This teaching talks about:

•  Mentions of Yeshua in Jewish Literature
•  Contradictions in Talmudic Accounts
•  The Power of Yeshua’s Name
• Yeshua’s Teaching about Halachic Issues

-By Joseph Shulam-

Introduction:

 

I would have difficulty believing in the truthfulness of the story of Yeshua (Jesus) if He were not mentioned anywhere in Jewish literature. What if a fantastic story like the story of Yeshua (from his birth to his resurrection from the dead to his ascension to heaven) were not mentioned anywhere else except in the texts of what is commonly called “The New Testament”? A person like Yeshua was a stone of contention, an Archimedes point, a pivotal point of human history, and a controversial personality. He was King of the Jews, as it was written on a plaque on top of the cross of His crucifixion.

We are fortunate that we have a vast store of literature from the Pharisees of Yeshua’s day. They collected and preserved the discussions and controversies of the time. Most Christians are not educated in the literature of the Pharisees. This literature is divided into three different forms. The first is the Mishnah, a collection of Rabbinical sources and quotations from Rabbis who lived in the 2nd century BC until the middle of the 2nd century CE. The second is the Jerusalem Talmud, a collection of similar discussions from the 5th century CE. The third is the Babylonian Talmud, which was finished in the 6th century CE and dealt with material similar to that of the Jerusalem Talmud.

We are fortunate that Josephus Flavius, the Jewish historian of the first century, mentions Yeshua in his books. We are also fortunate that we have the Midrashic literature, a collection of various homiletic material and quasi-commentaries of the Torah. These commentaries include those of Rabbis from before the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, through to medieval Rabbinical commentators. Understand that most of the material that was written in this Rabbinical literature was written against Yeshua and His disciples. However, what was written against is also a witness to what was real and important for the Jews in the diaspora, who were opponents of Yeshua and his disciples. Often, these Rabbis referred to Yeshua in order to oppose Him, but by opposing Him, they affirmed Him. What was intended to negate Yeshua turns out to affirm the positive. The Jewish rabbinical opponents of Jesus and his disciples did not write about Him for several centuries after His death, burial, and resurrection. But, when they began to discuss Yeshua, Rabbis attributed stories to Him that affirm the historical Yeshua. The story's origins date back to the 2nd century B.C. The records of this material written against Yeshua by the Pharisaic Rabbis are preserved in the rabbinical materials in the Mishnah, Midrashic Literature, and in both the Jerusalem Talmud and the Babylonian Talmud. 

In this article, I will attempt to capture the most interesting stories about Jesus in Rabbinical literature and try to make lemonade from the rotten lemons grown in rabbinical gardens in the dark valleys of religious prejudice, hate, and ignorance. What was meant for evil will turn out to be for good!

One can learn about any topic from both those who are positive and those who are negative. This is also the case with Yeshua in the Rabbinical literature that was composed well after Christianity became the religion of the Roman Empire. The Rabbis of the late 2nd century CE developed a strong opposition to the development of the newly born sect and felt obliged to oppose it with the tools that they had at their disposal. I don’t blame them for trying to protect themselves from a new religion that was born in their own womb but turned against them and against Judaism itself.

Therefore, it is most important for us to know the truth and understand what the will of God is, and that we understand that what we are dealing with here is a Jewish Messiah and a Jewish New Testament that have been held captive in the hands of the Roman Church. The Roman Church wanted to ”improve” the ancient text and make it clear that the Jews are the villains. I confess that the very minor changes, or so to speak, “improvements” that these not-so-well-meaning priests made could not mask the Jewishness of Yeshua, alienate him from His Jewishness, or cut Him off from His own people. Yeshua was born a Jew, circumcised on the 8th day, died King of the Jews, and will return as the King of the Jews to sit upon the throne of David.

To combat the Roman church, those of the Pharisaic party in Judaism created rabbinical material dealing with Yeshua, generally written to oppose Him and His movement, in an attempt to vaccinate the Jewish population in the Roman Empire from contracting the Jesus ”virus” in the Byzantine Empire. The Rabbinical literature is 99.9% dealing with all aspects of Jewish life, from shoestrings to cooking pots, and is not fully dedicated to Yeshua or His movement. But those few references to Yeshua or to His followers are very valuable when we analyze and study them like good detectives to understand them in their context and background.

As it was stated above, the Jewish literature that we are referencing belongs to the centuries after Yeshua resurrected and ascended to sit at the right hand of the LORD. The Rabbinical literature is a vast ocean of writings that spans seven hundred years and a vast expanse of geography, from the land of Israel to Babylon and later to regions of Europe.

Jewish Rabbinical literature deals with stories of the birth of Yeshua.

Those who opposed the Good News (the gospel) sought to prove that Yeshua was not born of a virgin. Rabbis in the second century worked to discredit the story of the birth of Yeshua as false so the rest of the story of Yeshua would be questioned, thereby ending Christianity. The birth of Yeshua is the point of Archimedes for the Rabbis, the pivotal point that, if undermined, destroys the whole gospel. The Rabbis had more than one story of Yeshu’s (in Rabbinical language) birth.

There are three stories related to the birth of Yeshua in the Talmudic literature. The first one is that his mother, Miriam, was a hairdresser. The second one is that his mother was Stada, the wife of Pappos, son of Yehuda. The third story is that Yeshua was the son of a Roman soldier named Pandera. All three of these stories are found in the Babylonian Talmud.

