Yeshua (Jesus) in the Talmud
By Joseph Shulam
Introduction:
I would have difficulty believing in the truthfulness of the story of Yeshua (Jesus) if He was not mentioned anywhere in Jewish literature. A fantastic story like the story of Yeshua (from his birth to his resurrection from the dead to his ascension to heaven) if it were not mentioned anywhere else except in the texts of what is commonly called “The New Testament?” A person like Yeshua was a stone of contention, an Archimedes point, a pivotal point of human history, and a controversial personality. He was King of the Jews, as it was written on a plaque on top of the cross of His crucifixion.
Fortunately, We have a vast store of literature from the Pharisees of Yeshua’s day. They collected and preserved discussions and controversies of the time. Most Christians are not educated in the literature of the Pharisees. This literature is divided into three different forms. The first is the Mishnah, a collection of Rabbinical sources and quotations from Rabbis who lived in the 2nd Century BC until the middle of the 2nd Century CE. Second is the Jerusalem Talmud, a collection of similar discussions from the 5th Century CE. The third is the Babylonian Talmud, which was finished in the 6th Century CE and deals with material similar to the Jerusalem Talmud.
We are fortunate that Josephus Flavius, the Jewish historian of the first century, mentions Yeshua in his books. We are lucky to have the Midrashic literature, a collection of various homiletic materials and quasi-commentaries of the Torah. These commentaries include Rabbis from before Jerusalem's fall and the Temple's destruction to medieval Rabbinical commentators. Understand that most of the material written in this Rabbinical literature was written against Yeshua and His disciples, but what was written against them is also a witness of what was fundamental and essential for the Jews in the diaspora who were opponents of Yeshua and His disciples. Often, these rabbis referred to Yeshua to oppose Him; however, by opposing Him, they affirmed Him. What was intended to negate Yeshua turns out to be verified positively. The Jewish rabbinical opponents of Jesus and his disciples did not write about Him for several centuries after His death, burial, and resurrection. But, when they began to discuss Yeshua, the Rabbis attributed stories to Him that affirmed the Historical Yeshua. The story's origins are in the 2nd century B.C. The records of this material written against Yeshua by the Pharisaic Rabbis are preserved in the rabbinical materials in the Mishnah, Midrashic Literature, and in both the Jerusalem Talmud and the Babylonian Talmud.
In this article, I will attempt to capture the most interesting stories about Jesus in Rabbinical literature and make lemonade from the rotten lemons grown in Rabbinical gardens in the dark valleys of religious prejudice, hate, and ignorance. Those who meant for evil will turn out to be for good!
One can learn about any topic both from those who are positive and those who are negative. This is also the case with Yeshua in the Rabbinical literature composed well after Christianity became the religion of the Roman Empire. The Rabbis of the late 2nd Century CE strongly opposed the development of the newly born sect and felt obliged to fight it with the tools they had at their disposal. I don’t blame them for trying to protect themselves from a new religion that was born in their womb but turned against them and against Judaism itself.
Therefore, we need to know the truth and understand what the will of God is and understand that what we are dealing with here is a Jewish Messiah and a Jewish New Testament that has been held captive in the hands of the Roman Church. The Roman Church wanted to “improve” the ancient text and make it clear that the Jews were the villains. I confess that minor changes or, so to speak, “improvements” that these not-so-well-meaning priests made could not mask the Jewishness of Yeshua, alienate him from His Jewishness, or cut Him off from His people. Yeshua was born a Jew, circumcised on the 8th day, died King of the Jews, and will return the King of the Jews on the Throne of David.
To combat the Roman church, those of the Pharisees party in Judaism created rabbinical material dealing with Yeshua, generally written to oppose Him and His movement to attempt to vaccinate the Jewish population in the Roman Empire from contracting the Jesus “virus” in the Byzantine Empire. The Rabbinical literature is 99.9% dealing with all aspects of Jewish life, from shoestrings to cooking pots, and is not entirely dedicated to Yeshua or His movement. But those few references to Yeshua or His followers are precious when we analyze and study them like good detectives to understand them in their context and background.
As stated above, the Jewish literature we are referencing belongs to the centuries after Yeshua resurrected and ascended to sit on the Lord's right hand. Rabbinical literature is a vast ocean of writings that spans seven hundred years and a vast expanse of geography from the land of Israel to Babylon and later to regions of Europe.
Jewish Rabbinical literature dealing with stories of the birth of Yeshua.
Those who opposed the Good News (the gospel) sought to prove that Yeshua was not born of a virgin. Rabbis in the second century worked to discredit the story of the Birth of Yeshua as false so the rest of the story of Yeshua would be questioned and thereby end Christianity. The Birth of Yeshua is the point of Archimedes for the Rabbis, the pivotal moment that, if undermined, destroys the whole gospel. The Rabbis had more than one story of Yeshu’s (in Rabbinical language) birth.
There are three stories related to the birth of Yeshua in the Talmudic literature. The first one is that his mother was Miriam, the hairdresser. The second one is that his mother was Stada, the wife of Pappos and the son of Yehuda. The third story is that Yeshua was the son of a Roman soldier named Pandera. All of these three stories are found in the Babylonian Talmud.
In one story, Yeshua lived in the days of Rabbi Jehoshua ben Perachja and was one of Rabbi Jehoshua ben Perachja’s favored disciples. In another story in the Talmud, Yeshua was a child (toddler) in the time of Rabbi Akiva, Rabbi Eliezer, and Rabbi Maier. For context, here is the chronology of these Rabbis:
Rabbi Jehoshua ben Perachja was a Nasi of the Sanhedrin who lived in 134 – 104 BCE.
