Yeshu

Yeshu (Hebrew: ‫ֵיׁש ּו‬‎ Yēšū) is the name of an individual or individuals mentioned in rabbinic literature,[1]
thought by some to refer to Jesus when used in the Talmud. The name Yeshu is also used in other sources
before and after the completion of the Babylonian Talmud. It is also the modern Israeli spelling of Jesus.

The identification of Jesus with any number of individuals named Yeshu has numerous problems, as most of
the individuals are said to have lived in time periods far detached from that of Jesus; Yeshu the sorcerer is
noted for being executed by the Hasmonean government which lost legal authority in 63 BC, Yeshu the
student is described being among the Pharisees who returned to Israel from Egypt in 74 BC, and Yeshu ben
Pandera/ben Stada's stepfather is noted as speaking with Rabbi Akiva shortly before the rabbi's execution,
an event which occurred in c. 134 AD. During the Middle Ages, Ashkenazi Jewish authorities were forced
to interpret these passages in relation to the Christian beliefs about Jesus of Nazareth. As historian David
Berger observed,

Whatever one thinks of the number of Jesuses in antiquity, no one can question the multiplicity of
Jesuses in Medieval Jewish polemic. Many Jews with no interest at all in history were forced to
confront a historical/biographical question that bedevils historians to this day.[2]: 36

However, a probable answer is that rabbinic literature is often not literal but allegorical, thus stories can be
made up to conjure a deeper meaning or a secret message that requires insider knowledge to fully
understand.[3]

In 1240, Nicholas Donin, with the support of Pope Gregory IX, referred to Yeshu narratives to support his
accusation that the Jewish community had attacked the virginity of Mary and the divinity of Jesus. In the
Disputation of Paris, Yechiel of Paris conceded that one of the Yeshu stories in the Talmud referred to Jesus
of Nazareth, but that the other passages referred to other people. In 1372, John of Valladolid, with the
support of the Archbishop of Toledo, made a similar accusation against the Jewish community; Moses ha-
Kohen de Tordesillas argued that the Yeshu narratives referred to different people and could not have
referred to Jesus of Nazareth.[4][2] Asher ben Jehiel also asserted that the Yeshu of the Talmud is unrelated
to the Christian Jesus.[5]

There are some modern scholars who understand these passages to be references to Christianity and the
Christian figure of Jesus,[6] and others who see references to Jesus only in later rabbinic literature.[4][7]
Johann Maier argued that neither the Mishnah nor the two Talmuds refer to Jesus.[8]

Etymology
Bauckham notes that the spelling Yeshu is found on one ossuary, Rahmani 9, which supports that the name
Yeshu was not invented as a way of avoiding pronouncing the name Yeshua or Yehoshua in relation to
Jesus, but that it may still be that rabbinical use of Yeshu was intended to distinguish Jesus from rabbis
bearing the biblical name "Joshua", Yehoshua.[9] Foote and Wheeler considered that the name "Yeshu" was
simply a shortened form of the name "Yehoshua" or Joshua.[10]
Another explanation given is that the name "Yeshu" is actually an acronym for the formula ‫ימח שמו‬
)‫וזכרו(נו‬‎ (Yimach Shemo V'Zichro[no]), meaning "may his name and memory be obliterated".[11] There
are instances in the Talmud where the name "Yeshu" is written with gershayim, a punctuation mark used to
indicate acronyms or abbreviations,[12] however, this only occurs in a single tractate.[13] The earliest known
example of this theory comes from medieval Toledot Yeshu narratives.[14][15] This has led to the accusation,
first voiced by the anti-Judaist writer Johann Andreas Eisenmenger in his Entdecktes Judenthum, that
"Yeshu" was always such a deliberately insulting term for Jesus.[16] Eisenmenger claimed that Jews
believed that they were forbidden to mention names of false gods and instead were commanded to change
and defame them and did so with Jesus' name as they considered him a false god. He argued that Jesus'
original name was "Yeshua" and as Jews did not recognize him as saviour (moshia`) or that he had even
saved (hoshia`) himself, they left out the ayin from the root meaning "to save".[16] Eisenmenger's book
against Judaism was denounced by the Jews as malicious libel, and was the subject of a number of
refutations.[17]

Early-20th-century writers such as Herford (1903, pp. 37–38) and Klausner assume that references to Yeshu
and Yeshu ha Notzri in the Talmud relate to Jesus. Indeed, in the Septuagint and Greek language Jewish
texts such as the writings of Josephus and Philo of Alexandria, Jesus is the standard Greek translation of the
common Hebrew name Yehoshua ‫ְיהֹוֻׁש ַע‬‎ (Joshua), Greek having lost the h sound, as well as of the
shortened form Yeshua ‫ֵיׁש ּוַע‬‎ which originated in the Second Temple period. Jesus was also used for the
name Hoshea in the Septuagint in one of the three places where it referred to Joshua son of Nun.) The term
"Yeshu" is not undisputedly attested prior to the Talmud and Tosefta, let alone as a Hebrew original for
"Jesus". (In the case of the Jesus of Christianity, Clement of Alexandria and St. Cyril of Jerusalem claimed
that the Greek form itself was his original name and that it was not a transliteration of a Hebrew form.)[18]
Adolf Neubauer (19th century), aware of the problem but believing the term to be a reference to Jesus,
argued that it was a shortened form of Yeshua resulting from the final letter ayin no longer being
pronounced.[19] Hugh J. Schonfield argued in a similar fashion that it was the northern pronunciation
resulting from a silent ayin.[20] This view was shared by Joachim Jeremias[21] and Flusser (1989, p. 15)
who argue that it was the Galilean pronunciation. The views of these theological scholars however are
contradicted by the studies of Hebrew and Aramaic philologist E. Y. Kutscher,[16] Professor of Hebrew
Philology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and member of the Hebrew Language Academy, who
noted that although the ayin became a silent letter it is never dropped from written forms nor is its effect on
the preceding vowel lost (the change of the "u" to the diphthong "ua") as would have had to occur if Yeshu
were derived from Yeshua in such a manner. Kutscher noted moreover that the guttural ayin was still
pronounced in most parts of Galilee.[22]

Talmud and Tosefta

The earliest undisputed occurrences of the term Yeshu are found in
five anecdotes in the Tosefta (c 200 CE) and Babylonian Talmud (c
500 CE). The anecdotes appear in the Babylonian Talmud during
the course of broader discussions on various religious or legal Isho or Eesho, the Aramaic name of
topics. The Venice edition of the Jerusalem Talmud contains the Jesus
name Yeshu, but the Leiden manuscript has a name deleted, and "Yeshu" added in a marginal gloss. Schäfer
(2007) writes that due to this, Neusner treats the name as a gloss and omitted it from his translation of the
Jerusalem Talmud.

