Jesus in the Talmud His Personality, His Disciples

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Jesus in the Talmud His Personality, His Disciples J E S U S I N T H E T A L M U D L LE HIS PERSO NA IT Y , HI S DISC I P S AND HI S SAY ING S B Y BERNHARD P Ph D IC K, . D . D . CHI C AG O LONDON T HE OP E N COURT P UBLI S HI NG C OM P ANY 191 3 /N C O N T E N T S ’ P ubli s h e r s Pre f a ce ; I ntro d uctio n I - N Y F S - PART . PERSO ALIT O JE U S 13 44 P e r s o n ality o f J e s u s ; J esu s All e ge d to b e Bo rn Out o f We dl o ck ; J e s us an d Hi s T each e r ; J es u s a M agi ci an ; J e s u s an Id o l ate r ; Cla ims o f J e s us D en i e d ; B al aam - J e su s ; Th e Ag e o f B al aam (J e s us ) Th e Tri a l o fJ e s u s ; Th e Exe cu o n o f in ti J es u s ; J e s u s H e ll . —TH E DI S C I P LE S AND F OLLOW PART I I . 47- 69 Th e F 1 ve s ci e s o f e sfi s aco th e Di pl J f J b , P e r fo r i ( r cles aco th e m i i 2131 Mi a ; J b , Te ach er ; An o th e r ) Mi racl e P e r f o rmer ; ’ ’ A Ch ris tian Ju dge ; Ch igis tian s Stu dy th e f) i rn r n r n S c riptuTes k s h aet eh s Ag ai s t Ch i s ti a Writi ngs ; Pro te s ts Agai n s t Ch ri s ti an s ; n m n E ac t e ts . Y N G S OF S U S 73 - 101 PART I I I . SA I JE n Ta lmudi c P arall e l s ; I d e x . BL E ’ E E P U I S H RS PR FAC . The importanc e of th e utterances in the Tal mud conc erning Je su s mu s t not be mi sunderstood - and s till le s s mu s t they be over e s timated . We ’ th erefore c all th e reader s attention to the fac t th at th ey are not ba s ed on c ontemporary evi h denc e and thu s po s se s s no hi stori c al value . T ey are the expre s s ion of a non - Ch ri s tian spirit mo s tly ho stile and s ometime s po s itively offen s ive . u u u s sa In exten ation of the Talm d we m t y, th e s w e w first , that animo ity bet een J and Gen i h e tile s deep and mu tu al . W en the Gentil s th e e w w th e ew blame J for rong thinking, J may u w eq ally blame the Gentile for rong doing, for the Je w h a s h ad to suffer pers ecution of the c ruele s t kind . Fu rth er w e mu st bear in mind th at the Tal mu d is c s s c not one book with a on i tent tenden y , but c u s s s a ollection of inn merable writing , e ays , s w . s w anecdote , and hat not Side by ide ith noble h u h s w e w s s s and deep t o g t find orthle go sip . On account of th e latter we mu s t not forget the for w c mer and there ith depre iate the entire Talmud . For th e s e reasons we wi sh the reader to u s e th e present pamph let w ith di s cretion and to bear in mind the c ondition s exi sting in the age in wh ich the s e u tteran c e s con c erning Je su s were w Th e u h h a s c c ritten . a t or colle ted and ollated h s s t em for eriou s tudy of the facts in the case . They are material for the s cholar and mu st not s s s a s u in any en e be con idered pop lar reading . TH E B H P U LI S ERS . NOTE B Y TH E A U TH OR — Th e greate r p art o f thi s wo rk was a re a in r n wh n h n n l dy p i t e t e i te re sti g bo o k o f P ro f . ' arc w s u h u i r i i St k a p bli s e d . J e s s D e Ha s t k e r u n d d e h r s e n e 19 10 C i t , L ipzig , . PART I . E L F E P RSONA ITY O J SUS . THE TALMUD . I n r i n — s u s s t o duct o . Je as repre ented in the Talmu d is a subj e c t whi c h mu s t intere s t the h s F o r c an o f C ri stian tu dent . what be pro founder intere st than to learn wh at the Jew s h have s aid c onc erning Je su s and C ri s tianity . We th e w sh h s s s naturally look to Je i i torian Jo ephu , who de sc ribed and witne s s ed the downfall o f th e B ut w . Jewi s h c ommonwealth . e are disappointed “ ” h h is s ! V 3 3 True t at in Antiquitie ( I I I , , ) s h as s Jo ephus reference to Christ , but scholar 1 are no w generally agreed