Rabbi Akiva, Rabbi Maier, and Rabbi Eliezer lived at the beginning of the 2nd Century CE. Rabbi Akiva died in the year 135 CE, executed by the Romans. How could Yeshua be a disciple of Rabbi Jehoshua ben Perachja and a toddler in the days of Rabbi Akiva at the same time?
We have the very same problem with Yeshua's mother. If the mother of Yeshua was the wife of Pappos ben Yehuda – this man also lived in the 2nd Century CE.
Examine the following:
Tosaphoth Shabbath 104 b[1] --
"The Son of Stada." Rabbenu Tam says that this is not Jesus the Nazarene, for as to the Son of Stada, we say here that he was in the days of Pappos ben Jehuda, who lived in the days of Rabbi Aqiba, as is proved in the last chapter of Berakhoth (61 b), but Jesus lived in the days of Jehoshua ben Perachja, as is proved in the last chapter of Sota (47 a): " And not like Rabbi Jehoshua ben Perachja, who pushed away Jesus the Nazarene with both hands," and Rabbi Jehoshua was long before Rabbi Aqiba. " His mother was Mirjam, the women's hair-dresser," and what is related in the first chapter of Chagiga (4 b): " Rab Bibi—the angel of death was found with him, etc., he said to his messenger: Go and fetch me Mii-jam, the women's hairdresser.”
We read that Yeshua lived in the days of Rab Bibi and “Mirjam,” the women's hairdresser. It was another (Mirjam), or the angel of Death, also related to Rab Bibi, a story that had happened long before. This medieval commentary on the Talmud sees these problems. It concludes that the story of Yeshua’s birth in Rabbinical literature can’t be true because one person can't have so many different mothers and fathers who lived hundreds of years apart. We see that the Medieval Rabbis understand negative anti-Christian propaganda as impossible to be true.
Rabbinical Text about Jesus (Yeshua) from the early second century CE
Examine the following:
BARAITHA.[2]
“The elders were once sitting in the gate when two young lads passed by; one covered his head, and the other uncovered his head. Of him who uncovered his head, R. Eliezer remarked, ‘He is a bastard’; R. Joshua remarked, ‘He is the son of a niddah’; R. ‘Aḳiba said, ‘He is both a bastard and the son of a niddah.’ They said to R. ‘Aḳiba, ‘How did your heart induce you to contradict the opinion of your colleagues?’ He replied, ‘I will prove it concerning him’. He went to the lad’s mother and found her selling beans in the market. He said to her, ‘My daughter if you answer the question which I will put to you, I will bring you to the World to Come.’ She said to him, ‘Swear it to me’. R. ‘Aḳiba, taking the oath with his lips but annulling it in his heart, said to her, ‘What is the status of your son?’ She replied, ‘When I entered the bridal chamber, I was niddah, and my husband kept away from me, but my best man had intercourse with me, and this son was born to me.’ Consequently, the child was both a bastard and the son of a niddah. It was declared, ‘R. ‘Aḳiba showed himself to be a great man when he contradicted his teachers.’ At the same time, they added, ‘Blessed be the God of Israel Who revealed His secret to R. ‘Aḳiba b. Joseph’.
This text is significant because it shows that these attempts to defame Yeshua’s birth story are confused. The Rabbis invented these lies. Rabbi Akiva lied in the story and was also praised by the other two Rabbis for deceiving and trapping the woman in the Market of Zippori. When you look at all these stories supposedly about Yeshua of Nazareth, and you see to what length the Rabbis of the 2nd Century CE had to go to fight the early disciples of Yeshua, you can understand the Rabbis were under tremendous pressure to fight and defame Yeshua and His disciples. It was an attempt to stop the growth of the early Christian movement inside Judaism.
As tricky as the birth story of Yeshua might be with a virgin mother and God as a father, it is more biblically plausible to accept and believe this than to acknowledge that one child has three different mothers and several different fathers. The Biblical pattern of our forefathers found in Genesis tells us that our forefathers Isaac, Jacob, Esau, and Joseph were born from mothers who could not give birth naturally. God had to intervene and open their wombs before they could give birth to Isaac, Jacob, Esau, and Joseph. The most dramatic case of birth was the creation of Adam from a lump of clay that God breathed life into without a mother or an earthly father. A God who can create Adam from a lump of clay had no problem sowing a seed in a virgin’s womb.
The three stories of the Birth of Yeshua fall apart in the face of logic and historical confusion that the Talmudic Rabbis who lived hundreds of years after the Historical Yeshua (who was already seated on the right hand of the Heavenly Father a long time!) These made-up stories are all the Rabbis had at their disposal to keep their people away from the Roman and Byzantine Churches.
The great Medieval Rabbi Rashi, one of the great Bible and Talmud commentators, realized that one person could not have three different sets of parents who lived in different periods, and these stories about the birth of Yeshua in the Talmud are fake—written for propaganda. Rabbis like Rabbi Jacob Emdin, a chief Rabbi of Germany, understood this and showed deep appreciation for Yeshua and encouraged religious Jews to not only respect but also look at Yeshua with a different attitude than traditional European Christians did.
The rabbis who lived in Europe in the 13th and 14th centuries CE realized that the Talmudic stories about the birth of Yeshua didn’t hold water. Their determination that these stories were wrong shows integrity and fear of God and possibly fear of Christians being angry with their Jewish neighbors for teaching such derogatory stories about Jesus.