The Talmudic accounts in detail

Yeshu ben Pandera

In the Tosefta, Chullin 2:22-24 there are two anecdotes about the min (heretic) named Jacob naming his
mentor Yeshu ben Pandera (Yeshu son of Pandera).

Chullin 2:22-23 tells how Rabbi Eleazar ben Damma was bitten by a snake. Jacob came to
heal him (according to Lieberman's text[23]) "on behalf of Yeshu ben Pandera". (A variant text
of the Tosefta considered by Herford reads "Yeshua" instead of "Yeshu". This together with
anomalous spellings of Pandera were found by Saul Lieberman who compared early
manuscripts, to be erroneous attempts at correction by a copyist unfamiliar with the terms.)

The account is also mentioned in corresponding passages of the Jerusalem Talmud

(Avodah Zarah 2:2 IV.I) and Babylonian Talmud (Avodah Zarah 27b) The name Yeshu is
not mentioned in the Hebrew manuscripts of these passages but reference to "Jeshu ben
Pandira" is interpolated by Herford's in his English paraphrasing of the Jerusalem Talmud
text. Similarly the Rodkinson translation of the Babylonian Talmud account interpolates
"with the name of Jesus".

Chullin 2:24 tells how Rabbi Eliezer was once arrested and charged with minuth. When the
chief judge (hegemon) interrogated him, the rabbi answered that he "trusted the judge."
Although Rabbi Eliezer was referring to God, the judge interpreted him to be referring to the
judge himself, and freed the Rabbi. The remainder of the account concerns why Rabbi
Eliezer was arrested in the first place. Rabbi Akiva suggests that perhaps one of the minim
had spoken a word of minuth to him and that it had pleased him. Rabbi Eliezer recalls that
this was indeed the case, he had met Jacob of the town of Sakhnin in the streets of
Sepphoris who spoke to him a word of minuth in the name of Yeshu ben Pandera, which had
pleased him. (A variant reading used by Herford has Pantiri instead of Pandera.)
Avodah Zarah, 16b-17a in the Babylonian Talmud essentially repeats the account of Chullin
2:24 about Rabbi Eliezer and adds additional material. It tells that Jacob quoted
Deuteronomy 23:19: "You shall not bring the fee of a whore or the price of a dog into the
house of the Lord your God in fulfillment of any vow." Jacob says that he was taught this by
Yeshu. Jacob then asked Eliezer whether it was permissible to use a whore's money to build
a retiring place for the High Priest? (Who spent the whole night preceding the Day of
Atonement in the precincts of the Temple, where due provision had to be made for all his
conveniences.) When Rabbi Eliezer did not reply, Jacob quoted Micah 1:7, "For they were
amassed from whores' fees and they shall become whores' fees again." This was the
teaching that had pleased Rabbi Eliezer.
The surname ben Pandera is not found in the Talmud account. (Rodkinson's translation drawing on the
Tosefta account paraphrases the reference to Yeshu having taught Jacob by "so taught Jeshu b. Panthyra",
in this case not translating "Yeshu" as "Jesus".) The name is found again in the Midrashic text Kohelet
Rabba 10:5 where a healer of the grandson of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi is described as being of ben
Pandera. The source of this account is Shabbat 14:4-8 and Avodah Zarah 40 in the Jerusalem Talmud, but
there ben Pandera is not mentioned. The word Yeshu is however found as a secondary marginal gloss to the
first passage in the Leiden manuscript which together with the Midrashic version show that the account was
understood to be about a follower of Yeshu ben Pandera. (Herford again takes liberty and adds "in the name
of Jeshu Pandera" to his translation of the Talmud passages despite these words not being in the original
text. Schäfer similarly provides a paraphrased translation mentioning "Jesus son of Pandera" which he
admittedly has constructed himself by combining the Talmudic and Midrashic texts and the marginal
glosses.[24]) Kohelet Rabba also relates the account of Rabbi Eliezer (Kohelet Rabba 1:24) in this case
some copies mention Yeshu ben Pandera as in the Tosefta passage but others instead read peloni a
placeholder name equivalent to English "so-and-so".[24]

Jeffrey Rubenstein has argued that the accounts in Chullin and Avodah Zarah reveal an ambivalent
relationship between rabbis and Christianity. In his view the tosefta account reveals that at least some Jews
believed Christians were true healers, but that the rabbis saw this belief as a major threat. Concerning the
Babylonian Talmud account in Avoda Zarah, Dr. Boyarin views Jacob of Sechania as a Christian preacher
and understands Rabbi Eliezer's arrest for minuth as an arrest by the Romans for practising Christianity (the
text uses the word for heretic). When the Governor (the text uses the word for chief judge) interrogated him,
the rabbi answered that he "trusted the judge." Boyarin has suggested that this was the Jewish version of the
Br'er Rabbit approach to domination, which he contrasts to the strategy of many early Christians, who
proclaim their beliefs in spite of the consequences (i.e. martyrdom). Although Rabbi Eliezer was referring to
God, the Governor interpreted him to be referring to the Governor himself, and freed the rabbi. According
to them the account also reveals that there was greater contact between Christians and Jews in the 2nd
century than commonly believed. They view the account of the teaching of Yeshu as an attempt to mock
Christianity. According to Dr. Rubenstein, the structure of this teaching, in which a biblical prooftext is used
to answer a question about Biblical law, is common to both the rabbis and early Christians. The vulgar
content, however, may have been used to parody Christian values. Dr. Boyarin considers the text to be an
acknowledgment that rabbis often interacted with Christians, despite their doctrinal antipathy.[25]

A medieval account of Jesus, in which Jesus is described as being the son of Joseph, the son of Pandera
(see translation of the 15th-century Yemenite manuscript: Toledot Yeshu), gives a contemporary view of
Jesus and where he is portrayed as an impostor.[26]

Meaning and etymology of Pandera

The meaning and etymology of this name are uncertain. Besides the form Pandera, variations have been
found in different Tosefta manuscripts for example Pantiri and Pantera.[27] Saul Lieberman's investigation
of Tosefta variations revealed Pandera to be the original form. (Some authors such as Herford spell it
Pandira in English.)

