phallus in the vulva: the embodied subject of sex?


*

THE
dialectic
between a Christian universalism
and a Jewish particularism
is perhaps first explicitly enunciated
in a remarkable text of the mid second century,
Dialogue of Justin, Philosopher & Martyr, with Trypho, a Jew,
a text for which Galatians
provides a vitally significant intertext,
even though PAUL is
never mentioned
in it.

~*~

~*~




Trypho
quite eloquently represents the puzzlement of a rabbinic Jew confronted with such a different pattern
of religion:



But this is
what we are most at loss about:
that you, professing to be pious,
and supposing yourselves better than others,
are not in any particular separated from them,
and do not alter your mode of living from the nations,
in that you observe no festivals or sabbaths,
and do not have the rite
of circumcision?




Circumcision
is thus a site of difference in the same way that a female body
is a site of difference, and thus a threat to univocity.
And so Justin answers
Trypho:



For we too
would observe the fleshly circumcision,
and the Sabbaths, and in short all the feasts,
if we did not know for what reason they were enjoined you,
- namely, on account of your transgressions
and the hardness of your hearts.
For if we patiently endure all things contrived against us
by wicked men and demons, so that even amid cruelties unutterable, death and torments, we pray for mercy to those
who inflict such things upon us,
and do not wish to give the least retort to any one,
even as the new Lawgiver commanded us;
how is it, Trypho, that we would not observe those rites
who do not harm us, - I speak of fleshly circumcision,
and Sabbaths, and
feasts!




THE
crucial issue
dividing Judaism from Christianity
is the relation to the body, in general as a signifier of corporeal existence
in all of its manifestations and here, in particular,
as a signifier of belonging to a particular
kin-group.




~*!*~




The dualism of body and spirit
in anthropological terms transferred to the realm of language and interpretation provides the perfect vehicle for this carnal signification to be transcended.




Justin repeats accordingly
the gesture of Philo in understanding the corporeal rites, the holidays,
the Sabbath, circumcision, as being "symbols"
of spiritual transformations, again exceeding Philo, of course,
in that for the former the corporeal existence of the signifier was still crucially relevant,
while for Justin it has been completely
superseded:



For the law
promulgated on Horev
is now old, and belongs to yourselves alone; but this is for all universally ...
For the true spiritual Israel,
and the descendants pf Yehudah, Ya'acov,
Yitschak, and Avraham
(who in uncircumcision was approved of and blessed by G D
on account of his faith, and called the father of many nations),
are we who have been led to G D through this
crucified Christ.

~#~
engel

18 aug 2005 - bewerkt op 20 mrt 2008 - meld ongepast verhaal
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