The Library
1577 works catalogued century by century, from the literature the Bible was written among to the present — each with a note on what it is, why it lasted, and where to read it.
101–200
3 works
c. 140; lost, known through references
Greek
Aristo of Pella
A Jewish Christian and an Alexandrian Jew dispute the messiah from the prophets, and the Jew asks for baptism at the end. Celsus read it and thought it deserved pity rather than hatred; Origen defended it.
c. 155–165
Greek
Justin Martyr · c. 100–165
A long, mostly civil debate with a Jewish interlocutor over whether the Hebrew scriptures point to Jesus, covering the law, the virgin of Isaiah, and the church's claim to be the true Israel.
c. 200
Hebrew
Redacted by Judah ha-Nasi · c. 135 – c. 217
Six orders covering agriculture, festivals, women, damages, holy things, and purities, recording the disputes of the sages in the barest form — this one says, that one says — and often declining to settle them.
201–300
1 work
c. 250–300
Hebrew
Anonymous
A companion to the Mishnah following the same six orders but four times longer, preserving the alternative rulings, the fuller debates, and the cases the Mishnah left out — including the earliest rabbinic references to the minim and to healing in the name of Jesus son of Pantera.
301–400
2 works
c. 314–324; ten of twenty books survive
Greek
Demonstratio Evangelica
Eusebius of Caesarea · c. 260 – c. 340
The companion to the Preparation, and the harder half: having shown why Christians abandoned Greek religion, Eusebius now has to show why they kept the Jewish scriptures while refusing the Jewish law. The answer runs through the prophets text by text, arguing that the patriarchs lived by a religion older than the law and that Christians have returned to it.
c. 391–393
Latin
Quaestiones Hebraicae in Genesim
Jerome · c. 347 – 420
Not a commentary but a list of places where the Greek and Latin Bibles have gone wrong and the Hebrew says something else, with the rabbinic explanations Jerome had picked up from his Jewish teachers at Bethlehem — including that the ark's window was a precious stone, and what Adam's rib actually says.
601–700
2 works
633
Latin
The Fourth Council of Toledo
Seventy-five canons standardising the Spanish liturgy and clerical education, and regulating the status of Jews and of forcibly baptised converts.
c. 634–640
Greek
Doctrina Jacobi Nuper Baptizati
Anonymous
A dialogue among Jews forcibly baptised at Carthage, arguing about the messiah, and reporting in passing a prophet arisen among the Saracens.
801–900
1 work
c. 823–828
Latin
Agobard of Lyon · c. 779–840
Complaints to the imperial court that Jews in Lyon enjoy protections and market privileges Christians do not, and that Christian slaves are being sold to them.
1201–1300
3 works
1215
Latin
The Fourth Lateran Council
Seventy canons defining transubstantiation, requiring annual confession and communion, forbidding clergy to take part in ordeals, and imposing distinguishing dress on Jews and Muslims.
c. 1274–1276
Catalan
Ramon Llull · c. 1232–c. 1316
A pagan meets a Jew, a Christian, and a Muslim in a forest; each explains his faith courteously, and the book ends without saying which one the gentile chose.
1278
Latin
Pugio Fidei
Ramon Martí · c. 1220–c. 1285
A polemic against Judaism written by a friar who read Hebrew and Aramaic fluently, quoting the Talmud and Midrash at length to argue Christian claims from Jewish sources.
1401–1500
2 works
c. 1458–1461
Latin
Fortalitium Fidei
Alonso de Espina · d. c. 1464
A four-part attack on heretics, Jews, Muslims, and demons, urging the Spanish crown to establish an inquisition against converts suspected of relapsing.
1494
Latin
De Verbo Mirifico
Johannes Reuchlin · 1455–1522
A dialogue among an Epicurean, a Jew, and a Christian on the power of the divine name, arguing that Hebrew holds a key Christians have neglected.
1501–1600
1 work
1523
German
Martin Luther · 1483–1546
An early argument that Jews have been treated so badly by Christians that conversion was never a real possibility, and that they should be dealt with kindly.
15 of 1577 works