Celsus in his discourse The True Word gives the name as Panthera in Greek.[27] This name is not known
from any graves or inscriptions, but the surname Pantera (a Latin rendering) is known from the 1st-century
tombstone of Tiberius Julius Abdes Pantera.[28] Origen (c. 248 CE) responded to Celsus' claim by saying
that Pantheras was the patronymic of Joseph the husband of Mary on account of his father, Jacob, being
called Panther. An alternative claim was made in the Teaching of Jacob (634 CE) where Panther is said to
be the grandfather of Mary.[29] Friedrich August Nitzsch (1840) suggested that the name may refer to a
panther being a lustful animal and thus have the meaning of "whore", additionally being a pun on
parthenos meaning virgin.[24] Herford also considered the Greek pentheros meaning father-in-law,[27]
however he dismissed all of these forms including Celsus' Panthera as spurious explanations of the Hebrew
Pandera as they do not match phonetically. He noted that Hebrew would have represented the sounds
correctly if any of these were the origin.[27] The interpolated form Panthyra appearing in the Rodkinson
translation of the Talmud suffers the same problem.
Neubauer understand the name to be Pandareus.[30] The Toledot Yeshu narratives contain elements
resembling the story of Pandareus in Greek mythology, namely stealing from a temple and the presence of a
bronze animal.

Robert Eisler[31] considered the name to be derived from Pandaros. He also argued that it may not have
been a real name but instead as a generic name for a betrayer. He notes that in the Iliad, Pandaros betrays
the Greeks and breaks a truce confirmed by solemn oath. He argues that the name came to be used as a
generic term for a betrayer and was borrowed by Hebrew. The name is indeed found in Genesis Rabba 50
in the expression qol Pandar (literally "voice of Pandaros" denoting false promises of a betrayer) used as a
derogatory placeholder name for a judge of Sodom. The -a at the end of the form Pandera can be
understood to be the Aramaic definite article.[27]

Yeshu Ha-Notzri
In the surviving pre-censorship Talmud manuscripts, Yeshu is sometimes followed by the epithet Ha-Notzri.
R. Travers Herford, Joseph Klausner and others translated it as "the Nazarene". The term does not appear
consistently in the manuscripts and Menachem Meiri (1249 – c. 1310) in his commentary on the Talmud
Beit HaBechirah regarded it as a late interpolation.

Klausner noted objections by other scholars on grammatical and phonetic grounds to the translation of
Notzri as "Nazarene" meaning a person from Nazareth (Hebrew Natzrat),[32] however the etymology of
"Nazarene" is itself uncertain and one possibility is that it is derived from Notzri and did not mean a person
from Nazareth.[33]

In 1180 CE Maimonides in his Mishneh Torah, Hilchos Melachim 11:4 briefly discusses Jesus in a passage
later censored by the Church. He uses the name Yeshua for Jesus (an attested equivalent of the name unlike
Yeshu) and follows it with HaNotzri showing that regardless of what meaning had been intended in the
Talmudic occurrences of this term, Maimonides understood it as an equivalent of Nazarene. Late additions
to the Josippon also refer to Jesus as Yeshua HaNotzri but not Yeshu HaNotzri.[34]

Among other passages, the Talmud names Yeshu HaNotzri (Jesus the Nazarene) as a character who was
sentenced by God to spend his afterlife in boiling excrement for having “mocked the words” of the Jewish
sages:

Onkelos then went and raised Jesus the Nazarene from the grave through necromancy. Onkelos
said to him: Who is most important in that world where you are now? Jesus said to him: The
Jewish people. Onkelos asked him: Should I then attach myself to them in this world? Jesus said
to him: Their welfare you shall seek, their misfortune you shall not seek, for anyone who touches
them is regarded as if he were touching the apple of his eye. Onkelos said to him: What is the
punishment of that man, a euphemism for Jesus himself, in the next world? Jesus said to him: He
is punished with boiling excrement. As the Master said: Anyone who mocks the words of the
Sages will be sentenced to boiling excrement. And this was his sin, as he mocked the words of
the Sages. The Gemara comments: Come and see the difference between the sinners of Israel and
the prophets of the nations of the world. As Balaam, who was a prophet, wished Israel harm,
whereas Jesus the Nazarene, who was a Jewish sinner, sought their well-being.
 — Gittin 57a:3-4[35]

Yeshu the sorcerer

Sanhedrin 43a relates the trial and execution of Yeshu and his five disciples. Here, Yeshu is a sorcerer who
has enticed other Jews to apostasy. A herald is sent to call for witnesses in his favour for forty days before
his execution. No one comes forth and in the end he is stoned and hanged on the eve of Passover. His five
disciples, named Matai, Nekai, Netzer, Buni, and Todah, are then tried. Word play is made on each of their
names, and they are executed. It is mentioned that excessive leniency was applied because of Yeshu's
influence with the royal government (malkhut).

In the Florence manuscript of the Talmud (1177 CE) an addition is made to Sanhedrin 43a saying that
Yeshu was hanged on the eve of the Sabbath.

Yeshu summoned by Onkelos

In Gittin 56b, 57a a story is mentioned in which Onkelos summons up the spirit of a Yeshu who sought to
harm Israel. He describes his punishment in the afterlife as boiling in excrement. The text itself never
actually names the individual Onkelos summons, instead, an added footnote identifies the tormented spirit
as Yeshu.

Yeshu the son who burns his food in public

Sanhedrin 103a and Berachot 17b talk about a Yeshu who burns his food in public, possibly a reference to
pagan sacrifices. The account is discussing Manasseh the king of Judah, infamous for having turned to
idolatry and having persecuted the Jews (2 Kings 21). It is part of a larger discussion about three kings and
four commoners excluded from paradise. These are also discussed in the Shulkhan Arukh where the son
who burns his food is explicitly stated to be Manasseh.

