Short answer
Yes, most scholars conclude that the Talmud says this about Jesus. In the Talmud's book Gittin (page 57a), a Roman called Onkelos, who wished to convert to Judaism, calls up three dead men. The third is "Yeshu", a Hebrew form of the name Jesus. Yeshu says his punishment is boiling excrement. The Talmud gives the reason: whoever mocks the words of the sages is punished this way. Three medieval handwritten manuscripts name him Yeshu. One of them calls him Yeshu ha-Notzri, "Jesus the Nazarene". The first printed edition already left the name out, and the censored editions read "the sinners of Israel". The Qur'an says the opposite. Jesus is "held in honour in this world and the Hereafter" (3:45).
Full explanation
What the Talmud says
The Babylonian Talmud was compiled about 500-600 CE. It gathers the rabbis' discussions of Jewish law, and their stories. This story comes in its account of the fall of Jerusalem. Onkelos, a nephew of the Roman general Titus, wants to convert to Judaism. He calls up three dead men. He asks each one who is honoured in the world of the dead. The first is Titus. The second is Balaam, a prophet from outside Israel. The third is Yeshu. Each answers that Israel is honoured. Titus and Balaam advise Onkelos to harm Israel. Yeshu advises him to seek their good. Yeshu says his punishment is boiling excrement. The Talmud gives the reason: whoever mocks the words of the sages is punished that way. R. Travers Herford, an English scholar of the rabbis, translated the passage in 1903 from the uncensored text. His English is below. His "Jesus" stands for the manuscripts' Yeshu, and his "filth" means excrement. Where he writes "this world", the Aramaic original says "that world", the world of the dead.
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.
“He called up Jesus by necromancy. He said to him, 'Who is honoured in this world?' He replied, 'Israel.' 'What about joining them?' He replied, 'Seek their good, seek not their harm. Every one who injures them, [it is] as if he injured the apple of his eye.' He said, 'What is the punishment of this man?' He replied, 'By boiling filth.' For a teacher has said, 'Every one who mocks at the words of the wise is punished by boiling filth.' Come and see the difference between the sinners of Israel and the prophets of the peoples of the world who serve a false religion.”
Who is "Yeshu"?
Before printing, the Talmud was copied by hand. Three medieval manuscripts name the third man. Their readings come from the libraries' own photographs of the pages. The Vatican Library's manuscript 130, copied in 1381, reads Yeshu ha-Notzri, "Jesus the Nazarene". The Munich manuscript 95, from 1342, and Vatican manuscript 140 read Yeshu. The Tosafot, medieval French and German commentators on the Talmud, name him too. In their uncensored text, they say this passage is about Yeshu ha-Notzri. Most modern scholars hold that this Yeshu is Jesus of Nazareth, as the rabbis imagined him. Among them are R. Travers Herford and Peter Schäfer, a German scholar of ancient Judaism. A minority, notably the scholar Johann Maier in 1978, argued that the name Jesus came into these passages late. Yet even the censored printed text keeps a singular verb. So the text once spoke of one man, and all three manuscripts name him Yeshu.
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.
On Rava's objection ("Is it written la'ag?"), the Tosafot answer that in any case it is true that he is punished in boiling excrement, as we say in the chapter Ha-Nizakin (Gittin, chapter 5) about Yeshu ha-Notzri. The Tosafists thus read Gittin 57a as speaking of Jesus the Nazarene.
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.
Argues that no early rabbinic passage clearly refers to Jesus, and that the passages that name him, Sanhedrin 43a and 107b among them, received the name late, largely after the Talmud was completed.
Why the standard printed Talmud says "the sinners of Israel"
The standard printed Talmud reads "the sinners of Israel" here. Yet the verb is singular: "he raised him". The name was already missing from the first printing, by the Soncino press (1484-1519). Peter Schäfer puts such gaps down to censorship, or to printers acting before the censors did. The Church burned the Talmud at Rome in 1553. The censored editions that followed read the plural, "sinners". Today's Koren/Steinsaltz edition of the Talmud prints Yeshu ha-Notzri.
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.
Records that the Talmud was publicly burned at Rome on 9 September 1553, and that a papal bull of 29 May 1554 ordered Jews to surrender all books containing alleged blasphemies against Jesus. By permission of Pope Gregory XIII the censored edition of the Babylonian Talmud appeared at Basel in 1578-81, with many passages changed beyond recognition. It adds that printed books of the first half of the sixteenth century show omissions made by Jews in anticipation, and that it is not certain whether this was done from fear or by order of the authorities.
The Qur'an's answer
The Qur'an says the opposite of the Talmud's story. Jesus is "held in honour in this world and the Hereafter" (3:45). God (﷾) raised him to Himself (4:158), and peace is on him on the day he will be raised to life again (19:33). God (﷾) sent him as "a messenger to the Children of Israel" (3:49), and he told Israel to worship "Allah, my Lord and your Lord" (5:72). He was no more than a messenger (5:75). Islam blames no one living today for an old story: "no bearer of burdens can bear the burden of another" (6:164).
“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;”
“Nay, Allah raised him up unto Himself; and Allah is Exalted in Power, Wise;-”
“"So peace is on me the day I was born, the day that I die, and the day that I shall be raised up to life (again)"!”
“"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;”
“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.”
“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!”
“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."”
Perspectives
Traditional Jewish reading
The passage is aggadah, a teaching story, not Jewish law. The standard printed Talmud does not name Jesus here.
The story is aggadah, a teaching story, not a ruling of Jewish law.
Rebuttal
A story is not law, but it still gives a verdict on its Yeshu. The manuscripts name him, and most scholars take him to be Jesus. The Qur'an reverses that verdict. He is "held in honour in this world and the Hereafter" (3:45).
The standard printed Talmud reads "the sinners of Israel" here. It does not name Jesus.
Rebuttal
The plural "sinners" comes from the censored editions, and the verb is still singular. Three medieval manuscripts name him Yeshu. One calls him Yeshu ha-Notzri, "Jesus the Nazarene". Today's Koren/Steinsaltz edition prints Yeshu ha-Notzri too.
Modern scholarship
Most scholars read this Yeshu as Jesus, as the rabbis imagined him. A minority holds that the name came in late.
Three medieval manuscripts name the third man Yeshu, and MS Vatican 130 calls him Yeshu ha-Notzri.
Most modern scholars, among them Herford and Schäfer, read the Talmud's Yeshu ha-Notzri passages as about Jesus.
A minority holds that every identification with Jesus in the Talmud is late.
Rebuttal
All three medieval manuscripts name the man Yeshu, and one calls him Yeshu ha-Notzri. The medieval Tosafot also read the passage as about Yeshu ha-Notzri. Even the censored printed text keeps a singular verb and "that man", so the text once spoke of one man. Peter Schäfer, writing in 2007, reads him as Jesus.
The Islamic perspective
The Talmud's story punishes its Yeshu for mocking the sages. The manuscripts name him, and most scholars take him to be Jesus. The Qur'an honours him as God's (﷾) messenger to Israel. No one today carries the blame for an old story.
The Qur'an says Jesus is honoured in this world and the Hereafter, among those nearest to God (﷾).
The Qur'an rejects making Jesus a god. Judaism rejects it too.
In Islam no one bears the blame for another's words.