Voices of Jewish Converts to Christianity in late Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century England

Abstract

This paper seeks to highlight the content and context of the conversion narratives written by Jews converting to Christianity in late sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England. It will be demonstrated that a non-Pauline pattern of conversion writing emerges. The content of these conversion treatises will be contextualized by looking at a whole range of English treatises concerning Jewish conversion, in particular those containing voices of “hermeneutical” Jewish converts. It will be argued that the period under scrutiny evinced a waning of the barriers surrounding Jewish conversion.