In one story, Jesus lived in the days of Rabbi Jehoshua ben Perachyah, and he was one of Rabbi Jehoshua ben Perachyah’s favored disciples. In another story in the Talmud, Jesus was a child (toddler) in the time of Rabbi Akiva, Rabbi Eliezer, and Rabbi Maier. For context, here is the chronology of these Rabbis:

Rabbi Jehoshua ben Perachyah was Nasi of the Sanhedrin and lived in the years 134–104 B.C.

Rabbi Akiva, Rabbi Maier, and Rabbi Eliezer lived at the beginning of the 2nd century A.D. Rabbi Akiva died in the year 135 A.D. and was executed by the Romans. How could Jesus be a disciple of Rabbi Jehoshua ben Perachyah and a toddler in the days of Rabbi Akiva at the same time?

We have the very same problem with the mother of Jesus. Assuming that the mother of Jesus was the wife of Pappos ben Yehuda, this man also lived in the second century A.D.

Examine the following:

Tosaphoth Shabbath 104 b: ”The Son of Stada.” Rabbenu Tam says that this is not Jesus the Nazarene, for as to the Son of Stada, we say here that he was in the days of Pappos ben Jehuda, who lived in the days of Rabbi Akiva, as is proved in the last chapter of Berakhoth (61 b), but Jesus lived in the days of Jehoshua ben Perachyah, as is proved in the last chapter of Sota (47 a): “And not like Rabbi Jehoshua ben Perachyah, who pushed away Jesus the Nazarene with both hands,” and Rabbi Jehoshua was long before Rabbi Akiva. "His mother was Mirjam, the women’s hairdresser,” and what is related in the first chapter of Chagiga (4 b): “Rab Bibi—the angel of death was found with him, etc., he said to his messenger: “Go and fetch me Mirjam, the women’s hairdresser.”

We read that Jesus lived in the days of Rab Bibi and "Mirjam,” the women’s hairdresser. It was another (Mirjam), or the angel of death was also relating to Rab Bibi a story that happened a long, long time before. This medieval commentary on the Talmud sees these problems and concludes that the story of Jesus’s birth in the Rabbinical literature can’t be true because it is not possible that one person will have so many different mothers and fathers that lived hundreds of years apart. We see that negative anti-Christian propaganda is understood by the medieval Rabbis as impossible to the truth.

Here is a Rabbinical text about Jesus (Yeshu) from the early second century CE:

Examine the following:

BARAITHA

“The elders were once sitting in the gate when two young lads passed by; one covered his head and the other uncovered his head. Of him who uncovered his head, R. Eliezer remarked, ‘He is a bastard’; R. Joshua remarked, ‘He is the son of a niddah’; R. ‘Aḳiba said, ‘He is both a bastard and the son of a niddah’. They said to R. ‘Aḳiba, ‘How did your heart induce you to contradict the opinion of your colleagues?’ He replied, ‘I will prove it concerning him’. He went to the lad’s mother and found her sitting in the market selling beans. He said to her, ‘My daughter, if you answer the question which I will put to you, I will bring you to the World to Come’. She said to him, ‘Swear it to me’. R. ‘Aḳiba, taking the oath with his lips but annulling it in his heart, said to her, ‘What is the status of your son?’ She replied, ‘When I entered the bridal chamber, I was niddah, and my husband kept away from me, but my best man had intercourse with me, and this son was born to me’. Consequently, the child was both a bastard and the son of a niddah. It was declared, ‘R. ‘Aḳiba showed himself to be a great man when he contradicted his teachers’. At the same time, they added, ‘Blessed be the God of Israel Who revealed His secret to R. ‘Aḳiba b. Joseph’.

This text is significant because it shows how confused these attempts at defaming Yeshua’s birth story are. The Rabbis invented these lies. Rabbi Akiva lied in the story and was also praised by the other two Rabbis for deceiving and trapping the woman in the market of Zippori. When you look at all these stories supposedly about Jesus of Nazareth and see to what length the Rabbis of the 2nd century CE had to go to fight the early disciples of Yeshua, you can understand the Rabbis were under great pressure to fight and defame Yeshua and His disciples. It was an attempt to stop the growth of the early Christian movement inside Judaism.

As difficult as it is to believe the birth story of Yeshua with a virgin mother and God as His father, it is easier to accept and believe that than it is to ignore biblical truth and accept that one child has three different mothers and several different fathers. The Biblical pattern of our forefathers found in Genesis tells us that our forefathers Isaac, Jacob, Esau, and Joseph were born from mothers who were not able to give birth naturally. God had to intervene and open their wombs before they were able to give birth to Isaac, Jacob, Esau, and Joseph. The most dramatic case of birth was the creation of Adam from a lump of clay that God breathed life into, without a mother or an earthly father. A God who can create Adam from a lump of clay has no problem sowing a seed in a virgin’s womb.

The three stories of the birth of Yeshua fall apart in the face of logic and therefore are historically confusing to what the Talmudic Rabbis said (Yeshua was already seated on the right hand of the Heavenly Father a long time!) These made-up stories are all the Rabbis had at their disposal in order to keep their people away from the Roman and Byzantine churches.

The great Medieval Rabbi Rashi, one of the great Bible and Talmud commentators, realized that one person cannot have three different sets of parents who lived in different periods of time and that these stories about the birth of Yeshua in the Talmud are fake, written for the purpose of propaganda. Rabbis like Rabbi Jacob Emdin, a chief Rabbi of Germany, understood this, showed deep appreciation for Yeshua, and encouraged religious Jews to not only respect but also look at Yeshua with a different attitude than traditional European Christians did.