Jewish people and orthodox Rabbis of modernity write and publish derogatory material against Yeshua and call him a bastard, all based on these false stories. The beginning of Nazi persecution of the Jewish population of Germany was in part because of these Talmudic passages about Jesus. Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, occurred November 9-10, 1938. This night witnessed the burning of books, especially Rabbinical literature, and the burning of synagogues throughout Germany. Nothing justifies such behavior of burning books and synagogues.
In the Talmud, Yeshua was a healer well into the 2nd Century CE
Examine the following:
The Jerusalem Talmud Tractate Aboda Zara 40b
“His grandson (the grandson of Jehoshua' ben Levi) had swallowed something. A man came and whispered to him (a spell) in the name of Jesus’ son of Pandera and he got well. When he went out, he (Jehoshua' ben Levi) asked him: What did you say over him? He answered: According to the word of somebody. He said: What had been his fate? Had he died and not heard this word? And it happened to him, "as it were an error which the ruler made." (Eccles. 10:5).”
The disciple of Yeshua answered with an intelligent answer. Like a typical Rabbinical Jew, if any question was asked: “What had been his fate? Had he died and not heard this word?” Yeshua’s disciple is clever because he answers with a question: What would have been had I not said these words in the name of Yeshua?
This text is an event of the 2nd Century CE—a true story of the healing of a grandson of one of the great Rabbis of the Talmud. The boy is ill, and a disciple of Yeshua comes and prays for the child, and the child is healed.
This story shows that the Talmudic Rabbi, who has several interludes with Yeshua, Rabbi Jehoshua ben Levi, had received the disciple of Yeshua to come and pray in Yeshua’s name for his grandson, who was healed. This is a great witness to the continuation of the power of Yeshua’s name for healing even into the second century CE. This is not the only story in the Talmud that witnesses the power of the name of Yeshua in healing the sick.
Another story about Rabbi Jehoshua ben Levi.
“R. Joshua b. Levi met Elijah standing by the entrance of R. Simeon b. Yohai’s tomb. He asked him: ‘Have I a portion in the world to come?’ He replied, ‘If this Master desires it.’ R. Joshua b. Levi said, ‘I saw two but heard the voice of a third.’ He then asked him, ‘When will the Messiah come?’ – ‘Go and ask him himself,’ was his reply. – ‘Where is he sitting?’ – ‘At the entrance (of the city). ‘And by what sign may I recognize him?’ – ‘He is sitting among the poor lepers: all of them untie [them][3] all at once, and rebandage them together, whereas he unties and rebandages each separately, [before treating the next], thinking, should I be wanted, [it being time for my appearance as the Messiah] I must not be delayed [through having to bandage a number of sores].’ So he went to him and greeted him, saying, ‘Peace upon thee, Master and Teacher.’ ‘peace upon thee, O son of Levi,’ he replied. ‘When wilt thou come, Master?’ asked he, “Today,’ was his answer. On his returning to Elijah, the latter enquired, “What did he say to thee?’ – ‘Peace Upon thee, O son of Levi,’ he answered; thereupon, he [Elijah] observed, ‘He thereby assured thee and thy father of [a portion in] the world to come.’ ‘He spoke falsely to me,’ he rejoined, ‘stating that he would come today but has not.’ He [Elijah] answered him, ‘This is what he said to thee, Today if ye will hear his voice.’[4]
Another story of the power of healing in the name of Yeshua the Messiah:
Examine the Following:
Jerusalem Talmud Shabbat 14:4:12
"It happened that Eleazar ben Dama was bitten by a snake, and Jacob from Kefar-Sama came to heal him in the name of Jesus ben Pandera, but Rebbi Ismael prevented him. He told him, I shall bring a proof that he can heal me. He could not bring proof before he died. Rebbi Ismael said to him, you are blessed, ben Dama, that you left this world in peace and did not tear down the fences of the Sages; as it is written, he who tears down a fence will be bitten by a snake. But did not a snake bite him? But that it will not bite him in the Future World.״
A second case of a disciple of Yeshua from the village of Sama in Galilee who heals Rabbi Eleazar ben Sama, whom a snake bit. Rabbi Ishmael prevents Jacob, the disciple of Yeshua, from healing Rabbi Eleazar ben Dama, and he dies from the snake bite. Rabbi Ishmael blesses the dear Rabbi Eleazar ben Dama with the following words: “You are blessed, Ben Dama,” that the name of Yeshua did not heal him.
Both Rabbi Eleazar ben Dama and Rabbi Ishmael are aware of the power of the name of Yeshua for healing. Rabbi Eleazar ben Dama is willing to allow Jacob, the disciple of Yeshua, to exercise the power of the name of Yeshua to heal him. Still, Rabbi Ishmael prevents Rabbi Eleazar from allowing Jacob, the disciple of Yeshua, to heal Rabbi Eleazar from the bite of a poisonous snake, and Rabbi Eleazar dies. At this point, Rabbi Ishmael praises Rabbi Eleazar for passing rather than being healed by Yeshua’s name.
The deep hate that existed in the 2nd Century CE between non-believing Jews and the Jews who accepted Yeshua as Messiah was so deep that Rabbi Ishmael preferred his friend and fellow Rabbi to die than to be healed by the name of Yeshua. It was clear to both Rabbi Eleazar and Rabbi Ishmael that there is a power of healing in the name of Yeshua and that Rabbi Eleazar would have been healed if Jacob, the disciple of Yeshua, had prayed over Rabbi Eleazar’s snake bite in Yeshua’s name. The Talmud affirms that Yeshua’s name was powerful for healing even from the bite of a deadly poisonous snake!
