The Toledot Jeshu had once been part of the Talmud,
complied approximately 600 AD but containing rabbinic writings going back to
the time of Jesus. It created such offense to the Christian community of the
Middle Ages, that the Jews removed it and also denied that the remaining less
explicit passages were referring to Jesus. http://jewishchristianlit.com//Topics/JewishJesus/toledoth.html
“In the year
3671[1] in the days of King Jannaeus, a great misfortune befell Israel, when
there arose a certain disreputable man of the tribe of Judah, whose name was
Joseph Pandera. He lived at Bethlehem, in Judah.
Near his house dwelt a widow and her lovely and chaste
daughter named Miriam. Miriam was betrothed to Yohanan, of the royal house of
David, a man learned in the Torah and God-fearing.
At the close of a certain Sabbath, Joseph Pandera,
attractive and like a warrior in appearance, having gazed lustfully upon
Miriam, knocked upon the door of her room and betrayed her by pretending that
he was her betrothed husband, Yohanan. Even so, she was amazed at this improper
conduct and submitted only against her will.
Thereafter, when Yohanan came to her, Miriam expressed
astonishment at behavior so foreign to his character. It was thus that they
both came to know the crime of Joseph Pandera and the terrible mistake on the
part of Miriam. Whereupon Yohanan went to Rabban Shimeon ben Shetah and related
to him the tragic seduction. Lacking witnesses required for the punishment of
Joseph Pandera, and Miriam being with child, Yohanan left for Babylonia.[2]
Miriam gave birth to a son and named him Yehoshua, after her
brother. This name later deteriorated to Yeshu. On the eighth day he was
circumcised. When he was old enough the lad was taken by Miriam to the house of
study to be instructed in the Jewish tradition.
One day Yeshu walked in front of the Sages with his head
uncovered, showing shameful disrespect. At this, the discussion arose as to
whether this behavior did not truly indicate that Yeshu was an illegitimate
child and the son of a niddah[3]. Moreover, the story tells that while the
rabbis were discussing the Tractate Nezikin, he gave his own impudent
interpretation of the law and in an ensuing debate he held that Moses could not
be the greatest of the prophets if he had to receive counsel from Jethro. This
led to further inquiry as to the antecedents of Yeshu, and it was discovered
through Rabban Shimeon ben Shetah that he was the illegitimate son of Joseph
Pandera. Miriam admitted it.[4] After this became known, it was necessary for
Yeshu to flee to Upper Galilee.
After King Jannaeus, his wife Helene[5] ruled over all
Israel. In the Temple was to be found the Foundation Stone on which were
engraved the letters of God's Ineffable Name. Whoever learned the secret of the
Name and its use would be able to do whatever he wished. Therefore, the Sages
took measures so that no one should gain this knowledge. Lions of brass were
bound to two iron pillars at the gate of the place of burnt offerings. Should
anyone enter and learn the Name, when he left the lions would roar at him and
immediately the valuable secret would be forgotten.
Yeshu came and learned the letters of the Name; he wrote
them upon the parchment which he placed in an open cut on his thigh and then
drew the flesh over the parchment. As he left, the lions roared and he forgot
the secret. But when he came to his house he reopened the cut in his flesh with
a knife an lifted out the writing. Then he remembered and obtained the use of
the letters.[6]
He gathered about himself three hundred and ten young men of
Israel and accused those who spoke ill of his birth of being people who desired
greatness and power for themselves. Yeshu proclaimed, "I am the Messiah;
and concerning me Isaiah prophesied and said, 'Behold, a virgin shall conceive,
and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.'" He quoted other
messianic texts, insisting, "David my ancestor prophesied concerning me:
'The Lord said to me, thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee.'"
The insurgents with him replied that if Yeshu was the
Messiah he should give them a convincing sign. They therefore, brought to him a
lame man, who had never walked. Yeshu spoke over the man the letters of the
Ineffable Name, and the leper was healed. Thereupon, they worshipped him as the
Messiah, Son of the Highest.
When word of these happenings came to Jerusalem, the
Sanhedrin decided to bring about the capture of Yeshu. They sent messengers,
Annanui and Ahaziah, who, pretending to be his disciples, said that they
brought him an invitation from the leaders of Jerusalem to visit them. Yeshu
consented on condition the members of the Sanhedrin receive him as a lord. He
started out toward Jerusalem and, arriving at Knob, acquired an ass on which he
rode into Jerusalem, as a fulfillment of the prophecy of Zechariah.
The Sages bound him and led him before Queen Helene, with
the accusation: "This man is a sorcerer and entices everyone." Yeshu
replied, "The prophets long ago prophesied my coming: 'And there shall
come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse,' and I am he; but as for them,
Scripture says 'Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the
ungodly.'"
Queen Helene asked the Sages: "What he says, is it in
your Torah?" They replied: "It is in our Torah, but it is not
applicable to him, for it is in Scripture: 'And that prophet which shall
presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak or
that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die.' He
has not fulfilled the signs and conditions of the Messiah."
Yeshu spoke up: "Madam, I am the Messiah and I revive
the dead." A dead body was brought in; he pronounced the letters of the Ineffable
Name and the corpse came to life. The Queen was greatly moved and said:
"This is a true sign." She reprimanded the Sages and sent them
humiliated from her presence. Yeshu's dissident followers increased and there
was controversy in Israel.
Yeshu went to Upper Galilee. the Sages came before the
Queen, complaining that Yeshu practiced sorcery and was leading everyone
astray. Therefore she sent Annanui and Ahaziah to fetch him.