The rabbis who lived in Europe in the 13th and 14th centuries CE realized that the Talmudic stories about the birth of Yeshua didn’t hold water. Their determination that these stories were wrong shows integrity and fear of God, and possibly fear of Christians being angry with their Jewish neighbors for teaching such derogatory stories about Jesus.

Jewish people and orthodox Rabbis of modernity write and publish derogatory material against Yeshua and call him a bastard, all based on these false stories. The beginning of Nazi persecution of the Jewish population of Germany was in part because of these Talmudic passages about Jesus. Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, occurred on the night of November 9–10, 1938. This night witnessed the burning of books, especially Rabbinical literature, and the burning of synagogues throughout Germany. Nothing justifies such behavior as burning books and synagogues.

 

In the Talmud, Yeshua is a healer well into the second century CE.

Examine the following:

The Jerusalem Talmud Tractate Aboda Zara 40b

“His grandson (the grandson of Jehoshua ben Levi) had swallowed something. A man came and whispered to him (a spell) in the name of Jesus’ son of Pandera, and he got well. When he went out, he (Jehoshua’ ben Levi) asked him: What did you say over him? He answered according to the word of somebody. He said: What had been his fate had he died and not heard this word? And it happened to him, “as it were an error which the ruler made.” (Eccles. 10:5).” The disciple of Yeshua answered with an intelligent answer. Like a typical Rabbinical Jew with any question asked: “What had been his fate, had he died and not heard this word?” Yeshua’s disciple is smart because he answers with a question: What would have been had I not said these words in the name of Yeshua?

This text is about an event from the 2nd century CE. A true story of the healing of a grandson of one of the great Rabbis of the Talmud. The boy is ill, and a disciple of Yeshua comes and prays for the child, and the child is healed.

This story shows that the Talmudic Rabbi who has several interludes with Yeshua, Rabbi Jehoshua ben Levi, had received the disciple of Yeshua to come and pray in Yeshua’s name for his grandson, who was healed. This is a great witness to the continuation of the power of Yeshua’s name for healing even into the second century CE. This is not the only story in the Talmud that witnesses the power of the name of Yeshua in healing the sick.

Another story about Rabbi Jehoshua ben Levi.

“R. Joshua b. Levi met Elijah standing by the entrance of R. Simeon b. Yohai’s tomb. He asked him, ‘Have I a portion in the world to come?’ He replied, ‘if this Master desires it.’ R. Joshua b. Levi said, ‘I saw two, but heard the voice of a third.’ He then asked him, ‘When will the Messiah come?’ – 'Go and ask him himself’, was his reply. 'Where is he sitting?’ – ‘At the entrance (of the city).' – 'And by what sign may I recognize him?’ – ‘He is sitting among the poor lepers: all of them untie [them] all at once, and rebandage them together, whereas he unties and rebandages each separately, [before treating the next], thinking, should I be wanted, [it being time for my appearance as the Messiah] I must not be delayed [through having to bandage a number of sores].’ So, he went to him and greeted him, saying, ‘peace upon thee, Master and Teacher.’ ‘Peace upon thee, O son of Levi,’ he replied. ‘When wilt thou come Master?’ asked he, “To-day’, was his answer. On his returning to Elijah, the latter enquired, “What did he say to thee?’ – ‘peace Upon thee, O son of Levi,’ he answered, thereupon he [Elijah] observed, ‘He thereby assured thee and thy father of [a portion in] the world to come.’ ‘He spoke falsely to me,’ he rejoined, ‘stating that he would come to-day, but has not.’ He [Elijah] answered him, ‘This is what he said to thee, To-day, if ye will hear his voice.’

Another story of the power of healing in the name of Yeshua the Messiah:

Examine the following:

Jerusalem Talmud Shabbat 14:4:12

״It happened that Eleazar ben Dama was bitten by a snake and Jacob from Kefar-Sama came to heal him in the name of Jesus ben Pandera, but Rebbi Ismael prevented him. He told him, I shall bring a proof that he can heal me. He could not bring proof before he died. Rebbi Ismael said to him, you are blessed, ben Dama, that you left this world in peace and did not tear down the fences of the Sages, as it is written, he who tears down a fence will be bitten by a snake. But did not a snake bite him? But that it will not bite him in the Future World.״

A second case of a disciple of Yeshua from the village Sama in the Galilee who came to heal Rabbi Eleazar ben Sama who was bitten by a snake. Rabbi Ishmael prevents Jacob the disciple of Yeshua to heal Rabbi Eleazar ben Dama, and he dies from the snake bite. Rabbi Ishmael blesses the dear Rabbi Eleazar ben Dama with the following words: “you are blessed Ben Dama,“ that he was not healed by the name of Yeshua.

Both Rabbi Eleazar ben Dama and Rabbi Ishmael are aware of the power of the name of Yeshua for healing. Rabbi Eleazar ben Dama is willing to allow Jacob, the disciple of Yeshua, to exercise the power of the name of Yeshua to heal him, but Rabbi Eleazar is prevented by Rabbi Ishmael from allowing Jacob, the disciple of Yeshua, to heal Rabbi Eleazar from the bite of a poisonous snake, and Rabbi Eleazar dies. At this point, Rabbi Ishmael praises Rabbi Eleazar for dying rather than being healed by Yeshua’s name.