that this pa s s age is a L s s s later interpolation . eaving then a ide Jo ephu , “ we mu s t tu rn to that enc yc lopedia o f Jewish ” wi s dom and u nwisdom whic h is known a s the u c h f h Talm d . We annot speak ere o t e origin o f u s o f h and contents this volumino work , w ich a complete tran s lation into any modern langu age u th e does not yet exi st . We m st refer reader to 1 S ee h o weve r among o th e r de f en de rs o f th e p as s age 1 n o s e h u s e hris tus -Z eu is s e aus d em k las J p , S itz , C g n is c h Al u n 1 e s en ter t m o o e 906 t . 9 e . s , C l g , , q J ESUS I N T H E TA L M UD ” 2 our article Talmud . But even this work does ou r not add anything to knowledge , yea , it is no w rather di s appointing . For the Talmud as we have it c ontain s not tho s e Christian or rather an - s s s c . ti Chri tian pa ages , whi h it originally had Modern J u dai s m c omplains o f the intolerance 3 h c o f of the Churc , whi h from the time Justinian B ut for per s ec uted and bu rned the Talmu d . it get s that the Talmu d only reaped what it has s u c R owed , and that the Ch r h of ome only acted in accordance with the Talmud itself . For it was th e very Talmu d which taught that in c ase out of a fire breaking on the Sabbath , the Gos w s min m i e . pels and other ork of the (i . , Chris “ s u tian ) sho ld not be re sc ued . By the life o f s on th e R Tar h on my , said abbi p , should they e . (i . , these writings ) come into my hand I would bu rn them together with the names o f c c God whi h they ontained . Were I pursued , I would rather take refuge in a temple o f idols ’ . h e . u s F o r than in their (i , the C ristians ) ho es . u the latter are wil f l traitors , while the heathen sinned in ignoranc e of the right way ; and con ‘ cerning them th e Scripture says : Behind the s s s et u doors , al o, and the post , hast thou p thy z ’ S e e McClinto ck ron s Th ol E n v l ! e .
Recommended publications
  • JESUS in NON-CHRISTIAN SOURCES Craig A. Evans Interest in Jesus Traditions in Non-Christian Writings Has Had a Curious History O
    JESUS IN NON-CHRISTIAN SOURCES Craig A. Evans Interest in Jesus traditions in non-Christian writings has had a curious history of waxing and waning. 1 At the height of the "Old Quest" for the historical Jesus there was much interest in these sources. Appealing to rabbinica, Slavonic Josephus, the Yosippon, and even to the Toledot Yeshu, some scholars claimed to have penetrated behind the accounts of the New Testament Gospels and to have discovered the "Jewish Jesus." These theories did not, however, win a significant or lasting following. Not surprisingly in recent years scholarly interest in these sources has diminished (in marked contrast to the sensationalist claims that have been and are currently being made in the popular media). Nevertheless, a few sources do offer some potentially helpful data that merit serious attention. Non-Christian sources in which reference is made to Jesus fall into three basic categories: (1) dubious sources, (2) sources of minimal value, and (3) important sources. The first category contains second and third-hand traditions that reflect for the most part vague acquaint­ ance with the Gospel story and controversies with Christians. These sources offer nothing independent. The second category represents sources that may represent partially independent traditions. Only two sources qualify for the third category. DUBIOUS SOURCES Rabbinic Traditions A major problem with the possible Jesuanic traditions in the rabbinic writings is that it is not always clear if Jesus (variously called Yeshua or Yeshu, with or without the further designation ha-Nosri) is in fact the person to whom reference is being made, especially when certain epithets are employed (e.g.
