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The Figure of Jesus in the Talmud, a New Paradigm

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The Figure of Jesus in the Talmud, a New Paradigm Dan JAFFÉ Bar-Ilan University HISTORY OF A MARGINAL DISCIPLE: THE FIGURE OF JESUS IN THE TALMUD, A NEW PARADIGM ABSTRACT This article discusses a Talmudic mention of Jesus in the Babylonian version of Sanhedrin 107b. The analysis concerns mainly the implicit polemical aspects per- meating the text. I will endeavor to describe the way in which the Talmudic authors regard Christianity at a late period. The argument of this article lies principally in two points: on one hand, Joshua ben Perahjah’s ambiguous attitude towards his disciple Jesus is an expression of the soul-searching of the Talmudic Sages in rela- tion to the first Christians; on the other, this passage provides evidence of self- criticism inherent in the world of the Talmud. RÉSUMÉ Cet article apporte un nouvel éclairage sur le passage talmudique de Sanhedrin 107b mentionnant Jésus de Nazareth. Ce texte, déjà très commenté, fait l’objet d’une relecture qui s’oriente sur les représentations du personnage de Jésus dans la conscience talmudique. L’approche des rédacteurs est ambivalente : d’une part, on rejette Jésus et le christianisme qu’il est censé incarner ; d’autre part, on émet d’im- plicites regrets sur ce rejet à une époque où il est trop tard pour changer le cours de l’histoire. L’analyse se fonde sur différentes perspectives, tels les motifs littéraires qui composent le texte, les représentations métaphoriques qu’on y décèle et enfin les polémiques voilées qui en découlent. This article proposes an analysis of the famous Talmudic passage in San- hedrin 107b, which also figures with some variations in Sota 47a. Jesus is depicted in this passage in a most singular way — that is, as the wayward disciple of a Talmudic sage. Because of the great similarity between these two parallel versions, we will cite only the first of the two texts. The story is introduced by the following interesting prologue: Revue des études juives, 177 (1-2), janvier-juin 2018, pp. 1-22. doi: 10.2143/REJ.177.1.3284865 2 THE FIGURE OF JESUS IN THE TALMUD Our Rabbis taught: Let the left hand repulse but the right hand always invite back: not as Elisha, who thrust Gehazi away with both hands and not like R. Joshua b. Perahjah, who repulsed Jesus the Nazarene (Yeshu ha-noṣri) with both hands. Then follows a lengthy section on Gehazi before the Aramaic text turns to Jesus: What of R. Joshua b. Perahjah? — When King Jannai slew our Rabbis, R. Joshua b. Perahjah (and Jesus)1 fled to Alexandria of Egypt. On the resump- tion of peace, Simeon b. Shetach sent to him: From me, Jerusalem the holy city, to thee, Alexandria of Egypt: My sister. My husband dwelleth within thee and I am desolate. He arose, went, and found himself in a certain inn (ushpiza), where great honour was shewn him. (He said): How beautiful is this akhsania!2 Thereupon (Jesus) observed:3 Rabbi, her eyes are round (narrow). He rebuked him: Wretch, dost thou thus engage thyself. He sounded four hundred trumpets and excommunicated him. He (Jesus) came before him many times pleading: Receive me! But he would pay no heed to him. One day he (R. Joshua) was reciting the shema‘, when Jesus came before him. He intended to receive him and made a sign to him. He (Jesus) thinking that it was to repel him, went, put up a brick (leveinta), and prostrated himself before it.4 He (R. Joshua) said to him: Repent. He replied: I have thus learned from thee: He who sins and causes others to sin is not afforded the means of repentance. And a Master has said: Jesus the Nazarene practiced magic and led Israel astray.5 1. Jesus the Nazarene (Yeshu ha-noṣri) is the mention in the Munich 95 manuscript. The translation of the Talmudic texts are from us. 2. I. EPSTEIN, The Babylonian Talmud. Seder Nezikin, London, 1935, vol. 3, p. 736 n. 1 notes: “The word denotes both inn and innkeeper. R. Joshua used it in the first sense; the answer assumes the second to be meant.” 3. The Sota 47a version, according to Ms. Oxford Heb. d. 20 (2675), explicitly mentions Jesus: “Jesus the Nazarene says to him.” The Sota version of the story, in Vatican 110 and Munich 95, uses the anonymous formula: “He observed: Rabbi, her eyes are round (narrow).” The Vilna edition has: “One of his disciples observed: Rabbi, her eyes are round (narrow).” The Sanhedrin 107b version of our story in Munich 95 and Florence II. 1. 8-9 has: “He observed: Rabbi, her eyes are round (narrow).” In the Ms. Yad ha-Rav Herzog 1, it is: “Jesus observed: Rabbi, her eyes are round (narrow).” The Vilna edition has: “He observed: Rabbi, her eyes are round (narrow).” 