Conclusions

The conclusion imagines the impact of Julian’s rhetoric on the Antiochene landscape, especially as found in the writings of John Chrysostom some twenty years later. Chrysostom’s anti-Jewish rhetoric is typically seen as aimed at Christian Judaizers. This thesis is challenged and repostulated here. Chrysostom is forced to deal with a real Jewish danger to Christians unleashed by Julian years earlier. He does so by attempting to render Jewish laws, institutions, and practices inert and illegitimate. The particular ugly anti-Jewish language in Against the Judaizers can be explained by his perception of Jews as a danger to Christian orthodoxy.