Full text of "Christianity in Talmud and Midrash"

See other formats

THE LIBRARY

VICTORIA UNIVERSITY

Toronto

ftltofti

CHRISTIANITY

TALMUD AND MIDRASH

CHRISTIANITY

TALMUD AND MIDRASH

R. TRAVERS HERFORD, B.A.

LONDON

WILLIAMS & NORGATE

i4 HENRIETTA ST., COVENT GARDEN

1903

503
C5

BHUNUa

I <l into

TO THE MEMORY
OF

ABRAHAM KUENEN

SOMETIME PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY
IN THE UNIVERSITY OF LEIDEN

THIS BOOK IS

GRATEFULLY DEDICATED

ONE OF HIS OLD STUDENTS

PREFACE

The great host of books which have been written
upon the early history of Christianity have, amidst
all their differences, one characteristic in common.
They are almost entirely based upon the study of
Christian documents. This of course is natural, and
no investigation which should neglect those docu-
ments would lead to results of any value. But the
field of inquiry is not exhausted when the Christian
literature has been thoroughly explored. There is a
Jewish literature which also needs to be examined.
Considering that, historically, Christianity is an out-
growth from Judaism, and that the Judaism with
which the origin of Christianity was contemporary
was the Judaism not of the prophets but of the
Rabbis, it is obvious that the Rabbinical literature
must also be consulted if a thorough investigation
into the origin of Christianity is to be made. The
necessity of examining the Rabbinical literature is
of course denied by no scholar who has written on
early Christian history, but such examination cannot
be said to have been as yet thoroughly carried out.
For the most part a few references are given to
passages in the Mishnah and the Gemaras, or a line

vii

viii PREFACE

or two translated. Few readers have at hand the
means of verifying these references ; and thus even
the careful and accurate scholarship of writers like
Keim and Schiirer does not prove very helpful, since
their readers cannot go to the sources which are
pointed out. And even Keim and Schiirer indicate
but a small proportion of the material which is avail-
able in the Rabbinical literature. Edersheim does
know that literature as none but a Jew can know it,
and makes abundant reference to it ; but the value
of his work as a historical study is much diminished
by a strong theological bias, apart from the fact
already mentioned, that it is usually impossible for
the reader to verify the quotations. No blame of
course attaches to these and many other scholars,
who have made incidental reference to the Rabbinical
literature, for the incompleteness and scantiness of
such reference. It can hardly be said to come within
the scope of any of the works referred to above to
give in full the Rabbinical material to which reference
is made.

It is the object of this book to try and present
that material with some approach to completeness,
in order to put within the reach of scholars who have
not access to the Rabbinical literature the full text
of the passages bearing on the subject, together with
translation and commentary. It is hoped that this
may be the means of supplying a want that as yet
remains unsatisfied, viz., of a work that shall let the
Christian scholar know what the Rabbinical literature
really does contain bearing on the origin and early
history of Christianity. It would be rash to say that
the collection of passages contained in this book is

PREFACE ix

exhaustive ; in a great wilderness like the Talmud
and the Midrashim one can never be sure that some
passage of interest and importance has not been over-
looked. But I believe it will be found that the chief
material available for the purpose has been gathered
together ; and though it should not be quite com-
plete, it will yet suffice to throw light upon several
points of interest. Even if the reader should be
of opinion that, after all, the Rabbinical literature
does not add much to what is known of Christian
history from other sources, he may at least reflect
that now he does know what that Rabbinical
literature contains.

The period covered by the passages cited extends
to the middle of the fourth century a.d., i.e., roughly
speaking, the period for which the Talmud is avail-
able. No reference whatever will be made to medi-
aeval polemics between Jews and Christians. My object
is to put before the reader all that I can find which
illustrates the relation between Jews and Christians
during the first four centuries of the common era,
and to do this solely from the Jewish side. I shall
make no attempt whatever to present the case from
Christian documents, because this has already been
thoroughly done. Further, I wish to write solely
from the point of view of historical scholarship,
with no bias towards either of the two great
religions whose representatives are mentioned in the
passages dealt with. My only aim is to present facts,
in the shape of statements contained in ancient
Jewish writings, and to extract from those state-
ments whatever information they may afford bearing
on the historical problem of the early history of

x PREFACE

Christianity. As a Christian who has for several
years found his chief and absorbing intellectual
interest in the study of the Rabbinical literature — so
far as other and more pressing claims on his time
would allow — I offer this book as a contribution to
Christian scholarship, and I trust that the great
Jewish scholars, whose works have been of so much
help to me, will not frown on my small incursion
into their domain.

I have only to add an expression of cordial thanks
to the Rev. S. Alfred Steinthal for his kindness in
reading the proofs.

Stand, Manchester,
October 1903.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction,

PAGE

DIVISION I.

Passages from the Rabbinical Literature, .

A. PASSAGES RELATING TO JESUS

Birth and parentage of Jesus, .

Mary the mother of Jesus,

Jesus alleged to be a " Mamzer,"

Covert reference to Jesus,

Ancestry of the Mother of Jesus,

Alleged confession by the Mother of Jesus,

Jesus and his Teacher, ....

Jesus a Magician, ....

Jesus burns his Food, ....

The claim of Jesus denied,

The voice of Balaam, ....

Jesus and Balaam, . . .

Jesus and Balaam in Hell,

The age of Balaam, ....

Balaam and the Name of God, .

The Chapter concerning Balaam,

The Trial of Jesus, ....

The Execution of Jesus, ....

The Disciples of Jesus, ....

Ben Netzer, .....

Xll

TABLE OF CONTENTS

B. PASSAGES RELATING TO MINIM, MINUTH

Section i. Descriptions and Definitions of Minim and
Minuth.

Gehazi (Paul ?), ....

Ben Damah and Jacob the Min,

The grandson of R. Jehoshua and a Min,

R. Abahu and Jacob the Min, .

A Contest of Miracles, .

Miracles by Jews and Minim, . [

The Fate of the Minim hereafter,

The Formula against the Minim,

R. Eliezer arrested for Minuth, .

Books of the Minim; Imma Shalom and a Christian

Judge, ....

How the Books of the Minim are to be treated
Books of the Law written by a Min,
The Books of the Minim do not defile the hands
The Books of the Be Abidan, Be Nitzraphi,
The Nazarene Day,
Gentile and Min,

No dealings to be had with Minim,
Jewish origin of the Minim,
Haggadah against Minuth,
Minim and Circumcision,
The Principle of Minuth,
Scriptural Indications of Minuth,
Signs of Minuth ; liturgical variations,
Signs of Minuth ; liturgical omissions,
The Kingdom turned to Minuth,
Rome pretending to be the true Israel,

97
103
108
109
112
115
118
125
137

146
155
157
160
161
171
173
177
181
182
191
192
195
199
204
207
210

Section ii. Polemical encounters between Jews and
Minim.

The Minim of Capernaum and Hananjah,
The Minim and R. Jonathan,
The Minim and R. Jehudah ben Naqosa,
R. Jehoshua, Caesar and a Min, .

211
215
218
221

TABLE OF CONTENTS

R. Jehoshua and a Min ; " Thou brier ! "

R. Jehoshua, R. Gamliel, R. El'azar and R. Aqiba and a

Min ; God keeps Sabbath,
R. Gamliel and the Minim : Resurrection,
R. Gamliel and a Min ; God and Israel, .
Beruria and a Min ; children of Hell,
R. Jehudah ha-Qadosh and a Min ; unity of God,
R. Ishmael ben Jose and a Min ; unity of God, .
R. Hanina and a Min ; Israel and the Gentiles,
R. Hanina and a Min ; Rejection of Israel,
R. Hanina and a Min ; Land of Israel, .
R. Jannai, R. Jonathan and a Min ; grave of Rachel,
R. Simlai and the Minim ; Two Powers,
R. Abahu, R. Saphra and the Minim,
R. Abahu and the Epiqurosin ; Enoch, .
R. Abahu and the Minim ; anachronisms in Scripture,
R. Abahu and the Minim ; souls of the departed,
R. Abahu and a Min ; God a jester, a priest,
R. Abahu and a Min ; the coming of the Messiah,
R. Abahu and a Min ; Sason,
R. Ami and a Min ; Resurrection,
Gebiha ben Pesisa and a Min ; Resurrection,
R. Tanhuma, Caesar and a Min, .
R. Idi and a Min ; Metatron,
R. Abina and a Min,

226

228
231
235
237
239
245
247
250
251
253
255
266
270
272
274
275
276
277
278
281
282
285
290

Section Hi. Polemical allusions to Minim, Minutk.

Unity of God ;

man created solitary,

291

Unity of God ;

texts appealed to by Minim,

293

Unity of God ;

" an offering to JHVH,"

297

Unity of God ;

Two Powers,

299

Unity of God ;

" He who will err,"

301

Unity of God ;

God has no Son,

302

Unity of God ;

God has no Son,

303

Unity of God ;

son of the harlot,

304

Unity of God ;

a second God,

306

The "carping'

' of the Minim, .

308

Immortality,

315

XIV

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Section iv. Miscellaneous Passages referring to Minim

Ground of departure of the Minim,

" Do not give place to the Minim,"

A Canon of Minuth,

A chance for the Minim ; Pharaoh,

Four classes of Minim, .

Words of the Minim,

" They that hate me " ; the Minim,

A reply to the Minim ; Genealogies,

The Minim and the New Moon,

The Minim and Alexander the Great,

Minim ; casual references,

Jacob of Chephar Neburaia,

The Priesthood of Melchizedek,

315
316
319
320
323
325
325
326
327
331
332
334
338

DIVISION II.— GENERAL RESULTS

Chap. I. The Jesus-Tradition,

II. The Minim, ....

§ i. Etymology of the word Min,
§ ii. Who were the Minim ?
§ iii. The Place of the Minim in History,
Conclusion,

344
361
362
365
381
396

APPENDIX CONTAINING ORIGINAL TEXTS OF
PASSAGES TRANSLATED ....

401

INDICES

Index

of Subjects, . . . .

. 438

II.

Persons mentioned,

. 439

III.

Places mentioned,

. 443

IV.

O.T. Passages referred to,

. 443

N.T. Passages referred to,

445

VI.

»>

Rabbinical Passages referred to,

. 446

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

M. =Mishnah; thus, M. Gitt. ix. 10 means Mishnah,
treatise Gittin, chapter ix., section 10.

T. = Tosephta; thus, T. Sanh. viii. 7 means Tosephta,
treatise Sanhedrin, chapter viii., section 7.

O.T. = Old Testament.

N.T. = New Testament.

R. = Rabbi, or Rab; thus, R. Jehoshua means Rabbi
Jehoshua.

Passages from the Rabbinical literature are cited by the leaf and
the page, or the leaf and the column, following the name of the
treatise. Passages from the Jerusalem Talmud are distinguished
by the letter j before the name of the treatise, those from the
Babylonian Talmud by the letter b similarly placed ; thus j. Hag.
means Jerusalem Talmud, treatise Hagigah ; b. B. Mez. means
Babylonian Talmud, treatise Baba Mezia.

The names of the several treatises, which are the same for
Mishnah, Tosephta, and both Talmuds, also the names of the
Midrashim, are abbreviated as follows : —

Ab.

A. d. R. N.

A. Zar.

Bamm. r.

Bechor.
Ber.
Ber. r.
Bice.

B. Q.
B. Mez.
B. Bathr.
Debar, r.
Dem.
Der. er. z.
Ech. r.
Erach.
Erub.
Esth. r.
Hag.
Hor.
Hull.
Jad.
Jeb.

Aboth.

I Aboth de Rabbi
[ Nathan.

Abhodah Zarah.
[ Bammidbar Rab-
[ bah.
Bechoroth.
Berachoth.
Bereshith Rabbah.
Biccurim.
Baba Qama.
Baba Mezia.
Baba Bathra.
Debarim Rabbah.
Demai.

Derech Eretz Zuta.
Echah Rabbah.
Erachin.
Erubhin.
Esther Rabbah.
Hagigah.
Horaioth.
Hullin.
Jadaim.
Jebamoth.

Jom.

Joma.

Kail.

Kallah.

Kil.

Kilaim.

Keth.

Kethuboth.

Kidd.

Kiddushin.

Meg.
Menah.

Megillah.
Menahoth.

M. Qat.
Nedar.

Moed Qatan.
Nedarim.

Nidd.

Niddah.

Par.

Parah.

Pesah.

Pesahim.

Qoh.'r.
R. ha-Sh.

Qoheleth Rabbah.
Rosh ha-Shanah.

Sanh.

Sanhedrin.

Shabb.

Shabbath.

Shebhu.

Shebhuoth.

Shem. r.

Shemoth Rabbah.

Sh. ha-Sh.

j Shir ha-Shirim
r' \ Rabbah.

Soph.
Sot.

Sopherim.
Sotah.

Succ.

Succah.

Taan.

Taanith.

Vajiq. r.

Vajiqra Rabbah.

xvi LIST OF CHIEF WORKS AND EDITIONS

LIST OF CHIEF WORKS AND EDITIONS
REFERRED TO

Mishnah. Amsterdam, 1685.

Talmud Jerushalmi. Krotoschin, 1 866.

Talmud Babli. Wilna, 1880-85.

Hesronoth ha-Shas. No date.

Rabbinowicz, R. Diqduqe Sopherim, Variae Lectiones in Mishnam

etTalm. Babylonicum, 1867-1886.
Tosephta. Ed. Zuckermandel, 1881.
Siphri. Ed. Friedmann, 1864.
Siphra. Ed. Weiss, 1862.
Mechilta. Ed. Friedmann, 1870.
Pesiqta de R. Kahana. Ed. Buber, 1 868.
Pesiqta Rabbathi. Ed. Friedmann, 1880.
Tanhuma. Ed. Buber, 1885.
Midrash Rabboth. Wilna, 1887.
Jalqut Shimoni. Warsaw, 1875.
Frankel, Z. Darke ha-Mishnah, 1859.

„ Mebo ha-jerushalmi, 1870.

Levy, J. Neuhebraisches Worterbuch, 1876-1889.

„ Chaldaisches Worterbuch, 1867.

Sepher ha-Aruch. Basel, 1599.

Hamburger, J. Realencyclopadie fiir Bibel u. Talmud, 1870-1901.
Zunz, L. Gottesdienstliche Vortrage der Juden, 1 832.
Jost, J. M. Geschichte des Judenthums, 1857.
Gratz, H. Geschichte der Juden.

Weiss, J. H. Geschichte der Judischen Tradition, 1871.
Weber, F. System der Altsynagogale Palestinensische Theologie,

1880.
Bacher, W. Agada der Tannaiten, 1884-90.

„ Agada der Babylonischen Amoraer, 1878.

„ Agada der Palestinensischen Amoraer, 1892-1899.

Laible H. Jesus Christus im Talmud. Berlin, 1891.
Friedlander. Der vorchristlichejiidische Gnosticismus. Gdttingen,

1898.

Christianity in Talmud and
Midrash

INTRODUCTION

The passages from the Talmud and other Rabbinical

works which will be considered in the following pages

are excerpts from a literature of enormous extent, in

which the intellectual energy of the Jewish nation

during many centuries found ample and varied

expression. To give a detailed account of this

literature would lead me far from my main subject,

and would, moreover, need a considerable volume for

its full description. All that seems necessary here is

to give in a few words a general account of the

Rabbinical literature, so that the reader may be able

to judge of the kind of evidence furnished by the

passages which will be quoted, from some knowledge

of their origin.

The details of date, authorship and contents of the

several writings may be found in works of reference

accessible to scholars, such as Zunz' " Gottesdienst-

liche Vortrage der Juden," Hamburger's " Real-En-

cyklopadie fur Bibel und Talmud," or, for English

readers, the " Introduction to Hebrew Literature "

2 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

of Etheridge, a work of considerable value, in spite
of the strong theological bias of the writer.

In an often quoted passage (Aboth, i. 1 sq.) the
Talmud declares that " Moses received Torah x from
Sinai and delivered it to Joshua, and Joshua to the
Elders, and the Elders to the prophets, and the
prophets delivered it to the men of the Great Syna-
gogue. Simeon the Just was of the remnants of the
Great Synagogue .... Antigonos of Socho re-
ceived from Simeon the Just .... Jose ben Joezer
of Zereda, and Jose ben Johanan of Jerusalem
received from them."2 Then follow the names of
successive pairs of teachers down to Hillel and Sham-
mai, who were contemporary with the beginning of
the Christian era; and after these are mentioned
singly the leading Rabbis of the first two centuries.
The treatise, ' Pirqe Aboth/ as its title indicates, is
a collection of ' Sayings ' by these ' Fathers ' of Israel.
Now, whatever may be thought of the historical
accuracy of the statement just quoted, it expresses
clearly enough the view which the great founders
of the Rabbinical literature held concerning their
own work. It gives the keynote of the whole of that
literature; it indicates the foundation on which
it was built, and the method which its builders one

1 Torah, literally ' Teaching.' The usual translation 'Law ' is too narrow-
in its meaning. Torah denotes the whole of what, according to Jewish belief,
was divinely revealed to man. As the Pentateuch contained the record of
that revelation, the Torah denotes the whole contents of the Pentateuch,
whether narrative or precept ; and further, it includes not merely the written
contents of the Pentateuch, but also the unwritten Tradition, the so-called
Oral Law, which finally took shape in the Talmud.

2 There is a gap between Antigonos and the first Pair, as is pointed out by
Strack in his edition of the Pirqe Aboth, 1882, p. 9. The Pairs of teachers
are technically known as Zugoth (niJIT).

INTRODUCTION 3

and all adopted. The foundation is the Decalogue,
and the method is Tradition.

The foundation is the Decalogue. More exactly,
it is the famous declaration, Hear, O Israel, the
Lord our God, the Lord is One ; and thou shalt love
the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all
thy soul, and with all thy might (Deut. vi. 4, 5), a
declaration enshrined in the Jewish liturgy as the
very soul of Judaism.1 The Rabbinical literature is
an attempt to furnish a complete answer to the ques-
tion, " How shall a man love the Lord his God with all
his heart and soul and might?" And even those
Rabbinical writings which seem to have least reference
to this main subject are dependent on it to this
extent, that they would not have been written unless
there had been in the minds of their authors the con-
sciousness of this great fundamental principle.

The links in the chain of development are easily dis-
tinguished, according to the Rabbinical theory. Upon
the Decalogue (of which the Shema' is the summary)
rests the Pentateuch. The Ten Commandments
were expanded into greater detail ; and the historical
and legendary parts, as we should call them, were
included, or rather were expressly written with the
same object as the legal parts, viz., for instruction in
the right conduct of life. Moses was regarded as the
author of the whole, unless with the exception of the
last eight verses of Deut. (b. B. Bathr. 14b).2

Upon the Pentateuch rested the whole of the

1 It is known as the Shema\ from its first word in Hebrew. The Shema',
as recited, includes some other texts.

2 See the Talmudic theory of the authorship of Scripture in Traditio
Rabbinorum Veterrima de Librorum V. Test*1 ordine atq. origine illustrata a
Gustavo Arminio Marx. Theol. licentiato. Lipsise, 1884.

4 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

other scriptures, according to the Rabbinical theory.
That is to say, they were to be interpreted in confor-
mity with the Pentateuch, or rather with the Torah,
or Teaching, of which the Pentateuch was the written
expression. The Rabbis held that the Torah, or
teaching, which Moses was commissioned to give to
Israel, was partly written and partly oral. It is the
written Torah which is found in the Pentateuch, and
developed in the other scriptures. The oral Teaching
was said to have been handed down, from one genera-
tion to another, as the key to the interpretation of the
written Teaching. That the Pentateuch was regarded
as the standard to which the other scriptures must
conform is shown by the well-known discussion as to
whether the books of Ezekiel and Ecclesiastes were
to be included in the Canon. The reason alleged
against them was that they contradicted the Torah ;
and it was only after this contradiction had been
explained away that they were recognised as canonical
(b. Shabb. 13b, 30b). What may be the value of this
statement for the critical history of the O.T. Canon
is a question which does not arise here.

The Rabbinical theory thus regarded the O.T.
scriptures as a body of instructions based upon the
Torah of Moses ; and when it is said, in the passage
above referred to, that the prophets delivered the
Torah to the Men of the Great Synagogue, this
probably means that the Rabbis traced their own
system to Ezra and Nehemiah, and thus could regard
it as the continuation of the Teaching handed down
by the Prophets from Moses himself. It is certain
that they did thus regard it, even to the extent of
believing that the whole of the Oral Law was given

INTRODUCTION 5

to Moses, and by him handed down along with the
written Torah. The question here again is not as to
the historical facts of the development of the Rabbin-
ism out of the O.T., but only of the view which the
Rabbis themselves held of the connexion between
them. And that view was, that after the time of the
men of the Great Synagogue, those whose names are
recorded as teachers taught by word of mouth the
Torah as it was now written, together with such
interpretation of it — not written, but handed down —
as would serve to apply it to cases not distinctly
provided for in the scriptures. It was, as always, the
Torah of Moses that was taught and expounded ; and
the object was, as always, to teach men how they
ought to "Love the Lord their God with all their
heart and soul and strength and might." Historically,
we distinguish between the prophetical and the legal
elements in the contents of the O.T. The Rabbis
made no such distinction. In their religious instruc-
tion they distinguished between * halachah ' (precept)
and ' haggadah ' (edification), terms which will be more
fully explained below. For the purposes of ' halachah '
they interpreted the whole of Scripture from the legal
standpoint ; and, in like manner, for the purposes of
'haggadah' they interpreted the whole of Scripture
from the didactic standpoint, in neither case making
any difference between the several books of the O.T.,
as legal, historical or prophetic.

On the legal side, the task to which Rabbinism,
from the days of Ezra to the closing of the Talmud,
devoted itself with all its strength and ingenuity and
patience, was to develop a set of rules for the right
conduct of life, a code of laws, wherein the original

6 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

teaching of Moses should be applied to every con-
ceivable event, act and duty of daily life. Histori-
cally, the founder of Jewish Legalism was Ezra, to
whose mind was ever present the supreme necessity of
guarding the national religion from those corruptions
and laxities which had brought about the exile, and
who saw no better protection against the recurrence of
such a danger than an authoritative code, which should
state — either in speech or writing — the divine com-
mands which the Jewish people were to obey. If by
the " Men of the Great Synagogue " we are to under-
stand Ezra and those who worked on his lines, with
him and after him, then we can understand the saying
ascribed to that ancient assembly, " Make a hedge for
the Torah" (Aboth, i. 1). The Torah is the divine
teaching given to Moses and handed down by him ;
and the hedge is the Legalism, the outward form of
law and precept, in which henceforth it was to be pre-
served. The Talmud indicates its view of the work
of Ezra, and also of the connexion between his work
and that of the Rabbis by saying (b. Succ. 27a) : " In
the beginning, when the Torah was forgotten, Ezra
went up from Babylon and founded it; again it
was forgotten and Hillel the Babylonian1 went up
and founded it; again it was forgotten and Babbi
Hija and his sons went up and founded it." In other

1 Hillel was no doubt the founder of Rabbinism in the stricter sense, for he
introduced the exegetical rules on which the Kabbinical casuistry is founded.
But Ezra is the true founder of that Legalism, of which Talmudic Rabbinism
is the logical result. To compare Hillel with Jesus on the ground of their
gentleness is to ignore the fact that Hillel did more than anyone else had
done to organise that Tradition of the Elders which Jesus denounced. In
their conception of the form of religion, Jesus and Hillel stood at opposite
poles of thought.

INTRODUCTION 7

words, both the Legalism of Ezra, and the Rabbinism
of which Hillel was the first representative, are the
outward form of the Torah, the divine teaching given
to Moses ; and in every detail, every minutest pre-
cept which Rabbinical ingenuity developed, there is
assumed as the ground of all the primal religious duty,
"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy
heart and soul and might."

Whether the form of definite precept and precise
rule is the best adapted to promote the living of a
righteous life is not here the question. Right or
wrong, better or worse, it is the form which the
Rabbis chose for the expression of their conception
of the religious life. And the whole system of
Rabbinism is misjudged, unless it be carefully and
constantly borne in mind that it is all an expansion of
the idea of human service of God, under the form of
precept. What is usually called ( empty formalism,'
1 solemn trifling ' and the like, deserves a nobler name ;
for it is — -whether mistaken or not — an honest effort
to apply the principle of service of God to the smallest
details and acts of life. That, in practice, such a con-
ception of religious life might lead to hypocrisy and
formalism is undeniable, and the Talmud itself is
perfectly well aware of the fact. But that it
necessarily leads to hypocrisy, that it is impossible on
such lines to develop a true religious life, the whole
history of Judaism from the time of Hillel down-
wards is the emphatic denial. The great Rabbis
whose work is preserved in the Talmud were not
hypocrites or mere formalists, but men who fully
realised the religious meaning of what was expressed
in the form of legal precept and apparently trivial

8 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

regulation. They were under no mistake as to what
it all meant ; and the heroism which has marked the
Jewish people through all the tragic history of
eighteen Christian centuries has found its divine in-
spiration in the Torah as the Rabbis interpreted it.
To them it was the word of God, in all its fulness
and depth ; and no Jew who thoroughly entered into
the spirit of the Rabbinical conception of religious
life ever felt the Torah a burden, or himself bound
as by galling fetters. Paul doubtless spoke out of
the depths of his own experience ; but he does not
represent the mind of the great leaders of Rabbinism.
And the system of thought and practice which bears
that name is unfairly judged if it is condemned on the
witness of its most determined enemies. Judged on
its own merits, and by the lives and words of its own
exponents and defenders, it is a consistent and logical
endeavour to work out a complete guide to the living
of a perfect life, and whatever verdict may be passed
upon that endeavour, the right word is not failure.

The foundation, then, of Rabbinism is the precept,
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy
heart and all thy soul and all thy might. The
method is tradition. This is indicated by the names
which the Rabbis themselves gave to the mass of
religious precept which they taught, viz., Massoreth
(jtodd), and less frequently Qabbala.1 The same fact

1 Massoreth, or Massorah, from "1DD to hand over, deliver ; more fully,
D^pTH 'D, vapd$o<Tis rwv irpeff&vTepav (Mark vii. 5). Qabbala, from ^3p to
receive, cp. Mark, ib. 4, & ira.p4\a&ov Kparw, which they have received
to hold. The term Massorah is also used in a special sense to designate the
apparatus criticus devised by the Jewish Grammarians for the fixing of the
text of Scripture. The term Qabbala likewise has a specialised meaning
when used to denote the system of Theosophy or secret doctrine, set forth
in the books ' Jetzirah ' and ' Zohar.'

INTRODUCTION 9

is shown by the formula to be found on every page
of the Talmud, in which a precept is expressed,
" Rabbi A. says, in the name of Rabbi B," or, " Rabbi
A. says that Rabbi B. says that Rabbi C. says, etc."
Some authority must confirm the dictum of every
teacher, the authority, viz., of some previous teacher,
or else the authority of the Torah interpreted accord-
ing to some recognised rule. No teacher could base
his teaching merely on his own authority; and the
fact that Jesus did this, was no doubt one of the
grievances against him on the part of the Jews.
Ye have heard that it was said to them of old time
. . . . but I say unto you, etc. (Matt. v. 21, 22),
implies the disavowal of the Rabbinical method ; and
the statement (Matt. vii. 28, 29) that Jesus taught
them as one having authority and not as their scribes,
was certainly cause sufficient that the people should
be astonished at his teaching, and that the scribes
should be incensed and alarmed.

The question naturally arises here, How could new
teaching find a place where, in theory, nothing was
valid unless it had been handed down? That new
teaching did find a place is evident, if only from the
fact that the modest volume of the O.T. was ex-
panded into the enormous bulk of the Talmud, to say
nothing of the Midrash ; while, on the other hand,
the principle of receiving only what rested on the
authority of tradition was jealously upheld and
resolutely enforced. For want of a clear understanding
of the relation between the new and the old in
Rabbinism, that system has been condemned as a
rigid formalism, crushing with the dead weight of
antiquity the living forces of the soul, and preventing

10 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

all growth and expansion of thought. It is doubt-
less true that the letter killeth but the spirit giveth
life; but the truth of that great saying is not the
condemnation of Rabbinism, any more than it is of
Christianity j and it might have been spoken with no
less right by Aqiba than by Paul, for the one, no less
than the other, was an originator within the lines of
his own form of religious thought.

The answer to the question, ' How could new teach-
ing find a place in a system based exclusively on
tradition ' ? admits of a simple statement. The Torah
as given to Moses, and by him handed down, was
regarded as containing the whole of divine truth, not
merely so much as might at any given time have
been discerned, but all that in all future ages might
be brought to light. This divine truth was partly
explicit, partly implicit. That which was explicit
was stated in Scripture, more particularly in the
Mosaic laws, and also in that oral tradition which
furnished the interpretation and application of the
Scripture. That which was implicit was the further,
as yet undiscovered, meaning contained in the Torah.
And the whole task of Rabbinism was to render that
explicit which had been implicit, to discover and un-
fold more and more of the divine truth contained in
the Torah, so as to make it available for the perfecting
of the religious life. When, therefore, a Rabbi taught
some new application of a religious precept, what
was new was the application ; the precept was old.1
He was not adding to the Torah, but showing

1 This is clearly stated in the Talmud (j. Hag. i. 8. 76c) : " Even that
which an acute disciple shall teach in the presence of his Rabbi has already
been said to Moses on Sinai."

INTRODUCTION 11

for the first time some hitherto unknown contents
of it. The sum total of Torah was unaltered ;
but part of it had been transformed from implicit
to explicit. Thus a new teaching could not but
rest upon Tradition, because it was merely the un-
folding into greater clearness of meaning what the
Torah had all along contained. And it was only
new, in so far as such and such a Rabbi had been
the first to declare that development of the original
principle. Rabbinism never did, because it never
could, reach the logical end of its own method ; but
the complicated and minute legislation embodied in
the Talmud, is, on the Rabbinical theory, merely the
unfolding of what was contained in the original Torah
— rendered explicit instead of implicit. Thus it
appears that even in that department of the Rabbini-
cal system where the principle of Tradition was most
strictly maintained, there was ample room for the
expansion and adaptation of the original principle to
the varying needs of practical religious life. In other
departments, perhaps rather the other chief depart-
ment of the Rabbinical system, there was little or
no attempt at restraint upon individual liberty of
teaching. These two departments, or main divisions
of Rabbinical teaching, are called respectively
Halachah and Haggadah (or Agada, as it is often,
though perhaps less correctly, given).1 The distinc-
tion between these two has often been explained ;
but a few words upon them here may serve to bring
out a fact which has not always been duly recognised.
Halachah (from ~\bn to go) denotes that which is

1 See an article by W. Bacher, " On the origin of the word Haggada
(Agada)," in the Jewish Quarterly Review, 1892, p. 406 fol.

12 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

recognised as a valid and therefore binding law of
religious practice. The connexion between this, its
undoubted meaning, and that of the root from which
it is derived, is uncertain, and has been variously
explained. The etymological question need not de-
tain us here. Halachah is therefore that system of
rule and precept to which the religious life of the Jew
must conform. The several rules and precepts, indi-
vidually, are called Hdlachoth (plural of Halachah).
The Torah of Moses was, first and foremost, Hala-
chah ; what it taught was, above all things, how a
man should love the Lord his God with all his heart
and soul and might ; in other words, how he should
serve God most perfectly (see above, p. 7). The
task of Rabbinism was to ascertain and determine
Halachah, in its fullest extent, to discover the whole
of what divine wisdom had decreed for the guidance
of man. And it was in regard to Halachah that the
principle of Tradition was most rigorously upheld,
because it was above all things essential that Hala-
chah, the law of right conduct binding on every
Israelite, should be accurately defined and based
upon ample authority.

The other main division of Rabbinical teaching,
known as Haggadah, differed from Halachah both in
its object and its method. Haggadah denotes illus-
trative teaching ; and it includes all that can help to
build up religious character otherwise than by the
discipline of positive command. It includes theo-
logical speculation in its widest range, also ethical
instruction and exhortation ; and its object is to
throw all the light of past thought and experience
upon the present duty. It is thus the necessary

INTRODUCTION 13

accompaniment of Halachah ; both have the same
general purpose, viz., to teach a true service of God ;
but the one proceeds by way of direct command, and
rests upon divine authority, the other by way of
exhortation and explanation, with no other authority
than the wisdom and knowledge of the individual
teacher. This is said without forgetting the fact that
the great teachers of Haggadah were looked upon
with the deepest reverence, and their teaching re-
ceived with great deference. Moreover, the Hagga-
dah was considered to be contained in the Scripture,
and to be deducible thence by regular rules of infer-
ence. But nevertheless it is true that the teaching
and development of Haggadah was under no such
strict restraint as was required for Halachah. And
Haggadah served as the outlet for the creative ima-
gination of the Rabbinical mind, which could find no
scope in the severe logic of Halachah. The teacher
of Haggadah gave free rein to his thought; his
object was edification, and he made use of everything
— history, legend, anecdote, fable, parable, speculation
upon every subject from the most sublime to the
most trivial — which might serve to teach some
religious lesson, and thereby develop religious char-
acter. The Haggadist made no scruple of altering
not merely the narrative but the text of Scripture,
for the sake of drawing out a religious or moral
lesson ; and where Scripture was silent, the Hagga-
dist freely invented incidents and traits of character
in regard to Scripture personages, not stopping short
of the Almighty Himself. Frequent appeal is made
to the example of non-biblical Fathers in Israel, and
it is to the Haggadah that we owe nearly all our

14 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

information as to the personal character and life-
history of the Rabbis. Anecdotes and historical
reminiscences abound in the Haggadah, which is the
chief reason why to non- Jewish readers the Haggadah
is so much more interesting than the dry and difficult
Halachah. It is hard for any one but a Jew to
realise the direct personal concern, and therefore
intense interest, of Halachic discussions ; while in
the Haggadah, the human interest never fails, nor the
charm — at least for those who have sufficient sym-
pathy and insight to enter into a form of thought
widely different from their own.

Having thus briefly indicated what is meant by
Halachah and Haggadah, and before going on to
describe their mutual relation in the Rabbinical
literature, I pause for a moment to draw a com-
parison, or rather a contrast, between the develop-
ment of Rabbinical and Christian thought. The
contrast is certainly a sharp one, yet there is a con-
siderable likeness. Both have a Tradition of the
Elders, and rest a part of their teaching upon authority
presumed to be divine. This has been already shown
in regard to Rabbinism. In regard to Christianity
the same fact appears in connexion with dogmatic
theology. What is of faith is taught on the
authority of creeds or decrees of councils, or the
writings of the Church Fathers, or of Scripture as
expounded by competent and accredited interpreters.
The Roman Catholic Church definitely places Tra-
dition among the sources of the teaching which
she gives ; and if Protestantism repudiates Tradition
to take her stand upon the Bible only, she never-
theless admits the authority of ancient expositions

INTRODUCTION 15

of Scripture and definitions of faith. Both Rab-
binism and historical Christianity alike recognise
that to set forth the contents of the word of God
is the supreme object of religious thought ; and
they have jealously guarded the Torah, or the True
Faith, from the interference of unauthorised ex-
ponents. The verbal expression is different in the
two cases, as the matter of thought is different ; but
in both the liberty of individual opinion was con-
fined within strict and definite limits, and to overstep
those limits was in each case heresy.

In like manner both Rabbinism and Christianity
have a department of religious teaching where no
restraint is put upon the freedom of the individual
to hold and teach his own opinions, whatever they
might be. In Rabbinism this is Haggadah ; in
Christianity it is all that helps to the right conduct
of life, moral teaching, encouragement to good works,
and the like. There is in regard to these subjects
nothing to prevent the Christian teacher from teach-
ing out of his own heart and conscience whatever
seems good and right. And while the great
Christian teachers, in this department, are deeply
reverenced, and their teaching received with the
deference due to their wisdom and experience, there
is no such authority attaching to their words as
there is in the case of those who have helped to
define the Faith. Their teaching is " not to establish
any doctrine, but for example of life and instruction
of manners," and no heresy is implied by divergence
of opinion.

While there is thus a considerable likeness be-
tween Rabbinical Judaism and historical Chris-

16 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

tianity, in regard to both principle and method, the
contrast between them is the more striking from the
fact that each system applies restriction to what the
other leaves free, and each allows liberty where the
other imposes restraint. Rabbinism prescribes what
a man shall do, and defines his service of God in
precise rules, while it leaves him perfectly unfettered
in regard to what he shall believe. Such a thing
as a doctrinal creed is foreign to Rabbinism—
Maimonides notwithstanding. Historical Chris-
tianity prescribes what a man shall believe, and
defines the True Faith in precise creeds; while it
leaves him perfectly unfettered in regard to what he
should do— unfettered, that is, except by his own
conscience. Christianity never set up a moral creed ;
she did not make sin a heresy, but heresy a sin.
To sum up this comparison in a single sentence,
while historical Christianity is based on the con-
ception of orthodox, Rabbinism rests on the con-
ception of what I venture to call orthopraxy. The
one insists on Faith, and gives liberty of Works ; the
other insists on Works, and gives liberty of Faith.

It would be interesting and instructive to pursue
this line of thought still further, and endeavour to
form an estimate of the comparative value of the
two contrasted systems as theories of religious life.
I refrain from doing so, however, as my purpose in
making the comparison has been sufficiently attained
if I have succeeded in explaining and illustrating the
answer of Rabbinism to the two great questions
of Duty and Belief. That answer is given in the
Halachah and Haggadah respectively; and I go on
to show how these two elements are combined and

INTRODUCTION 17

distinguished in the Rabbinical literature. For this
purpose I will briefly refer to the chief representa-
tive works of that literature.

Pre-eminent among them all stands the Talmud ;
and after what has been already said, it will not be
difficult to explain the general nature of this colossal
work. Bearing in mind that the main task of
Rabbinism was to ascertain and define Halachah, it
will be evident that in the course of years, and by
the labours of many contemporary and successive
Rabbis, a large number of decisions upon questions
of Halachah gradually accumulated. Some of these,
dating from far - off antiquity, were undisputed ;
others were subjected to keen examination and
scrutiny before being pronounced to be really
Halachah. But, while many decisions were rejected,
for want of a sufficient basis of authority, the
number of those that were accepted increased with
every generation of teachers. More than once,
during the first two centuries of our era, attempts
were made to codify and arrange the growing mass
of Halachah, the confusion of which was increased
by the fact that the whole was carried in the memory
alone, not put down in writing. The work of codifi-
cation, attempted by Aqiba and others, was finally
completed by Rabbi Jehudah ha-Qadosh (the Holy),
usually known as Rabbi par excellence; and the
collection which he formed is known as the Mishnah.
The date of its completion is usually given as 220
a.d., or thereabouts. Mishnah denotes both 'teach-
ing ' and ' repetition ' ; and the work so called pro-
fessed to be the repetition, in enlarged form, of the

Torah of Moses. The Mishnah is a collection of

18 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

Halachoth — presumably of all the Halachoth whose
validity was recognised so far as known to the
compiler; and it deals with every department of
practical conduct. Under six main divisions
('Sgdarim,' or orders), and sixty -three treatises
(' Massichtoth '), the duties of the faithful Israelite
are set forth, as positive or negative commands. But
the Mishnah contains Haggadah as well as Halachah.
Along with the precepts, and the discussions in
which they were defined, there are illustrative and
explanatory notes, historical and personal remini-
scences, designed to show the purpose or explain
the meaning of some decision. These are Haggadah ;
and they occur in the midst of Halachah, with not
the slightest mark to distinguish the one from the
other. The amount of Haggadah in the Mishnah,
however, is not great compared with that of
Halachah. And, in consequence, while the Mishnah
is easier to read than the Gemara in point of
language, it is far less interesting owing to the
scantiness of the human element provided in the
Haggadah.

As above stated, the Mishnah was completed
somewhere about the year 220 a.d. ; and though
at first it only existed as oral teaching, it appears to
have been very soon written down. From hence-
forth it was the standard collection of Halachoth,
though other collections existed of which mention
will be presently made. As the standard collection
of Halachoth, it naturally became in its turn
the subject of study, since many of its precepts
were of uncertain meaning. To mention only one
reason for this, the destruction of the Temple, and

INTRODUCTION 19

the consequent cessation of all the ritual and cere-
monial of worship, reduced the precepts connected
therewith to a branch of archaeology; while on the
other hand, it increased the need of defining with
the utmost precision the right practice in those
matters, so that it might not be forgotten if ever the
time should come for the resumption of the Temple
services. And, if some are inclined to think lightly
of the time and thought spent upon questions which
could have no practical outcome for those who de-
bated them, there is still a pathetic and even a heroic
aspect in the toil which preserved a sacred memory
so that it might keep alive a no less sacred hope.

The Mishnah, then, became in its turn the subject
of commentary, interpretation and expansion. The
name given to this superadded commentary is
Gemara, which means 'completion.' But, whereas
there is only one Mishnah, there are two Gemaras.
The Mishnah was studied not only in the schools of
Palestine, but also in those of Babylonia. And by
the labours of these two groups of teachers there was
developed a Palestinian Gemara and a Babylonian
Gemara. In course of time the same need for
codification of the growing mass of Tradition began
to be felt in regard to the Gemaras which had
previously led to the formation of the Mishnah.
The Gemara of Palestine was ended, — not com-
pleted,— towards the close of the fourth century;
while it was not until the sixth century that the
Gemara of Babylonia was reduced to the form in
which we now have it. The name Talmud is given
to the whole corpus of Mishnah plus Gemara; and
thus it is usual to distinguish between the Palestinian

20 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

Talmud (otherwise known as the Talmud of Jeru-
salem) and the Babylonian Talmud.1

To give any account of the multifarious contents
of either Talmud, even of that of Jerusalem, which
is much shorter and simpler than that of Babylon,
would be a work of great length and difficulty, al-
most amounting indeed to a translation of the huge
work with the commentaries upon it. Briefly, it
consists (in both Talmuds) of a series of discussions
upon the several Halachoth contained in the Mish-
nah. In the course of these discussions, all manner
of digressions interrupt the argument, — personal
anecdotes, speculations upon points of theology or
philosophy, fragments of history, scraps of science,
folklore, travellers' tales — in short, anything and
everything that could be supposed to have even the
remotest connection with the subject under discussion
are brought in, to the grievous perplexity of the
reader. To add to the difficulty, this chaotic mass
is printed in an unpointed text, with no stops except
at the end of a paragraph, and no sort of mark to
distinguish the various elements one from the other.
And, finally, the language of the two Gemaras (based

1 The Hebrew names are ' Talmud Jerushalmi,' and CT. Babli' re-
spectively. I do not know why the former is called T. Jerushalmi;
because, of the various schools in which it was developed, probably none,
certainly none of any importance, had its seat in Jerusalem. It is usually
understood that residence in Jerusalem was forbidden to Jews after the
last war, in 135 a.d. Yet it is stated (b. Pes. 113a) that K. Johanan, one
of the founders of the Palestinian Gemara, cited a tradition " in the name
of the men of Jerusalem." On the whole, however, it seems to me most
probable that the Palestinian Talmud was merely called after the name of
the capital city, as indeed the T. Babli may be said to have been called after
the name of the capital city of the land where the chief Rabbinical schools
of the East nourished for centuries.

INTRODUCTION 91

upon eastern and western Aramaic respectively) is
far more difficult than that of the Mishnah, being,
as it is, concise to a degree that Thucydides might
have envied, and Tacitus striven in vain to imitate.
It is full of technical terms and foreign words, which
are the despair of the reader who knows only his
Hebrew Bible. Yet there is order and method even
in the Talmud, and it is a great mistake to suppose
that its contents may be treated as a series of un-
connected sentences, whose meaning is clear apart
from their context, and without reference to the
deep underlying principles which give vitality to
the whole. The passages which will presently be
cited from the Talmud may serve as illustrations of
what has been said, so far as mere translations, how-
ever literal, can represent an original text so peculiar
and so bizarre ; and, in presenting them apart from
their context, I trust I have not been unmindful of
the caution just given.

The twofold Talmud is by far the most important
work of the early Rabbinical literature. Yet there
are others, dating from the same centuries, which
can by no means be passed by unnoticed. It was
stated above that the Mishnah was not the only
collection of Halachoth, though it was adopted as
the standard. To say nothing of the fact that the
Gemaras contain many Halachoth not included in
the Mishnah (hence called ' Baraitha,' i.e. external),
there exists at least one independent collection of
Halachoth, as a sort of rival to the Mishnah. This
is known as Tosephta, a name which means ' addition '
or ■ supplement,' as if it had been intended merely to
supply what was wanting in the standard work. Yet

22 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

it is not improbable that the existing Mishnah and
the existing Tosephta are only two out of many
contemporary collections great or small, two com-
pilations founded upon the works of many previous
teachers, and that of these two, " one was taken and
the other left." The two collections might almost
have exchanged names, so that what is now known
as the Mishnah might conceivably have come to be
looked upon as Tosephta to the other. And, al-
though the one enjoys a sort of canonical authority
not recognised in the other, yet for historical pur-
poses they are both of equal value, since both con-
tain traditions dating from the earliest centuries of
the common era. The contents of Tosephta are,
as will* have appeared above, mainly Halachah ; but
Haggadah also is found, as in the case of the Mish-
nah, and in greater abundance.

The works above described, viz., Mishnah, Gemaras,
and Tosephta, have for their common purpose the
development and definition of Halachah as the rule
for the right conduct of life, the expansion into
minute detail of the principle, Thou shalt love the
Lord thy God with all thy heart and soul and
strength. But the Rabbinical literature includes
another very extensive class of works, in which the
same principle is dealt with in a somewhat different
manner. The generic name for works of this class is
' Midrash,' i.e. exposition ; and the common character-
istic of them all is that they are free commentaries
upon books or portions of books of the O.T.
Perhaps commentary is hardly the right word; for
the Midrash does not profess to explain every point
of difficulty in the text with which it deals, and, as

INTRODUCTION 23

a rule, it makes no reference to grammatical and
linguistic questions. The purpose of the Midrash
is to expound the Scriptures with a view to edifica-
tion and instruction, from the standpoint not of the
scholar but of the preacher. And probably the con-
tents of the various Midrashim are collected extracts
from the sermons, as we might call them, of the
Rabbis to their hearers, either in the synagogues or
the schools. The general plan of a Midrash is to
take a book or selected passages of a book of
the O.T., and to arrange under each separate
verse in order the expositions of several Rabbis.
The connexion between the text and the exposition
is often very slight ; and, just as in the case of the
Gemaras, digressions are frequent, as opportunity
offers for bringing in some interesting but irrelevant
topic. The method of Tradition is followed in the
Midrash, though not with the same strictness as in
the Talmud. Most of the expository notes are
given in the name of some Rabbi, and of course the
whole body of Midrash is now Tradition. But a
good deal of the contents of many Midrashim is
anonymous, and therefore presumably due to the
compiler. In no instance in the Rabbinical litera-
ture can we say that any individual Rabbi is the
author of such and such a work ; at most he is the
editor. But a nearer approach is made to individual
authorship in the Midrash than in the Talmudic
literature.

Midrash, then, is homiletic exposition of Scripture.
And it will be seen from what has been said above,
that the distinction between Halachah and Haggadah
is applicable no less to the Midrash than to the

U CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

Talmud. That is to say, there can be Midrash
whose chief purpose is to connect Halachah with
Scripture, and again Midrash which chiefly aims at
connecting Haggadah with Scripture. Of these two
classes, the Halachic Midrashim are the more
ancient, the Haggadic by far the more numerous.
Of the Halachic Midrashim, the chief works are
Siphra, on the book of Leviticus; Siphri, on
Numbers and Deuteronomy ; and Mechilta, upon
parts of Exodus. These were compiled, according
to Zunz, at a later date than the Mishnah, but
contain in part older material. And while they do
not exclude Haggadah, where the text suggests it,
they are prevailingly Halachic, since a great part
of the text dealt with is concerned with the cere-
monial law. Siphra and Siphri are frequently made
use of in the Talmud.1

The Haggadic Midrashim are very numerous, and
the period of their production covers several cen-
turies. Even the earliest of them is much later
as regards date of compilation than the earliest
Halachic Midrash. There is more need, on this
account, of caution in using their statements as
historical evidence. Yet, since those statements rest
on tradition, and refer to many well-known names,
there seems no reason why they should — other
reasons apart — be denied all historical value. I have
therefore made use of what the Midrash offered for
my purpose, with, I trust, due critical caution. Of the
Haggadic Midrashim, the most important in point
of extent is the so-called Midrash Rabbah (or M.
Rabboth), a collection of expositions upon the

1 See Zunz, " Gottesd. Vortr. d. Juden," pp. 46-48.

INTRODUCTION 25

Pentateuch and the five Megilloth (i.e. Ruth, Esther,
Lamentations, Song of Songs, and Ecclesiastes).
The ten Midrashim are of very various date, and
were not gathered into one great collection till as
late as the thirteenth century. Other Midrashim, of
similar character, are Tanhuma, or Jelam'denu, on
the Pentateuch, Pesiqta on selected passages, and
Jalqut Shim'oni on the whole of the O.T.,
being a vast collection of extracts from earlier
Midrashim. For details concerning these and many
similar works, I refer the reader to the books of
Zunz, Hamburger, and others mentioned above. My
object in this introduction is not to give a biblio-
graphy of Rabbinical literature, but to indicate the
general scope and method of that literature, so that
the reader may have some idea of the sources whence
the passages, which will presently be given, have
been extracted.

It will now be possible, as it is highly desirable,
to attempt an answer to the question, What is
the value, as historical evidence, of the Rabbinical
literature? Can any reliance be placed upon state-
ments found in works whose main purpose was not
to impart exact knowledge of facts, but to give
religious and moral teaching ?

Nothing is easier than to pick out from the
Talmud and the Midrash statements in regard to
historical events, which are palpably and even
monstrously false, and that, too, when the events
referred to were not very far removed from the
lifetime of the author of the statements. And the
conclusion is ready to hand, that if, in regard to
events almost within living memory, such error was

26 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

possible, reliance cannot be placed upon statements
concerning events more remote. Yet that hasty
conclusion is refuted by the fact that the statements
referring to historical events are sometimes confirmed
by external testimony, such as the writings of non-
Jewish historians, and sometimes, when not directly
confirmed, are still in accordance with such external
testimony. No one would dream of accepting as
true all the historical statements of the Talmud and
Midrash ; but they are certainly not all false. And
it ought not to be, and I believe is not, beyond the
power of a careful criticism, to distinguish with some
degree of probability the historically true from the
historically false.