Yeshu the student of Joshua ben Perachiah

In Sanhedrin 107b and Sotah 47a a Yeshu is mentioned as a student of Joshua ben Perachiah who was sent
away for misinterpreting a word that in context should have been understood as referring to the inn; he
instead understood it to mean the innkeeper's wife. His teacher said "Here is a nice inn", to which he replied
"Her eyes are crooked", to which his teacher responded "Is this what you are occupied in?" (This happened
during their period of refuge in Egypt during the persecutions of Pharisees 88–76 BCE ordered by
Alexander Jannæus. The incident is also mentioned in the Jerusalem Talmud in Chagigah 2:2, but there the
person in question is not given any name.) After several returns for forgiveness he mistook Perachiah's
signal to wait a moment as a signal of final rejection, and so he turned to idolatry (described by the
euphemism "worshipping a brick"). The story ends by invoking a Mishnaic era teaching that Yeshu
practised black magic, deceived and led Israel astray. This quote is seen by some as an explanation in
general for the designation Yeshu.

According to Dr. Rubenstein, the account in Sanhedrin 107b recognizes the kinship between Christians and
Jews, since Jesus is presented as a disciple of a prominent rabbi. But it also reflects and speaks to an anxiety
fundamental to Rabbinic Judaism. Prior to the destruction of the Temple in 70, Jews were divided into
different sects, each promoting different interpretations of the law. Rabbinic Judaism domesticated and
internalized conflicts over the law, while vigorously condemning any sectarianism. In other words, rabbis
are encouraged to disagree and argue with one another, but these activities must be carefully contained, or
else they could lead to a schism. Although this story may not present a historically accurate account of
Jesus' life, it does use a fiction about Jesus to communicate an important truth about the rabbis. Moreover,
Rubenstein sees this story as a rebuke to overly harsh rabbis. Boyarin suggests that the rabbis were well
aware of Christian views of the Pharisees and that this story acknowledges the Christian belief that Jesus
was forgiving and the Pharisees were not (see Mark 2:1–2), while emphasizing forgiveness as a necessary
rabbinic value.[25]

Ben Pandera and ben Stada

Another title found in the Tosefta and Talmud is ben Stada (son of Stada). However, in Shabbat 104b and
Sanhedrin 67a in the Babylonian Talmud, a passage is found that some have interpreted as equating ben
Pandera with ben Stada. The passage is in the form of a Talmudic debate in which various voices make
statements, each refuting the previous statement. In such debates the various statements and their refutations
are often of a Midrashic nature, sometimes incorporating subtle humour and should not always be taken at
face value. The purpose of the passage is to arrive at a Midrashic meaning for the term Stada.

Shabbat 104b relates that a ben Stada brought magic from Egypt in incisions in his flesh. Sanhedrin 67a
relates that a ben-Stada was caught by hidden observers and hanged in the town of Lod on the eve of
Passover. The debate then follows. It begins by asking if this was not ben Pandera rather than ben Stada.
This is refuted by the claim that it is both, his mother's husband was Stada but her lover was Pandera. This
is countered with the claim the husband was Pappos ben Yehuda (a 2nd-century figure elsewhere
remembered as having locked up his unfaithful wife and visiting Rabbi Akiva in jail after the Bar-Kokhba
revolt) and that the mother was named Stada. This is then refuted by the claim that the mother was named
Miriam, the dresser of women's hair, but that she had gone astray from her husband (a Miriam the daughter
of Bilgah, is mentioned elsewhere as having had an affair with a Roman soldier). In Aramaic, "gone astray"
is satat da, thus a Midrashic meaning for the term Stada is obtained. Real historical relationships between
the figures mentioned cannot be inferred due to the Midrashic nature of the debate. Pappos and Miriam
might have been introduced simply as a result of their being remembered in connection with a theme of a
woman having gone astray.

Ben-Stada is also mentioned in the Jerusalem Talmud. In Shabbat 12:4 III he is mentioned as having learnt
by cutting marks in his flesh. In Sanhedrin 7:12 I he is mentioned as an example of someone caught by
hidden observers and subsequently stoned. This information is paralleled in the Tosefta in Shabbat 11:15
and Sanhedrin 10:11 respectively.

Interpretation

Tannaim and Amoraim

The Tannaim and Amoraim who recorded the accounts in the Talmud and Tosefta use the term Yeshu as a
designation in Sanhedrin 103a and Berakhot 17b in place of King Manasseh's real name. Sanhedrin 107b
uses it for a Hasmonean era individual who in an earlier account (Jerusalem Talmud Chagigah 2:2) is
anonymous. In Gittin 56b, 57a it is used for one of three foreign enemies of Israel, the other two being from
past and present with Yeshu representing a third not identified with any past or present event.

Early Jewish commentators (Rishonim)

These accounts of Celsus and the Toledot Yeshu do not form part of Orthodox Jewish interpretation. The
only classical Jewish commentator to equate Yeshu with Jesus was the Rishon (early commentator)
Abraham Ibn Daud who held the view that the Jesus of Christianity had been derived from the figure of
Yeshu the student of ben Perachiah. Ibn Daud was nevertheless aware that such an equation contradicted
known chronology but argued that the Gospel accounts were in error.[36]

Other Rishonim, namely Rabbi Jacob ben Meir (Rabbeinu Tam), Nachmanides, and Yechiel of Paris[2]
explicitly repudiated the equation of the Yeshu of the Talmud and Jesus. Menachem Meiri observed that the
epithet Ha-Notzri attached to Yeshu in many instances was a late gloss.

The Church
Friar Raymond Martini, in his anti-Jewish polemical treatise Pugio Fidei, began the accusation echoed in
numerous subsequent anti-Jewish pamphlets that the Yeshu passages were derogatory accounts of Jesus.[24]

In 1554 a papal bull ordered the removal of all references from the Talmud and other Jewish texts deemed
offensive and blasphemous to Christians. Thus the Yeshu passages were removed from subsequently
published editions of the Talmud and Tosefta.[37] Nevertheless, several church writers would refer to the
passages as evidence of Jesus outside the Gospels.

Later Jewish commentators (Acharonim)

Jehiel Heilprin held that Yeshu the student of Yehoshua ben Perachiah was not Jesus.[38] Jacob Emden's
writings also show an understanding that the Yeshu of the Talmud was not Jesus.

