Who was Jesus to the Talmud, the Church and the Qur'an?

Aggadah. A baraita (tanu rabbanan) teaches: always let the left hand push away and the right hand draw near, not like Elisha, who pushed Gehazi away with both hands, and not like Yehoshua ben Perachiah, who pushed Yeshu ha-Notzri away with both hands. The story follows. When King Yannai was killing the Sages, Yehoshua ben Perachiah and Yeshu went to Alexandria. On the way back the teacher praised an inn; the pupil said the innkeeper's eyes were narrow (terutot); the teacher excommunicated him with four hundred shofars. Later, while reciting the Shema, the teacher waved to him to wait; the pupil thought he was rejected, "went, set up a brick and bowed down to it" (azal zakaf leventa ve-hishtachaveh lah), and refused to repent, citing his teacher's rule that one who sins and makes the many sin is given no chance to repent. It closes: "And the Master said: Yeshu practised sorcery, enticed and led Israel astray" (kishef ve-hesit ve-hiddiach et Yisra'el). Printed editions from Basel (1578-81) on removed the name. The Jerusalem Talmud's older form of the story is at Hagigah 2:2.

The Mishnah (6:1) says a herald goes out before a man led to execution. The Talmud asks whether a herald also went out earlier, and quotes a baraita (tanya, a teaching presented as from the early sages, the tannaim, but left out of the Mishnah) as an objection. The baraita says that on the eve of Passover they hung Yeshu ha-Notzri. For forty days a herald had announced that he would be stoned, because he practised sorcery (kishef), enticed Israel to idolatry (hesit) and led it astray (hiddiach), and had called for anyone who knew a reason to acquit him. None was found. Ulla, a Palestinian-born teacher of the 3rd-4th century active in Babylonia, objects: an enticer to idolatry is not given a search for a defence (Deuteronomy 13:9). He answers himself: Yeshu was different, because he was karov le-malchut, close to the government (or to royalty). A second baraita follows on five disciples, each condemned by a play on a verse. It has no parallel in the Mishnah, the Tosefta or the Jerusalem Talmud. (A related tradition about Ben Stada, an enticer stoned at Lod, is in the Jerusalem Talmud, Sanhedrin 7:12, and Sanhedrin 67a adds that he was hanged on Passover eve; whether he is Jesus is disputed.) Manuscripts: MS Florence II.I.7-9 (1177), MS Karlsruhe (Reuchlin) 2 and MS Yad Harav Herzog 1 read Yeshu ha-Notzri, and Florence adds "on the eve of the Sabbath"; in MS Munich 95 (1342) the name has been erased (reported by Schäfer 2007, pp. 64-65 and 133-140, and for Florence and Munich by Rabbinovicz through Dalman 1893). The passage is missing from the standard printed (Vilna) text; the Koren/Steinsaltz edition restores it.

An anonymous aggadah (story) in the Talmud's cycle on the destruction of Jerusalem (Kamtza and Bar Kamtza, 55b-58a). Onkelos son of Kalonikos, son of Titus's sister, wants to convert (le-igayyurei). He raises by necromancy (be-negida) three dead men and asks each who is esteemed (chashiv) in that world, and whether he should join them. Titus says Israel's commandments are too many, and advises him to fight them; he is burned and scattered each day, as he decreed for himself. Balaam answers with Deuteronomy 23:7, "you shall not seek their peace or their welfare"; his punishment is boiling semen (be-shikhvat zera rotachat). The third says: seek their good, do not seek their harm (tovatam derosh, ra'atam lo tidrosh); whoever touches them touches the apple of his eye. His punishment is boiling excrement (be-tso'ah rotachat). The Talmud explains it with "as the Master said: whoever mocks the words of the Sages (ha-mal'ig al divrei chakhamim) is punished in boiling excrement". It closes: come and see the difference between the sinners of Israel (posh'ei Yisrael) and the prophets of the nations; the Vilna text adds ovdei avodah zarah, idol-worshippers. Rashi names the rule's source as Eruvin 21b. The Koren/Steinsaltz edition explains the closing line: Balaam, a prophet, wished Israel harm, while Yeshu ha-Notzri, a Jewish sinner, sought their good. Herford (p. 68) and Krauss called the three men Israel's chief enemies; the Talmud's own words do not. The name: the standard printed text reads "the sinners of Israel" in the third scene, though the verb is singular (asqeih, "raised him") and Onkelos asks about "that man". Three medieval manuscripts, read on the libraries' images, name him. MS Vatican ebr. 130 (1381), f. 35v, reads Yeshu ha-Notzri, "Jesus the Nazarene". MS Munich 95 (1342), f. 223r, and MS Vatican ebr. 140 (14th century), f. 54r, read Yeshu; the Rashi column of Vatican 140 glosses "the sinners of Israel" as "Yeshu". The Koren/Steinsaltz edition prints Yeshu ha-Notzri.