The deep hatred that existed in the 2nd century CE between non-believing Jews and the Jews who accepted Yeshua as Messiah was so deep that Rabbi Ishmael preferred his friend and fellow Rabbi to die rather than be healed by the name of Yeshua. It was clear to both Rabbi Eleazar and Rabbi Ishmael that there is a power of healing in the name of Yeshua and that Rabbi Eleazar would have been healed if Jacob, the disciple of Yeshua, had prayed over Rabbi Eleazar’s snake bite in Yeshua’s name. The Talmud affirms that Yeshua’s name was powerful for healing, even from a bite of a deadly poisonous snake!

There are more stories in the Rabbinical texts highlighting the bitter hatred in the 3rd and 4th centuries CE. The Jews reacted against the persecution and discrimination of Gentile Christians in the Eastern Roman Empire. This deep hatred and separation between Jews and Roman Gentile Christians were a result of the Bar-Kochbah revolt of the early 2nd century CE, ending in 135 CE. With the execution of the leaders of the Revolt, including Rabbi Akiba and many Rabbis in the Land of Israel, the disciples of Yeshua integrated into Roman society, and by the middle of the 2nd century, they melted into Roman society, emulated their language and culture, and adopted anti-Jewish attitudes. We, as Jews, need to learn the simple principle that when seed is sown in the field, that is what will grow for us to eat. One of Yeshua’s great teachings is from Proverbs 24:17 and 25:21: “Don’t rejoice when your enemy falls; don’t let your heart be glad when he stumbles. If someone who hates you is hungry, give him food to eat; and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink.”

Talmudic stories of the condemnation of Yeshua.

The following story is popular in Rabbinical Literature because it brings the condemnations of Yeshua in several different formats, and what proves interesting is that not all the versions of this story corroborate, and in a court of law, such testimonies would be immediately cast out and rejected.

Examine the following:

Babylonian Talmud Aboda Zara 16 b. And Ecclesiastes Rabba to Eccles. 1:8 (Pesaro, 1519). And in Tractate Shabbath 104 b, and in Sanhedrin 67 a

“And for all capital criminals who are mentioned in the law, they do not lay an ambush, but (they do) for this (criminal).” How do they act towards him? They light the lamp for him in the innermost part of the house, and they place witnesses for him in the exterior part of the house, that they may see him and hear his voice, though he cannot see them. And that man says to him: Tell me what you have told me when we were alone. And when he repeats (those words) to him, that man says to him: How can we abandon our God in Heaven and practice idolatry? If he returns, it is well; but when he says: Such is our duty, and so we like to have it, then the witnesses, who are listening without, bring him to the tribunal and stone him. And thus, they have done to the Son of Stada at Lod, and they hanged him on the day before Passover.”

This text, Babylonian Talmud Aboda Zara 16b, affirms that Yeshua was “hanged” on the day before the Passover. This is a detail that positions the writers of this text as knowledgeable of the gospel narratives of the crucifixion of Yeshua. The protagonist writers of this text are Talmudic Rabbis living in the 3rd to 5th centuries CE who were aware of the details of the New Testament Gospels about the crucifixion of Yeshua and affirmed it in their discussion. The question is, why are these Rabbis in such a late time dealing with this issue. One, they can’t deny what is written in the Gospels. Two, they want to show that Yeshua’s death was by due process of a Jewish legal trial.

Examine the following:

Babylonian Talmud Tractate Sanhedrin 43a.

This is the most significant text in the Talmud dealing with the crucifixion of Yeshua outside of the Gospels. It is based on the Mishnah of Sanhedrin. The Mishnah was collected by Rabbi Judah the Nasi, the President, who lived in Zippori, the Jewish capital city in the Galilee, located about three miles from Nazareth. Rabbi Judah died in the year 210 CE. The Mishnah was finished just before the year 210 CE.

MISHNAH.

“IF THEN THEY FIND HIM INNOCENT, THEY DISCHARGE HIM; BUT IF NOT, HE GOES FORTH TO BE STONED, AND A HERALD PRECEDES HIM [CRYING]: SO, AND SO, THE SON OF SO AND SO, IS GOING FORTH TO BE STONED BECAUSE HE COMMITTED SUCH AND SUCH AN OFFENSE, AND SO AND SO ARE HIS WITNESSES. WHOEVER KNOWS ANYTHING IN HIS FAVOR, LET HIM COME AND STATE IT.”

GEMARA - Talmud

“Abaye said; It must also be announced: On such and such a day, at such and such an hour, and in such and such a place [the crime was committed], in case there are some who know [to the contrary], so that they can come forward and prove the witnesses Zomemim. AND A HERALD PRECEDES HIM. This implies, only immediately before [the execution], but not previous thereto. [In contradiction to this] it was taught: On the eve of the Passover, Yeshu the Nazarene (Deut. 18:9) was hanged. For forty days before the execution took place, a herald went forth and cried, ‘He is going forth to be stoned because he has practiced sorcery and enticed Israel to apostasy. Anyone who can say anything in his favor, let him come forward and plead on his behalf.’ But since nothing was brought forward in his favor, he was hanged on the eve of the Passover! — ’Ulla retorted: Do you suppose that he was one for whom a defense could be made? Was he not a Mesith [enticer], concerning whom Scripture says, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him? With Yeshu, however, it was different, for he was connected with the government [or royalty, i.e., influential].”