It must be borne in mind that the whole of the
literature under consideration is a collection of
Traditions. Now, while such a method of retaining
and transmitting knowledge is exposed to the dangers
of omission, addition, and alteration in a greater degree
than is the case with written documents, yet on the
other hand the fact that such a method was alone
employed implies that the power of memory was
cultivated and improved also in a greater degree
than is usual with those who only or chiefly make
use of writing. The Talmud and Midrash afford
illustrations of both these propositions ; for while we
find that varying forms are handed down of one and
the same tradition, the difference in the form shows
that the tradition was the subject of remembrance
in several minds and over considerable periods of
time. It must also be borne in mind that the
Talmud is not "a dateless book," as it has been
called, but that the main points in its chronology

INTRODUCTION 27

are well known, being determined by the biographical
data of the leading Rabbis. The researches of
W. Bacher1 have shown beyond dispute that these
biographical data are, on the whole, mutually con-
sistent ; and thus we are provided with a firm
foundation on which to rest a case for the credibility
of the Rabbinical records. If the whole were a mere
tissue of extravagant inventions, there would be no
such consistency ; and further, it is often possible to
mark where the historical tradition leaves off and
the legendary invention begins. Thus, R. Jehoshua
b. Levi is a perfectly well-known historical figure,
and one whose name occurs numberless times in the
Talmud and Midrash ; of him various facts are
related which there is no reason to call in question,
while in addition other stories are told — such as his
conversation with the Angel of Death (b. Keth. 77b)
— which are plainly imaginary.

In judging, then, of the reliability, as historical
evidence, of the Rabbinical records, we must take as
our guide, in the first instance, the chronology of the
lives of the Rabbis themselves, and note whether their
statements refer to matters nearly or quite contem-
porary. Thus, when Rabbi A. says that on a certain
occasion he walked with Rabbi B. who told him
so and so, or again, that when he was a boy he re-
membered seeing Rabbi C. who did so and so, he is
presumably speaking of things well within his know-

1 " Agada der Tannaiten," " Ag. der Palestinensischen Amoraer," " Ag. d.
Babylonischen Amoraer." Bacher is not the only scholar who has dealt
with Rabbinical biography ; but so far as I know, his work is much more
thorough and complete than any other on the same subject ; and I would
here express my very great obligation for the help I have derived from the
invaluable works I have named above.

28 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

ledge. And though these incidental remarks may
refer to things in themselves very trivial, yet they
serve to extend the region of credibility. Indeed, it
is perhaps in these incidental remarks that the largest
harvest of historical fact is to be gathered. Because
they are usually the illustration, drawn from the
actual knowledge and experience of the teacher who
mentions them, of the subject with which he is
dealing. A Rabbi, especially one who was skilful
in Haggadah, would permit himself any degree of
exaggeration or invention even in regard to historical
persons and events, if thereby he could produce a
greater impression. Thus, an event so terribly well
known as the great war, which ended with the death
of Bar Cocheba and the capture of Bethar in 135 A.D.,
was magnified in the description of its horrors beyond
all bounds of possibility. And probably no one was
better aware of the exaggeration than the Rabbi who
uttered it.1 But then the purpose of that Rabbi
would be, not to give his hearers an exact account of
the great calamity, but to dwell on the horror of it,
and to burn it in upon the minds of the people as a
thing never to be forgotten. Yet there are many
incidental remarks about the events of the war which
are free from such exaggeration, and being in no way
improbable in themselves, are such as might well
have been known to the relater of them. The long
passage b. Gitt. 57a-58a contains a variety of state-
ments about the wars of Nero, Vespasian, and
Hadrian ; it is reported to a considerable extent by
R. Johanan, whose informant was R. Shim'on b.

1 Cp. what is said below, p. 252, as to Eabbinical statements concerning
the former population of Palestine.

INTRODUCTION 29

Johai, who himself took part in the last war. No
one would dream of crediting the assertion that for
seven years the vineyards in Palestine needed and
received no other manure than the blood of those
slain in the war. But the story that young Ishmael
b. Elisha was carried captive to Rome, and discovered
there and released, is in every way probable. Ishmael
b. Elisha was the name of two very well-known
Rabbis, one the grandson of the other, and the
younger being the contemporary and rival of Aqiba.
Nothing is more likely than that stories of the lives
and adventures of these men should have been told
amongst their friends and remembered in later times.
Such stories must of course be judged on their own
merits. But if they are in themselves reasonable and
probable, there is nothing to discredit them in the
mere fact that they are found in works like the
Talmud and Midrash, embedded in a mass of
Haggadic speculation. Neither Talmud nor Midrash
were intended primarily to teach history; but from
the manner of their origin and growth, they could
hardly fail to show some traces of contemporary
history. Therefore, in place of condemning as apo-
cryphal all and sundry of the allusions to historical
personages and events contained in the Talmud and
Midrash, we may and ought to distinguish amongst
them. And perhaps we may make some approach to
a general canon of criticism on the subject, if we say
that in the literature referred to, the obiter dicta are
of most value as evidence of historical fact ; or, in
other words, there is more reason to suspect exaggera-
tion or invention in statements which appear to form
part of the main line of the argument, than in those

30 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

which appear to be merely illustrative notes, added
to the text and embedded in it. The purpose of
Haggadah (to which all these historical references
belong) is homiletic ; it aims at building up religious
and moral character by every means other than the
discipline of positive precept (see above, p. 12).
Reference to historical fact was only one, and by no
means the most important, form of Haggadah. Since
it is in Haggadah that the Rabbinical mind found the
outlet for its instinct of speculative inquiry, and the
play of its fancy and imagination, as already explained,
it is natural to expect that these will be most promi-
nent and most abundant in Haggadic passages because
most in accordance with the genius of Haggadah.
When, accordingly, we find in the midst of such
fanciful and exaggerated passages occasional state-
ments which appear to be plain, sober matter of fact,
there is the more reason to accept the latter as being
historically reliable (at least intended to be so),
because the author (or narrator) might have increased
their effect as illustrations by free invention, and has
chosen not to do so. I say that such statements may
be accepted as being at least intended to be histori-
cally reliable. They must be judged on their merits,
and where possible tested by such methods as would
be applied to any other statements professedly
historical. The narrator who gives them may have
been wrongly informed, or may have incorrectly
remembered ; but my point is that in such statements
he intends to relate what he believes to be matter of
fact, and not to indulge his imagination.

I have made this attempt to work out a canon of
criticism for the historical value of the Rabbinical

INTRODUCTION 31

literature, because such a canon seems to me to be
greatly needed. So far as I am competent to judge,
it appears to me that Jewish historians — as is only-
natural — make a far more legitimate and intelligent
use of the Rabbinical literature for historical purposes
than is generally to be observed in the writings of
Christian historians who have dealt with that litera-
ture. Even in the works of Keim and Schurer,
whose scholarship is above reproach, I do not remem-
ber to have found any attempt to set forth the
principles on which they make use of the Rabbinical
literature for historical purposes. And it is perhaps
not too much to say that in most Christian writings
that touch upon the Rabbinical literature there is
little or no appearance of any such principles ; some-
times, indeed, there is a mere reproduction of state-
ments from previous writers, which the borrower has
not verified and not always understood.

The principle which I have stated above will, of
course, find its illustration in the treatment of the
passages from the Rabbinical literature to be presently
examined. That is to say, an attempt will be made
to estimate the historical value of the statements
contained in them. But it should be observed that
for historical purposes they may be valuable in one
or both of two ways. Whether or not they establish
the fact that such and such an event took place, they
at least establish the fact that such and such a belief
was held in reference to the alleged event, or the
person concerned in it. Thus we shall find that
several instances are mentioned of miracles alleged
to have been worked by Jews or Christians. The
mere statement does not prove that these were actu-

S2 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

ally performed, any more than the mere state-
ment of the N.T. writers proves that the alleged
miracles of Jesus and the Apostles were actually
performed. But in the one case or in the other, the
record of alleged miracles, made in all good faith, is
clear proof of the belief that such events did take
place and had taken place.

So also we shall find many instances of discussion
upon topics chiefly scriptural, between Jewish Rabbis
and certain persons called Minim.1 Now the record
of such discussions may be, in a given case, inaccurate ;
but it is proof positive of the belief that such discus-
sions had actually occurred, and indeed may be said
to establish not merely the belief but the fact that
they had occurred. Therefore, whatever may be the
amount of actual historical fact established by the
passages from the Rabbinical writings examined in
the present work, they will at least have the value
(and it is no slight one) that belongs to records of
opinion and belief upon the subject for the illustration
of which they have been chosen.

To the consideration of those passages I will now
proceed, having given what I trust may be a sufficient,
as well as a reliable, explanation of their nature and
origin. I merely premise one word as to the classifi-
cation of them, and the method by which I shall deal
with their contents. The subjects referred to in them
are so various that an exhaustive classification would
involve a great deal of repetition, since one passage
might be appropriately placed under each of several
heads. This might be avoided by arranging them

1 The whole question of the interpretation of the word Minim will be
dealt with hereafter.

INTRODUCTION 83

in the order of their occurrence in the Talmudic
treatises and the several Midrashim. But such an
arrangement would not afford the slightest help to
the reader who wished to find what was said upon
a given subject, e.g. the Christian scriptures. The
same objection would apply to a chronological classi-
fication, according to which the passages should be
arranged under the dates of the several Rabbis
responsible for them.

I have thought it best to make a classification accord-
ing to the main subject dealt with in each passage. I
place first of all the passages referring to Jesus ; then,
the much larger group of those relating to followers
of Jesus. Each passage or series of passages will have
its title, indicating the main subject to which it refers;
and an index of all the titles will be found in the table
of contents. Under each title will be given the trans-
lation of one or more passages, bearing upon the
particular topic, together with sufficient commentary
to explain its meaning and its connexion with the
main subject. The Hebrew and Aramaic texts,
numbered consecutively to correspond with the trans-
lated passages, will be collected in an appendix.
Following upon the translations and commentaries,
a concluding chapter will sum up the general results
of the inquiry, under the two main heads of the
Tradition concerning Jesus and the Tradition concern-
ing the Minim.

PASSAGES FROM THE RABBINICAL
LITERATURE,

ILLUSTRATING THE RISE AND DEVELOPMENT OF
CHRISTIANITY IN THE EARLY CENTURIES

DIVISION I

A.— PASSAGES RELATING TO JESUS

Birth and Parentage of Jesus

(1) b. Shabbath 104b. (The passage in [ ] occurs
also b. Sanh. 67a.) "He who cuts upon his
flesh." It is tradition that Rabbi Eliezer said
to the Wise, ' Did not Ben Stada bring spells
from Egypt in a cut which was upon his
flesh?' They said to him, 'He was a fool,
and they do not bring a proof from a fool.'
[Ben Stada is Ben Pandira. Rab Hisda said,
'The husband was Stada, the paramour was
Pandira.' The husband was Pappos ben
Jehudah, the mother was Stada. The mother
was Miriam the dresser of women's hair, as
we say in Pumbeditha, ' Such a one has been
false to her husband.']
Commentary} — The above passage occurs in a

1 I would here express generally my indebtedness to the work of
Heinrich Laible, " Jesus Christus im Talmud," Berlin, 1891. In the section

36 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

discussion upon the words in the Mishnah which
forbid all kinds of writing to be done on the Sabbath.
Several kinds are specified, and among them the
making of marks upon the flesh. The words at the
beginning of the translation are the text, so to speak,
of the Mishnah which is discussed in what follows.
To illustrate the practice of marking or cutting the
flesh, the compilers of the Gemara introduce a tradition
(Baraitha, not included in the Mishnah, see above, p.
21) according to which It. Eliezer asked the question,
' Did not Ben Stada bring magical spells from Egypt
in an incision upon his flesh ? ' His argument was
that as Ben Stada had done this, the practice might be
allowable. The answer was that Ben Stada was a
fool, and his case proved nothing. Upon the mention
however of Ben Stada, a note is added to explain who
that person was, and it is for the sake of this note
that the passage is quoted. First I will somewhat
expand the translation, which I have made as bald and
literal as I could.1

Ben Stada, says the Gemara, is the same as Ben
Pandira. Was he then the son of two fathers ? No.
Stada was the name of the husband (of his mother),
Pandira the name of her paramour. This is the opinion

of my work relating to Jesus I have made constant use of his book, and can
hardly claim to have done more than rearrange his material and modify
some of his conclusions. If it had not been my purpose to extend my own
work over a wider field than that which he has so thoroughly explored, I
should not have written at all.

1 In all the translations which I shall give, I shall make no attempt to
write elegant English ; I wish to keep as closely as possible to a word for
word rendering, so that the reader who does not understand the original
text may have some idea of what it is like, and what it really says. A
flowing translation often becomes a mere paraphrase, and sometimes seriously
misrepresents the original.

PASSAGES RELATING TO JESUS 37

of Rab Hisda,a Babylonian teacher of the third century
(a.d. 217-309). But that cannot be true, says the
Gemara, because the husband is known to have been
called Pappus ben Jehudah. Stada must have been
not the father but the mother. But how can that be,
because the mother was called Miriam the dresser of
women's hair? Miriam was her proper name, con-
cludes the Gemara, and Stada a nickname, as people
say in Pumbeditha S'tath da, she has gone aside, from
her husband.

The two names Ben Stada and Ben Pandira
evidently refer to the same person, and that that
person is Jesus is shown clearly by the fact that we
sometimes meet with the full name 'Jeshu ben
Pandira ' — thus T. Hull, ii. 23, " in the name of Jeshu
ben Pandira " ; and also the fact that ' Jeshu ' is
sometimes found as a variant of ' Ben Stada ' in parallel
passages — thus b. Sanh. 43a says, "On the eve of Pesah
(Passover) they hung Jeshu," while in the same
tractate, p. 67% it is said, "Thus did they to Ben
Stada in Ltid, they hung him on the eve of Pesah.
Ben Stada is Ben Pandira, etc." Then follows the
same note of explanation as in the passage from
Shabbath which we are studying. (See below,
p. 79).

There can be no reasonable doubt that the
1 Jeshu ' who is variously called Ben Stada and Ben
Pandira is the historical Jesus, the founder of
Christianity. It is true that the name Jeshu'a, though
not common, was the name of others beside Jesus of
Nazareth ; and even in the New Testament (Col. iv.
11) there is mention of one Jesus who is called
Justus. It is also true that the Jewish com-

38 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

mentators on the Talmud try to prove that another
Jesus is referred to, who is described in various
passages as having been contemporary with R.
Jehoshua ben Perahjah, about a century B.C. These
passages will be dealt with hereafter.1 But when it
is said, as in the passage referred to above (T. Hull,
ii. 23), and elsewhere, that certain persons professed
to be able to heal the sick in the name of " Jeshu ben
Pandira," it is impossible to doubt that the reference
is to Jesus of Nazareth.

Various conjectures have been made in explana-
tion of the epithets Ben Stada and Ben Pandira. In
regard to the first, the explanation of the Gemara
that Stada is a contraction of S'tath da is certainly
not the original one, for it is given as a common
phrase in use in Pumbeditha, a Babylonian town
where there was a famous Rabbinical College. But
the epithet Ben Stada in reference to Jesus was well
known in Palestine, and that too at a much earlier
date than the time of R. Hisda. This is shown by
the remark of R. Eliezer, who lived at the end of the
first century and on into the second. The derivation
from S'tath da would be possible in Palestine no less
than in Babylonia ; but it does not seem to have been
suggested in the former country, and can indeed hardly
be considered as anything more than a mere guess at
the meaning of a word whose original significance was
no longer known.2 It is impossible to say whether
Stada originally denoted the mother or the father of
Jesus ; we can only be sure that it implied some con-
tempt or mockery. I attach no value to the sug-

1 See below, p. 54, No. 8.

2 See below, p. 345, for a possible explanation of the name B. Stada.

PASSAGES RELATING TO JESUS 39

gestion1 that Stada is made up of two Latin words,
' Sta, da,' and denotes a Roman soldier, one of the
traditions being that the real father of Jesus was a
soldier.

Of the term Ben Pandira also explanations have
been suggested, which are far from being satisfactory.
Pandira (also written Pandera, or Pantira, or Pantiri)
may, as Strauss suggested (quoted by Hitzig in
Hilgenfeld's Ztschft, as above), represent 7rev0ep6s9
meaning son-in-law ; but surely there is nothing dis-
tinctive in such an epithet to account for its being
specially applied to Jesus. The name Pandira may
also represent irdvO-qp (less probably 7rav6t]pa9 the final
d being the Aramaic article, not the Greek feminine
ending) ; but what reason there was for calling Jesus
the son of the Panther is not clear to me.2 Again,
Pandira may represent wapOevcx;, and the obvious
appropriateness of a name indicating the alleged birth
of Jesus from a virgin might make us overlook the
improbability that the form irapOevos should be
hebraized into the form Pandira, when the Greek
word could have been reproduced almost unchanged
in a Hebrew form. It is not clear, moreover, why a
Greek word should have been chosen as an epithet for

1 Hitzig in Hilgenfeld's " Ztschft.," 1865, p. 344 fol.

2 I know that the name TldvOrjp is mentioned in this connexion by
Christian writers. Origen (ap. Epiphanius, Hser. 78, cited by Wagenseil)

says, Ovros fiey yap 6 laxr^cp a.S(\<pbs Trapayiverai rod K\uira. ?jv 84 vibs rod
Ia/cot>)8, iirlKKriv 5e Udvdyjp KaKov^iivov. b.fi<p6npoi ovtoi curb rov UduOvpos 4riK\t}V

ytvvwvr ai. Origen doubtless knew that the Jews called Jesus 'Ben
Pandira ' ; but, as he does not explain how Jacob, the father of Joseph,
came to be called udvdijp, he does not throw any light on the meaning of the
term as applied to Jesus. And as there is no trace of any such name in the
genealogy given in the Gospels, it is at least possible that the name Ben
Pandira suggested ndvdnp, instead of being suggested by it.

40 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

Jesus. I cannot satisfy myself that any of the suggested
explanations solve the problem ; and being unable to
propose any other, I leave the two names Ben Stada
and Ben Pandira as relics of ancient Jewish mockery
against Jesus, the clue to whose meaning is now lost.
Pappos ben Jehudah, whom the Gemara alleges
to have been the husband of the mother of Jesus,
is the name of a man who lived a century after
Jesus, and who is said to have been so suspicious
of his wife that he locked her into the house
whenever he went out (b. Gitt. 90a). He was
contemporary with, and a friend of, R. Aqiba ; and
one of the two conflicting opinions concerning the
epoch of Jesus places him also in the time of Aqiba.
Probably this mistaken opinion, together with the
tradition that Pappos ben Jehudah was jealous of his
wife, account for the mixing up of his name with the
story of the parentage of Jesus.

The name Miriam (of which Mary is the equiva-
lent) is the only one which tradition correctly pre-
served. And the curious remark that she was a
dresser of women's hair conceals another reminiscence
of the Gospel story. For the words in the Talmud
are 'Miriam m'gaddela nashaia.' The second word
is plainly based upon the name ' Magdala ' ; and
though, of course, Mary Magdalene was not the
mother of Jesus, her name might easily be confused
with that of the other Mary.

The passage in the Gemara which we are examin-
ing shows plainly enough that only a very dim and
confused notion existed as to the parentage of Jesus
in the time when the tradition was recorded. It
rests, however, on some knowledge possessed at one

PASSAGES RELATING TO JESUS 41

time of the story related in the Gospels. That story
undoubtedly lays itself open to the coarse interpreta-
tion put upon it by Jewish enemies of Jesus, viz.,
that he was born out of wedlock. The Talmud
knows that his mother was called Miriam, and knows
also that Miriam (Mary) of Magdala had some con-
nexion with the story of his life. Beyond that it
knows nothing, not even the meaning of the names
by which it refers to Jesus. The passage in the
Talmud under examination cannot be earlier than the
beginning of the fourth century, and is moreover a
report of what was said in Babylonia, not Palestine.

Mary the Mother of Jesus

(2) b. Hag. 4b. — When Rab Joseph came to this
verse (Exod. xxiii. 17), he wept, There is that
is destroyed without justice (Pro v. xiii. 23). He
said, Is there any who has departed before his
time ? None but this [told] of Rab Bibi bar
Abaji. The Angel of Death was with him.
The Angel said to his messenger, ' Go, bring
me Miriam the dresser of women's hair.' He
brought him Miriam the teacher of children.
He [the Angel] said, ' I told thee Miriam the
dresser of women's hair.' He said, ' If so, I
will take this one back.' He said, 'Since
thou hast brought this one, let her be among
the number [of the dead].'

(2a) Tosaphoth. — " The Angel of Death was with
him: he related what had already happened,
for this about Miriam the dresser of women's
hair took place in [the time of] the second

42 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

temple, for she was the mother of a certain
person, as it is said in Shabbath, p. 104."
Commentary, — This passage, like the preceding
one, is centuries later than the time of Jesus. R.
Bibi bar Abaji, as also R. Joseph, belonged to the
end of the third and beginning of the fourth century,
and both lived in Babylonia. R. Joseph was head of
the college at Pumbeditha, in which office Abaji, the
father of Bibi, succeeded him. As the story is told
it involves a monstrous anachronism, which is noted
by the authors of the Tosaphoth (mediaeval com-
mentators on the Talmud). The compilers of the
Gemara can scarcely have believed that Miriam, the
dresser of women's hair, was still living in the time of
R. Joseph and R. Bibi ; for, as the preceding passage
shows, she was thought to have been the mother of
Jesus. So far as I know, this is the only reference to
the Miriam in question which brings down her life-
time to so late a date ; and, if we do not accept the
explanation of the Tosaphoth, that the Angel of
Death told R. Bibi what had happened long ago, we
may suppose that what is described is a dream of the
Rabbi's. Of the Miriam who, according to the story,
was cut off by death before her time, nothing what-
ever is known. The passage merely shows that the
name of Miriam, the dresser of women's hair, was
known in the Babylonian schools at the end of the
third and the beginning of the fourth century. The
incident of the fate of the two Miriams is merely
brought in to illustrate the text that some are cut
off without justice. And this again forms part of a
discussion on the duty of appearing three times in
the year before the Lord. This passage adds nothing

PASSAGES RELATING TO JESUS 43

to our knowledge of the Rabbinical belief concerning
the mother of Jesus ; it is only given because it refers
to her, my object being, as already explained, to pre-
sent as complete a series as I can of Rabbinical
passages bearing upon Jesus and Christianity.

There is, in j. Hag. 77d, a reference to a certain
Miriam the daughter of 'Eh, whom, on account of
the name (cf. Luke iii. 23), one might be tempted to
connect with the story of Jesus ; but there seems to
be no suspicion on the part of the Talmud of any
such connexion, and what is told about her does not
seem to me to point in that direction.

Jesus Alleged to be a 'Mamzer'1

(3) M. Jeb. iv. 13 [b. Gemara, Jeb. 49b, same

words ; j. Gemara does not mention the

passage]. Rabbi Shim'on ben 'Azai said, • I

have found a roll of pedigrees in Jerusalem,

and therein is written A certain person spurius

est ex adultera [natus] ; to confirm the words

of Rabbi Jehoshua.'

Commentary. — This passage is from the Mishnah,

and therefore (see Introduction) belongs to the older

stratum of the Talmud. R. Shim'on ben Azai was

the contemporaiy and friend of Aqiba, about the end

of the first and beginning of the second century.

They were both disciples of R. Jehoshua ben

Hananiah (b. Taan. 26a), of whom frequent mention

will be made in these pages. R. Jehoshua, in his

early life, had been a singer in the Temple (b. Erach.

llb), and his teacher, R. Johanan ben Zaccai, was old

1 "ITDD, of spurious birth.

44 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

enough to have seen and remembered Jesus.1 The
Rabbis mentioned here were amongst the leading
men of their time, and on that account must have
been much concerned with the questions arising out
of the growth of Christianity. R. Jehoshua is ex-
pressly mentioned as having been one of the chief
defenders of Israel against the Minim ; and, whatever
may be the precise significance of that term, it will
be shown subsequently that it includes Christians,
though it may possibly include others also. R.
Aqiba also is said to have been a particularly zealous
opponent of the Christians. Indeed, according to
one of the two conflicting opinions represented in the
Talmud, Jesus was actually a contemporary of Aqiba,
an anachronism which finds its best explanation in a
pronounced hostility on the part of Aqiba towards
the Christians. When, therefore, Shimon b. 'Azai
reported that he had found a book of pedigrees, in
which it was stated that ' a certain person ' (peloni)
was of spurious birth, it is certainly probable that the
reference is to Jesus. Unless some well-known man
were intended, there would be no point in referring
to him ; and unless there had been some strong
reason for avoiding his name, the name would have
been given in order to strengthen the argument
founded upon the case. For it is said that Shim'on
ben 'Azai made his statement 'in order to confirm
the words of R. Jehoshua.' And R. Jehoshua had
laid it down that a bastard is one who is condemned

1 It has been suggested that the John mentioned in Acts iv. 6 is the
same as Johanan ben Zaccai ; but there is no evidence for this identification
except the similarity of name. Since the Kabbi was a Pharisee, it is not on
the face of it probable that he should be "of the kindred of the High
Priest."

PASSAGES RELATING TO JESUS 45

to a judicial death,1 i.e. one born of a union which
was prohibited under penalty of such a death. Now
Jesus undoubtedly had been condemned (though not
on account of his birth) to a judicial death, as the
Talmud recognises (see passages given subsequently,
pp. 80, 83) and Shimon ben 'Azai brings the evidence
of the book which he had discovered, to show that in
the case of a notorious person the penalty of a
judicial death had followed upon unlawful birth.

The alleged discovery of a book of pedigrees in
Jerusalem may be historical ; for the Jews were not
prohibited from entering Jerusalem until the revolt of
Bar Cocheba had been suppressed by Hadrian, a.d.
135, and ben 'Azai was dead before that time. What
the book was cannot now be determined. The title,
Book of Pedigrees, is quite general. It is worth
noticing, however, that the present gospel of Matthew
begins with the words, The book of the genealogy of
Jesus Christ. It is just possible that the book to
which ben 'Azai referred was this Gospel, or rather an
Aramaic forerunner of it, or again it may have been
a roll containing one or other of the two pedigrees
recorded in Matthew and Luke.

Covert Reference to Jesus

(4) b. Joma. 66d.— They asked It. Eliezer, 'What
of a certain person as regards the world to
come'? He said to them, 'Ye have only
asked me concerning a certain person.' 'What
of the shepherd saving the sheep from the
lion ' ? He said to them, ' Ye have only asked

46 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

me concerning the sheep/ 'What of saving
the shepherd from the lion ' ? He said, * Ye
have only asked me concerning the shepherd.'
'What of a Mamzer, as to inheriting' ? 'What
of his performing the levirate duty ' ? ' What
of his founding his house ' ? ' What of his
founding his sepulchre ' ? [They asked these
questions] not because they differed on them,
but because he never said anything which he
had not heard from his teacher from of old.
[See a somewhat similar series of questions,
T. Jeb. iii. 3, 4.]
Commentary. — This passage is full of obscurities.
I record it here because of its reference to 'peloni,9 ' a
certain person,' the same phrase which occurred in
the preceding extract. R. Eliezer was a very well-
known teacher at the end of the first century ; and
later on will be given a passage which describes how
he was once arrested on a charge of heresy, presum-
ably Christianity (see below, p. 137). The words
translated are a Baraitha (see above, p. 21), i.e. they
belong to a period contemporary with the Mishnah,
though they are not included in it. Moreover the
style of the language is that of the Mishnah, not that
of the Gemara. Further, a set of questions addressed
to the same R. Eliezer, and including some of those
translated above, is found in the Tosephta (T. Jeb. iii.
3, 4). Among the questions given in Tosephta are
those about ' peloni,' and about the ' Mamzer.' It is
evident that the authors neither of the Gemara nor of
the Tosephta understood the full meaning of the
questions. The explanation is that the questions
were asked ' not because there was any difference of

PASSAGES RELATING TO JESUS 47

opinion, but because R. Eliezer never said anything
which he had not heard from his teacher.' The same
explanation is given in reference to another set of
questions addressed to Eliezer (b. Succ. 27b, 28a), and
from the latter passage it appears to be Eliezer 's own
declaration concerning himself. But it has no bear-
ing on the questions and answers translated above,
unless it be this, that as Eliezer was known to have
had some connexion with Christianity, his questioners
tried to get at his own opinion concerning Jesus,
and that he fenced with the questions, not caring to
answer directly, and perhaps not being able to answer
on the authority of his teacher. The particular point
of each question I am unable to explain ; but one
can see an opportunity for allusion to Jesus in the
questions as to the fate of * peloni ' in the future life,
as to the * Mamzer' founding a house (i.e. a family),
or a sepulchre, if it were known that Jesus was not
married, and that he was buried in the grave of a
stranger. I can throw no light upon the ' saving the
sheep (or the shepherd) from the lion.' That this
passage contains a covert reference to Jesus is the
opinion of Levy, N.H.W., iv. 54% s.v. wbfc and also of
Edersheim, L. &. T. of J. M., ii. 193, who ventures a
comparison with John x. 11. Is it likely that the con-
tents of that Gospel, supposing it to have been in
existence at the time, would be known to Eliezer
or his questioners ?

The Ancestry of the Mother of Jesus

(5) b. Sanh. 106a. — It. Johanan said [concerning
Balaam], * In the beginning a prophet, in the
end a deceiver.' Rab Papa said, * This is that

48 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

which they say, She was the descendant of
princes and rulers, she played the harlot with
carpenters.'
Commentary. — It will be shown subsequently that
Jesus is often referred to in the Talmud under the
figure of Balaam, and the words just translated occur
in the middle of a long passage about Balaam. No
name is mentioned to indicate what woman is meant.
But the context suggests that the mother of Jesus is
intended ; and the suggestion is borne out by the
statement that the woman mated with a carpenter.1
The passage, as it stands, is of a late date ; for It.
Papa, who said the words, was head of the college at
Sura from 354 to 374 a.d. Possibly it arose out of
some imperfect acquaintance with the genealogies in
the Gospels, these being regarded as giving the
ancestry of Mary instead of that of Joseph. The
mistake might naturally arise ; for if Joseph were not
the father of Jesus, and if Jesus were alleged to be
the son of David, or of royal descent, as the Talmud
itself (b. Sanh. 43a) is by some thought to admit,2 then
evidently his royal ancestry must have been on his
mother's side.

Alleged Confession by the Mother of Jesus

(6) b. Kallah. 51a. — Impudens : It. Eliezer dicit
spurium esse, It. Jehoshua menstrua? filium,
It. Aqiba et spurium et menstruse filium.
Sedebant quondam seniores apud portam,

1 The Munich MS. has in the margin "QJ instead of ^"QJ, i.e. the singular,
not the plural.

2 This at least is one interpretation of the expression ni3?&? 2)1py see
below, p. 89.

PASSAGES RELATING TO JESUS 49

prseterierunt duo pueri quorum unus caput
operuit, alter revelavit. Dixit R. Eliezer,
de illo qui caput revelaverat, * Spurius est • ;
R. Jehoshua ' Menstrua? Alius ' ; R. Aqiba
' Spurius, et menstrua? films.' Responderunt
illi, 'Quomodo cor te inflat, ut verbis sociorum
contradixeris ! ' Dixit eis 'Rem confirmabo.'
Abiit ad matrem pueri, quam vidit in foro
sedentem dum legumina vendebat. Dixit
ei 'Filia mea, si mihi id de quo rogabo
respondeas, in seculum futurum te ducam.'
Respondit illi ' Jura mihi.' Juravit R. Aqiba
ore, sed corde irritum fecit.' Dixit ei * Filius
hie tuus, qualis est ? ' Respondit ' Quum
thalamum introivi menstrua eram, et separavit
a me conjux; paranymphus autem venit ad
me, quapropter hie puer et spurius est et
menstrua? filius.' Responderunt (Rabbini)
'Magnus erat R. Aqiba, quum magistros
suos refutaret.' Ilia hora dixerunt 'Benedictus
Deus Israel, qui R. Aqiba? secretum suum
revelavit ! '
Commentary. — I give the above passage with some
hesitation, because I doubt whether it has anything
to do with the legendary history of Jesus. There is
nothing to point him out as the child in question,
and the few details which the story contains do not
agree with what we have gathered hitherto as the
Rabbinical account of the parentage of Jesus. So
far as I know, this passage stands by itself, without
being mentioned or referred to in any other Talmudic
tractate ; and the tractate Kallah, in which it is found,
is of later origin than the main body of the Talmud.

50 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

If, as is possible, it may have been suggested by the
story in Luke ii. 41 fol., it can in no case be evidence
for opinion concerning Jesus in those centuries with
which we are concerned. And my chief reason for
inserting it is that I do not wish to leave out any
passage to which reference has been made as having
a supposed bearing on the subject. At the same
time, the fact that use has been made of the story in
the book called the ToVdoth Jeshu (ed. Huldreich,
p. 22, ed. Wagenseil, p. 12), shows that it was
regarded as having reference to Jesus. In the work
"J. C. im Talmud," p. 34 fol., Laible argues that
the original author of the passage had no thought
of Jesus in his mind. It is possible that the story is
a free invention to explain the words of Shimon
b. 'Azai (quoted above, p. 43), which refer to a
• certain person ' as having been ' spurius et men-
struae filius.' If so, Laible would be justified in
saying that while the original author of the story
had no thought of Jesus in his mind, nevertheless the
real reference was to Jesus.

Jesus and his Teacher

(7) b. Sanh. 107b.— Our Rabbis teach, Ever let
the left hand repel and the right hand invite,
not like Elisha who repulsed Gehazi with both
hands, and not like R. Jehoshua ben Perahjah,
who repulsed Jeshu (the Nazarene) with both
hands. Gehazi, as it is written . . . .*

1 The passage referring to Gehazi will be dealt with under another head,
ie below, No. 27, p. 9V fol.

PASSAGES RELATING TO JESUS 51

What of R. Jehoshua ben Perahjah ? When
Jannai the king killed our Rabbis, R. Jehoshua
ben Perahjah [and Jesus] fled to Alexandria of
Egypt. When there was peace, Shim'on ben
Shetah sent to him, "From me [Jerusalem]
the city of holiness, to thee Alexandria of
Egypt [my sister]. My husband stays in thy
midst and I sit forsaken." He came, and
found himself at a certain inn ; they showed
him great honour. He said, ' How beautiful
is this Acsania ! ' x (Jesus) said to him, ■ Rabbi,
she has narrow eyes.' He said, • Wretch, dost
thou employ thyself thus ? ' He sent out four
hundred trumpets and excommunicated him.
He [i.e. Jesus] came before him many times
and said to him, ■ Receive me.' But he would
not notice him. One day he [i.e. R. Jeh.] was
reciting the Shema', he [i.e. Jesus] came before
him. He was minded to receive him, and
made a sign to him. He [i.e. Jesus] thought
that he repelled him. He went and hung up
a tile and worshipped it. He [R. Jeh.] said to
him, 'Return.' He replied, 'Thus I have re-
ceived from thee, that every one who sins and
causes the multitude to sin, they give him not
the chance to repent.' And a teacher has
said, ' Jesus the Nazarene practised magic and
led astray and deceived Israel.'
Commentary. — The above passage occurs in almost
exactly the same words in b. Sotah. 47% and the
incident of the escape to Alexandria and the letter

1 fcWDDK denotes both inn and innkeeper. K. Jeh. uses it in the first
sense ; the answering remark implies the second meaning, ' hostess.'

52 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

from Jerusalem is mentioned in j. Hag. ii. 2 ; j.
Sanh. vi. 9.1 The passage j. Hag. ii. 2 gives a very-
brief account of the dissension between the Rabbi
and " one of his disciples," but does not give the name
of the latter. This is probably the basis of what was
afterwards expanded in the Babylonian Gemara.

The passage before us is the locus classicus for the
second Talmudic theory as to the time when Jesus
lived. ( Jannai the king ' is Alexander Jannseus, who
reigned from 104 to 78 B.C., thus a full century before
Jesus lived. Shimon b. Shetah, the king's brother-
in-law, and Jehoshua b. Perahjah (as also Jehudah
b. Tabbai of the Palestinian version) were leading
Pharisees of the time; and the massacre of the
Rabbis, which led to the escape of one of them to
Alexandria, is a historical event. The question is,
how did the name of Jesus come to be introduced
into a story referring to a time so long before his
own?2 Bearing in mind that the Rabbis had

1 Where, however, the fugitive is not Jehoshua ben Perahjah but Jehudah
ben Tabbai.

2 The name of Jesus is found in this passage in the codices of Munich,
Florence, and Carlsruhe, used by Rabbinowicz, also in all the older editions
of the Talmud. In the edition of Basel, 1578-81, and in all later ones, the
censor of the press has expunged it. See Rabbinowicz Variae Lectiones, Sanh.
ad loc. Here is perhaps the best place to refer to the epithet ha-Notzri
(H¥13n) as applied to Jesus. It is well known that the name of Nazareth
does not occur in the Talmud, and indeed first appears in Jewish writings
so late as the hymns of Qalir (a.d. 900 area), in the form Natzerath. This
is probably the correct Hebrew form ; but there must have been another
form, Notzerath, or Notzerah, to account for the adjective Notzri. Perhaps
Notzerah was the local pronunciation in the dialect of Galilee, where the
sound 6 or u frequently represents the a or a of new Hebrew ; thus,
•■Dip for *Dpb K3TW for fTT* (Jordan), K^MID for lA*MO (Magdala). With
this corresponds the fact that the Syriac gives Notzerath and Notzerojo
for the name of the town and of its inhabitants. That from Notzerath or
Notzerah could be formed an adjective Notzri is shown by the examples

PASSAGES RELATING TO JESUS 53

extremely vague ideas of the chronology of past
times, we may perhaps find the origin of the story in
its Babylonian form in a desire to explain the con-
nexion of Jesus (Ben Stada, see above, No. 1), with
Egypt. The connecting link may, perhaps, be found
in the fact of a flight into Egypt to escape the anger
of a king. This was known in regard to R. Jehoshua
ben Perahjah, and the Gospel (Matt. ii. 13 fol.) records
a similar event in regard to Jesus. The short Pales-
tinian story in j. Hag. vi. 2 shows that there was
a tradition that the Rabbi had excommunicated a
rebellious disciple, whose name is not given. As
the story now stands in the Babylonian version,
there are several details in it which appear to have
reference to Jesus, and which probably were due to
some confused remembrance of tradition about him.
In addition to the flight into Egypt, there is the fact
that Jesus was known to have set himself against
the authority of the Rabbis, and to have been the
founder of a false religion. And the rebuke, " Dost
thou thus employ thyself," i.e. with thinking whether
a woman is beautiful, may be based on a gross distor-
tion of the fact that the Gospel tradition gives a
prominent place to women as followers of Jesus.
Moreover the final answer of the banished disciple in
the story, that ' one who sins and causes the multi-
tude to sin is allowed no chance to repent,' points

Timni from Timnah, Jehudi from Jehudah. The adjective Nafrpeuos (Acts
xxviii. 22) would seem to imply an alternative form Natzara, the second a
being replaced by o in the Galilean dialect, as in N5tzri for Natzri. The
form Natzara indeed is adopted by Keim as the more correct ; but I do not
see how to avoid recognising both Notzerah (Nazerah) and Natzara as
equally legitimate, that is as representing variations in the pronunciation,
not original difference in the formation of the name.

54 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

clearly to the historical Jesus ; for the simple act of
idolatry mentioned in the story cannot be called a
* causing of the multitude to sin.' What the point
may be of the statement that Jesus hung up a tile,
a burnt brick, and worshipped it, I cannot explain.

This passage is found in its full extent only in the
Babylonian Gemara, and is probably of very late
date. It is introduced as an illustration of the saying,
" Let the left hand repel and the right hand invite."
But there was already an illustration of that saying in
the case of Elisha and Gehazi, and the whole passage
is brought in, where it occurs in the tractate San-
hedrin, as belonging to the subject of Gehazi. I sug-
gest that the mention of R. Jehoshua and Jesus was
an addition founded on the Palestinian tradition and
prompted by the mention of Elisha and Gehazi ; and
further that this addition was made in the schools of
Babylonia, upon uncertain authority. It is not cited
under the name of any Rabbi ; and the last sentence
of it, which distinctly refers it to Jesus, only does so
on the authority of ' a teacher/ whose name, presum-
ably, was not known. The glaring anachronism, of
making Jesus contemporary with R. Jehoshua b.
Perahjah, is more easy to understand on this theory,
than if we suppose the story to have originated in
Palestine at a time nearer to that when Jesus actually
lived.1

Jesus a Magician. (See also (1) above.)

(8) T. Shabb. xi. 15. — * He that cuts marks on his
flesh ' ; R. Eliezer condemns, the wise permit.

1 As to the other anachronism, which makes Jesus contemporary with R.
Aqiba, a century after his own time, see above, p. 40.

PASSAGES RELATING TO JESUS 55

He said to them, 'And did not Ben Stada

learn only in this way ? ' They said to him,

Because of one fool are we to destroy all

discerning people ? '

Commentary. — The extract (1) above, and the

parallel passage j. Shabb. 13d, contain almost the same

words. I repeat them here because of their reference

to the character of Jesus as a magician. In the

earlier quotation the main reference of the passage

was to the parentage of Jesus.

It has already been shown that Ben Stada denotes
Jesus. (See above, p. 37 fol.) What is the meaning
of the statement that he brought magical charms
from Egypt concealed in an incision in his flesh ? I
do not know of anything related about Jesus which
could have given rise to the detail about the cutting
of his flesh. The charge that he was a magician is
no doubt based on the belief that he did many
miracles, a belief which found ample support in the
Gospel records. We shall see later on that miracles,
whether done by Jews or Christians, were ascribed to
magic, and were not on that account despised. Now
Egypt was regarded as the especial home of magic,
an opinion expressed in the Talmud, b. Qidd. 49b : —
" Ten measures of sorcery descended into the world,
Egypt received nine, the rest of the world one." To
say that Jesus learnt magic in Egypt is to say that
he was a great magician, more powerful than others.
And as we have seen in the preceding extract (7)
there was a tradition that he had had something to
do with Egypt. As to the manner in which he is
alleged to have brought away with him Egyptian
magic, a curious explanation is given by Rashi (b.

56 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

Shabb. 104b) to the effect that the Egyptian magi-
cians did not allow anyone to carry away magical
charms from their country ; and therefore, since Jesus
could not take them away in writing, he concealed
them in the manner described, or perhaps tattooed
magical signs on his flesh. Whether Rashi had any
authority for his statement, or whether he only
devised it to explain the passage before him, I do
not know. The date of the passage under considera-
tion is to some extent determined by the fact that it
is taken from the Tosephta (see above, p. 21), a collec-
tion which represents an earlier stratum of tradition
than that embodied in the Gemara. The Eliezer who
is mentioned is of course the same as the one men-
tioned in (1) above, and we may take it that the
reference there, p. 36, to a ' Baraitha,' is a reference to
the present passage. The answer, that 'Ben Stada
was a fool,' does not perhaps imply any censure on
Jesus, but merely that any one would be foolish who
should act as Ben Stada was said to have done.1

Jesus ' Burns His Food '

(9) b. Sanh. 103a. — For Rab Hisda said that Rab
Jeremiah bar Abba said, ' What is that which
is written: There shall no evil befall thee,
neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling

[Ps. xci. 10] Another explanation:

There shall no evil befall thee, [means], ' that
evil dreams and evil thoughts may tempt thee
not/ and neither shall any plague come nigh

1 But see below, p. 345 n., for a possible alternative to the foregoing
explanation-

PASSAGES RELATING TO JESUS 57

thy dwelling [means] 'that thou mayst not

have a son or a disciple who burns his food in

public like Jeshu the Nazarene.'

[The concluding phrase is found in another

connexion, b. Ber. 17b, see below, p. 61.]
Commentary. — This passage is Gemara, and the R.
Hisda who cites the exposition of the Psalm is the
same as the one mentioned in (1) above. He was a
Babylonian, and lived a.d. 217-309. R. Jeremiah
bar Abba, from whom he quoted, was his contem-
porary, and apparently of much about the same age.

The point of interest in the above extract is the
phrase which I have translated literally, ' burns his
food, like Jesus the Nazarene.' What did Jesus do
that could be so described? It is clear that as
applied to him, it must have a figurative meaning.
It is sometimes, however, intended quite literally.
Thus, b. Betz. 29a : " The cook measures spices and
puts them into his dish, that they may not burn
[i.e. spoil] his food." This is evidently literal, except
that in English we should not use the word ' burn '
in this connexion. The phrase occurs in the
Mishnah, Gitt. ix. 10, and the question has often
been discussed, whether there it is intended literally
or figuratively. The words are, "The School of
Shammai say that a man may not divorce his wife
unless he find in her a matter of shame, for it is
said [Deut. xxiv. 1], because he hath found in her a
sJmmeful matter. The School of Hillel say [he may
divorce her] even if she burn his food, for it is said,
and R. Aqiba says, Even if he have found another
[woman] more beautiful than she, for it is said, Ij
she sJuxll not find favour in thine eyes'' This passage

58 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

has often been cited as showing the laxity of the
Rabbinical views on the question of divorce, especi-
ally as held by the school of Hillel. And the charge
has been met by maintaining that the phrase * burns
his food' means, 'brings dishonour upon him,'
'brings his name into disrepute.' Whether or not
the phrase may have some such figurative meaning,
there is good ground for taking it literally in this
famous passage of the Mishnah. It has been well
shown in a recent work,1 by Amram, that Hillel
and Aqiba, and the school in general who sided with
them, were declaring not what was their ethical ideal,
but what in their view the law permitted. They
had to declare the law, not to make it ; and the
reason why they did not — as they probably could
have done — lay down an interpretation of the law
more in accordance with their own ethical view,
was that the ancient custom of Israel assumed the
absolute liberty of a man to divorce his wife at his
will, and without giving reasons for his action. The
law could not attempt more than slightly to restrict
that liberty, except at the cost of remaining a mere
dead letter. Hillel, in this passage, declares that,
as a matter of fact, the law, in his opinion, does allow
a man to divorce his wife, even for such a trivial
offence as burning his food. But Hillel and his
school, did not, on that account, approve of such
liberty of divorce. On the very same page of the
Gemara, where this Mishnah is explained, b. Gitt.
90b, a Rabbi of the school of Hillel says, " He who
divorces his first wife, the altar of God sheds tears
thereat." To the above argument in favour of the

1 The Jewish Law of Divorce. London, 1897, p. 33 fol.

PASSAGES RELATING TO JESUS 59

literal meaning of the phrase 'burns his food' in
this disputed Mishnah, may be added that Rashi and
other Jewish commentators interpret it quite literally,
and give not the slightest hint of a figurative mean-
ing. Also the fact that, whatever Hillel may have
meant, Aqiba's dictum is evidently literal,1 so that
it is unlikely that Hillel's words were figurative.

But while this is quite true, it is also true that the
literal meaning of the phrase will not apply in all
cases where it occurs. When it is said, as in the
extract from b. Sanh. 103% under consideration, and
also in b. Ber. 17b, " that there may not be a son or
a disciple who burns his food in public," something
much more serious must be intended than a literal
'burning of food.' The clue to this figurative
meaning is given in the Talmud itself, b. Berach. 34a.
The Gemara in this place is commenting on the
following words of the Mishnah : " He who says
'The good shall bless thee,' lo, this is the way of
heresy. He who goes before the Ark, if he makes
a mistake, another shall go in his stead, and let there
be no refusal at such a time." To 'go before the
Ark ' is to stand at the lectern to recite the prayers
in the Synagogue. And the Mishnah has just
remarked that some liturgical phrases are signs of
heresy in the reader. Therefore the Mishnah directs
what is to be done when a reader makes a mistake.
Another man is to take his place and there must be
no refusal on the part of the second man. That is
the Mishnah. The Gemara says : " Our Rabbis have
taught ' He who goes before the Ark ought [at first]

1 See Edersheim, " L. and T. of J. the M.," ii. 333 n2, where he success-
fully proves the literalness of the phrase in Gitt. ix. 10.

60 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

to refuse. He who does not refuse is like food
without salt. He who refuses too much is like food
of which the salt has burnt (or spoiled) it.' . The
meaning of this is clear. One who refuses too much
is open to the suspicion of heresy, and he is like food
that is spoiled or burnt by too much salt. The point
of the comparison may perhaps be that as too much
salt spoils good food, so the disciple, by too much
self-will and conceit in his own wisdom, spoils the
sound teaching that is given to him, which would
have been his mental food.1 When, therefore, it is
said "a son or disciple who burns his food," that
means "one who is open to the suspicion of heresy."
It has already been mentioned that the phrase,
1 a son or disciple who burns his food ' occurs in two
passages, b. Ber. 17b, and b. Sanh. 103a (translated
above). In the former, the Gemara, in an exposition
of Ps. cxliv. 14 : ' There is no breaking in and no
going forth, and no outcry in the streets,' says :
6 There is no breaking in,' that our company be not
as the company of David from which Ahitophel went
out, and ' there is no going forth ' that our company
be not as the company of Saul, from which Doeg,
the Edomite, went forth, and 'no outcry,' that our
company be not as the company of Elisha from which
Gehazi went out, and ' in our streets ' that there be
not to us a son or disciple who burns his food in
public like Jeshu the Nazarene.2 Now we shall see,

1 With this figurative meaning of 'salt/ denoting 'independence of
mind,' may be compared Mark ix. 49, 50, " For every one shall be salted
with fire. . . . Have salt in yourselves. . . ."

2 The printed text does not mention 'Jeshu ha-Notzri.' The reading,
however, is found in all the older editions and the MSS. See Kabbinowicz
on the passage. Note that this exposition of the Psalm is said to have been

PASSAGES RELATING TO JESUS 61

hereafter, that Ahitophel, Doeg and Gehazi, are all,
in the view of the Talmud, tainted with heresy
(Minuth). These three, along with Balaam, the
chief infidel, are said in the Mishnah, Sanh. x. 1, to
have no part in the world to come. And the same
Mishnah makes a similar declaration in regard to
Jeroboam, Ahab and Manasseh. The passage in
b. Ber. 17b, as quoted in the Aruch (s.v. mp) reads
thus, "burns his food in public, like Manasseh."
And this has probably led the author of that work
to explain the meaning of ' burns his food in public '
by ' sets up idols in public,' establishes false worships.
But, as Rabbinowicz has shown, not "Manasseh,"
but " Jeshu ha-Notzri," is the original reading ; and
this fact is conclusive against the explanation of the
author of the Aruch. It is absurd to say of Jesus
that he set up idols. I conclude, therefore, that in
the passage before us the reference to Jesus is
intended as an example of one who inclined to
heresy.1

It is worthy of note that the Palestinian Gemara
does not make the reference to Jesus, either in Ber.
or Sanh., nor does it use the phrase 6 burns his food '

spoken by the disciples of R. Hisda (or, according to another tradition,
K. Shemuel b. Nahmani), when they left the lecture room. This tends
to confirm the connexion of the phrase under discussion with R. Hisda.

1 Jost, " Gesch. d. Judentums u s. Sekten," i. p. 264 n., says, speaking of
the literal interpretation of • burns his food,' " sie wird, aber, genugend
widerlegt durch die in jener Zeit bekannte Bedeutung des Wortes,
ib^nn nnp», b. Ber. 17b, b. Sanh. 103% wo es geradezu in dem
Sinne : den eigenen oder des Hauses guten Ruf preisgeben, angewendet
wird,— wie schon Zipser, Orient 1850, s. 316 nachgewiesen hat." I do not
know on what authority he says that the phrase was so understood at the
time, in view of the quite different interpretation given by the Talmud
itself in b. Ber. 34a.