Herford notes that the censored modern editions read "the sinners of Israel", a plural that does not fit the singular story; the older editions read "the sinner of Israel", and the book of expurgated passages reads Yeshu. He concludes that Jesus is the person meant. On Sanhedrin 107b he notes that King Yannai reigned a full century before Jesus, and explains the anachronism by the rabbis' very vague ideas of past chronology. He judges that the story of Jesus in hell is a haggadic invention, not tradition about him, and that the rabbinic passages add nothing new to the Gospels' history of Jesus, beyond confirming that he lived.

Reads the Babylonian Talmud's Jesus passages as deliberate counter-narratives that parody the New Testament stories, written by rabbis who knew the Gospels, especially Matthew and John. He argues that this bold reply came from Sasanian Babylonia, where the rabbis lived outside Christian power, unlike the Jews of Roman and Byzantine Palestine. In his table of manuscripts and printings, all three manuscripts of Gittin 57a name Jesus, while the Soncino printing (1484-1519) leaves the name out and the Vilna edition reads "sinners of Israel"; he ascribes such gaps in the printed Jesus passages to censorship, or to printers pre-empting it. On Gittin 57a he doubts that mocking the Sages was the story's original charge, holding that the editor borrowed it from Eruvin 21b. He then offers, as an admittedly speculative reading, that the excrement mocks the Eucharist: Jesus sits in what his followers produce after eating his flesh.

“But let us now return to where the Jew is introduced, speaking of the mother of Jesus, and saying that "when she was pregnant she was turned out of doors by the carpenter to whom she had been betrothed, as having been guilty of adultery, and that she bore a child to a certain soldier named Panthera;"”

Halakha with two stories (ma'aseh). The rule just before (2:21) forbids dealing with minim, sectarians, and being healed by them. 2:22-23: Rabbi Eleazar ben Dama was bitten by a snake. Jacob of Kefar Sama came to heal him "in the name of Yeshua ben Pantera" (mi-shum Yeshua ben Pantera). Rabbi Ishmael would not allow it, and Ben Dama died before he could bring his proof that it was permitted. Rabbi Ishmael praised him for not breaking "the fence of the Sages" (Ecclesiastes 10:8). 2:24: Rabbi Eliezer, arrested on a charge of minut (heresy) and released, tells Rabbi Akiva that in the street of Sepphoris Jacob of Kefar Sikhnin told him a word of minut "in the name of Yeshua ben Pantera", and it pleased him. Nothing is said here about Jesus' mother; the Tosefta gives only the name. The spelling of the second name varies between editions: Pantera in the vocalised text on Wikisource; Herford, translating Zuckermandel's edition, gives Pandira at 2:22 and Pantiri at 2:24.

“That they rejected Faith; that they uttered against Mary a grave false charge;”

Halakha 4 in the uncensored text. A king of David's line who studies the Torah and keeps the commandments, compels Israel to walk in them and fights the wars of the LORD is presumed to be the Messiah. If he succeeds, rebuilds the Temple in its place and gathers Israel's exiles, he is surely the Messiah; the texts printed by Mechon Mamre and Sefaria's Wikisource add that he defeats all the nations around him. If he does not succeed, or is killed, he is surely not the one the Torah promised: he is like the worthy kings of David's line who died, and God raised him only to test the many (Daniel 11:35). Then Maimonides writes of Yeshua ha-Notzri (Jesus the Nazarene), who imagined he would be the Messiah and was killed by the court (nehrag be-veit din). He applies Daniel 11:14 to him. The prophets, he says, foretold a Messiah who would save Israel, gather its exiles and strengthen its commandments; Jesus caused Israel to be destroyed by the sword and scattered, caused the Torah to be changed (le-hachalif ha-Torah), and led most of the world to worship a god besides the LORD. Then he says that all the matters of Jesus the Nazarene and of the Ishmaelite who came after him serve only to prepare the way for the King Messiah, and to set the whole world right to serve the LORD together, citing Zephaniah 3:9. Through them the world has been filled with talk of the Messiah, the Torah and the commandments, spread to far islands and many peoples. Those peoples debate the commandments. Some say they were true but have lapsed in this age and were not meant for all generations; others say they hold hidden meanings, not their plain sense, and that the Messiah has already come and revealed them. When the true Messiah comes, those peoples will know that their fathers inherited falsehood and that their prophets and fathers misled them. Printed editions were censored. On Sefaria (Torat Emet Hebrew) the failed claimant is 11:5 and the lines on Jesus and the Ishmaelite are 11:6-9; Sefaria's layer of censorship omissions reinserted marks 11:5-9 as cut. Soloweyczik's English of 1863 keeps 11:5 but not the names, the court, the changed Torah, the other god or the misled prophets.