    [Show full text]
  • Apocrypha and Toledot Yeshu in Medieval Europe
    The University of San Francisco USF Scholarship: a digital repository @ Gleeson Library | Geschke Center Theology & Religious Studies College of Arts and Sciences 3-2020 Infancy Stories of Jesus: Apocrypha and Toledot Yeshu in Medieval Europe Natalie Latteri Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.usfca.edu/thrs Part of the Christianity Commons, Cultural History Commons, History of Religion Commons, Jewish Studies Commons, and the Social History Commons Infancy Stories of Jesus: Apocrypha and Toledot Yeshu in Medieval Europe Natalie E. Latteri* Stories of Jesus have circulated among Christians since the first century of the Common Era. Such lore functioned to provide early Christians who were eager to learn about their savior with information about his conception, life, death, and resurrection. Some made it into the canonical New Testament Gospel accounts but much of it, for one reason or another, did not. Even so, versions of many of the stories remained popular among Christians throughout the centuries and continued to supplement the biblical text while addressing the concerns of story tellers and their audience. For purposes of this paper, the entirety of these extra-canonical Christian texts is referred to simply as apocrypha. Like the canonical Gospel accounts and later hagiography, or (semi) fictional accounts of saints’ lives, apocryphal stories of Jesus also offered entertainment and a type of model behavior for readers and listeners to emulate.1 * Natalie E. Latteri earned her PhD in History from the University of New Mexico. She teaches Jewish-Christian Relations at the University of San Francisco in the Swig Program in Jewish Studies and Social Justice.
    [Show full text]
  • Jesus in the Talmud
    JESUS IN THE TALMUD. BY ALBERT J. EDMUNDS. RABBI Michael Rodkinson is bringing out a second edition of some of the volumes of his English Talmud. We would seize upon this opportunity to urge upon him the desirability of omitting or suppressing nothing. In Vol. II. of his first edition of Tract Shabbath, p. 243 (N. Y., 1896), there is missing an impor- tant reference to the Christian Gospels. We are told that Rabbi Meir (middle of the second century) called them "the Roll of Wickedness," and Rabbi Yochanan "the Roll of Iniquity,"— this last being a pun upon the Greek Evangelion— ''^^Tl pr- My author- ity is Hershon's Talmudical Commentary on Genesis, edited by Wol- kenberg, which is full of passages relating to the New Testament as well as the Old. Immediately preceding the text in question, Rodkinson translates a passage concerning two third-century doc- tors arguing about the books used at the Be Abhidon (which Her- shon renders "House of Perdition," with a gloss saying that it was "a place of public discussion between believing and unbeliev- ing Jews"). Certain doctors also, we are told, visited or avoided the House of Perdition and the House of Nitzarphi (or Nitzrephe). Hershon suggests that the latter means Nazarenes, but Rodkinson does not translate it, saying that these names are much discussed. In all kindness, and purely in the interest of knowledge, we would venture to ask him to state, in his next edition, what the various interpretations are. The days are gone by when facts are to be feared.
    [Show full text]
  • The Virgin Birth of Jesus in the Talmudic Context a Philological and Historical Analysis Dan Jaffé
    Document généré le 28 sept. 2021 09:14 Laval théologique et philosophique The Virgin Birth of Jesus in the Talmudic Context A Philological and Historical Analysis Dan Jaffé Croyance et psychanalyse Résumé de l'article Volume 68, numéro 3, 2012 Cet article se propose d’étudier les conceptions talmudiques relatives à la croyance chrétienne en la conception et en la naissance virginale de Jésus. URI : https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1015256ar L’approche consiste principalement en une étude philologique et historique du DOI : https://doi.org/10.7202/1015256ar cognomen ben Pantera affilié à Jésus dans de nombreux textes talmudiques principalement tannaïtiques. On propose de voir dans le nom ben Pantera une Aller au sommaire du numéro raillerie à l’encontre de la croyance chrétienne en la conception et en la naissance virginale de Jésus. L’accusation d’union illégitime énoncée et véhiculée en monde juif ainsi qu’en monde païen se retrouve dans la littérature talmudique. Le christianisme y est souvent assimilé à la séduction Éditeur(s) exercée par la prostitution. Ainsi, c’est à un même univers conceptuel qu’il Faculté de philosophie, Université Laval convient de se référer dans l’étude de cette question : la relation dialectique Faculté de théologie et de sciences religieuses, Université Laval entre l’attirance exercée par le christianisme et celle exercée par la prostituée, dans le processus historique de séparation entre juifs et chrétiens. ISSN 0023-9054 (imprimé) 1703-8804 (numérique) Découvrir la revue Citer cet article Jaffé, D. (2012). The Virgin Birth of Jesus in the Talmudic Context: A Philological and Historical Analysis.