The found him in Upper Galilee, proclaiming himself the Son
of God. When they tried to take him there was a struggle, but Yeshu said to the
men of Upper Galilee: "Wage no battle." He would prove himself by the
power which came to him from his Father in heaven. He spoke the Ineffable Name
over the birds of clay and they flew into the air. He spoke the same letters
over a millstone that had been placed upon the waters. He sat in it and it
floated like a boat. When they saw this the people marveled. At the behest of
Yeshu, the emissaries departed and reported these wonders to the Queen. She
trembled with astonishment.
Then the Sages selected a man named Judah Iskarioto and
brought him to the Sanctuary where he learned the letters of the Ineffable Name
as Yeshu had done.
When Yeshu was summoned before the queen, this time there
were present also the Sages and Judah Iskarioto. Yeshu said: "It is spoken
of me, 'I will ascend into heaven.'" He lifted his arms like the wings of
an eagle and he flew between heaven and earth, to the amazement of everyone.
The elders asked Iskarioto to do likewise. He did, and flew
toward heaven. Iskarioto attempted to force Yeshu down to earth but neither one
of the two could prevail against the other for both had the use of the
Ineffable Name. However, Iskarioto defiled Yeshu, so that they both lost their
power and fell down to the earth, and in their condition of defilement the
letters of the Ineffable Name escaped from them. Because of this deed of Judah
they weep on the eve of the birth of Yeshu.
Yeshu was seized. His head was covered with a garment and he
was smitten with pomegranate staves; but he could do nothing, for he no longer
had the Ineffable Name.
Yeshu was taken prisoner to the synagogue of Tiberias, and
they bound him to a pillar. To allay his thirst they gave him vinegar to drink.
On his head they set a crown of thorns. There was strife and wrangling between
the elders and the unrestrained followers of Yeshu, as a result of which the
followers escaped with Yeshu to the region of Antioch[7]; there Yeshu remained
until the eve of the Passover.
[8] Yeshu then resolved to go the Temple to acquire again
the secret of the Name. That year the Passover came on a Sabbath day. On the
eve of the Passover, Yeshu, accompanied by his disciples, came to Jerusalem
riding upon an ass. Many bowed down before him. He entered the Temple with his
three hundred and ten followers. One of them, Judah Iskarioto[9] apprised the
Sages that Yeshu was to be found in the Temple, that the disciples had taken a
vow by the Ten Commandments not to reveal his identity but that he would point
him out by bowing to him. So it was done and Yeshu was seized. Asked his name,
he replied to the question by several times giving the names Mattai, Nakki,
Buni, Netzer, each time with a verse quoted by him and a counter-verse by the
Sages.
Yeshu was put to death on the sixth hour on the eve of the
Passover and of the Sabbath. When they tried to hang him on a tree it broke,
for when he had possessed the power he had pronounced by the Ineffable Name
that no tree should hold him. He had failed to pronounce the prohibition over
the carob-stalk[10], for it was a plant more than a tree, and on it he was
hanged until the hour for afternoon prayer, for it is written in Scripture,
"His body shall not remain all night upon the tree." They buried him
outside the city.
On the first day of the week his bold followers came to
Queen Helene with the report that he who was slain was truly the Messiah and
that he was not in his grave; he had ascended to heaven as he prophesied.
Diligent search was made and he was not found in the grave where he had been
buried. A gardener had taken him from the grave and had brought him into his
garden and buried him in the sand over which the waters flowed into the garden.
Queen Helene demanded, on threat of a severe penalty, that
the body of Yeshu be shown to her within a period of three days. There was a
great distress. When the keeper of the garden saw Rabbi Tanhuma walking in the
field and lamenting over the ultimatum of the Queen, the gardener related what
he had done, in order that Yeshu's followers should not steal the body and then
claim that he had ascended into heaven. The Sages removed the body, tied it to
the tail of a horse and transported it to the Queen, with the words, "This
is Yeshu who is said to have ascended to heaven." Realizing that Yeshu was
a false prophet who enticed the people and led them astray, she mocked the
followers but praised the Sages.
The disciples went out among the nations--three went to the
mountains of Ararat, three to Armenia, three to Rome and three to the kingdoms
buy the sea, They deluded the people, but ultimately they were slain.
The erring followers amongst Israel said: "You have
slain the Messiah of the Lord." The Israelites answered: "You have
believed in a false prophet." There was endless strife and discord for
thirty years.
The Sages desired to separate from Israel those who
continued to claim Yeshu as the Messiah, and they called upon a greatly learned
man, Simeon Kepha, for help. Simeon went to Antioch, main city of the Nazarenes
and proclaimed toe them: "I am the disciple of Yeshu. He has sent me to
show you the way. I will give you a sign as Yeshu has done."
Simeon, having gained the secret of the Ineffable Name,
healed a leper and a lame man by means of it and thus found acceptance as a
true disciple. He told them that Yeshu was in heaven, at the right hand of his
Father, in fulfillment of Psalm 110:1. He added that Yeshu desired that they
separate themselves from the Jews and no longer follow their practices, as
Isaiah had said, "Your new moons and your feasts my soul abhorreth."
They were now to observe the first day of the week instead of the seventh, the
Resurrection instead of the Passover, the Ascension into Heaven instead of the
Feast of Weeks, the finding of the Cross instead of the New Year, the Feast of
the Circumcision instead of the Day of Atonement, the New Year instead of
Chanukah; they were to be indifferent with regard to circumcision and the
dietary laws. Also they were to follow the teaching of turning the right if
smitten on the left and the meek acceptance of suffering. All these new
ordinances which Simeon Kepha (or Paul, as he was known to the Nazarenes)
taught them were really meant to separate these Nazarenes from the people of
Israel and to bring the internal strife to an end.”
This text is valuable because it acknowledges, along with other less explicit Talmudic
passages, that Jesus had been a worker of miracles, even though He was referred
to as a “sorcerer.”