“And in those times there shall many stand up against the king of the south; also the children of the violent among thy people shall lift themselves up to establish the vision; but they shall stumble.”

Soloweyczik's English of the Mishneh Torah (London, 1863), the public-domain English on Sefaria, follows a censored text of Kings and Wars 11. It names neither Jesus nor the Ishmaelite: it speaks only of one who pretended to be the Messiah, and of one who succeeded him. It leaves out that he was killed by the court, that he caused the Torah to be changed, and that he led most of the world to serve a god besides the LORD. At the end it says only that the nations will admit their claim was wrong, in place of the uncensored "their prophets and fathers misled them".

The creed opens: "We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of all things visible and invisible". The council confessed the Son as begotten of the Father, true God of true God, and "of one substance" (homoousios) with the Father, and condemned those who said there was a time when he was not.

The council confessed one and the same Christ in two natures, divine and human, and declared him "not parted or divided into two persons, but one and the same Son".

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”

“And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.”

“Behold! the angels said: "O Mary! Allah giveth thee glad tidings of a Word from Him: his name will be Christ Jesus, the son of Mary, held in honour in this world and the Hereafter and of (the company of) those nearest to Allah;”

“"And (appoint him) a messenger to the Children of Israel, (with this message): "'I have come to you, with a Sign from your Lord, in that I make for you out of clay, as it were, the figure of a bird, and breathe into it, and it becomes a bird by Allah's leave: And I heal those born blind, and the lepers, and I quicken the dead, by Allah's leave; and I declare to you what ye eat, and what ye store in your houses. Surely therein is a Sign for you if ye did believe;”

“"'(I have come to you), to attest the Law which was before me. And to make lawful to you part of what was (Before) forbidden to you; I have come to you with a Sign from your Lord. So fear Allah, and obey me.”

“Then will Allah say: "O Jesus the son of Mary! Recount My favour to thee and to thy mother. Behold! I strengthened thee with the holy spirit, so that thou didst speak to the people in childhood and in maturity. Behold! I taught thee the Book and Wisdom, the Law and the Gospel and behold! thou makest out of clay, as it were, the figure of a bird, by My leave, and thou breathest into it and it becometh a bird by My leave, and thou healest those born blind, and the lepers, by My leave. And behold! thou bringest forth the dead by My leave. And behold! I did restrain the Children of Israel from (violence to) thee when thou didst show them the clear Signs, and the unbelievers among them said: 'This is nothing but evident magic.'”

“That they rejected Faith; that they uttered against Mary a grave false charge;”

“That they said (in boast), "We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah";- but they killed him not, nor crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them, and those who differ therein are full of doubts, with no (certain) knowledge, but only conjecture to follow, for of a surety they killed him not:-”

“Nay, Allah raised him up unto Himself; and Allah is Exalted in Power, Wise;-”

“Christ the son of Mary was no more than a messenger; many were the messengers that passed away before him. His mother was a woman of truth. They had both to eat their (daily) food. See how Allah doth make His signs clear to them; yet see in what ways they are deluded away from the truth!”

“They do blaspheme who say: "Allah is Christ the son of Mary." But said Christ: "O Children of Israel! worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord." Whoever joins other gods with Allah,- Allah will forbid him the garden, and the Fire will be his abode. There will for the wrong-doers be no one to help.”

“To thee We sent the Scripture in truth, confirming the scripture that came before it, and guarding it in safety: so judge between them by what Allah hath revealed, and follow not their vain desires, diverging from the Truth that hath come to thee. To each among you have we prescribed a law and an open way. If Allah had so willed, He would have made you a single people, but (His plan is) to test you in what He hath given you: so strive as in a race in all virtues. The goal of you all is to Allah; it is He that will show you the truth of the matters in which ye dispute;”

Explains muhaymin ("guarding it in safety") from the early authorities. In one report from Ibn Abbas, the Qur'an is trustworthy over every book before it. In another it is a witness over them, and in a third a judge over them. He reports Ibn Jurayj: whatever in the earlier books agrees with the Qur'an is true, and whatever differs from it is false. Ibn Kathir says the word includes all these meanings. He adds that God made the Qur'an, the last of the books, trustee, witness and judge over them all. God undertook to guard it Himself (15:9).

“And remember, Jesus, the son of Mary, said: "O Children of Israel! I am the messenger of Allah (sent) to you, confirming the Law (which came) before me, and giving Glad Tidings of a Messenger to come after me, whose name shall be Ahmad." But when he came to them with Clear Signs, they said, "this is evident sorcery!"”

“Say: "Shall I seek for (my) Cherisher other than Allah, when He is the Cherisher of all things (that exist)? Every soul draws the meed of its acts on none but itself: no bearer of burdens can bear the burden of another. Your goal in the end is towards Allah: He will tell you the truth of the things wherein ye disputed."”