    [Show full text]
  • Who Was Jesus of Nazareth?
    WHO WAS JESUS OF NAZARETH? Craig L. Blomberg1 Jesus of Nazareth has been the most influential person to walk this earth in human history. To this day, more than two billion people worldwide claim to be his followers, more than the number of adherents to any other religion or worldview. Christianity is responsible for a disproportionately large number of the humanitarian advances in the history of civilization—in education, medicine, law, the fine arts, working for human rights, and even in the natural sciences (based on the belief that God designed the universe in an orderly fashion and left clues for people to learn about it).2 But just who was this individual and how can we glean reliable information about him? A recent work on popular images of Jesus in America alone identifies eight quite different portraits: “enlightened sage,” “sweet savior,” “manly redeemer,” “superstar,” “Mormon elder brother,” “black Moses,” “rabbi,” and “Oriental Christ.”3 Because these depictions contradict each other at various points, they cannot all be equally accurate. Historians must return to the ancient evidence for Jesus and assess its merits. This evidence falls into three main categories: non-Christian, historic Christian, and syncretistic (a hybrid of Christian and non-Christian perspectives). Non-Christian Evidence for Jesus An inordinate number of websites and blogs make the wholly unjustified claim that Jesus never existed. Biblical scholars and historians who have investigated this issue in detail are virtually unanimous today in rejecting this view, regardless of their theological or ideological perspectives. A dozen or more references to Jesus appear in non-Christian Jewish, Greek, and Roman sources in the earliest centuries of the Common Era (i.e., approximately from the birth of Jesus onward, as Christianity and Judaism began to overlap chronologically).
    [Show full text]
  • Jesus, Magician Or Miracle Worker?1
    BibAn 10/3 (2020) 405-436 405 Jesus, Magician or Miracle Worker?1 GRAHAM H. TWELFTREE London School of Theology e-mail: [email protected] ORCID: 0000-0002-8697-7722 Abstract: This paper sets out to answer the question, was Jesus considered a magician? And if so, why? In the face of a current inconclusive debate, using unsuitable definitions of magic, and likely entangled with twenty-first-century definitions, the second-century data is engaged to help re-sensitize a reading of the gospel data. There are clear charges of magic in the second century that enable twenty-first-century readers to see that observers of Jesus’ ministry charged him with magic, but not for the reasons usually assumed. Some contemporary implications of this study are taken up in a contemporary coda. Keywords: Beelzebul Controversy, Charismatics, defining magic, Jesus, magic, miracle worker, Pentecostals. he study of magic in the ancient world has not always commanded interest or Trespect.2 It has even been suggested that there was a conspiracy to ignore or minimize the motif of magic in the New Testament and early Christianity.3 This was probably because magic was assumed to have nothing to do with understand- ing Jesus or early Christianity.4 However, publications by John M. Hull, Morton Smith, David Aune and Hans Dieter Betz,5 in particular, have meant that in the 1 This paper relies on a larger project, Graham H. Twelftree, Magic and Miracle in Early Christianity: The First Three Centuries (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, in preparation). I am grateful to Krzysztof Mielcarek for the invitation for this paper to be part of the October 2019 Miracles Confer- ence in the Institute of Theology John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Poland.
    [Show full text]
  • Mary and the Jews: the Virgin in the Christian-Jewish Debate
    Mary and the Jews: The Virgin in the Christian-Jewish Debate Ora Limor A thirteenth-century text, written in French, describes a ctional disputation between a Jew and a Christian. The text begins with the Christian citing a Latin hymn about the Virgin: The nation of all believers Rejoices, Our redemption, A child is born, He puts on esh In a virgin’s womb, And is clothed with esh, Glory of the God-head. The Jew says he does not understand, and the Christian explains: I speak of the son of God who was born here on earth; He was born of the virgin like a rose on its thorn bush. He emerged from her womb through its closed door: He entered and emerged from the belly of the woman, In such a way that the lady never lost her virginity, Nor was de led before or after. During conception, during the birth, and afterward she remained whole. In the same way the sun can pass through glass Without damaging or shattering it, In similar way, but even more adeptly, God entered into the virgin and afterward came out again.1) The Jew says he is no fool. How could a virgin give birth? How could God, so great that the whole world cannot contain him, be enclosed in the belly of a woman? The Christian interprets the prophecy of Isaiah for the Jew: “And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding” (Isaiah 11:1-2).