There are more stories in the Rabbinical texts inferring the bitter hate in the 3rd and 4th Centuries CE. The Jews reacted against the persecution and discrimination of Gentile Christians in the Eastern Roman Empire. This deep hate and separation between Jews and Roman Gentile Christians were a result of the Bar-Kochbah revolt of the early 2nd century CE, ending in 135 CE. With the execution of the leaders of the Revolt, including Rabbi Akiba and many Rabbis in the Land of Israel, the disciples of Yeshua integrated into the Roman society and, by the middle of the 2nd Century CE, melted into Roman society and emulated their language and culture and adopted anti-Jewish attitudes. We, as Jews, need to learn the simple principle that when a seed is sown in the field, that is what will grow for us to eat. One of Yeshua’s great teachings is from Proverbs 24:17 and 25:21: “Don’t rejoice when your enemy falls; don’t let your heart be glad when he stumbles. If someone who hates you is hungry, give him food to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink.”
Talmudic stories of the condemnation of Yeshua.
The following story is famous in Rabbinical Literature because it brings the condemnations of Yeshua in several different formats, and what proves interesting is that only some of the versions of this story corroborate. Such testimonies would be immediately cast out and rejected in a court of law.
Examine the following:
Babylonian Talmud Aboda Zara 16 b. And Ecclesiastes Rabba to Eccles. 1:8 (Pesaro, 1519). And in Tractate Shabbath 104 b, and in Sanhedrin 67 a
"And for all capital criminals who are mentioned in the Law, they do not lay an ambush but (they do) for this (criminal)." How do they act towards him? They light the lamp for him in the innermost part of the house and they place witnesses for him in the exterior part of the house, that they may see him and hear his voice, though he cannot see them. And that man says to him: Tell me what you have told me when we were alone. And when he repeats (those words) to him, that man says to him: How can we abandon our God in Heaven and practice idolatry? If he returns, it is well, but when he says: Such is our duty, and so we like to have it, then the witnesses, who are listening without, bring him to the tribunal and stone him. And thus, they have done to the Son of Stada at Lod and they hanged him on the day before Passover.”
Babylonian Talmud Aboda Zara 16b affirms that Yeshua was “hanged” the day before the Passover. This detail positions the writers of this text as knowledgeable of the Gospel narratives of the crucifixion of Yeshua. The protagonist writers of this text are Talmudic Rabbis living in the 3rd to 5th Centuries CE, who were aware of the details of the New Testament Gospels about the crucifixion of Yeshua and affirmed it in their discussion. The question is, why are these Rabbis in such a late time dealing with this issue? One, they can’t deny what is written in the Gospels. Two, they want to show that Yeshua’s death was by due process of a Jewish legal trial.
Examine the following:
Babylonian Talmud Tractate Sanhedrin 43a.
This is the most significant text in the Talmud dealing with the crucifixion of Yeshua outside of the Gospels. It is based on the Mishnah of Sanhedrin. The Mishnah was collected by Rabbi Judah the Nasi, the President who lived in Zippori, the Jewish capital in the Galilee, about 3 miles from Nazareth. Rabbi Judah died in the year 210 CE. The Mishnah was finished just before the year 210 CE.
MISHNAH.
“IF THEN THEY FIND HIM INNOCENT, THEY DISCHARGE HIM; BUT IF NOT, HE GOES FORTH TO BE STONED, AND A HERALD PRECEDES HIM [CRYING]: SO, AND SO, THE SON OF SO AND SO, IS GOING FORTH TO BE STONED BECAUSE HE COMMITTED SUCH AND SUCH AN OFFENSE, AND SO AND SO ARE HIS WITNESSES. WHOEVER KNOWS ANYTHING IN HIS FAVOR, LET HIM COME AND STATE IT.”
GEMARA - Talmud
“Abaye said, It must also be announced: On such and such a day, at such and such an hour, and in such and such a place [the crime was committed] in case there are some who know [to the contrary] so that they can come forward and prove the witnesses Zomemim. AND A HERALD PRECEDES HIM[5]. This implies only immediately before [the execution], but not before thereto. [In contradiction to this] it was taught: On the eve of the Passover, Yeshu the Nazarene (Deut. 18:9) was hanged. For forty days before the execution took place, a herald went forth and cried, ‘He is going forth to be stoned because he has practiced sorcery and enticed Israel to apostasy. Anyone who can say anything in his favor, let him come forward and plead on his behalf.’ But since nothing was brought forward in his favor, he was hanged on the eve of the Passover! — ‘Ulla retorted: Do you suppose that he was one for whom a defense could be made? Was he not a Mesith [enticer], concerning whom Scripture says, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him? With Yeshu, however, it was different, for he was connected with the government [or royalty, i.e., influential].”
What does it mean that Yeshua was connected with Royalty or with Government? To which Royalty was he related? The only possibility is to the house of David. It was unfathomable to imagine that Yeshua was related to the house of Herod. From the beginning, Yeshua was born in Bethlehem according to prophetic predictions. Yeshua visited Jerusalem several times during the three years of his ministry. Still, the story of the entrance on a donkey is associated only with Yeshua’s coming with his disciples for the last Passover feast before his crucifixion, also in fulfillment of prophecy. Yeshua’s burial in a rich man’s grave also fulfills prophecy.
