Jesus in the Talmud
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Jesus in the Talmud
Princeton University Press, c2007
- : [pbk.]
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Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [191]-201) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Scattered throughout the Talmud, the founding document of rabbinic Judaism in late antiquity, can be found quite a few references to Jesus--and they're not flattering. In this lucid, richly detailed, and accessible book, Peter Schfer examines how the rabbis of the Talmud read, understood, and used the New Testament Jesus narrative to assert, ultimately, Judaism's superiority over Christianity. The Talmudic stories make fun of Jesus' birth from a virgin, fervently contest his claim to be the Messiah and Son of God, and maintain that he was rightfully executed as a blasphemer and idolater. They subvert the Christian idea of Jesus' resurrection and insist he got the punishment he deserved in hell--and that a similar fate awaits his followers. Schfer contends that these stories betray a remarkable familiarity with the Gospels--especially Matthew and John--and represent a deliberate and sophisticated anti-Christian polemic that parodies the New Testament narratives.
He carefully distinguishes between Babylonian and Palestinian sources, arguing that the rabbis' proud and self-confident countermessage to that of the evangelists was possible only in the unique historical setting of Persian Babylonia, in a Jewish community that lived in relative freedom. The same could not be said of Roman and Byzantine Palestine, where the Christians aggressively consolidated their political power and the Jews therefore suffered. A departure from past scholarship, which has played down the stories as unreliable distortions of the historical Jesus, Jesus in the Talmud posits a much more deliberate agenda behind these narratives.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments ix Abbreviations xiii Introduction 1 Chapter 1: Jesus' Family 15 Chapter 2: The Son/Disciple Who Turned out Badly 25 Chapter 3: The Frivolous Disciple 34 Chapter 4: The Torah Teacher 41 Chapter 5: Healing in the Name of Jesus 52 Chapter 6: Jesus' Execution 63 Chapter 7: Jesus' Disciples 75 Chapter 8: Jesus' Punishment in Hell 82 Chapter 9: Jesus in the Talmud 95 Appendix: Bavli Manuscripts and Censorship 131 Notes 145 Bibliography 191 Index 203
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