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Toledot Yeshu

collection of legends on the Life of Jesus

Toledot Yeshu (Hebrew: ספר תולדות ישו, Sefer Toledot Yeshu) is an early Jewish text taken to be an alternative biography of Jesus of Nazareth. Multiple versions of the Toledot exist. There are also passages in the Talmud which seem to express similar views.

The Toledot uses the names "Yeshu" (ישו) and "Yeshu ha-Notzri" (ישו הנוצרי) for Jesus. These names also occur in the Talmud.

Quotes

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A Jewish Life of Jesus (1903)

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G. R. S. Mead: Did Jesus Live 100 B.C.?, ch. 14, pp. 258–280. Theosophical Publishing Society (1903).
 
"The people of Galilee made birds out of clay; he uttered the letters of the Shem, and the birds flew away." (G. R. S. Mead: A Jewish Life of Jesus)
  • His mother was Miriam [a daughter] of Israel. … Near the door of her house, just opposite, dwelt a handsome [fellow]; Joseph ben Pandera cast his eye upon her.

    It was at night, on the eve of the Sabbath, when drunken he crossed over to her door and entered in to her. … She conceived by him.

  • And there was in the sanctuary a foundation-stone—and this is its interpretation: God founded it and this is the stone on which Jacob poured oil—and on it were written the letters of the Shem, and whosoever learned it, could do whatsoever he would. … This Jeschu came, learned them, wrote them on parchment, cut into his hip and laid the parchment with the letters therein—so that the cutting of his flesh did not hurt him—then he restored the skin to its place. … He went home, cut open his flesh with his knife, took out the writing, learned the letters, went and gathered together three hundred and ten of the young men of Israel.
  • He said to them: Behold then these who of me say of me I am a bastard and son of a woman in her separation; they desire power for themselves and seek to exercise lordship in Israel. But see ye, all the prophets prophesied concerning the Messiah of God, and I am the Messiah. Isaiah prophesied concerning me: Behold the virgin shall conceive, bear a son, and he shall be called Emanuel. Moreover, my forefather David prophesied concerning me and spake: The Eternal [Y. H. V. H.] said to me: Thou art my son; this day have I begotten thee. He begat me without male congress with my mother; yet they call me a bastard!
  • The people of Galilee made birds out of clay; he uttered the letters of the Shem, and the birds flew away. At the same hour they fell down before him.
  • As soon as the wise men entered and Juda Ischariota with them, they brought forward their pleas against him, until he said to the queen: Of me it hath been said: I will ascend to heaven. Further it is written: If He take me, Sela! He raised his hands like unto the wings of an eagle and flew, and the people were amazed because of him: How is he able to fly twixt heaven and earth!
  • Ischariota acted cleverly, flew in the air, but neither could overpower the other, so as to make him fall by means of the Shem, because the Shem was equally with both of them. When Juda perceived this he had recourse to a low trick; he befouled Jeschu, so that he was made unclean and fell to the earth, and with him also Juda.
  • The apostates began to lament and could not deliver him. At the same hour was he put to death. And it was on Friday on the rest-day of Passover and of the Sabbath. When they would hang him on a tree (Holz), it brake, for there was with him the Shem.
  • At that time he brought it to pass by means of the Shem, that no tree should bear him; but over the cabbage-stalk he did not utter the pronounced name, for it is not tree but green-stuff, and so [in special years there are] in Jerusalem cabbages with more than a hundred pounds [of seed] unto this day.
  • Forthwith they went to Jerusalem, told them the good tidings, and all the Israelites followed the owner of the garden, bound cords to his [Jeschu's] feet, and dragged him round in the streets of Jerusalem, till they brought him to the queen and said: There is he who is ascended to heaven!

Jesus in the Jewish Tradition (1903)

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Morris Goldstein: Jesus in the Jewish Tradition, pp. 148–154. Macmillan (1950).
 
"Joseph Pandera, attractive and like a warrior in appearance, having gazed lustfully upon Miriam, knocked upon the door of her room …" (Morris Goldstein: Jesus in the Jewish Tradition)
  • At the close of a certain Sabbath, Joseph Pandera, attractive and like a warrior in appearance, having gazed lustfully upon Miriam, knocked upon the door of her room and betrayed her by pretending that he was her betrothed husband, Yohanan.
  • Miriam gave birth to a son and named him Yehoshua, after her brother. This name later deteriorated to Yeshu.
  • Yeshu came and learned the letters of the Name; he wrote them upon the parchment which he placed in an open cut on his thigh and then drew the flesh over the parchment. As he left, the lions roared and he forgot the secret. But when he came to his house he reopened the cut in his flesh with a knife an lifted out the writing. Then he remembered and obtained the use of the letters.
  • He spoke the Ineffable Name over the birds of clay and they flew into the air. He spoke the same letters over a millstone that had been placed upon the waters. He sat in it and it floated like a boat. When they saw this the people marveled.
  • Yeshu said: "It is spoken of me, 'I will ascend into heaven.'" He lifted his arms like the wings of an eagle and he flew between heaven and earth, to the amazement of everyone.
  • Iskarioto attempted to force Yeshu down to earth but neither one of the two could prevail against the other for both had the use of the Ineffable Name. However, Iskarioto defiled Yeshu, so that they both lost their power and fell down to the earth, and in their condition of defilement the letters of the Ineffable Name escaped from them.
  • One of them, Judah Iskarioto apprised the Sages that Yeshu was to be found in the Temple, that the disciples had taken a vow by the Ten Commandments not to reveal his identity but that he would point him out by bowing to him. So it was done and Yeshu was seized. Asked his name, he replied to the question by several times giving the names Mattai, Nakki, Buni, Netzer, each time with a verse quoted by him and a counter-verse by the Sages.
  • Yeshu was put to death on the sixth hour on the eve of the Passover and of the Sabbath. When they tried to hang him on a tree it broke, for when he had possessed the power he had pronounced by the Ineffable Name that no tree should hold him. He had failed to pronounce the prohibition over the carob-stalk, for it was a plant more than a tree, and on it he was hanged until the hour for afternoon prayer, for it is written in Scripture, "His body shall not remain all night upon the tree."
  • On the first day of the week his bold followers came to Queen Helene with the report that he who was slain was truly the Messiah and that he was not in his grave; he had ascended to heaven as he prophesied. … A gardener had taken him from the grave and had brought him into his garden and buried him in the sand over which the waters flowed into the garden. … The Sages removed the body, tied it to the tail of a horse and transported it to the Queen, with the words, "This is Yeshu who is said to have ascended to heaven."