The text continues with a strange story about the disciples of Yeshu.
“Our Rabbis taught: Yeshu had five disciples, Matthai, Nakai, Nezer, Buni, and Todah. When Matthai was brought [before the court], he said to them [the judges], Shall Matthai be executed? Is it not written, Matthai [when] shall I come and appear before God? Thereupon, they retorted, Yes, Matthai shall be executed, since it is written When Matthai [when] shall [he] die and his name perish. When Nakai was brought in, he said to them; Shall Nakai be executed? It is not written, Naki [the innocent] and the righteous slay thou not? Yes, was the answer, Nakai shall be executed, since it is written, in secret places does Naki [the innocent] slay. When Nezer was brought in, he said; Shall Nezer be executed? Is it not written, And Nezer [a twig] shall grow forth out of his roots. Yes, they said, Nezer shall be executed since it is written, but thou art cast forth away from thy grave like Nezer [an abhorred offshoot]. When Buni was brought in, he said: Shall Buni be executed? Is it not written, Beni [my son], my firstborn? Yes, they said, Buni shall be executed, since it is written, Behold I will slay Bine-ka [thy son] thy firstborn, and when Todah was brought in, he said to them, Shall Todah be executed? Is it not written, A psalm for Todah [thanksgiving Yes, they answered, Todah shall be executed since it is written, whoso offers the sacrifice of Todah [thanksgiving] honored me.”
One of the fascinating things about this song about the five disciples of Yeshua is a pattern in ancient Talmudic and Pharisaic literature used to defame or reject a disciple who had left the acceptable track. The pattern had a standard example of five disciples of the great Rabbi and described how they fell into the sinful or deviant lifestyle and were rejected by the great Rabbi they served and followed. There is a pattern in the text above of condemnation of Yeshua and his disciples. There is a name of a disciple of Yeshua and a condemnation of that disciple. Then, the justification of the condemnation and the approval for executing that disciple. The text used by the accusers is, of course, a text used out of context with no direct connection with the substance of the accusation. This is a Rabbinical court, and the condemnation is fabricated with an apparent prejudicial use of the biblical texts. The Talmudic Rabbis go through every one of the supposed disciples of Yeshua and condemn them to death. However, this text is a polemic text that is produced as a fabrication, a fake courthouse, fake condemnation, and a fake accusation with a phony death verdict. Contrary to the plain use of this negative propaganda is a paradigm that repeats itself with other cases of Rabbinical condemnation of disciples of famous Rabbis.
The story of the execution of Yeshua in The Talmud (tractate of Sanhedrin, page 43) has the Sanhedrin judging Yeshua and executing him after a trial. There are no Romans in the story nor a cross in this Rabbinical fabrication. The story does have some interesting points that add to our understanding of how the Rabbis viewed Yeshua in later centuries.
An example of this pattern is found in the story of Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai. Yohanan ben Zakkai, who lived in the time of Yeshua, also predicted the fall of Jerusalem and the temple 40 years before the event.
Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai had five disciples, and they were these:
Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus,
Rabbi Joshua ben Hananiah,
Rabbi Yose, the priest,
Rabbi Shimon ben Nethaneel
Rabbi Eleazar ben Arach.
A specific outstanding virtue was attached to Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai’s disciples, which later turned into a negative.
Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus is a plastered cistern that loses not a drop.
Rabbi Joshua ben Hananiah happy is the woman who gave birth to him.
Rabbi Yose, the priest, is a pious man.
Rabbi Simeon ben Nethanel fears sin, And
Rabbi Eleazar ben Arach is like a spring that [ever] gathers force.
Interestingly, great Rabbis are reported in the Talmud to have five disciples, and each disciple is said to have positive qualities that make him worthy to be a disciple of the great Rabbi. The Talmud follows a set tradition and is not an accurate historical reality. Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai had many more than five disciples. We know this from his departure from Jerusalem in a coffin, as was permitted by the Romans to take the dead out of the city for burial during the siege of the town. Rabbi Ben-Zakkai was in the coffin pretending to be quiet, and his disciples accompanied him from Jerusalem to Yavne (Jamnia south of Jaffa on the road to Gaza).
Yeshua had 12 disciples, but the Talmudic Rabbis of the later centuries (4th or 5th Centuries CE) had memories or even earlier texts that used this pattern of five disciples.
The text about the execution of Yeshua’s disciples is fascinating, and it reveals the five building blocks of our faith in Yeshua. Told through the five names of the disciples is a song of praise of Yeshua, praise for five things that he did for us and presented as the core of the Good News.
1. Mattahi – it is a Hebrew word indicating time that translates as “When!” - At the right time, Yeshua appeared on the stage of Israel’s history.
2. Nakai is a Hebrew word that means clean, not guilty, or innocent.
3. Nezer is a Hebrew word translated as “branch.” Used in the following context in the Hebrew Bible: “There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots.” (Isaiah 11:1 NKJV) The word “BRANCH” in Isaiah 11 is a messianic text! The Hebrew word for Christian is Notzri - that is from the same root as NETZER in Isaiah. So, this text is pointing to the Messiah. In this early song, we see the attributes of the Messiah, and Yeshua fulfills them all, including that he is the branch of Jesse – King David’s family. We see the same relationship from Jeremiah 23:5, “Behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD, “That I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness; A King shall reign and prosper and execute judgment and righteousness in the earth.” In this messianic text, we see a repetition of the same motif of Branch as related to King David.