Contemporary Orthodox scholars

Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz translates "Yeshu" as "Jesus" in his translation of the Talmud.[39] Elsewhere he has
pointed out that Talmudic passages referring to Jesus had been deleted by the Christian censor.[40]

Theosophists and esotericists

The interpretation of Yeshu as a proto-Jesus first seen in Abraham ibn Daud's work would be revisited by
Egyptologist Gerald Massey in his essay The historical Jesus and Mythical Christ,[41] and by G. R. S.
Mead in his work Did Jesus Live 100 B.C.?.[42] The same view was reiterated by Rabbi Avraham
Korman.[43] These views reflect the theosophical stance and criticism of tradition popular at the time but
was rejected by later scholars. It has been revived in recent times by Alvar Ellegård.[44]

Critical scholarship
Modern critical scholars debate whether Yeshu does or does not refer to the historical Jesus, a view seen in
several 20th-century encyclopedia articles including The Jewish Encyclopedia,[45] Joseph Dan in the
Encyclopaedia Judaica (1972, 1997).[46] and the Encyclopedia Hebraica (Israel). R. Travers Herford
based his work on the understanding that the term refers to Jesus,[47] and it was also the understanding of
Joseph Klausner.[4] They agree that the accounts offer little independent or accurate historical evidence
about Jesus.[4] Herford argues that writers of the Talmud and Tosefta had only vague knowledge of Jesus
and embellished the accounts to discredit him while disregarding chronology. Klausner distinguishes
between core material in the accounts which he argues are not about Jesus and the references to "Yeshu"
which he sees as additions spuriously associating the accounts with Jesus. Recent scholars in the same vein
include Peter Schäfer,[24] Steven Bayme, and Dr. David C. Kraemer.

Recently, some scholars have argued that Yeshu is a literary device, and that the Yeshu stories provide a
more complex view of early Rabbinic-Christian interactions. Whereas the Pharisees were one sect among
several others in the Second Temple era, the Amoraim and Tannaim sought to establish Rabbinic Judaism as
the normative form of Judaism. Like the rabbis, early Christians claimed to be working within Biblical
traditions to provide new interpretations of Jewish laws and values. The sometimes blurry boundary
between the rabbis and early Christians provided an important site for distinguishing between legitimate
debate and heresy. Scholars like Jeffrey Rubenstein and Daniel Boyarin argue that it was through the Yeshu
narratives that rabbis confronted this blurry boundary.[48]

According to Jeffrey Rubenstein, the account in Sanhedrin 107b recognizes the kinship between Christians
and Jews, since Jesus is presented as a disciple of a prominent rabbi. But it also reflects and speaks to an
anxiety fundamental to Rabbinic Judaism. Prior to the destruction of the Temple in 70, Jews were divided
into different sects, each promoting different interpretations of the law. Rabbinic Judaism domesticated and
internalized conflicts over the law, while vigorously condemning any sectarianism. In other words, rabbis
are encouraged to disagree and argue with one another, but these activities must be carefully contained, or
else they could lead to a schism. Although this story may not present a historically accurate account of
Jesus' life, it does use a fiction about Jesus to communicate an important truth about the rabbis.[25][49]
Moreover, Rubenstein sees this story as a rebuke to overly harsh rabbis. Boyarin suggests that the rabbis
were well aware of Christian views of the Pharisees and that this story acknowledges the Christian belief
that Jesus was forgiving and the Pharisees were not (see Mark 2), while emphasizing forgiveness as a
necessary rabbinic value.[25]

An intermediate view is that of Hyam Maccoby,[50] who argues that most of these stories were not
originally about Jesus, but were incorporated into the Talmud in the belief that they were, as a response to
Christian missionary activity.

Skeptical writers
Dennis McKinsey has challenged the view that the term refers to Jesus at all and argues that Jewish
tradition knew of no historical Jesus.[51] Similar views have been expressed by skeptical science writer
Frank R. Zindler in his polemical work The Jesus the Jews Never Knew: Sepher Toldoth Yeshu and the
Quest of the Historical Jesus in Jewish Sources,[52] deliberately published outside the realm of Christian
and Jewish scholarship.

Points on which writers have differed

Writers have thus differed on several distinct but closely related questions:
 whether Yeshu was intended to mean Jesus or not (e.g. Herford vs Nahmanides)
whether the core material in the accounts regardless of the name was originally about Jesus
or not (e.g. Herford vs Klausner)
whether the core material is derivative of Christian accounts of Jesus, a forerunner of such
accounts or unrelated (e.g. Herford vs Ibn Daud vs McKinsey)
whether Yeshu is a real name or an acronym (e.g. Flusser vs Kjaer-Hansen)
whether Yeshu is a genuine Hebrew equivalent for the name Jesus, a pun on the name
Jesus or unrelated to the name Jesus (e.g. Klausner vs Eisenmenger vs McKinsey)

The Toledot Yeshu

The Toledot Yeshu are not part of rabbinic literature and are considered neither canonical nor normative.[53]
There is no one authoritative Toledot Yeshu story; rather, 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, and each version seems to be from a different set of storytellers.[53] In these manuscripts, the name
"Yeshu" is used as designation of the central character. The stories typically understand the name "Yeshu"
to be the acronym Y'mach Sh'mo V'Zichrono, but justify its usage by claiming that it is wordplay on his real
name, Yehoshua (i.e. Joshua, a Hebrew equivalent of "Jesus"). The story is set in the Hasmonean era,
reflecting the setting of the account of Yeshu the student of Yehoshuah ben Perachiah in the Talmud. Due to
the Gospel parallels, the Toledot Yeshu narratives are typically viewed as a derogatory account of the life of
Jesus resulting from Jewish reaction to persecution by Christians.[54]

Other occurrences
The name Yeshu has also been found on the 1st-century CE ossuary of a Yeshua bar Yehoseph, published
by E. L. Sukenik in 1931, and catalogued by L. Y. Rahmani in 1994. Although Sukenik considered this the
same as the term in the Talmud, he also entertained the possibility that the final letter ayin was left out due to
lack of space between the decorations between which it was inscribed. The fully spelled out name Yeshua
and the patronymic are also found on the ossuary.[55][56][57][58][59] Richard Bauckham considers this a
legitimate, if rare, form of the name in use at the time, and writes that this ossuary shows that the name
Yeshu "was not invented by the rabbis as a way of avoiding pronouncing the real name of Jesus of
Nazareth".[56]

The name Yeshu has also been found in a fragment of the Jerusalem Talmud from the Cairo Genizah, a
depository for holy texts which are not usable due to age, damage or errors. Flusser takes this as evidence of
the term being a name;[60] however, the standard text of the Jerusalem Talmud refers to one of the
numerous Rabbi Yehoshuas of the Talmud and moreover the fragment has the latter name at other points in
the text.[61]

