Yeshu

: Quotations about Jesus in the Talmud; Pandera

Yeshu, also Yeishu, also Yeshu Ha-Notzri "The Nazarene" is the name of a person or persons in various works of classical rabbinic literature, including the Mishnah (200 CE), the two Talmuds (redacted roughly before 600 CE) and the classical midrash literature (written between 200 CE to 700 CE.)

"Yeshu" is commonly translated in English works as "Jesus", and some or many of the references to Yeshu have classically been understood by both Jews and Christians to refer to the Christian Jesus of the New Testament.

Most scholars today believe that discussions of Yeshu in the Mishnah are references to Jesus of Nazareth, the central figure of Christianity. However, this view is controversial. The question has historically been a delicate one because Yeshu is portrayed in a negative light; negative portrayals of Jesus in the Talmud might incite, or be used as an excuse for, anti-semitism among Christians.

Is Yeshu actually the Christian Jesus?

According to articles in The Jewish Encyclopedia (1906), by professor of Hebrew literature Joseph Dan in the Encyclopedia Judaica (1972), and the Encyclopedia Hebraica (Israel) many of the stories about Yeshu in rabbinic literature have traditionally been understood by most Jews to be about the Christian Jesus. This is also the view of Steven Bayme, the American Jewish Committee’s director of Contemporary Jewish Life, and Dr. David Kraemer, professor of Talmud and rabbinics at the Jewish Theological Seminary and R. Travers-Herford, author of Christianity in Talmud and Midrash.

However, Travers-Herford and others caution that not all mentions of Yeshua refer to the Christian Jesus.

The name Yeshu, which is often rendered in English as Jesus, is similar to Yeshua, which is often believed to be the Aramaic or Hebrew name of the more famous Jesus. Yeshu was a common name, but the Yeshu in question was also referred to as Yeshu ha Notzri (Yeshu the Nazarene). Like Jesus (according to John), Yeshu was executed on the eve of Passover. Yeshu is viewed by the Mishna as having led Jews into apostacy. If the identity of various Mishnaic characters is accepted (see above), other similarities emerge, such as a mother named Miriam (=Mary) who was involved with a carpenter.

None are considered to be from sources contemporary with Jesus; critical historical scholars hold that for a variety of reasons, early Christianity was simply one of many factions competing with rabbinical Judaism, and the early sages of the Mishnah paid no special attention to Jesus or Christianity. Rather, the stories about Yeshu date from the second century; they reflect not the earliest Jewish views of Jesus, but rather the limited knowledge that Jews of the second century and onwards had about Jesus and Christianity.

The name Yeshu is sometimes used as an acronymic curse "ימח שמו וזכרו" meaning "May his name be erased" and Ha-Notzri means The Watcher.

Yeshu as people other than the Christian Jesus

When confronted with critics in the Christian community, a number of Jewish scholars wrote that these references to Yeshu were about a different Jewish person, who lived generations before the time of Jesus. For example, in the 13th century, Jehiel ben Joseph of Paris wrote that the Yeshu in rabbinic literature was a the disciple of Joshua ben Perahyah, and not to be confused with Jesus the Nazarene (Vikkuah Rabbenu Yehiel mi-Paris) Nahmanides too makes this point.

Critics of the identification of Yeshu with Jesus allso point to inconsistencies between the Talmudic story of Yeshu and the facts or traditions about Jesus. The oppression by King Janneus mentioned in the Mishna occurred about 87 BCE, which would put the events of the story about a century before Jesus. The forty day waiting period before execution is absent from the Christian tradition about Jesus.

Rabbi David Rosen, American Jewish Committee director of interreligious affairs, and Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, author of a prominent new Talmud commentary, hold that most or all mentions of Yeshu are probably not to the Christian Jesus.

“It could very well be somebody else” who lived 100 or 200 years earlier because the stories don’t match the Gospel account, he said. Rabbi Steinsaltz noted that the Hebrew name Yeshu was popular back then and that “stories about the resurrection of dead leaders are a dime a dozen, before Jesus and after him. This is not a historical issue.”