4. Buni is a Hebrew word called SON or Builder. The Talmudic text here brings the verse “My Son my First Born!”[6] This text corresponds to “Yet I have set My King on My holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree: The LORD has said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.” (Psalm 2:6-7 NKJV)
5. Todah is a Hebrew word that translates as “Thank You” or “Thanksgiving”! The thanksgiving is for all the earlier four aspects of the Messianic advent. Sacrifices of Thanksgiving were not explicitly commanded; instead, they were performed from a person’s free will: “And when you offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the LORD, offer it of your own free will.” (Leviticus 22:29 NKJV). The crucifixion of Yeshua was not organized and commanded by God. Still, it was the free will and design of the people to deliver Yeshua to the Romans and to ask the governor Pontius Pilates to sacrifice this man, even though he didn’t understand why or for what reason, but was willing to please the Pharisees for political reasons. Two verses areinteresting in this context: Psalm 50:14, “Offer to God thanksgiving and pay your vows to the Highest. 23 Whoever offers praise glorifies Me, And to him who orders his conduct aright I will show the salvation of God.” (Psalm 50:14, 23 NKJV)
Great Rabbis in the Talmud are deeply impressed by the Torah teaching of Yeshua.
Examine the following:
Babylonian Talmud Tractate Aboda Zarah 16b - 17a
“The Sages taught: When Rabbi Eliezer was arrested and charged with heresy by the authorities, they brought him up to a tribunal to be judged. A certain judicial officer [hegemon] said to him: Why should an elder like you engage in these frivolous matters of heresy? Rabbi Eliezer said to him: The Judge is trusted by me to rule correctly. That officer thought Rabbi Eliezer was speaking about him, but he said this only about his Father in Heaven. Rabbi Eliezer meant that he accepted God’s judgment, i.e., if he was charged, he must have sinned to God somehow. The officer said to him: Since you put your trust in me, you are acquitted [dimos]; you are exempt. When Rabbi Eliezer came home, his students entered to console him for being accused of heresy, which he took as a sign of sin, and he did not accept their words of consolation. Rabbi Akiva said to him: My teacher, allow me to say one matter from all of that which you taught me. Rabbi Eliezer said to him: Speak. Rabbi Akiva said to him: My teacher, perhaps some statement of heresy came before you and you derived pleasure from it, and because of this you were held responsible by Heaven. Rabbi Eliezer said to him: Akiva, you are right, as you have reminded me that once I was walking in the upper marketplace of Tzippori, and I found a man who was one of the students of Jesus the Nazarene, and his name was Ya’akov of Kefar Sekhanya. He said to me: It is written in your Torah: “You shall not bring the payment to aprostitute, or the price of a dog, into the house of the Lord your God” (Deuteronomy 23:19). What is the halakha: Is it permitted to make from the payment to a prostitute for services rendered a bathroom for a High Priest in the Temple? And I said nothing to him in response. He said to me: Jesus the Nazarene taught me the following: It is permitted, as derived from the verse: “For of the payment to a prostitute she has gathered them, and to the payment to a prostitute they shall return”(Micah 1:7). Since the coins came from a place of filth, let them go to a place of filth and be used to build a bathroom. And I derived pleasure from the statement, and due to this, I was arrested for heresy by the authorities because I transgressed that which is written in the Torah: “Remove your way far from her and do not come near the entrance of her house” (Proverbs 5:8).
The text from Aboda Zarah 16b – 17a centers around Rabbis who lived in Galilee after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. Rabbi Eliezer was arrested by the Romans for some heresy (against the Romans), and he was taken to the Roman court. The judge was surprised to see a famous honorable Rabbi being brought to the court to be judged.
Rabbi Eliezer was walking in the market of the city of Tzippori (2 miles from Nazareth), and found a man who was a disciple of Jesus the Nazarene (From Nazareth) by the name of Jacob from the Village of Sekhanya, today an Arab village named Sakhanin. Jacob asked Rabbi Eliezer a halachic question from the Torah:
“It is written in your Torah: “You shall not bring the payment to a prostitute, or the price of a dog, into the house of the Lord your God” (Deuteronomy 23:19).[7] What is the halakha: Is it permitted to make from the payment to a prostitute for services rendered a bathroom for a High Priest in the Temple? And I said nothing to him in response. He said to me: Jesus the Nazarene taught me the following: It is permitted, as derived from the verse: “For of the payment to a prostitute she has gathered them, and to the payment to a prostitute they shall return”(Micah 1:7). Since the coins came from a place of filth, let them go to a place of filth and be used to build a bathroom.”
Jacob, the disciple of Yeshua, asked the question, and the Great Rabbi Eliezer was left speechless by the wisdom of Yeshua’s answer. Yeshua solved the legal problem that seemed like a contradiction in the Torah with a verse from the book of Micah 1:7, “For of the payment to a prostitute she has gathered them, and to the payment to a prostitute they shall return” – Yeshua teaches to use the tithe of a prostitute to build a bathroom for the high priest. The prophet Micah states that what came from the filth returns to the filth. Tacitly, the Talmud and its great Rabbis admit and confess the Torah wisdom that Yeshua had in His teaching.