Yeshu is also mentioned in Isaac Luria's "Book of the Reincarnations", chapter 37. Within the long list of
Jewish Tzadiks it is written:

‫ שם קבור יש"ו הנוצרי‬,‫ דרך אילן אחד של חרוב‬,‫בלכתך מצפת לצד צפון ללכת אל כפר עין זיתון‬

On your way from Safed toward the North to the village of Ein al-Zeitun, passing a carob tree,
Yeshu Ha-Notzri is buried there.
A similar legend was reported by a Spanish monk when he visited Safed in 1555, with the difference in that
the place was not where he was buried but where he hid.[62]

Use in modern Hebrew as a name for Jesus

The term Yeshu was used in Hebrew texts in the Middle Ages then through Rahabi Ezekiel (1750) and
Elias Soloweyczyk (1869) who identified Jesus with the character of the Toledoth Yeshu narratives.
Likewise Yeshu Ha-Notzri is the modern Hebrew equivalent for "Jesus the Nazarene" although in Christian
texts the spellings Yeshua (i.e. "Joshua") and Yeshua Ha-Notzri are preferred, as per the Hebrew New
Testaments of Franz Delitzsch (BFBS 1875) and Isaac Salkinsohn (TBS 1886). In Israeli Hebrew Yeshu is
used for Jesus of Nazareth as in Aaron Abraham Kabak's novel "On the narrow path" Ba-Mishcol Ha-Tsar
(1937). As with Bauckham's observation of medieval sources, the name Yeshu is still never applied to any
of the other Joshuas in modern Hebrew, and lexicographers such as Reuben Alcalay distinguish Yeshua
("Joshua") and Yeshu ("Jesus").