62 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

in either passage. The same is true of the Tosephta,
so far as I can observe. We may, perhaps, infer that
the figurative use of the phrase originated in the
Babylonian schools, where, as we have already seen
(see above (1) (2) (7)), the Rabbis speculated a good
deal about Jesus. Possibly R. Jeremiah bar Abba,
who used the phrase in the passage we have been
studying, was himself the author of the figurative
application of it, and also of the explanation of its
meaning, b. Ber. 34a. He and R. Hisda were con-
temporaries and friends, and the latter claimed (p. 37
above) to know something about Jesus. To one or
other of them the origin of the phrase as denoting
a tendency to heresy may with great probability be
ascribed.

The Claim of Jesus Denied

(10) j. Taanith 65b. — R. Abahu said: If a man say

to thee * I am God,' he is a liar ; if [he says, ' I

am] the son of man,' in the end people will

laugh at him ; if [he says] ' I will go up to

heaven,' he saith, but shall not perform it.

Commentary, — So far as I know, this saying occurs

only here. That it refers to Jesus there can be no

possibility of doubt. R. Abahu, the speaker, was a

very well-known Rabbi, who lived in Caesarea, at the

end of the third and the beginning of the fourth

century ; and we shall see hereafter that he had a

great deal of intercourse, friendly and also polemical,

with heretics, who, in some instances at all events,

were certainly Christians. It is not necessary to

assume an acquaintance with any of the Gospels to

account for the phrases used by R. Abahu. The

PASSAGES RELATING TO JESUS 63

first and third do indeed suggest the Gospel of John,
but it is enough to admit a general knowledge of
what Christians alleged concerning Jesus from the
Rabbi's own discussions with them.

The saying is based upon Num. xxiii. 19 : God
is not a man that he should lie, nor the son of man
that he should repent. Hath he said and shall he
not do it?, or hath he spoken and shall he not make
it good? Various interpretations of these words,
by Rabbis of Babylonia, are given, and then follows
the sarcastic application of the text by Abahu.

Although this saying is not quoted elsewhere, nor
even referred to, so far as I know, yet it belongs to
a somewhat extensive group of Haggadic passages, of
which the common foundation is the story of Balaam,
Num. xxii.-xxiv. It will be shown presently that in
the Talmud Balaam is regarded as a type of Jesus.
We thus have an additional reason, beside the
internal evidence furnished by the words themselves,
for regarding the saying of Abahu as an anti-
Christian polemic. Here may be best introduced a
passage in the Jalqut Shim'oni, in which is found an
amplification of Abahu's words. I give it according
to the Salonica edition, as it is expunged from the
later ones.

(11) Jalq. Shim. § 766.— R. El'azar ha-Qappar
says, God gave strength to his [Balaam's] voice, so
that it went from one end of the world to the other,
because he looked forth and beheld the peoples that
bow down to the sun and moon and stars and to
wood and stone, and he looked forth and beheld that
there was a man, son of a woman, who should rise up
and seek to make himself God, and to cause the

64 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

whole world to go astray. Therefore God gave
power to his voice that all the peoples of the world
might hear, and thus he spake, ' Give heed that ye
go not astray after that man, for it is written
(Num. xxiii. 19), God is not man that he should lie,
and if he says that he is God he is a liar, and he will
deceive and say that he departeth and cometh again
in the end, he saith and he shall not perform. See
what is written (Num. xxiv. 23) : And he took up
his parable and said, Alas, who shall live when God
doeth this. Balaam said, 'Alas, who shall live, of
that nation which heareth that man who hath made
himself God.'

It. El'azar ha-Qappar, who is reported to have said
all this, was earlier than Abahu, for he died about
260 a.d. Bacher (Ag. d. Tann. ii. 506 n.2) shows that
only the first clause of the passage in Jalqut is to be
ascribed to El'azar ha-Qappar, i.e. the statement that
the voice of Balaam resounded from one end of the
world to the other. All the rest is probably of much
later date ; but it may very well have been suggested
by Abahu's words. It will be observed that Balaam
is not identified with Jesus, but is made to prophesy
his coming. That, however, Jesus is referred to is
even more evident than in the shorter saying of
Abahu. It is curious that this later Haggadah is
attached to the words not of Abahu but of El'azar
ha-Qappar.

Jesus and Balaam

(12) M. Sanh. x. 2. — Three kings and four private
men have no part in the world to come ; the
three kings are Jeroboam, Ahab and Manasseh

PASSAGES RELATING TO JESUS 65

.... the four private men are Balaam, Doeg,

Ahitophel and Gehazi.
Commentary. — The famous chapter of the Mishnah
from which these words are taken begins by saying
that, ' All Israel have part in the world to come,' and
then enumerates the exceptions. The three kings,
Jeroboam, Ahab and Manasseh are all mentioned
in the O.T. as having introduced idolatry, per-
verted the true religion. And, as the four private
men are named in close connexion with the kings, it
is reasonable to infer that they were condemned for
the same offence. This conclusion is strengthened
by the fact that the preceding paragraph of the
Mishnah in this chapter excepts from the privilege
of the world to come, ' those who say the resurrection
of the dead is not proved from the Torah, and that
the Torah is not from heaven, also the Epicuros.
R. Aqiba says, He who reads in external books,
also he who whispers over a wound, and says, None
of the diseases which I sent in Egypt will I lay upon
thee, I the Lord am thy healer. Abba Shaul says,
He that pronounces the Name according to its
letters.' These are all, unless perhaps the last, aimed
at heretics who can hardly be other than Christians.
For it will be seen hereafter that the opinions and
practices here condemned were the subject of dis-
pute between Jews and heretics (Minim). Therefore
we naturally expect that the four private men, who
are singled out for exclusion from the world to come,
are condemned on account not merely of heresy but
of actively promoting heresy. Now this is not true
in any especial sense of any one of the four. Balaam,

certainly, according to the story in Num. xxii.-xxiv.

66 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

did lead the people astray ; but so far as religion was
concerned, he acknowledged and obeyed the God of
Israel. Moreover, Balaam was not an Israelite, and
therefore could not logically be included in a list of
exceptions to a rule which only affected Israelites.
It is evident that Balaam here does not mean the
ancient prophet of Num. xxii. fol., but some one else
for whom that ancient prophet could serve as a type.
From the Jewish point of view there was considerable
likeness between Balaam and Jesus. Both had led the
people astray ; and if the former had tempted them
to gross immorality, the latter, according to the Rabbis,
had tempted them to gross apostasy — not unaccom-
panied by immorality, as will appear from some of the
passages relating to Christians. This was the great
charge against Jesus, that " he practised magic and
deceived and led astray Israel" (see above (7) last line).
It should not be forgotten that even in the
O.T., unfaithfulness in the covenant-relation be-
tween Israel and God is symbolised under the form
of unfaithfulness in marriage, so that Balaam, the
chief corrupter of the morality of Israel, might
naturally be taken as a type of Jesus, the chief
corrupter of its religion. I am well aware that this
does not amount to a proof that Balaam is a type of
Jesus. But it establishes a probability, which is
strengthened by the consideration that the animus
displayed against Balaam in the Talmud would be
very artificial if its object had been really the ancient
prophet, while it is very natural and intelligible if it
was really directed against Jesus, who had dealt a
blow at the national religion such as it had never re-
ceived. To show the violence of the hatred against

PASSAGES RELATING TO JESUS 67

Jesus, and also to strengthen the above contention
that Balaam is a type of Jesus, I will give a passage
in which they are mentioned together. By being
mentioned together, it is true that Balaam is not in
this case exactly a type of Jesus, i.e. we are not for
6 Balaam ' to read ' Jesus ' ; but the symbol is ex-
panded into a comparison, to suggest the conclusion,
' What Balaam was, such also was Jesus/ The
passage is as follows : —

Jesus and Balaam in Hell

(13) b. Gitt. 56h, 57*.— Onqelos bar Qaloniqos,
sister's son of Titus, desired to become a
proselyte. He called up Titus by necromancy.
He said to him, * Who is honoured in this
world ? ' He replied, ■ Israel.' ■ What about
joining them ? ' He replied, ' Their words are
many and thou canst not fulfil them. Go,
join thyself to them in this world and thou
shalt become a leader, for it is written [Lam.
i. 5], Her adversaries have become the head.
Every oppressor of Israel is made a head.'
He said to him, 'What is the punishment
of this man ? ' [i.e. ' what is thy punishment ' ?]
He replied, 'That which he determined for
himself. Every day they collect his ashes and
judge him, and burn him and scatter him over
seven seas.'

He called up Balaam by necromancy. He
said to him, ' Who is honoured in this world ? '
He replied, ' Israel.' • What about joining
them ? ' He replied [Deut. xxiii. 6], ' Thou

68 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

shalt not seek their peace or their prosperity
all [thy] days.9 He said to him, ' What is
the punishment of this man ? ' He replied,
6 Per semen fervens.'

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.
Commentary. — This extract forms part of a long
Midrash chiefly concerned with the war against Ves-
pasian and Titus, and reported by It. Johanan (200-279
a.d.). The story of Onqelos b. Qaloniqos, nephew
of Titus, is introduced immediately after the descrip-
tion of the death of the latter. Whether Onqelos
the Proselyte, who is mentioned elsewhere in the
Talmud, really was the nephew of Titus, I do not
know, and the question is of no importance for the
present purpose. The object of the gruesome story
contained in this passage is to show the fate of the
three chief enemies of Israel, i.e. Titus, Balaam and
Jesus. Each suffers the punishment appropriate to
the nature of his offence.

The modern editions of the Talmud, which have
been subjected to the censor of the press, do not

PASSAGES RELATING TO JESUS 69

mention the third criminal by name. They read
that Onqelos called up ' the sinners of Israel '
(plural), which is obviously absurd.1 The older
editions have ' the sinner of Israel,' which is gram-
matically correct, but the reading ' Jeshu ' is vouched
for by the work that contains all the expurgated
passages of the Talmud.2 It is evident that some
individual person is referred to, and that this person
is not Balaam, since his case has just been disposed
of. Moreover, it was some one who had 'mocked
against the words of the wise,' i.e. the Rabbis.
Internal evidence alone would suffice to show that
Jesus was meant; and as there is authority for the
reading 'Jeshu,' we may rest assured that he is
the person referred to.

The passage has been introduced here, as stated
above, in order to establish the fact that in the
Talmud, Balaam and Jesus are classed together, and
that therefore Balaam serves frequently as a type of
Jesus. I do not mean that wherever Balaam is
mentioned Jesus is intended, or that everything said
about the former is really meant for the latter. I
mean that wherever Balaam is mentioned, there is a
sort of under-current of reference to Jesus, and that
much more is told of Balaam than would have been
told if he and not Jesus had really been the person
thought of.3 I shall henceforth assume this close

1 * The sinners of Israel ' may, however, be the right reading in the last
line of the passage, because there the comparison is general between 'the
sinners of Israel ' and • the prophets of the heathen.'

2 I have used the one published at Konigsberg, 1860, nii<W> W\W\p
D"K>n niillDH- The invaluable work of Eabbinowicz is unfortunately not
available for the tractate Gittin.

3 There is a suggestive remark in b. Sanh. 106b (immediately after

70 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

connexion in the Rabbinical mind between Jesus
and Balaam ; and if it proves a guide to the mean-
ing of other passages where Balaam is referred to,
it will be to that extent confirmed and made more
probable. These other passages will be mentioned
presently. For the moment I return to the passage
(12), quoted above, from M. Sanh. x. 2, where it is
said that Balaam, Doeg, Ahitophel and Gehazi are
shut out from the world to come. Having seen that
Balaam here denotes Jesus, it is natural to enquire
into the meaning of the other three names. That
they merely denote the three persons mentioned
in the Books of Samuel and Kings is not probable ;
for there is nothing in the facts there recorded to
show why just these three should have been so
severely condemned. Following immediately after
Balaam-Jesus, we can hardly avoid the conclusion
that the three O.T. names denote three of the
Apostles, as having shared in the work of heresy
which Jesus began. Each of the three is elsewhere
mentioned in the Talmud as being tainted with
heresy, as will be shown hereafter (see below, pp. 99,
192). Which of the Apostles are referred to, if this
hypothesis be accepted, is a question of which the
answer must remain uncertain. One thinks, naturally,

the passage about the age of Balaam, to be given below) : — (14) Mar
bar Rabina said to his son, * Do not multiply Midrash, in regard to all
these except in regard to Balaam, the wicked ; whatever you find in him,
expound of him.' * In regard to all these,' i.e. the four men, Balaam, Doeg,
Ahitophel and Gehazi. Rashi, in his note on the passage, says that the
multiplying of Midrash means doing so "'fcOJ 7, with malicious intention. The
son of Mar bar Rabina, mentioned above, was the younger Rabina, contem-
porary with and colleague of Ashi the redactor of the Babylonian Gemara
Ashi, of course, was responsible for the inclusion in the Gemara of the
anonymous passages concerning the excommunication of Jesus (see p. 51).

PASSAGES RELATING TO JESUS 71

of Peter, James and John. But it seems to me at
least highly probable that Gehazi, at all events, means
Paul. It would certainly be strange if the man who
more than all elsq except Jesus ' troubled Israel '
(cf. Acts xxi. 27 fol.) should have been left out of
this black list. A passage will be given presently
where the story of Gehazi and Elisha is told in such
a way as strongly to suggest Paul the renegade
disciple of Gamaliel. (See below, No. (27), p. 97, b.
Sotah. 47a).

As for Doeg and Ahitophel, I do not know of any
evidence for a particular identification. May not,
however, Doeg the Edomite, who betrayed David
(1 Sam. xxii. 9), possibly denote Judas Iscariot, the
traitor? And the high honour in which Ahitophel
was held (2 Sam. xvi. 23) suggests him as a type of
Peter. These are only guesses, and as regards the
proposed identification of Doeg with Judas Iscariot,
I must allow that it would be more likely that the
Talmud should exalt the betrayer of Jesus into a
hero than condemn him to exclusion from the world
to come. At the same time, I would submit that the
three names which are most prominent in the list of
the Apostles, the three figures which would be most
likely to dwell in the memory as connected with
Jesus, are Peter, Judas Iscariot, and Paul. And
therefore, in spite of difficulties, I am inclined to
hold that these three are denoted by Ahitophel,
Doeg, and Gehazi, in the passage we have been
considering.

72 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

The Age of Balaam (Jesus)

(15) b. Sanh. 106b. — A certain heretic said to R.
Hanina, ' Have you ever heard how old
Balaam was ? ' He replied, ' There is nothing
written about it. But from what is written
(Ps. lv. 23), Men of blood and deceit shall not
live out half their days, he must have been
thirty-three or thirty-four years old.' He [the
heretic] said, • Thou hast answered me well.
I have seen the chronicle of Balaam, and
therein is written " Balaam, the lame, was
thirty-three years old when Pinhas the Robber
killed him." '
Commentary, — R. Hanina lived in Sepphoris at the
end of the second and the beginning of the third
century (died 232 a.d.). The story of this conver-
sation with a heretic was reported in Babylonia prob-
ably by Rab, who, like Hanina, was a disciple of
Rabbi (Jehudah ha-Qadosh. See above, p. 17). The
heretic — Min — was in all probability a Christian, as
will be shown later when the passages dealing with
the Minim come under review. And while there is
no apparent reason why a Christian should inquire as
to the age of the ancient Balaam, he might well have
inquired — especially in Galilee — about the age of
Jesus. It would seem, however, that he was not
asking for information, but had a desire to find out
whether R. Hanina knew anything about Jesus.
For he confirmed the Rabbis answer by facts known
to himself. The • Chronicle of Balaam ' probably de-
notes a Gospel, though none of the known Gospels

PASSAGES RELATING TO JESUS 73

states in so many words that Jesus was as much as
thirty-three years old. If, however, it was believed
that his ministry lasted three years, and that he was
■ about thirty years old ' when he began to preach,
the statement of the Christian is sufficiently borne
out, though not verbally correct. R. Hanina must
have had fairly good grounds for his opinion as to
the age of Jesus, or he would not have quoted a text
which would only apply to the case of a man about
thirty-three or thirty-four years old.

It is curious that Balaam is here called ' the lame,'
and that this epithet is mentioned, not by the Rabbi
but by the Christian. It was, however, a Rabbinical
opinion that Balaam was lame, and also blind of one
eye. This is stated in the Gemara, b. Sanh. 105% in
the same chapter from which is taken the extract at
present under notice. This opinion about Balaam is
taught by R. Johanan, on the strength of a fanciful
interpretation of two texts — Num. xxiii. 3, xxiv. 15.
It is quite possible that this is simply a fancy, without
any reference to Jesus. But we may at least com-
pare Mark. ix. 45, 46.

There remains to be noticed Pinhas the Robber, or
1 Pinhas Listaah,' who is said to have killed Balaam.
It has been suggested by Perles (Gratz, Monatsch.,
1872, p. 267, quoted by Bacher) that, assuming
Balaam to represent Jesus, Pinhas Listaah is a cor-
ruption of Pontius Pilatus.1 The corruption is, it

1 Of. the story given below (p. 87), according to which a certain person,
presumably Jesus, ■ took to robbery ' (listaia), and further, p. 95, where it is
suggested that the allegation of robbery in reference to Jesus is due to a con-
fusion of him with a certain robber chieftain Ben Netzer. It is worth
noting that according to Matt. xxvi. 55, Jesus said, Are ye come out as
against a robber (its ivl Ap<rrV) ; Apo-T^s is in the Talmud D^DD?, listis.

74 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

must be admitted, a somewhat violent one, if the
author who had written the one name was aware of
the other. But he may have found a name to him
unintelligible, and by the help of Num. xxxi. 8
have transformed it into Pinhas Listaah. Talmudic
tradition did not, so far as I am aware, know the
name of Pontius Pilate, or ascribe the death of
Jesus to a non-Jewish tribunal. But it is certainly
strange that a Jew should call Pinhas [Phinehas]
a robber, being, as he was, a highly honoured hero
of tradition. Bacher seeks to show (Jew. Quart.
Rev., iii. p. 356) that the reference is to the historical
Phinehas and the historical Balaam, as against the
theory of Perles. And if it were not for the word
Listaah, I should agree with him. He explains its
use in connexion with Pinhas by assuming that the
heretic quoted from some apocryphal work about
Balaam of an anti- Israelite tendency. But was
there such a work? Was Balaam of any special
interest to either Jews or heretics, except as a type
of Jesus? With all deference to Bacher's great
authority, I cannot help thinking that under this
mention of Pinhas Listaah there lies concealed a
reference to Pontius Pilatus. The difficulty that
the heretic, if a Christian, would not call Jesus by
the name of Balaam, may be met by the considera-
tion that the whole conversation comes to us in a
Jewish form. As for the historical value of the
incident, there is nothing to make it impossible.
Such conversations were frequent, and R. Hanina
was a well-known man. That the story only occurs
in the Babylonian Gemara is not surprising, since
we have already seen that there was considerable

PASSAGES RELATING TO JESUS 75

interest taken in the Babylonian schools in the
traditions about Jesus. The Palestinian Gemara
contains much less than the Babylonian of such
digressions from its proper subject. But that the
story is a pure invention I see no reason whatever
to believe.

As it has already been suggested (see above, p. 71)
that Doeg and Ahitophel represent two of the
Apostles, perhaps Judas Iscariot and Peter, it is
interesting to note that the text quoted above to
determine the age of Balaam is also applied to these
two. On the same page of b. Sanh. 106b it is said
by R. Johanan, 'Doeg and Ahitophel did not live
out half their days. It is thus taught (Ps. lv. 23),
Men of blood and deceit do not live out half their
days. All the years of Doeg were but thirty-four,
and of Ahitophel only thirty-three.' It is but fair,
however, to admit that, as Doeg and Ahitophel had
been mentioned together with Balaam in the Mishnah,
the inference as to the age of the one might naturally
be extended to the other, since it is only a haggadic
deduction from a text of Scripture.

Balaam (Jesus) and the Name of God

(16) b. Sanh. 106a. — And he [Balaam] took up his

parable, and said, Alas, who shall live when

God doeth this? It. Shim'on ben Laqish

said: 'Woe unto him who maketh himself

to live by the name of God.'

Commentary. — The text quoted is Num. xxiv. 23,

and the application of it by R. Shim'on b. Laqish

is a mere distortion of the original words. What

76 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

precisely is the meaning of bx WD is open to
question, and is for the O.T. commentators to
decide. But by no rules of grammar or syntax
could the words be made to mean, 'Who maketh
himself live by the name of God.' This is a haggadic
variation of the text, such as the Rabbis often per-
mitted themselves to make (see above, p. 13) for
a homiletic purpose. And it is hard to see what
purpose there could be, in the present example, other
than that of making a covert allusion to Jesus, who
had declared — according to the Gospels — that he
should rise from the dead, of course by the power
of God. The words do not apply to Balaam, at
least there is nothing recorded about him that would
give occasion for any such remark. Rashi, in his
note on the passage, does indeed refer it to Balaam,
but seems to be well aware that some one other than
Balaam is really intended. He says, " Balaam, who
restored himself to life by the name of God, made
himself God." With this passage should be compared
the saying of Abahu, (10) above, which is a somewhat
similar haggadic variation of a text of Scripturei

R. Shim'on ben Laqish, often called Resh Laqish,
was the colleague and friend of R. Johanan already
mentioned. He died somewhere about 279 a.d.

The Chapter Concerning Balaam

(17) b. B. Bathr. 14b. — Moses wrote his book and
the section [Parashah] about Balaam.

Commentary. — The book which Moses wrote is, of
course, the Pentateuch, with the exception of the
last eight verses, which the Talmud attributes to

PASSAGES RELATING TO JESUS 77

Joshua. As the section about Balaam, Num. xxii.-
xxiv., forms part of the Pentateuch, the question
arises, Why was it necessary to state expressly that
Moses wrote it? Rashi answers that Moses went
out of his way to include the prophecies of Balaam,
which did not properly belong to his own subject.
Marx (Traditio Veterrima, p. 42) accepts this, and
quotes a passage from the Jerusalem Talmud to show
how much importance was attached to the Balaam
section. As this passage seems to me to suggest
more than Marx finds in it, I quote it here, adding
some preceding words which did not come within
the scope of his reference.

(18) j. Ber. i. 8 (3C).— For Rab Mathnah and Rab
Shemuel bar Nahman says, both say, It would
be proper that the Ten Words should be read
every day. And why are they not read?
Because of the misrepresentation of the
Minim, that they might not say, • These [i.e.
the Ten Words] only were given to Moses
on Sinai.' Rab Shemuel bar Nahman in the
name of Rabbi Jehudah bar Zebuda says,
'It would be proper that the Parashah of
Balak and Balaam should be read every day.
And why is it not read ? In order not to
weary the congregation.' Rab Huna says,
'Because there is written in it Lying down
and rising up ' [Num. xxiii. 24]. Rabbi Jose
bar Rabbi Bun says, ' Because there is written
in it the going forth [out of Egypt], and
the Kingdom' [Num. xxiii. 21, 22]. Rabbi
El'azar says, 'Because it is written in the
Torah, the Prophets and the Writings.'

78 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

The first part of this passage will be mentioned in
another connexion subsequently (p. 308) ; I quote it
here because it refers to the Minim, heretics, whose
false interpretation made it desirable not to introduce
the Decalogue into the daily service. Coming im-
mediately after this statement, may not the mention
of the Parashah of Balak and Balaam, and its
exclusion from the daily prayers, have also some
reference to the misrepresentations of heretics?
From the parallel passage, b. Ber. 12b, it appears
that the various reasons given by the Rabbis are
reasons for the inclusion, not the exclusion, of the
Parashah from the daily prayers. And the exclusion
is justified on the ground that, the passage being
very long, the recital of it would weary the con-
gregation. The Babylonian Gemara distinctly says
that it was proposed to include the Parashah, and
that the proposal was not entertained.

There is, I admit, hardly anything in this passage
to connect it directly with anti-Christian polemic;
but yet I think there is enough to show that a
special interest attached to the Parashah of Balaam ;
and we may, with a fair degree of probability, define
that special interest by what we have already learnt
as to the connexion between Balaam and Jesus.

The Trial of Jesus

(19) T. Sanh. x. 11. — In regard to all who are
worthy of death according to the Torah, they
do not use concealment against them, except
in the case of the deceiver. How do they

PASSAGES RELATING TO JESUS 79

deal with him ? They put two disciples of
the wise in the inner chamber, and he sits in
the outer chamber, and they light the lamp
so that they shall see him and hear his voice.
And thus they did to Ben Stada in Lud ;
two disciples of the wise were chosen for
him, and they [brought him to the Beth Din]
and stoned him.

(20) j. Sanh. vii. 16 (25c, d).— The deceiver ; this
denotes a private man. Not a Sage ? [i.e. a
Rabbi]. No. From the time he deceives he
is no longer a Sage. And from the time he
is deceived he is no longer a Sage. How do
they deal with him to work craftily against
him? They conceal (in his case) two witnesses
in the inner chamber and make him sit in
the outer chamber, and they light a lamp
over him that they may see him and may
hear his voice. Thus did they to Ben Stada in
Lud, and they concealed in his case two
disciples of the wise, and they brought him
to the Beth Din and stoned him.

The Babylonian Gemara has the following
version of this incident : —

(21) b. Sanh. 67a. — [The passage of which the ex-
tract No. 1 above (the part enclosed in [ ] ),
forms the conclusion.]

For it is tradition that in regard to the
rest of all who are worthy of death according
to the Torah, they do not use concealment
except in this case [i.e. of the deceiver]. How
do they deal with him ? They light a lamp
for him in the inner chamber and set witnesses

80 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

in the outer chamber, so that they may see
him and hear his voice, but he does not see
them. And one says to him, " Say to me
what thou saidst to me in private," and he
says it to him. And another says to him,
"How shall we forsake our God who is in
heaven, and practise false worship?" If he
repents, it is well. If he says, " Such is our
duty and thus it becomes us to do," the
witnesses, who hear from outside, bring him
to the Beth Din and stone him. And thus
they did to Ben Stada in Lud, and they
hung him on the eve of Pesah.
Commentary. — The legal procedure to be used in
the case of a deceiver, who has tempted others to
apostasy, is set forth in the Mishnah almost in the
same words as in the first of the above extracts.
These are from the Tosephta and the Gemaras, the
passage (20) being contained in the Palestinian
Gemara, while (21) is from the Babylonian Gemara.
The Mishnah does not contain the reference to Ben
Stada ; but it is important to notice that the Tosephta
(19) does contain the name, and thus establishes the
fact that the curious and exceptional legal procedure
to be followed in the case of a deceiver was associ-
ated with the case of Ben Stada (Jesus, see above (1)),
at a time before the Tosephta was completed. This
fact lends some support to the hypothesis of Laible,
(J. C. im Talmud, p. 76), that the legal procedure
referred to was really based upon the case of Jesus,
as traditionally reported. In all the passages given
above, it is stated that the concealment of witnesses,
in order to trap the accused, is only practised in the

PASSAGES RELATING TO JESUS 81

one case of a man who has tempted others to apostasy,
which was of course the charge against Jesus (see
above, p. 51). However that may be, and I do not
feel competent to pronounce opinion on the question
of the origin of this law, the point that concerns us
here is this, that as early as the time when the To-
sephta was compiled, there was a tradition that the
condemnation of Jesus had been obtained by the
fraudulent means described above. Presumably the
Tosephta (19) represents the oldest form of the tradi-
tion now extant ; but there is no material difference
between the three passages (19), (20), (21), so far as
they refer to Ben Stada. They agree in saying, first,
that two witnesses were hidden in a room adjoining
the one where the accused sat ; second, that a lamp
was lit over the accused, so that the witnesses could
see as well as hear him ; third, that in the case of Ben
Stada, the witnesses brought him to the Beth Din1
and stoned him ; fourth, that this took place in Lud
(Lydda). (21) makes the important addition that
" they hung him on the eve of Passover." As to the
place of concealment, (19) and (20) say that the two
witnesses were in the inner chamber and the accused
in the outer, (21) reverses the position. It is not
clear in regard to the cross-examination described in
(21) whether the questioners are the two witnesses.
If they are, the concealment would seem to be use-
less ; if not, there is nothing to show who they are.
The uncertainty on this point, which the compiler of
the Gemara seems to feel, may be understood if there

1 Beth Din, literally house of judgment, an assembly of Rabbis and their
disciples sitting as a court of justice. The term does not denote any special
tribunal.

82 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

really was no law on the subject except what could
be recollected in connection with the trial of Jesus.
As in the passages previously examined, we have
here only scanty remnants of a tradition about that
trial, combined perhaps with hearsay information
derived from Christians. There is no ground, as
Keim rightly says (Jesus of Nazara, vi. 47 n., E.T.),
for correcting the Gospel account by the help of the
Talmud. Rather it is the Gospel account which
throws light upon the Talmudic tradition. From the
Gospel story are derived the two witnesses (Matt.
xxvi. 60. In Mark xiv. 56, 57, several witnesses are
mentioned). The Gospel speaks of ' false ' witnesses,
and this is perhaps the origin of the Talmudic asser-
tion that the witnesses were concealed in order to
entrap the accused. From the Talmudic point of
view the witnesses were not false, in the sense of un-
truthful, but were justified by their zeal for the true
religion in acting deceitfully against a heretic. The
mention of the outer and the inner chamber (of what
building is not said) recalls Matt. xxvi. 69, where it
is said that Peter was sitting without in the court,
while the trial was going on within the house of
the High Priest. The lighted lamp may have been
suggested by the mention of the fire kindled in the
outer court, Luke xxii. 55. And finally the state-
ment that the witnesses carried the accused to the
Beth Din may have its origin in the fact that there
was, according to the Gospels, a second sitting of the
council after the one at which the witnesses had been
present (Mark xv. 1). The Talmudic tradition differs
from the Gospel in saying that the trial took place at
Lud (Lydda), and that Jesus was stoned. These

PASSAGES RELATING TO JESUS 83

statements, as well as the remark that Jesus was
hung on the Eve of Passover, belong rather to the
question of the execution of Jesus, which will form
the subject of the next extract. They tend, however,
to confirm what has already been pointed out, that
the Talmud has preserved only a very vague and
confused recollection of Jesus. His name was doubt-
less held in abhorrence as that of a dangerous heretic
and deceiver ; but extremely little was known of him,
and that little is mentioned more by way of casual
remark than as being of importance on its own
account.

The Execution of Jesus

(22) b. Sanh. 43a.— And it is tradition: On the
eve of Pesah they hung Jeshu [the Nazarene].
And the crier went forth before him forty
days (saying), '[Jeshu the Nazarene] goeth
forth to be stoned, because he hath practised
magic and deceived and led astray Israel.
Any one who knoweth aught in his favour,
let him come and declare concerning him.'
And they found naught in his favour. And
they hung him on the eve of Pesah. Ulla
says, • Would it be supposed that [Jeshu the
Nazarene] a revolutionary, had aught in his
favour ? ' He was a deceiver, and the Merciful
hath said (Deut. xiii. 8), Thou shalt not spare,
neither shalt thou conceal him. But it was
different with [Jeshu the Nazarene], for he
was near to the kingdom.

84 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

[The whole of this passage is expunged

from the later editions. It is given here on

the authority of the MSS. and early editions

set forth by Rabbinowicz. The words in [

are from MSS.]

Commentary. — To the statements contained in the

foregoing passage must be added those given in Nos.

(19), (20), (21), viz., that Jesus was stoned, and that

his death took place in Lud (Lydda). It is remarkable

that the fact of the crucifixion in Jerusalem should

have been so completely forgotten, even by the

compiler of the Tosephta, to say nothing of the

compilers of the Gemara. This is the more curious

because there are to be found in other passages, to be

given presently, allusions to a crucifixion and to a

death in Jerusalem, which are probably those of

Jesus. The explanation of the statement that Jesus

was put to death in Lydda is probably the following :

After the destruction of Jerusalem, Lydda gradually

became an important centre of Rabbinical activity.

In the early years of the second century, Rabbis

Eliezer, Tarphon and Aqiba held their colleges there,

and Lydda quite outshone Jabneh, which had been

the seat first of Johanan ben Zaccai, and then of the

Patriarch Gamliel II. after the fall of Jerusalem.

Aqiba took a very active part in the insurrection

under Bar Cocheba (a.d. 132-135), and Lydda was

probably the headquarters of the insurgents. The

name " Martyrs of Lydda " (n£ win, b. B. Bathr. 10b),

was applied to some of the distinguished Rabbis who

were executed at the close of the insurrection. Now

we have already learnt (see above, p. 44) that the

Talmud regards Jesus as having been a contemporary

PASSAGES RELATING TO JESUS 85

of Aqiba ; and it is further to be observed that the
Christians were persecuted by the adherents of Bar
Cocheba, presumably for not acknowledging him as
the Messiah.1 Now it is quite certain that in the
Talmud the insurrection of Bar Cocheba and its
tragic end is remembered with much greater clear-
ness than the fate of Jesus a century before. And
the suggestion is that the more recent and important
event has gathered to itself the tradition of the earlier
period. Aqiba, the apostle of the insurrection, became
thereby the persecutor of Christians ; the place where
he was most active against them was Lydda, and thus
a later tradition could naturally arise that Jesus was
a contemporary of Aqiba, and had been executed in
Aqiba's own city of Lydda. This is in the main
Laible's explanation ; but I differ from him in holding
that Aqiba's hostility towards the Christians was
chiefly due to his own connexion with Bar Cocheba,
and not so much to his hatred of Christians as such.
No doubt he felt such a hatred, as did other Rabbis,
e.g. Tarphon and Meir ; but I do not know of any
special evidence of his hostility except on the ground
that I have mentioned.

The passage before us further states that Jesus was
hung. With this must be combined the evidence of
the passages, Nos. (19), (20), (21), that he was stoned.
The connexion between the two statements is that
Jesus was stoned, and his dead body then hung upon
a cross. This is clear from the Mishnah, Sanh. vi.

1 Justin Mart., Apol. i. C. 31, ical yap iv t$ vvv yeytvr\ix4vcp 'lou8at/c<p iro\4fi(p
Bapx<»X€&as> & T^s 'lovSaiwv airo(rrd<rta)S opx777*T1?s> Xpiariavohs fxSvovs (Is
Tipaplas Seivds, §1 fi^j apvoivro 'Ir}(rovv rby Xpiffrbv ko\ f}\a<r<prnxo?ev, eKiKtvtv
fardyeo-dai.

86 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

4. (23) ' All who are stoned are hung, according to
Rabbi Eliezer. The Sages say None is hung except
the blasphemer and he who practises a false worship.' *
The corpse was hung to a cross or else to a single
beam, of which one end rested on the ground, the
other against a wall (same Mishnah). It is worth
noting that the technical word for a cross (n^s) is not
used here. The Gospels, of course, say nothing about
a stoning of Jesus, and I suggest that the Talmudic
tradition is an inference from the fact that he was
known to have been hung. The inference would be
further strengthened by the application of the text,
Deut. xxi. 23, He that is hanged is accursed of God,
a text which Paul had to disarm in reference to Jesus
(Gal. iii. 13). The Talmud knows nothing of an
execution of Jesus by the Romans, but makes it solely
the act of the Jews.

Here may be mentioned a passage which seems to
show that there was a tradition that Jesus had been
crucified.

(24) T. Sanh. ix. 7. — Rabbi Meir used to say,
What is the meaning of (Deut. xxi. 23), For
a curse of God is he that is hung ? [It is like
the case of] two brothers, twins, who resembled
each other. One ruled over the whole world,
the other took to robbery. After a time the
one who took to robbery was caught, and they
crucified him on a cross. And every one who
passed to and fro said, ' It seems that the king

1 Literally a worshipper of stars and planets. This is constantly used in
the Rabbinical literature as a technical term for the adherent of a false
religion, without any implication that the stars are the actual objects of
worship. Idolater is not always an equivalent term ; but, with this explana-
tion, it is the most convenient to use.

PASSAGES RELATING TO JESUS 87

is crucified.' Therefore it is said, A curse of
God is he that is hung.

Commentary. — R. Meir lived in the second cen-
tury, and we shall see that he had some knowledge
of the Gospels (see below, p. 163). It is hardly to be
doubted that the above passage contains a reference
to Jesus. ' One ruled over the whole world,' that is
God. ' They resembled each other ' suggests He
that hath seen me hath seen the Father. The men-
tion of the cross (ni^v) obviously accords with the
Gospel story. The scornful gibe of the passers-by
suggests Matt, xxvii. 37 and 39, and esp. 42, 43. The
curious remark that the second 'took to robbery'
(listaia) I cannot explain, but it should be noted in
connexion with what was said above (see p. 73),
about Pinhas Listaah (Pontius Pilatus). It. Meir's
interpretation of the text in Deut. is somewhat
obscure ; so far as I understand it he seems to mean
that the raillery of the bystanders was a cursing of
♦God, because they said ' the King is hung,' which
would be the case if Jesus were supposed to be
God.

To this passage may be appended another where
there is also a reference to crucifixion. It is con-
tained in the Midrash on Esther ix. 2, and is as
follows : — Zeresh, the wife of Haman, is advising him
how to kill Mordecai, so that he shall not be de-
livered by miracle as so many had been, and she says,
W9D anwan *ioy \o nn propa irfn mh* by rw sb% " Crucify
him on a cross, for we do not find one out of his
nation who has been delivered from it." The refer-
ence seems to be to the fact that Jesus was not
saved from the cross even though it was claimed

88 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

for him that he was the Messiah ; cp. Matt, xxvii.
40.

To return now to the Gemara in Sanh., at the
head of this section. It is stated there that Jesus
was put to death on the eve of Passover ; the Florence
codex adds that it was also the eve of Sabbath. This
is probably dependent on the Gospel story, and it is
interesting to note that it agrees more with the
Gospel of John than with the Synoptics. From what
we have already seen, however, of the vagueness and
uncertainty of the Talmudic tradition concerning the
death of Jesus, it is unwarrantable to use this as
independent evidence.

In like manner we may ascribe to a confused
knowledge of Christian teaching the statement that
a herald went forth, during forty days before the
death of Jesus, calling upon all who could bear
witness in his favour to come and do so. The herald
is, of course, fictitious ; but the forty days may have
been suggested by the forty days which are said to
have elapsed between the crucifixion and the ascen-
sion, i.e. before the final disappearance of Jesus.
Laible suggests the forty days of fasting ending with
Easter, and Dalman hints at the forty days' fast of
Jesus in the wilderness (Matt. iv. 2). All that can
be said with any safety is that the number forty may
have its origin in the Gospel.

The Gemara, having described the death of Jesus,
adds a remark about the statement that a herald
invited evidence in favour of Jesus, and found none.
Ulla, a Palestinian Rabbi of the end of the third
century, a disciple of R. Johanan, says, ' Would it
be thought that anything could be said in favour

PASSAGES RELATING TO JESUS 89

of Jesus, a revolutionary ? He was a deceiver, and
the Merciful hath said (observe the irony of appeal-
ing to God as "the Merciful" in this case), Thou
shalt not spare nor conceal such a one' But, says
the compiler of the Gemara, or perhaps Ulla, who
raised the question, ' It was different with Jesus,
because he was near to the kingdom.' Is this a
reference to the supposed Davidic descent of Jesus ?
The suggestion is tempting; but I doubt whether
it is warranted. The phrase " near to the kingdom "
occurs elsewhere, and is applied to the family of the
Patriarch Gamliel II., of whom it is said (b. B. Q.
83a), that they were allowed to learn Greek because
they were "near to the kingdom." The Patriarch
was the official representative of the Jews, and since
as such he must have had frequent intercourse with
the government, the knowledge of Greek was
necessary. Of course, Jesus stood in no such official
relation to the government ; but the Gospels record
a remarkable hesitation on the part of Pontius
Pilate to put him to death, and such hesitation might
well be explained by saying that Jesus must have
had friends at court, or at least that there must
have been political reasons for wishing to spare him.
If this suggestion, which is made by Laible (J. C.
im Talmud, p. 80), be thought somewhat far-fetched,
as implying a greater knowledge of the Gospel story
than is probable, it may be simplified by supposing
that the phrase, " near to the kingdom," was an in-
ference from the fact that Jesus frequently spoke of
"the kingdom." In this case there would be no
need to bring in Pontius Pilate, and in fact the
Talmudic story of the execution of Jesus does not

90 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

implicate the civil government at all. Laible appears
to me to credit the Talmudic Rabbis with a much
clearer memory of the life and death of Jesus than
is warranted by the evidence. That they knew of
the existence of the Gospel (or Gospels) is certain
(see below, p. 163) ; and that they had some acquaint-
ance with the contents of the Gospel is probable;
but the frequent discussions between Jews and
Christians, of which we shall meet with many ex-
amples, lead me to think that the Rabbis gained
most of their information about Jesus from such
intercourse, and that the real tradition concerning
him amounted to hardly more than the fact that he
had been a deceiver of the people and had been put
to death.

The Disciples of Jesus

(25) b. Sanh. 43a. — Our Rabbis have taught, Jesus
had five disciples — Matthai, Neqai, Netzer,
Buni, and Thodah. They brought Matthai
[before the judges]. He said, ' Must Matthai
be killed? For it is written [Ps. xlii. 2]:
Mathai [ = when] shall (I) come and appear
before God' They said to him, 'Yes,
Matthai must be killed, for it is written [Ps.
xli. 5]: Mathai [ = when] shall (he) die and
his name perish' They brought Neqai. He
said to them, • Must Neqai be killed ? For
it is written [Ex. xxiii. 7] : The Naqi [ «■ inno-
cent] and the righteous thou shalt not slay.9
They said to him, ' Yes, Neqai must be killed,
for it is written [Ps. x. 8] : In secret places

PASSAGES RELATING TO JESUS 91

doth he slay Naqi [ = the innocent].' They
brought Netzer. He said, 'Must Netzer be
killed ? For it is written [Isa. xi. 1] : Netzer
[ = a branch] shall spring tip from his roots'
They said to him, 'Yes, Netzer must be
killed. For it is written [Isa. xiv. 19]:
Thou art cast forth out of thy grave like an
abominable Netzer [ = branch].' They brought
Buni. He said to them, 'Must Buni be
killed ? For it is written [Ex. iv. 22] : Bni
[ = my son], my first born, Israel" They said
to him, ' Yes, Buni must be killed. For it is
written [Ex. iv. 23] : Behold, I slay Bincha
[ = thy son] thy first born' They brought
Thodah. He said to them, ' Must Thodah be
killed ? For it is written [Ps. c. 1] : A Psalm
for Thodah [ = thanksgiving].' They said to
him, 'Yes, Thodah must be killed, for it is
written [Ps. 1. 23] : Whoso sacrificeth Thodah
[ = thanksgiving] honoureth me?
Commentary. — This passage is the continuation
of the preceding one, and I have only divided the
two for convenience of separate treatment. It is
probable that the passage already considered, No.
(21), which in the editions of the Talmud is found
on p. 67a of Sanhedrin, also forms part of the
same paragraph about Jesus. Thus it would con-
tain, first, the description of the witnesses, then the
execution, and lastly the account of the five disciples.
If this is so, then it is clear why the place of exe-
cution (Lydda) is not mentioned in the second and
third passages (22), (25), since it has already been
mentioned in (21). This is Laible's suggestion. The

92 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

reason for their being divided in the Talmud would
be that the division of subject required it, the
account of the death of Jesus being introduced in a
discussion about the stoning of certain criminals,
and the description of the manner of concealing
witnesses finding its proper place later in a discussion
upon deceivers of the people. The passage which
we have now to consider is merely a pendant to
the account of the death of Jesus, describing with
a certain ferocious humour the fate of five of his
disciples. These are said to have been condemned
to death ; and when they quoted Scripture texts as
a plea for their lives, they were met with other
texts demolishing their plea. That any tribunal of
justice, or of arbitrary violence, ever conducted its
business in such a manner, it is hard to believe ; and
we can only regard this fencing with texts as a
jeu (Tesprit, occasioned no doubt by some actual
event. That event would naturally be an execution
of Christian disciples, if such took place. The
dialogue as given in the Talmud can certainly not
be taken as historical ; but it may yet give some in-
dication of the historical circumstances under which
it was composed. Little or nothing can be learnt
from the names of the five disciples ; only the first,
Matthai, has any close resemblance to a name in the
list of the twelve (Matt. x. 2-4). The last, Thodah,
is not unlike Thaddseus ; but in Hebrew that name
would be Thaddai, not Thodah. The others, Naqi,
Netzer, and Buni,1 have no parallels in the list of the

1 It is, however, worthy of note that in b. Taan. 19b, 20a, is related a story
of Naqdimon b. Qorion, a rich citizen of Jerusalem, and it is added in a
note that his real name was not Naqdimon, but Bum. Now Naqdimon is

PASSAGES RELATING TO JESUS 9$

Twelve ; indeed, it is doubtful whether they, and
Thodah, were ever names of persons at all. At
most they may have been nick-names, and they
certainly raise the suspicion that they have been
chosen for the sake of the texts. I suggest that the
case stands thus : — five disciples of Jesus, i.e. five
Christians, were on some occasion condemned to
death, that their real names, if known, were not
mentioned, that one of them was designated Matthai
with reference to the name attached to the first
Gospel, that the play upon his name suggested a
similar device in the case of the others, and that for
them other names were invented, each of which had
some reference to Jesus, as regarded of course by
Christians. Thus Naqi, the innocent, is obviously
applicable to Jesus from the Christian point of view,
and is as obviously satirical from that of the Rabbis,
as already shown. Netzer, the branch, is the Hebrew
word occurring in the two texts quoted from Isaiah,
of which the former was interpreted Messianically,
and would therefore be applied to Jesus. But
perhaps more probably there is a reference to the
name Notzri, the Nazarene, which we have already
met with as an epithet of Jesus (for the derivation
of the word Notzri, and its meaning, see above,
p. 52 n.). Buni, as used in both the texts, is taken
to mean 'my son,' a frequent designation of the
Messiah, and therefore applicable by Christians to
Jesus. For the name Thodah, 'praise,' I do not
know any connexion with Jesus ; but it is possible
that the apt retort of the second text, whoso sacri-

equivalent to Nicodemus. There may, therefore, be an allusion to Nico-
demus, who came to Jesus by night (John iii. 1).

94 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

ficeth Thodak honoureth me, may have suggested the
whole series, and thus that the name Thodah was a
pure invention.

It is natural to infer from the passage that all the
five disciples were condemned on the same occasion,
and this at once excludes the possibility that any
of the original Twelve are referred to. At least no
Christian tradition exists which specifies any five out
of the Twelve as having met with such a fate. But
the fact that the five were called disciples of Jesus
only implies that they were Christians, not that they
were contemporaries of Jesus. Therefore we may
look for them, if necessary, at some later period.
The fact that the prisoners quoted texts of Scripture,
and were met with other texts, suggests that the trial
took place before a Jewish and not a Roman tribunal.
Not, of course, that such a thrust and parry of texts
really took place anywhere, but that it would be
impossible in a Roman court and only a witty
travesty of what would be possible in a Jewish one.
Laible (J. C. im Talm., p. 68 fol.) makes the very
probable suggestion that the story refers to the
persecution of Christians under Bar Cocheba, already
mentioned. It is a fantastic account of some incident
of that persecution. The reasons for taking this view
are, that the story occurs in the same passage as that
which describes the death of Jesus, and that we have
found the key to the understanding of the statements
there made about Jesus in the anti- Christian hatred
of Bar Cocheba, and more especially of Aqiba, his
chief supporter. So far as I know, there is no other
period than this (132-135 a.d.) at which Christians
were persecuted and even put to death by Jews.

PASSAGES RELATING TO JESUS 95

The Christians would, of course, be of Jewish
extraction.

Other persons who are described as disciples of
Jesus will be mentioned subsequently. I do not
mention them here, in the division dealing with
Talmudic references to Jesus, because the passages
where they are alluded to are more conveniently
grouped together as referring to Minuth (heresy) and
Minim (heretics), and will therefore be treated
separately in another main division.

I shall close this division, of which the main subject
is Jesus, by a reference to the name Ben Netzer, which
has been held by some to denote Jesus.

Ben Netzer

Levy (N. H. W., i. 240% s.v. p) says that the name
Ben Netzer (to a) is probably an allusion to Jesus the
Nazarene. Keim, (J. of N., ii. 15, Eng. Tr.) says
that the Talmudists call Jesus, Ben Netzar. This is
also the view of Edersheim (L. and T. J. M., i. 222).
The authority for this appears to be Abarbanel, whose
work nvwn wjns is quoted by Buxtorf (Lexicon
Talmudicum, ed. Fischer, s.v. to ) as follows : Speak-
ing of the " little horn " in Dan. vii. 8, he says (26),
" See, yea see, how they interpret that other ' little
horn ' to mean Ben Netzer, who is Jeshua ha-Notzri,
and according to the context they join in the reference
to him the wicked kingdom, which is Edom, for that
was his nation." What reason Abarbanel had for
making this identification I do not know ; but there
is nothing in the passages where Ben Netzer is

96 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

mentioned (b. Keth. 51b, J. Terum. 46b, Ber. r. sec. 76)
to suggest Jesus. Ben Netzer is described as a sort
of robber chieftain, " a robber amongst kings, a king
amongst robbers," as the Talmud says. The correct
explanation, as it seems beyond question, is that of
Gratz (G. d. J., iv. 295, and n. 28), who shows that
Ben Netzer is Odenathus, the founder of the shortlived
kingdom of Palmyra, a.d. 260 circa. Jost (G. d. J.,
ii. 145 n. 4) says that this hypothesis is without
evidence to support it ; and if it were not for a re-
ference in the same context to Gratz' work, it would
be hard to believe that Jost had read the long note
(n. 28) in which Gratz presents the evidence. It
appears to me clear that Gratz is right, and if so,
there can be no question of an allusion to Jesus in the
name Ben Netzer. Even Jost does not allege any
such allusion, though he rejects the proposed identi-
fication with Odenathus.

B.— PASSAGES REFERRING TO MINIM AND
MINUTH

This division will include a much larger number of
passages than the one just completed, and the greater
part of them will be concerned with those Minim
whose identification is one of the problems of the
Talmud. It will be necessary, for the sake of clear-
ness, to sub-divide the material in this division, with
the result, as I hope, of lessening the amount of com-
mentary upon each passage.

SECTION I.— DESCRIPTIONS AND DEFINITIONS OF
MINIM AND MINUTH

I place first of all what I believe to be a reference
to the most distinguished disciple of Jesus, viz., Paul.

Gehazi (Paul?)

