Cannibal Maria in the Siege of Jerusalem: New approaches

Abstract

This essay traces the far-reaching legend of Maria/Miriam of Bethezuba, sometimes called Mary, Marie, or Marion, a starving Jewish woman who (according to Flavius Josephus's The Jewish War) ate her own baby during the 70 CE Roman Siege of Jerusalem. This episode of maternal infanticide and cannibalism under occupation is the culmination of Biblical curses and prophecies, a complicated reference to the Eucharist, and an emblem of Jewish (women's) suffering and culpability across time. It is also a key to Jewish-Christian arguments about futurity and the writing of history. Scholarly developments in the past decade prompt a new look at this episode. These include research on Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Arabic and other translations of Josephus that demonstrate complex relationships among Jewish, Christian, and Muslim readerships and modern English translations of key Hebrew, Arabic, Ge'ez (Ethiopic), and Middle English versions of the story. This essay provides a brief literary and theological history of Maria's story informed by the new scholarship, with particular attention to medieval Jewish-Christian relations, and suggests additional directions for research.