See also
Jacob the Min
Jesus in the Talmud
Yeshua

References
1. See:
Gustaf Dalman, Jesus-Jeshua, London and New York, 1922, 89, cited in Joachim
Jeremias, Eucharistic Words of Jesus, 1935, 3rd German ed. 1960, English 1966, p. 19.
Joachim Jeremias, Eucharistic Words of Jesus, 1935, 3rd German Ed. 1960, English
1966 p. 19, footnote 7. "On the other hand, as G. Dalman, Jesus-Jeshua, London and
New York, 1922 (ET of Jesus-Jeschua, Leipzig, 1922), 89, rightly supposed, the often
quoted passage b. Sanh. 43a (Bar.): 'on the day of preparation Jeshu was hanged' does
not refer to Jesus but to a namesake, a disciple of R. Joshua b. Peraiah (c. 100 BC), cf.
b.Sanh. 107b ( Bar.) par. b.Sot 47a."
Roger T. Beckwith, Calendar and Chronology, Jewish and Christian, Brill Academic
Publishers, 2005, p. 294. "... the rest of the baraita, which states he was first stoned, and
that his execution was delayed for forty days while a herald went out inviting anyone to
say a word in his favour, suggest that it may refer to a different Yeshu altogether." footnote
citing Jeremias 1966.
Mark Allan Powell, Jesus as a Figure in History: How Modern Historians View the Man
from Galilee, Westminster John Knox, 1998, p. 34 (https://books.google.com/books?id=IJ
P4DRCVaUMC&pg=PA34). "Scholars debate whether there may be obscure references
to Jesus in some of the collections of ancient Jewish writings, such as the Talmud, the
Tosefta, the targums, and the midrashim... 'On the eve of Passover, they hanged Yeshu [=
Jesus?] and the herald went before him 40 days... (Sanhedrin 43a)."
 Amy-Jill Levine, The Historical Jesus in Context, Princeton University Press, 2008, p. 20.
"Similarly controversial is the Babylonian Talmud's account of Jesus' death (to the extant
that some Rabbinic experts do not think the reference is to the Jesus of the New
Testament!)".
Meier, John P. (1991). The Roots of the Problem and the Person. A marginal Jew:
rethinking the historical Jesus. Vol. 1. Anchor Bible Series. p. 98. ISBN 978-0-385-
26425-9. LCCN 91010538 (https://lccn.loc.gov/91010538). OCLC 316164636 (https://sea
rch.worldcat.org/oclc/316164636). "While not accepting the full, radical approach of
Maier, I think we can agree with him on one basic point: in the earliest rabbinic sources,
there is no clear or even probable reference to Jesus of Nazareth. Furthermore, I favor
the view that, when we do finally find such references in later rabbinic literature, they are
most probably reactions to Christian claims, oral or written."
2. Berger, David (1998). "On the Uses of History in Medieval Jewish Polemic against
Christianity: The Quest for the Historical Jesus" (https://books.google.com/books?id=E0RU0
gMX7WkC&q=multiple+Jesus). In Carlebach, Elishiva; Efron, John M.; Myers, David N.
(eds.). Jewish History and Jewish Memory: Essays in Honor of Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi (http
s://books.google.com/books?id=E0RU0gMX7WkC&q=Jewish+History+and+Jewish+Memor
y:+Essays+in+Honor+of+Yosef+Hayim+Yerushalmi) (Google Books preview). The Tauber
Institute for the Study of European Jewry. Vol. 29. Hanover, NH: Brandeis University Press.
p. 33. ISBN 978-0-87451-871-9. LCCN 98-14431 (https://lccn.loc.gov/98-14431).
OCLC 44965639 (https://search.worldcat.org/oclc/44965639). "It is well known that when R.
Yehiel of Paris was confronted in 1240 with the argument that the Talmud should be banned
partly because of blasphemies against Jesus, he maintained that the Jesus of the Talmud
and the Jesus of the Christians are two different people.…Whatever one thinks of the
sincerity of the multiple Jesus theory, R. Yehiel found a way to neutralize some dangerous
rabbinic statements, and yet the essential Ashkenazic evaluation of Jesus remains even in
the text of this disputation.…In the fourteenth century, Moses ha-Kohen de Tordesillas made
much stronger use of the theory of two Jesuses in defending Judaism and the Talmud
against renewed attack."
3. Kister, Menahem (1991). Allegorical Interpretations of Biblical Narratives in Rabbinic
Literature, Philo and Origen: Some Case Studies (https://archive.org/details/mentormessage
mir00john/page/98). Retrieved August 5, 2020.
4. Theissen, Gerd; Merz, Annette (1998). The Historical Jesus: A Comprehensive Guide.
Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress. pp. 74–76. ISBN 978-0-8006-3122-2. LCCN 98016181 (htt
ps://lccn.loc.gov/98016181). OCLC 38590348 (https://search.worldcat.org/oclc/38590348).
5. Tosafot HaRosh (Sotah 47a)
6. Robert E. Van Voorst. Jesus outside the New Testament. 2000 ISBN 978-0-8028-4368-5. p.
124. "This is likely an inference from the Talmud and other Jewish usage, where Jesus is
called Yeshu, and other Jews with the same name are called by the fuller name Yehoshua,
"Joshua""
7. Meier (1991), p. 98.
8. Johann Maier, Jesus von Nazareth in der talmudischen Uberlieferung (Ertrage der
Forschung 82; Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1978)
9. Bauckham (2008), p. .
10. Foote, George W.; Wheeler, J.M., eds. (1885). The Jewish Life of Christ: Being the Sepher
Toldoth Jeshu (http://www.ftarchives.net/foote/toldoth/tjtitle.htm). London: Progressive
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aaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-how-israeli-jews-fear-of-christianity-turned-into-hatred-1.95
16266) Haaretz 6 February:'The religious public in Israel is in many cases aware of the
traditional interpretation of the term “Yeshu”: an acronym in Hebrew for “may his name and
memory be blotted out.” .'
12. Hebrew punctuation guidelines, § 31 (http://hebrew-academy.huji.ac.il/decision5.html),
Academy of the Hebrew Language Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20071015065211/
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og#page/n0/mode/2up) [Sefer Toledot Yeshu: or The Book of the rising and origin of Jesus
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com/view.jsp?artid=99&letter=E). Jewish Encyclopedia. Funk & Wagnalls. Retrieved
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20. Hugh J. Schonfield, The History of Jewish Christianity, From the First to the Twentieth
Century London, Duckworth, 1936
21. J. Jeremias, Neutestamentliche Theologie, Gütersloh, 1973, vol. I, p. 13
22. E.Y. Kutscher, Studies in Galilean Aramaic, Ramat-Gan, 1976 pp. ??
23. "Remote linking forbidden" (http://talmud.faithweb.com/images/jnarr6.JPG) (JPG). Retrieved
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DDXfmqEC&pg=PA141). Cambridge University Press. pp. 141–. ISBN 978-0-521-67232-0.
27. Herford, Robert Travers (1903). Christianity in Talmud and Midrash (https://books.google.co
m/books?id=tA9WAAAAMAAJ). London: Williams & Norgate. ISBN 978-0-576-80168-3.
LCCN a17000325 (https://lccn.loc.gov/a17000325). OCLC 620683 (https://search.worldcat.o
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28. Marcello Craveri, La vita di Gesù, Feltrinelli, Milano, 1966
29. Hugh Joseph Schonfield, According to the Hebrews, Duckworth, 1937
30. Mediaeval Jewish Chronicles and Chronological Notes, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1887–
1895
31. Robert Eisler, Alexander Haggerty Krappe, trans., The Messiah Jesus and John the Baptist
according to Flavius Josephus' recently rediscovered 'Capture of Jerusalem' and other
Jewish and Christian sources, The Dial Press, 1931
32. Klausner, Joseph (1989) [1925]. Jesus of Nazareth: His life, times, and teaching. Bloch
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357).
33. William David Davies, Dale C. Allison, A critical and exegetical commentary on the gospel
according to Saint Matthew, Continuum International Publishing Group, 1997
34. David Flusser, The Josippon (Josephus Gorionides), The Bialik Institute, Jerusalem, 1978
35. "Gittin 57a:3-4" (https://www.sefaria.org/Gittin.57a.3-4?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en).
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36. G. Cohen, A critical Edition with a Translation and Notes of the Book of Tradition (Sefer
haKabbalah) by Abraham Ibn Daud
37. Simon Cohen, Isaac Landman ed. The Universal Jewish encyclopedia: an authoritative and
popular presentation of Jews and Judaism since the earliest times, The Universal Jewish
Encyclopedia inc., 1941, article Censorship
38. Jehiel Heilprin, Seder ha-dorot, ed. Leṿin-Epshṭein ṿe-M. Ḳalinberg, 1867
39. Steinsaltz, Adin. The Talmud: The Steinsaltz Edition. Random House, 1989
40. Steinsaltz The essential Talmud - Page 105 2006 "Wherever the Talmud makes derogatory
reference to Jesus or to Christianity in general, the comment was completely erased, and the
name of Christ was systematically removed, even when the reference was not negative."
41. Gerald Massey, The Historical Jesus and Mythical Christ, Star Publishing Company,
Springfield, Massachusetts, 1886
42. G. R. S. Mead, Did Jesus Live 100 B.C.?, Theosophical Publishing Society, London, 1903
43. Avraham Korman, Zeramim VeKitot Bayahdut, Tel Aviv, 1927
44. Alvar Ellegård, Jesus – One Hundred Years Before Christ: A Study In Creative Mythology,
London, 1999
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Nazareth" (http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=254&letter=J). In Gotthard
Deutsch (ed.). Jewish Encyclopedia. Funk & Wagnalls. Retrieved August 2, 2011. "The
Jewish legends in regard to Jesus are found in three sources, each independent of the
others—(1) in New Testament apocrypha and Christian polemical works, (2) in the Talmud
and the Midrash, and (3) in the life of Jesus ("Toledot Yeshu'") that originated in the Middle
Ages.…The references to Yannai, Salome Alexandra, and Joshua b. Peraḥyah indicate that
according to the Jewish legends the advent of Jesus took place just one century before the
actual historical date; and some medieval apologists for Judaism, as Naḥmanides and
Salman Ẓebi, based on this fact their assertion that the "Yeshu'" mentioned in the Talmud
was not identical with Jesus; this, however, is merely a subterfuge."
46. Encyclopaedia Judaica CD-ROM Edition 1.0 1997, article Jesus
47. Herford (1903), pp. 37–38.
48. Boyarin, Daniel (1999). "1. The Close Call; Or, Could a Pharisee Be a Christian?". Dying for
God: Martyrdom and the Making of Christianity and Judaism (https://books.google.com/book
s?id=JD_ep2riNtgC&q=dying+for+god+boyarin). Stanford, California: Stanford University
Press. p. 26. ISBN 978-0-8047-3704-3. LCCN 99040509 (https://lccn.loc.gov/99040509).
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"More to my point, however, the fact that the Talmud, in what seems clearly to be a late
tradition, still reports on the founding of Christianity in this particular thematological vein
connotes that in their eyes, Christianity was still seen structurally as a Jewish heresy indeed
as a deviant Judaism, just as in the narrative of Mar Saba, Christianity is seen as only a true
form of Judaism. Close reading of some rabbinic texts will suggest that a couple of centuries
earlier, the boundaries on the ground were drawn even less firmly, for all the desire of the
"official" text to obscure this ambiguity."
49. Boyarin, Daniel (1999). Dying for God: Martyrdom and the Making of Christianity and
Judaism. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
50. Hyam Maccoby (ed.). Judaism on Trial. Littman Library of Jewish Civilisation.
51. Dennis McKinsey (2000). Biblical Errancy, A Reference Guide. Prometheus Books.
52. Frank R. Zindler (2003). The Jesus the Jews Never Knew: Sepher Toldoth Yeshu and the
Quest of the Historical Jesus in Jewish Sources. American Atheist Press.
53. Dan, Joseph (2007). "Toledot Yeshu" (http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?&id=GALE%7CCX25
87519928&v=2.1&it=r&p=GVRL&sw=w). In Berenbaum, Michael; Skolnik, Fred (eds.).
Encyclopaedia Judaica. Vol. 20 (2nd ed.). Detroit: Macmillan Reference. pp. 28–29.
ISBN 978-0-02-866097-4.
54. Morris Goldstein, Jesus in the Jewish Tradition, Macmillan, 1950
55. Sukenik, Eleazar Lipa (1931). Jüdische Gräber Jerusalems um Christi Geburt [Jewish
Graves of Jerusalem at Christ's Birth] (in German). Jerusalem: Azriel Press. OCLC 729079 (h
ttps://search.worldcat.org/oclc/729079).
56. Bauckham, Richard (2008). "The Names on the Ossuaries". In Quarles, Charles (ed.). Buried
Hope or Risen Savior: The Search for the Jesus Tomb. Nashville, Tennessee: B&H
Academic. p. 81. ISBN 978-0-8054-4717-0. LCCN 2011282833 (https://lccn.loc.gov/201128
2833). OCLC 156832186 (https://search.worldcat.org/oclc/156832186).
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(Rahmani 9) Yeshua son of Yehosef"
58. Hershel Shanks, Ben Witherington (2004). Brother of Jesus. p.59. "One of these, published
by Professor E. L. Sukenik of the Hebrew University in 1931 (but purchased by the Palestine
Archaeological Museum in 1926), is twice inscribed – once simply Yeshu (Jesus) and then
Yeshua bar Yehosef."
59. ʻAtiqot: 29-30 Israel. Rashut ha-ʻatiḳot (1996). "The name yeshua (Yeshua = Jesus), a
derivative of Yehoshua (Joshua), has been found on five ossuaries in the Israel State
Collections, yeshu (Yeshu) on one, yehoshua (Yehoshua) on one (Rahmani 1994:293-295)."
60. Flusser, David (1989). Jewish sources in early Christianity (https://archive.org/details/jewishs
ourcesine0000flus). English translation by John Glucker. Tel Aviv: MOD Books. ISBN 965-
05-0466-4. OCLC 24082669 (https://search.worldcat.org/oclc/24082669).
61. Ginzberg, L., ed. (1909). Yerushalmi Fragments from the Genizah. New York.
62. "‫( "אגודת אהלי צדיקים‬http://www.zadikim.com/?catID=70766). 10 May 2020.

