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JESUS IN THE TALMUD (Draft)

From before the time of Jesus, the Jewish community in Palestine had developed an extensive oral tradition which elaborated upon the Law of Moses. Eventually this Oral Law was written down to form the Talmud. This Jewish work appears to contains passages that refer to Jesus. However scholars are divided regarding the reliability of these vitriolic attacks on early Christianity.

The Babylonian Talmud and the Jerusalem Talmud (Palestinian Talmud or Talmud de-Eretz Yisrael) are the two major versions that we have today. The modern Talmud has no references to Jesus, as they were removed by censorship. However, the name of Jesus occurs 20 times in the unexpurgated editions.

=Part I: Jesus, the oral tradition and the formation of the Talmud=

Jewish Oral Tradition
First-century Galilee was primarily an oral culture. Although the Jewish (& Christian) Community at the time of Jesus had a system of writing, there had also developed an extensive Oral Tradition which remained an important aspect of Pharisaic/Christian scholarship during Second Temple period. This tradition of discussing, debating, interpreting, agreeing upon, or continuing to disagree about the true meaning of the written text was the "Oral Tradition" of the Jews at the time of Jesus.

This Jewish Oral Tradition is considered trustworthy. In Second Century Palestinian society where written materials were rare and few could read, accurate oral transmission was expected and demanded, and memory was developed to an remarkable extent in Rabbinic schools. Rabbis argued about many things. Their arguments were meant to help everyone know how to keep the Law. These interpretations were intended to make sure that people followed what Moses commanded. This "Oral Law" is sometimes misunderstood as having been given by God, in its entirety, to Moses on Mount Sinai, along with the Torah. It is often viewed as a kind of secret lore that was passed on, from generation to generation, whispered to select persons throughout history, to our present era. In fact, the Oral Law is analogous to modern judicial precedent: the ever-growing body of case law, with its judgments and precedents.

Formation of the Talmud
This Oral Tradition was not simply hearsay nor was it to ever be written down. It represented the Divine will — an all-encompassing Torah. In 70 C.E. everything dramatically changed. In that year, the The Temple, which was the locus of all religious practice and authority for First-Century Judaism was destroyed.

The Hebrew community was scattered throughout the different nations of the Roman Empire in what is called the Diaspora. The trauma brought about by these events greatly affected the Oral Tradition of Palestine. The means of the oral transmission of the teaching were now weakening and the Oral Tradition needed be written down or it would be lost. The Talmud was not composed all at once. Even before time of Jesus and Hillel, bits would have been recorded as megillot setarim. Later writings were known as the Mishnah. Further interpretation became known as the Gemara. These Mishnaic and Gemaran traditions became the basis for the Talmud.

This literature is valuable for understanding Jesus' times, especially the Pharisee movement. However the Talmud does not represent "normative Judaism" of Jesus' day. The period before the destruction of the Temple was much more diverse, being made up of several different groups including Pharisees, Sadducees, Zealots, Herodians and Essenes. The Talmud gives us important insight on the only Palestinian Jewish group to survive the revolt: the Pharisees who reorganized Judaism and gave it new life. (To search this literature for historical information about the First Century see, Part II Authenticity below.)

The major Talmudic references to Jesus
The the majority of Biblical scholars (See Part II below) believe the Talmudic references to Jesus are of little use. However, there are two notable texts which are of considered to be important to modern historians.

The Virgin Birth of Jesus is challenged
(Talmud Shabbat 104b, Sanhedrin 67a)

The tradition of Ben Pantera is so weak, were it not for external corroboration, this passage's reference to the 'birth of Jesus' probably would be given up for unauthentic. However, we now have independent testimony from Celsus.


 * Rabbi Hisda said, "The husband was Stada, the lover was Pantera." . . . The mother was Miriam [ Mary] the dresser of women's hair. As we say in Pumbeditha, "She has been unfaithful to her husband."

Execution of Jesus
(Talmud Sanhedrin 43a)

Jesus' trial and execution are treated in a passage from the Talmud that has been rightly called the "most famous" Jesus reference in all of rabbinic literature. Over the years it has been subject to ongoing scholarly debate.


 * On the day before Passover, Jesus the Nazarene was hanged. A herald had gone forth before him forty days proclaiming, 'Jesus the Nazarene is going forth to be stoned because he practiced sorcery and led astray Israel into idolatry. Whoever knows anything in defense may come and state it.' But none came to his defense therefore he was hanged on the day before Passover.

It is "almost universally agreed" among Biblical scholars that this portion of the Talmud genuinely refers to Jesus of Nazareth. This passage is truly extraordinary: "A Jewish writing in which Jews, not Romans, execute Jesus on solely Jewish charges after a solely Jewish trial." We can safely deduce that this is a very early passage written before rabbis felt pressure from Christians about responsibility for the death of Jesus. Otherwise they would never have included it in the Talmud. Also this passage bears little resemblance, literary or oral, to the Christian Gospels.

Talmud and the historical Jesus
Most scholars believe the anti-Christian material in the Talmud "did not originate" with Christian sources. Indeed the Talmud's importance and credibility as an early source lies in the fact that it gives the "opposition view" to Jesus. However, if one factors out the negative bias of this "hostile witness", then this independent source provides us with indirect evidence regarding the historical Jesus. Contained within these two hostile testimonies of the Talmud is the following information:
 * 1) There was an actual historical person named Jesus of Nazareth.
 * 2) His mother was Miriam, who was accused of conceiving out of wedlock.
 * 3) Jesus performed works that could only be described as supernatural feats or miracles.  As Jesus became more widely known he was charged with practicing magic and leading Israel astray.
 * 4) Jesus had a number of disciples and none of them came to his defense. On the eve of Passover, Jesus was executed.

=Part II: Authenticity=

Scholarly conclusions have varied widely on the rabbinical literature. Travers Herford in his Christianity in Talmud and Midrash accepted a broad range of explicit and implicit references to Jesus to be authentic. While Herford was somewhat critical of their accuracy, he "seems almost never to have met a possible reference to Jesus that he did not like!" On the other end of the scale, was the German scholar (b. Austria 1933) Johann Maier who in his Jesus von Nazareth in der talmudischen Überlieferung  concluded that there are no genuine references to Jesus, "even in the Talmuds when first issued". Most scholarly opinion falls between these two extremes. All agree the history of textual transmission is complex and there is no consensus as to which passages are original, and which were added later or censored in reaction to the actions of Christians.

The first Christian censorship of the Talmud happened in the year 521. However, far better documented censorship began during the disputations of the Middle Ages. Advocates for the Christian church alleged that the Talmud contained insulting references to Jesus and his mother, Mary. Jewish apologists during the disputations said there were no references to Jesus in the Talmud, and claimed Joshua and its derivations was a common Jewish name, that they referred to other individuals. The disputations led to many of the references being removed (censored) from subsequent editions of the Talmud.

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