Teaching of Jacob

7th century Christian Greek language tract

The Teaching of Jacob (Διδασκαλία Ἰακώβου, Didaskalia Iakobou; Latin Doctrina Jacobi; Ethiopic Sargis d'Aberga) has a controversial dating from the early 7th century to the late 8th century. It is a Greek Christian polemical tract supposedly set in Carthage in 634 but written in Syria Palaestina (Hadrian renamed Judea in 135 AD, after the Second Jewish Revolt or Bar Kokhba Revolt) sometime between 634 and 640. It supposedly records a weeks long discussion ending on July 13, 634, among Jews who have been forcibly baptized by order of the emperor. One of them, Jacob, has come to believe sincerely in Christianity; he instructs the rest about why they should also sincerely embrace their new faith. Halfway through, a Jewish merchant named Justus arrives and challenges Jacob to a debate. In the end, all of the participants are convinced to embrace Christianity, and Jacob and Justus return east. In addition to several partial Greek manuscripts, the text survives in Latin, Arabic, Ethiopic and Slavonic translations.

The text provides one of the earliest external accounts of Islam, presenting a significantly different Islamic historiography than found in traditional Islamic texts. It also shows Jacob comparing the Byzantine Empire to the fourth beast of the prophecy of Daniel from Judeo Christian eschatology. Although not unfamiliar imagery, it is part of a series of Byzantine literature, from the early stages of the Islamic religion, of trying to reconcile Islam with the apocalyptic vision. Further examples of this are contained in the pseudo Athanasian's Quaestiones ad Antiochum ducem, and the Quaestiones et responsiones attributed to Anastasius of Sinai. It records a prophet in Arabia who was waging war. According to Crone, who has presented a highly disputed account of the period, the document contradicts the notion in Islamic tradition that the prophet Muhammad was dead at the time of the conquest of Palestine but agrees with some traditions of other peoples of the time.