    [Show full text]
  • Jesus in the Talmud (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2007) Xv+189 Pp
    Studies in Christian-Jewish Relations Volume 2, Issue 2(2007): R14-15 REVIEW Peter Schäfer Jesus in the Talmud (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2007) xv+189 pp. Reviewed by Ruth Langer, Center for Christian-JewishLearning, Boston College Growing from a seminar co-taught with Israel Yuval at Princeton University, Peter Schäfer’s Jesus in the Talmud reviews well-trodden territory but derives new and important readings from this familiar evidence. Applying contemporary historiographical methods, Schäfer offers a convincing explanation of the talmudic texts about Jesus. In doing so, he avoids what he criticizes as the excesses of previous discussions of this topic, especially the maximalism of R. Travers Herford in his Christianity in Talmud and Midrash (London, 1903) and the minimalism of Johann Meier in his Jesus von Nazareth in der talmudischen Überlieferung (Darmstadt, 1978). Where Herford presumed that every possible source referred to Christianity, Meier established doubt about the applicability of most of these sources to knowledge about the historical Jesus. Schäfer shifts the question and asks what knowledge about Christianity the rabbinic texts reflect. In this, he accepts the contemporary perception that the redacted rabbinic texts may not precisely transmit the traditions they purport to repeat. Instead, they reflect the concerns and world of the redactor(s) as well. Schäfer focuses his study by considering only texts that speak about Jesus and not all rabbinic references to Christianity. This allows him to consider these passages in comparison with other literature, most importantly the Gospel narratives themselves. The resultant list of passages derive primarily from the Babylonian Talmud, i.e., from the text least likely, because of its date and place of redaction, to reflect intimate knowledge of early Christianity in the Land of Israel.
    [Show full text]
  • Jesus' Historicity and Sources
    American Journal of Biblical Theology Volume 22(6). Feb 7, 2021 JESUS’ HISTORICITY AND SOURCES: The Misuse of Extrabiblical Sources for Jesus and a Suggestion Abstract The view that Jesus never existed is a popular one, and the debate on it has been plagued with uncritical methodologies and evaluations of the current evidence that we have for Jesus of Nazareth. In the following article, it is argued that the extrabiblical evidence for Jesus does not strictly aid in establishing that there was a person in history named Jesus, but that it does further damage the positions of Jesus Skeptics that early Christians may have believed in a purely celestial figure, as this attests to quite the opposite, a belief in a human messiah. Introduction It is a simple fact of the matter that there are numerous sources within around 150 years of his death that attest to a figure of Jesus of Nazareth in history.1 They have been frequently been invoked in the ongoing debate on whether or not Jesus was a historical person (the so-called “Christ Myth” debate) in a variety of manners, with both sides (those being historicists and Jesus Skeptics,2 called “skeptics” from here on out) usually promoting one stereotypical argument on each side. 1 For overview of these, see Craig A. Evans, “Jesus in Non-Christian Sources,” in Bruce Chilton and Craig A. Evans (eds.), Studying the Historical Jesus: Evaluations of the State of Current Research (Leiden: Brill, 1994), pp. 443-478 and Robert Van Voorst, Jesus Outside the New Testament: An Introduction to the Ancient Evidence (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000), passim.
