Toledot Yeshu

"Toledot Yeshu" [also known as the "Sefer Toledot Yeshu", "Toldoth Yechu", "Sepher Toldos Jeschu", etc.] (תולדות ישו) is the title of two or more similarly themed but otherwise unrelated medieval Jewish manuscripts which tell the story of Jesus from an anti-Christian perspective.cite book
title=Jesus Outside the New Testament: A Introduction to the Ancient Evidence
first=Robert E.
last=Van Voorst
pages=pp 122f
year=2000
publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
isbn=0802843689] They have been called the counter-gospels, anti-gospels, and anti-evangels. The title is translated as "Generations of Jesus"cite book
title=Saracens: Islam in the Medieval European Imagination
first=John Victor
last=Tolan
pages=17f
publisher=Columbia University Press
location=New York
year=2002
isbn=0231123329] or "The Life of Jesus".cite book
title=Mirror of His Beauty: Feminine Images of God from the Bible to the Early Kabbalah
first=Peter
last=Schäfer
pages=pp 211f
year=2002
publisher=Princeton University Press
isbn=0691090688] Versions ascribe to Jesus an illegitimate birth, magic powers, and a shameful death.cite book
title=Secret Societies and Subversive Movements
first=Nesta H.
last=Webster
pages= pp 21f
year=2000
publisher=Book Tree
isbn=1585090921]

History

The materials contained in the books circulated orally (difficult to trace, but perhaps no earlier than the 2nd century) coalescing into book form in late Antiquity (4th century at the earliest or in or around the 6th centurycite book
title=The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Justinian
first=Michael
last=Maas
pages=pg 406
year=2005
publisher=Cambridge University Press
isbn=0521817463] ) or the early Middle ages. The books were widely circulated in Europe and the Middle East from the 9th century; Agobard, archbishop of Lyon, attests to the existence of such a book in 826 in "De Iudaicis Superstitionibus".

Originally in Aramaic, there are recensions extant in Hebrew, and later versions in Judeo-Persian and Arabic as well as Yiddish and Ladino (Judeo-Spanish).cite journal
last = Gero
first = Stephan
date = 1988
title = Apocraphyl Gospels: A Survey
journal = Aufsteig UN Niedergang Der Romischen Welt
volume = Teil II
issue = Band 25 (5 teilband)
pages = pp 3391f
id = ISBN 3110018853
url = http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN3110018853&id=lF3DXBA2YlcC&pg=PT374&lpg=PT374&dq=Toldoth+Yeshu&sig=3JV5E5biUyt_BhYw6DrzUztl4WY#PPT374,M1
language = German / English ] Long unknown to Christians, it was first translated into Latin by Raymond Martin, a Dominican friar, toward the end of the 13th century.

Krauss version

Samuel Krauss collected versions of Toledot Yeshu recounting that Miriam had been betrothed to a nobleman by the name of Yochanan, who was both a descendant of the House of David, and a God-fearing Torah scholar. In Yochanan's absence her neighbor, Yosef ben Pandera forced his way upon her, [Later Slavonic versions portray Mary as active in the adulterous affair. Schafer, "Op cit."] coercing her into an act of sexual intercourse during her Niddah (a period of ritual impurity during which relations are forbidden according to Jewish Law). The fruit of the affair was a son she named Yeshu, "the bastard son of a menstruate woman."

Wagenseil version

Johann Wagenseil's version published in 1681 is perhaps the most prominent. The first section provides a treatment of Jesus; later sections deal with the exploits of his apostles. Supplementary chapters tell of Nestorius and his attempts to keep Christians obeying Jewish custom, and the story of Simeon Kepha who is construed to be the Apostle Paul.

