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Yeshu, Yeshu

Morris Goldstein, Jesus in the Jewish Tradition , Macmillan, 1950 Encyclopedia Judaica CD-ROM Edition 1.0 1997, article Toldoth Yeshu Regardless of who the name originally referred to, in later times it was sometimes used to refer explicitly to Jesus. Such is the case in Toledot Yeshu ("" "The Biography of Jesus"), a medieval Jewish version of the story of Jesus from an anti-Christian perspective.

The fully spelled out name Yeshua and the patronymic are also found on the ossuary. E.L. Sukenik, Jdische Grber Jerusalems um Christi Geburt, Jerusalem, 1931 Kai Kjaer-Hansen, An Introduction to The Use Of The Names: Joshua, Jeshua, Jesus , Lausanne Consultation on Jewish Evangelism, 1992 The letters of the term have also been found in a fragment of the Jerusalem Talmud from the Cairo Genizah, a depository for holy texts which are not useable due to age, damage or errors. The fragment seemingly mentions a Rabbi Yeshu. David Flusser takes this as evidence of the term being a name David Flusser, Jewish Sources in Early Christianity , Israel Ministry of Defense Publishing House, 1989 , however the standard text of the Jerusalem Talmud refers to one of the numerous Rabbi Yehoshua s of the Talmud and moroever the fragment has the latter name at other points in the text.

The Talmud and Tosefta are works on Jewish law and brief historical anecdotes such as these occur solely to illustrate particular points under discussion. No known manuscript of the Jerusalem Talmud makes mention of the name. All later usages of the term Yeshu are derived from these primary references.

Dennis McKinsey, Biblical Errancy, A Reference Guide , Prometheus Books, (2000) Like Klausner he views the accounts as finally understood to be spurious legends combining Jesus with other individuals. Whereas Klausner sees "Yeshu" as a later addition undoubtedly referring to Jesus, McKinsey points out the possibility that in some cases "Yeshu" might not have even been a reference to Jesus despite the later interpretation as such and even Herford cautions similarly.

Jacob Emden's writings (18th century) also show an understanding that the Yeshu of the Talmud was not Jesus. More recently Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, Steinsaltz, Adin.

Indeed in the Septuagint and Greek language Jewish texts such as the writings of Josephus and Philo of Alexandria, Jesus is the standard Greek translation of the common Hebrew name Yehoshua (Joshua), Greek having lost the h sound, as well as of the shortened form Yeshua which originated in the second temple period. ( Jesus was also used for the name Hoshea in the Septuagint in one of the three places where it referred to Joshua son of Nun.) The term "Yeshu" is not undisputedly attested prior to the Talmud and Tosefta, let alone as a Hebrew original for "Jesus". (In the case of the Jesus of Christianity, Clement of Alexandria and St. Cyril of Jerusalem claimed that the Greek form itself was his original name and that it was not a transliteration of a Hebrew form.

William David Davies, Dale C. Allison, A critical and exegetical commentary on the gospel according to Saint Matthew , Continuum International Publishing Group, 1997 In 1180 CE Maimonides in his Mishneh Torah , Hilchos Melachim 11:4 briefly discusses Jesus in a passage later censored by the Church. He uses the name Yeshua for Jesus (an attested equivalent of the name unlike Yeshu ) and follows it with Ha-Notzri showing that regardless of what meaning had been intended in the Talmudic occurrences of this term, Maimonides understood it as an equivalent of Nazarene. Late additions to the Josippon also refer to Jesus as Yeshua Ha-Notzri but not Yeshu Ha-Notzri.

The character is primarily based on an individual mentioned in the Talmud and Tosefta named ben Stada . Although ben Stada is never called "Yeshu" in these sources a debate occurs around his name and a suggestion is made equating him with a certain ben Pandera . In the forming of the Toldoth Yeshu story this statement has been taken literally and understood to be a reference to Yeshu ben Pandera whence the usage of the name "Yeshu" for the character and Pandera as a surname for his father. The character has additionally been confounded with Yeshu the student of Yehoshua ben Perachiah with regard to the placement of events in history and thus the story is given a Hasmonean setting. Other parts draw upon traditions common to the account of Simon Magus in the Acts of Peter which accords with an understanding of the name "ben Stada" as being equivalent to a title for Simon Magus found in the latter work. The account of the execution of Yeshu shows influence from traditions regarding Baldur in Germanic mythology.

Christian missionary, Kai Kjaer-Hansen argues that this modern usage resulted form the influence of Klausner who used the term for Jesus in his Hebrew works believing it to be a correct Hebrew equivalent. Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, the "father of modern Hebrew", had instead used Yeshua for Jesus (the name used in Maimonides and the expanded Josippon) but this choice lost out to Yeshu as a result of Klausner's influential Hebrew work on Jesus titled Yeshu HaNotzri published in 1922.

The form Pandera can be understood to be the Aramaic equivalent. The term "son of Pandera" may therefore be not a patronymic but rather a designation of a class of person, similar to the expression son of Belial. Neubauer Mediaeval Jewish Chronicles and Chronological Notes, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1887-1895 had instead equated the name with Pandareus - the Toldoth Yeshu narratives contain elements resembling the story of Pandareus in Greek mythology.

These are also discussed in the Shulkhan Arukh where the individual called Yeshu in the Talmudic accounts is instead explicitly named as Manasseh, the king of Judah infamous for having turned to idolatry and having persecuted the Jews.

His teacher said "Here is a nice Inn", to which he replied "Her eyes are crooked.", and then from his teacher "Is this what your are occupied in?". (This happened during their period of refuge in Egypt during the persecutions of Pharisees 88-76 BCE ordered by Alexander Jannus. The incident is also mentioned in the Jerusalem Talmud in Chagigah 2:2 but there the person in question is not given any name.) After several returns for forgiveness he mistook Perachiah's signal to wait a moment as a signal of final rejection, and so he turned to idolatry (described by the euphemism "worshipping a brick"). The story ends by invoking a Mishnaic era teaching that Yeshu practised black magic, deceived and led Israel astray. This quote is seen by some as an explanation in general for the designation Yeshu.

It does not correspond to any known name, suggesting that son of Stada might also be a designation of a class of individuals rather an a patronymic, or perhaps an invented title like that of the Jewish general Bar Kochba (son of the star). The only known parallel to the term is found in the apocryphal Christian text the Acts of Peter where the villain Simon Magus describes himself as `uios `o stadios - the son who remains standing. The Toldoth Yeshu narratives combine elements from the Talmud about ben-Stada with elements resembling the account of Simon Magus in the Acts of Peter suggesting that there is indeed a connection. As a result of the difficulty in understanding the name some attempt to explain it by focusing on variant spellings in certain manuscripts containing an r ( resh ) instead of the d ( dalet ), however these variants are generally regarded as copyist errors.

After Miriam is raped, she is left by her husband and left to raise her child alone. Her child, Yeshu is depicted as being of unusual intelligence and wit, but shows disrespect to those older than him and to the sages. The story holds that Yeshu had some supernatural powers, which he obtained by using the name of God written on scroll; Toldoth Yeshu also accepts that other rabbinic sages of Yeshu's era could display similar supernatural powers. A struggle emerges between Yeshu and one or more of the sages, and Yeshu is left powerless. The Queen has Yeshu executed and trouble ensues for many decades. Eventually, mysterious sages appoint Simon Caipha to re-establish order.

Certain manuscripts of the Tosefta in fact render the name as Yeshua instead of Yeshu. Moreover it can be argued that the form Yeshu might result from the final consonant of Yeshua (the guttural ayin ) becoming a silent letter.

Source: Wikipedia > Yeshu