Demonic Jews and Christian redemption in Berceo’s “Milagro de Teófilo”

Abstract It is the purpose of this study to reflect on the manner in which a fragment of the Christian history of salvation, in other words, the transition from the Old to the New Covenant, is embodied in Teófilo’s spiritual process. This process starts with the cause that leads him to sign a pact with the Devil up until his redemption initiated by the imperfect figure of Moses’s shining face and finishes by his full participation in the New Law through the Eucharist and Marian worship. Specifically, this will be achieved through an analysis of his establishment of a new pact with God, which represents ultimately the redemptive victory over the pact with the Devil. The Devil’s agency, in turn, is reinforced in the text by using the widespread medieval motif of the relationship between the Jews and Satan, and emphasized by the practice of Solomonic magic, a type of necromancy allegedly of Jewish origin, but also by adding several other elements such as those coming from the popular lore.