What does it mean that Yeshua was connected with royalty or with the government? To which royalty was he related? The only possibility is to go to the house of David. It was unfathomable to imagine that Yeshua was related to the house of Herod. From the very beginning, Yeshua was born according to prophetic predictions in Bethlehem. Yeshua visited Jerusalem several times during the three years of his ministry, but the story of the entrance on a donkey is associated only with Yeshua’s coming with his disciples for the last Passover feast before his crucifixion, also in fulfillment of prophecy. Yeshua’s burial in a rich man’s grave is also a fulfillment of prophecy.

The text continues with a strange story about the disciples of Yeshu. 

“Our Rabbis taught: Yeshu had five disciples: Matthai, Nakai, Nezer, Buni and Todah. When Matthai was brought [before the court] he said to them [the judges], Shall Matthai be executed? Is it not written, Matthai [when] shall I come and appear before God? Thereupon they retorted; Yes, Matthai shall be executed, since it is written, When Matthai [when] shall [he] die and his name perish. When Nakai was brought in, he said to them; Shall Nakai be executed? It is not written, Naki [the innocent] and the righteous slay thou not? Yes, was the answer, Nakai shall be executed, since it is written, in secret places does Naki [the innocent] slay. When Nezer was brought in, he said; Shall Nezer be executed? Is it not written, And Nezer [a twig] shall grow forth out of his roots? Yes, they said, Nezer shall be executed since it is written, but thou art cast forth away from thy grave like Nezer [an abhorred offshoot]. When Buni was brought in, he said: Shall Buni be executed? Is it not written, Beni [my son], my firstborn? Yes, they said, Buni shall be executed since it is written, Behold I will slay Bine-ka [thy son] thy firstborn, and when Todah was brought in, he said to them; Shall Todah be executed? Is it not written, A psalm for Todah [thanksgiving]? Yes, they answered, Todah shall be executed, since it is written, whoso offers the sacrifice of Todah [thanksgiving] honored me.”

One of the fascinating things about this song about five disciples of Yeshua is a pattern in ancient Talmudic and Pharisaic literature that was used to defame or reject a disciple who had left the acceptable track. The pattern had a standard example of five disciples of the great Rabbi and described how the five disciples fell into sinful or deviant lifestyles and hence were rejected by the great Rabbi that they served and followed. There is a pattern in the text above of condemnation of Yeshua and his disciples. There is a name of a disciple of Yeshua and a condemnation of that disciple. Then came the justification of the condemnation and the approval for the execution of that disciple. The text used by the accusers is, of course, a text used out of context with no direct connection with the substance of the accusation. This is a kind of Rabbinical court, and the condemnation is fabricated with a clear prejudicial use of the biblical texts. The Talmudic Rabbis go through every one of the supposed disciples of Yeshua and condemn them to death. However, this text is a polemic text that is produced as a fabrication, a fake courthouse, a fake condemnation, and a fake accusation with a fake death verdict. Contrary to the plain use of this negative propaganda, this is a paradigm that repeats itself with other cases of Rabbinical condemnation of disciples of famous Rabbis.

The story of the execution of Yeshua in The Talmud (tractate of Sanhedrin, page 43) has the Sanhedrin judging Yeshua and executing him after a trial. There are neither Romans in the story nor a cross in this Rabbinical fabrication. The story does have some interesting points that add to our understanding of how Yeshua was viewed by the Rabbis in later centuries.

An example of this pattern is found in the story of Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai who lived in the time of Yeshua and also predicted the fall of Jerusalem and the temple 40 years before the event.

Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai had five disciples, and they were these:

Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus, Rabbi Joshua ben Hananiah, Rabbi Yose, the priest, Rabbi Shimon ben Nethaneel, and Rabbi Eleazar ben Arach.

A specific outstanding virtue was attached to each of Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai’s disciples that was later turned into a negative.

Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus is a plastered cistern that loses not a drop.

Rabbi Joshua ben Hananiah, happy is the woman who gave birth to him.

Rabbi Yose, the priest, is a pious man.

Rabbi Simeon ben Nethanel is one who fears sin, and

Rabbi Eleazar ben Arach is like a spring that [ever] gathers force.

It is interesting that great Rabbis are reported in the Talmud to have five disciples, and each disciple is reported to have positive qualities that make him worthy of being a disciple of the great Rabbi. It is clear that the Talmud is following a set tradition and not a true historical reality. Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai had many more than five disciples; we know this from his departing from Jerusalem in a coffin, as was permitted by the Romans to take the dead out of the city for burial during the siege of the city. Rabbi Ben-Zakkai was in the coffin pretending to be dead, and his disciples accompanied him from Jerusalem to Yavne (Jamnia south of Jaffa on the road to Gaza).

Yeshua had 12 disciples, but the Talmudic Rabbis of the later centuries (4th or 5th centuries CE) had memories or even earlier texts that used this pattern of five disciples.

The text about the execution of Yeshu’s disciples is absolutely fascinating, and it reveals the five building blocks of our faith in Yeshua. Revealed through the five names of the disciples is a song of praise of Yeshua, praise for the five things that he did for us, presented as the core of the Good News.