(27) b. Sotah. 47a.— Our Rabbis have taught:
Always let the left hand repel and the right
hand invite. Not like Elisha, who repulsed
Gehazi with both his hands, and not like
Jehoshua ben Perahjah, who repulsed Jesus the
Nazarene with both his hands. What about
Elisha? It is written (2 Kings v. 23), And
Naaman said, Be content, take two talents, and

97 7

98 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

it is written (ib. v. 26), and he said to him,
1 Went not my heart [with thee] when the man
turned from off his chariot to meet thee2. Is
it a time to receive silver, and to receive raiment
and olive gardens and vineyards and sheep and
cattle and men-servants and maid-servants?'
But had he indeed received all this? Silver
and raiment was what he received. R. Jitzhaq
said, ■ In that hour Elisha was occupied with
[the law concerning] the eight [kinds of]
creeping things (Lev. xi. 29, 30]. He said to
him [Gehazi], ' Wretch, the time has come to
receive the punishment [for having partaken]
of the eight creeping things, and the leprosy of
Naaman shall cleave to thee and to thy seed for
ever' And there were four leprous men (2
Kings vii. 3), R. Johanan said these were
Gehazi and his three sons. And Elisha went
to Damascus (ib. viii. 7). Why did he go to
Damascus ? R. Johanan says that he went to
turn Gehazi to repentance, and he did not
repent. He said to him 'Repent,' and he
answered, 'Thus have I received from thee,
that everyone who has sinned and caused the
multitude to sin, they give him not the chance
to repent.' What did he do ? Some say he
set up a loadstone according to the sin of
Jeroboam and made it stand between heaven
and earth. And some say he wrote the Name
upon its mouth, and it used to say " I " and
"Thou shalt not have." And some say he
drove our Rabbis from before him, as it is
written (2 Kings vi. 1), And the sons of the

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 99

prophets said to Elisha, Behold the place where

we sit is too strait for us, whereas up till that

time it had not been too small.

What of R. Jehoshua ben Perahjah ? [See

the continuation (7) above, p. 50.]
Commentary. — It must be borne in mind that this
passage is continuous with that describing the excom-
munication of Jesus by R. Jehoshua ben Perahjah, No.
(7) above, p. 50. The whole passage occurs in b. Sotah
47a and b. Sanh. 107b. The story of Jesus has been
given according to the latter version, for the sake of
being able to use the various readings of Rabbinowicz,
which are not available for the treatise Sotah. The
story about Gehazi is given according to the version
in Sotah, because it is somewhat fuller, and omits
nothing of importance that is found in the version in
Sanhedrin.

The connexion of a story about Jesus with a story
about Gehazi suggests that there may be, under the
figure of Gehazi, a covert reference to some person
associated with Jesus. It will not be forgotten that
Gehazi is one of the four men expressly excluded from
the world to come, and that the other three are Balaam,
Doeg and Ahitophel. We have already seen reason
to believe that Balaam is a type of Jesus (see above,
p. 64 fol.), and that Doeg and Ahitophel are else-
where said to have been heretics (Minim), a term
which in some cases certainly denotes Christians. It
is natural, therefore, to look amongst the followers of
Jesus for the man of whom Gehazi is the type. I
suggest that the man referred to is Paul. In what
is said about Gehazi, in the passage before us and
elsewhere, there are several points of likeness to

JOO CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

Paul ; and it would certainly be strange if the man
who, more than any other except Jesus, was the foe
of the traditional Judaism, and who, moreover, had
been in his youth a strict Pharisee, should be passed
over in silence by the defenders of that Judaism when
they had occasion to refer to Christianity.

In the passage before us, the subject under discus-
sion is the duty of attending on or accompanying a
man walking forth from a town ; and a chance
mention of Elisha is made the excuse for introducing
a long haggadah about him, of which our passage
forms part. The story translated above is, of course,
a haggadic enlargement of the story in 2 Kings v.
of the dismissal and punishment of Gehazi for
covetousness. The curious statement that Elisha
was studying the law about the eight kinds of creep-
ing things is only a fantastic explanation of the
punishment of Gehazi. Elisha said, ' Is this a time
to receive silver and raiment and olive-gardens.' etc.,
mentioning eight things. And the objection is made
that Gehazi had not received all these, but only the
first two. R. Jitzhaq explains this by saying that
Elisha was studying the law about the eight creeping
things forbidden for food. The connexion is not,
however, simply the number eight. The punishment,
according to this fanciful exposition, is inflicted upon
Gehazi for having broken the law about eating the
creeping things. The absurdity of this explanation
is somewhat diminished when we remember that it
was Paul more than anyone else who repudiated the
Jewish laws of clean and unclean food. In reference
to the real Gehazi the explanation has no point, but
in reference to Paul it has a good deal.

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 101

Significant also is the fact that Gehazi was a
renegade disciple of a great master; and although
this is, of course, found in the O.T. story, and is not
a haggadic invention, it is none the less applicable
to Paul, the disciple of Gamaliel. So, too, the
fact that Gehazi went to Damascus (not stated, but
implied in the statement that Elisha went thither
to try and bring him to repentance) has its parallel
in the fact that Paul went to Damascus, and was
there as a Christian (Acts ix. 22). The answer of
Gehazi to Elisha, that one who has sinned and caused
the multitude to sin is allowed no chance to repent,
has no meaning in reference to the real Gehazi, but
harmonizes well with the case of Paul. It should be
noticed that this answer is exactly the same as that
which, in the companion story, Jesus makes to It.
Jehoshua ben Perahjah.1

Further, the accounts of what happened afterwards
to Gehazi deserve notice. ■ Some say that he set up
a loadstone according to the sin of Jeroboam.' The
sin of Jeroboam consisted in setting up the calves in
Bethel and Dan ; and Rashi, in his comment on this
passage, says that he did so by means of a loadstone
which will lift metal from the earth. What may be
the meaning of a loadstone in reference to Paul will
be seen presently ; but he so far followed the example
of Jeroboam as to establish centres of worship other
than Jerusalem. ■ Some say that he wrote the Name
upon its mouth, and it used to say " I " and " Thou

1 The words of the answer are, however, a general Rabbinical maxim, not
peculiar to this passage. The origin of the maxim is fonnd in 1 Kings xiv.
16 ; and the Rabbinical aphorism occurs in T. Joma v. 11, b. Joma 87a,
Aboth. v. 18 (in connexion with * disciples of Balaam').

102 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

shalt not have." ' What is referred to here is again
the loadstone, and it would seem that a statue is
intended. The Name that he wrote, or carved, upon
the mouth of the figure is the name of God, the
Name which was forbidden to be pronounced. And
the words which the figure uttered are the opening
of the Ten Commandments. The meaning seems
to be that Paul set up some figure representing a
person whom he asserted to be equal with God.
That images of Christ were to be seen in Christian
churches in the time of Paul is not to be supposed ;
but that they were well known to the Rabbis of the
time to which our passage belongs, is certain. And
considering how much the doctrine of the Deity of
Christ owes to the teaching of Paul, it would not be
unnatural for a Jew to charge him with setting up
images of Christ to be worshipped as God. Pos-
sibly the clue may be found in John xii. 32 : And
I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto
myself,

6 Some say that he drove our Rabbis from before
him.' This is explained by Rashi to mean that the
Rabbinical academies were crowded by the disciples
whom Gehazi drove away. Whether there is here
any reference to Paul I am not prepared to say.

As to the date of this passage, nothing can be
precisely determined. It is found only in the Baby-
lonian Gemara, and no Rabbi is mentioned as an
authority except for some small portions. R. Johanan
belongs to the third century (d. 279 a.d.), and R.
Jitzhaq was a younger contemporary. Both lived in
Palestine. The passage about Gehazi is perhaps
older than that about Jesus, as suggested above,

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 103

p. 54, and served as the introduction to that story.
But, on the other hand, the story about Jesus had a
foundation in Palestinian tradition, as the story of
Gehazi (Paul) had. And in both cases, what we
have is a product of the Babylonian schools. Both
are probably of very late date, and though one may
have preceded the other, there seems no reason to
place any considerable interval between them.

It is curious, by the way, that in neither story is
any further reference made to that repulsion by both
hands, which each story is quoted to illustrate.1

Ben Damah and Jacob of Chephar Sama
(Sechanja).

(28) T. Hull, ii. 22, 23.— The case of R. El'azar ben
Damah, whom a serpent bit. There came in
Jacob, a man of Chephar Sama, to cure him
in the name of Jeshua' ben Pandira, but R.
Ishmael did not allow it. He said, ' Thou art
not permitted, Ben Damah.' He said, • I will
bring thee a proof that he may heal me.' But
he had not finished bringing a proof when he
died. R. Ishmael said, ■ Happy art thou, Ben
Damah, for thou hast departed in peace, and
hast not broken through the ordinances of the
wise ; for upon every one who breaks through
the fence of the wise, punishment comes at
last, as it is written [Eccl. x. 8]: Whoso
breaketh a fence a serpent shall bite him.

(29) j. Shabb. 14d. — Almost word for word the same
as (28), then follows: — The serpent only bit

1 For the phrase, see Mechilta, Jithro, 58b.

104 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

him in order that a serpent might not bite him
in the future. And what could he [B. Damah]
have said ? (Lev. xviii. 5) : Wliich, if a man do,
he shall live in them [i.e. not die in them].

(30) j. A. Zar. 40d, 41a.— Same as (29), except that
after the words " came in to cure him," is
added, " He said, We will speak to thee in the
name of Jeshu ben Pandira."

(31) b. A. Zar. 27b. — A man shall have no dealings
with the Minim, nor be cured by them, even
for the sake of an hour of life. The case of
Ben Dama, sister's son of Rabbi Ishmael, whom
a serpent bit. There came Jacob the Min of
Chephar Sechanja to cure him ; but R. Ishmael
would not allow him. And he [B. Dama] said
to him, ' R. Ishmael, my brother, allow him,
that I may be cured by him, and I will bring
a text from the Torah that this is permitted.'
But he had not finished his discourse when his
soul departed, and he died. R. Ishmael pro-
nounced over him, 'Happy art thou, Ben
Dama, for thy body is pure and thy soul hath
departed in purity, and thou hast not trans-
gressed the words of thy companions, who have
said [Eccl. x. 8]: Whoso breaketh through a

fence, a serpent shall bite him.' It is different

in regard to Minuth, which bites a man, so

that he comes to be bitten afterwards.

Commentary. — A fifth version of this story is given

in the Midrash, Qoheleth Rabba, i. 8, along with a

good deal else referring to Minuth, of which use will

be made subsequently. The story of Ben Damah

there given, however, does not add anything to what

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 105

is contained in one or other of the four versions
already cited.

We have here to deal with an event separated by
no long interval of time from the date at which it was
first recorded. R. Ishmael was one of the most
distinguished Rabbis whose teaching is contained in
the Mishnah and Tosephta ; he lived in the first half
of the second century, and there is reason to believe
that he did not die in the war of Bar Cocheba, or im-
mediately afterwards (a.d. 135), but survived it some
years [see below, p. 131 fol]. R. Ishmael spent the
greater part of his life in Chephar Aziz, a village in
the extreme south, on the borders of Idumea (M.
Qid. vi. 4, Khethub. v. 8). It is not likely that he
would there be brought into contact with a Galilean,
and Jacob of Chephar Sama (or Sechanja) was of
course a Galilean. But it is said that R. Ishmael was
present at an assembly of Rabbis at Usha, in Galilee
(b. B. Bathr. 28% b),x and although the date of that
meeting cannot be precisely determined, it seems
probable that it took place not long before the out-
break of the rebellion of Bar Cocheba, say 130. a.d.
or thereabouts. Two assemblies at Usha are distinctly
mentioned (b. R. ha Sh. 31% b), the second being
immediately after the close of the rebellion. It is
probable, then, that the incident of Ben Damah and
Jacob of Chephar Sama (Sechanja) took place on the
occasion of the first assembly at Usha. Ben Damah
is elsewhere (b. Menah. 99b) said to have asked

1 The assembly at Usha, here mentioned, is probably the second of the
two, as that was certainly the more famous. But if R. Ishmael attended the
second, there is every reason to suppose that he also attended the first. This
is all that matters as far as his presence in Galilee is concerned.

106 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

permission from his uncle, R. Ishmael, to study Greek
philosophy. Permission was refused by the quotation
of Josh. i. 8, Thou shalt meditate thereon [the book
of the Law] day and night, and the command,
' Go, seek a time when it is neither day nor night,
and therein study Greek philosophy.'

Jacob of Chephar Sama or Sechanja is evidently a
Christian ; but, no less evidently, he cannot have been
a contemporary of Jesus, still less identical with James
(Jacob) the brother of Jesus, as has been suggested.
The latter was put to death somewhere about the
year 44 a.d. ; and R. Ishmael was only a boy when
Jerusalem was captured in a.d. 70. Jacob was an
extremely common name, and no identification with
any known Christian is possible. The place to which
this Jacob belonged is called variously Chephar Sama
and Ch. Sechanja. The first is thought to be the
modern Khefr Sumeia, and the second the well-known
Sichnin (modern Suchnin) ; as these two places are
only nine miles apart, Jacob may quite well have been
associated with both. In a passage which will be
examined presently, this same Jacob is said to have
talked with R. Eliezer b. Horqenos, in the High
Street of Sepphoris, and to have communicated to
him a saying of Jesus. [See below, p. 138 and
especially p. 143]. If we suppose that Jacob was,
roughly speaking, about the same age as R. Eliezer,
he would belong to the third generation of Christian
disciples, hardly to the second.

As to the details of the story, there is little variation
among the several versions given above. In all, the
Christian proposes to heal the sick man in the name of
Jeshu ben Pandira, i.e. as the Palestinian Gemara (30)

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 107

says, by pronouncing that name over the sufferer (cp.
Acts iii. 6, ix. 34 ; Mark xvi. 17, 18). R. Ishmael
refused to allow the cure to be performed, although
his nephew pleaded that he had scripture warrant for
it. He died while speaking; but the Palestinian
Gemara (29) supplies what he had not time to say, by
referring to Lev. xviii. 5. Ben Damah would have
argued that since a man was to live by doing the
things commanded in the Torah, he would be justified,
for the sake of them, in saving his life.

The quotation of Eccl. x. 8 is ambiguous. It
appears to have been suggested by the mere fact of
B. Damah having been bitten by a serpent. But, on
the other hand, according to the text, the bite of a
serpent was a punishment for having " broken through
a fence," i.e. "transgressed the ordinances of the
Rabbis," according to the Rabbinical interpretation.
Now Ben Damah had not done this, and therefore
R. Ishmael praised him ; but he had been bitten by a
serpent. Tosephta (28) does not attempt to get over
the difficulty; the Pal. Gemara (29) explains that
the bite of the serpent, which killed Ben Damah, was
to prevent him from meeting a worse fate hereafter ;
for if he had " transgressed the ordinances of the
wise," he would have been a heretic, and in the world
to come would have suffered the fate of a heretic.
In other words, Jacob the heretic would have infected
him with the venom of heresy, if allowed to cure his
wound, and thus the literal serpent saved him from
the figurative serpent.

The word translated 'heresy' is Minuth, the
abstract noun from Min ; and there can be no ques-
tion but that here the heresy intended is Christianity.

108 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

This is evident from the mention of Jacob as a dis-
ciple of Jesus, and it is important as helping to decide
the real significance of the terms Min and Minuth.
The next extract will afford evidence of a similar
kind.

The Grandson of R. Jehoshua ben Levi
and a Christian Doctor

(32) j. Shabb. 14d.— The grandson [of R. Jehoshua
ben Levi] had something stuck in his throat.
There came, a man and whispered to him in
the name of Jeshu Pandera, and he recovered.
When he [the doctor] came out, he [R.
Jehoshua] said to him, 'What didst thou
whisper to him ? ' He said to him, < A certain
word.' He said, * It had been better for him
that he had died rather than thus.' And it
happened thus to him, as it were an error that
proceedetkfrom the ruler (Ecc. x. 5).

j. A. Zar. 40d gives the passage in the same

words as above, this page of the treatise being,

indeed, to a considerable extent a repetition of

that in the treatise Shabbath. The story is

found also in the Midrash Qoh. rabbah, on

x. 5, in a shorter form.

Commentary.— Jehoshua ben Levi is one of the

best known of the Talmudic Rabbis. He lived and

taught for the most part at Lud (Lydda), where he

followed his own teacher Bar Qappara, a.d. 260.

But he was in close association with the two great

teachers, Johanan and Resh Laqish, whose college

was in Tiberias. It is probable that it was in Tiberias

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 109

that the incident took place which is described above.
For the grandson referred to was probably the son of
R. Joseph (son of R. Jehoshua) who had married into
the family of the Patriarch Jehudah II., and Tiberias
was the latter's place of residence. A Christian
doctor might be met with elsewhere, as in the case of
R. Abahu, in the next extract.

The main outline of the story resembles that of
Ishmael and Ben Damah, except that in the passage
before us the Christian was not prevented from doing
what he came to do. R. Jehoshua had not been
present to interfere, but apparently only met him as
he was coming away. The meaning of the quotation
from Ecc. x. 5, I suppose to be, that the fact of the
child having been cured by a Christian was a deplor-
able evil which could not be undone, as the command
of a ruler given in error, and implicitly obeyed, may
result in mischief which cannot be afterwards put
right. This is on the lines of the explanation given
by Rashi and Aben Ezra in their commentaries on
Ecclesiastes. It is characteristic of the feeling of
Jews towards Christians in the third century in"\
Palestine.

That feeling is further illustrated by the following :

R. Abahu, and Jacob the Min

(33) b. A. Zar. 28a.— And yet, R. Abahu was an
eminent man, and Jacob the Min applied a
drug to his leg, and if it had not been for R.
Ami and R. Asi, who licked his leg, he would
have cut his leg off.

Commentary. — The above occurs in the midst of a

110 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

discussion on the question whether in cases of sick-
ness the help of non- Jewish physicians might be used.
R. Johanan laid down the rule that in cases for which
the Sabbath might be profaned, i.e. in very dangerous
cases, such help might not be used, but that in slighter
cases it might; the meaning of which seems to be
that all risk was to be avoided of a man dying under
non-Jewish treatment. This rule is given immedi-
ately after the story of Ben Damah, already discussed,
and is repeated just before the present passage re-
ferring to Abahu. The connexion is this, that an
exception might be made to Johanan's rule if the
patient were an eminent man, "and yet, R. Abahu
was an eminent man, etc."

Abahu lived in Caesarea at the end of the third and
the beginning of the fourth century. He had very
frequent intercourse with Christians, as will be seen
hereafter, and such intercourse was not always un-
friendly. The Gemara in recording the above inci-
dent seems to suppose that Jacob the Min intended
to kill his patient by putting poison into a wound in
his leg, and says that if Abahu's two friends had not
licked the poison off (or rather perhaps sucked it out)
Abahu would have cut off his own leg rather than be
saved by a Christian. And the Gemara supports its
view by quoting Jud. xvi. 30, where Samson says,
* Let me die with the Philistines? to show that the
Christian was bent on killing Abahu though he should
lose his own life in consequence. But this can hardly
be the real meaning of the incident. Abahu was * an
eminent man,' closely associated with the court of the
Roman governor, and would therefore be attended by
a physician of his own choice. Indeed, the whole

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 111

point of the story, in reference to Johanan's rule about
calling in non-Jewish physicians, implies that Abahu
must himself have called in Jacob the Min, knowing
him to be a Min. If so, he cannot have felt any such
dislike towards his physician, as would make him cut
off his own leg rather than allow the Christian remedy
to be applied. His two friends, however, appear to
have felt as R. Ishmael and R. Jehoshua felt, as de-
scribed in the preceding passages. They licked off,
or sucked out, the drug applied by the Christian ; and
whether they supposed it to be poison, or only dis-
liked a Christian remedy, their antipathy to the
Christian is equally apparent.

The commentary of Tosaphoth on the passage
explains, rather needlessly, that the Jacob the Min
who is mentioned here cannot have been the same as
the Jacob of Chephar Sama (Sechanja) who attended
Ben Damah. There was a period of some 170 years
between them.

In b. Hull 84a occurs a reference to a certain Jacob
the Min, who is said to have discussed a point of
Halachah with Raba, a Babylonian teacher in Mahuza,
early in the fourth century.1 As far as chronology is
concerned this might be the same Jacob as the one
who attended Abahu; but I do not know what he
should be doing in Mahuza. Jacob was a very
common name, and there must have been many
Jewish Christians who were so called.

tt! °<P; ^ thtK T: W?ere "a oertain Min" has an a***** with Raba.
The Jacob Minaah' who met Raba is hardly identical with the 'Jacob

^rfi.7 h0TTVe™d *** R* Jehudah <b- MeS- 23a), if this be R
Jehudah ben Jehesq'el, since the latter died about the time (a.d. 292) when
Raba was born. N '

112 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

A Contest of Miracles

(34) j. Sanh. 25d. — For example, R. Lazar and R.
Jehoshua and R. Aqiba went up to bathe in a
certain public bath in Tiberias. A certain Min
(heretic) saw them. He said something, and
the arched roof held them fast. It. Lazar
said to It. Jehoshua, < What ! Jehoshua ben
Hananjah, see what thou canst do.' When
that Min went forth, R. Jehoshua said some-
thing, and the door held him fast, and every-
one who entered gave him a blow, and every
one who went out gave him a thrust in the
back. He said, 'Undo what ye have done.'
They said, ' Undo, and we will undo.' They
each did so. When they had gone forth, R.
Jehoshua said, ' Well, how clever thou art ! '
He said, ' Let us go down to the sea.' When
they had gone down to the sea, the Min said
something, and the sea was divided. He said
to them, < And did not Moses your master do
thus in the sea ? ' They said to him, ' Wilt
thou not agree with us that Moses our master
walked in the midst of it ? ' He said to them,
1 Yes.' They said to him, ' Then do thou walk
in the midst of it.' He walked in the midst of
it. And R. Jehoshua commanded the Prince
of the Sea, and he swallowed him up.
Commentary. — The foregoing tale is given as an
illustration in a discussion upon magic and witch-
craft, arising out of the text (Exod. xxii. 18), Thou
shalt not suffer a witch to live. The three Rabbis

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 113

mentioned are very well known characters. R. Lazar *
is R. El'azar ben Azariah. R. Jehoshua ben
Hananiah was the contemporary, and, in a sense,
rival of R. Eliezer ben Horqenos whom we have
already met with (see above, No. 4). Aqiba has also
been frequently mentioned. All three were living
at the beginning of the second century a.d. The
Christian might, so far as chronology goes, have been
the same Jacob of Chephar Sama who came to cure
Ben Damah ; but there is nothing to identify him.
The story itself needs little explanation. The Rabbis
go to a public bath and apparently enter a room with
a vaulted roof. Levy (N. H. W., ii. 322, s.v. rmo)
says that what is meant is the arched recess where an
idol stood ; but the quotation which he gives in sup-
port of this view (b. A. Zar. 16a) does not seem to
me to show this. However, it was evidently some
small arch, under or in which a man could stand.
The Min, whom here we may safely call a Christian
(after the example of Jacob the Min, who was a dis-
ciple of Jesus), pronounced a spell, literally ' said what
he said,' and the arch held them fast. Jehoshua
retaliated by a spell which caused the door to hold
the Christian fast, so that he blocked the way, and
people as they tried to go in or out struck him.
After releasing each other they all went down to * the
sea/ i.e. the lake of Galilee. By another spell the
Christian divided the water, to show that he could
do what Moses did. He incautiously admitted that
Moses also walked in the midst of the divided water,
and he was challenged to do the same. He fell into

1 Lazar is the shorter form of Eleazar, and appears in the N. T. as
Lazarus.

114 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

the trap ; and when he was in the midst of the water,
Jehoshua commanded the 'Prince of the Sea,' the
angel or spirit in charge of the lake, and the water
swallowed him up.

This story is anonymous, and there is nothing to
indicate its age or origin. It is certainly not con-
temporary with the Rabbis who figure in it, unless
we admit that Jehoshua ben Hananiah enjoyed during
his lifetime the reputation for magical power which
was afterwards attributed to him. It should be noted
that the miracles of the Christian are admitted to be
as real as those of his opponent. There is complete
faith in miracles all through the story. I use the
term ' miracle,' though the Talmud speaks of magic,
because it is well to remind the reader that what
the N.T. calls a miracle (at least in English,
the Greek has 0-77/xeia or Swa/xeis), the Talmud —
reflecting current belief — regards as magic, i.e. as the
result of superhuman agency employed by men who
know how to call it forth. Without expressing any
opinion on the reality of the alleged miracles of Jesus,
I would remark that the Jews admitted them as
genuine, no less than the acts performed by their own
Rabbis, the difference being not in the character of
the deeds, but in that of the persons who performed
them. So in the story above, the rival enchanters
perform exactly similar acts; and since the story is
told from the Jewish side, naturally the victory
remains with the Rabbi. The fate of the Christian
may perhaps contain an allusion to the story told in
the Gospels, of Peter trying to walk on the water. If
that story had its origin in Galilee, it might well
continue to be remembered on the shores of the lake.

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 115

On the same page in which the passage above
translated occurs are some further remarks on Jewish
and Christian miracles, which may throw light on the
probable date of the story. They would have to be
included in any collection of Talmudic references to
Christianity, but are hardly of sufficient importance
to be treated by themselves under a separate head.
They will therefore be given here.

Miracles by Jews and Minim

(35) j. Sanh. 25d. — R. Jehoshua ben Hananiah
said, ' I can take cucumbers and melons and
make them into kids and goats, and they really
are made into kids and goats/ R. Jannai said,
' I was walking in a certain street of Sepphoris,
and I saw a certain Min take a bird, and he
cast it up and it fell down and was made into
a calf.' But it is not so. R. Lazar said in
the name of R. Josd ben Zimra, ' If all who
come into the world were assembled together,
they would not be able to create a gnat and
put breath in it.' Let us say, not that this Min
took a bird and cast it up and it came down
and was made into a calf, but that he called to
his prince [familiar spirit] and he stole a calf
from the herd and brought it to him. R.
Hanina ben R. Hananiah said, ' I was going
along a certain place near the gate of Sepphoris,
and I saw a Min take a skull and cast it up and
it came down and was made into a calf. And
I went and told my father. He said, * If thou

116 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

hast eaten of it, it is a real one ; if not, it is an

illusion.'
Commentary. — R. Jannai lived in Sepphoris about
the end of the second and the beginning of the third
century. He was one of the teachers of R. Johanan,
to whom is traditionally ascribed the codification of
the Palestinian Gemara. R. Jannai's remark about
the miracle which he saw is given without the
support of any later teacher who vouched for it. It
is simply quoted by the compilers of the Gemara as a
detached saying. R. Jose b. Zimra was contemporary
with R. Jannai, possibly an inhabitant of the same
town. He is quoted by R. Lazar (i.e. El'azar b.
Pedath), a Babylonian who migrated to Palestine
about the middle of the third century. Apparently
the compilers of the Gemara felt some misgiving at
the assertion that animals had been produced by
magic, and they quote R. Jose* b. Zimra in support of
the view that no human being can create even the
smallest living creature; but they do not on that
account reject the miracle. They explain it by
saying that it was done by the help of superhuman
beings, who brought what was wanted, in place of the
thing that was apparently changed. A similar doubt
as to the reality of the miracle is expressed in the
story about R. Hanina b. R. Hananiah, where his
father told him that unless he had actually eaten of
the calf which he said he had seen made, he could not
be sure it was a real one.

All these sayings and stories about magic seem to
belong to a late period, and to be merely fragments
collected by the compilers of the Gemara, by way
of illustration, rather than duly recorded tradition.

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 117

That the real R. Jehoshua b. Hananiah, a very well-
known personage, should have said that he had the
magical power ascribed to him above, is less likely
than that such power should have been attributed to
him in later times. He had indeed the reputation of
being a great opponent of the Minim (heretics), and
that may account for the part which he played in the
contest with the Christian in the first story.

It is remarkable that nearly all the incidents men-
tioned above are located in Sepphoris, and that the
same place was the scene of a much more important
event, the meeting of JR.. Eliezer b. Horqenos and
Jacob of Chephar Sama. It would be very inter-
esting to know whether the Jewish Christians of
Galilee possessed an original Galilean, as distinguished
from the Judaean, tradition of the ministry of Jesus.

The above passages serve to show that miracles
were accepted as genuine, whether done by Jews or
Christians, and that they were all alike regarded as
magical.

It has been impossible to avoid mentioning the
word Min x in the above remarks, since it occurs in
the texts to be translated. And 1 have translated it
6 Christian ' because the connexion with Jesus seemed
to be clearly shown. But I do not wish to take it for
granted that in all cases ( Min ' denotes a Christian.
I will therefore present here several passages in which
the Talmud attempts to indicate what is a Min. And
although this will still leave something to be said by
way of general discussion of the question, after all the
Rabbinical passages referring to ' Minim ' have been
given, yet a provisional definition by the Rabbis

1 Min, plural Minim ; abstract noun Minuth, the state of being a Min.

118 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

themselves will be of much use in dealing with subse-
quent passages. I proceed to give

DEFINITIONS OF MIN, MINUTH

The Fate of the Minim Hereafter

(36) T. Sanh. xiii. 4, 5.— The sinners of Israel, and
the sinners of the nations of the world descend
into Gehinnom in their body, and they are
judged there twelve months. After twelve
months their soul perishes and their body is
burnt, and Gehinnom casts it out, and they
are made dust and the wind disperses them
and scatters them under the soles of the feet
of the righteous, as it is said (Mai. iv. 3), And
ye shall tread down the wicked, for they shall be
dust under the soles of the feet of the righteous,
fCh)l)' ll< in the day that I do make, saith the Lord of
Hosts. But the Minim, and the apostates
and the betrayers and Epiqurosin, and those
who have lied concerning the Torah, and those
who depart from the ways of the congregation,
and those who have lied concerning the resur-
rection of the dead, and everyone who has
sinned and caused the multitude to sin, after
the manner of Jeroboam and Ahab, and those
(Ezek. xxxii. 24) who have set their fear in the
land of the living, and have stretched forth their
hand against Zebul, Gehinnom is shut in their
faces and they are judged there for generations
of generations, as it is said (Isa. lxvi. 24),
And they shall go forth and look upon the
corpses of tJie men who sin against me, for their

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 119

worm shall not die, nor their fire be quenched,
and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.
Sheol fails, they fail not, as it is said (Ps. xlix.
14), Their beauty shall be for Sheol to con-
sume, who hath caused them to stretch forth
their hand against Zebul, as it is said {ibid,),
that there be no Zebul for him, and Zebul
means nothing else but the Temple, as it is
said (1 Kings viii. 13), J have surely built
thee an house of habitation (Zebul), a place for
thee to dwell in for ever.
Commentary. — A sharp distinction is here made
between Jewish and Gentile sinners on the one hand,
and Minim, betrayers and Epiqurosin on the other.
The Jewish sinners remain Jews though they sin.
The Gentile sinners have not sinned against the Torah
of Israel, because they are not bound by it. They
are punished merely qua sinners ; and twelve months
in Gehinnom suffices to punish their offence. Far
greater is the guilt of those who, being Jews, have
sinned against the fundamental principles of the
Jewish religion. Apostasy in some form or another
is implied in the terms 'Minim,' 'apostates/ 'be-
trayers,' ' Epiqurosin.' These are not interchangeable.
Reserving for the moment the first, the betrayers
(Masoroth) are explained by Rashi to mean "slan-
derers, who betray the wealth of Israel into the hands
of Gentiles." More particularly they are Jewish
'delators,' informers, spies, acting against Israel in
the interest of the Roman government. Epiqurosin
(plur. of Epiquros) is plainly borrowed from the
personal name Epicurus ; but it contains also a play
on the word 'paqar' ("ipa), which means 'to be free

120 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

from restraint.' The name denotes, in general terms,
a freethinker, one who disregards the restraints of
traditional authority. An Epiquros was not neces-
sarily a Jew, he might be a Gentile. Thus it is said
(b. Sanh. 38b), " They teach there [in Palestine] R.
El'azar said, 'Be careful to learn Torah, and know
what thou shalt answer to an Epiquros.' R. Johanan
said, 'They taught not so except concerning an
Epiquros of the Gentiles.' But all the more concern-
ing a Jewish Epiquros, for he is more defiant (>bb nps)." 1
In other words the Jewish Epiquros was the more
dangerous opponent because he was an enemy within
the camp. The term does not, so far as 1 know, imply
the holding or rejecting of any specific doctrines,
but merely the assertion of liberty of thought upon
all subjects, and consequent disregard of external
authority. A Gentile Epiquros would be one who,
in controversy, did not from the first admit the
authority of Jewish tradition as upheld by the Rabbis,
a Jewish Epiquros would be one who, having formerly
acknowledged the Rabbinical authority, afterwards
rejected it. But a man is only an Epiquros, if I
\\ rightly understand the term, when he is considered
*» as having relation with the Jewish religion. A Greek
philosopher, teaching in Rome or Athens, would not,
merely as such, be an Epiquros ; but if he had a con-
troversy with a Jew upon some question affecting
Judaism, then he would be a Gentile Epiquros. A
Jew became an Epiquros as soon as he showed a
disposition to despise the Rabbinical authority and
go his own way. Thus it is said (b. Sanh. 99b) that
an Epiquros is like those who say, ' What are these

1 See below, p. 294 fol.

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 121

Rabbis to us ? ' And on the same page they are
compared to "one who sits before his Rabbi, and
there has come to him a tradition from another place,
and he says, ' Thus we teach there,' instead of saying,
'Thus the teacher (Rabbi so-and-so) hath said.'"
Compare with this, Matthew v. 21, 22 : It was said
to them of old time .... but I say unto you. We
may then provisionally assume that Epiquros denotes
a free-thinker in the widest sense of the word.

It will be evident that the term Min denotes some-
thing similar to Epiquros, since they are both in-
cluded in the passage before us, along with apostates
and betrayers. The various details of apostasy —
denial of the resurrection of the dead, of the Torah,
etc. — are not specified as being characteristic of one
class of apostates more than of another ; and we may
take them as applying to Minim no less than to
Epiqurosin, while on the other hand there must be
some difference to account for the use of two terms
where one would have sufficed. The difference
between Min and Epiquros is much the same as the
difference between 'heretic' and 'free-thinker.' The
heretic usually is a free-thinker ; but not every free-
thinker is a heretic. From the standpoint of Judaism
a Gentile might be a free-thinker, but not a heretic ;
since, being a Gentile, he had never professed the

heretic without being also a free-thinker. The term
Min_jdeno_tes, I believe, invariably a Jewish heretic, i
i.e. one who, having been trained in the principles^of
the Jewish religion, departs from them and is un-
faithful towards them, violates the covenant between

Jewish religion. Only a Jew could be a heretic
as regards Judaism; and he could scarcely be a

122 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

God and Israel.1 This I believe to be the root sig-
nificance of the term Min, and if so it would be
practically equivalent to Jewish Epiquros. But I
think that Min, more often than Epiquros, implies not
merely freedom of thought, but the holding or re-
jecting of specific opinions. It does not always do so;
but it does sometimes, while I believe that this is
hardly ever the case with Epiquros. We have already
met with several instances of the word Min, and have
judged from the context that the persons referred to
were Christians. So far as I know, the Talmud
seldom, if ever speaks of a Christian as Epiquros.
And I infer that the term Min carried with it the
denial of certain doctrines, as the expression of the
unfaithfulness in which his heresy consisted. A Min,
as such, was not necessarily a Christian ; but, as a /
matter of fact, most of the heretics who came into
strained relations with Jews were Christians, and
more particularly Jewish Christians. If they had
been Gentile Christians they would probably have
been called Epiqurosin. And thus it often happens
that ' Jewish - Christian ' is a correct equivalent
of 'Min,' while yet it remains true that Min does
not properly signify 'Jewish-Christian,' but only
■ heretic' 2 This, at all events, is the meaning which

1 For the probable etymology of the word Min, see below, p. 362 fol.

a Friedlander (der Vorchristliche jiidische Gnosticismus ; Gottingen, 1898)
attempts to prove that the Minim were in all cases Gnostics, and more
particularly of the Ophite sect His work will be more fully noticed in the
concluding division of this book, when having the whole of the Talmudic
evidence before us, we shall be able to judge of the value of his conclusions.
His treatment of the Rabbinical authorities is far from satisfactory, if only
because he bases his theory upon a comparatively small number of passages
not always fairly presented. For a glaring omission, hardly to be ex-
cused, see below, p. 145 n.

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 12S

I provisionally adopt of the term Min. I should have
preferred, if possible, to have presented all the
passages referring to Min and Minuth before at-
tempting to fix the significance to be attached to the
words ; but in that case it would have been difficult,
if not impossible, to have given any clear idea of the
bearing of each passage upon my main subject. It
will be necessary to compare this provisional meaning
with the context in each case, and to attempt a more
precise identification of the class of persons referred to.
It remains now to remark upon the details of the
passage which has led to this discussion. It should
be noted that it is contained in the Tosephta, and is
thus not later than the end of the second or the be-
ginning of the third century. " Who have lied con-
cerning the Torah." The particular point of the
denial is not stated ; but a comparison with M. Sanh.
x. 1 makes it probable that the heretics denied that
the Torah was from heaven. It is not stated that
they denied the Torah, but that they lied concerning
it, a charge which might cover a variety of offences.
Similarly, " who have lied concerning the resurrection
of the dead" does not necessarily imply that re-
surrection itself was denied, but that some falsehood
was taught concerning it ; probably, that it could not
be proved from the Torah (M. Sanh. loc. cit).
" Everyone who has sinned and caused the multitude
to sin." We have already met with this phrase in
connexion with both Jesus and Paul, (see above, pp.
51, 101), and may fairly conclude that it is here
directed against preachers of heresy, of whom, no
doubt, Christians were the most important. "Who
have set their terror in the land of the living " is a

124 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

quotation from Ezek. xxxii. 24, 26, and as such, the
precise point of the present application of the words
remains doubtful. As used in Ezekiel, the words
refer to the great nations — Asshur, Elam, Tubal,
Meshech, and Edom — -who had at various times op-
pressed Israel: and it is possible, especially in view
of the following clause " Who have stretched forth
their hands against Zebul (the Temple)," that the
reference is to the Roman Empire, the oppressor
above all others. If this is so, then it must be ad-
mitted that these two last clauses do not in any way
serve to describe Minim, or heretics. But, on the
other hand, it seems forced and unnatural to pass so
suddenly from heretics to political enemies; and
further, the Talmud nowhere else, so far as I know,
threatens the Romans, or even the Roman Emperor,
with the fate here described. The date of the passage
forbids us to think of a time when the Roman Empire
had officially become Christian, and there is no reason
to suspect an interpolation in the text. The political
reference seems then to be excluded, and " those who
have set their fear in the land of the living," must be J
understood of some class of heretics. The explanation
of R. Hisda (b. R. ha-Sh. 17a), that the reference is
to " the steward, d:iq, of the synagogue, who makes
himself too much feared by the congregation," does
not seem adequate, in view of the severity of the
punishment which is threatened. " Those who have
stretched out their hands against Zebul." It is ex-
plained in the Tosephta itself that Zebul (habitation)
denotes the Temple. But it does not follow that the
reference is to the destruction of the Temple by the
Romans. And since the whole passage seems to be

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 125

directed against heresy in some form, we may perhaps
interpret this clause of those who, like the Christians,
repudiated the claim of the Temple to be the place
where alone worship could be duly and perfectly
offered. Of course the Temple ceased to exist, when
Titus destroyed it ; but this was only de facto, not de
jure.

The sentence pronounced on all these offenders,
heretics, apostates, betrayers, free thinkers, all who in
their various ways sought to undermine the founda-
tions of Rabbinical Judaism, is punishment during
generations of generations in Gehinnom. When it is
said that Gehinnom is shut in their faces, that can
only mean that they cannot escape, though the
natural meaning of shutting a door in the face of
some one is that thereby his entrance is barred.

On the Rabbinical conception of Gehinnom, see
Weber, System der Altsynag. Theologie, p. 326,
374. His translation (p. 375) of the passage which
we have been studying is not sufficiently exact.

The Formula against the Minim

(37) j. Ber. 9C. — Shemuel ha-Qaton went before
the Ark [to recite the prayers]. He forgot
"That casteth down the proud" at the end-
He paused and tried to remember them.
They said to him, " The wise have not framed
it thus."

Commentary. — See the commentary on the much
fuller passage which follows.

(38) b. Ber. 28b, 29a.— Our Rabbis teach : Shim'on
the cotton-seller arranged the Eighteen
Benedictions in the presence of Rabban

126 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

Gamliel, according to their order, in Jabneh.
Rabban Gamliel said to the Wise, " Is there
anyone who knows how to compose a Benedic-
tion of the Minim?" Shemuel ha-Qaton
stood up and composed it. The following
year he forgot it, and sought [to recall it] for
two and even three hours, and they did not
call him up [from the pulpit]. Why did they
not call him up ? For Rab Jehudah said, that
Rab said, " If a man makes a mistake in all
the Benedictions, they do not call him up;
but in the Benediction of the Minim they call
him up." They suspect that he is a Min. It
was different with Shemuel ha-Qaton, because
he had composed it, and it was thought
perhaps he would recover himself.

[The first sentence of this passage occurs in

b. Meg. 17b, where follows a sort of running

commentary on the Eighteen Benedictions.

An incidental reference to the Minim occurs

(according to the reading of Rabbinowicz) ;

but nothing is stated beyond what is contained

in the other passage quoted in this section.]

Commentary. — This is an extremely important

passage, because it records the official condemnation

of the Minim by the Rabbis ; and it will be necessary

to determine as accurately as possible the date of the

incident here narrated.

Before entering upon that investigation, I will
notice the details of the story which call for remark.
The Eighteen Benedictions1 are a series of short

1 For a full account of them, see Hamburger, Eeal Encykl. f. Bibel u.
Talmud, ii., s.v. Schemone-Esre\

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 127

prayers still to be found in the Jewish liturgy. The
word translated Benediction serves equally for male-
diction, and it is rather in that sense that it is used in
regard to the Minim. In the modern liturgy the
Benediction referred to runs thus : — mpn wi fen psufafr,
94 May there be no hope for the slanderers," where the
word for * slanderers ' has been put in place of the
ancient word Minim.1

These Eighteen Benedictions are said to have been
arranged in order by Shim'on the cotton-seller, at
Jabneh, in the presence of Rabban Gamliel. This
was Gamliel II., who held the position of Patriarch
(unw) after the death of Johanan ben Zaccai, some-
where about the year 80 a.d. Of Shemuel ha-Qaton
more will be said presently. He is said to have • com-
posed' the Benediction; but perhaps it would be more
correct to say ' adapted,' altered some previous formula
so as to apply to the Minim. The formula drawn up
by him was taken into use ; and the following year it
fell to the lot of its author to recite it in the public
service. He forgot the words, but tried for three
hours to recall them, while the congregation waited,
and did not " call him up " from the pulpit, i.e. cause
him to leave it. The pulpit or reading-desk was
below, not above, the general level of the seats of the
congregation. According to later usage, a reader
who made a mistake in reciting this benediction would
have been made to leave the desk, because he would
be suspected of being a Min.2 The reason given why
this was not done in the case of Shemuel ha-Qaton

1 The form pWD suggests the transposition p*D h&. Hamburger
thinks that p*6??D is the original which was altered into WO.

2 See j. Ber. 9C, which will be translated and explained below (p. 204).

128 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

was that as he was the author of the formula he
might be expected to remember it.

It is curious that this incident is only given in
detail in the Babylonian Gemara. It is quoted there
as a Baraitha, i.e. it belongs to the stratum of Tradi-
tion contemporary with that embodied in the Mishnah
and Tosephta. So far as I know, the Mishnah does
not expressly mention the "Benediction of the
Minim." In Tosephta the story is not given, but the
Benediction is referred to in a discussion of the
question how the number eighteen is to be completed
(T. Ber. hi. 25). A similar discussion is found in the
Palestinian Gemara (j. Ber. iv. 3). As these do not
throw any light on the story before us, the text of
them will be deferred till the end of the commentary
on this passage.

The incident has every appearance of being
historical; the explanation of Rab, quoted by R.
Jehudah, plainly shows that he knew of the story,
and as he was a disciple of R. Jehudah ha-Qadosh,
the grandson of the Gamliel referred to, he is a
sufficiently good witness.

To determine the date of this incident, which is
important as marking the official breach between the
synagogue and the Minim, it is necessary to examine
carefully the chronology of the life of Shemuel ha-
Qaton. The date of his death will obviously afford
a terminus ad quern for the date of the composition
of the formula against the Minim. The death of
Shemuel ha-Qaton is mentioned in several passages
of the Talmud and Midrash, with but slight variations
in the text. These are as follows : —

(39) T. Sotah xiii. 4. — Also, in the hour of his

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 129

death, he [Sh. ha-Q.] said, " Shim'on and
Ishmael to the sword, and their companions
to slaughter, and the rest of the people to
plunder, and many troubles will come after-
wards " ; and he said this in the Aramaic
tongue.

(40) j. Sotah 24b. — The same words, with the
addition, however, of the following, after 'in
the Aramaic tongue,' "and they knew not
what he said."

(41) b. Sotah 48b.— Same as (39).

(42) b. Sanh lla.— Same as (39).

The question is, to whom did the dying man refer
as " Shim'on and Ishmael " ? One thinks most
naturally of Shim'on ben Gamliel and Ishmael ben
Elisha, who were executed after the capture of
Jerusalem a.d. 70. And, in spite of difficulties, I
believe that this is the right interpretation. The
detailed account in Ab. d. It. Nathan, c. 38, distinctly
implies that the two men executed were the elder
Shim'on b. Gamliel and the elder Ishmael b. Elisha.
For Ishmael there says to Shim'on, "When thou
didst sit and teach on the Mount of the House [i.e.
the Temple], and all the multitude of Israel sat in thy
presence, etc."

Moreover, Ishmael speaks of himself as a priest

and son of a high priest. But, if Shemuel ha-Qaton

was a member of the assembly at Jabneh over which

Rabban Gamliel presided, must not his dying words

have referred to someone whose death took place

later than the year 70 ? The period during which

Rn. Gamliel presided at Jabneh is usually given as

80-110 a.d. or thereabouts, so that Shemuel could

130 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

not have died before 80 a.d. It is therefore held,
amongst others, by Jost, Gratz, Weiss and Bacher,
that the Ishmael referred to was Ishmael ben Elisha
the younger, grandson of the one already mentioned
and contemporary with Aqiba. (See Jost, Gsch. d.
Jdtums., ii. p. 74 ; Gratz, G. d. J., iv. 175 ; Weiss,
G. d. j. T., ii. 102 ; Bacher, Ag. d. Tannaiten, i. 243).
This is also the view of Rashi, at least in so far that
he explains the ■ companions ' of Shimon and Ishmael
to be "such as R. Aqiba and R. Hanina ben Teradjon"
(Rashi on b. Sanh. lla). Of course, these two were
companions of the younger Ishmael. Moreover, it is
said (and this is the strongest evidence in favour of
this view), in Mechilta (Mishpat. c. 18, p. 95b), that
Aqiba uttered a solemn warning to his disciples after
the execution of R. Ishmael and Shimon. This is
repeated in the late Treatise Semahoth c. 8, where,
however, it is distinctly said that the Shim'on in
question was Shim'on ben Gamliel. The passage in
Mechilta is strong evidence, because that Midrash
originated amongst the disciples of the younger
Ishmael, who may be supposed to have known the
circumstances of his death.

Yet, in spite of the above evidence, supported as it
is by the great authority of Jost, Gratz, Weiss, and
Bacher, there is a difficulty in the way of accepting
this interpretation ; because there is evidence to show
that both the younger Ishmael and the younger
Shim'on ben Gamliel survived the persecution of
Hadrian, and died a natural death. This is un-
questionably true in the case of Shim'on ben Gamliel,
who died somewhere about a.d. 166. The historians
above mentioned see clearly that he cannot have been

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 131

the person referred to by Shemuel ha-Qaton, and ac-
cordingly state that Ishmael was executed along with
H a certain Simeon," whom they do not try to identify.
But there is reason for believing that R. Ishmael also
died a natural death, as is shown by Hamburger (R.
EncykL, ii. 526) and Frankel (Darke ha-Mishnah, p.
106). It is said (M. Nedar., ix. 10), "When [R.
Ishmael] died, the daughters of Israel raised a lament
and said, 'Ye daughters of Israel, weep for Rabbi
Ishmael.' " (T. Nedar., v. 6, much the same.) In the
Gemara (b. Nedar. 66b) it is said, « When R. Ishmael
lay dying? the word being ' shechib ' (wr) not ' meth '
( no). Now the word no used in the other passages does
not imply a violent death, while the word i^t? does
imply a natural death.1 The R. Ishmael here referred
to is undoubtedly R. Ishmael ben Elisha the younger,
for he is the R. Ishmael of the Mishnah and Tosephta.
And in view of the fact that a lamentation was raised
for him, compare what is said (b. Sanh. lla), ptsdd p«
nvbn wwi *&> " They do not make lamentation for
those slain by the kingdom " [i.e., political prisoners
executed as rebels, and more particularly those
executed after the rebellion of Bar Cocheba]. If this
can be taken as a correct statement, then R. Ishmael
ben Elisha was not one of those executed at that
time. Further, the view that R. Ishmael survived
the persecution, or, at all events, lived some time after
it had begun, is confirmed by what is recorded in b. B.
Bathra 60b : " It is tradition, R. Ishmael ben Elisha
said . . . . ' from the day when the wicked kingdom

1 3*26? is from the root 2D 8?, to lie, and it i.* used of persons who are
dangerously ill. Cp. b. B. Qam. 38a, 47b, and especially lllb, where Raba
eays, " When I was very ill (&02*2fc>), etc."

132 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

prevailed, which decrees against us wicked and hard
ordinances, and prevents us from fulfilling Torah and
commandments, and does not allow us to assemble to
circumcise a son, etc' " This certainly refers to the
edicts which were made by Hadrian, after the sup-
pression of the rebellion under Bar Cocheba, a.d. 135 ;
and if so, R. Ishmael must have survived at all events
the beginning of the persecution. The form of the
expression, " from the day that the wicked kingdom
prevailed," leads to the conclusion that some time,
probably years, had elapsed since the decrees had
come into force. Finally, if there be any truth
in the extraordinary tale (b. A. Zar. lla) that the
skull of R. Ishmael was preserved among the
Imperial treasures in Rome, that could refer quite
as well to the older Ishmael, who undoubtedly
was executed by the Romans, a.d. 70, as to the
younger Ishmael. It is, in any case, no proof that
the latter was executed.

If these considerations are well founded, then it is
clear that the dying speech of Shemuel ha-Qaton did
not refer to the younger Ishmael and Shimon, unless
on the assumption that the words contain a prophecy
which was not fulfilled. The Talmud does not say
that they were a prophecy, and does regard them
as referring to persons who actually died a violent
death.