Several of Yeshua’s statements in the Gospels have filtered into the Talmudic literature. This story shows the social dynamics in the early 2nd Century CE among the Jewish communities in Galilee. For context, it needs to be mentioned that Rabbi Akiva was not a born Jew. He was a pagan shepherd who didn’t know how to read or write. He married the daughter of one of the wealthiest men in Jerusalem. She insisted that he should become a Rabbi and sent him to study in the city of Lod. Akiva's combination of Hellenistic culture and philosophy with the Hebrew Torah set him apart from the other Jewish Rabbis of the time. By applying Greek Pagan philosophy to the Torah, he incorporated another attitude into the Jewish Torah. R. Akiva brought militant attitudes that radicalized and weaponized Rabbinical Judaism in the 2nd century CE, which led to the second revolt against the Romans, causing the great destruction of the land of Israel and the exile of the majority of the Jewish population from Israel.
One last text was written about Yeshua in the Talmud.
Examine the following:
Babylonian Talmud Baba Bathera 60b.
“Whoever mourns for Zion will be privileged to behold her joy, as it says, Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, etc. It has been taught: R. Ishmael ben Elisha said: Since the day of the destruction of the Temple, we should by rights bind ourselves not to eat meat nor drink wine, only we do not lay a hardship on the community unless the majority can endure it. And from the day that a Government has come into power which issues cruel decrees against us and forbids to us the observance of the Torah and the precepts and does not allow us to enter into the 'week of the son' (according to another version, 'the salvation of the son'), we ought by rights to bind ourselves not to marry and beget children, and the seed of Abraham, our father, would come to an end of itself. However, let Israel go their way: it is better that they should err in ignorance than presumptuously.”
“וכל המתאבל על ירושלים זוכה ורואה בשמחתה שנאמר (ישעיהו סו, י) שמחו את ירושלים וגו'
תניא אמר ר' ישמעאל בן אלישע מיום שחרב בית המקדש דין הוא שנגזור על עצמנו שלא לאכול בשר ולא לשתות יין אלא אין גוזרין גזרה על הצבור אא"כ רוב צבור יכולים לעמוד בה ומיום שפשטה מלכות הרשעה שגוזרת עלינו גזירות רעות וקשות ומבטלת ממנו תורה ומצות ואין מנחת אותנו להיכנס לשבוע הבן ואמרי לה לישוע הבן דין הוא שנגזור על עצמנו שלא לישא אשה ולהוליד בנים ונמצא זרעו של אברהם אבינו כלה מאליו אלא הנח להם לישראל מוטב שיהיו
The translation of the original phrase as it appears in Hebrew in the same passage in the Talmud: For the week the son and tell her to Yeshua, the son.
As you look in the English translation, what I colored Green is also green in the Hebrew text, and what I colored Red is also red in the Hebrew text. Google Translate gave the exact translation, “Yeshua the SON!”
As you can see, the English translation has brackets around these phrases, and in the green, it adds a strange comment, “according to another version.” What other version?
As a student in the Yeshiva on Mt. Zion in Jerusalem, I read two books about Yeshua in the Talmud, Midrash, and Zohar. I first read Gustaf Dalman’s book, “Jesus Christ in the Talmud, Midrash and Zohar, and Liturgy of the Synagogue.” The second book I read was “Christianity in Talmud and Midrash” by R. Travers Herford. I must have missed this text from Baba Batra 60b in these books, or they must have missed this text because the writers of these books and probably read the Talmud in their native languages with the flawed translation purposefully changed the Hebrew Text from “Yeshua the Son!” to “Salvation of the son!”
How did I discover this text in the Talmud? One Sunday evening, I was working on my computer in the Netivyah office on Narkis Street. A big man, clothed in the garments of the Toldot Aaron Hassidic sect, Silver colored caftan with black stripes, and a big mink hat on his head, knocked on my door. My first reaction was FEAR. I have been attacked, beaten, and threatened with attempted murder more than once. The people who wear these clothes belong to a sect that is one of the most radical groups in the Mea Shearim, an ultra-orthodox neighborhood in Jerusalem. Hassid asked politely to come into my office, and I overcame the fear and invited him in. I went to the kitchen and fixed tea for both of us.
He said that someone sent him to me with a question! He asked if I had a Talmud in the office. He saw that I had more than one version, and I wondered which ones he wanted. He answered, “Any edition you would like,” so I brought down the Hebrew-English Soncino Talmud. The Rabbi said, “Open the Volume of Baba Batra, page 60b. Read Rabbi Ishmael's statement close to the bottom of the page. I started reading in Hebrew and saw Rabbi Ishmael giving the same advice that the Apostle Paul gave in the letter of 1st Corinthians, that it is better because of the times not to get married now; an interesting point because the orthodox always accuse Paul of being anti-Torah.
I kept on reading, and I almost fell off my chair. “Yeshua the Son!” “What is this?” I ask the Rabbi. He came to me because he had been thinking about this text for a long time and had read most of the Talmud's Jewish commentators and the “Questioning and Answer” Orthodox Jewish literature on this text, and I had found no satisfactory answer. Someone sent him to me, thinking I might have an answer to this text. Being the first time I had seen this text, I didn’t know where to find answers. I asked for one week to study and try to understand this text. The Rabbi very graciously understood, and after a few minutes of talking about family and work, he left my office. I was elated but also at the same time anxious. This very learned ultra-orthodox Rabbi has studied this for some time and has not found a satisfactory answer!
The next day, I prepared teaching on another text from the Talmud, from the tractate Sanhedrin page 97a, about the events that would precede the appearance of the Messiah. In Revelation 15:1, the seven angels have seven days of wrath for the world.