1. Mattahi – it is a Hebrew word indicating time that translates as ”When!” - In the right time, Yeshua appeared on the stage of Israel’s history.
2. Nakai – a Hebrew word, translates as clean, not guilty, or innocent.
3. Nezer – A Hebrew word translating as "branch." Used in the following context in the Hebrew Bible: “There shall comeforth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots.” (Isaiah 11:1 NKJV) The word “BRANCH” in Isaiah 11 is clearly used as a messianic text! The Hebrew word for Christian is Notzri, which is from the same root as NETZER in Isaiah. So, this text clearly points to the Messiah. In this early song, we see the attributes of the Messiah, and Yeshua fulfills them all, including that he is the branch of Jesse, King David’s family. We see the same relationship in Jeremiah 23:5, “Behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD, “That I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness; A King shall reign and prosper and execute judgment and righteousness in the earth.” In this messianic text, we see a repetition of the same motif of Branch as related to King David. 
4. Buni – a Hebrew word that translates as either Son or Builder. The Talmudic text here brings the verse, “My Son my First Born!” This text corresponds to “Yet I have set My King on My holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree: The LORD has said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.’” (Psalm 2:6-7 NKJV)
5. Todah – a Hebrew word that translates as “Thank You” or “Thanksgiving”! The thanksgiving is for all of the earlier four aspects of the Messianic advent. Sacrifices of Thanksgiving were not commanded specifically, but instead were performed from a person’s free will: “And when you offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the LORD, offer it of your own free will.” (Leviticus 22:29 NKJV). The crucifixion of Yeshua was not something that was organized and commanded by God, but it was the free will and design of the people to deliver Yeshua to the Romans and to ask the governor Pontius Pilates to sacrifice this man, even though he didn’t understand why or for what reason but was willing to please the Pharisees for political reasons. There are two verses that are interesting in this context: Psalm 50:14: ”Offer to God thanksgiving, and pay your vows to the Highest. 23 Whoever offers praise glorifies Me; And to him who orders his conduct aright I will show the salvation of God.” (Psalm 50:14, 23 NKJV)

Great Rabbis in the Talmud are deeply impressed by the Torah teachings of Yeshua.

Examine the following:

Babylonian Talmud Tractate Aboda Zarah 16b - 17a

“The Sages taught: When Rabbi Eliezer was arrested and charged with heresy by the authorities, they brought him up to a tribunal to be judged. A certain judicial officer [hegemon] said to him: Why should an elder like you engage in these frivolous matters of heresy? Rabbi Eliezer said to him: The Judge is trusted by me to rule correctly. That officer thought that Rabbi Eliezer was speaking about him; but in fact, he said this only in reference to his Father in Heaven. Rabbi Eliezer meant that he accepted God’s judgment, i.e., if he was charged, he must have sinned against God in some manner. The officer said to him: Since you put your trust in me, you are acquitted [dimos]; you are exempt. When Rabbi Eliezer came home, his students entered to console him for being accused of heresy, which he took as a sign of sin, and he did not accept their words of consolation. Rabbi Akiva said to him: My teacher, allow me to say one matter from all of that which you taught me. Rabbi Eliezer said to him: Speak. Rabbi Akiva said to him: My teacher, perhaps some statement of heresy came before you and you derived pleasure from it, and because of this you were held responsible by Heaven. Rabbi Eliezer said to him: Akiva, you are right, as you have reminded me that once I was walking in the upper marketplace of Tzippori, and I found a man who was one of the students of Jesus the Nazarene, and his name was Ya’akov of Kefar Sekhanya. He said to me: It is written in your Torah: “You shall not bring the payment to a prostitute, or the price of a dog, into the house of the Lord your God” (Deuteronomy 23:19). What is the halakha: Is it permitted to make from the payment to a prostitute for services rendered a bathroom for a High Priest in the Temple? And I said nothing to him in response. He said to me: Jesus the Nazarene taught me the following: It is permitted, as derived from the verse: “For of the payment to a prostitute she has gathered them, and to the payment to a prostitute they shall return” (Micah 1:7). Since the coins came from a place of filth, let them go to a place of filth and be used to build a bathroom. And I derived pleasure from the statement, and due to this, I was arrested for heresy by the authorities because I transgressed that which is written in the Torah: “Remove your way far from her, and do not come near the entrance of her house” (Proverbs 5:8).

The text from Aboda Zarah 16b–17a centers around Rabbis who lived in the Galilee after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. Rabbi Eliezer was arrested by the Romans for some heresy (against the Romans), and he was taken to the Roman court. The judge was surprised to see a famous honorable Rabbi being brought to court to be judged.

Rabbi Eliezer was walking in the market of the city of Tzippori (two miles from Nazareth) and found a man who was a disciple of Jesus the Nazarene (from Nazareth) by the name of Jacob from the village of Sekhanya, today an Arab village named Sakhanin. Jacob asked Rabbi Eliezer a halachic question from the Torah:

“It is written in your Torah: “You shall not bring the payment to a prostitute, or the price of a dog, into the house of the Lord your God” (Deuteronomy 23:19). What is the halakha? Is it permitted to make, from the payment to a prostitute for services rendered, a bathroom for a High Priest in the Temple? And I said nothing to him in response. He said to me: Jesus the Nazarene taught me the following: It is permitted, as derived from the verse: “For of the payment to a prostitute she has gathered them, and to the payment to a prostitute they shall return” (Micah 1:7). Since the coins came from a place of filth, let them go to a place of filth and be used to build a bathroom.”