There seems to me to be a quite simple explanation,
which will meet all the difficulty of identifying the
Ishmael and Shim'on, and which will also throw light
upon the incident of Shemuel ha-Qaton's mistake in
the recitation of the formula concerning the Minim.
Let us suppose that Shemuel ha-Qaton was a very

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 133

old man at the time of his death. In that case he
would be contemporary with the elder Ishmael ben
Elisha and Shimon ben Gamliel, who were executed
a.d. 70, and no doubt friendly with them. On his
own deathbed, his thoughts may very well have gone
back to the dreadful memories of the war, and have
recalled the tragic fate of his two old friends —
"Shim'on and Ishmael to the sword." All that he
said found ample illustration in the slaughter and
plunder that followed the capture of Jerusalem ; and
it is not at all necessary to suppose that he prophesied
the final catastrophe of the persecution under
Hadrian.1 Now if he was a very old man at the time
of his death, it is easy to understand how such a
failure of memory might have happened to him, as is
described in the incident of the Minim-formula. Such
forgetfulness is certainly much more natural to an old
man than to a young one. Now the question is, Was
he an old man at the time of his death ? It is
generally assumed that he died young ; but, as it
seems to me, the available evidence does not prove
this. If it does not, on the other hand, prove that he
reached an advanced age, it at least allows the
possibility of his having done so. A curious story is
told (j. Sanh. 18c and elsewhere) as follows : — " It
happened that Rabban Gamliel said, 'Let seven elders
meet me in the upper room,' and eight entered. He
said, 'Who is it that has entered without leave?'
Shemuel ha-Qaton stood up upon his feet and said,
P I have come without leave; 1 wanted [to know] the
halachah, and I have come to ask concerning it.'

1 Observe the curious remark (j. Sotah. 24b), that the hearers did not
understand what the dying man said.

134 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

Rabban Gamliel said to him, * O, Eldad and Medad !
[Num. xi. 26] ; for all Israel know that if there are
two such [as they] I say that thou art one of them,'
etc." The Babylonian Gemara (Sanh. lla), which also
tells this story, says : " It was not Shemuel ha-Qaton
who did this [i.e. entered without leave], but another."
And Hananel, in his commentary on the passage, says
that he did it to screen the real culprit. This is
adopted by Bacher (Ag. d. Tann., i. p. 88 n. 3, where
the whole incident is admirably discussed). Now, if
Shemuel ha-Qaton was an old man, and held in high
esteem by Rabban Gamliel, he could rely on his age
and position to shield the real offender much more
confidently than if he had been only a young man.
And when Gamliel says to him, "All Israel know
that if there are two such, thou art one of them," that
seems to imply that the character and standing of
Shemuel were well known, and thus goes to confirm
the view that he was not young. Gamliel would, so
far as we can judge from his character, as elsewhere
described, have been much less tolerant of a young
man who had disobeyed his orders. There is nothing
in the epithet "ha-Qaton," "the small," to prove
that he was young. The distinguishing feature of
his character is said to have been humility, and the
epithet ' ha-Qaton " was supposed to have reference
to that. This virtue of humility caused a comparison
to be made between him and Hillel, so that he was
sometimes called a disciple of Hillel. To suppose,
however, that he actually had been a disciple of
Hillel, would be to stretch the hypothesis of his
advanced age beyond all probability ; for Hillel died
about a.d. 4, and if Shemuel had been his disciple, he

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 185

could hardly have been so at less than twenty years of
age, which would make him at least ninety-six at the
time when Gamliel began to preside over the
assembly of Jabneh.1

Summing up the result of this chronological
inquiry, I recognise that there is not evidence
sufficient positively to decide the question whether
Shemuel lived to an advanced age or not. But I
submit that all the facts recorded about him, and
mentioned above, not only are consistent with, but
find their best explanation in, the hypothesis that he
was already a very old man at the time when Gamliel
began to preside at Jabneh, and I accordingly suggest
that his death, and, a fortiori^ the composition of the
formula concerning the Minim, must be dated very
near the year 80 a.d.

It remains only to say a word with regard to the
formula itself. It was not exactly a malediction,
but, as Gratz (iv. 105) well says, a kind of test-
formula, for the purpose of detecting those who
might be secretly inclined to heresy. The words
ran, "May there be no hope for the Minim."

As already remarked, the Mishnah does not
mention the formula. The passages in Tosephta

1 In j. Hor. 48c it is said that when the wise were assembled in the house
of Gorion, in Jericho, they heard a Bath Qol saying, ■ There are two of you
upon whom the Holy Spirit may worthily rest> and Hillel is one of them.'
They fixed their eyes upon Shemuel ha-Qaton. In the earlier version of this
story, T. Sotah. xiii. 3, Shemuel ha-Qaton is not mentioned in connexion
with Hillel. But the next paragraph narrates how he, in like manner, was
indicated at Jabneh. The authority for connecting Shemuel with Hillel in
the same incident is R. Jehoshua ben Levi, quoted by R. Jacob bar Idi
(j. Sot. 24c). So late a witness can certainly not establish the fact of their
having been contemporaneous ; but his testimony may indicate a traditiom
that Shemuel was an old man when he died.

136 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

and the Palestinian Gemara which refer to it are the
following : —

(43) T. Ber. iii. 25.— The Eighteen Benedictions
which the wise have said, corresponding to
the eighteen Invocations [mentions of the
divine Name] in [Ps. xxix.], Give unto the
Lord, O ye sons of the mighty. The bene-
diction concerning the Minim is included in
that concerning the seceders, and that con-
cerning strangers in that concerning elders,
and that concerning David in that concerning
Jerusalem. And if they said these on their
own account, that would be valid.

(44) j. Ber. 8a. — R. Huna said, If a man saith to
thee, They [the benedictions] are seventeen,
say to him, ' The Wise in Jabneh have before
now appointed that concerning the Minim. '
R. Elazar ben It. Jose1 objected in the
presence of It. Jose' 'But it is written [Ps.
xxix. 3], The God of glory thundereth ' [i.e.
that the divine name is mentioned nineteen,
instead of eighteen, times in the Psalm].
R. Jose replied, But it is taught, The bene-
diction concerning the Minim and the sinners
is included in 'casteth down the proud,' and
that concerning elders and strangers in 'the
refuge for the righteous,' and that concerning
David in 'who buildeth Jerusalem.'

I reserve for the concluding chapter the discussion

■ R. Jose is R. Jos6 ben Halaphta, whose father was intimate with R.
Gamliel of Jabneh. R. Jose himself may possibly have been one of the
assembly at Jabneh ; but, as he was only ordained after a.d. 135, he would
be very young when R. Gamliel died, a.d. 110 or thereabouts.

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 137

of the bearing of the "formula concerning the
Minim" upon the relations between Jesus and
heretics, only remarking here that Jewish Christians
would probably be those who would feel most of its J
force as a means of detecting heresy.

R. Eliezer arrested for Minuth.

(45) T. Hull. ii. 24.— The case of K. Eliezer, who
was arrested for Minuth, and they brought
him to the tribunal (non, fifjua) for judgment.
The governor (p»:n, rjyefjicov) said to him,
'Doth an old man like thee occupy himself
with such things ? ' He said to him, ' Faithful
is the judge concerning me.' The governor
supposed that he only said this of him, but
he was not thinking of any but his Father
who is in Heaven. He [the governor] said to
him, 'Since I am trusted concerning thyself,
thus also I will be. I said, perhaps these
societies1 err concerning these things. Ztimissus,
Behold thou art released.' And when he had
been released from the tribunal, he was troubled
because he had been arrested for Minuth. His
disciples came in to console him, but he would
not take comfort. It. Aqiba came in and
said to him, Rabbi, shall 1 say to thee why
thou art perhaps grieving? He said to him,
' Say on.' He said to him, ' Perhaps one of the
Minim has said to thee a word of Minuth
and it has pleased thee.' He said, 'By Heaven,

1 Read nil^n with b. A. Zar 16b, in place of P*W1 which makes no

138 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

thou hast reminded me ! Once I was walking
along the street of Sepphoris, and I met
Jacob of Chephar Sichnin, and he said to me
a word of Minuth in the name of Jeshu ben
Pantiri, and it pleased me. And I was
arrested for words of Minuth because 1 trans-
gressed the words of Torah (Pro v. v. 8),
Keep thy way far from her, and come not
nigh the door of her house (vii. 26), for she hath
cast down many wounded' And R. Eliezer
used to say, ■ Ever let a man flee from what is
hateful, and from that which resembles what is
hateful/
(46) b. A. Zar. 16b, 17a.— Our Rabbis teach,
When R. Eliezer was arrested for Minuth
they took him up to the tribunal (orra,
gradus) to be judged. The governor said to
him, 'Will an old man such as thou busy
himself about these vain things ? ' He said,
'Faithful is the judge concerning me.' The
governor supposed he said this in reference to
him ; but he only said it in regard to his
Father in Heaven. He (the governor) said,
• Since I am trusted concerning thee, Dimissus,
thou art released.' When he came to his
house his disciples came in to comfort him,
but he would not take comfort. R. Aqiba
said to him, ' Rabbi, suffer me to say some-
thing of what thou hast taught me.' He
said to him, ' Say on.' He said to him,
'Rabbi, perhaps there has come Minuth into
thy hand and it has pleased thee, and on
account of that thou hast been arrested for

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 139

Minuth.' He said to him, ■ Aqiba, thou hast
reminded me. Once I was walking in the
upper street of Sepphoris, and I found a man
of the disciples of Jeshu the Nazarene, and
Jacob of Chephar Sechanja was his name.
He said to me, ' It is written in your Torah,
Thou shalt not bring the hire of a harlot, etc.
[Deut. xxiii. 18]. What may be done with
it ? Latrinae for the high priest [may be
built with it].' And I answered him nothing.
He said to me, ' Thus hath Jeshu the Nazarene
taught me, For of the hire of a harlot hath
she gathered them, and unto the hire of a
harlot shall they return [Micah i. 7]. From
the place of filth they come, and unto the
place of filth they shall go.' And the saying
pleased me, and because of this I was arrested
for Minuth; and I transgressed against what
is written in the Torah [Prov. v. 8], Keep
thy way far from her, this is Minuth ; and
come not nigh the door of her house, this is the
Government.

[The remainder of the passage in A. Zar.
17a will be given below in another connexion.
See p. 182.]

The same story is found in the Midrash,
Qoh. Rabb. on i. 8, also in Jalq. Shim'oni on
Micah i., and Prov. v. 8. These versions add
nothing to what is contained in the above
passages, except that (47) Qoh. Rabb. gives
the dialogue between the Rabbi and Jacob
more fully, as follows: —
(47) ■ It is written in your Torah, Thou shalt not

140 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

bring, etc., What of these?' I said to him,
1 They are forbidden.' He said to me, ' They
are forbidden as an offering: it is permitted
to destroy them.' I said to him, 'If so,
what shall one do with them?' He said to
me, 'He shall make with them bath-houses
and latrinae: I said to him, < Thou hast well
said.' And the halachah was concealed from
me for the moment. When he saw that I
agreed with his words, he said to me, < Thus
hath .... taught me, They come from filth
and they go to filth, as is said [Mic. i. 7],
For of the hire of a harlot, etc. They shall
make seats for the public,' and it pleased me.
For this I was arrested, etc.
Commentary.— We have to distinguish two events
in this story, the arrest of R. Eliezer and his inter-
view with Jacob the Min. First as to the arrest.
R. Eliezer lived at the end of the first and the be-
ginning of the second century of our era; but the
dates of his birth and death are not known. His
usual residence was in Lud, but he travelled about
the country. He was arrested, according to the
story, ' for Minuth,' i.e. on a charge of being a Min.
Rashi is certainly wrong when he says that Eliezer
was arrested by the Minim. From the context it
is clear that Minuth denotes the Christian heresy.
We have therefore to inquire whether there was in
Palestine, at a period within the lifetime of Eliezer, a
persecution of Christians, or if not a persecution, at
all events an official search for them. The so-called
persecution under Nero was probably confined to
Rome, and is besides too early in date (a.d. 64).

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 141

It. Eliezer must have been quite a young man at
the time. But there is mentioned in Eusebius
(Ecc. Hist., iii. 32), on the authority of Hegesippus,
a persecution of Christians in Palestine, during which
Simeon the aged bishop of Jerusalem was crucified.
This took place in the year 109, during the reign,
therefore, of Trajan. The charge against the bishop
was that he was of the lineage of David, and also
that he was a Christian. Probably it was his alleged
Davidic descent rather than his Christianity which
brought him under the sentence of the civil tribunal.
Because already Domitian had caused inquiry to be
made for descendants of the ancient royal line of
David, fearing presumably lest among them might
be some pretender to his own throne. It does not
appear that Simeon was the only victim, though
doubtless he was the most eminent. Eusebius says
(loc. cit.) that the Christians were persecuted, or
rather sought for, Kara TroXeis, which implies a general
search throughout the country. The popular risings,
which are said to have accompanied the search,
would be the expression of Gentile rather than of
Jewish hostility to Christianity, though no doubt the
Jews might take the opportunity of assailing Chris-
tians, as they did in the case of Simeon, who is said
to have been accused by certain heretics. But, on
the whole, it was in the interest of the Jews to
keep quiet ; because, to the Gentile mind, there was
too much likeness between Jews and Christians to
make it safe for the former to be conspicuous
while the latter were being persecuted.

It appears to me probable that the arrest and trial
of It. Eliezer took place during this official search

142 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

after Christians, and is therefore to be dated a.d. 109
or thereabouts.1 How he came to be arrested is not
said, because the explanation which he gives, viz.,
his former close association with a Christian, was a
fact which he himself had forgotten until his pupil
Aqiba suggested it. Yet it is possible that some
popular opinion connected him with the Christians ;
and we have already seen that his Rabbinical com-
panions, by their questions to him, seemed to have
acted on some such suspicion (see above (4) p. 46).
And it is curious to observe the embarrassment of
R. Eliezer when on his trial. One would have
thought that he could have saved himself by declaring
that he was not a Christian, whereas he only made
a skilful evasion, and owed his escape to the vanity
of his judge. It is certain from all the recorded
words of R. Eliezer, which are very numerous, that
he was by no means a Christian ; but it is none the
less possible that damaging facts might be brought
against him in court, connecting him with Chris-
tianity, so that his wisest course was to stave oft
inquiry altogether.

It is not stated where the arrest and trial took
place; but it may well have happened in Cassarea,
whither Eliezer seems to have gone after his ex-
communication by the Rabbis of Jabneh.2 This

1 Note the fact that the judge calls him an old man. It is said
(A. d. R. N., c 6) that Eliezer was twenty-two years old when he ran away
from home to learn Torah under Johanan ben Zaccai in Jerusalem. He
appears, from this same story, to have become a distinguished pupil, if not
already a Rabbi, while still in Jerusalem, therefore before the war a.d. 68-70.
He must thus have been born not later than a.d. 40, probably earlier. At
the time of his arrest he would be about seventy years old.

2 He died in Caesarea, and his body was brought thence to Lud. — b. Sanh.
68*.

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 143

is to some extent borne out by the fact that the
judge is called by the title ' hegmon ' (rjyeficov),
which usually, I believe, implies high rank, and
in the present instance may denote the governor
of Syria.

On being dismissed from the tribunal, Eliezer
returned to his house, greatly troubled, because he
had been accused of being a Christian. His disciples
came in to console him, amongst them Aqiba. The
latter suggested, as the reason why R. Eliezer had
been arrested as a Christian, that perhaps at some
time he had come in contact with that heresy and
approved of it. R. Eliezer, thus reminded, recalled
an interview he had once had with a certain Min
called Jacob, of Chephar Sechanja, one of the
disciples of Jesus the Nazarene. Jacob had ex-
pounded to him a text from Scripture, and the
interpretation pleased him. Whereupon the Chris-
tian added that he had learnt it from Jesus the
Nazarene.

I do not see any reason to doubt the genuineness
of this incident, at all events of its main features,
although Edersheim declares it to be plainly apocry-
phal [L. and T. of J. M., i. 537]. It may not be
true that Jesus himself gave the rather unsavoury
interpretation of Deut. xxiii. 18 and Mic. i. 7. And
even if he did, it is certain that Jacob the Christian
did not get it direct from Jesus ; because, as we have
already seen, he belonged to the second or, perhaps,
third generation of disciples (see above, p. 106). But
I do not see on what ground we can reject the
evidence of a man so well known as R. Eliezer,
especially as it tells against himself. The story

144 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

is well authenticated ; for, if it does not appear in
the Palestinian Gemara, where we should naturally
expect to meet with it, it is given in the Tosephta,
which is not only Palestinian, but represents an older
stratum of tradition than the Gemaras (see Intro-
duction, p. 21).

We have already met with Jacob of Chephar
Sechanja, or Ch. Sama (see above, p. 106), and we
have to inquire when the interview between him and
Eliezer took place. The data are few and inade-
quate.1 From the way in which R. Eliezer begins
the story, " Once on a time [nna Dya] I was walking,
etc.," it would seem as if the incident had taken place
some years before. At least that is always the im-
pression made on my mind by the story. Gratz
(G. d. J., iv. 47 fol.) associates the incident much
more closely with the subsequent arrest and trial.
He says that by reason of his intercourse with
Christians R. Eliezer was looked upon as a member
of the Christian community, and therefore accused
as a heretic. The only objection that I see to this
view is, that if R. Eliezer had met Jacob only a short
time previously, he would scarcely have forgotten
the incident. Also, Aqiba reminds his teacher of
what he had been told on a former occasion. Still,
these facts do not exclude the possibility of a com-

1 It is probable that the interview with Jacob the Min took place after
Eliezer had been excommunicated. Before his excommunication he appears
to have lived in Jabneh or Lud, and the interview took place in Sepphoris.
Moreover, a banished man would be more likely to venture upon intercourse
with a heretic than one who was in close fellowship with the Rabbis. From
the account of his excommunication, b. B. Mez. 59b, it appears that this
took place shortly before R. Gamliel started on his voyage to Rome, there-
fore in or about the year 95 a.d.

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 145

paratively short interval only — perhaps a few months
or a year or two — between the interview with Jacob
and the arrest of R. Eliezer. And a short interval
suits the chronology better. For we have already
seen reason to believe that this same Jacob of
Chephar Sechanja was living in Galilee a.d. 130, thus
twenty years after the arrest of Eliezer. We cannot,
therefore, safely set back the earlier date much
beyond a.d. 110. It is possible, of course, but it is
not likely, that there were two persons each known
as Jacob of Chephar Sechanja.

As to the conversation between the Christian and
the Rabbi, the interpretation of the texts quoted has
nothing that is characteristic of Jesus as he is known
from the Gospels.1 It is evidently a thoroughly
Jewish exposition, and therefore pleased the Rabbi ;
there were Jewish Christians in plenty who adhered
to Rabbinical modes of thought and exposition ; and
seeing that Jacob was most certainly not a con-
temporary of Jesus, his statement, ' thus hath Jesus
taught me,' means no more than that 'such is
current Christian teaching.' Whether there is any
parallel to this interpretation in any Jewish- Christian
work I do not know.

1 Friedlander (der Vorchristliche jiidische Gnosticismus, p. 74) rightly
points out that there is nothing Christian in the exposition of Jacob, and
accordingly claims the fact in support of his theory that Jacob was not a
Christian but a Gnostic. But he has most strangely ignored the words —
very inconvenient for his theory — 'thus hath Jesus the Nazarene taught
me,5 whereby Jacob the Min puts the fact of his Christianity beyond
dispute. Friedlander has much scorn for those shallow interpreters
who hold that the Minim are Jewish Christians. Until he deals with
his evidence more carefully, not to say more honestly, his scorn is
hardly justified.

146 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

BOOKS OF THE MINIM

Under this head I collect all the passages I can
find in which reference is made to heretical writings,
and their treatment by Jews.

Imma Shalom and a Christian Judge

(48) b. Shabb. 116% b. — Imma Shalom was the wife
of It. Eliezer and sister of Rabban Gamliel.
There was in her neighbourhood a ' philosoph,'
who had got a name for not taking a bribe.
They sought to make fun of him. She
[Imma Shalom] sent to him a lamp of gold.
They came before him. She said to him, ' I
desire that they divide to me the property of
the women's house.' He said to them, ' Divide
it.' They said to him, * For us, it is written,
"Where there is a son, a daughter does not
inherit." He said to them, 'From the day
when ye were exiled from your land, the Law
of Moses has been taken away, and the law
of the Evangelion has been given, and in it
is written, " A son and a daughter shall inherit
alike." ' The next day he [R. Gamliel] in his
turn sent to him a Lybian ass. He [the
judge] said to them, 'I have looked further
to the end of the book, and in it is written,
"I am not come to take away from the
Law of Moses and I am not come to add to
the Law of Moses," and in it [the Law of
Moses] is written, " Where there is a son,
a daughter does not inherit."' She said to

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 147

him, ' Let your light shine as a lamp ! ' R.

Gamliel said to her, ' The ass has come and

trodden out the lamp.'
Commentary. — This striking story only occurs,
so far as I know, in the Babylonian Gemara, and,
therefore, is open to suspicion from the want of con-
temporary evidence. On the other hand there seems
no reason to account for its being invented, if there
were no historical fact at the bottom of it. The
story may well have been told as a family anecdote
by the descendants of R. Gamliel, and have been
repeated in Babylonia by Rab, who transplanted
thither so many of the Palestinian traditions, and
whose teacher was R. Jehudah, grandson of R.
Gamliel. In the Gemara the story is tacked on to
a passage dealing with written scrolls and especi-
ally with heretical writings ; but there is not a
word of introduction to say on whose authority it
was told. The preceding passage will be given
presently ; I have placed the story here, because
the incident which it records carries us back to
an earlier date than other references to heretical
scriptures.

The R. Eliezer is the same whom we have already
several times met with. Rabban Gamliel is Gamliel
of Jabneh, under whose direction the formula con-
cerning the Minim was arranged [see above, p. 127].
The incident took place, therefore, within the closing
years of the first or the opening of the second century.
The place was probably Jabneh.

As the purpose of Gamliel and his sister was to
expose the judge to ridicule, it is hardly likely that
they would appeal to him to decide a real difference.

148 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

In a very interesting discussion of this story,1 Nichol-
son argues that the Rabbi and his sister found a
pretext for their law-suit in the death of their father
Shim'on, and the consequent inheritance of his pro-
perty. This may be so ; but if there were no real
dispute (and it is evident there was not), the case
might have been trumped up at any time. Nicholson
gives a.d 71-3 as the probable date; and the best
evidence for so early a date is the saying of the judge,
" From the day that ye were exiled from your land,"
which can only refer to the confiscation of Jewish
property in a.d. 72. I do not see much force in the
contention that R. Gamliel would not have conde-
scended to such a trick as that described in the story,
after he had become president of the Sanhedrin.
That dignity was probably but little known or recog-
nised outside of Jewish circles. Still we may admit
that the conduct of R. Gamliel and his sister was
more appropriate to youth than to maturer years, and
therefore we may accept the date a.d. 71-3 as being
on the whole probable.

The judge is called a ' philosoph,' and there is no
reason to read some form of ' episcopos,' as is proposed
by Lowe (quoted by Nicholson, op. cit, p. 146).
The term ' philosoph ' or ' philosophos ' occurs several
times in the Talmud, and seems to denote a trained
speaker. It is quite likely that in the present case
the * philosoph ' was a bishop ; but the term ' philo-
soph' has nothing ecclesiastical about it. So far as I
know, there is no attempt in the Talmud to reproduce
the term ■ episcopos ' in a Hebrew form. The judge,
whether bishop or not, was probably a Jewish not a

1 See The Gospel According to the Hebrews, by E. B. Nicholson, p. 146 n.

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 149

Gentile Christian. That he was a Christian is beyond
question, seeing that he based his decision on a
quotation from a Gospel. R. Gamliel would not be
likely to play a trick on a Gentile judge; and a
Gentile judge would scarcely have appealed to a
Gospel in a Jewish suit. He would have decided the
case on the lines of Roman law.

Now let us examine the details of the story in
order. Imma Shalom,1 the sister of R. Gamliel, and
wife of R. Eliezer, applied to the court to divide for
her ' the property of the women's house,' in other
words to give to her the share in her father's property
which she ought to bring to her husband at her mar-
riage. R. Gamliel pleaded against this, that his sister
had no title to any part of her father's property,
because he, as son, inherited it all. He supported his
plea by an appeal to the Law of Moses, though the
words which he cited do riot occur in the Pentateuch.
His plea is an inference based upon Num. xxvii. 8.
The judge, mindful of the bribe he had received from
the complainant, decided against the defendant, on
the ground that the Law of Moses had been super-
seded by the law ' of the Evangelion,' according to
which a son and daughter inherit alike. I believe
that ■ of the Evangelion ' is the right reading in this
passage ; but at the same time I doubt whether the
judge actually used the term. We shall see presently
(p. 162) that R. Meir and R. Johanan, in the second
and third centuries, made jests on the word Evan-
gelion ; and since the story, as we have it, was written
down long after their time, it is not safe to conclude
that the term ■ Evangelion ' was known and used as

1 Imma Shalom, i.e. Mother Salome.

150 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

early as a.d. 72. Jesus must have used some
Aramaic term, at least if he used any equivalent
word at all ; and it would be natural to expect that a
Jewish Christian, in speaking to Jews, would also
have used the Aramaic term rather than the Greek
equivalent. I regard the words ' of the Evangelion '
as a later gloss, though earlier than the written text
of the Talmud.

There is no passage in any known Gospel which
states that a son and daughter shall inherit alike.
Unless some text, hereafter to be discovered, shall
furnish a parallel, we can only regard the statement
as a general inference from Christian principles. It is
worth noting, by the way, that if there were such a rule
of Christian practice, the state of things described in
Acts iv. 32-37 had already ceased to exist in the year 72.

The sentence of the court having been given against
him, It. Gamliel so to speak applied for a new
trial by sending a bribe to the judge, a present
of a Lybian ass. The next day, accordingly, the
judge had reconsidered his decision. He said, 'I
have read further in the end of the book, and therein
it is written, " I am not come to take away from the
Law of Moses, neither to add to the Law of Moses
am I come," and in it [the Law of Moses] it is written,
" where there is a son, a daughter does not inherit." '
There is an obvious parallel here with Matt. v. 17,
though the quotation is not exact. It would be too
much to infer from this that the present Gospel of
Matthew was in existence at this time. But it seems
probable that the judge had some written text, and
was not merely quoting from memory. If there had
at the time been no written text at all, it would not

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 151

have occurred to the judge to say that he had • read
in the book." If he had had some collection of ' Logia,'
such as that of which a fragment was published by
Rendell and Harris in 1897, he would have had as
much as the story implies. Indeed, a collection of
6 Logia,' sayings of Jesus, would better come under
the description of a ' new law ' than would any work
in the fuller form of one of the known Gospels. It is
evident that the book, whatever it was, did not pre-
sent the sayings of Jesus in anything like the same
order as is found in the canonical Gospel of Matthew.
For the words, / am not come to destroy but to fulfil,
occur near the beginning of the Sermon on the
Mount [Matt. v. 17], and far from the end of the
Gospel. The • Logia ' fragment, already referred to,
shows, where comparison is possible, an arrangement
differing from that of any of the canonical Gospels.
There is nothing improbable in supposing the exis-
tence of written collections of Logia in the year 72.
It has been well suggested by J. E. Odgers (Jewish
Quarterly Review, 1891, p. 16), that the first impulse
to the writing down of the sayings of Jesus was given
by the dispersion of the Christian community in
Jerusalem, owing to the siege of the city, a.d. 69-70.
The Christians did not all take refuge in Pella, as the
presence of the Christian in the story plainly shows ;
and written * Logia ' may well — we may almost say
must — have found their way to other places, includ-
ing Jabneh, the probable scene of the story.

The reversal of the sentence naturally disappointed
the original complainant, and she gave the judge a
significant reminder of her present in the words,
" Let your light shine as a lamp." Here, also, there

152 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

seems to be a partial reference to a text now found in
Matt. v. 16,1 " Let your light shine before men."
How the Jewess came to know the words, unless by
report, is not easy to see ; as it is not very likely, on
the face of it, that she would read a Christian writing.
The retort is so apt, that we cannot suppose it to
have been merely invented, with no knowledge of the
words of Jesus. By quoting them she convicted the
judge out of his own law, as well as reminded him of
the bribe he had taken.

R. Gamliel, the successful pleader, made rejoinder
in a curious saying, which may have been a popular
proverb, but which also may have been his own
original remark, " The ass has come and trodden out
the lamp." The meaning of the retort is obvious,
and equally so its purpose in exposing the shameless
venality of the judge. But just as the retort, " Let
your light shine," was aimed at more than the mere
fact of bribery, and had a sting for the Christian as a
Christian, so perhaps it may be in the case of the
saying about the ass and the lamp. The phrase
occurs elsewhere, and a brief study of the subject
may throw some light on a very obscure but not
unimportant point.

The phrase is found in Pesiqta de Rab Kahana
122b, also in j. Joma 38c, Vajiqr. r. c. 21. In all
these cases the phrase is used to describe the frustra-
tion of one bribe by a larger bribe from the opposite
party in a suit. The passage in Pesiqta is more
detailed than the others, and is as follows : — " The
case of a certain woman who presented to a judge a
lamp of silver ; but her opponent went and presented

1 In fact Matt. v. 15, 16, and 17 seem to underlie the story.

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 153

to him an ass of gold. On the morrow the woman
came and found the judgment reversed. She said,
' My lord, let justice shine before thee like a silver
lamp.' He said to her, 'What shall I do for thee ?
The ass has trodden out the lamp.' "

Bacher (Ag. d. Pal. Amor., ii. 424 n.) holds that
this story is founded upon the story of Imma
Shalom and R. Gamliel. And I think he is right
in this opinion, even though the Pesiqta should be,
as it possibly is, earlier in date than the completion
of the Babylonian Gemara. At all events the
evidence of the Pesiqta places the story on
Palestinian ground. If we may conclude that the
phrase originated with Gamliel, then we are free to
inquire whether there is anything significant in the
mention of a lamp and an ass as the bribes to the
judge. It is, of course, easy to discover symbolism
where none is intended; and quite possibly the ass
and the lamp were costly gifts and nothing more.
But there is evidence elsewhere to show that there
was some obscure connexion in thought between
Jesus and an ass, so that the latter served as a kind
of symbol of the former. In the Midrash Qoh. r.
on i. 8, a passage which will be given below (see p.
211 if.), R. Jehoshua b. Hananiah says to his nephew,
who had been led astray by the Minim of Caper-
naum and rescued from them, " Since the ass of
that wicked one is roused against thee, thou canst
no longer dwell in the land of Israel," etc. The
plain meaning is that the young man had been
damaged in character and repute by contact with
Christianity; and this would hardly have been
described by a metaphor so peculiar unless there was

154 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

an implied reference to Jesus in the mention of
the ass.1 What may have suggested this reference
I cannot positively say. But possibly it is an
allusion to the alleged Messianic dignity of Jesus.
In Ber. r. c. 75 § 6, it is explained that the ass is
a symbol of the Messiah. And the passage just
quoted from Qoh. r. i. 8 tends to confirm this
suggestion, because the young apostate had been
made by the Christians to ride on an ass on the
Sabbath. These are nothing more than slight and
obscure hints, and there may be nothing in them ;
but they are worth collecting and recording, on the
chance that their meaning may be more clearly
understood in the light of future researches.

If there really was, in contemporary thought, some
association of an ass with Jesus, then the story of
R. Gamliel and his bribe to the judge gains additional
point. The object of the whole plot was to expose
the venality of this Jewish Christian, by bribing him
to alter his own decision. The rectitude of the Jew
had been corrupted by the spirit of Christianity, the

1 In this connexion may be mentioned the caricature found on a wall in
Rome, where there is shown a crucified figure having an ass's head ; a
soldier kneels before the cross, and underneath is written, " Alexamenos
worshipping his God." This brutal parody of Christian belief evidently
shows that in the mind of the ' artist ' there was an association of Jesus with
an ass. The charge of worshipping an ass was brought against the Jews, as
is shown by the well-known passages in Josephus (c. Apion, ii. 7) and
Tacitus (Hist., v. 3, 4). The Jews in their turn tried to pass it on to the
Christians. See an article by Rbsch, on the Caput asininum, in the Stud. u.
Kritik., 1882, p. 523, where the origin and development of this fable are
described. Rosch makes no mention of the Rabbinical allusions, though he
refers to the Talmud for another purpose. I think the passages mentioned
in the text may fairly be connected with the fable of the ass-worship.

For another possible reference to the association of Jesus with an ass, see
below, p. 224 n.

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 155

light of the true religion had been extinguished by
a mischievous heresy, and the witty Rabbi expressed
both these facts by saying, " The ass has come and
trodden out the lanip."

How the Books of the Minim are to
be Treated

(49) T. Shabb. xiii. 5. — The margins1 and books
of the Minim they do not save, but these are
burnt in their place, they and their ' memorials '
[i.e. the sacred names in the text]. It. Jose'
the Galilean says, 'On a week-day one cuts
out the memorials and hides them and burns
the rest.' R. Tarphon said, ' May I lose
my son ! if they come into my hand I would
burn them and their memorials too. If the
pursuer were pursuing after me, I would
enter into a house of idolatry, and I enter
not into their houses. For the idolaters do
not acknowledge Him [i.e. God] and speak

1 The word f 1 vJ means the unwritten portion of a book, the margin. But,
as in modern books, the margins of ancient MSS. were used for annotations ;
and it is reasonable to suppose that these annotations would include texts of
Scripture, quoted as illustrations. Hence the question would arise whether,
although the corpus of the book was heretical, the marginal citations of
Scripture were to be regarded as sacred. Jost (Gsch. d. Jdtums. ii. 40 n.)
says that JV?3 (giljon) plainly denotes ' evangelion ' in the passage before
us. No doubt the Gospels are included amongst the ' Books of the Minim ' ;
but I do not think it can be shown that 'giljon' by itself ever means a
Gospel. If that were the case, there would be the less occasion for the
plays on the word ' Aven-giljon ' and ■ Avon-giljon ' which will be mentioned
below (s. p. 162). Friedlander (d. Vorchr. jiid. Gnosticismus, p. 83 fol.)
identifies the ' giljonim ' of the Minim with the Diagramma of the Ophite
sect of the Gnostics. This may be correct ; but as the Talmud never gives
any indication of what the ■ giljonim ' contained beyond * memorials,' the
guess is hazardous.

156 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

falsely concerning Him ; but these [i.e. the
Minim] do acknowledge Him and speak falsely
concerning Him. And concerning them the
Scripture says [Isa. lvii. 8], And behind the
door and the door-post thou Jiast set thy
memorial.1 R. Ishmael said, ' Whereas, in
order to make peace between a man and his
wife, God says [cp. Num. v. 23], Let my name
which is written in holiness be blotted out in
water, how much more the books of the
Minim, which put enmity and jealousy and
strife between Israel and their Father who is
in Heaven, should be blotted out, and their
memorials too. And concerning them the
Scripture says [Ps. cxxxix. 21], Do I not hate
them, O Lord, which hate thee, and I loathe
them that rise up against thee. I hate them
with a perfect hatred, and they have become to
me as enemies' And even as men do not
save them [the books] from burning, so they
do not save them from falling, nor from water,
nor from anything which destroys them.
(50) (51) No important variation. See Appendix.
Commentary. The Rabbis whose words are cited
here lived in the early part of the second century.
Tarphon1 is well known as a bitter opponent of
Christianity. Ishmael is the same whom we have

1 Tarphon is often identified with Tryphon, the interlocutor in Justin
Martyr's Dialogue. Beyond some resemblance of name, there is little, if
anything, on which to found such identification. It is possible that Justin
may have heard of, or perhaps even met, Tarphon, though certainly not in
Ephesus. But no one who knows Tarphon in the Talmud would recognise
him in the feeble Jew who serves Justin as a man of straw. Tarphon, not
Tryphon, is the proper form of the name.

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 157

previously seen, protesting against the cure of his
nephew by a Christian doctor. It is evident then,
from their strong denunciations, that the Books of
the Minim included Christian writings. But the
phrase is indefinite, and cannot be fairly restricted to
writings explanatory of the Christian religion. We
shall see, in another passage (p. 158), that copies of
the Hebrew Scriptures were sometimes written by
Minim, in the ordinary way of business, and the
question arose whether such copies might be used
by Jews. In the present passage that question is
not directly raised ; but one of the difficulties which
it suggested is mentioned, viz., the fact that in
heretical writings the name of God often occurred,
whereby the reader was placed in the dilemma of
having either to destroy the divine Name along with
the book, or to preserve the heretical book for the
sake of the divine Name. It. Jose the Galilean
enjoins the quaint device of cutting out * and keeping
the divine Name wherever it occurred, and burning
the rest. What was to be done with the collected
scraps is not said. R. Tarphon and It. Ishmael
were at least consistent, in deciding that heretical
books were to be destroyed, no matter what they
contained.

Books of the Law written by Minim

(52) b. Gitt. 45b. — Rab Bodia said to Rab Ashi,
1 " At more than their price," this is why " they
do not receive them." At their price they do

1 1 follow here the reading of the Vienna Codex, and the early printed
text, also Siphre, p. 6a, as against the Erfurt Codex, which has instead of
TNpi K"rtp, i.e. ' reads ' the name instead of ' cuts out ' the name.

158 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

receive them.' Learn from this, that one may
read in a Book of the Law which is found in
the hand of an idolater. Ought it, perhaps, to
be concealed ? Rab Nahman said, • We have
received [tradition] that a Book of the Law, if
written by a Min, is to be burnt ; if written by
an idolater, it is to be concealed.' If found in
the hand of a Min, it is to be concealed ; if
found in the hand of an idolater, some say it
is to be concealed, some say it may be read.
[In regard to] a Book of the Law written by
an idolater, one [teacher] teaches that it is to
be burnt, another [tradition] is that it is to be
concealed, and another that it may be read.
There is no contradiction.
Commentary, — Apart from the difficulties in con-
nexion with books written by Minim for their own
use, there was the difficulty of deciding whether a
book of the law might be used if written by, or found
in the possession of, some one other than a Jew. Such
a book might have been written in order to be sold to
Jews for their own use. Or, if found in the posses-
sion of a non-Jewish person, it might still have been
written by a Jew, and therefore might be lawful for a
Jew to use. The text in the Mishnah, of which the
passage before us is the commentary, says, " We do not
receive books, tephillin,1 and mezuzoth2 from idolaters
at more than their price." R. Bodia explains, what is
surely obvious, that books, etc., might be received from

1 Tephillin, phylacteries, small parchment boxes, containing certain texts,
and worn on the arm and the head.

2 Mezuzoth, similar small boxes, containing texts, but fastened to the door-
post of the house. Mezuzoth may be called the ' tephillin ' of the house.

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 159

idolaters, only that more than their proper price must
not be given for them. As a contemporary of R.
Ashi (the editor of the Babylonian Gemara), R.
Bodia lived at the end of the fourth century or the
beginning of the fifth. R. Nahman, whose explana-
tion is more to the purpose, is Nahman bar Jacob, a
Babylonian teacher who died a.d. 300. x A clear
distinction is made between an idolater and a Min, in
deciding how to deal with books of the law whose
origin was doubtful. It should be noticed that the
Mishnah text does not say anything about Minim in
this connexion. The distinction is made against the
Min and in favour of the idolater. The Min is not in
this case necessarily a Christian, but is certainly a
Jewish heretic. Therefore a book written by a Min
was condemned outright, and must be burnt. If
found in his possession, even though it might have
been written by a Jew, it was considered as tainted
with heresy, and must be ' concealed,' i.e. withdrawn
from use, treated as an Apocryphon. On the other
hand, a book if written by an idolater must be
6 concealed ' ; but, if found in his possession, according
to some authorities it must be ' concealed,' according
to others it might be used.

A few lines further down on the same page of the
Talmud (b. Gitt. 45b) are two more references to
Minim. I do not translate the whole passage, because
it is chiefly taken up with technical questions having
no bearing on the subject of heresy ; and, further, it is
exceedingly difficult to render into intelligible English.
The first reference occurs in a dictum of R. Hamnuna,

1 He received several Palestinian traditions from R. Jitzhaq, a disciple of
R. Johanan, who visited him in Nehardea.

160 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

son of Raba of Parshunia. He says, ' Rolls of the
Law, tephillin and mezuzoth, written by a Min, a
betrayer, an idolater, a slave, a woman, a child, a
Samaritan or an apostate Israelite, are ceremonially
unfit for use ' ( |fa* ). This also occurs b. Men. 42b.
The second reference is merely the following : — " Con-
cerning a proselyte who reverts to his wickedness : [he
will revert] to his wickedness much more if he be a
Min."

These references are added merely to make the list
of references to Minim as complete as possible. They
are of very late date, and add nothing new to what is
contained in other more important passages.

The Books of the Minim do not Defile the

Hands

(53) T. Jad. ii. 13.— The rolls and books of the
Minim do not defile the hands.

The books of Ben Sira and all books which
have been written from that time onward do
not defile the hands.
Commentary. — There is hardly anything to be said
on this passage, which is a mere statement that the
books of the Minim are not to be regarded as sacred.
It may seem strange that such a statement should be
necessary, especially in view of such denunciations of
them as those uttered by R. Tarphon and R. Ishmael
(see above, pp. 154-5). The reason probably is, that
the books of the Minim, though heretical, made
mention of sacred names and things, and might there-
fore be supposed to be themselves holy.

It is remarkable that the Mishnah does not mention

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 161

the books of the Minim either in the parallel passage
M. Jad. iii. 5, or, so far as I know, in any other
place. The 'external books' referred to in M.
Sanh. x. i. are understood by the commentators to be,
or to include, the books of the Minim ; but they are
not so called in the Mishnah.

On the same page of T. Jadaim, a few lines below
the passage just cited, there is an apparent reference
to Minim which ought to be noticed, if only to guard
the reader from a mistake, and myself from a charge
of omitting an important passage. Mention is there
made (ii. 16) of p»D nir^n, 'halachoth concerning the
Minim ' ; and for some time I was under the delusion
that the reference was to ordinances concerning
heretics, made at Jabneh. A comparison, however,
with j. Bice. iii. 6 (p. 65d) shows conclusively that
the word p»» denotes here not ' heretics,' but simply
' kinds ' or • sorts,' and the reference is to the seven
' kinds ' of fruit for which Palestine was famous. The
word po is a common noun as well as a proper noun ;
and to a non-Jewish reader it is not always easy
to distinguish between the two usages. (See below,
p. 364).

The Books of the Be Abidan (and Be
Nitzraphi

(54) b. Shabb. 116a. — R. Joseph bar Hanin asked

R. Abahu : ' Those books of the Be Abidan,

does one save them from burning or not ? '

Yes and no ; he was undecided. Rab did not

go to the Be Abidan, much less to the Be

Nitzraphi. Shemuel did not go to the Be

Nitzraphi ; but he did go to the Be Abidan.

162 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

They said to Rab, ' What is the reason thou
didst not come to the Be Abldan ? ' He said
to them, ■ There is a certain palm tree by the
road, and it is an offence to me ; if it were
uprooted, the place of it would be an offence
to me.' Mar bar Joseph said, 'I have been
amongst them, and I was not respected by
them.' On one occasion he went and they
sought to endanger him. It. Meir called it
Aven giljon, It. Johanan called it Avon
giljon.
Commentary, — This passage forms part of a longer
one, of which we have already examined two portions.
It follows immediately after No. (51) and immediately
precedes (48) ; I have broken it up for convenience of
treatment. It obviously comes under the general
head of 'Books of the Minim,' but the portion at
present under examination is interesting on its own
account, because it mentions the Be Abldan and the
Be Nitzraphi. These are of sufficient importance to
be treated separately. And having in the previous
sections dealt with all the passages that I know of
which refer to the Books of the Minim, I shall present
here those which mention the Be Abidan and the Be
Nitzraphi. What these names mean is not certain,
and I shall endeavour to explain them presently.
Meanwhile I will consider the rest of the passage.

It. Abahu we have already met with (see above,
No. 10). He lived in Caesarea at the end of the third
and beginning of the fourth century. This is evidence
that the question put to him referred to things in
Palestine. The printed text in the modern editions
give the name of his questioner as Joseph bar Hanin,

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 163

and this is correct, although the Munich MS. gives
6 Joseph bar Hama.' The latter, the father of Raba,
was a Babylonian, who, so far as I know, never came
in contact with Abahu. Joseph bar Hanin, or
Hanina, was the teacher of Abahu ; his name in this
passage is vouched for by the Oxford MS. See
Rabbinowicz, ad loc. Mar bar Joseph, if the reading
be correct, would be the son of Joseph b. Hanin.
Whatever the books of the Be Abldan may have
been, it is clear that they included books which were
heretical, and distinctly Christian. That they were
heretical is shown by the context, because the books
of the Minim have just been mentioned (see No 51).
And that they were Christian is shown unmistakably
by the concluding words, which contain plays upon the
name Evangelion. This concluding sentence is not
found in the modern editions, but is contained in the
MSS. and early editions, and is here given on the
authority of Rabbinowicz. Probably both witticisms
are reported by R. Abahu, who was a disciple of R.
Johanan, the author of one of them. And R. Johanan
must have been aware of the saying of R. Meir, since
his own jest is only a variation of the older one.
' Aven giljon' means 'a worthless thing of a book
[roll],' or, since ■ Aven ' in the O.T. generally has some
reference to idolatry, 'a book of idolatry.' In
like manner Avon giljon may be rendered 'a book
of iniquity.' R. Meir, to whom belongs the credit of
the original jeu (T esprit, lived in Palestine in the latter
half of the second century. His teachers were R.
Aqiba, whom we have already met with as a fierce
opponent of Christianity, and Elisha ben Abuja, him-
self inclined to heresy, and well acquainted with the

164 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

books of the Minim. The gibe of R. Meir is clear
proof that in his time the term Evangelion was in
common use, and we may perhaps conclude from the
passage before us that it was a generic term for the
6 Books of the Minim,' or, at all events, that it in-
cluded more than one book. After referring to
'books' in the plural, the passage reads, 'R. Meir
called it Aven giljon.' I have already (p. 149) pointed
out that the use of the word Evangelion in the story
of R. Gamliel and the Christian judge (a passage which
forms the continuation of the one at present under
examination) is probably a later gloss. It would at
all events be unsafe to rely upon its authenticity in
that story.

Now what are the ' Be Abidan ' and ' Be Nitz-
raphi ' ? ' Be ' is a shortened form of Beth, house.
Neither ■ Abidan ' nor ' Nitzraphi ' are regular
Aramaic, still less Hebrew, words. They are hybrids,
and contain some polemic allusion. 'Abidan' is
apparently connected with the root 'abad' (m«), to
destroy, and both form and derivation may be com-
pared with 5A/3a8So>i/ (Rev. ix. 11). Nitzraphi [the
vocalization is uncertain] is almost certainly con-
nected with the word Notzri, Nazarene, while the
form suggests a niph'al from the root tzaraph (*ps), to
unite. It is tempting to infer for Be Nitzraphi the
meaning 'house where Nazarenes assemble.' And
whether or not this be the intention of the inventor
of the word, it suits the sense in the few passages
where the word occurs. These passages I will intro-
duce here, so that we may have all the available
evidence for an answer to one of the minor prob-
lems of the Talmud. In addition to the passage

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 165

already translated, we have the following, which
I will translate successively and comment on to-
gether : —

(55) b. Shabb. 152a. — Caesar said to R. Jehoshua
ben Hananjah, ' What is the reason that thou
comest not to the Be Abidan ? ' He said to
him, 'The mountain is covered with snow
[my head is white, I am too old], its slopes
are frozen [my beard is white], its dogs do
not bark [my voice is feeble], its grinders do
not grind [my teeth are gone].'

(56) b. A. Zar. 17b.— They said to him [El'azar
ben Perata], 'What is the reason that thou
comest not to the Be Abidan ? ' He said to
them, ' I have become an old man, and I am
afraid lest ye should trample me with your
feet.'

(57) b. Erub. 79b, 80a.— What is an Asherah in
general? Rab said, 'Every [tree] which
priests guard and do not taste of its fruits.'
And Shemuel said, 'Like those who say,
These dates are for the wine of the Be
Nitzraphi, which they drink on the day of
their feast.'

[b. A. Zar. 48a has substantially the same.]
These are, so far as I know, all the passages
which mention either the ' Be Abidan ' or the ' Be
Nitzraphi.' Whatever these places were, it is plain
that they were to be found in Palestine. This is shown
by the fact that all the Rabbis mentioned in the fore-
going passages lived in Palestine during the whole or
part of their lives. The extraordinary explanation
of Hamburger (R. Encykl., ii. 95, 96) may therefore

166 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

be dismissed, viz. that 'Be Abidan' is Bezabde, a
town on the west side of the Tigris, and 'Be
Nitzraphi ' is Nicephorium on the Euphrates ! Why-
should R. Jehoshua ben Hananiah, who never was
in Babylonia in his life, be taken to task because he
had not gone to Bezabde on the Tigris ? And was it
only in these two remote and little known cities that,
as Hamburger says, "theological disputations were
held between Ormuzd priests, Christians and Jews ? "

Jost (Gsch. d. Jdtums., ii. 40 n.) says that the term
4 Be Abidan ' belongs to the Persian time, and means
place of assemblage. But why should a Persian word
be used to describe an institution which R. Jehoshua
ben Hananiah and R. El'azar ben Perata, both
Palestinians of the second century, were in a position
to attend ? Jost seems to feel some doubt of his own
assertion, for he adds the suggestion that perhaps
• Be Abidan ' is a corruption of ' Be Ebionim ' (house
of the poor). This is better, but scarcely convincing.
His suggestion that Be Nitzraphi is a corruption of
1 Be Nitzranin ' (pnva I pvu) is unintelligible to
me ; perhaps it involves a printer's error.

I have not been able to discover that Gratz in his
history makes any allusion to either of the two names,
still less gives any explanation of them. Nor, so far
as I know, does Bacher explain them in his three
works on the Agada.1 I have not found anything
bearing on the subject in Weiss' G. d. j. T. Levy
(N. H. W., i. p. 8) suggests that p™ may be con-

1 The only reference, so far as I know, made by Bacher, is in A. d. Pal.
Am., ii. 97, n. 4, where he says, that the meaning of Be Abidan has never
yet been explained, but that in any case the ' Books of the B. Abidan ' are
equivalent to the ' Books of the Minim,' so far as Abahu is concerned.

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 167

nected with pT3j which is the rendering in the
Targums of the Gk. ttvOmv (ventriloquist, fortune-
teller). Such persons, he says, were seldom, in the
later Grecian period, absent from popular merry-
makings, and might have been conspicuous in a place
of public debate. Yet something more serious is
surely implied than this ; an Emperor would hardly
ask an eminent Rabbi why he had not come to listen
to a ventriloquist; nor would it be carefully noted
that some Rabbis did, and some did not, go to the
place where such persons were to be met with. It
should be noted also (as Levy admits) that the word
irvOoiv is rendered in the Mishnah by mrva (Sanh.
vii. 7).

