Toledot Yeshu

Sefer Toledot Yeshu (ספר תולדות ישו, The Book of the Generations/History/Life of Jesus), often abbreviated as Toledot Yeshu, is a medieval text which presents an alternative, anti-sectarian view, as well as a disputed biography of Jesus Christ. It exists in a number of different versions, none of which is considered either canonical or normative within Rabbinic literature,[1] but which appear to have been widely circulated in Europe and the Middle East in the medieval period.[2][3] A 15th-century Yemenite version of the text was titled Maaseh Yeshu, or the "Episode of Jesus", in which Jesus is described either as being the son of Joseph or the son of Pantera. The account portrays Jesus as an impostor.

The Toledot portrays Jesus (known as Yeshu by the author) as an illegitimate child who practiced sorcery, taught a heretical Judaism, seduced women, and died a shameful death.[4] Interestingly, the author also shows a paradoxical respect for Jesus. Perhaps surprisingly, instead of denying the miracles the New Testament claims Jesus had performed, Toledot Yeshu doubles down. The difference, of course, is that in this polemic his powers are chalked up to sacrilegious sorcery, while the authors of the New Testament portrayed these events as proof of divine power. In some versions of Toledot Yeshu, Jesus is noted to have revived a man from the dead, turn clay statues into flying birds, and lift his arms like the wings of an eagle, ascending towards the heavens for an airborne battle with Judah Iskarioto. As Joseph Dan notes in the Encyclopaedia Judaica, "The narrative in all versions treats Jesus as an exceptional person who, from his youth, demonstrated unusual wit and wisdom, but disrespect toward his elders and the sages of his age."[5] Robert Van Voorst calls the Toledot Yeshu a record of popular polemic "run wild."[2] The Toledot's profane portrayal of the person Christians consider divine has provided fodder for Christian antisemitism and anti-Judaism.[6]

Until the early 21st century (with few exceptions), mainstream Jewish and Christian scholars paid little attention to the Toledot Yeshu.[7] The opinion of noted advocate of Christian-Jewish reconciliation, Father Edward H. Flannery, is representative:

This scurrilous fable of the life of Jesus is a medieval work, probably written down in the tenth century. [...] Though its contents enjoyed a certain currency in the oral traditions of the Jewish masses, it was almost totally ignored by official or scholarly Judaism. Antisemites have not failed to employ it as an illustration of the blasphemous character of the Synagogue.[8]

This disregard has recently shifted towards a growing level of discussion on the text's possible scholarly use as a window into the early history of Jewish-Christian relations.[9]

  1. ^ Dan, Joseph (2006). "Toledot Yeshu". In Michael Berenbaum and Fred Skolnik (ed.). Encyclopaedia Judaica. Vol. 20 (2nd ed.). Detroit: Gale Virtual Reference Library. pp. 28–29. ISBN 978-0-02-865928-2. Retrieved August 4, 2011.
  2. ^ a b Van Voorst, Robert E (2000). Jesus Outside the New Testament: An Introduction to the Ancient Evidence. WmB Eerdmans Publishing. pp. 122 ff. ISBN 0-8028-4368-9.
  3. ^ Schäfer, Peter (2002). Mirror of His Beauty: Feminine Images of God from the Bible to the Early Kabbalah. Princeton University Press. pp. 211f. ISBN 0-691-09068-8.
  4. ^ Webster, Nesta H (2000). Secret Societies and Subversive Movements. Book Tree. pp. 21f. ISBN 1-58509-092-1.
  5. ^ Dan, Joseph, "Toledot Yeshu" in Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd ed. (2007)
  6. ^ Tolan, John Victor (2002). Saracens: Islam in the Medieval European Imagination. New York: Columbia University Press. pp. 17f. ISBN 0-231-12332-9.
  7. ^ Van Voorst. p. 123
  8. ^ Flannery, Edward H., The Anguish of the Jews: Twenty-three centuries of Anti-Semitism (1965, NY, Macmillan) page 283 (footnote 30 to chapter 2).
  9. ^ Meerson, Michael, and Peter Schäfer. Toledot Yeshu : The life story of Jesus. Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism; 159. Tubinger: Mohr Siueck, 2014. ISBN 9783161534812 Contents: Vol.1, Introduction and translation