4. The parallel story in Sota 47a says: “and he worshiped it.” 5. The Vilna edition of Sota 47a uses the anonymous pronoun: “And the master said: he practiced magic.” Oxford 20 has: “And they said: Jesus the Nazarene practiced magic”; Vatican 110 has: “And the master said: because he practiced magic…”; in Munich 95, we find: “The master said: Jesus the Nazarene practiced magic…” As for the Sanhedrin 107b version of our story, we find in Herzog 1: “The master said: Jesus the Nazarene goes out to be stoned because of magic…”; Munich 95 has: “The master said: he practiced magic”; in Florence II. 1. 8-9, we have: “The master said: Jesus the Nazarene practiced magic…”; lastly in the Vilna edition, we have: “The master said: Jesus the Nazarene practiced magic…”. See the charts summarizing the variants in P. SCHÄFER, Jesus in the Talmud, Princeton/Oxford, 2007, p. 136-137, for which we are to a great extent indebted. THE FIGURE OF JESUS IN THE TALMUD 3 This passage does not figure in the commonly used editions of the Tal- mud or in the Basel Talmud (1578-1581) as a result of Christian censorship. It appears, on the other hand, in certain ancient manuscripts.6 A radically different version of this passage figures in the Palestinian Talmud in Hagiga II, 2, 77d (Sanhedrin VI, 8-9, 23c partially). It reads as follows: The inhabitants of Jerusalem intended to appoint Judah ben Tabbai as president (of the Sanhedrin) in Jerusalem. He fled and went away to Alexandria, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem wrote from Jerusalem the great to Alexandria the small: How long lives my betrothed with you, whilst I am sitting grieved on account of him? When he withdrew to go in a ship, he said: Has Debora, the landlady who has taken us in, been wanting in something? One of his disciples said: Rabbi, her eye was bright! He answered: You have done two things; firstly, you have rendered me suspected, and then you have looked upon her. What did I say? Beautiful in appearance? I did not say anything (like this) but (beautiful) in deeds. And he (the master) was angry with him and he (the dis- ciple) went his way. Even though this passage has been the subject of earlier studies, it is worth examining again for the wealth of new questions and directions to which it gives rise.7 I will focus mainly in this article on two issues: — On the identification of the enigmatic brick before which Jesus prostrates himself. Does it attest to a historical reality? If so, was it the object of worship by Jesus? — On the purpose of the redactors of this passage. What are they hiding? Why is Jesus being portrayed as a rebellious disciple? What lies behind his master’s strange attitude? Why is the fatal misunderstanding between master and disciple situated precisely in the arena of gestures (reciting the shema‘ and covering his eyes with his hand)? And why is his sin put in the particular context of female beauty to which he seems to suc- cumb? Lastly, why was there a need to react so radically and excom- municate him?8 6. Some modern editions have “one of his disciples” instead of “Jesus the Nazarene”. Cf. R. RABBINOVICZ, Diqduqé Sopherim. Variae Lectiones in Mischnam et in Talmud Babyloni- cum, Munich, 1867-1886, vol. 11, p. 339-340. 7. Cf. D. JAFFÉ, Le Talmud et les origines juives du christianisme. Jésus, Paul et les judéo- chrétiens dans la littérature talmudique, Paris, 2007, p. 137-151. 8. Note that J. MAIER, Jesus von Nazareth in der talmudischen Überlieferung, Darm- stadt, 1978, p. 114-129, maintains that the name of Jesus was inserted into the passage in Sanhedrin 107b, because it does not figure in the Babylonian version of Sota 47a (see A. LISS, The Babylonian Talmud with Variant Readings Collected from Manuscripts, Fragments of the Genizah and Early Printed Editions, Jerusalem, 1979, p. 302-303 [in Hebrew]). This thesis has been rejected by many scholars, with whom I agree on this point. This is notably the case 4 THE FIGURE OF JESUS IN THE TALMUD General comments This passage has been the subject of much philological, textual, and his- torical study. But key analytical approaches are still wanting, among them a decontextualized reading whose purpose would be less to understand the elements of the text in situ (for what they evoke in their context) than to question the intentions of its late redactors.9 The passage will be read and analyzed as literary evidence that sheds light on realities dating to much later than the lives of the persons mentioned. Let us clarify our methodologi- cal approach: the Babylonian versions name Jesus explicitly, which is not the case for the Palestinian versions.
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