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JESUS IN THE TALMUD (Draft)
From before the time of Jesus, the Jewish community in Palestine had developed an extensive oral tradition which elaborated upon the Law of Moses. Eventually this Oral Law was written down to form the Talmud. This Jewish work appears to contains passages that refer to Jesus. However scholars are divided regarding the reliability of these vitriolic attacks on early Christianity.
The Babylonian Talmud and the Jerusalem Talmud (Palestinian Talmud or Talmud de-Eretz Yisrael) are the two major versions that we have today. The modern Talmud has no references to Jesus, as they were removed by censorship. However, the name of Jesus occurs 20 times in the unexpurgated editions.
First-century Galilee was primarily an oral culture. Although the Jewish (& Christian) Community at the time of Jesus had a system of writing, there had also developed an extensive Oral Tradition which remained an important aspect of Pharisaic/Christian scholarship during Second Temple period. This tradition of discussing, debating, interpreting, agreeing upon, or continuing to disagree about the true meaning of the written text was the "Oral Tradition" of the Jews at the time of Jesus.[1] [2] [3]
This Jewish Oral Tradition is considered trustworthy. In Second Century Palestinian society where written materials were rare and few could read, accurate oral transmission was expected and demanded, and memory was developed to an remarkable extent in Rabbinic schools. [4] Rabbis argued about many things. Their arguments were meant to help everyone know how to keep the Law. These interpretations were intended to make sure that people followed what Moses commanded. This "Oral Law" is sometimes misunderstood as having been given by God, in its entirety, to Moses on Mount Sinai, along with the Torah. It is often viewed as a kind of secret lore that was passed on, from generation to generation, whispered to select persons throughout history, to our present era. In fact, the Oral Law is analogous to modern judicial precedent: the ever-growing body of case law, with its judgments and precedents. [5] [6] [7]
This Oral Tradition was not simply hearsay nor was it to ever be written down. It represented the Divine will — an all-encompassing Torah. In 70 C.E. everything dramatically changed. In that year, the The Temple, which was the locus of all religious practice and authority for First-Century Judaism was destroyed. [8] [9]
The Hebrew community was scattered throughout the different nations of the Roman Empire in what is called the Diaspora. The trauma brought about by these events greatly affected the Oral Tradition of Palestine. The means of the oral transmission of the teaching were now weakening and the Oral Tradition needed be written down or it would be lost. The Talmud was not composed all at once. Even before time of Jesus and Hillel, bits would have been recorded as megillot setarim. Later writings were known as the Mishnah. Further interpretation became known as the Gemara. These Mishnaic and Gemaran traditions became the basis for the Talmud. [10] [11] [12]
This literature is valuable for understanding Jesus' times, especially the Pharisee movement. However the Talmud does not represent "normative Judaism" of Jesus' day. The period before the destruction of the Temple was much more diverse, being made up of several different groups including Pharisees, Sadducees, Zealots, Herodians and Essenes. The Talmud gives us important insight on the only Palestinian Jewish group to survive the revolt: the Pharisees who reorganized Judaism and gave it new life. [13] (To search this literature for historical information about the First Century see, Part II Authenticity below.)
The the majority of Biblical scholars (See Part II below) believe the Talmudic references to Jesus are of little use. [14] However, there are two notable texts which are of considered to be important to modern historians. [15] [16] [17]
(Talmud Shabbat 104b, Sanhedrin 67a)
The tradition of Ben Pantera is so weak, were it not for external corroboration, this passage's reference to the 'birth of Jesus' probably would be given up for unauthentic. However, we now have independent testimony from Celsus. [18]
(Talmud Sanhedrin 43a)
Jesus' trial and execution are treated in a passage from the Talmud that has been rightly called the "most famous" Jesus reference in all of rabbinic literature. Over the years it has been subject to ongoing scholarly debate. [22]
It is "almost universally agreed" [25] among Biblical scholars that this portion of the Talmud genuinely refers to Jesus of Nazareth. [26] This passage is truly extraordinary: "A Jewish writing in which Jews, not Romans, execute Jesus on solely Jewish charges after a solely Jewish trial." We can safely deduce that this is a very early passage written before rabbis felt pressure from Christians about responsibility for the death of Jesus. Otherwise they would never have included it in the Talmud. Also this passage bears little resemblance, literary or oral, to the Christian Gospels. [27] [28] [29]
Most scholars believe the anti-Christian material in the Talmud "did not originate" with Christian sources. Indeed the Talmud's importance and credibility as an early source lies in the fact that it gives the "opposition view" to Jesus. However, if one factors out the negative bias of this "hostile witness", then this independent source provides us with indirect evidence regarding the historical Jesus. Contained within these two hostile testimonies of the Talmud is the following information: [30] [31] [32]
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