Derivative character

Wagenseil's version is derivative in character, making heavy use of the canonical gospels, Acts, and the Hebrew Bible. Some items about Jesus are adaptations from references to him in the Talmud. Jesus is portrayed as a seducer and a heretic, showing a connection to the traditions in Celsus, and has correspondence to Justin Martyr's "Dialogue with Trypho" (17, 108) where Jesus is a deceiver, crucified by the Jews, whose disciples stole his body and deceived others by proclaiming his resurrection. Derivations from the Talmud appear to be popular adaptions — polemic material aimed at two Christian doctrines, the virgin birth and the ascension.

Concurrences with the gospel accounts include: his being the offspring of Joseph and Mary; that he was born in Bethlehem; that he was bold toward the Jewish elders; that he could perform sorcery; that he (pretended) to be born of a virgin; that he claimed to be the Son of God; that he applied to himself; that he raised the dead; that he healed a leper; that Jews fell down and worshipped him; that he entered Jerusalem upon an ass; that he applied to himself Zacharias 9:9; that he charged the Jews with being stiff-necked people; that he applied to himself the 2nd and 110th Psalms; that he walked on water; that he was betrayed by Judas; that he was scourged, crowned with thorns, and given vinegar to drink; that he was put to death on the Passover and buried before the Sabbath began; that his twelve apostles spread a story of his resurrection. [cite book
title=Joseph and Benjamin: a Series of Letters on the Controversy between Jews and Christians
first=Joseph Samuel C.F.
last=Frey
volume=1
pages= pp 214
publisher=Peter Hills
location=New York
year=1837]

Historicity

Scholarly consensus dismisses it as a reliable source for the historical Jesus; though Jane Schaberg contends the fable lends weight to the theory that Mary conceived Jesus as the result of being raped.

trassburg Manuscript

In the Strassburg Manuscript, Mary was seduced by a soldier called Ben Pandera. The child Jesus shows great impudence by appearing bareheaded and disputing the Law with teachers. The miracle working powers of Jesus are attributed to having stolen the Name of God from the Temple. Jesus claims messianic dignity and is accused of sorcery by the Jews in front of Queen Helena of Jerusalem, but Jesus raises a man from the dead in front of the Queen's eyes and is released. Jesus goes to Galilee where he brings clay birds to life and makes a millstone float. Judas Iscariot, the hero of the tale, learns the Divine Name as well, and Jesus and Judas fly through the sky engaged in aerial combat, with Judas victorious. The now powerless Jesus is arrested and put to death by being hung upon a carob tree, and buried. The body is taken away and his ascension is claimed by his apostles on the basis of the empty tomb. But Jesus's body is found hidden in a garden and is dragged back to Jerusalem and shown to Queen Helena.

Parallels

The works bear striking resemblance to Christian legends regarding Simon Magnus, and to 12th century Christian portrayals of Muhammad.

Christian response

Hostile Jewish portrayals of Christianity in the Toledoth Jeshu have been explained as a reaction to Christian anti-Judaism. Anti-Jewish polemicists from the 9th century through the 20th have dredged up these texts and exploited them to flame Christian hostility towards Jews.

A book under this title was strongly condemned by Francesc Eiximenis (d. 1409) in his "Vita Christi". [cite book
title=Friars and Jews in the Middle Ages and Renaissance
first=Steven J.
last=McMichael
coauthors=Susan E. Myers
pages=157
year=2004
publisher=Brill Academic Publishers
isbn=9004113983]

The book is mentioned in the poem "The Ring and the Book" by Robert Browning. [cite book
title=Robert Browning's Complete Works
editor=Phelps, William Lyon
first=Robert
last=Browning
pages=pg. 144
year=1910
publisher=F. DeFau & company]

ee also

* Yeshu
* Gospel of Barnabas
* Apocalypse of Zerubbabel
* Marcello Craveri author of the similarly-titled "The Life of Jesus"

Further reading

* " [http://www.history.upenn.edu/~humm/Topics/JewishJesus/toledoth.html Toledoth Yeshu] ", translation of Morris Goldstein ("Jesus in the Jewish Tradition") and Alan Humm.

References

External links

* [http://www.lost-history.com/toldoth.php The Sepher Toldoth Yeshu and it's Links to the Gospel Jesus]