A Jewish Reading of Milton Essay example -- Biography Biographies Essa

A Judaic Reading of Milton John Milton produced some of the most memorable Christian texts in English literature. Central pieces of Miltons work, including paradise Lost and Samson Agonistes, specifi war cryy allude to stories that Judaism and Christianity hold in common. Historically, the anti-monarchical regime Milton supported, under the leadership of Cromwell, conversationally allowed Jews back into England in 1655 after Edward I exiled them in 1290 (Trepp 151). Additionally, seventeenth-century British Christians looked increasingly to Jewish texts to understand their own religion (e.g. Robert Ainsworth and John Seldon), with Hebraic studies from German scholarship and Latin translations of Jewish texts entering during the interregnum (Biberman 141-42 Werman 25). Thus, critics have wondered how much of an taste sensation (or lack thereof) Milton had for Jewish tradition, and how his famous texts speak to Jewish readers. This readership refers not only if to religiou sly or ethnically Jewish readers but to a literary approach just as a critic may harbor a feminist or Marxist approach, one may withal apply questions about treatment or marginalization of Jews, or cogitate attitudes in a text (without being Jewish, feminist, Marxist, etc.). A Jewish practice session of Milton reveals that although he held intolerant views toward Jews, his explicit citations and implicit agreements with Jewish Scriptural interpretation, as well as stylistic relations to Jewish commentary, demonstrate considerable esteem for Hebraic thought. Critics have typically focused on the ponder over the extent of Miltons access to primary sources or whether he used translations and secondary information from Christian Hebraists. Adams, Conklin, Mendelsohn, a... ...nd Law in Paradise Lost. Princeton Princeton UP, 1994.Steinsaltz, Adin. The Essential Talmud. Trans. Chaya Galai. New York Basic, 1976. Trepp, Leo. A History of the Jewish Experience. Springfield, NJ Beh rman, 2001.Weiss-Rosmarin, Trude. Judaism and Christianity. shopping centre Village, NY Jonathan David, 1997.Werman, Golda. Milton and Midrash. Washington, DC Catholic U of America P, 1995.Notes1 Despite the temptation, Flannagan wisely avoids a strong philo-Hebraic reading here, interpreting the praise of proto-Christian art that as an example of religious superiority over the Greeks and not aesthetic superiority (footnote 103). Milton continuously uses Greek styles in his work, even citing Aristotle as his scarper in writing Samson Agonistes (see Of that sort of Dramatic Poem which is calld Tragedy, a preface to Samson Agonistes, 799-800).