Toledot Yeshu

Toledot Jeschu ( Hebrew תולדות ישו , story of Jesus ) is a collection of Jewish sagas about the life of Jesus that was probably created in Italy before the 8th century .

The name Yeshu is a form of Yeshua that is only used in connection with Jesus in the Talmud , in rabbinical writings and in modern parlance. All other persons with this name are referred to as Yeshua in Aramaic or Yehoshua in Hebrew .

This literary genre is of interest in terms of legend, culture and intellectual history, but its content has no historical value.

First versions - in Aramaic - appear from 750. Numerous versions with a satirical and polemical character in the style of entertaining novels have been known since the Middle Ages as a kind of underground literature, in modern times also Jewish-German versions.

These are based on the first Aramaic versions, but also on Western diaspora traditions. As Joseph's fiancé, Mary is deceived or seduced by a Roman soldier named Panthera (or similar) and receives Jesus, who appears as a magician and seducer of the people, defeated by Judas , handed over to the Sanhedrin , sentenced to death and then stoned . The disciples steal his body and claim that he was resurrected. In some versions there is also a legend of Peter .

The best known version was the one published in 1681 by Johann Christoph Wagenseil .

Literature (selection)

Samuel Krauss : Life of Jesus according to Jewish sources. Berlin 1902.
Judah Bergmann: Article Toledot Yeshu. In: Jewish Lexicon , Volume IV / 2. Berlin 1927.
Michael Krupp (ed.): On the life and death of the Jew Jeschu and how the Rabbanim again brought peace between Christians and Jews. A Jewish story / Sefer Toldos Jeschu. Facsimile edition of the first edition Altdorf 1681. Jerusalem 2001, ISBN 965-7221-01-3 .
Peter Schäfer , Michael Meerson, Yaacov German (Eds.): Toledot Yeshu (“The Life Story of Jesus”) Revisited: A Princeton Conference. Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2011, ISBN 978-3-16-150948-3 . [Table of contents: http://scans.hebis.de/HEBCGI/show.pl?27602087_toc.pdf ]
Peter Schäfer , Michael Meerson, Toledot Yeshu : The Life Story of Jesus. Two volumes and database. 2014. XVII, 716 pages. (2 volumes). TSAJ 159. -incl. Database access- ISBN 978-3-16-153481-2

Individual evidence

^ Schäfer : Jesus in the Talmud, Mohr Siebeck Tübingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-16-149462-8
^ Robert E. Van Voorst: Jesus outside the New Testament: an introduction to the ancient evidence; Studying the historical Jesus. Wm.B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2000.
↑ Toledot Yeshu: The Life Story of Jesus. Two volumes and database. Volume I. Introduction and Translation, ed. u. trans. v. Michael Meerson et al. Peter Schäfer, Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism 159, Tübingen 2014, p. 199.

[1] Schäfer : Jesus in the Talmud, Mohr Siebeck Tübingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-16-149462-8

[2] Robert E. Van Voorst: Jesus outside the New Testament: an introduction to the ancient evidence; Studying the historical Jesus. Wm.B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2000.

[3] Toledot Yeshu: The Life Story of Jesus. Two volumes and database. Volume I. Introduction and Translation, ed. u. trans. v. Michael Meerson et al. Peter Schäfer, Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism 159, Tübingen 2014, p. 199.