    [Show full text]
  • Celsus, Toledot Yeshu and Early Traces of Apology for the Virgin Birth of Jesus
    Celsus, Toledot Yeshu and early traces of apology for the virgin birth of Jesus ANTTI LAATO n this article New Testament passages referring to the birth of Jesus are related to Celsus’ anti- IChristian arguments and the Jewish Toledot Yeshu tradition with a new question: Why it was so difficult to speak about the virgin birth of Jesus?I t is argued that the concept of the virgin birth of Jesus was seen to be problematic for two reasons: 1) The concept was liable to result in scurrilous rumours, even scoffing and parodic episodes revolving on its sexual aspects. 2) Every attempt to explain that God was in some way the agent when a young girl conceived came too close to Gen. 6:1–4 – the text which explained in ancient Judaism the origin of the demonic world. Therefore, some New Testament authors (for example, the writer of the Gospel of John) deliberately avoided speaking about the virgin birth and instead presented the birth of Jesus in terms of the idea of an incarnated, personified, divine Wisdom. In order to avoid erroneous connotations relating to Gen. 6:1–4, Matthew and Luke followed a tradition where the Holy Spirit (a feminine word in Hebrew and Aramaic) played an active role in the pregnancy. New question The miraculous birth of Jesus to the Virgin Mary is an essential belief in the Christian Church.* Exegetical discussions have mainly focused on the prob- lems concerning the origin of idea of virginal birth and its meaning in the early Christian belief system. It is argued that Paul did not know about Jesus’ virgin birth, it being formulated only later in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke (e.g.
    [Show full text]
  • The Popular Handbook of Archaeology and the Bible
    22 JESUS AND OTHER NEW TEstAMENT PERSONS IN NON-CHRIstIAN SOURCES hough Jesus dominates the pages of the New Testament there is little direct hard archaeological data mentioning His name or ministry. This has led some critical Tscholars in the past to dismiss Him as a historical figure. Still others, such as the English logician and philosopher Bertrand Russell in his Why I Am Not a Christian, believe that Jesus lived but did not accomplish all the things mentioned about Him in the Gospels. Russell adds that Christ was not the best and wisest of all men, but would grant Him a very high degree of moral goodness. For the most part, Russell’s opinion characterizes the vast majority of opinions concerning the historicity of Christ. Despite these attempts, arguments denying the existence of Jesus of Nazareth have fallen out of favor due to the growing body of doc- umentary evidence from Jewish and Greco-Roman sources that speak of Jesus and the events surrounding His life and ministry. From these early non-Christian sources (Fla- vius Josephus, the Babylonian Talmud, Pliny the Younger, Tacitus, Mara Bar-Serapion, Suetonius, Thallus, Lucian, Phlegon, and Celsus) we may reconstruct the salient features of the life of Christ without appealing to the New Testament. These features include the following: 1. Jesus lived during the reign of Tiberius Caesar. 2. He lived a virtuous life. 3. He was a wonder-worker. 4. He had a brother named James. 5. He was claimed to be the Messiah. 6. He was crucified under Pontius Pilate. 7.
    [Show full text]
  • Qur'an, Crucifixion, and Talmud
    Qur’an, Crucifixion, and Talmud A New Reading of Q 4:157-58 Ian Mevorach, Emmanuel College Abstract This paper establishes and explores the inter-textuality of Sanhedrin 43a (a text from the Babylonian Talmud that contains a rabbinic counter-narrative to the New Testament story of Jesus’ death) with Q 4:157-58 (two verses of the Qur’an which have historically been read by Muslim and Christian scholars as a denial of Jesus’ death by crucifixion). The idea that the Qur’an denies the New Testament story of the crucifixion makes the two scriptures appear mutually exclusive. This article suggests that, rather than denying Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, the Qur’an may be defending this story from a counter-narrative. Keywords: Christian-Muslim relations, Abrahamic dialogue, Jewish-Christian relations, Qur’anic Jesus, Talmudic Jesus Introduction Muslim and Christian interpreters of the Qur’an have long held that it denies the New Testament account of Jesus’ crucifixion. This claim, which has been an obstacle for Christian-Muslim relations for centuries, is primarily based on two verses of the Qur’an, Q 4:157-58. In these verses, the Qur’an accuses “the Jews” of boasting, “‘We have killed the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, the Messenger of God” (Q 4:157a).1 It then denies the boast: “They did not kill him; nor did they crucify him, though it was made to appear like that to them; those that disagreed about him are full of doubt, without any knowledge to follow, only supposition: they certainly did not kill him.
    [Show full text]