The top of page 97a in Sanhedrin reads:
“He replied, 'Thus hath R. Johanan said: in the generation when the son of David [i.e., Messiah] will come, scholars will be few in number, and as for the rest, their eyes will fail through sorrow and grief. Multitudes of trouble and evil decrees will be promulgated anew, each new evil coming with haste before the other has ended.' Our Rabbis taught: in the seven-year cycle at the end of which the son of David will come-in the first year, this verse will be fulfilled: And I will cause it to rain upon one city and cause it not to rain upon another city; 2 in the second, the arrows of hunger will be sent forth; . . .”
This text from Sanhedrin 97a seems to correspond clearly with Revelation 15:1 as we advance in discussing the return of the Messiah. Therefore, the text of Yeshua the Son fits right in place with that of the Talmudic text from Baba Bathra 60b, placing the coming of Yeshua the Son of David and the Son of God in the time when those seven days of punishments on the Earth will end. This is called, in Christian terminology, the “Tribulations!” Rabbi Ishmael’s prediction is correct: the Messiah did not come with Jerusalem's fall and the Temple's destruction in Jerusalem but after seven prophetic years of Angels of God pouring bowls of wrath upon the Earth. And Rabbi Ishmael identifies who is coming in the generation when the Son of David returns to Jerusalem; it is Yeshua the Son!
Conclusion:
The Pharisees and the other Elitist sects in Jerusalem indeed opposed Yeshua, and that opposition was not solely based on religious reasons. Much opposition against Yeshua and his disciples was because they hailed from Galilee and were not a part of the establishment of Jerusalem’s elite. However, when we see the amount of late 1st century CE Post-destruction rabbinical literature dealing with Yeshua and his disciples, we can recognize that Yeshua occupied the minds and the consciousness of the Jewish population. We see the texts in the Talmud that preserve the importance of Yeshua’s teaching about halachic issues like the tithes of a prostitute and the price of a dog. We also see the power of Yeshua’s name for healing Rabbis and their sons! We see how even in the texts that speak of the condemnation of Yeshua to death by the Sanhedrin, special attention is given to Yeshua, unlike other condemned criminals. The reason why the announcement of his execution was announced in the streets of Jerusalem 40 days before the date of his crucifixion is that he was related to Royalty.
I will end this paper on Yeshua in the Talmud with a personal experience with Hugh Schoenfeld in 1985. Hugh Schoenfeld was the author of the book “The Passover Plot.” The book’s thesis was that Yeshua knew the Messianic prophecies and engineered His life to fulfill them. Dr. David Stern, an elder in our congregation in Jerusalem, participated in a conference in New Market, England. At the end of the meeting, Dr. David Stern suggested we go and visit Hugh Schoenfeld at his home. Hugh Schoenfeld wrote two important books: "The History of Messianic Judaism.” The second is the Passover Plot. Hugh Schoenfeld wrote The Passover Plot from a deep disappointment from the Hebrew Christian Community in England. Hugh Schoenfeld confessed that he regretted writing the Passover Plot and asked us to pray for him to live long enough to write a sequel that would correct the impression that his “Passover Plot” gave to people.
Reading the Gospels many times through, even after reading the Passover Plot, never gave me the impression that anything that Yeshua did himself or with his apostles was contrived, pre-planned, and engineered.
The material about Yeshua in the Talmud I included in this paper is not comprehensive. There is much more that could have been included in this article. The Rabbis of the 2nd to 5th Century CE were not looking to praise Him but to defame Him. But like it happens many times in History, those who came to curse and blacken the Holy Name of Yeshua and The Father, the Almighty God of Israel, ended up instead affirming and confirming that Yeshua was and is even now the King of the Jews, the Son of David, The Messiah who was and is and will return to Jerusalem fulfilling all of God’s promises to the nation of Israel and the whole World.
Final Words: The Rabbis of the Talmud, like Balaam, came to curse, but their curses turned into blessings.
A short bibliography for those who want to study and dig deeper into the Pharisaic Jewish ancient literature:
1. Gustaf Dalman – Jesus Christ in the Talmud.
2. R. Travers Herford, Christianity in Talmud and Midrash.
3. Peter Schäfer - Jesus in the Talmud
4. Dr. Randy Weiss - Judaism Through the Eyes of Jesus.
5. Even Moffic – What Every Christian Needs to Know About Judaism.
6. Lester L. Grabbe – An Introduction to Second Temple Judaism.
7. James J. DeFrancisco, PhD - A Response to an Orthodox Rabbi and others.
[1] Tosophoth Shabbath is a Medieval Rabbinical commentary written by Jewish Rabbis in the 11th Century CE.
[2] Rabbis who bring early material not included in the Mishna.
[3] In Isaiah 53, the Messiah is described as a leper (a person sick with leprosy – rejected and despised suffering servant of God, who saves the people.
[4] Psalms 95:7. “For He is our God, And we are the people of his pasture, And the sheep of His hand. Today, if you will hear his voice;”. Hebrews 3:7. “Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today if you will hear his voice,”
[5] According to the Mishnah that is sighted above, before capital punishment and execution of a criminal, there had to be a herald that went through the streets of Jerusalem announcing the execution with the name of the criminal and the accusation for the crime that was committed and a request that if someone had additional evidence or evidence that this man was not guilty of the crime that he was about to be hung, killed, crucified, let that witness come forth before the execution and share his information that could change the outcome of the trial and the verdict of the accused.
[6] “Then you shall say to Pharaoh, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Israel is My son, My firstborn.” (Exodus 4:22 NKJV)