Disputation of Paris

The Disputation of Paris, also Trial of the Talmud took place in 1240 in the court of the reigning king of France, Louis IX (St. Louis). It followed the work of Nicholas Donin, a Jewish convert to Christianity, who translated the Talmud and pressed 35 charges against it to Pope Gregory IX by quoting a series of blasphemous passages about Jesus, Mary or Christianity. Four rabbis defended the Talmud against Donin's accusations.

As part of its evangelistic efforts, the Church sought to win the beliefs of the Jews through debate. Western Christianity in the 13th century was developing its intellectual acumen, and had assimilated the challenges of Aristotle through the works of Thomas Aquinas. In order to flex its intellectual muscle, the Church sought to engage the Jews in debate, hoping that these Jews would see the intellectual superiority of Christianity and convert.

Paul Johnson states a significant difference between the Jewish and Christian sides of the debate. Christianity had developed a detailed theological system. The teachings were clear, and therefore vulnerable to attack. Judaism had a relative absence of dogmatic theology. Judaism did have many negative dogmas, mainly to combat idolatry. Judaism did not, on the other hand, have a developed positive theology. “The Jews usually avoided the positive dogmas which the vanity of theologians tends to create and which are the source of so much trouble... the Jews had a way of concentrating on life and pushing death—and its dogmas—into the background.”

The debate started on the 12 June 1240,Nicholas Donin represented the Christian side. He was a member of the Franciscan Order and a Jewish convert to Christianity. He had translated the Talmud and pressed 35 charges against it to Pope Gregory IX by quoting a series of blasphemous passages about Christianity. There is a Talmudic passage, for example, where someone named Jesus is sent to Hell to be boiled in excrement for eternity, while someone named Mary, whom Donin identified as Mary, the mother of Jesus, is considered as a harlot. Donin also selected injunctions of the Talmud that permit Jews to kill non-Jews, to deceive Christians and to break promises made to them without scruples.

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