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D. Mangum, Jesus in the Talmud, Lexham Bible Dictionary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016).

JESUS IN THE TALMUD Discusses the debate over purported references to Jesus of Nazareth in
classical rabbinic literature such as the Talmud.
The Debate
The question of whether classical rabbinic literatureespecially the Talmudever refers to the
Jesus of the New Testament has been vigorously debated for centuries. As Christianity and
classical Judaism developed from the first century on, Jewish teachers needed to address
Christian claims about Jesus for polemical purposes. The Talmud was primarily a repository of
traditional teachings and stories accessible only to the educated elite. Those polemical texts,
written in Hebrew and Aramaic were largely unknown to the church, though some of the stories
undoubtedly circulated orally (see Origen, Against Celsus 1.28, 32). In the Middle Ages, Jews
who had studied Talmud converted to Christianity and began drawing attention to these negative
portrayals of Christianity found in traditional Jewish literature. From that point on, these
polemical stories denigrating Christianity became a dangerous liability for Jewish communities
under Christian rule.
The passages often claimed to refer to Jesus are vague, inaccurate, and inconsistent on many
biographical details when compared to the Gospels and each other. This inconsistency allows a
level of plausible deniability, so medieval Jewish rabbis such as Yehiel in Paris and
Nachmanides in Spain could argue that the Jesus mentioned in the Talmud should not be equated
with the Christian Jesus at all (Berger, Persecution, 15960). These assertions, however, came
during public debates, such as the Disputation of Paris in 1240 and the Disputation of Barcelona
in 1263, where Jewish teachers were called before the Christian authorities to defend the Talmud
against accusations that it contained blasphemy and was insulting to Christianity. A century
earlier, Judah Hallevi had presented as common knowledge the tradition that Jesus the Nazarene
was a disciple of Rabbi Joshua ben Perachiah (Khazari, part III, paragraph 65; compare b. Sotah
47a). These differing answers reflect the change in the political climate of Europe in the 13th
century that made life increasingly more difficult for the Jews living under Christian rule. It was
in their best interests to downplay any ancient Jewish polemic against Christianity found in their
literature since negative mention of Jesus might provoke local persecution (Van Voorst,
Jesus Outside, 106). Despite the denial that these passages were related to Jesus, the Talmud
came to be censored and only published in expurgated form in Europe by the late 16th century.
Christian scholars began discussing these potential references to Jesus in the Talmud again in
the late 19th century. In 1887, Bernhard Pick published a book explaining for a Christian
audience what the Talmud was and providing the text of passages that could be allusions to
Jesus, reading them largely as Jewish polemic against Christian teachings (Pick, The Talmud).
Pick was very much convinced that the rabbis modified Jewish practice in notable ways in order
to check the advancement of the gospel (Pick, The Talmud, 142). In 1891, Gustaf Dalman
published the texts and translations of passages expurgated from the Talmud due to their
potential reference to Jesus. Dalmans work was combined with a lengthy essay by Heinrich
Laible and published in Berlin as Jesus Christus im Thalmud. An English translation of that work
appeared in 1893, translated by A. W. Streane. Pick published another short book in 1913
discussing the passages of the Talmud as given by Dalman, and which are claimed to refer to
Jesus (Pick, Jesus in the Talmud, 12). These works assert their purpose is to make available the
texts that Jewish self-censorship and Catholic prohibition had made scarce. Laible claims his
goal is to make good, as far as we may, the faults which the censorship of earlier time has
committed with regard to the Talmud (Laible, Jesus, 2). Along the same lines, Pick describes
Dalmans work as giving back to the Jews what the censor has taken from them and to show

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D. Mangum, Jesus in the Talmud, Lexham Bible Dictionary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016).