(Jesus Death Now Debated By Jews Eric J. Greenberg, The Jewish Week, October 3, 2003)

Some believe that Yeshu is a folk-memory of either the wicked teacher or the man of lies mentioned in the Essene documents, and it is thought by them that after his death his followers were involved in collaboration with the Romans. Shimeon Ben Shetach is thought to have been the historical person who succeeded in exposing Yeshu Ha Notzri as a charlatan to his sister Queen Salome Alexandra (Helene). (Who holds this view? Sources)

Stories about Yeshua

In some classical rabbinic texts, Yeshu was originally the student of Yehoshua Ben Perachiah but was sent away for judging a woman by her physical appearance. After several returns for forgiveness he mistook Perachiah's signal to wait a moment as a signal of final rejection, and so he started his own school of thought. This apparently happened during their period of refuge in Egypt during the Pharisee persecutions 88-76BCE ordered by Jannaeus Alexander. He gathered five disciples Matai (whom some have identified as Jesus's grandfather), Nekai, Netzer, Buni, and Todah. Because of his connections with the Hasmonean house a town crier was sent to call for witensses in his favour for forty days before his execution. No one came forth and in the end he was stoned and Hung on the Eve of Passover and ended up in Hell a decade before the start of the Roman occupation. (Sources? Are these are about the same Yeshu?)

Some identify Yeshu with the second century CE Ben Stada and with the figure called Ben Pandera.

Yeshu is criticised in the Talmud for "burning his food publicly". In the uncensored Rosh Hashanah 17a text of Rashi certain apostate "minim" (literally "gnostics", the same meaning as Mandaeans) heretics are described as "the students of Yeshu HaNotzri who have twisted the words of the Torah". In some versions of Gittin 57a and Sanhedrin 43a as well as one version of Sanhedrin 107b (Sotah 47a?) the Yeshu mentioned is further identified with the title Ha-Notzri.

Sanhedrin 103a Berakoth 17b

He is mentioned in:

Talmud Sanhedrin 107b & Sotah 47a (Ben Perachiah sends Yeshu away)

Talmud Sanhedrin 43a (his disciples and exectution)

Talmud Gittin 57a (summoned from Hell)

Todeldoth Yeshu

Todeldoth Yeshu translatesd as "Yeshu's Family history", is a set of twelfth century stories about Yeshu. According to The Jewish Encyclopedia (1906) and professor of Hebrew literature Joseph Dan in the Encyclopedia Judaica (1972), Toledot Yeshu is based on the Jewish legends surrounding Jesus; it is a satire and cautionary folktale, and is not part of rabbinic literature. It is not considered canonical or normative.

There is no one authoritative Toledot Yeshu story; various medieval versions existed that differ in attitudes towards the central characters and in story details; it is considered unlikely that any one person wrote it. Each version seems to be from a different set of storytellers. Storypoints common to all versions:

Miriam (Mary) comes from a good family, and marries a decent man who can trace his line back to King David. However, she is raped by a neighbor. After Mary is raped, she is left by her husband and left to raise her child alone. Her child, Yeshu (Jesus) is depicted as being of unusual intelligence and wit, but shows disrespect to those older than him and to the sages. The story holds that Yeshu had some supernatural powers, which he obtained by using the name of God written on scroll; Toledot Yeshu also accepts that other rabbinic sages of Yeshu's era could display similar supernatural powers. A struggle emerges between Yeshu and one or more of the sages, and Yeshu is left powerless. Joseph Dan writes "In the more developed versions of the narrative, the hatred toward Jesus and his followers is not the only motif in the story. Many unnecessary details were added, secondary characters were developed, and the story became a romance about the tragic fate of a young man mistaken in his ways." (Toledot Yeshu, Encyclopedia Judaica)

This book tells the story of Yeshu, and his disciples, who lived in the late 2nd century BCE. It also refers to an early second century CE person, Ben Stada who practiced some form of "sorcery" (Talmud, Sanhedrin 43a). There are attempts to link him with a certain early first century Ben Pandera (Shabbat 104b, Sanhedrin 64a) whose disciples were healers and respected by Rabbis Eliezer ben Hyrcanus and/aka Eliezer ben Dama. Toledoth Yeshu combines the traditions of these independent storylines, and possibly independent characters, into a satirical and cautionary would-be messiah tale. It starts with the story of his allegedly illegitimate birth reports that in the time of King Jannaeus, a certain Miriam of noble blood, while engaged to Jochannan of David's line had an affair with a certain mid first century BC Joseph Pandera and that the late second century BC Yeshu Ha Notzri was the result of this affair. Ben Pantera so means "Son of Pantera". It should be noted that the name of this alleged father means Panther in Aramaic. The chronological mess is because this is not taken to be a historic account but a satirical folk-tradition.