Further reading
Steven Bayme, Understanding Jewish History (KTAV), 1997
Daniel Boyarin, Dying for God: Martyrdom and the Making of Christianity and Judaism
Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1999
Robert Goldenberg, The Nations Know Ye Not: Ancient Jewish Attitudes towards Other
Religions New York: New York University Press 1998
Mark Hirshman, A Rivalry of Genius: Jewish and Christian Biblical Interpretation in Late
Antiquity trans. Baya Stein. Albany: SUNY PRess 1996
Joseph Klausner, Jesus of Nazareth (Beacon Books), 1964
Thierry Murcia, Jésus dans le Talmud et la littérature rabbinique ancienne, Turnhout
(Brepols), 2014
Jacob Neusner, Judaism in the Matrix of Christianity Philadelphia: Fortress Press 1986
Jeffrey Rubenstein Rabbinic Stories (The Classics of Western Spirituality) New York: The
Paulist Press, 2002
R. Travers Herford, Christianity in Talmud and Midrash (KTAV), 1975
Peter Schäfer, Jesus in the Talmud, Princeton University Press, 2007
Dennis McKinsey, Biblical Errancy, A Reference Guide, Prometheus Books, (2000)
Frank R. Zindler, The Jesus the Jews Never Knew: Sepher Toldoth Yeshu and the Quest of
 the Historical Jesus in Jewish Sources, American Atheist Press, 2003

External links
The Sepher Toldoth Yeshu and its Links to the Gospel Jesus (http://www.lost-history.com/told
oth.php)
(Refutations about) Jesus in the Talmud by Gil Student (http://talmud.faithweb.com/articles/je
sus.html)
The (alleged) Jesus Narrative In The Talmud by Gil Student (http://talmud.faithweb.com/articl
es/jesusnarr.html)
Did Jesus of Nazareth Exist? (The Talmud) by Dennis McKinsey (http://skeptically.org/bible/i
d4.html)
Toldoth Yeshu (https://www.ancientjewreview.com/articles/2014/12/25/a-quick-introduction-to
-toledot-yeshu) One version of the Toledot Yeshu commonly dated to approximately the 6th
century.
Did Jesus Live 100 B.C.? By G. R. S. Mead (http://www.gnosis.org/library/grs-mead/jesus_liv
e_100/index.htm), a classic work dedicated to this topic
Jesus' Death Now Debated by Jews (http://www.jewishjournal.com/world/article/jesus_death
_now_debated_by_jews_20031010/) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/2016030413130
4/http://www.jewishjournal.com/world/article/jesus_death_now_debated_by_jews_2003101
0/) 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine by Eric J. Greenberg, The Jewish Week, USA,
October 3, 2003

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