Jacob, the disciple of Yeshua, asked the question, and the Great Rabbi Eliezer was left speechless from the wisdom of Yeshua’s answer. Yeshua solved the legal problem that seemed like a contradiction in the Torah with a verse from the book of Micah 1:7: “For of the payment to a prostitute she has gathered them, and to the payment to a prostitute they shall return." Yeshua teaches to use the tithe of a prostitute to build a bathroom for the high priest. As Micah the prophet states, what came from the filth returns to the filth. In a tacit way, the Talmud and its great Rabbis admit and confess the Torah wisdom that Yeshua had in his teaching. There are several of Yeshua’s statements in the Gospels that have filtered into the Talmudic literature. In this story, we see the social dynamics that were in existence in the early 2nd century CE among the Jewish communities in the Galilee. For context, it needs to be mentioned that Rabbi Akiva was not a born Jew. He was a pagan shepherd who didn’t know how to read or write. He married the daughter of one of the richest men in Jerusalem. She insisted that he should become a Rabbi and sent him to study in the city of Lod. The combination Akiva used of Hellenistic culture and philosophy with the Hebrew Torah set him apart from the other Jewish Rabbis of the time. By applying Greek Pagan philosophy to the Torah, he was able to incorporate another attitude into Jewish Torah. R. Akiva brought militant attitudes that radicalized and weaponized Rabbinical Judaism in the 2nd century CE, which led to the second revolt against the Romans, which caused the great destruction of the land of Israel and the exile of the majority of the Jewish population out of Israel.

Here is one last text written about Yeshua in the Talmud.

Examine the following:

Babylonian Talmud Baba Bathera 60b [1]

“Whoever mourns for Zion will be privileged to behold her joy, as it says, Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, etc. It has been taught R. Ishmael ben Elisha said: Since the day of the destruction of the Temple, we should by rights bind ourselves not to eat meat nor drink wine; only we do not lay a hardship on the community unless the majority can endure it. And from the day that a government has come into power which issues cruel decrees against us and forbids to us the observance of the Torah and the precepts and does not allow us to enter into the ‘week of the son’ (according to another version, ’the salvation of the son’), we ought by rights to bind ourselves not to marry and beget children, and the seed of Abraham, our father, would come to an end of itself. However, let Israel go their way; it is better that they should err in ignorance than presumptuously.”

וכל המתאבל על ירושלים זוכה ורואה בשמחתה שנאמר (ישעיהו סו, י) שמחו את ירושלים וגו’

תניא אמר ר’ ישמעאל בן אלישע מיום שחרב בית המקדש דין הוא שנגזור על עצמנו שלא לאכול בשר ולא לשתות יין אלא אין גוזרין גזרה על הצבור אא”כ רוב צבור יכולים לעמוד בה ומיום שפשטה מלכות הרשעה שגוזרת עלינו גזירות רעות וקשות ומבטלת ממנו תורה ומצות ואין מנחת אותנו להיכנס לשבוע הבן ואמרי לה לישוע הבן דין הוא שנגזור על עצמנו שלא לישא אשה ולהוליד בנים ונמצא זרעו של אברהם אבינו כלה מאליו אלא הנח להם לישראל מוטב שיהיו מוטב שיהיו שוגגין ואל יהיו מזידין:

 The translation of the original phrase as it appears in the Hebrew in the same passage in the Talmud: For the week the son and tell her to Yeshua the son.

As you look at the English translation, what I colored Green is also green in the Hebrew text, and what I colored Red is also red in the Hebrew text.

Google Translate gave the exact same translation, “Yeshua the SON!”

As you can see, the English translation has brackets around these phrases, and in the green it adds a strange comment, “according to another version"—what  “another version”?

When I was a student in the Yeshiva on Mt. Zion in Jerusalem, I read two books about Yeshua in the Talmud, Midrash, and Zohar. The first book that I read was Gustaf Dalman's "Jesus Christ in the Talmud, Midrash and Zohar, and Liturgy of the Synagogue." The second book that I read on this subject was "Christianity in Talmud and Midrash" by R. Travers Herford. I must have missed this text from Babylonian Talmud Baba Batra 60b in these books, or they must have missed this text because the writers of these books probably read the Talmud in their native languages with the flawed translation purposefully changing the Hebrew text from “Yeshua the Son!” to “Salvation of the son!”

How did I discover this text in the Talmud? I was one Sunday evening alone in the office of Netivyah on Narkis Street working on my computer. A big man, clothed in the garments of Toldot Aaron Hassidic sect, silver-colored caftan with black stripes and a big mink hat on his head, knocked on my door. My first reaction was fear. I have been attacked, beaten, and threatened with attempted murder more than once. The people who wear these clothes belong to a sect that is one of the most radical groups in Me'ah Shearim, an ultra-orthodox neighborhood in Jerusalem. The Hassid asked politely to come into my office, and I overcame the fear and invited him in, and I went to the kitchen and fixed tea for both of us.

He said that someone sent him to me with a question! He asked if I had a Talmud in the office. He saw that I had more than one version, and I asked which versions he was interested in. He answered, “Any edition that you would like," so I brought down the Hebrew-English Soncino Talmud. The Rabbi said, “Open the volume of Baba Batra, page 60b. Read the statement of Rabbi Ishmael close to the bottom of the page. I start reading in Hebrew and see Rabbi Ishmael is giving the same advice that the Apostle Paul gave in the letter of 1st Corinthians, that it is better because of the times not to get married now. This is an interesting point because orthodoxy always accuses Paul of being anti-Torah. I keep on reading, and I almost fall off my chair. “Yeshua the Son!” “What is this?" I ask the Rabbi. He came to me, and he had been thinking about this text for a long time. He had read most of the Jewish commentators on the Talmud and also the “Questioning and Answer” Orthodox Jewish literature on this text. He had found no satisfactory answer. Someone send him to me, thinking I might have an answer on this text. Being the first time that I had seen this text, I really didn’t have a clue where to look for answers. I asked for one week to study and try to understand this text. The Rabbi very graciously understood, and after a few minutes of talking about family and work, he left my office. I was elated but also, at the same time, anxious. This very learned, ultra-orthodox Rabbi has studied this for some time and has not found a satisfactory answer!

