“Rabbi ʿUzair and the Yellow Cow” avec le Pr. Holger Zelletin

“Rabbi ʿUzair and the Yellow Cow”

The Qur’an’s assertion that “the Jews say ʿuzair is the son of God” (Q 9:30) as well as its discourse on the Yellow Cow (Q 2:67-77) are two issues that have long baffled traditional as well as Western scholars. The Jewish tradition offers no apparent trace of a figure called by such a name, and its teachings on the Red – rather than yellow – Cow diverges in puzzling ways. In this presentation, I will take a closer look at Christian (esp. in Jacob of Serugh) and Jewish typology (esp. in the Pesiqta de Rav Kahana, in Tanhuma, and in Palestinian piyyut), in which the ritual of the Red Cow features prominently as a type for Christ and for the teachings of Rabbi Eliʿezer, respectively. I will then read Q 2:67-77 alongside Q 9:30-31 in an attempt to understand the Qur’an’s forceful rejoinder to the ways in which the Jews of Medina indeed portrayed God as studying the Mishna of the one rabbi which He, alreadz in the Talmud Yerushalmi and then again in Tanhuma, does address as His son.
 

• Invité : Holger Zellentin, professeur des universités et historien des religions de l’Antiquité tardive, spécialiste des études talmudiques et coraniques, à l’Université de Tübingen.
   

Mardi 6 mai (17h-18h30) : Salle de conférence - Misha