Rabbinic literature

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  • In the Sefer Toledot Yeshu, an anti-Christian rabbinical compilation, we find a singular parable: Yeshu, says the rabbinic author of the legend, was traveling with Simon Bar-Jonah and Judas Iscariot. They arrived late and tired at an isolated house; they were very hungry and could find nothing to eat aside from a very small and thin young goose. It was too little for three people; to share it would have meant arousing their hunger even more, rather than satisfying it. They decided to draw straws; but, because they were falling down from lack of sleep, "Let us sleep first," said Yeshu, "while our meal cooks; when we wake we will tell each other our dreams, and he who had the most beautiful dream will eat the little goose all for himself." And thus was it done. They slept and then awoke. "I," said Saint Peter, "I dreamed that I was the vicar of God." "I," said Yeshu, "that I was God himself." "And I," Judas responded hypocritically, "I dreamed that while sleepwalking I got up and went quietly downstairs, removed the goose from its spit, and ate it." After this they all went downstairs, but the goose had in fact disappeared: Judas had dreamed while completely awake.

Quotes about Toledot Yeshu

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  • According to the "Toledot" his disciples sought for his body in the tomb, but being unable to find it they used the incident as proof before Queen Helena that he who had been slain had ascended into heaven. It then appeared that a man—sometimes called "Judas the Gardener" (Judas Iscariot), sometimes, indefinitely, the "master of the garden"—had taken the body out of the grave, used it as a dam to keep the water out of his garden, and had flooded the tomb. Then there was joy again in Israel; the body was taken before the queen at Jerusalem, and the Christians were shamed.
    • Joseph Jacobs, Kaufmann Kohler, Richard Gottheil and Samuel Krauss: "Jesus of Nazareth". Jewish Encyclopedia.
  • During the reign of King Herod, Josef and Miriam were married in Nazareth in Galilee, but Miriam was barren and could not conceive a child from Josef. One Sabbath eve, when the righteous and pious Josef had left his house for the Synagogue service, some wicked man (who remains anonymous) slips into Miriam's bed and has intercourse with her (she doesn't recognize him and thinks he is her husband). After Miriam has given birth to Yeshu, the couple goes to Egypt where Miriam gives birth ("in fornication", as the text explicitly says) to more sons and daughters. Yeshu grows up in Egypt as a gifted child, learning both Torah and the magical art of Egypt. The couple returns with their children to Nazareth, and when the Jewish court there declares him a bastard, Yeshu becomes a heretic and claims that he is the son of God. He performs miracles (among other things, he draws images of birds and makes them fly; he splits a river so that he and his disciples can walk through it on dry land; he feeds a multitude with one loaf of bread; he turns water into wine; etc.).
    • Peter Schäfer: "Agobard's and Amulo's Toledot Yeshu". In Toledot Yeshu Revisited, pp. 36–37. Mohr Siebeck (2011). ISBN: 3-16-151771-7.
  • The yoisel had once been a human being and a Jew. But one day he had gone out of his mind, and in that pitiably bewildered state announced that he was the Lord God himself. To prove it, he offered to fly over the populace like an angel. With the help of a page blasphemously torn out of Holy Writ, and placed under his sweating arm, the yoisel did fly over the multitudes of Jews in the crowded streets of Jerusalem. So impressive a spectacle did he create that even the most pious among the Jews were moved in his direction.

References

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  1. ↑ "After talking about how Yeshu was executed on the eve of Passover, the Talmud says the following—and listen carefully, because this is a very strange piece of Talmud: 'It is taught, Yeshu had five disciples: Mattai, Nakai, Netzer, Buni, and Toda.' [Sanhedrin 43a:22] And here's what happens in this story: it tells about what happened when they were brought to trial." Rabbi Michael Skobac: "Is Jesus in the Talmud?" (35:20–35:55). Jews for Judaism (2017).
  2. ↑ "This anecdote is not found in the actual text of the Sefer Toledot Yeshu but in the rabbinical commentaries about this work." Eliphas Levi: The Doctrine and Ritual of High Magic, ch. 12, "The Great Work", footnote 205, p. 123. TarcherPerigee (2017). ISBN: 0-14-311103-5.

See also

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