The next day, I prepared a teaching on another text from the Talmud, from the tractate Sanhedrin, page 97a, about the events that would precede the appearance of the Messiah. In the book of Revelation, chapter 15:1ff, the seven angels have seven days of wrath for the world.

The top of page 97a in Sanhedrin reads: 

“He replied, ‘Thus hath R. Johanan said: in the generation when the son of David [i.e., Messiah] will come, scholars will be few in number, and as for the rest, their eyes will fail through sorrow and grief. Multitudes of trouble and evil decrees will be promulgated anew, each new evil coming with haste before the other has ended.’ Our Rabbis taught: In the seven-year cycle at the end of which the son of David will come—in the first year, this verse will be fulfilled: And I will cause it to rain upon one city and cause it not to rain upon another city; in the second, the arrows of hunger will be sent forth...”

This text from Sanhedrin 97a seems to correspond clearly with Revelation 15:1 forward in the discussion of the return of the Messiah. Therefore, the text of Yeshua the Son fits right in place with that of the Talmudic text from Baba Bathra 60b, placing the coming of Yeshua the Son of David and the Son of God in the time when those seven days of punishments on the Earth will end. This is called, in Christian terminology, “Tribulations!” Rabbi Ishmael’s prediction is correct; that is, the Messiah does not come with the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, but after seven prophetic years of Angels of God pouring bowls of wrath upon the Earth. And Rabbi Ishmael identifies who is the one that is coming in the generation when the Son of David is returning to Jerusalem: it is Yeshua the Son! 

Conclusions:

It is true that the Pharisees and the other Elitist sects in Jerusalem opposed Yeshua, and that opposition was not solely based on religious reasons. Much of the opposition against Yeshua and his disciples was because they hailed from the Galilee and were not a part of the establishment of Jerusalem’s elite. However, when we see the amount of late 1st century CE post-destruction rabbinical literature dealing with Yeshua and his disciples, we can recognize that Yeshua occupied the minds and consciousness of the Jewish population. We see the texts in the Talmud that preserve the importance of Yeshua’s teaching about halachic issues like the tithes of a prostitute and the price of a dog. We also see the power of Yeshua’s name for healing Rabbis and their sons! We see how even in the texts that speak of the condemnation of Yeshua to death by the Sanhedrin, special attention is given to Yeshua, unlike other condemned criminals. The reason given why the announcement of his execution was announced in the streets of Jerusalem 40 days prior to the date of his crucifixion is that he was related to royalty.

I will end this paper on Yeshua in the Talmud with a personal experience with Hugh Schoenfeld in 1985. Hugh Schoenfeld was the author of the book “The Passover Plot.” The book’s thesis was that Yeshua knew the Messianic prophecies and engineered His life to fulfill them. Dr. David Stern, who was an elder in our congregation in Jerusalem, participated in a conference in New Market, England. At the end of the conference, Dr. David Stern suggested we go and visit Hugh Schoenfeld in his home. Hugh Schoenfeld wrote two important books; the first was “The History of Messianic Judaism.” He wrote the second, "The Passover Plot", out of a deep disappointment from the Hebrew Christian Community in England. Hugh Schoenfeld confessed that he regretted writing the Passover Plot and asked us to pray for him to live long enough to write a sequel that would correct the impression that his “Passover Plot” gave to people. Reading the Gospels many times through, even after reading the Passover Plot, never gave me the impression that anything that Yeshua did himself or with his apostles was contrived, pre-planned, and engineered.

The material about Yeshua in the Talmud that I included in this paper is not comprehensive. There is much more that could have been included in this article. It is clear that the Rabbis of the 2nd to 5th centuries CE were not looking to praise Him but to defame Him. But like it happens many times in history, those who came to curse and blacken the Holy Name of Yeshua and the Father, the Almighty God of Israel, ended up instead affirming and confirming that Yeshua was and is even now the King of the Jews, the Son of David, the Messiah who was, is, and will return to Jerusalem, fulfilling all of God’s promises to the nation of Israel and to the whole world.

Final Words: The Rabbis of the Talmud, like Balaam, came to curse, but their curses turned out to be blessings.

A short bibliography for those who want to study and dig deeper into the Pharisaic Jewish ancient literature:

1. Gustaf Dalman – Jesus Christ in the Talmud Midrash and Zohar
2. R. Travers Herford, Christianity in Talmud and Midrash.
3. Peter Schäfer- Jesus in the Talmud 
4. Dr. Randy Weiss - Judaism Through the Eyes of Jesus.
5. Even Moffic – What Every Christian Needs to Know About Judaism.
6. Lester L. Grabbe – An Introduction to Second Temple Judaism.
7. James J. DeFrancisco, PhD - A Response to an Orthodox Rabbi and others.

 

[1] There are two Talmuds: one is called the Babylonian Talmud, and one is called the Jerusalem Talmud. The Jerusalem Talmud is older, by around 100 years, than the Babylonian Talmud. The Jerusalem Talmud is from around the 5th century C.E., and the Babylonian is from around the 6th century C.E. The material has great similarities but also some differences. Although the differences are not so great, they are very significant simply because they are earlier and less polished and worked.