The subject was discussed in Bible commentaries and in theological treatises, among other places, and through polemical engagement, we can see that both communities understood something about the other’s perspective. By the later Middle Ages, theological positions on the notion of exile came to shape the construction of anti-Jewish policies by Christian authorities and the experience of those policies on the part of Jews.