them that Christianity has nothing to fear from these expurgated passages (Pick, Jesus in the
Talmud, 7).
Scholarship through the 20th century and into the early 21st century has mostly maintained
the same dichotomy between those who doubt the Talmud contains any genuine references to
Jesus of Nazareth and those who accept the authenticity of a wide range of possible references
(Van Voorst, Jesus Outside, 108). Many of these studies were seeking information about the
historical Jesus in Jewish sources (e.g., Goldstein, Jesus in Jewish Traditions; Herford,
Christianity in Talmud and Midrash; Klausner, Jesus of Nazareth; Maier, Jesus von Nazareth).
Those studies contributed to the current consensus that these passages offer no historical
information about Jesus (Schfer, Jesus in the Talmud, 48; Meier, A Marginal Jew, 1:9395). In
his recent treatment of the subject, Schfer acknowledges the value of studying the topic comes
mainly from what it may reveal about Judaisms response to Christianity in Late Antiquity,
especially the Judaism of Sasanian Babylon responsible for the Babylonian Talmud (Schfer,
Jesus in the Talmud, 810).
The Talmuds Portrayal of Jesus
While the Talmud undoubtedly has occasional allusions to Jesus of Nazareth,Jesus is mentioned
in the Talmud so sparingly that in relation to the huge quantity of literary production culminating
in the Talmud, the Jesus passages can be compared to the proverbial drop in the yam ha-talmud
(the sea of Talmud; Schfer, Jesus in the Talmud, 2).
The possible references to Jesus in the Talmud are likely dependent on popular corruptions
of Christian gospel traditions (Bockmuehl, This Jesus, 13). That is, they are responses to the
spread of Christianity, not independent witnesses to the historical Jesus (Meier, A Marginal Jew,
1:98). The stories and sayings are intentionally derogatory and polemical. They reveal a basic
picture of Jesus similar to the New Testament: his mother was Mary, he had disciples, he
performed miracles, and he was executed. However, the Talmud also portrays Jesus as an
illegitimate child, a failed student of a prominent rabbi, and an apostate from Judaism. The
passages that offer chronological clues reveal that the historical period that Jesus belonged to had
been forgotten. For example, the tradition that Jesus was a disciple of Rabbi Joshua ben
Perachiah places Jesus in the 2nd century BC during the reign of the Hasmonean king Alexander
Jannaeus (r. 10478 BC; b. Sanh. 107b; b. Sotah 47a).
The passages from the Talmud most commonly associated with Jesus of Nazareth are the
texts referring to Yeshu, Ben Stada, and Ben Pandera. The latter name is sometimes rendered as
Panthera or Pantera and is reasonably identified with Jesus (Van Voorst, Jesus Outside,
117). The name is probably a pun on the idea that Jesus was born of a virgin (parthenos in
Greek); one passage equates Ben Stada (i.e., son of Stada) with Ben Pandera (i.e., son of
Pandera), making Pandera the name of the man with whom Mary had an extramarital affair (b.
Shabbat 104b). The name Stada is explained as an allusion to Marys unfaithfulness because
the phrase satath da means this one was faithless. The story that Mary conceived Jesus out of
wedlock with a Gentile soldier named Panthera was circulating among the Jews by the late 2nd
century, as attested by Celsus (ca. 180; Origen, Against Celsus, 1.32). The charge of illegitimacy
was an assertion that Jesus should have no religious authority (Van Voorst, Jesus Outside,
117).
Summary of Key Passages
The following passages are the ones most commonly invoked in the discussion of how Jesus is
portrayed in the Talmud. Many of the relevant portions had been cut from printed editions of the

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D. Mangum, Jesus in the Talmud, Lexham Bible Dictionary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016).

Talmud until the 20th century, but recent English translations like Neusners Babylonian Talmud
include the passages. These passages and more are discussed in detailed treatments of the topic
such as those by Laible (Jesus Christ in the Talmud), Herford (Christianity in the Talmud),
Pick (Jesus in the Talmud), and Schfer (Jesus in the Talmud).

Reference Summary

b. Shabbat 104b Miriam, a womens hairdresser, committed


adultery with Pantera; therefore the son of
Stada is the son of Pantera.

b. Sanhedrin 107b Jesus was a disciple of Joshua ben Perahiah


and fled with him to Egypt during
persecution that came during the reign of
Alexander Jannaeus; Jesus later became an
idolater (compare b. Sotah 47a).

b. Sanhedrin 43a Jesus had 5 disciples and was hung on the


Sabbath of the Passover for practicing
sorcery and leading Israel astray.

b. Sanhedrin 67a The son of Stada was hanged the day


before Passover for apostasy and idolatry.

Bibliography
Berger, David. Persecution, Polemic, and Dialogue: Essays in Jewish-Christian Relations. Boston: Academic Studies Press,
2010.
Bockmuehl, Markus. This Jesus: Martyr, Lord, Messiah. London: T&T Clark, 1994.
Dalman, Gustaf. Jesus Christ in the Talmud, Midrash, Zohar, and the Liturgy of the Synagogue. With an introductory essay by
Heinrich Laible. Translated and edited by A. W. Streane. Cambridge: Deighton, Bell & Co., 1893.
Goldstein, Morris. Jesus in the Jewish Tradition. New York: Macmillan, 1950.
Hallevi, Judah. Kitab Al Khazari. Translated by Hartwig Hirschfeld. London: Routledge, 1905.
Herford, R. Travers. Christianity in Talmud and Midrash. London: Williams & Norgate, 1903.
Klausner, Joseph. Jesus of Nazareth: His Life, Times, and Teaching. Translated by Herbert Danby. New York: Macmillan, 1925.
Laible, Heinrich. Jesus Christ in the Talmud. Pages 198 in Jesus Christ in the Talmud, Midrash, Zohar, and the Liturgy of the
Synagogue. Translated and edited by A. W. Streane. Cambridge: Deighton, Bell & Co., 1893.
Maier, Johann. Jesus von Nazareth in der talmudischen Uberlieferung. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1978.
Meier, John P. A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus. 4 vols. New Haven: Yale University Press, 19912009.
Neusner, Jacob. The Babylonian Talmud: A Translation and Commentary. Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 2011.
Pick, Bernhard. The Talmud: What It Is and What It Says about Jesus and the Christians. New York: Jon B. Alden, 1887.
. Jesus in the Talmud: His Personality, His Disciples and His Sayings. Chicago: Open Court Publishing, 1913.
Schfer, Peter. Jesus in the Talmud. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007.
Voorst, Robert E. van. Jesus Outside the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000.

DOUGLAS MANGUM

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