I venture to suggest that (Be) Abldan represents
the word coSeiov, odeum, a species of theatre for
musical performances, frequently used as a law-court
or as a place for philosophical disputations} Such
buildings were erected in several of the cities of
Palestine,2 as is shown by the existing ruins (see
Schurer, G. d. J. VoJkes, ii. 24, and elsewhere).
Hadrian built one in Rome, and of course the original
'QiSeZov was in Athens. Now there are various
accounts in the Talmud and Midrash of disputations
between R. Jehoshua ben Hananiah, the Emperor
Hadrian, and ' the men of the Be Athina,' i.e. literally
the 'House of Athens' (see b. Bechor. 8b, Qoh.

1 €i 5e <f>-f)(rei ris '6ri Z6%av ovtoi Kal ti/xos l^peuov, iirl robs <ro<pobs i\de teal ras
ffocf>as 'A6T)vr)<n <rx<>\as Kal Siarptfids' avaircfjaraffai ras iv Aujeefy ras iv'AKaSruxla,
tV Stooi/, rb Ila\\d$iov, rb 'HSeToy. (Plut. De ExiL, p. 602 B.)

2 Gratz (G. d. J., iv. 313 n.) quotes from Malala (Histor., x. p. 261) the
following words, showing that Vespasian built an Odeum in Caesarea : —

Centre yap Kal iv Kai(rapela £k rrjs 'lovdaiKrjs irpaiSas 6 avrbs

Ovc<rira<Tiav6s <^St?ov peya iravv Qtdrpov %xov SidffrTifia fieya ovros Kal avrov rod
t6ttov trp<#i)v ffvvaydyrjs rav 'lovSaiwv.

168 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

r. i. 7, and elsewhere). It is not recorded that R.
Jehoshua was ever in Athens ; but he visited Rome
(see below, p. 228), where there was an 'ABiqvaiov
founded by Hadrian. The Athenaeum was not the
same as the Odeum ; but in both institutions philo-
sophical disputations were held, and a Jew would not
be likely to make any careful distinction between the
two. May not the debates between R. Jehoshua and
the men of the ■ Be Athina ' represent what really
took place in an Odeum, either in Palestine or
Alexandria ? The Rabbis living in Palestine must
certainly have heard and known the name cpSeiov in
the common speech of the Greek inhabitants of the
towns, where such buildings existed. Further, the
study of Greek philosophy was looked upon with
disapproval amongst the Rabbis, who regarded it as
a danger to their religion (see above, p. 106). There-
fore it was natural that they should not willingly
encounter Greek philosophers, though sometimes
obliged to do so. The term 'Be Abidan,' though
only a hybrid word, may be translated ' House of
Destruction ' ; and I suggest that it is a play on the
word (phelov or odeum, nearly alike in sound,1 though
not intended as a transliteration. I venture to think
that this explanation of ' Be Abidan ' meets the re-
quirements of the references to it in the passages
quoted above. An (oSelov was a place to which a Jew
might on occasion go, because it was not a heathen
temple. It was a place where philosophical disputa-

i )T2K and ^5e7ov seem at first sight somewhat far removed from each
other in sound. But, for the first syllable, compare DWplK and u>Keav6s,
bearing in mind that 2 and 1 are frequently interchanged. And, for the
termination, compare jD^D and <nj^7ov, an exact parallel.

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 169

tions were held, such as we know that R. Jehoshua
did engage in ; and it was a place where books (in-
cluding Christian books) would most naturally be
found. Finally, it was a place well known in several
Palestinian cities, and not, so far as I am aware,
familiar to the Babylonian Rabbis.

There remains to be considered the term Be Nitz-
raphi. What this means, we can only infer from the
two passages quoted above (54), (57). It is evident
that the ' Be Nitzraphi ' was considered to be a worse
place to go to than the Be Abldan ; for while Rab
would not go to the latter, much less to the former,
Shemuel went to the latter, but would not go to the
former. Moreover, while the 'Be Abidan' is first
mentioned in connexion with R. Jehoshua and R.
El'azar (first half of the second century), the 'Be
Nitzraphi ' is only mentioned in connexion with Rab
and Shemuel, whose sojourn in Palestine occurred in
the beginning of the third century. It appears from
(57) that the ' Be Nitzraphi ' was a place where wine
was used for religious purposes, while at the same
time it could not have been a heathen temple, because
no Rabbi would have entered such a place or have
had any inducement to do so ; and thus the fact that
he did not go there would call for no remark. More-
over, the ' Be Nitzraphi ' was a Palestinian institution,
although the fact of its being mentioned only in con-
nexion with Rab and Shemuel, both chiefly known
as Babylonian teachers, might suggest that it was a
Babylonian institution. This cannot indeed be said
to be impossible, owing to the scantiness of the
evidence upon which any conclusion can be based.
But it is not likely, because a comparison is made

170 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

between the Be Abidan, which we have seen to be
purely Palestinian, and the Be Nitzraphi ; and it is
stated that Shemuel went to one but not to the other.
Evidently he could have gone to both. It appears to
me most probable that the ' Be Nitzraphi ' is a
synagogue or meeting-place of Christians, more
particularly Jewish Christians or Nazarenes, Notzrim.
In this case the wine which " they drank on the
day of their feast " would be the wine of the Lord's
Supper. While a Jew would certainly not enter a
place where Gentile Christians assembled, we know,
and shall see in passages to be quoted hereafter, that
Rabbis of undoubted orthodoxy, such as Abahu, had
close intercourse with Jewish Christians ; and not only
so, but that a Rabbi (Saphra) was actually appointed
by the Jewish Christians of Caesarea to be their teacher
on the recommendation of this same Abahu. If any-
thing, this proves too much, because the * Be
Nitzraphi,' or Jewish Christian place of meeting,
might seem to be not such a terrible place after all.
Yet Abahu, with all his readiness to hold intercourse
with Jewish Christians, was a stout opponent of their
teaching, and had many a debate with them. I rest,
therefore, in the conclusion that ' Be Nitzraphi ' de-
notes a meeting-place of Jewish Christians ; and I
would explain the name as a hybrid, combining a
reference to Notzrim, Nazarenes, with the notion
of assembly (root, tzaraph). I do not know that
Nitzraphi is the correct form ; as the word is only
found in an unpointed text, it is difficult to say what
the proper vowels are.

In conclusion it should be pointed out that there
is no mention of books in connexion with the ' Be

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 171

Nitzraphi.' That institution is only referred to
because the mention of the ■ Be Abldan ' suggested it.
Also, if my explanation of ' Be Abldan ' be correct,
the books referred to would not be exclusively
Christian books. But undoubtedly Christian books
would be included, perhaps even as early as the time
of R. Jehoshua, certainly in the time of Rab and
Shemuel, and afterwards. Because, by the middle of
the second century, Christian writers had composed
Apologies for their religion in answer to the argu-
ments of Gentile opponents ; and the Dialogue of
Justin Martyr with Tryphon the Jew, though probably
fictitious in substance, may nevertheless represent a
fact ; for the dialogue form would scarcely have been
chosen, unless such disputations were already familiar
by common usage to those who would read the book.
That a Jew, to say nothing of Tarphon, would have
spoken as Justin makes his Jew speak, is not likely ;
but in other respects the Dialogue may be taken as a
representation, from the Christian side, of what went
on in a ' Be Abldan.' There was no great difference,
from this point of view, between an cpSeiov and the
£wrds, where Justin says that he conversed with the
Jew.

The Nazaiiene Day

(58) b. A. Zar. 6a (ib. 7b).— For R. Tahlipha bar
Abdimi said that Shemuel said : * The Nazarene
day, according to the words of R. Ishmael,
is forbidden for ever.'

(59) b. Taan. 27b.— On the eve of Sabbath they
did not fast, out of respect to the Sabbath ;

172 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

still less [did they fast] on the Sabbath itself.

Why did they not fast on the day after

Sabbath ? R. Johanan says, ' Because of the

Nazarenes.'
Commentary. — There is little to be said upon these
two meagre references to the Christian Sunday. It
is curious that both occur in the Babylonian Gemara,
and that the Palestinian tradition does not appear to
contain any allusion to the 'Nazarene day.' It is
true that R. Johanan was a Palestinian teacher ; but
his dictum (in 59) is quoted only by a Babylonian, i.e.
by the compiler of the Gemara, presumably R. Ashi,
in the fourth century. In (58) the ' words of R.
Ishmael' have no reference to the Sunday, but are
a general declaration concerning heathen festivals.
Shemuel, a Babylonian (a.d. 180-250), merely asserts
that, according to the rule of R. Ishmael, the ' Nazar-
ene day ' is forbidden for ever. The context shows
that what is forbidden on that day is intercourse with
those who observe it as a festival. In (59) the subject
under discussion is the reason for certain fasts, kept
by the idsjd hwk, men appointed to be present and
to repeat prayers while sacrifices were offered, of
course in the time when the Temple was still in exis-
tence. In Sopherim, c. 17, § 5, the passage (59) is
referred to, and R. Johanans explanation is given,
though without his name. Then follows his remark,
" but the sages have said that in the days of the
nncwD [the assistants at the sacrifices] men did not
pay any attention to the idolaters." R. Johanan
transferred to the time of the Temple a feature of
the religious life of his own totally different time.
It should be observed that the word nsu, ' Nazarene/

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 173

and not the word Minim, is used to designate the
obnoxious day.

Having examined the passages which, so far as
they go, describe Minim, I proceed to give those
which attempt to define Minim and Minuth. I
am aware that in so doing I am not following the
logical order ; but I trust that the reason given above
(p. 123) may be a sufficient justification.

Gentile and Min (i.)

(60) T. B. Mez., ii. 33. — Gentiles, and those that
keep small cattle and those that breed the
same, are neither helped out [of a pit] nor
cast into it. The Minim and the apostates
and the betrayers are cast in and not helped
out.

This passage is included and discussed in the
following.

(61) b. A. Zar. 26a, b. — R Abahu taught, in presence
of R. Johanan, Idolaters and shepherds of
small cattle are neither helped out nor cast
in ; but the Minim, and the betrayers and
the apostates (mumarim) are cast in and not
helped out. He [R. Johanan] said to him,
1 1 teach every lost thing of thy brother [Deut.
xxii. 3] to include the apostate, and thou hast
said, they are cast in.' He [R. Joh.] excludes
the apostate. Then did he mean to teach
this both of the apostate who eats nebheloth
from desire, and of the apostate who eats
neblieloth to offend ? [Because] some suppose

174 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

that he who eats nebheloth to offend is a Min,

some say an apostate. Rab Aha and Rabina

are divided. One says, ' he who eats nebheloth

from desire is an apostate, he who eats nebheloth

to offend is a Min.' The other says, • even he

who eats nebheloth to offend is an apostate.'

Then what is a Min? He who serves false

gods [lit. gods of the stars]. It is rejoined,

1 If he eat a single flea or fly, he is an apostate.'

Now here [i.e. in R. Abahu's dictum] it is a

case of eating to offend, and therefore he

includes the apostate ; there [i.e. in R.

Johanan's dictum] he [the apostate] wished

to taste what is forbidden [and is therefore

excluded].

Commentary. — The foregoing passage is a fair

specimen, both in matter and style, of a halachic

discussion. To make the meaning clear, considerable

explanation of detail is necessary. " Idolaters,"

literally, worshippers of stars, are the ordinary

heathen, Gentiles, and I have used the term Idolaters

for convenience. "Are neither helped out nor cast

in," i.e. out of or into a pit. Gentiles are not to be

endangered or delivered from danger. On the other

hand, Minim, betrayers and apostates, are to be

endangered and not to be delivered from danger. As

regards Minim and betrayers, i.e. political informers,

delatores, this is not disputed. The question is raised,

however, in regard to the apostate (mumar), whether

he ought to be included in the severer treatment

dealt out to Minim. R. Abahu taught that he should

be included, R. Johanan on the other hand maintained

that he should not. And the point to be settled

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 175

accordingly is whether there is a distinction between
a Min and an Apostate. An Apostate (mumar) is
one who deliberately transgresses the ceremonial law,
especially in regard to food, by eating forbidden
things. Nebheloth means the flesh of an animal that
has died of itself, which flesh is forbidden as food
[Lev. vii. 24]. A man who eats nebheloth is un-
deniably a mumar. But, says the Gemara (in
reference to the dictum of R. Johanan, who excluded
the mumar from the severer treatment), a mumar may
eat nebheloth either from desire, because he is hungry,
or in order to offend, i.e. from wilful defiance of God.
Does R. Johanan apply his words to both of these ?
Because some say that the latter is a Min, while some
say that he is still only a mumar. The discussion
between R. Johanan and R. Abahu must have taken
place not later than a.d. 279, the year of R. Johanan's
death. The point raised was discussed by R. Aha
and Rabina, Babylonian teachers during the early
years of the fourth century. The former (R. Aha
bar Jacob) held that a mumar who ate nebheloth from
desire was only a mumar > while one who did so to
offend was a Min. The latter (Rabina the elder)
held that a mumar in either case was only a mumar,
and that a Min was a heathen idolater. The Gemara
decides, as between R. Johanan and R. Abahu, that
even if a man eat a single flea or fly (both of which
are forbidden food), he is a mumar ; but that R.
Abahu had in view the mumar who ate in order to
offend, and therefore declared that such mumar was
to be severely dealt with, like a Min or an informer ;
on the other hand, R. Johanan had in view the mumar
who only ate because he wished to taste forbidden

176 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

food, and therefore declared that such mumar should
be excluded from the severer treatment.

It should be observed that this whole discussion
arises upon two Baraithas, i.e. decisions contemporary
with, but not included in, the Mishnah. One is that
already quoted at the head of this passage, from T. B.
Mez. ii. 33. The other is found in T. Horai. i. 5,
and is to the effect that everyone who eats reptiles
(lintpe) is a mumar} These two passages are con-
siderably earlier than the period of R. Johanan and
R. Abahu, and yet more so than that of Aha and
Rabina. The discussion upon them may therefore
be considered as academic rather than practical, so far,
at all events, as regards the difference between a
mumar and a Min. And a comparison of the two
discussions seems to show that whereas R. Johanan
and R. Abahu knew well what a Min was, R. Aha
and Rabina did not know, except as a matter of
speculation. Rabina would not have said that a
Min was an ordinary Gentile if he had had actual
knowledge of the Minim.

So far as regards the subject of Minim, the passage
we have just studied is of very little value, being
concerned only with the subject of the mumar. It
was necessary, however, to deal with it because of
its mention of Minim, and it could not be made
intelligible without the dry and tedious explanation
just given.

It may be sufficient to refer, without translation, to
a short passage b. Hor. 11% where the same question
concerning the mumar and the Min is discussed and
decided in the same way as in the passage just ex-

1 Cod. Erfurt reads ' Meshummad,' HOI^D.

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 177

amined. Nothing fresh is added, and the explanation
of the one passage suffices for the other.

The following extract is hardly less dry and difficult
than the foregoing ; but it must be included, since it
brings out a somewhat different aspect of the subject.

Gentile and Min (ii.)

NO DEALINGS WITH THE MINIM

(62) T. Hull. ii. 20, 21.— Flesh which is found in
the hand of a Gentile (>u) is allowed for use,
in the hand of a Min it is forbidden for use.
That which comes from a house of idolatry,
lo I this is the flesh of sacrifices of the dead,
because they say, 'slaughtering by a Min is
idolatry, their bread is Samaritan bread, their
wine is wine offered [to idols], their fruits
are not tithed, their books are books of witch-
craft, and their sons are bastards. One does
not sell to them, or receive from them, or
take from them, or give to them ; one does
not teach their sons trades, and one does not
obtain healing from them, either healing of
property or healing of life.'
Commentary. — The ordinary Gentile is here dis-
tinguished from the Min, and the latter is judged
more severely, presumably on the ground that the
ceremonial law in regard to food is unknown to the
former, and wilfully violated by the latter. The
argument is, 'flesh found in the hand of a Min is

forbidden for use, because that which is slaughtered

178 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

by a Min is [for] idolatry, and that which comes from
a house of idolatry is the flesh of sacrifices of the
dead' [cp. Ps. cvi. 28]. The various statements
about the Minim rest upon anonymous authority —
'they say' — and perhaps only represent current
opinion in the time when the Tosephta was compiled.
The context of the passage shows that the Minim
here described are, or at all events include, Jewish
Christians. The passage does not occur, so far as I
know, either in the Mishnah or the Gemaras ; but in
b. Hull. 41% b there is a parallel to some sentences of
Tosephta preceding the portion just translated. The
Mishnah on the page just mentioned (M. Hull. ii. 9.,
b. Hull 41a) says that a hole to catch the blood of
slaughtered animals is not to be made in the street,
p*on npn* *S*% * that one may not imitate the Minim.'
(See also j. Kil. 32a, where the same statement
occurs.) T. Hull. ii. 19 has >pin ns nrw una p w vh
pro , " he shall not do so because he would be doing
the statutes of the Minim." Rashi and the other
commentators explain the Minim to be idolaters,
ordinary Gentiles. If this were the meaning, it is
not evident why the usual term for a Gentile was not
used. The reference must be to heretics, possibly,
though not necessarily, Jewish Christians ; but I do
not know of any heretical practice such as that
described.

Here may be added a passage which seems to show
that the distinction between Min and Gentile was
scarcely understood in the Babylonian schools.

(63) b. Hull. 13b. — A teacher said, <a thing
slaughtered by an idolater is nebhelah (see
above, p. 175) and he is suspected of being a

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 179

Min. Rab Nahman said that Rabah bar Abuha
said there are no Minim among the idolatrous
nations. But we show that there are. Say
that the majority of idolaters are not Minim.
He [R. Nahman] thought of this that R.
Hija bar Abba said that R. Johanan said,
Foreigners outside the land are not idolaters,
but follow the custom of their fathers. R.
Joseph bar Minjomi said that Rab Nahman
said * there are no Minim among the idolaters.'
In reference to what ? Do you say, In refer-
ence to slaughtering ? Here we have * sl thing
slaughtered by a Min': if he be an Israelite,
it is forbidden. What if he be an idolater?
But [if you mean] in reference to ' casting-
down ' [into a pit], we have, * They cast down
a Min who is an Israelite ' ; what if he be
an idolater?
Commentary. — In addition to what has been said
on the preceding passages in the present group, it is
only necessary to say that, the foregoing seems to be
a purely academical discussion amongst teachers who
had no practical experience of Minim. R. Nahman
bar Jacob (died 300 a.d.) taught in Nehardea till a.d.
258, then at Shechanzib till his death. He was the
son-in-law of Rabah bar Abuha, the Resh Galutha
after 250 a.d. R. Hija bar Abba was a pupil of the
Palestinian R. Johanan, he lived in the latter half
of the third century and the beginning of the fourth.
R. Joseph bar Minjomi was an otherwise unknown
pupil of R. Nahman. The purpose of the discussion
seems to be to reconcile the dictum that there are no
Minim among idolaters with the statements of the

180 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

teacher who said that an idolater who slaughtered an
animal for sacrifice was suspected of being a Min.
From this latter it would follow that a Min was only
a particularly zealous idolater, and this is the view
generally taken by Rashi (see his comment on the
present passage, and elsewhere). The Gemara
accounts for the opinion that there are no Minim
amongst idolaters, by a reference to the saying of
R. Johanan that there is no idolatry outside the
Holy Land. This means that the worship of gods
other than the God of Israel is only idolatry, false
worship, when practised in the Holy Land, by those
who might be supposed to know the true religion.
There might therefore be, in foreign countries, persons
who in Palestine would be called Minim; but they
are not so called, because the name implies a dis-
tinction which only holds good in Palestine.1 The
Gemara, however, does not accept the dictum that
there are no Minim amongst idolatrous nations, and
proves their existence by showing that it is implied in
certain ordinances referring to Minim who were of
Jewish origin. But it is quite plain that the discus-
sion does not rest upon any real knowledge of, or
personal contact with, Minim. This will be of im-
portance when we come to gather up the evidence so
as to present a general account of the use of the
term Minim.

1 But the same Kabbi Johanan says (b. A. Zar. 65a), * A proselyte who
lets twelve months go by without being circumcised is like a Min among the
idolaters.' From which may be inferred that Johanan did not hold the
opinion that there were no Minim among the idolaters ; and, further, that he
would define a Min as one who professed to hold the Jewish religion with-
out observing the ceremonial law.

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 181

The Jewish Origin of the Minim

(64) j. Sanh. 29c. — R. Johanan said, * Israel did

not go into exile until they had been made

twenty-four sects of Minim.' What is the

reason ? Son of man, I send thee to the

children of Israel, to the rebellious peoples

that have rebelled against me [Ezek. ii. 3]. It

is not written here, to the rebellious people,

but to the rebellious peoples which have rebelled

against me, they and their fathers have sinned

against me, unto this day.

Commentary. — This is a little bit of haggadah,

not at all a strict exegesis of the text of Ezekiel.

So far as I know it does not occur elsewhere in the

Gemaras or the Midrashim. It forms part of a

long chapter upon that section of the Mishnah which

enumerates those persons who shall have no part in

the world to come. Amongst these, according to

R. Johanan, in a passage immediately preceding the

one before us, are to be included the followers of

Johanan ben Kareah [Jer. xliii.]. This opinion is

based upon an exposition of Hos. v. 7, not because

that text distinctly refers to the son of Kareah, but

merely because it might be applied to him. This

dictum of R. Johanan appears to serve as an excuse

for introducing the one before us, which in like

manner is only a fanciful deduction from a text in

Ezekiel. The prophet speaks of the children of

Israel as ■ rebellious peoples ' instead of 'people.' And,

whether or not the Hebrew text is correct in giving

the plural form, and whatever the prophet may have

meant if he did use the plural, it is out of the

182 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

question that he should have meant what R. Johanan
deduced from his words. Probably the Rabbi was
quite aware of this. His object was not to expound
Ezekiel, but to find a Scripture basis, however slight,
for an opinion of his own concerning heretics. He
knew the Minim, of his own day and earlier, as
heretics who disregarded the true religion of Israel
as summed up in the Torah. They were rebellious
against the God of Israel ; and thus, as the word
used by Ezekiel was applicable to them, haggadic
logic inferred that the rebellion denounced by
Ezekiel was that of the Minim. The twenty-four
sects of Minim are arrived at by the simple calcu-
lation that each of twelve tribes was divided into
at least two sections. Hence twenty-four. (This,
at all events, is the explanation of the anonymous
commentator on the passage in the Palestinian
Gemara.) The only point worth noticing is that R.
Johanan's dictum implies the Jewish origin of Minim.
They were not Gentiles, but unfaithful Jews. The
passage therefore, while entirely worthless as a com-
ment on Ezekiel, is valuable as evidence for the
historical definition of the term Minim, coming
from a contemporary authority.

Haggadah against Minuth

(65) b. A. Zar. 17a. — Keep thy way far from her
[Prov. v. 8], this is Minuth; and come not
near the door of her house, this is the Govern-
ment. Some say, Keep thy way far from her,
this is Minuth and the Government ; and come
not near the door of her house, this is harlotry.

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 183

How near [may one come] ? R. Hisda said,
Four cubits. How do our Rabbis expound
this : ' The price of a harlot ' ? According to
R. Hisda. For R. Hisda said, Every harlot
who begins by being hired ends by hiring, as it
is said [Ezek. xvi. 34], Whereas thou givest hire
and no hire is given to thee and thou art
contrary. He differs from R. Pedath, for R.
Pedath said, The Torah only forbids approach
for uncovering nakedness, as it is said [Lev.
xviii. 6], None of you shall approach to any
that is near of kin to him to uncover their
nakedness. Ulla, when he came from the
college, used to kiss the hands of his sisters.
Some say he kissed their breasts. He [Ulla]
contradicts himself ; for Ulla said, Approach in
general is forbidden on the ground of [the
maxim], 'Away, away, Nazirite, they say,
approach not the fence round the vineyard.'
The horseleach hath two daughters [crying],
Give, give [Pro v. xxx. 15]. What is • Give,
give? ' Mar Uqba said, ' It is the voice of two
daughters who cry from Gehinnom, saying in
this world, Give, give.' And who are they?
Minuth and Government. Some say that R.
Hisda said that Mar Uqba said, The voice of
Gehinnom crying out and saying, ■ Bring me
my two daughters who cry and say in this
world, Give, give.' None who come to her
return, neither do they attain the paths of life
[Prov. ii. 19]. But if they do not 'return,'
how should they ' attain V Here is a diffi-
culty. If they do 'return,' they do not

184 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

'attain' the patlis of life.' It is to be inferred
that everyone who departs from Minuth dies.
But [there is the case of] a certain woman
who came before R. Hisda and said, that the
lightest of the lightest sins she had done was
that her youngest was begotten by her eldest
son. And he [R. Hisda] said, 'Make ready
her shroud ! ' But she did not die. From her
saying, 'the lightest of the lightest sins she had
done,' presumably Minuth was still in her;
and because she had not thoroughly turned
from it she did not die. Some say [one who
turns] from Minuth dies, [one who turns] from
sin [does] not. But [there is the case of] the
woman who came before R. Hisda, and he
said, ' Make a shroud for her ! ' and she died.
From her saying, ' the lightest of the lightest
sins she had done,' presumably Minuth was
still in her, and she died [in parting] from
it and not from her sin. But it is tradition,
they said, concerning El'azar ben Dordaia
. . . . * he bowed his head between his knees
and groaned with weeping until his soul
departed. And there went forth a Bath Qol
[voice from heaven], saying, 'Rabbi El'azar
ben Dordaia is summoned to the life of the
world to come.' Here he was in sin, and
died [in parting from it]. There [referring to
the incident omitted], so long as he clave to
the woman, it was like Minuth. Rabbi wept
and said, ' One man earns heaven in how many

1 Here follows an obscene story to show how a great sinner may repent
and yet die.

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 185

years ! and another in a single hour. It is not
enough for repentant sinners that they should
be received, but they must also be called
Rabbi!'
Commentary. — This passage forms the continua-
tion of No. (46), where is related the arrest of R.
Eliezer for Minuth. But whereas that famous
incident is mentioned no less than five times in the
Talmud and Midrash, the present passage (with the
exception of the first few sentences) occurs, so far as
I know, only here.

The haggadic interpretation of Prov. v. 8 would
seem to be due to R. Eliezer himself.1 For he says
(see above, p. 139), ' I transgressed that which is
written in the Torah, Keep thy way far from her,
this is Minuth ; and go not near the door of her house,
this is the Government.' R. Eliezer's misfortune
was due to both these evils ; he had been con-
taminated with heresy, and was a prisoner in the
power of the state. The variation, according to
which the first half of the verse refers to both
Minuth and the Government, while the second
denotes harlotry, is probably much later, and seems
to belong to a time when Minuth and the Empire
were blended by the adoption of Christianity as the
state religion. That this great change did not pass
unnoticed in the Rabbinical literature we shall have
evidence later on.

R. Hisda, whose opinions are cited more than

1 According to Bacher, A. d. Tann., ii 310 n., the application of Prov.
v. 8 to Minuth ia ascribed to R. Jehoshua ben Qorha, in " the second version
of the Aboth de R. Nathan 7b." This reference I have not been able to
verify. R. Eliezer was considerably earlier in date than R. Jeh. b. Qorha.

186 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

once, was a Babylonian whom we have already
several times met with. In conjunction with R.
Huna, he presided over the college at Sura. He
was born a.d. 217, and died a.d. 309. He was a
pupil of Rab, and also of Mar Uqba, whose name
occurs in the present passage. R. Pedath, probably
the elder of two who bear the same name, was a
Babylonian contemporary with Rabbi in Palestine.
He is scarcely known except as the father of the
more distinguished R. El'azar ben Pedath. Ulla is
Ulla ben Ishmael, of Palestinian origin (see Bacher,
Ag. d. Bab. Amor., p. 93, n. 3), who afterwards
migrated to Babylonia. He was not liked in the
country of his adoption, a fact which perhaps may
account for the rather uncivil reference to him.

The maxim, 'Away, away, Nazirite, they say;
approach not the fence round the vineyard,' is
quoted b. Shabb. 13% b. Pes. 40% b. Jeb. 46% b.
B. Mez. 92% b. A. Zar. 58% Bamm. r. x. 8 p. 38c.
It means, 'Keep away from temptation,' the
Nazirite, of course, being forbidden to taste wine.
The earliest authority for it is R. Johanan (b. A. Zar.
58% 59a), who, however, refers to it as a familiar
saying. It is indeed called a proverb (i6no, fcw>) in
the last of the above-mentioned passages, and prob-
ably occurs elsewhere ; but I have not been able to
find it.

The explanation of the text Pro v. xxx. 15 is not
very clear, except to this extent, that it is interpreted
of Minuth and the Empire, as in the case of the
former text [Prov. v. 8]. This interpretation appears
to be due to Mar Uqba (see above), and to have
been handed down in more than one form, for one of

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 187

which the authority is R. Hisda, a disciple of Mar
Uqba. It should be noted that R. Hisda was also
the authority in the Babylonian schools for the story
about the mother of Jesus (see above, No. (1), p. 36),
and for the remark about Jesus in reference to
'burning his food' (see above, No. (9), p. 56).
Further, in b. Ber. 12a (a passage which will be
examined hereafter, p. 308), the same R. Hisda
mentions the Minim. These facts serve to show in
what direction R. Hisda was looking when he en-
dorsed Mar Uqba's interpretation of the text in Prov.
xxx. 15. It is possible, and perhaps probable, that
this interpretation was of Palestinian origin ; at all
events, hostility against both Minuth and the Empire
would naturally be more bitter in the west than in
the east. At the same time it must be admitted
that there does not seem to be any trace of this
particular haggadah in the Palestinian Midrash. R.
Hisda improved on Mar Uqba's interpretation of
the text. The earlier teacher said that the 'two
daughters' who cried 'give, give' were Minuth
and the Empire. This left it uncertain what was
meant by the 'horseleach' whose daughters they
were. R. Hisda said that the horseleach meant
Gehinnom [Gehenna, which in this case may be
fairly rendered Hell], 'who cries and says, Bring
me my two daughters who cry and say in this
world Give, give ' ; in other words, Heresy and the
Empire are the rapacious offspring of Hell, and Hell
cries out for them.

Following on this text is an interpretation of Prov.
ii. 19, on similar lines, None who come to her
return, neither do they attain the paths of life. Like

188 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

the preceding haggadah, it is introduced without any
mention of a Rabbi as its author. But in this case
the source can be traced in the Palestinian tradition.
In the Midrash Qoh. r. [on i. 8, a long passage of
which use will be made hereafter], occurs the follow-
ing, which will be seen at once to be a close parallel
to the incident at present under consideration.

(66) Qoh. r. i. 8. — The case of a woman who came

to R. Eliezer to become a proselyte. She said

to him, ■ Rabbi, receive me.' He said to her,

1 Relate to me thy deeds.' She said, ' My

youngest son is by my eldest son.' He

stormed at her. She went to R. Jehoshua

and he received her. His disciples said to

him, 'R. Eliezer drove her away and thou

receivest ' ! He said to them, ' When her

mind was set on becoming a proselyte she

no longer lived to the world [?], as it is

written [Pro v. ii. 19], None that go unto her

return again, and if they return, they do not

attain the paths of life'

Commentary, — This passage occurs in the midst of

a long series of references to Minuth, all of which,

moreover, are concerned with Palestinian personages.

It is, on the face of it, much more likely that a

woman desiring to abjure Minuth — in this instance

Christian heresy — should go to a Palestinian Rabbi

rather than to a Babylonian like Hisda. At the same

time it is true that the Midrash on Qoheleth is later

than the Babylonian Gemara, and occasionally quotes

from it (see Zunz, G. Vortr., p. 265). But, in the

present instance, the Midrash gives the shorter form

of the story; and the version in the Babylonian

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 189

Gemara, at present under consideration, is not only
longer, but appears to be introduced as merely a case
for discussion. Bacher (Ag. d. Tann., i. 188 n. 4,)
regards the version in Qoh. r. as the original. If so,
then this haggadic interpretation of Pro v. ii. 19 is
traced back to the second century. And seeing that
the haggadah on Prov. v. 8 is due to R. Eliezer, the
contemporary of R. Jehoshua, it is at least probable
that the interpretation of Prov. xxx. 15 also dates
from the same period, and from one or other of the
two famous Rabbis already named. In that case R.
Hisda merely added his own comment upon each text
to a tradition brought from Palestine.

We resume now the discussion of the passage in the
Babylonian Gemara. The object of the argument is to
decide whether they who recant from Minuth die or not.
The Gemara says, " It is to be inferred that they die."
Then by way of proof to the contrary is introduced
the case of the woman who came before R. Hisda,
accusing herself of gross crimes. It is to be observed
that the Gemara does not know whether this woman
really died or not, and it attempts to prove its point
on either supposition. It seems likely that what
came before R. Hisda was not the woman herself, but
the story of the woman who had gone to R. Eliezer and
R. Jehoshua, mentioned merely as a case in point, and
submitted to him for his opinion. He gave his opinion
(viz. that she would die) in the words, ' Make ready
her shroud ! ' If, as a matter of fact, she did not die,
then, says the Gemara, she was still unrepentant ; if
she did die, then she died in parting from her heresy
and not from her sin. This uncertainty as to whether
she died or not can be traced to the original story in

190 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

Qoh. r. There R. Jehoshua, when asked why he
received her, said, ' When her mind was set on becom-
ing a proselyte, she no longer lived to the world'
(D^y1?). I have translated these words literally, but
I do not feel certain what exactly is meant by ' to the
world.' The Rabbinical literature does not recognise,
so far as I know, the sharp distinction between • the
world ' and the spiritual life which is common
in the N.T., especially in the Fourth Gospel. So
that possibly here, as elsewhere, thvh should be
translated 'for ever.' But still I believe that the
sense which R. Jehoshua intended is given by the
translation 'to the world,' ix. he meant that the
woman by her repentance died to her past life and
would never live in it again. This is the opinion of
Hamburger (Encykl., ii. 514). Apparently this was
not understood in the Babylonian schools, hence the
uncertainty as to whether or not the woman really
died.

The story about R. El'azar ben Dordaia (which I
have not transcribed or translated because it is gross
and has no bearing on the main subject) is introduced
by way of an objection to the argument that the
woman did not die because of her sin. El'azar ben
Dordaia, it is urged, sinned no less grievously, and was
forgiven, but yet he died. The objection is met by
saying that while he was in his sin it was, as it were,
Minuth to him, and he died in parting from it, not
merely in repenting of his sin. This is mere hair-
splitting, and shows that in the Babylonian school
where this discussion was carried on there was only a
vague notion of what Minuth was, and an inclination
to identify it with sexual immorality.

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 191

Note that El'azar ben Dordaia was not, strictly-
speaking, a Rabbi, but was only greeted with that
title when summoned by the divine forgiveness to
heaven. And note finally the jealousy of Rabbi, i.e.
R. Jehudah ha-Qadosh, whose epithet of ' The Holy '
would lead one to expect something different.

Minim and Circumcision

(67) Shem. r. xix. 4, p. 36d. — Because Israelites who
are circumcised do not go down to Gehinnom.
R. Berachjah said, ■ That the Minim and the
wicked of Israel may not say, "We are
circumcised, we shall not go down to
Gehinnom," what does the Holy One, Blessed
be He, do? He sends an angel and effaces
their circumcision, and they go down to
Gehinnom, as it is said [Ps. lv. 20], He hath
put forth his hand against such as be at peace
with him, he hath profaned his covenant ; and
when Gehinnom sees that their circumcision
is a matter of doubt, it opens its mouth and
swallows them alive and opens its mouth with-
out measure' [Isa. v. 14].
Commentary. — R. Berachjah was a younger con-
temporary of Abahu in the early years of the fourth
century, and, like him, lived in Palestine. There were
indeed two Rabbis of this name, of whom the elder
lived perhaps half a century earlier. The one who is
the more frequently mentioned (especially in the
Midrash) is probably the younger.

The passage before us is of no great importance

192 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

in itself, except that it implies the Jewish origin
of the Minim. Circumcision would not concern any
Gentile. The Minim are evidently Jewish heretics,
and, though not necessarily in every case Christians,
must certainly have included some. If so, then it is
important to notice that as late as the fourth century
there were Jewish Christians who were circumcised.
The conclusion is either that the practice was kept
up amongst Jewish Christian families, or else that the
Jewish Christian community received very numerous
proselytes. The former is the more likely, because
the term Minim, whatever it may denote, must at
least refer to the main body of heretics, so called,
whoever they were, and not to those who joined them
from time to time.

The Principle of Minuth : The House of Straw

(68) Bamm. r. xviii. 17, p. 75d. — R. El'azar said,
There was in them [i.e. Doeg and Ahithophel]
the principle of Minuth. What were they
like? Like a house filled with straw, and
there were openings in the house, and the
straw entered them. After a time that straw
which was inside those openings began to
come forth. But all knew that that had
been a house [full] of straw. So Doeg and
Ahithophel. From the beginning no Mitzvoth
[precepts of the Law] were in them ; although
they had been made Sons of the Law, they
were as in their beginning, for wickedness was
in the midst of them, within them [cp. Ps.
lv. 11].

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 193

Commentary. — The Midrash on Exodus dates,

according to Zunz (G. Vortr., p. 261), from the twelfth

century, but contains material that is much earlier.

The passage before us is part of such earlier material.

It is not indeed to be found in exactly the same words

in the older literature ; but the substance of it is

contained in the Palestinian Gemara, and there are

traces of it in that of Babylon. In j. Sanh. 27a is

the following: —

(69) The Epiquros: R. Johanan and R. Lazar,

one said, '[He is] like one who says These

Scribes ' ! ; the other said, ' [He is] like one

who says These Rabbis ' ! R. El'azar and R.

Shemuel bar Nahman, one said, ■ [He is] like

an arch of stones ; as soon as one stone is

loosened all are loosened.' The other said,

1 [He is] like a house full of straw. Although

you clear away the straw from it, the chaft

inside [clings to and] loosens the walls.'

This latter passage carries us back to the third

century. R. Lazar is the same as R. El'azar, and

both names denote R. El'azar ben Pedath. He was

a Babylonian who came to Palestine and taught in

Tiberias, where he died in a.d. 279, about the same

time as R. Johanan. R. Shemuel bar Nahman was a

Palestinian (see Bacher, A. d. Pal. Amor., i. 477),

contemporary with R. Johanan and R. El'azar, though

perhaps somewhat younger, as he appears to have

been living in a.d. 286 (Bacher).

In both passages the subject of discussion is the

heretic or the freethinker (on the relation of Epiquros

to Min, see above, p. 121 fol.). A Jewish Epiquros

was practically the same as a Min. The point of

194 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

comparison between the heretic and the house full
of straw is this, that the original character of each
remains unchanged in spite of changes in outward
appearance or condition. Though the straw be
removed, the chaff remains ; though the heretic put
on an appearance of piety, the taint of heresy is in
him still. Thus Doeg and Ahithophel are said to
have in them the principle of Minuth, the taint of
heresy, in spite of the fact that they were made ' sons
of the Torah,' i.e. brought up in the Jewish religion.
In b. Hag. 16b it is said of these two that there was
*a gnawing passion in their heart' (nJ?2 KK)), i.e. a
secret desire to rebel, in spite of outward conformity.
We have already seen (above, p. 70) that Doeg and
Ahithophel are treated in the Rabbinical literature as
types of heresy, and that there is probably some
covert reference to Christianity in the condemnation
of them. The present passage does not contradict,
though it does not confirm, the latter supposition.
The Gemara does not explain in what the ' principle
of Minuth ' consisted, but leaves it to be inferred, or
rather takes it for granted as being generally known,
on the strength of other references to it elsewhere.
The simile of the arch of stones is used by R. Johanan,
j. M. Qat. 83c, though for a different purpose. The
simile of the house of straw is ascribed, in the second
passage above (j. Sanh. 27d), to R. Shemuel bar
Nahman, and that of the arch of stones to R. El'azar.
It is probable that these two should be interchanged,
in which case the version in Bamm. r. would be in
harmony with that in the Palestinian Gemara.

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 195

Scriptural Indications of Minuth

(70) Siphri, § 115, p. 35a. — And ye shall not walk
after your heart [Num. xv. 39], this is
Minuth, according as it is said [Ecc. vii. 26],
And I find a thing more bitter than death,
even the woman whose heart is snares and nets,
and whose hands are bands, and the king shall
rejoice in God [Ps. lxiii. 11.]
Commentary. — The book Siphri is almost contem-
poraneous with the Mishnah (see Zunz, G. Vortr., p.
46). It was compiled, or rather edited, somewhat
later ; but parts of its contents are older. It may be
dated about the middle of the third century. The
above passage is the earliest authority for the inter-
pretation of the phrase after your heart in the sense
of heresy. This really amounts to a definition that
Minuth consists in following the dictates of one's
own selfish nature, as against those of the lawful
authority. The result of so doing is, indirectly, the
rejection of beliefs and practices enjoined on those
who hold the true religion. A Min, accordingly,
disregards the authority of the Rabbis as teachers of
religion and expounders of the Torah, both written
and unwritten, and also maintains doctrines and
practices which are not those of the true religion.
This dictum, that ' after your heart ' denotes Minuth,
became a sort of canon of exegesis in the later litera-
ture. In support of it Siphri quotes two texts, Ecc.
vii. 26 and Ps. lxiii. 11. The first of these does not
appear to have any reference to heresy ; but the cita-
tion of it may be explained either on the ground

196 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

of the symbolism common in the O.T., which repre-
sents religious unfaithfulness under the figure of
fornication, or on the ground of the immorality
with which heretics, and particularly Christians, were
frequently charged. The second text needs to be
given in full in order that its bearing on Minuth may
be understood. It runs : But the king shall rejoice in
God ; everyone that swear eth by him shall glory, for
the mouth of them that speak lies shall be stopped.
A verse of which the learned editor of Siphri rather
naively says that it clearly refers to Minuth.

The above passage is referred to in b. Ber. 12b,
where, however, the text cited in support of the inter-
pretation is Ps. xiv. 1, The fool hath said in his heart
there is no God.1 This gives at least one of the
implications of Minuth, for, if the Minim did not
theoretically deny the existence of God, it was quite
sufficient (as later Christian history abundantly shows)
that they should be heretics in order to be at once
branded as atheists. Rashi, on the passage in Ber.
12b, says : — Minuth : those who turn the sense of the
Torah into an exposition of falsehood and error.

There is a further reference to this interpretation
of the phrase ■ after your heart ' in the Midrash
Vajiq. r. as follows : —

(72) Vajiqr. r., § 28, p. 40c, d.— R, Benjamin ben
Levi said they sought to withdraw the Book
Qoheleth because they found in it things that

1 Cp. also (71) Siphri, § 320, p. 137b top : [Deut. xxxii. 21], J will
provoke them with a foolish nation. These are the Minim. And he said
thus [Ps. xiv. 1], The fool hath said in his hearty There is no God.

In b. Jebam. 63b the same occurs : the application of Ps. xiv. 1 is
ascribed to K. Eliezer, i.e., probably, K. Eliezer ben Horqenos in the first
century. He had already applied Prov. v. 8 to Minuth. See above, p. 139,

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 197

lead to Minuth. They said, Ought Solomon
to have said thus? [Ecc. xi. 9], Rejoice, O
young man, in thy youth ; and let thy heart
cheer thee in the days of thy youth. Moses
said [Num. xv. 39], And ye shall not walk
after your heart ; and Solomon said [Ecc., ut
supra], Walk in the ways of thy Jteart, and in
the sight of thine eyes. But the band is loosed,
and there is no judgment and no judge. As
soon as he [Solomon, in the same verse] said,
But know, that for all these things God will
bring thee into judgment, they said, Solomon
hath spoken well.

R. Shemuel bar Nahmani said they sought

to withdraw the Book Qoheleth, because they

found in it things that lead to Minuth. They

said, Ought Solomon to have said thus ? Wlmt

profit is there to a man of his labour [Ecc. i.

3]. Perhaps he means even of his labour in

hearing Torah ? They said again, If he had

said Of all his labour, and had then been

silent, we should have said he does not say this

except in reference to his labour which does

not benefit ; but the labour of hearing Torah

does benefit.

Commentary. — Little needs to be added to what

has already been said. R. Benjamin ben Levi was a

Palestinian of the fourth century (see Bacher., Ag. d.

PaLJAmor., iii. 661 fol.). R. Shemuel bar Nahmani

is written by mistake for R. Shemuel bar Jitzhaq (see

Bacher, as above, p. 662, n. 2), who was contemporary

with R. Abahu, and thus lived at the beginning of

the fourth century. The proposal to withdraw the

198 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

book of Ecclesiastes, i.e. to declare it uncanonical, is
referred to in b. Shabb. 30b. ' They ' who desired to do
this are ' the Wise/ i.e. the Rabbis. In the passage
in b. Shabbath the reason given is merely the alleged
contradiction of certain texts in the book, not any
tendency to Minuth. In the Mishnah, Jad. iii. 8,
the discussion which ended in the retention of the
book is said to have taken place " on the day when
R. E'lazar ben Azariah was made Nasi," i.e. at Jabneh,
about 100 a.d. (see below, p. 386 n.). It is worth
noting that R. Gamliel II., who was temporarily
deposed in favour of R. Elazar ben Azariah, was the
same who ordered the composition of the formula
against the Minim (see above, No. 38, p. 126 fol.). It
is thus at least conceivable that an alleged heretical
tendency in the book of Ecclesiastes may have been
one reason in favour of declaring it uncanonical.
The fact at all events remains, that though the book
was admitted, the suspicion of its orthodoxy was not
wholly quenched, as is seen in these references and
explanations in the later literature.

The passage just translated appears in a slightly
different form in the Midrash Qoh. r., on i. 3 (p. lc),
and also in Pesiqta 68b and Pesiqta r., § 18, p. 90b.
These add nothing of importance to what has already
been given.

(73) b. Sanh. 38b.— R. Jehudah said that Rab said
the first man was a Min, as it is said [Gen. iii.
9], And God spake unto the man and said,
Where [art thou]? Whither hath thy heart
inclined ?

Commentary. — The meaning of this haggadah is
that the sin of Adam, in disobeying the command of

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 199

God, was the same in kind as that of the heretic, who
rejects the divinely-appointed authority.

This saying does not occur, so far as I know, any-
where else, not even in Ber. r., which mentions and
comments on the text R. Jehudah is It. Jehudah
ben Jehesq'el, a disciple of Rab, already frequently
mentioned.

Immediately following on the passage are two
other sayings, one that Adam effaced his circumcision,
the other that he denied God. Both of these may be
taken as expansions of the statement that he was a
heretic.

In Ber. r. xix. 1, p. 42b, it is said that the serpent
[Gen iii.] was also a Min. The idea is the same.

In Shem. r., p. 73c, d, Moses is accused of being a
Min, because he expressed a doubt as to the resurrec-
tion of the dead. This passage will be dealt with
later (see p. 315).

Signs of Minuth; Liturgical Variations

(74) M. Meg., iv. 8, 9. — He that saith I will not
go before the Ark in coloured garments, shall
not do so in white ones. [He that refuseth
to do so] in sandals, shall not do so even
barefoot. And he that maketh his tephillin
round, it is danger, and there is no [fulfilling
of] commandment in it. If he place it [the
tephillin] upon his forehead or upon the palm
of his hand, lo, this is the way of Minuth. If
he cover it with gold, and place it on his robe,
lo, this is the way of the Hitzonim.

If one say, ■ The good shall bless thee,' lo,

200 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

this is the way of Minuth. [If one say],
' Thy mercies reach to the nest of the bird,'
1 Let thy name be remembered for good,'
'We praise, we praise,' they silence him.
Commentary. — This is one' of the few passages in
which the Mishnah refers directly to Minuth. It is
also one of the most obscure. To ■ go before the ark'
is to stand up to read the prayers in the synagogue.
The Mishnah enumerates several signs by which a
reader, who is inclined to heresy, can be detected.
The difficulty is to identify the form of heresy referred
to. Those who desire to wear white garments when
reading the prayers may be the Essenes, who are
said to have always worn a white robe. This explana-
tion, however, will not apply to those who desire to
be barefoot when they read. It is again quite uncer-
tain what heretics are censured in the reference to
those "who make their tephillin round.' Of those
who wear the tephillin on the forehead or on the palm
of the hand, it is said ' this is the way of Minuth.'
It is remarkable that the Gemara, the earliest com-
mentary on the Mishnah, can give no explanation of
these allusions. It only says (b. Meg. 24b) that the
reason for the prohibition is ■ lest Minuth should be
propagated,' a reason which is obvious in itself, and
does not throw light on the difficulty. The Gemara
is altogether silent on the last clause, 'he who
covereth his tephillin with gold, lo, this is the way of
the Hitzonim.'1 The name Hitzonim means simply
6 outsiders,' and whether or not it refers to the Essenes,

1 In b. Gitt. 45b, and b. Menah 42b, the phrase, * cover the tephillin with
gold,' occurs and is understood quite literally. Nothing is there said about
the Hitzonim. Such tephillin are simply said to be not according to the
halachah.

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 201

it is surely not, as Edersheim suggests, the origin of
that name (see L. and T. J. M., i. 333). He explains
'cover the tephillin with gold' as equivalent to
* praying at sunrise,' which is a somewhat strained in-
terpretation. I do not think it is possible to identify
the various forms of heresy, or even to say with
certainty that separate forms of heresy are referred
to. It is conceivable that the Mishnah only meant to
point out that certain practices were not in accordance
with the accepted usage, and therefore that those who
adopted those usages laid themselves open to sus-
picion of heresy. Yet, on the other hand, considering
how many points of ritual were, if not open questions,
at least subjects of discussion between the Rabbis,
it is noteworthy that the practices referred to in
this passage are condemned without qualification ; so
that the conclusion can hardly be avoided, that the
Mishnah had some particular, and not merely general,
intention in its reference.

