Jews

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In the Commedia the Jews do not appear as individual characters but as a people mentioned in two moments of the Paradiso. In Paradiso VII (v. 47), within Beatrice's theological discourse on the incarnation and death of Christ, it is recalled that the same death was pleasing to God and to the Jews, that of the Redeemer, who paid for the human race. In Paradiso XXIX (v. 102) the poet recalls them with regard to the eclipse that occurred during the crucifixion: the darkening of the sun, of which the Jews in Palestine were witnesses, is presented as a miraculous event, since it was visible in every part of the world and could not have depended on a simple lunar interposition. The authorized notes to canto XXIX underline that the verb «mente», referring to those who denied the miraculous character of the phenomenon, means only «says something that does not correspond to the truth». In both passages the Jews therefore belong to the historical-theological background of the narrative and are not placed in a specific circle or heaven of Dante's journey.