116 Articles / Articoli THE CONCEPTS OF DEATH AND CIRCUMCISION IN THE WRITINGS OF IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH AND IN THE MISHNAH intersecting perspectives Dan Jaffé, Bar-ilan University Many polemical motifs appear in the letters written by Ignatius of Antioch to the Churches of Proconsular Asia in the early 2 nd century. In these writings he sets out to fight his opponents and to attract neophytes or members of oth- er religious traditions to his doctrines. Ignatius denounces heretical concep- tions and errors while exhorting the Christian communities to maintain unity and accept the authority of their bishop. Due to the brevity of most of these letters and the implicit terms in which his thoughts are articulated, it is not always easy to identify Ignatius’s opponents and the religious conceptions that animate them. In this epistolary literature, the term “Judaism” comes up often as the target of the bishop of Antioch’s polemics. 1 The aim of this article is to examine a passage in the letter addressed to the Christian community of Philadelphia in Anatolia, analyze its different components, and compare them to a passage in the Mishnah. In addition to the historical questions that will engage our attention, we will concentrate on a literary study of the motifs common to Ignatius and the Mishnah. From a methodological perspective, these examples deserve our attention because they are common to two corpuses from distinct religious traditions (Judaism and Christianity) while their literary contexts are close. Rather than looking for the eventual factors of influence at work in these corpuses (a problematic question to which it is impossible to offer a definitive answer), we will con- centrate on the shared mental representations in two texts that are relatively 1 The question of Ignatius of Antioch’s opponents is still the subject of much debate. Two groups are usually cited: Judaizing movements (mentioned in his Letter to the Magnesians) and Docetist circles, whose beliefs may not have been mutually exclusive. For more on this issue see E. Molland, “The Heretics Combatted by Ignatius of Antioch,” Journal of Ecclesiastical History 5 (1954), pp. 1-6; W. R. Schoedel, “Polycarp of Smyrna and Ignatius of Antioch,” Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt ii, 27, 1, (1993), pp. 272-353 and particularly pp. 301-330; C. Munier, “Où en est la question d’Ignace d’Antioche? Bilan d’un siècle de recher- ches, 1870-1988,” Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt ii, 27, 1, (1993), pp. 359-484 and especially pp. 404-413; J. Lieu, image and Reality. The Jews in the World of the Christians in the Second Century (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1996), pp. 23-56; W. Uebele, ‘Viele Verführer sind in die Welt ausgegangen’: Die Gegner in den Briefen des ignatius von Antiochien und in den Johannesbriefen (BWANT 15; Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 2001); J.L. Sumney, “Those Who ‘Ignorantly Deny Him’: The Opponents of Ignatius of Antioch,” Journal of Early Christian Studies 1 (1993), pp. 345-365; T. Robinson, ignatius of Antioch and the parting of the Ways. Early Jewish-Christian Relations (Peabody: Hendrickson Pub., 2009), pp. 113-126. Hen 40(1/2018) ISSN 0393-6805