It is not, however, only in aberrations from pre-
scribed ritual that signs of Minuth were, according
to the Mishnah, to be detected. Certain liturgical
formulae were also branded as heretical. The first
of these is, ■ The good shall bless thee.' The Baby-
lonian Gemara in Megillah does not notice this
formula. The Palestinian Gemara gives only the
brief comment, ' two powers ' (nvusn *ri£>). This
is a phrase of which several instances will be pre-
sented later. It denotes the heretical doctrine that
there are two divine powers in heaven ; in other words,
the denial of the unity of God. If this is the inten-
tion of the words in the Mishnah, * the good,' which
is plural, refers to God, and, of course, implies more

202 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

than one. 'Thee' in this case refers to the wor-
shipper. But since, in all the other formula quoted,
it is God who is addressed, it seems likely that it is
so in this phrase as well, and that ' the good ' are the
human beings who bless God. The heresy would
seem to consist in the implication that God is blessed
only by the good, and not by all his creatures, in-
cluding the bad. This is the explanation of Rashi
{ad loc.)9 who, however, does not say in what way
the wicked bless God. Tosaphoth accepts this, but
gives the alternative view of the Palestinian Gemara.
It is worthy of note that only in connexion with this
formula is it said, 'lo, this is the way of Minuth.'
In connexion with the others it is said merely, ' they
silence him ' [who uses them]. The next formula is,
6 Thy mercies extend over the nest of the bird ' [or
extend * to ' the nest, etc.]. The Palestinian Gemara
explains this to imply either an expression of jealousy,
' God has mercy on the birds but not on me ' ; or
secondly, a limitation of the mercy of God, as if it
extended only to the nest of the bird ; or thirdly,
a misrepresentation of the purpose of God, by saying
that what are really the decrees of God are only acts
of mercy. The Babylonian Gemara gives the same
alternatives. (See also Mishnah Ber. v. 3, and the
two Gemaras thereupon, where these heretical
formulas are mentioned in a passage almost identical
with the one under consideration.) Of the three
alternatives, the last is probably the right explana-
tion, and the heresy consists in saying that God
acts towards his creatures not as one who com-
mands, but as one who loves. When we remember
the Pauline antithesis of Law and Grace, or, in-

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 203

deed, the general N.T. doctrine that God is love,
it is easy to understand why such an innocent and
beautiful phrase should be deemed heretical.

The third formula is, ' Let thy name be remem-
bered for good,' or 'on account of what is good.'
This is explained by saying that a man ought to
thank God for the ill as well as for the good that
befalls him. Whether heresy or only want of piety
is condemned here, I do not know. The Gemaras
agree in the explanation.

The fourth formula is, 'We praise, we praise.'
Here the ground of objection is the repetition of
the word, as implying that there are two who are
to be praised. The Gemaras agree that the refer-
ence is to the doctrine of 'two powers.' And the
Palestinian Gemara adds, in the name of R. Shemuel
bar Jitzhaq, the reason why those who use the
formula are to be silenced, ' That the mouth of those
who speak lies may be stopped,' Ps. lxiii. 11. (For the
application of this text to Minuth, see above, p. 196.)

The formulae above mentioned are heretical varia-
tions introduced into the liturgy; and they must
date back to a time when Jews and Jewish Chris-
tians worshipped together in the Synagogue, or,
at all events, to a time when the presence of such
heretics might reasonably be feared. I say Jewish
Christians, because they were the class of heretics
most likely to be affected by regulations concerning
the liturgy to be used in worship. No doubt other
heretics would be detected if any such were present ;
but the Jewish Christians were the most important.
We may reasonably connect the censure of these
liturgical formulae with the enactment of the

204 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

* formula concerning the Minim' (see above, p. 125
fol.), and refer them, or rather the Mishnah enumer-
ating them, to the end of the first century. This
may account for the fact that the Gemara cannot
explain the reasons of the various censures upon
ritual, and can only partially explain those upon the
liturgical formulae. When the Gemaras were com-
piled, Jewish Christians had probably ceased to
worship with Jews in the synagogues. Their
aberrations in ritual were wholly forgotten and un-
known, and only some knowledge of their aberrations
in doctrine remained.

Signs of Minuth; Liturgical Omissions

(75) j. Ber. 9C. — R. Aha and R. Judah ben Pazi
were sitting in a certain synagogue. There
came one and went before the Ark, and left
out one benediction. They came and asked
R. Simon. He said to him [sic], in the name
of R. Jehoshua ben Levi, " When a servant
of the congregation omits two or three bene-
dictions, they do not make him turn back.
There exists difference of opinion.1 In general,
they do not make any one turn back, except
him who has omitted ' that makest the dead to
live,' 'that bringest down the proud/ 'that
buildest Jerusalem.' I say that [such a one]
is a Min."

Commentary. — The incident here related belongs
to the beginning of the fourth century, or possibly

1 3*751 "JD rDfc^K- • One is found teaching and differing.' I have not
found this technical phrase explained anywhere, and only give what seems
to me to be the meaning.

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 205

the end of the third. R. Simon is R. Simon bar
Pazi, who was a disciple of R. Jehoshua ben Levi,
and younger contemporary of R. Johanan. He
owned land in the south of Palestine (j. Demai 25a, b),
and lived and taught there. R. Judah ben Pazi was
his son — Pazi being the general family name, and
not that of the father alone (see Bacher, A. d. P. A.,
ii. 438, n. 2]. R. Judah b. P. and R. Aha both
dwelt in Lud (Lydda) (j. Sanh. 18c, d), and there,
no doubt, was the synagogue referred to in the
story. In reciting the liturgy, the reader omitted
a single one of the [eighteen] benedictions. The
question arose whether he ought to be made to turn
back and recite what he had left out. R. Simon was
consulted, presumably after the service was ended,
and he gave in answer a dictum of his teacher R.
Jehoshua b. Levi, that when a servant of the con-
gregation omits twro or three benedictions, he is not
to be turned back. It is not clear to me whether
what follows is part of R. Simon's answer, or part
of R. Jehoshua's opinion, or the opinion of the com-
pilers of the Gemara. But, whichever it be, the
opinion is clearly expressed that if a man leaves
out the benedictions referring to ' the raising of the
dead,' 'the casting down of the proud,' and 'the
building of Jerusalem,' that man is a Min. It will
be shown hereafter that the doctrine of the resurrec-
tion was one of the main points in dispute between
Jews and Minim. The words 'that bringest down
the proud ' are the conclusion of the formula against
the Minim (j. Ber. 8C, see p. 136 above). The
formula concerning the 'building of Jerusalem' in-
cluded the prayer for the restoration of the throne

206 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

of David ; but it is not clear to me why the omission
of that prayer should be characteristic of a Min.
So far as I know, the point is never raised in the
polemical discussions of Jews with Minim.

It does not appear that the reader in this story
was suspected of being a Min on account of his
omissions, at least, if he were so suspected, nothing
came of the suspicion. The incident is made the
occasion for remarking that certain omissions do
point to heresy. On the whole, I am inclined to
believe that the opinion to this effect is the opinion
of It. Simon, and that his reply might be paraphrased
thus : — ' It. Jehoshua's decision does not wholly meet
the present case. As to that, there is a difference of
opinion. In general, I should say that a reader ought
not to be stopped except he leave out the three bene-
dictions specified, because in that case I say he is a
Min.' It should be observed that this does not
imply that Jews and Minim were still in the habit
of worshipping together, and therefore does not con-
tradict what was said above (p. 204). The Minim
had their own places of assembly, and did not mix
with the Jews. But, of course, it might happen,
and probably did happen from time to time, that a
Jew inclined gradually towards heresy and joined
the Minim. His heresy might show itself in the
recital of the liturgy before he finally broke with
the Synagogue. There was, accordingly, reason for
keeping up the use of the detective formula (see
above, p. 135) ; and it would seem that two other
prayers, of the eighteen, were made use of for the
same purpose.

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 207

The Kingdom Turned to Minuth

(76) M. Sotah, ix. 15.— R. Eliezer the Great
says .... When the Messiah is at hand,
insolence will abound .... and the King-
dom will be turned to Minuth, etc.

[The latter phrase occurs also b. Sanh. 97b,
Shir. r. on ii. 13, p. 17c, and Der. eretz zuta,
c. x. In these cases it is ascribed to R.
Nehemjah. In b. Sanh. 97 b it is repeated
by R. Jitzhaq.]
Commentary. — This passage forms part of a piece
of haggadah appended to the tractate Sotah in the
Mishnah. Bacher (A. d. Tann., ii. 222, n. 4) seems
to regard it as not properly belonging to the Mishnah,
an opinion which I do not venture to call in question.
The first part of the haggadic appendix contains re-
flections on the deaths of several Rabbis, ending
with that of Jehudah ha-Qadosh, the editor of the
Mishnah. Then follows a retrospect of the religious
decline which set in after the destruction of the
Temple. By a natural transition, there follows a
forecast of the troubles that will immediately pre-
cede the coming of the Messiah.1 And one of the
signs of his coming will be that the Kingdom, i.e.
the Roman Empire, will be turned to Minuth. As
the text stands, the author of the saying about the
Kingdom is R. Eliezer the Great, i.e. R. Eliezer
ben Horqenos, who has been already frequently

1 On the doctrine that the advent of the Messiah will be heralded by woes
and calamities, see Weber, System d. Altsyn. Theologie, 336 ; Drummond,
Jewish Messiah, p. 209 fol. Matt. xxiv. is almost entirely on the lines of
current Jewish belief.

208 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

mentioned as one of the leading teachers at the
end of the first century. No other Rabbi is named
until the passage containing the forecast of future
trouble is completed. But it is extremely doubtful
if the whole passage is from R. Eliezer. The sudden
changes of language, from Hebrew to Aramaic and
back again, seem to show that different traditions
are combined. Probably only the words in Aramaic
are his, and perhaps not even those. The reference
to the Kingdom occurs in the Hebrew part. It is
to be observed that although the remark about the
Kingdom occurs elsewhere (see references above), it
is nowhere ascribed to R. Eliezer, except in the
present instance. In all the other instances it is
given as the dictum of R. Nehemjah, who was a
disciple of R. Aqiba, in the middle or latter half of
the second century. Even as the text stands in the
Mishnah, it is allowable to argue that the words are
not expressly ascribed to R. Eliezer, though at first
sight they seem to be. The most probable explana-
tion is that of Bacher (loc. cit.)9 viz., that the saying
is due to R. Nehemjah, that it, along with other
similar sayings of his, was incorporated with the
references to the destruction of the Temple (which
may have been said by R. Eliezer), and the whole
passage added to the haggadic conclusion of tractate
Sotah. That the addition is a very late one is shown
by the fact that allusion is made to the death of
Rabbi, i.e. R. Jehudah ha-Qadosh who edited the
Mishnah. Thus the passage, although included in
the received text of the Mishnah, is really, as Bacher
says, a Baraitha (see above, p. 21). It is curious that
the Palestinian Gemara does not comment on either

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 209

the reference to the destruction of the Temple or
the forecast of the advent of the Messiah ; certainly
not in connexion with the end of tractate Sotah,
and I believe not elsewhere. The same is true of
the Babylonian Gemara.

As to the statement itself that the kingdom shall
be turned to Minuth, there is here no reference to
the proclamation by Constantine the Great in favour
of Christianity, a.d. 313. R. Nehemjah lived con-
siderably more than a century before that event.
There is not the slightest reason to suspect so late an
addition to the text of the Mishnah as this would
imply, nor to father it on R. Nehemjah if it had been
made. The conversion of the Empire to Minuth is
merely a way of saying that the spread of heresy and
the consequent decay of religion will be universal.
R. Jitzhaq, who also mentions the conversion of the
Empire to Minuth as a sign of the advent of the
Messiah, probably lived till the time when Constan-
tine the Great, by his successive edicts, virtually
adopted Christianity as the religion of the state.
But R. Jitzhaq, if he knew of the event, makes no
special reference to it. He merely repeats the words
as R. Nehemjah had said them. All, therefore, that
can be learned from the passage is, that Minuth was
in the second century sufficiently known and dreaded,
that it could serve as an illustration of the calamities
which were to herald the coming of the Messiah.1

1 Bacher (A. d. P. Am., ii. 481, n. 5) gives a saying of R. Abba b. Kahana :
" When thou seest in the land of Israel the seats in the schools filled with
Minim, then look for the feet of the Messiah," Shir. r. on viii. 9 ; Ech. r. on
i. 13. The present texts in these places have, not ' Minim ' but ' Babliim,' i.e.
Babylonians. Bacher, on the authority of Perles, says that this is an ancient
gloss, and that ■ Minim ' is the original reading. Yet he shows some hesita-

210 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

Here may be added a reference to Christian
Rome.

Rome Pretending to be the True Israel

(77) j. Nedar. 38a.— R. Aha in the name of R.
Huna: Esau the wicked will put on his
6 tallith ' and sit with the righteous in Paradise
in the time to come; and the Holy One,
blessed be He, will drag him and cast him
forth from thence. What is the meaning?
Though thou mount on high as the eagle, and
though thy nest be set among the stars, I will
bring thee down from thence, saith the Lord
[Obad. 4]. The stars mean the righteous, as
thou sayest [Dan. xii. 3], They that turn
many to righteousness [shall shine] as the stars
for ever and ever.
Commentary. — The R. Huna here mentioned
was R. Huna of Sepphoris, a disciple of R. Johanan,
and must not be confounded with the earlier Baby-
lonian R. Huna, head of the college at Sura about
the middle of the third century. R. Aha lived at
Lydda in the first half of the fourth century. He
was therefore contemporary with the adoption of
Christianity as the official religion of the Roman
Empire. The above passage contains an unmistak-
able allusion to that event. ■ Esau the wicked ' is a
stock phrase in the Talmud to denote the Roman
Empire. That Esau should wrap himself in his
tallith (the scarf worn by a Jew when praying) means

tion ; and, indeed, it is easier in this connexion to understand a reference
to Babylonians than to Minim. I have therefore not included this passage
in my collection.

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 211

that the Roman Empire, now become Christian,
pretended to be the true Israel, in accordance with
the doctrine laid down in Gal. iii. 7. The claim of
the Christian Church to be the true Israel must have
been very exasperating to Jews, perhaps all the more
that the first to teach it had once been a Jew himself.

I proceed now to give a series of passages which
may be grouped together under the head of

SECTION II. POLEMICAL DISCUSSIONS WITH
MINIM

I will take, in the first place, some passages which
mention or describe encounters between Jews and
Minim. Afterwards, passages containing discussions
of special doctrinal points.

The Minim of Capernaum and R. Hananjah,
Nephew of R. Jehoshtja

(78) Qoh. r., i. 8, p. 4b. — Hanina, son of the brother
of R. Jehoshua, came to Chephar Nahum,
and the Minim worked a spell on him, and
set him riding on an ass on the Sabbath. He
came to Jehoshua his friend, and he put
ointment on him and he was healed. He [R.
Jehoshua] said to him, * Since the ass of that
wicked one has roused itself against thee, thou
canst no longer remain in the land of Israel.'
He departed thence to Babel, and died there
in peace.

Commentary. — This story occurs in the middle of
a long passage containing abundant references to

212 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

Minim. The story of the arrest of R. Eliezer for
Minuth (see above, p. 139 fol.), the attempted cure
of Ben Damah by a Min (p. 104 fol.), and the story of
the woman who desired to become a proselyte (p. 188
fol.), precede the present story. Those that follow
it will be given afterwards (p. 218 fol.).

The Midrash known as Qoheleth Rabbah, on the
book of Ecclesiastes, is of very late date, but never-
theless contains abundance of ancient material. The
present story I believe to be ancient, in spite of traces
of late date in the style, for two reasons. First, the
motive that suggested it was one that would lose its
force if the man of whom the story was told had been
dead for a long time. Second, the references to the
Minim of Capernaum only occur in connexion with
persons of the first or second century. At a later
time they seem to be quite unknown. If, therefore,
the story had been made up at some considerably
later date than the time of R. Jehoshua and his
nephew, it is probable that his alleged intercourse
with Minim would have had a different historical
setting. The R. Jehoshua of the story is R. Jehoshua
ben Hananjah, who has already been frequently
mentioned, and who lived at the end of the first and
the beginning of the second century. Hananjah
(not Hanina as in the text) his nephew, was a well-
known teacher, though by no means so distinguished
as his uncle. He did remove from Palestine to
Babylonia, probably before the outbreak of the war
of Bar Cocheba. And there he finally established
himself, although he once at least returned to
Palestine (b. Succ. 20b). Even in the time of R.
Gamliel II., before he left Palestine, Hananjah

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 213

appears to have been a Rabbi, and to have enjoyed
a considerable reputation as such (b. Nidd. 24b).
By his residence in Babylonia ! he escaped the perse-
cution which followed upon the defeat of Bar
Cocheba ; and it would seem that he took advantage
of the confusion and weakness of the Palestinian
schools to assert the independence of his own and
other Babylonian seats of learning. After order had
been restored in Palestine, and the scattered Rabbis
had gathered under the leadership of R. Shimon ben
Gamliel, a sharp controversy took place between the
latter and R. Hananjah. Messengers were sent to
Babylonia to demand the submission of R. Hananjah
to the authority of the Palestinian Patriarch. The
story of the dispute is given in j. Nedar. 40a, j. Sanh.
19% b. Berach. 63% b, and is admirably discussed by
Bacher, Ag. d. Tann., i. 390 n. 4. The date of this
dispute may be roughly given as 150 a.d., possibly
somewhat earlier.

Now it was evidently the interest of the Pales-
tinian Rabbis to depreciate the authority of R.
Hananjah if they could ; and the suggestion of his
intercourse with the Minim would answer their
purpose. Here we find the motive for the story
contained in the passage translated above. Whether
true or not, it is evident that there was a reason for
telling the story. Also it would seem natural that
the story should become current at a time not long
after the dispute just mentioned, possibly even while
it was going on. It does not appear that R.

1 The name of the place where he lived was Nahar Paqod (or Nahar
Paqor) ; Bee Neubauer, Geogr. d. Talm., 363 ff. Also, for the name Paqod,
cp. Schrader, Keilinschrift. d. A. T. 423 (E.T. ii. 117).

214 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

Hananjah ever made any formal submission; but
there is no doubt that the authority of the Nasi in
Palestine was successfully asserted as against the
schools of Babylonia. R. Hananjah was left in peace,
having failed to realise his ambition. The story
before us ingeniously presents him as a man for
whom allowances had to be made. No one disputed
his learning or his eminence as a teacher, but he had
unfortunately permitted himself to be tainted with
heresy, and therefore was obliged to leave the
country. Such seems to be the intention of the
story.

In its details the story is very interesting. That
the Minim here denote Christians there can be no
possible doubt. The phrase ' the ass of that wicked
one' contains an unmistakable reference to Jesus.
And the mention of Chephar Nahum, i.e. Capernaum,
confirms the reference, that city having been the
headquarters, so to speak, of Jesus during the earlier
part of his public career. If Christians were to be
found anywhere in Galilee in the second century,
Capernaum was the most likely place to contain
them.1

The story represents Hananjah as having been the
victim of magic. With this may be compared the
stories given above (p. 112 ff.) of Christian miracles.
He was made to ride on an ass on the Sabbath,

1 I do not go into the question whether Capernaum is now represented
by Tell Hum or Khan Minyeh. The fact that Minim are associated, in
the story under consideration, with the city of Capernaum, goes to confirm
the theory that Khan Minyeh marks the true site. This theory seems to
me to be, on other grounds, preferable to the one which identifies Capernaum
with Tell Hum. Is it not possible that ancient Capernaum included both
sites ?

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 215

presumably as a sort of imitation of Jesus. With
the mention of the ass in this connexion, compare
what is said above (p. 154 n). Whether the story
is based on a real incident in the life of R. Hananjah
there is not sufficient evidence to show. But the
case of R. Eliezer, discussed above (see p. 144) is a
well-authenticated instance of intercourse between
a Rabbi and a Min, and thus makes it quite possible
that R. Hananjah also had some dealings with the
Minim. If he had, then they must have taken place
before the year 130 a.d.

It should be observed that this story is not con-
tained in either the Palestinian or the Babylonian
Gemara, nor in any of the older Midrashim, although
R. Hananjah is several times referred to as a well-
known teacher. In the Midrash Qoheleth rabbah,
which is the sole authority for the story, there is
nevertheless a passage which to some extent confirms
its antiquity. It is said (on vii. 26) that R. Isi of
Csesarea (fourth century) expounded this verse in
reference to Minuth, and gave several examples of
the good who escaped, and the bad who were ensnared.
Amongst his instances are El'azar ben Damah and
Jacob of Chephar Sechanja, and also Hananjah and
the Minim of Chephar Nahum. This shows that the
story is not necessarily of late date, although it now
occurs only in an almost mediaeval midrash (see below,
p. 219).

The Mintm and R. Jonathan

(79) Qoh. r., i. 8. — R. Jonathan — one of his
disciples ran away to them [i.e. the Minim].
He came and found him in subjection to

216 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

them. The Minim sent after him, saying thus
unto him, ' And is it not thus written [Prov. i.
14], Thou shalt cast in thy lot with us; one
purse shall there be for us alV He fled, and
they fled after him. They said to him, * Rabbi,
come and show kindness to a girl.' He went
and found them .... with a girl. He said,
* Is it thus that Jews act ? ' They said to him,
6 And is it not written in the Torah, Thou shalt
cast in thy lot with us ; one purse,' etc. He
fled and they fled after him, till he came to
the door [of his house] and shut it in their
faces. They said, ' Rabbi Jonathan, go, prate
to thy mother that thou hast not turned and
hast not looked upon us. For, if thou hadst
turned and looked upon us, instead of our
pursuing thee, thou wouldst have pursued us.'
Commentary, — R. Jonathan, here mentioned, is R.
Jonathan ben El'azar, a Palestinian Rabbi of the
third century, contemporary with and associate of
Johanan and Resh Laqish. He lived in Sepphoris.
The Minim with whom he had the unpleasant adven-
ture described in this passage may have been those
of Capernaum, as the present passage follows, without
a break, after the story about R. Hananjah. The
connexion is so close that the present story begins
by saying that the disciple of R. Jonathan ran away
1 to them/ suggesting that the Minim of Capernaum
are still referred to. I do not feel certain that this
connexion is anything more than literary. But it is
at least probable that Christians of Galilee are referred
to, and certainly possible that Capernaum is the city
where they dwelt. If not Capernaum, then Sepphoris

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 217

is probably intended, because Jonathan, when he
escapes from the Minim, appears to take refuge in
his own house, since he shuts the door in their faces.1

As regards the details of the story little needs to
be said. It is plain that the words 'And is it not
written .... fled after him ' should be omitted, on
their first occurrence, to avoid a break in the story.
The reference to alleged immorality practised by
Christians in their secret assemblies does not need to
be enlarged upon. It should be noted that the
Rabbi, in rebuking the Minim, implies that they are
Jews, or at least of Jewish birth. The pursuit of the
Rabbi by the Minim is curious, and perhaps indicates
the dread as well as dislike felt by Jews towards the
heretics.

This story, like the preceding one, is found only in
the Midrash Qoheleth rabbah, a compilation of very
late date. Thus much, however, can be said in
support of the authenticity of the story, that R.
Jonathan is known to have had polemical discussions
with Minim, as will be shown subsequently (see
below, p. 254). Moreover, the fact that he took the
trouble to lay down a canon of interpretation of
Scripture referring to Minuth (Ber. r. 48, 6, see below,
p. 319), shows that he had had occasion to study the
subject. With the incident of the flight of a disciple
and the attempt of his teacher to bring him back,
may be compared a story quoted by Eusebius from
Clemens Alexandrinus (Euseb., Hist., iii. 23). The
conclusion of the story, however, is quite different
from that of the Jewish one.

1 See above, p. 115, on Sepphoris as the scene of several incidents in which
Minim were concerned.

218 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

I proceed to give the conclusion of the passage in
Qoheleth rabbah, from which the three preceding
anecdotes have been taken.

The Minim and R. Jehudah ben Naqosa

(80) Qoh. r., i. 8. — R. Jehudah ben Naqosa — the
Minim used to have dealings with him. They
questioned him and he answered ; they ques-
tioned and he answered. He said to them,
* In vain ! ye bring trifles. Come, let us agree
that whoever overcomes his opponent shall
split the brains of his opponent with a club.'
And he overcame them, and split their brains,
till they were filled with wounds. When he
returned, his disciples said to him, ' Rabbi,
they helped thee from heaven and thou didst
overcome.' He said to them, ' And in vain !
Pray for this man and this sack; for it was
full of precious stones and pearls, but now it is
full of black ashes.'
Commentary. — R. Jehudah ben Naqosa was a
younger contemporary of Rabbi (Jehudah ha-Qadosh),
and disciple of R. Jacob, and of R. Hija. Very little
is known of him, and the story just translated occurs,
so far as I am aware, nowhere else. That the duel
between R. Jehudah and the Minim really was of the
savage character described cannot be accepted, though
it is not clear why a polemical debate should be
described by such a violent metaphor. The remark
of the disciples to the Rabbi, and his reply, are inter-
esting. They ascribed his victory to heavenly assist-
ance. According to the commentators on the passage,
R. Jehudah had transgressed the commandment,

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 219

' Come not near her ' (i.e. have nothing to do with
Minuth ; see above, p. 182 ff.), and thus, if he escaped,
it was owing to divine protection. The Rabbi replied
that his deliverance was in vain. ' Pray for this man/
i.e. ' for me,' and for ' this sack,' i.e. ' my head,' which
was formerly like a sack full of jewels and now is like
a sack full of ashes. Apparently his mind had been
contaminated with heresy, and was filled with evil
thoughts in place of its former learning and piety.

The three stories which have now been given
from Qoheleth rabbah form one continuous passage,
together with the story of the arrest of R. Eliezer
for Minuth, the story of El'azar ben Dama, and that
of the woman who came to R. Eliezer and R.
Jehoshua to be received as a convert. All the six
are given as illustrations of Minuth, and form a
haggadic exposition of the words, Eccl. i. 8, All
things are full of weariness. Now, in this same
Midrash, on vii. 26 (p. 21d) it is said

(81) "R. Isi of Ceesarea expounded this verse
(' whoso pleaseth God shall escape from her, but
the sinner shall be taken by her ') in reference to
Minuth. * The good is R. El'azar, the sinner
is Jacob of Chephar Neburaia. Or, the good
is El'azar ben Dama, the sinner is Jacob of
Chephar Sama. Or, the good is Hananjah,
nephew of R. Jehoshua, the sinner is the Minim
of Chephar Nahum. Or, the good is Jehudah
ben Naqosa, the sinner is the Minim. Or, the
good is R. Jonathan, the sinner is his disciple.
Or, the good is R. Eliezer and R. Jehoshua,
the sinner is Elisha.' "
Tt is evident at a glance that there is a strong

220 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

likeness between this list of examples of Minuth and
the series of stories contained in the earlier part of
the Midrash. Placed side by side, the likeness
becomes still more apparent.

(A.) R. Isi's Series (B.) Series of Stories

(Qoh. r. on vii. 26). (Qoh. r. on i. 8).

1. El'azar and Jacob of Ch. 1. Eliezer's arrest.

Neburaia.

2. El'azar ben Dama, and Jacob 2. El'azar ben Dama and Jacob

of Chephar Sama. of Chephar Sama.

3. Hananjah and the Minim of 3. Eliezer and Jehoshua and the

Capernaum. would-be convert.

4. Jehudah ben Naqosa and the 4. Hananjah and the Minim of

Minim. Capernaum.

5. Jonathan and his disciple. 5. Jonathan and his disciple.

6. Eliezer and Jehoshua and 6. Jehudah ben Naqosa and the

Elisha. Minim.

It will be seen that four stories are common to
both lists (A 2, 3, 4, 5, and B 2, 4, 6, 5). In A 6
Eliezer and Jehoshua are both concerned with a
heretic. So they are in B 3, though the heretic is
not the same. The only marked discrepancy is
between A 1 and B 1. It should also be observed
that neither series extends beyond the six examples,
and that the series B is given anonymously where it
occurs in the Midrash on Eccl. i. 8. Now, since the
series B is substantially the same as the series A, I
suggest that R. Isi of Cgesarea is really the author of
B, and that B gives the substance of what he said
in his exposition on Minuth, while A only gives the
heads of his discourse. R. Isi lived in the fourth
century, probably about the middle of it. And
although not himself an eminent teacher, he moved
in the same circle in which Abahu had moved, and

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 221

was thus in a position to hear much concerning the
Minim and their intercourse with Jews. The slight
discrepancies between A and B may be explained in
this way. The compiler of the Midrash preferred to
take the famous case of R. Eliezer 's arrest rather than
the obscure one of Jacob of Ch. Neburaia1 (a con-
temporary of R. Isi, of whom more will be said
below). His object was not to illustrate the teaching
of R. Isi, but to expound the verse Eccl. i. 8 in
reference to Minuth ; and for this purpose, R. Isi's
series was ready to his hand. The difference between
A 6 and B 3 may rest only on a scribal error. The
opponent of Eliezer and Jehoshua is said in A 6 to
be Elisha, in B 3 the woman who desired to be
received as a convert. The latter version is probably
correct. Elisha is supposed to be Elisha ben Abujah,
who certainly did become a heretic ; but he had little
if anything to do with Eliezer and Jehoshua, being
much younger. He was contemporary with Aqiba and
Meir. Moreover, it is very unusual to speak of him
simply as Elisha. I suggest that wh* may be a corrup-
tion due to similarity of sound, of nwxn, ' the woman.'

R. Jehoshua, Caesar and a Min

God has not cast off Israel

(82) b. Hag. 5b. And I will hide my face in that
day [Deut. xxxi. 18]. Raba said, The Holy

1 Friedlander (Vorchr. jtid. Gnosticismus, p. 108), says that this is " offenbar
Jacob von Kephar Sechanja," an assumption for which there is no warrant.
Jacob of Ch. Neburaia was a very well known character, contemporary, or
nearly so, with R. Isi, who here mentions him (see below, p. 334 fol.).
Friedlander does not give the text of the passage, and he leaves the reader
to suppose that the last clause contains the full name ' Elisha ben Abujah.*
This is not the case, and the fact ought to have been stated.

CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

One, Blessed be He, saith, Though I have
hidden my face from them, yet in a dream I
will speak with him [Num. xii. 6]. R. Joseph
said His hand is stretched out over us, as it is
said [Isa. li. 16], In the shadow of my hand have
I covered thee. R. Jehoshua ben Hananjah
was standing in the house of Caesar. A certain
Min1 showed him [by signs] a nation whose
Lord hath turned away his face from them.
He [R. Jehoshua] showed him [by signs] His
hand stretched out over us. Caesar said to
R. Jehoshua, ' What did he shew thee V ' A
people whose Lord hath turned away his face
from them, and I showed him His hand stretched
out over us.' They said to the Min, 'What
didst thou show to him V 'A people whose
Lord hath turned away his face from them.'
' And what did he show to thee V ' I do not
know/ They said, ' A man who does not know
what is shown him by a sign, one shows it to
him before the King.' They took him out and
slew him.

When the soul of R. Jehoshua was passing
away, our Rabbis said, ■ What will become of
us at the hands of the Minim ? ' He said to
them [cp. Jer. xlix. 7] ' Counsel hath perished
from the children, their wisdom is corrupted/
when counsel hath perished from the children
[of Israel] the wisdom of the peoples of the
world is corrupted.
Commentary. — This is one out of several examples
to be found in the Talmud and the Midrash of con-

1 The modern texts read D1")1p*DK ; Rabbinowicz gives po throughout.

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 223

versations between R. Jehoshua ben Hananjah and a
Roman emperor, the particular emperor being
Hadrian. These stories are doubtless in some cases
overlaid with legendary matter ; but there is, beyond
reasonable question, some historical fact at the bottom
of them. Not only is it known that Hadrian was in
the habit of conversing with learned men wherever
he met them, but he actually mentions in a letter that
he conversed in Alexandria with a patriarch of
the Jews. (See the passage quoted by Gratz, Gsch.
d. J., iv. p. 450, from Vopiscus.) This patriarch of
the Jews can be no other than R. Jehoshua, who is
known to have gone to Alexandria. Gratz and
Bacher both accept the general fact of intercourse
between Hadrian and R. Jehoshua, and admit the
genuineness of this particular story. (Gratz as above ;
Bacher, Ag. d. Tann., i. 176).

As related in the Talmud, in the present passage
the story is introduced to illustrate the doctrine that
although God might have hidden his face from his
children, nevertheless he had not withdrawn his
favour ; he still held communion with them and still
protected them. The latter is the statement of R.
Joseph, who is presumably the authority for the story
which then immediately follows. R. Joseph was a
Babylonian, head of the school of Pumbeditha (b. 259,
d. 322 or 333). Where he got the story from is
suggested by a remark in b. Bechor. 8a, in intro-
ducing a marvellous tale (also about Hadrian and R.
Jehoshua) with the words ' R. Jehudah said that Rab
said,' etc. R. Jehudah (ben Jehezq'el) was the teacher
of R. Joseph (Bacher, Ag. d. Bab. Amor., p. 101).
Rab, of course, as the disciple of R. Jehudah ha-

224 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

Qadosh (Rabbi), came in the direct line of the
Palestinian tradition. The story in Bechoroth lies
too far off the main line of my subject to justify
me in translating it.1

The story before us needs little explanation. R.
Jehoshua and the Min stood in the palace, in the
presence of the emperor. The Min made a panto-
mimic sign to the Rabbi, intended to signify that
God had turned away his face from the Jews. The
Rabbi replied with another gesture implying that
God's hand was still stretched out over his people.
The Min must evidently have been acquainted with
the O.T. scriptures, since both the sign and the
countersign are dramatized texts (Deut. xxxi. 18, and
Isa. li. 16). Probably therefore he was a Christian,
though not necessarily a Jewish Christian, as the
incident took place in Alexandria. A Jewish Christian
would scarcely have taunted a Jew with the great
disaster which had befallen the Jewish people. The
exchange of pantomimic signs between the Jew and
the Min attracted the attention of the emperor and
the other bystanders, who asked for an explanation.
The Rabbi explained both the gestures. The Min
professed ignorance of the answer which the Rabbi

1 Two allusions to Christianity have been suspected in this passage (see
Bacher, loc. cit). One is the saying, " If the salt have lost its savour, where-
with do men salt it ? " cp. Matt. v. 13. The other is a reference to a she-mule
which bore a foal, the allusion being, presumably, to the birth of Jesus from
a virgin. As regards the first, the saying about the salt may have been a
proverb quoted by Jesus no less than by R. Jehoshua. And as regards the
second, there would be more point in it if It. Jehoshua was speaking to
Christians. His opponents in the story appear to be heathen philosophers
in Rome. Still, in view of the curious association of Jesus with an ass
(see above, p. 154), there may be something in the reference to the foal of &
mule.

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 225

had made to his sign. They said to him that if he
had not understood it, he should be shown the
meaning in the presence of the emperor ; whereupon
they took him out and put him to death. This
appears to mean, that as he had not understood that
the Jews were protected by their God, this should be
proved to him by the imperial sentence, condemning
him to death for having insulted a Jew. Whether
Hadrian would ever have acted so is open to question.
Certainly, the incident took place before the revolt
of Bar Cocheba had broken out, at a time when
Hadrian was well disposed towards the Jews. More-
over, R. Jehoshua himself appears to have enjoyed
in a high degree the favour of the emperor, who
might on that account resent an insult offered to him,
while perhaps taking no notice of one offered to any
other Jew. Of course the story is told from the
Jewish side. It is given as an instance of the success
of R. Jehoshua in repelling the attacks of the Minim.
Accordingly, there follows a sort of obituary notice
of R. Jehoshua, regarded as a defender of the faith.
When he was dying, the Rabbis said, 'What will
become of us by reason of the Minim ? ' The dying
man replied by an ingenious perversion of the text
Jer. xlix. 7, Is counsel perished from the prudent ?
Is their wisdom vanished? He rendered it thus,
1 (When) counsel is perished from the children, (then)
the wisdom of them [i.e. the Gentiles] is corrupt/
The children (D^n = also the prudent, the under-
standing) are of course the children of Israel. That
1 their wisdom ' means ' the wisdom of the Gentiles '
is the Rabbi's own interpretation. His meaning

appears to be, that the power of the Gentiles to

226 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

molest ceases with the power of the Jews to defend.
A somewhat roundabout way of saying that the
Jewish religion would never want a defender so long
as it was attacked.

The date of the death of R. Jehoshua is not known
with certainty ; but it must have taken place before
the outbreak of the war in 132 a.d., as he is never
mentioned in connexion with any of the incidents
of the war. He must therefore have been an old
man at the time of the above incident. And it is
probable that it was during this visit to Alexandria
that the conversation took place in which the
emperor (Hadrian) asked him why he did not visit
the Be Abldan (see above, p. 165).

R,. Jehoshua and a Min

(83) b. Erub. 101a. — A certain Min said to R.
Jehoshua ben Hananjah, ' Thou brier ! for it is
written of you [Mic. vii. 4] The best of them is
a brier' He said to him, ' Fool, look at the
end of the verse, for it is written [ibid.], The
upright is (from) a thorn hedge, and a fence.'
What is [meant by] The best of them is a
brier ? Just as these briers are a protection to
the gap in the wall, so the good amongst us are
a protection to us. Another explanation, The
best of them is a brier, because they thrust the
wicked down to Gehinnom, as it is said [Mic.
iv. 13], Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion.
For I will make thy horn iron, and I will make
thy hoofs brass. And thou shalt beat in pieces
many peoples, etc.

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 227

Commentary. — I give the above passage here
because it is associated with R. Jehoshua ben
Hananjah. The classification of the numerous
passages dealing with the controversies between Jews
and Minim is not easy. On the whole it seems best
to give first those in which a discussion takes place
between a Jew and a Min, and then those in which
some text is interpreted polemically against the
Minim. The passages which describe actual dis-
cussion between opponents will be arranged, as far as
possible, in the chronological order of the Rabbis who
took part in them.

Of the present passage little need be said by way
of explanation. It is found, so far as I am aware,
nowhere else, and is anonymous. As the preceding
words are those of R. Jehudah (ben Jehezq'el), it is
possible that he is the authority for the story. We
have seen that other stories concerning R. Jehoshua
are due to him (see above, p. 223). There is nothing
to show when or where the incident took place.
Neither is there anything especially heretical in the
taunt of the Min. The repartee only serves to show
how the Rabbi turned aside the scornful gibe of his
opponent. The thorn hedge serves as a protection
where there is a gap in the wall, so as to prevent
intrusion. So the righteous amongst Israel serve to
defend the people against their enemies, especially
heretics. The second interpretation, which brings
in the idea of the thorns thrusting the wicked down
to Gehinnom, may be later than R. Jehoshua, as it
is more ferocious in its sentiment than his sayings
generally are.

228 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

R. Jehoshua, R. Gamliel, R. El'azar ben

AZARIAH, R. AQIBA AND A MlN

God keeps the Sabbath

(84) Shem. r., xxx. 9, p, 53cd.— The case of Rn
Gamliel, R. Jehoshua, R. El'azar ben Azariah,
and R. Aqiba, who went to Rome and preached
there that the ways of the Holy One, Blessed
be He, are not as [the ways of] flesh and
blood. For [a man] decrees a decree, and
tells others to do, and himself does nothing.
But the Holy One, Blessed be He, is not so.
A Min was there. After they had gone forth,
he said to them, ' Your words are nothing but
falsehood. Did ye not say, God saith and
doeth ? Why does He not observe the
Sabbath?' They said to him, 'O most
wicked ! is not a man allowed to move about
in his dwelling on the Sabbath ? ' He said to
them, 'Yes.' They said to him, 'The upper
regions and the lower are the dwelling of
God, as it is said [Isa. vi. 3], The whole
earth is full of his glory. And even a man
that sins, does he not move about to the
extent of his own stature on the Sabbath?'
He said to them, 'Yes.' They said to him,
' It is written [Jer. xxiii. 24], jDo I not Jill
heaven and earth ? saith the Lord.'
Commentary. — The journey to Rome of the four
Rabbis here named is an incident often mentioned
in the Rabbinical literature. It took place in the

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 229

year a.d. 95.1 Rn Gamliel is Gamliel II., grandson
of the Gamliel of Acts v. 34, and president (Nasi) of
the assembly called the Sanhedrin of Jabneh (see
above, p. 127). R. Jehoshua has been mentioned
several times. R. El'azar ben Azariah was one of
the members of the assembly of Jabneh, and during
the temporary deposition of Gamliel was elected
president in his place. R. Aqiba has often been
mentioned previously (see above, p. 84).

The scene of the ' preaching ' of the Rabbis would
be one of the synagogues in Rome, where of course
the Min had been amongst their hearers. It is not
easy to define the form of heresy of this Min. From
the fact of his being a listener to the preaching of the
Rabbis, it would seem that he was of Jewish jzg^
traction — like all the Minim whom we have hitherto
met. ThijTl<r borne out by the quotation of texts
from" scripture, which would have no authority for a
Gentile. On the other hand, the point of this
argument is that God does not keep the Sabbath;
and a Jewish Christian would not be likely to hold an
anti- Jewish doctrine of the Sabbath. It should, how-
ever, be borne in mind that, while the term ' Jewish
Christian' is usually applied to those Christians of
Jewish origin who continued to observe the Jewish
law, nevertheless the possibility always remained that
Jews, on being converted to Christianity, entirely
ceased to observe the Jewish law. Paul himself is an
example of a Jew who became a Christian but by no
means — in the technical sense — a Jewish Christian.
It is not, indeed, certain that the Min, in the passage

1 Bacher, Ag. d. Tann., i. 84, n. 2, where will be found a useful collection
of references to the event in the Rabbinical literature.

230 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

before us, was a Christian at all. But it is probable that
he was, since a Christian would be more likely than
a heathen to be familiar with the O.T. scriptures,
and to take an interest in the preaching of Jewish
Rabbis, especially if he himself was of Jewish origin.

The argument of the Min, that God does not him-
self observe the Sabbath though he has commanded
men to observe it, may perhaps be compared with
the thought expressed in John v. 17, My Father
worketh even until now, and I work; though it
by no means follows that the Fourth Gospel was in
existence at this time. The idea that God never
ceases from working is found in Philo.1

The reply of the Rabbis is ingenious, but it only
amounts to saying that God's ceaseless energy is no
proof that he does not keep the Sabbath. The answer
serves to refute the Min, but not to establish the
contention of the Rabbis.

It is curious that, in this story, the four Rabbis are
grouped together, and it is not said who was the
spokesman. All four preached, and apparently all
four replied to the heretic. It is impossible to
determine which of the four is especially referred to,
since Gamliel, Jehoshua and Aqiba all had contro-
versies with heretics at various times, and thus any
one of the three might have done so in the present
instance.

The abusive term, 'O most wicked,' is, literally,
' wicked of the world,' i.e. * most wicked man in the
world.'

1 Philo., de AllegOr.,i. 3. iratJeTat yap otSeirore irotwv 6 6e6s, &A\' &srrep ttiiov
rb Kaitiv irvpbs kclI \i6vos rb tf/t^ew, ovrw teal deov rb iroie?v ' Kal iro\6 76 fj.aA\ov,
Zay Kal rots &\\ois atcaffiv apxh tov dpav 4<rriv.

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 231

R. Gamliel and the Minim

The Resurrection of the Dead

(85) b. Sanh. 90b.— The Minim asked Rabban
Gamliel, 'Whence [do ye prove] that the
Holy One, Blessed be He, revives the dead ? '
He said to them, ' From the Torah, from the
Prophets, and from the Writings.' And they
did not accept his answer. ' From the Torah,'
as it is written [Deut. xxxi. 16], Behold, thou
shalt sleep with thy fathers and arise' They
said to them [the Minim to Rn Gamliel], ' But
is it not said, and this people shall arise ? ' etc.
1 From the Prophets,' as it is written [Isa.
xxvi. 19], Thy dead shall live; my dead
bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, ye that
dwell in the dust ; for thy dew is as the dew
of herbs, and the earth shall cast forth the
shades. ( But are there not the dead whom
Ezekiel raised?' 'From the Writings,' as it
is written [Cant. vii. 9], and thy mouth like the
best wine, that goeth down smoothly for my
beloved, causing the lips of them that are asleep
to speak. ' But, do not their lips move in this
world ? '
Commentary. — Rabban Gamliel appears as the
representative of Judaism in several dialogues with
non- Jews. In another part of the treatise from which
the present passage is taken (b. Sanh. 39a), five such
dialogues are given, in which R. Gamliel replies to
the questions of an opponent. In the common text
this opponent is called a liar, is-d ; but Rabbinowicz

232 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

(D. Soph, on the passage), shows that the true
reading is -id»p, Caesar, an emperor; and he connects
these dialogues with that visit of Gamliel and the
other Rabbis to Rome, mentioned in the preceding
section (see above, p. 228). The reading 'Min' is
found, according to Hamburger, in the versions of
the stories in the Midrash and the Yalqut ; but the
authority of Rabbinowicz is decisive on the point. I
therefore exclude the dialogues referred to, as having
no bearing on my subject.

In the passage under consideration there is nothing
to show when or where the dialogue took place.
But, judging from the context, where there follows
immediately a dialogue between 'the Romans' and
R. Jehoshua, it is not unlikely that the Minim put
their question to R. Gamliel in Rome, at the time of
the journey already mentioned, a.d. 95. This is
Bacher's suggestion (A. Tann., i. 87, n. 4). The
doctrine of the resurrection of the dead was one of
the most frequent subjects of controversy between
Jews and Minim, as will be seen from several passages
to be presented below. Neither side disputed the
fact of resurrection. The question was whether
there was proof of the doctrine in the O.T.
scriptures. The Jews of course maintained that there
was, while the Minim maintained the contrary. The
controversy could have no interest unless both parties
were concerned with the Hebrew scriptures ; so that
it is clearly Christians who are referred to as Minim,
when the doctrine of resurrection is the subject of
discussion. The Christian position was that the
resurrection of the dead was consequent on the
resurrection of Christ (cp. John xiv. 19, and 1 Cor.

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH

xv. 20 fol.) And that position would be weakened
if a valid proof of the doctrine could be produced
from the O.T. ; because, in that case, the resurrection
of Christ would be shown to be unnecessary, at all
events as an argument for the resurrection of men
in general.

In the passage before us the Minim challenged R.
Gamliel to give a proof from the O.T. scriptures
of the doctrine of resurrection. He replied by
quoting three texts, one from each of the three
divisions of the O.T. His opponents did not accept
his proof. ,

The proof from the Torah was founded on Deut.
xxxi. 16, where the Rabbi reads the text thou shalt
sleep with thy fathers and arise contrary to the plain
sense and the grammatical construction. His oppon-
ents immediately detected the fallacy and pointed it
out. The words " and arise " belong to the second half
of the text, and refer, not to Moses but, to this people.

The proof from the prophets was based on Isa.
xx vi. 19, where God calls on the dead to arise. The
rejoinder of the opponents was to the effect that the
prophet Ezekiel had called the dead to life by special
command from God, and that therefore the special
command did not establish the general principle.

The proof from the writings was a far-fetched
application of Cant. vii. 9, where the point is that the
lips of the dead move, thus showing that they live
after death. The Minim reply that this movement
of the lips takes place in the grave, and belongs to
this world, not to the next. The Gemara adds, in
support of the view of the Minim, the saying of R.
Johanan that the lips of the dead move in their graves

234 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

when anyone quotes a halachah which they have
taught.

The Minim, it is said, did not accept these answers
as amounting to a proof. R. Gamliel therefore
strengthened his case by quoting Deut. xi. 9, the land
which the Lord sware unto your fathers to give them.
The land was to be given to " your fathers" not " to
you" Hence the ' fathers' must live after death. An-
other tradition says that R. GamlieFs final answer
was (Deut. iv. 4), Ye that did cleave unto the Lord your
God are alive, every one of you, this day. This is
explained to mean that ' as ye stand up, everyone of
you, this day, so ye will stand up in the world to come.'

It would appear that the Minim accepted the final
answer of the Rabbi ; at least the Gemara says that
they did not accept his answer until he had quoted
his final text. On the whole, however, it cannot be
said that a strong case was made out on the Jewish
side. If the Minim did admit the force of the appeal
to Deut. xi. 9, with its reference to the patriarchs, it
is just possible that they did so with the recollection
that Jesus himself had founded an argument for the
doctrine of resurrection upon a somewhat similar
reference to the patriarchs (Matt. xxii. 31, 32). I do
not press this point, because the Talmud would not,
in any case, allow the Minim to be the victors in the
discussion ; therefore we cannot assume that they
really confessed themselves overcome. At most
the debate came to an end. It would not have
been difficult to have refuted even the last argument
of the Rabbi, by showing that the land promised to
the fathers was not, as a matter of fact, given to them
but to their descendants.

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 235

R. Gamliel and a Mtn

God has Departed from Israel

(86) b. Jeb. 102b.— A certain Min said to R.

Gamliel, 'A people whose Lord has drawn

off [departed] in regard to them, as it is written

[Hosea v. 6], They shall go with their flocks

and with their herds, to seek the Lord, and

they shall not find Him; He hath drawn off

from them' He said to him, 'Fool, is it then

written drawn off in regard to them2. It

is written drawn off from them. If [in the

case of] a childless widow [the phrase were]

' the brothers draw off in regard to her,' there

would be some ground for your argument.'

Commentary. — In the foregoing translation I have

used the phrase 'draw off' to represent the double

meaning of the word halatz (ybn). This word, in

addition to its ordinary meaning of ' depart,' has also

a technical meaning in connexion with the law of

the deceased brother's widow (Deut. xxv. 5-10).

If a man die leaving no children, one of his brothers

shall do the duty of a husband towards her. And if

such brother refuse, then the widow shall perform a

ceremony expressing contempt of him. She shall

publicly 'draw off' (halatz) his shoe from his foot,

spit in his face, and say, Thus shall it be done unto tJie

man that doth not build up his b?~other's house. In

this case the widow 'draws off in regard to the

brother,' performs the ceremony in regard to him

(n^ yhn); but she does not 'depart from' him; he

rejects her by refusing to do the duty required of

him. This is the technical use of halatz, and it

236 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

requires the preposition 'le,' b9 'in regard to.' The
non-technical use of halatz, in which the meaning
is ' depart,' requires the preposition ' min,' |o, ' from.'

Now the argument of the Min, and the answer of
Gamliel, will be more intelligible. The Min says, * A
people whose Lord has rejected them,' halatz ' in
regard to them' (technical use), for it is said,
Hosea v. 6, he hath departed from them. R.
Gamliel at once replies that the text does not bear
out the construction put upon it. The text reads
'halatz min,' 'depart from,' which is neutral, and
only implies estrangement, not that God had rejected
his people. Even if, as the Min assumed, 'halatz
min ' were equivalent to ' halatz le,' that would only
imply, in the text, that the people had rejected God.
For the purpose of the Min's argument, the text
ought to read that the people ' haletzu lo ' (technical
term), implying that God had rejected his people. It
might be true that there was estrangement between
God and Israel ; but it was not true that He had re-
jected his people, they had rather rejected him. If,
added It. Gamliel, the technical term ' halatz le '
was used of the brothers and not of the widow, then
the argument of the Min would be valid ; because,
in that case, it would prove that God had rejected
his people.

The above explanation is, I believe, correct in sub-
stance; at all events it brings out the point of R.
Gamliel's reply, viz., that God had not cast off his
people. As to the date and place of this dialogue,
no hint is given in the text. The alleged rejection of
Israel refers of course to the destruction of Jerusalem
and the Temple by Titus in a.d. 70. After that

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 237

great disaster, it might well seem that God had re-
jected his people ; and we shall find that in several
controversial dialogues the non-Jewish opponent
taunts the Jew with the loss of the divine protection
(cp. the story given above, p. 222). In the present
instance there seems to be no reason for locating the
incident elsewhere than in Palestine. A knowledge
not merely of the O.T. scriptures but of the
Jewish Law is implied on the part of the Min,
to whom, otherwise, the answer of R. Gamliel would
have been unintelligible. Probably the Min was some
Christian of Jabneh, where R. Gamliel dwelt ; though
whether he was a Jewish Christian is open to question,
on the ground that one who was himself a Jew would
scarcely have taunted a Jew with the calamity that
had befallen the nation.

