by Amanda Grable

Created on: July 09, 2008

A Simple Turn of Phrase
The term "judaize" (from the Greek, ioudaizein) has, like many other terms, changed in its meaning over time. If you take a more direct definition of the word, from its literal interpretation, then you get an image of a term that speaks of other cultures unifying with the Jews, if you take the term as it is most often used by the Christians you get an image of separation and difference. It is this difference of usage and interpretation that makes words so complicated to understand even when the meanings seem simple. Since it's the Christians that make such use of this word, their interpretation can show much about their relations with the Jews. The Christians use the word ioudaizein to mark themselves apart from the Jews, to make distinct their cultural and primarily religious practices and to generally make less of the Jews. The Christians manage to change the perceptions of the Jews from an individual people to simply a different religion this in many ways changes the identity of the Jewish people as it changes the perception of what is and isn't allowable in the treatment of a people. If you make a people less than you, then it is easy to limit their rights, and freedoms.

To understand a words denotation it is important to know where it comes from and what its literal definition means. "The verb ioudaizein, "to judaize," consists of two elements: the noun iouda- and the verb stem -izen" (Cohen 175) "Verbs in the -izein family have three basic meanings: (a) to give political support (a political meaning); (b) to adopt customs or manners (a cultural meaning), (c) to speak a language (a linguistic meaning)" (Cohen 175-6) It seems that the meaning of the word therefore should be easy enough to understand but when used in different ways, and by different people words turn from their literal meaning.
"By analogy with the other -izen verbs, ioudaizein ought to have three basic meanings: (1) a political meaning, "to give political support to the Judeans" - that is to side with them (and "Judaism" Ioudaismos, ought then to denote this political support); (2) a cultural meaning, "to adopt any of the distinctive customs and manners or the Judeans" and (3) a linguistic meaning, "to speak the language of the Judeans. These are meanings that the word ought to have, but the attested meanings are somewhat different, perhaps because the word is so seldom used by non-Christian authors." (Cohen 179-180)
Why would the use by Christian authors make a difference?

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