Beruria and a Min

(87) b. Ber. 10a. — A certain Min said to Beruria,
'It is written [Isa. liv. 1], Sing, O barren
that didst not bear. Sing, because thou didst
not bear.' She said to him, * Fool, look at the
end of the verse, for it is written [ibid.], For
more are the children of the desolate, than the
children of the married wife, saith the Lord.
But what is meant by O, barren that didst not
bear, sing ? The congregation of Israel, which
is like a woman who hath not borne children for
Gehenna, like you.'
Commentary. — Beruria was one of the famous

women of the Talmud. She was the wife of R.

Meir, and daughter of R. Hanina ben Teradjon.

238 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

Her father was one of those who were executed
during the persecution of Hadrian after the sup-
pression of the revolt of Bar Cocheba. Her husband,
Meir, had been a disciple of Aqiba ; and after his
death, during the same persecution, Meir was virtually,
though not officially, the leader of the Rabbis who
carried on the Tradition. The date of the dialogue is
therefore the middle, or the latter half, of the second
century. The place cannot be determined, except
that it was somewhere in Palestine. Meir lived at
one time near Liid (Lydda), at another near Tiberias,
perhaps also in Sepphoris. (See b. Erub. 53b, j. Sota
16b, j. Ber. 5b). Beruria, whose name is said to re-
present Valeria, was almost unique amongst Jewish
women in being learned in halachah. She might, in
fact, have been a Rabbi, if she had been a man. An
opinion which she gave, on a point of halachah, is
mentioned with approval, T. Kelim ii. 1. The
dialogue before us shows at least that she knew her
scriptures well.

The Min quoted to her part of the verse Isa. liv. 1.,
not applying it indeed to her, because she had
children, but apparently referring — as the prophet
had referred — to Zion, as representing the Jewish
people. Why, he asked, should one that was barren
sing for joy ? Apparently he meant, why should the
Jewish people, crushed and decimated by persecution,
nevertheless rejoice? Beruria answered by bidding
him first look at the conclusion of the verse, where
it is said that the children of the barren are more
than the children of the married wife. Then she re-
torted by accepting his interpretation of the text and
turning it against him, 'You say that Israel is like

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 239

a barren woman, and ask why then should she re-
joice ? Because she does not bear children for Hell,
such as you.' Her answer shows clearly enough
the hostility felt by Jews towards the Christians, in
the second century, at a time when the latter were
steadily increasing in numbers. R. Meir, the husband
of Beruria, was the inventor of the nickname Aven-
giljon to denote the Gospels, which is of course a
play upon the word evayyikiov, (see above, p. 163).
Beruria, probably, had no thought in her mind except
abhorrence of the Minim, when she gave her rather
severe answer. The expression " children for Hell "
(Gehenna) suggests a comparison with the phrase
Matt, xxiii. 15. And while it is exceedingly doubtful
whether the contents of the Gospel were known to
the Rabbis, except very imperfectly through hearing
them referred to or quoted by Christians, nevertheless
it is not unlikely that Christians should occasionally
address Jews in the terms of that terrible denuncia-
tion in Matt, xxiii. And in any case Christians
could not complain if the terms of the Gospel were
cast back at them, being as much, or as little, deserved
on the one side as on the other. Beruria probably
had never seen the passage in Matthew's Gospel, but
she may well have heard language not unlike it from
Christians.

Rabbi (Jehudah ha-Qadosh) and a Min

(88) b. Hull. 87a.— A certain Min said to Rabbi,
1 He who formed the mountains did not create
the wind. And he who created the wind did
not form the mountains, as it is written [Amos

240 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

iv. 13], For, lo9 he that formeth the mountains
and [he] that createth the wind.' He [Rabbi]
said to him, 'Fool, look at the end of the
verse, The Lord of Hosts is his name' He
[the Min] said to him, • Give me time, three
days, and I will refute you.' Rabbi sat three
days fasting. When he was about to eat,
they said to him, ■ The Min is standing at the
gate.' He said [Ps. lxix. 21], They gave me
also gall for my meat. He [the Min] said to
him, 'Rabbi, I bring thee good tidings.
Thine enemy hath not found an answer, and
hath fallen from the roof and he is dead.' He
[Rabbi] said to him, 'Wilt thou dine with
me?' He said 'Yes.' After they had eaten
and drunk, he [Rabbi] said to him, ' Wilt
thou drink the cup of blessing or receive forty
gold pieces ? ' He said, ' I will drink the cup
of blessing.' There went forth a Bath Qol
and said, ' The cup of blessing is worth forty
gold pieces.' R. Jitzhaq said, ' Even yet that
family exists among the great ones of Rome,
and they call it the family of Bar Livianos.'
Commentary. — This curious anecdote is introduced
by way of illustration into a halachic discussion, and
is not intended as a haggadic invention. The question
debated was suggested by the mention of an act re-
corded of Rn Gamliel II. On one occasion a man
had slain an animal, and before he could fulfil the
commandment to cover the blood which had been
shed [Lev. xvii. 13], another man forestalled him,
thus depriving him of the merit of fulfilling the
commandment. Rn* Gamliel ordered that the second

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 241

man should pay to the first ten pieces of gold, as
being the equivalent of a commandment. The
Gemara asks the question whether this sum is the
equivalent of a commandment or of a blessing
(benediction), and says that in the case of the "cup
of blessing " after a meal, if this be regarded as the
fulfilling of a commandment then the equivalent is
ten gold pieces ; but if it be regarded as a blessing,
then the equivalent is forty gold pieces, since there
are four separate benedictions. The story is intro-
duced in order to prove that the equivalent of the
' cup of blessing ' is forty gold pieces ; and the proof
is given by the fact that Rabbi ( Jehudah ha-Qadosh)
named that sum to his guest, and also by the
assertion that a Bath Qol (voice from heaven) de-
clared that sum to be the equivalent of the 'cup
of blessing.'

That is the purpose of the story from the point of
view of the Gemara. There was no occasion for the
introduction of a Min, as the guest of the Rabbi, if
the story had been invented to solve the halachic
problem. And although the question of the Min to
Rabbi which opens the story, is the same as a question
asked of Rn. Gamliel by Caesar (b Sanh. 39*, see
above, p. 231), yet the conclusion of the story is quite
different. The Min quoted the text Amos iv. 13,
He thatformeth the mountains and [he that] createth
the wind, and argued, from the use of two distinct
verbs, that two distinct creative beings were referred
to. The Rabbi answered by telling him to look at
the end of the verse, The Lord of Hosts is his name,
implying that the Creator was one and not two. The
Min was not satisfied, and asked for time in which to

242 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

think of a rejoinder. The Rabbi gave him three
days, and himself spent the time in fasting, being
apparently in fear of his antagonist. At the end of
the time, however, another Min comes to his house,
bringing the ' good tidings ' that the Rabbi's opponent
had destroyed himself, having been unable to think
of the rejoinder he desired. In return for his
welcome news, he was pressed to stay to dinner ; and
at the end of the meal his host offered him his choice
between drinking the cup of blessing and receiving
forty gold pieces. The Rabbi supposed that being a
Min, he would not care to act as a Jew by making
the responses after the benedictions, and might prefer
to receive a reward in money. The Min, however,
chose the former, whereupon, so the story goes, a voice
from heaven proclaimed that the equivalent of the
' cup of blessing ' was forty gold pieces.

A curious note concludes the story, to the effect
that ' that family,' presumably that of the Min who
brought the ' good tidings,' was well known amongst
the great ones of Rome, and that it was called the
family of Bar Livianos.

The Jew in this story is R. Jehudah ha-Qadosh,
the compiler of the Mishnah, who died a.d. 220, so
that the incident belongs to the end of the second,
or the beginning of the third, century. Where it
took place, there is no evidence to show. Rabbi (as
Jehudah ha-Q. is usually called) spent the greater
part of his life in Galilee ; at various times he lived
in Usha, Shefaram, Beth Shearim and Sepphoris.
The last-named city may be regarded as especially his
place of residence, since he dwelt there seventeen
years and died there. We may suppose that the

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 243

incident of the story before us took place in Sepphoris ;
and with this agrees the fact that, as we have already
seen, many of the stories about Minim are located in
Sepphoris.

In the story itself, nothing turns upon the particular
question of the Min to Rabbi. And since this is
identical with a question addressed to Rn Gamliel
by Caesar, it is possible that it has been borrowed
from the earlier incidents, the actual question of
Rabbi's opponent not being known. The interest
of the story before us is contained in its dramatic
development. It is certainly surprising that a man
should commit suicide because he could not refute
the argument of an opponent. The second Min,
however, is more interesting than the first ; and the
remark of R. Jitzhaq, at the end of the story, seems
to indicate that he was not an unknown man. The
words in which he delivered his message, WI bring
you good tidings' (nuio -ikod), might seem to suggest
evayyekiov ; but the phrase is common in New Hebrew,
as the N.T. term is in Greek. We cannot therefore
infer' a reference to the Gospel in the language of
the Min, though the phrase is certainly appropriate,
if he was a Christian. He must have been a
Jewish Christian, since he was evidently familiar
with the Jewish ceremonial of the benediction
after the meal, and was willing to take part in it as j
if he had been a Jew. The friendliness shown
towards a Min by a Jew in this instance is in sharp
contrast to the feeling indicated in most of the stories
concerning the Minim.

The historical note about the family of this Min
is a riddle which I have not been able to solve. R.

244 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

Jitzhaq, the authority for it, is, indirectly, the
authority for the story itself, although it is given
anonymously. He evidently knew about it, since he
knew the Min who is mentioned in it. R. Jitzhaq
was a Babylonian by birth, but spent the greater part
of his life in Palestine, chiefly in Tiberias (where he
studied under R. Johanan), and in Csesarea. He
belonged therefore to the end of the third and the
beginning of the fourth century. The name ' Bar
Livianos ' is written in most of the MSS. and early
texts, 'Bar Lulianos' (see Rabbinowicz on the
passage), and in one MS. ' Ben Ulianos.' The name
Lulianos usually represents Julianus. R. Jitzhaq
said that the family called by this name existed in
his own time, amongst the great ones of Rome,1 and
that the Min was a member of it. It is not clear
how a Jewish Christian should be a member of a
great Roman house. Some light is thrown on the
question by the fact that R. Jitzhaq had a disciple
whose name was Luliani bar Tabrinai, i.e. Julianus
bar Tiberianus (see Bacher, Ag. d. Pal. Am., ii. 210,
n. 7). This man was a Jew, since he was a Rabbi ;
and his Roman name does not imply Gentile birth.
Many Rabbis had Greek or Roman names. The
remark of R. Jitzhaq may accordingly be explained
thus: the name of the Min was Julianus (or
Lulianos), a name simply borrowed from a great
Roman family. R. Jitzhaq's disciple, Luliani, may
have been a relative of the Min in a younger genera-

1 This term, however, is sometimes applied to distinguished Komans
living in Palestine, as in b. A. Zar. 18% where "the great ones of Home"
attended the funeral of R. Jose b. Qisma, probably in Coesarea, certainly in
Palestine. The Min in the story is more likely to have been associated with
a Roman family in Palestine than in Rome.

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 245

tion, and perhaps had the vanity to assert a connexion
with the Roman family.

R. ISHMAEL BEN JOSE AND A MlN
TWO POWERS IN HEAVEN

(89) b. Sanh. 38b. — A certain Min said to R.

Ishmael ben R. Jose', ' It is written [Gen. xix.

24], And the Lord rained upon Sodom and

Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord.

It ought to have been from himself V A

certain fuller said [to R. Ishmael], ■ Let him

alone; I will answer him. For it is written

[Gen. iv. 23], And Lamech said to his wives,

Adah and Zillah, hear my voice, ye wives

of Lamech. It ought to have been my

wives. But the text reads so, and here also

the text reads so.' He said, * Whence did

you get that ? ' ' From the saying of R.

Meir.'

Commentary. — This anecdote forms part of a long

passage containing many polemical discussions

between Jews and non-Jews. These will be dealt

with, so far as they relate to Minim, in reference to

the various Rabbis who took part in the dialogue.

It would have been interesting to present the whole

passage at once ; but for convenience of explanation

it is better to break up the material into its component

parts. R. Ishmael ben Jose was the son of R. Jose

ben Halaphta, and belonged to the circle of Rabbi

(Jehudah ha-Qadosh) mentioned in the preceding

section. He lived, probably in Sepphoris, at the end

246 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

of the second century and the beginning of the third.
This serves to fix the date of the incident within
rather wide limits indeed, but otherwise is of no
importance ; because, although the Min addressed
his question to R. Ishmael, he was answered, not by
that Rabbi, but by a bystander who heard the
question.

The Min quoted Gen. xix. 24, and drew attention
to the fact that in that text the name of the Lord
was mentioned twice, The Lord rained .... from
the Lord. He suggested that this implied the
existence of more than one divine being.1 A fuller,
who heard the remark, asked to be allowed to answer
the Min. He quoted Gen. iv. 23, where a similar
grammatical peculiarity occurs in reference to
Lamech. The inference was that as Lamech was
only one being, so God was only one. As for the
form of the phrase, the scripture (or rather the
author of the scripture) chose to say so, in the one
text as in the other. On being asked, as it would
seem by R. Ishmael, where he learned his answer,
the fuller replied that it was from the teaching of
R. Meir. Probably R. Meir had used the argument
in a public address in the synagogue.

R. Jitzhaq (see above, p. 244), a century later,
strengthened the argument (Ber. r., § li., p. 105a, b) by
quoting 1 Kings i. 33 and Esther viii. 8 in addition
to Gen. iv. 23. He did not refer to the use of
Gen. xix. 24 by the Minim ; but unless this
text were made use of by heretics, there would
have been no object in strengthening the counter
argument.

1 On the doctrine of Two divine Powers, see below, p. 261 fol.

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 247
R. Hanina, R. Hoshaia, and a Min

ISRAEL AND THE GENTILES

(90) b. Pes. 87b.— R. Hoshaia said, ' What is that

which is written [Judg. v. 11], The righteousness

of his rule in Israel The Holy One, Blessed

be He, did righteousness in Israel in that he

" scattered " them amongst the nations.' And

this is what a certain Min said to R. Hanina,

'We esteem ourselves better than you. It

is written concerning you [1 Kings xi. 16],

He dwelt there six montfis, etc. This refers

to us. You have been in our midst these

many years and we do nothing to you.' He

said to him, 'Wilt thou allow a disciple to

join in [the discussion] with thee ? ' R. Hoshaia

joined in with him. He said to him, ' Because

ye did not know how ye might destroy us.

Not all of them [the Jews] are amongst you.

As for those that are amongst you [if ye

destroyed them] ye would be called a broken

kingdom.' He said to him, ' By the Temple

of Rome ! we are always thinking so.'

Commentary. — R. Hoshaia belonged to the

younger generation of the disciples of Rabbi

(Jehudah ha-Qadosh), and there is some reason to

believe that the latter, and not R. Hanina, was the

one to whom the remark of the Min was addressed.

Rabbinowicz (D. Soph, on the passage) gives a

reading, 'Jehudah Nesiah' in place of R. Hanina.

This would naturally denote the grandson of Rabbi ;

but Rabbi himself is sometimes so called. R. Hoshaia

248 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

is described as a disciple. This would suggest Rabbi,
rather than R. Hanina, as his teacher, and would
exclude Jehudah Nesiah. Since, however, the
question is answered by R. Hoshaia, it is of no
great importance to whom it was addressed. The
date of the incident may be placed in the first half
of the third century. The scene wras probably
Caesarea, where R. Hoshaia seems to have spent
most of his life.

The story occurs in the middle of a haggadah
upon the dispersion of Israel among the nations.
R. Hoshaia explained the text, Judg. v. 11, The
righteousness of his rule in Israel, by slightly altering
the word 'his rule,' pirzono, so as to make it read as
if it were derived from the root pazar, to scatter.
Whence he drew the moral that God had shown his
righteousness, had done good to Israel by scattering
them amongst the nations. In illustration of this
striking interpretation, the dialogue with the Min is
added, in which R. Hoshaia virtually explains his
meaning. The Min quotes the text 1 Kings xi. 16,1
He dwelt there six months until he had cut off every
male in Edom. Edom, said the Min, refers to us (i.e.
the Romans, according to a very common identifi-
cation in the Talmud and the Midrash). The argu-
ment of the Min is this : — Israel showed cruelty to
Edom in the days of old ; but Edom, i.e. Rome, has
done nothing to Israel, though for many years Jews
have been living in the midst of the Gentile nations
in the Roman empire. Therefore the Romans are

1 I give this in full. The Talmud often gives only a few words of a
quotation, although the whole verse is necessary to establish the point with
a view to which the quotation was made.

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 249

more generous than the Jews. The answer to this
challenge is given, not by the person addressed,
whether R. Hanina or Rabbi, but by R. Hoshaia.
Instead of denying, as he might well have done, the
alleged forbearance of the Romans towards the
Jews, he boldly declared that the Romans would
have killed all the Jews if they had known how.
But Israel was scattered abroad, and in that fact
lay their safety. This was the blessing of God in
scattering Israel, according to the exposition of Judg.
v. 11 already given. If, continued R. Hoshaia, the
Romans had killed the Jews who were in their midst,
their empire would be called a broken kingdom ; the
reason apparently being that the Jews were good
citizens and also numerous, so that the destruction
of them would have been a loss to the empire. The
Min admitted the justice of the retort.

There is nothing in this dialogue to distinguish the
Min from any heathen citizen of the empire, except
the fact that he was aquainted with the O.T. scrip-
tures. He could hardly have been a Jew; for, as
remarked in connexion with another anecdote (see
above, p. 224), a Jew, even though he were a Jewish
Christian, would hardly have taunted another Jew
with the misfortunes or the faults of Israel. The
Min was probably a Christian ; but as opposed to
the Jew, it is remarkable that he speaks as a Roman
citizen, not as a Christian. I need hardly remind the
reader that the date of this incident must be nearly
a century earlier than the time when Christianity
became the official religion of the Roman empire.
It is impossible to identify this Christian. There is
some reason to believe that Hoshaia met and con-

250 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

versed with Origen, who was, like himself, resident in
Caesarea. But there is nothing in the present
instance to suggest that the Min was a Christian
bishop. Whatever a layman might do, a bishop
would hardly swear by the great temple of Rome.
As Cassarea was the seat of the government, the
Min may have been some official in the city who
happened to be a Christian.

R. Hanina and a Min

THE REJECTION OF ISRAEL

(91) b. Joma 56h. — A certain Min said to R.

Hanina, ' Now are ye unclean children, for it

is written [Lam. i. 9], Her uncleanness is in

her skirts.' He said to him, ' Come, see what

is written concerning them [Lev. xvi. 16],

That dwelleth with them in the midst of their

uncleanness; at the very time when they are

unclean, the Shechinah dwelleth in the midst

of them.'

Commentary. — There is very little that needs

explanation in this fragment of dialogue. We have,

as in other cases, quotation of scripture by a Min,

with an anti-Jewish purpose. The Min accordingly

was probably a Christian not of Jewish extraction.

The point of the taunt to the Jew was the apparent

abandonment of Israel on the part of God. The

previous extract (90), shows one way in which the

Jews met and refuted the insinuation. R. Hanina

in the present instance gives another. The challenge
of the Min and the answer of the Rabbi are little

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 251

better than mere word-fencing. The incident only
serves to show how both Jews and their opponents
were conscious of the change in the national status
of Israel since the destruction of the temple by
Titus, and the final overthrow under Hadrian. The
Jews were by no means disposed to gratify either
Christian or heathen by the admission of defeat ; and
though the sorrow was heavy in his heart, the Jew
would turn a proud face to the Gentile and meet
scorn with scorn.

R. Hanina has already been mentioned, not merely
in the preceding section, but earlier (see above, pp.
72, 73). He was of Babylonian origin, and only
came to Palestine comparatively late in life. He
lived in Sepphoris, and is thought to have died about
the year 232. He was more than eighty years old at
the time of his death. No doubt the interview with
the Min took place in Sepphoris, a place which has
already been very frequently mentioned in connexion
with Minim.

R. Hanina and a Min

THE LAND OF ISRAEL

(92) b. Gitt. 57*. — A certain Min said to R.
Hanina, 'Ye speak falsely' [in reference to
the alleged enormous population of Palestine
in former times]. He said to him, 'A dear
land it is written of her [Dan. xi. 41].
Whereas in the case of this deer, its skin
does not contain it, so the land of Israel while
the people lived in it was wide, and now that
they are now longer living in it, is contracted.'

252 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

Commentary. — This can only be regarded as a
jeu (Tesprit of R. Hanina. It occurs in a famous
haggadah concerning the land of Israel, where
several Rabbis utter the wildest exaggerations as to
its former fertility and the population of its cities.
No Rabbi seriously believed that there were " 600,000
cities on the King's mountain, each of which con-
tained as many people as came out from Egypt,
while three cities contained each twice as many."
A too literal Min, prototype of other Minim in later
days, was shocked at the monstrous exaggeration,
and exclaimed to R. Hanina, " Ye lie ! " The Rabbi
gave him an answer worthy of the occasion, being
only a witty play upon words. It is written, he said,
in Daniel xi. 41, a dear land.1 Now the skin of this
deer, when it is stripped off, is no longer large enough
to hold the carcase of the animal; it shrivels up.
In like manner, the land of Israel was large enough
to hold all those people while they lived in it. Since
they have gone, it has shrivelled up, and is no longer
large enough. You behold it in its shrunken state.

I have expanded R. Hanina's answer in order to
bring out the point of it; and I leave it, without
further comment, as a piece of Rabbinical wit,
genuine haggadah in its sportive mood. It would
be ridiculous to treat it seriously, and found upon it
a charge of falsehood against the Rabbis.

In b. Kethub. 112a is a reference to this same
repartee of R. Hanina, but the play upon the word

1 More correctly, 'a glorious land.' I have used the word 'dear' in
order to reproduce the pun. Tzebi means * glory,' and also ' a gazelle ' or
deer. Thus the words quoted may be rendered either 'a dear (glorious)
land,' or 'the land is a deer' (gazelle).

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 253

'tzebi' is expanded into a series of similes; and
although R. Hanina is mentioned, the Min only
addresses to him a remark upon the actual fertility of
Palestine. On the same page of b. Kethub. is a
remark make by a Min to R. Zera, which is found
in a somewhat different form in b. Shabb. 88a.

R. Jannai, R. Jonathan, and a Min

THE GRAVE OF RACHEL

(93) Ber. r., § 82, p. 155b. — And Rachel died and was
buried [Gen. xxxv. 19]. Burial followed close
on death, in the way to Ephrath (the same is
Bethlehem).

R. Jannai and R. Jonathan were sitting.
There came a certain Min and asked them,
* What is that which is written [1 Sam. x. 2],
When thou art departed from me this day [thou
shalt find two men by Rachels tomb, in the
border of Benjamin at Zelzaft]? Is not
Zelzah in the border of Benjamin, and the
tomb of Rachel in the border of Judah ? As
it is written [Gen. xxxv. 19], and she was
buried on the way to Ephrath, and it is written
[Mic. v. 2], Bethlehem Ephrathah' R. Jannai
said to him [Isa. iv. 1], • Take away my
reproach' \ [R. Jonathan] said to him '[the
text means], When thou departest from me this
day by Rachels tomb, thou shalt find two men
in the border of Benjamin at Zelzah' Others
say [that the answer of R. Jannai was] ■ When
thou departest from me this day in tJie border

254 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

of Benjamin in Zelzah, thou shalt find two men
by the tomb of Rachel,' and this is the correct
answer.

Commentary. — The difficulty which prompted the
question of the Min was as to the locality of Beth-
lehem. According to Mic. v. 2 [v. 1 Hebr.] Beth-
lehem Ephrathah is in the land of Judah. According
to Gen. xxxv. 19, Rachel was buried in the way
to Ephrathah, which is Bethlehem. But it is said in
1 Sam. x. 2, Rachels tomb in the border of Benjamin
at Zelzah. Whence it would seem that Bethlehem
Ephrathah was also 'in the border of Benjamin/
This contradiction is several times referred to in the
Rabbinical literature, and various solutions of it given.
Bacher [A. d. T., ii. 50, n. 5] mentions one by R. Meir,
but does not give the reference. There is also one in
T. Sot., xi. 11, where no author's name is mentioned.

In the story before us a Min came to where R.
Jannai and R. Jonathan were sitting, and asked them
to explain the difficulty. R. Jannai apparently was
unable to do so, and turning to R. Jonathan said, in
the words of Isaiah [iv. 1], ' Take away my reproach?
i.e. ' Help me out ; do not let me lie under the re-
proach of being unable to answer.' (This is the inter-
pretation of the commentary ' Japheh Toar ' upon the
passage.) R. Jonathan accordingly explained the
verse, in one or other of two ways, both of which are
given. The point of his answer is that ' in the border
of Benjamin at Zelzah ' denotes a different place from
that where Rachel's tomb was. Therefore, there was
nothing to prove that Bethlehem Ephrathah, the site
of the tomb, was not in the land of Judah.

The interest of the dialogue, for the purpose of this

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH S60

work, lies in the fact that a Min should come and
consult a Rabbi upon a question of interpretation of
scripture. This shows that the relations between the
Jews and the Minim were not always hostile.

R. Jannai and R. Jonathan both lived in Sepphoris,
and were contemporary with R. Hanina mentioned in
the preceding sections. R. Jonathan is the same
whom we have already met with as having an un-
pleasant adventure with the Minim (see above, p. 215).
The Min in the present instance is evidently a Jewish ~
Christian, since no one else (except a Jew) would be
interested in the interpretation of the texts about
Bethlehem. The importance of these texts was the
same both for Jews and for Jewish Christians, since
upon them depended the question of the birthplace
of the Messiah. The prophecy Mic. v. 1 was inter-
preted of the Messiah, as is shown by the Targum on
the passage,1 and also by the quotation in Matt. ii.
4-6. It was therefore a difficulty for Jewish Chris-
tians as well as for Jews, that the text in 1 Sam.
appeared to contradict the prophecy in Micah. That
the interpretation of R. Jonathan was contrary to the
plain meaning of the text is of small importance.

R. SlMLAI AND THE MlNIM
THE DOCTRINE OF TWO POWERS IN HEAVEN

(94) j. Ber., 12d, 13a.— The Minim asked R. Simlai
how many gods created the world ? He said
to them, Do ye ask me? Go and ask the
first man, as it is written [Deut. iv. 32], Ask

1 Targum on Mic. v. 1 :— KTWD p1D> Wp "|3D.

256 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

now of the former days which were before thee,
since God created man upon the earth. It is
not written here (they) created, but (he)
created. They said to him, It is written
[Gen. i. 1], In the beginning God created.
He said to them, Is it written (they) created ?
It is only written (he) created.

R. Simlai said, * In every passage where the
Minim go wrong, the answer to them is close

by.'

They (the Minim) returned and asked him,
' What of that which is written [Gen. i. 26],
Let us make man in our image, after our
likeness.' He said to them, * It is not written
here [ib. 27], And they created man in their
image, but And God created man in his image.'
His disciples said to him, 'Rabbi, thou hast
driven away these men with a stick. But
what dost thou answer to us?' He said to
them, ' At the first, Adam was created out of
the dust, and Eve was created out of the man.
From Adam downwards [it is said] in our
image according to our likeness. It is im-
possible for man to exist without woman, and
it is impossible for woman to exist without
man, and it is impossible for both to exist
without the Shechinah.'

And they returned and asked him, 'What is
that which is written [Josh. xxii. 22], God,
God the Lord, God, God the Lord, he
knoweth. He said to them, ' It is not written
here (they) know, but it is written (he)
knoweth.' His disciples said to him, 'Rabbi,

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 257

thou hast driven these men away with a stick.
But what dost thou answer to us ? ' He said
to them, ' The three [names] are the name of
one, just as a man says, Basileus, Caesar,
Augustus.'

They returned and asked him, 'What is
that which is written [Ps. 1. 1], God, God tlte
Lord hath spoken and he called the earth.' He
said to them, * Is it written here (they) have
spoken and have called? It is only written,
(he) hath spoken and hath called the earth.'
His disciples said to him, 'Rabbi, thou hast
driven these men away with a stick. But
what dost thou answer to us ? ' He said to
them, 'The three [names] are the name of
one, just as a man says, labourers, masons,
architects.'

They returned and asked him, 'What is
that which is written [Josh. xxiv. 19], For he
is a holy God' [where the word 'holy' is
plural]. He said to them, ' It is written there
not they are holy, but he [is holy], (He is a
jealous God.)' His disciples said to him,
' Rabbi, thou hast driven these men away with
a stick. What dost thou answer to us ? ' R.
Jitzhaq said, ' Holy in every form of holiness."
For R. Judan said, in the name of R. Aha,
' The way of the holy One, Blessed be He, is
in holiness. His word is in holiness, his
sitting is in holiness, the baring of his arm
is in holiness. He is fearful and mighty in
holiness. His ways are in holiness [as it is
written, Ps. lxxvii. 13], Thy way, O God, is

258 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

in the sanctuary. His footsteps are in holiness
[Ps. lxviii. 24], The goings of my King, my
God, in the sanctuary. His sitting is in
holiness [Ps. xlvii. 8], God sitteth upon the
throne oj his holiness. His word is in holiness
[Ps. cviii. 7], God hath spoken in his holiness.
The baring of his arm is in holiness [Isa. lii.
10], The Lord hath made bare his holy arm.
He is fearful and mighty in holiness [Exod.
xv. 11], Who is like thee, glorious in holiness
[fearful in praise] ?

They returned and asked him, ■ What is
that which is written [Deut. iv. 7], For what
great nation is there that hath a God, so nigh
unto them, as the Lord our God, whensoever
we call upon him% ' He said to them, ' It is not
written here call upon them, but call upon him.'
His disciples said to him, 'Rabbi, thou hast
driven away these men with a stick. What
dost thou answer to us ? ' He said to them,
1 He is near in every manner of nearness.'

The above passage is contained, with but
slight variations, in Ber. r., viii. 9. Parts of it
are found in Shem. r., xxix., Debar, r., ii.
Commentary. — R. Simlai, of Babylonian origin,
lived in Palestine, and for the most part in JLydda.
He spent some time, however, in Galilee, where he
became the friend and attendant of R. Jannai. He
thus belonged to the same circle as the Rabbis men-
tioned in the sections immediately preceding the
present one. The date of the story may be given as
| about the middle of the third century. I am inclined
to think that R. Simlai lived in Lydda after his so-

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 259

journ with R. Jannai in Galilee. He is referred to in
the Babylonian Gemara, A. Zar. 36% as R. Simlai of
Lydda. It seems natural to suppose that he was
head of an academy after, and not before, being the
disciple and attendant of R. Jannai. But the data
for fixing the chronology of his life are scanty and
somewhat contradictory (see Bacher., A. d. Pal. Am.,
i. 552 fol. ; also Gratz, G. d. J., iv. 265).

The long passage translated here contains the
fullest account of the discussions between R. Simlai
and the Minim. Moreover, as it is given in the
Palestinian Gemara, it is the nearest in time to the
date when the incidents related took place ; and not
only so, but R. Simlai was the associate of the Rabbis
who represent the main line of tradition embodied
in the Palestinian Gemara. We may therefore infer
that the series of dialogues here recorded contains
the substance of actual discussions between R. Simlai
and the Minim. That is to say, we may be certain
that the doctrinal question which forms the basis of
all the dialogues was really debated, that the texts
quoted were really those used by the Minim, and that
the replies of R. Simlai contain the actual arguments
used in refutation of the heretical exegesis. It need
not be supposed that all the six dialogues took place
in immediate succession. This is unlikely, from the
fact that some of the answers are mere repetitions.
R. Simlai probably had several encounters with the
Minim at various times; and the passage before us
may be considered as a list of these, arranged accord-
ing to the texts made use of. The phrase, 'the
Minim returned and asked,' hardly means more than
that ■ on another occasion they asked.'

260 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

It will be observed that in every dialogue but the
first the disciples of R. Simlai asked him to give
them a reply other than that which he had given to
the Minim. In each case the curious phrase occurs,
'Rabbi, thou hast driven these men away with a
stick.' This appears to mean, ' thou hast put them
off with a mere quibble,' instead of dealing seriously
with their question. So, at all events, the disciples
seem to have intended the phrase. Yet the answers
which the Rabbi gave to the Minim were surely more
to the point than those which he gave to his disciples.
Those who argue from plural nouns are adequately
refuted with singular verbs. And it must be remem-
bered that the written text of Scripture was, for both
parties in the controversy, the final authority. The
time is, even now, not so far distant when similar
questions were decided by appeal to texts. The
intention of the disciples in asking for other explana-
tions was perhaps that they wished for an interpreta-
tion of the text without reference to its polemical use,
an indication of what it did mean rather than of what
it did not mean. R. Simlai did not always succeed
so well in positive exposition as he did in controver-
sial negation. His explanation of the words, let us
make man, etc., is no explanation. The words were
used before the creation of Adam and Eve, and could
not gain their meaning from what was only possible
after that event. If this be dismissed as absurd, then
the alternative seems to be that R. Simlai regarded
the account of the creation in Gen. ii. as a record of
events prior to those related in Gen. i., so that Adam
and Eve were already in existence when God said,
Let us make man, etc. I suspect that R. Simlai was

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 261

quite unable to explain the use of the plural in let us
inake man, etc., and escaped from the difficulty by a
piece of haggadah, striking but irrelevant.

His answers to the argument from the triple de-
signation of God are reasonable enough. It is
curious that the interpretation of the phrase con-
cerning the holiness of God is ascribed, not to R.
Simlai, but to R. Jitzhaq, a younger contemporary,
and not impossibly one of R. Simlai's own disciples.
It is nowhere said indeed, so far as I know, that
there was this relationship between the older and
the younger man ; but it is noteworthy that, in the
last of his explanations, R. Simlai uses the same idea
as that which R. Jitzhaq had used in reference to
4 holiness,' a fact which would seem to suggest
that R. Simlai took up the idea, on hearing his
disciple expound it, having himself been unable to
explain the text to which Jitzhaq applied it. If
this be thought to be too far-fetched, then the con-
clusion is that R. Simlai's own explanation had been
forgotten, or that he never gave one, and that the
compilers of the Gemara inserted the later explana-
tion of R. Jitzhaq in this appropriate place.

The question, so often asked in preceding sections,
Who are the Minim referred to in the passage? is
of special importance here, because the controversy
recorded turns upon a great theological subject. It
is known, and frequently referred to in the rab-
binical literature, as the doctrine of 'Two Powers
in Heaven.' And as the present passage is the
longest which treats of that subject, here will be
the best place to discuss it. Other passages having
reference to this doctrine will be given later, and

262 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

mention has already been made of it. But it will be
convenient to inquire here, once for all, what is the
doctrinal implication of the phrase, ' Two Powers in
Heaven.' We shall then have a means of deciding
in other passages, as well as in the present one, Who
were the Minim who held the doctrine ?

The phrase itself, ' Two Powers in Heaven,' occurs
in Siphri, § 329, p. 139b. More often it occurs in the
shorter form ' two powers,' as in Mechilta 66b, and
elsewhere. But in every case it is implied that the
two powers are supposed to be in heaven. It is
evident, therefore, that the doctrine referred to is
not that of a dualism consisting of a good and an
evil power, hostile to one another. The doctrine of
the Two Powers cannot be that of the Persian, or
the Manichgean dualism ; because, according to those
systems, the evil power certainly did not work in
conjunction with the good power in the creation of
the world or in anything else. The Persian dualism,
comprising Ahuramazda and Ahriman, is referred to
in the Talmud, in a polemical discussion, b. Sanh.
38b, and it is worth notice that the opponent of the
Jew is there called a Magus and not a Min. There
are, it is true, instances where the term Min is used,
and where a Persian is almost certainly intended
(see b. Ber. 58a), but this does not occur in reference
to the doctrine of the Two Powers.

The various Gnostic systems maintained a dualism,
or rather a plurality, of superhuman Powers ; and
the Jews of Palestine were more likely to come into
contact and collision with Gnostics than with the
adherents of the forms of religion just mentioned.
Is the doctrine of the Two Powers, then, a Gnostic

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 263

doctrine? It was one of the main tenets of most
Gnostic systems that the world was created by the
Demiurgus, an inferior God, regarded as an emana-
tion from the supreme Deity, and far removed from
him. The Demiurgus was, by some Gnostics,
identified with the God of the Jews; and the
superiority of Christianity over Judaism was ex-
plained by saying that the latter was the religion
whose object of worship was the Demiurgus, while
the former was the revelation, through Christ, of the
supreme God. Neither Christ, nor the supreme God,
according to Gnostic teaching, had any share in
creating the world. Christ certainly not; and the
supreme God only so far as he willed it, and dele-
gated the task to the inferior being, the Demiurgus.
The whole point of the Gnostic doctrine was that
the supreme God should be thought to have no
immediate contact with the world of matter.

Now the doctrine of the Two Powers in Heaven,
which is ascribed in the Talmud and the Midrash
to the Minim, is almost always mentioned in con-
nexion with the creation of the world. And the
texts which are urged against it are such as to show
that not only did the supreme God himself create
the world, but that he did so alone, without any
associate. And the refutation is always directed
especially to the second point. The Gnostics cer-
tainly did not teach that creation was the work of
the supreme God ; but equally they did not teach
that it was the work of two deities acting together.
Hence it would seem that the doctrine of the Two
Powers is not a Gnostic doctrine; and the only
exception is perhaps this, that where the two powers

264 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

are referred to in connexion with some other subject
than the creation of the world, there may be — I do
not say there is — a reference to Gnosticism.

There remains the question whether the doctrine of
the ' Two Powers in Heaven,' associated in creation,
was a Christian doctrine? And in answering that
question it must be borne in mind that we are not
at liberty to range through all the various forms of
Christianity taught in the first three centuries, but
must confine our attention to those which may
reasonably be supposed to have been familiar to the
Christians of Palestine. Now a doctrine of two
powers in heaven, associated in creation, is clearly
taught in the Epistle to the Hebrews. The opening
words of that epistle are (Heb. i. 1) : God ....
hath, at the end of these days, spoken unto us in his
Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through
whom also he made the worlds. Whatever may be
the precise meaning of ' worlds ' (alwvas), it certainly
includes that of the world of which God, according
to the O.T., was the creator. The relation of Christ
to God in the theology of the Epistle to the
Hebrews was quite different from that of the
Demiurgus to God, in the Gnostic systems. And
the difference consists in the fact that the Demi-
urgus was placed as far off from God as was con-
sistent with his retaining a spiritual nature, while
Christ was regarded, in the epistle, as in closest
possible union with God, short of actual identity of
person or complete equality of rank. The theology
of the Epistle to the Hebrews might, from the
Jewish point of view, be naturally described as a
doctrine of Two Powers in Heaven, or even as a

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 265

doctrine of two Gods. The same might be said of
the purely Pauline and the Johannine theologies,
from the Jewish point of view. It is therefore
evident that the doctrine of Two Powers, which is
ascribed to the Minim in the Talmud, is a Christian
doctrine.1

Of the three types of Christian theology just
mentioned, the one most likely to be found amongst
the Christians with whom the Jews of Palestine
came into contact, is, beyond question, that of the
Epistle to the Hebrews. Whatever may be the
place of origin, or the destination of that Epistle, it
was addressed to Jewish Christians ; and it is not
unreasonable to suppose that it would become
generally known amongst Jewish Christians where-
ever they might be, whether in Rome or in Palestine.
That the Epistle to the Hebrews was known, not
merely to the Jewish Christians of Palestine, but to
the Rabbis, is indicated by a polemical reference
(b. Nedar. 32b) to the priesthood of Melchizedek,
upon which is founded one of the characteristic
doctrines of the Epistle to the Hebrews. [The
passage will be translated (139) and explained below,
see p. 338.] This polemical reference was made by
R. Ishmael, whom we have already met with several
times as an opponent of Minim [see above, pp. 105,
130, 156], and dates from the early years of the
second century.

We may, therefore, conclude that the theology of

1 This is shown clearly by a passage (95) in Pesiqta. r., ixi. pp. 100b, 101%
"If the son of the harlot [i.e. Jesus] say to thee, ' There are two gods,' say to
him, * I am He of the Red Sea, I am He of Sinai ' " [i.e. there are not two
gods but one], A few lines further down, the same argument is met by
the text, ' God spoke ' [sing, not plur.]. See below, p. 304.

266 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

the Epistle to the Hebrews was known to, and
accepted by, the Jewish Christians of Palestine early
in the second century, and that the doctrine of the
Two Powers in Heaven is the Jewish description of
the doctrine of that Epistle, concerning the relation
of Christ to God. Whether all Jewish Christians,
in Palestine or elsewhere, adopted the Christology
of the Epistle to the Hebrews, must remain an open
question. It is quite likely that some of them
adhered to the primitive doctrine as to the person
of Jesus, which did not in any way trench upon
the Jewish conception of the Unity of God. There
were certainly different sects or parties amongst the
Jewish Christians, as is shown by the names Ebionite
and Nazarene. And it is possible that the former
term denoted those who did not accept the Christ-
ology of the Epistle to the Hebrews. The solution
of this question I leave to New Testament scholars.

As regards the main subject of this book, it may
now be taken that the term Minim includes Jewish
Christians holding a theology similar to that of the
Epistle to the Hebrews. In the concluding division
of this work I shall endeavour to place this fact in
its proper relation to the general history of the
Jewish Christians.

R. Abahu, R. Saphra, and the Minim.

(96) b. A. Zar. 4a.— R. Abahu commended R.
Saphra to the Minim as being a great man.
They remitted to him thirteen years' tolls.
One day they found him. They said to him,
6 It is written [Amos iii. 2], You only have I

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 267

known, of all the families of the earth, therefore
I will visit upon you all your iniquities. One
that hath anger, would he vent it against his
friend ? ' He was silent, and said to them
nothing at all. They put a towel over his
head and railed at him. R. Abahu came and
found them. He said to them, ' Why do ye
rail at him ? ' They said to him, ' And didst
not thou tell us that he was a great man?
Yet he does not know how to tell us the
explanation of this text.' He said to them,
'I said this to you of him as a Talmudist.
Did I ever say so of him as a Scripture-
teacher?' They said to him, 'Why are ye
different, and know [how to explain scrip-
tures]?' He said to them, 'We, who live
in your midst, give our minds to it and
examine [the scriptures]. They [i.e. the
Babylonians] do not examine them.' They
said to him, 'Do thou tell us.' He said to
them, 'I will make a parable of what the
thing is like. [It is like] a man who lends
to two men, one his friend and the other his
enemy. He recovers [payment] from his
friend little by little, but from his enemy all
at once.'
Commentary. — The date of this very curious
incident is the beginning of the fourth century. R.
Abahu, already mentioned, was the disciple of R.
Johanan, and lived in Caesarea. R. Saphra was a
Babylonian, on a visit to Palestine, and is well known,
though not prominent, in the history of the Talmudic
tradition. No doubt was ever expressed of his entire

268 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

loyalty to the Jewish religion. Yet here we find

him, and that, too, on the recommendation of It.

Abahu, accepted by the Minim as a teacher. From

the fact that they remitted to him thirteen years' tolls,

it would seem that they engaged him as their teacher,

offering him at least an honorarium if not a salary.

This fact is important for the history of the Minim,

as bearing on their relation to Judaism. There is, so

far as I know, nothing in the scanty notices of R.

Saphra, to be found elsewhere in the Talmud, that

throws any light upon the incident here related. He

was held in high esteem in Babylonia, where it was

triumphantly reported (b. Gitt. 29b) that he had, in

a judicial decision, proved three ordained Rabbis of

Palestine to be in error. He was intimate with

Abahu, and it is perhaps worthy of note that it was

he who reported in Babylonia, on the authority of

Abahu, the account of the abortive schism of

Hananjah, nephew of R. Jehoshua, concerning whom

the allegation of Minuth had been made (see above,

p. 211). It does not appear, however, that R. Saphra

knew anything of the story about Hananjah's

adventure with the Minim of Capernaum. There

is something so strange in the assertion that a Rabbi

so well known as Saphra should become a teacher

amongst the Minin, that one is inclined to suspect a

confusion between the well-known Saphra and some

obscure man of the same name. But there is no

evidence for this. Abahu speaks of Saphra as a great

man, and a Babylonian. And there is no hint of any

other being intended than the R. Saphra elsewhere

mentioned, who, moreover, is known to have been an

associate of Abahu. There is no ground whatever for

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 269

dismissing the story as a fiction. The time in which
Abahu lived was not so remote but that the traditions
of his school were well known when the Babylonian
Gemara was compiled; The incident under discussion
would not be less strange even if the Rabbi concerned
were not the well-known Saphra. What is remarkable
is that any Rabbi should have become a teacher
amongst the Minim. And if such an occurrence had
never been known, it is not likely to have been
invented. If it had been invented, and related by
way of a jest against R. Saphra, the story would have
done more justice to the jest and not have mentioned
the alleged fact as a mere matter of course.

Bacher (A. d. Pal. Am., ii. 96 f.) suggests that R.
Saphra was engaged by the Minim not as a teacher
but as an assistant in collecting the Imperial revenue,
which they farmed. This is on the strength of the
phrase, " remitted to him thirteen years' tolls." But
this suggestion, even if it be deemed a fair inference
from the phrase just quoted, does not solve the
difficulty. For the Minim were annoyed with him
on account of his ignorance of Scripture, not of his
blundering in finance. If they had engaged him as
an accountant, they could not have charged Abahu
with having given a misleading recommendation,
when R. Saphra failed as an interpreter of
Scripture. It is possible that the collection of the
tolls in Csesarea was in the hands of a Christian ; but
it is not clear what is meant by the remission of
* thirteen years' tolls.' All that can be said is that
the Minim made some sort of a present to R. Saphra,
in return for the benefit which they hoped to derive
from his services.

270 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

I see no alternative but to accept the story as
showing that the relations between the Minim and
the Jews, at all events in the beginning of the
fourth century, were not always hostile. That the
Minim here mentioned were Jewish Christians, and
of a strongly Jewish type, is evident from the fact
that a Jewish Rabbi of unquestioned orthodoxy could
be acceptable to them. That they were heretics is
plain from Abahu's answer to them. The story itself
needs little further explanation. The Minim were
dissatisfied with their new teacher, and asked R.
Abahu why it was that the stranger could not explain
the Scriptures, while Abahu and the Jews of Csesarea
were able to do so. The answer was that the necessity
of refuting the Minim in controversy made them study
the Scriptures very closely. The Babylonian Jews,
who did not encounter Minim, had no inducement to
such close study. This is of some importance as
showing that the Minim were confined to Palestine,
or, at least, were not numerous elsewhere.

R. Abahu, at the request of the Minim, gave his
own interpretation of the text (Amos iii. 2) in the
form of a parable. The Jews, being favoured by God,
received the punishment of their sins by instalments,
so that they might not be too severely dealt with.
The other nations will receive their punishment once
for all and will suffer in proportion.

R. Abahu and the Epiqurosin. Enoch

(97) Ber. r., xxv. 1, p. 55°. — The Epiqurosin asked
R. Abahu, they said to him, ' We do not find
death in the case of Enoch.' He said to them,

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 271

1 Why ? ' They said to him, ' There is men-
tion here [Gen. v. 24] of "taking," and there
is mention elsewhere [2 Kings ii. 5], to-day the
Lord taketh away thy master from thy head,'
He said to them, ' If ye are arguing from the
idea of "taking," there is mention here of
" taking," and there is mention elsewhere
[Ezek. xxiv. 16], BeJiold, I take away from
thee the desire of thine eyes.'' R. Tanhuma
said, *R. Abahu has answered them well/
Commentary. — The Epiqurosin, here mentioned,
are no doubt the same as the Minim. Bacher (A. d.
Pal. Am., ii. 115 n. 4) gives * Minim,' but does not
mention the edition of the Ber. r. from which he
quotes.

The point of the dialogue is obvious. The Minim
seem to have wished to show that Enoch was a type
of Jesus, as regards his ascension into heaven. In
support of their contention, that the words (Gen. v.
24), and God took him, did not imply death, they
quoted 2 Kings ii. 5, where the same word is used of
Elijah on his ascent into heaven. R. Abahu refuted
the argument by giving an instance (Ezek xxiv. 16)
where the use of the word clearly implied death. It
is true that there is here no direct allusion to Jesus,
but unless such an allusion was intended there would
seem to be no reason why the Minim should contend
that Enoch did not die, nor why R. Abahu should
have refuted their contention. At the same time, it
is not easy to see why Elijah should not have served
as the type of Jesus, since even Abahu admitted the
fact that he did not die and that he did ascend to
heaven. I leave it to those who are familiar with

272 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

the early Christian writings to say whether Enoch is
ever regarded as a type of Jesus in reference to his
ascension. In Ep. Hebr. xi. 5, a writing which was,
as we have seen, known to the Minim (above, p. 265),
Enoch is mentioned, but only as an instance of faith.
It is there stated, however, that Enoch did not die.
It is possible that in the dialogue before us there is
no reference to Jesus, but merely a defence of a
Christian text against a Hebrew one.1

R. Tanhuma, who is reported to have approved the
answer of Abahu, lived in Palestine in the fourth
century, and had, himself, an adventure with the
Minim (see below, p. 282).

It. Abahu and a Min. Anachronism
in Scripture

(98) b. Ber. 10a. — A certain Min said to R. Abahu,
' It is written [Ps. iii. 1], Psalm of David,
when he fled before Absalom his son. And it is
written [Ps. lvii. 1], Of David; Michtam,
when he fled before Saul, in the cave. Was the
incident [of Absalom] first? Yet since the
incident of Saul was first, it ought to have
been written first.' He said to him, 'To you,
who do not interpret "contexts," there is a
difficulty ; to us, who do interpret " contexts,"
there is no difficulty.'

1 It is worth notice that the LXX., in Gen. v. 24, render npb (took) by
/x€T€0tj/c6, 'translated,' and that the latter word is used in Heb. xi. 5.
Both R Abahu and the Minim understood Greek ; and thus the discussion
may have turned on the question whether the Hebrew word was correctly
rendered in the text in the Ep. to the Hebrews.

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 273

Commentary. — Rabbinowicz (D. Soph, ad loc.)
gives a variant according to which the question of
the Min is :onp ^ikbh pibwd ik nnp ubtr&n nvvo cnp irw» vt
This is the reading of the Munich MS. I do not
adopt it, however, because it appears to be intended
as a gloss, in explanation of the question of the Min.
The reading of the Agadath ha-Talmud, also quoted by
Rabbinowicz, is :*ma fcitn nvyn nA kb»-q mn nt?yD *n,
which seems to confirm the reading of the printed
text. The difficulty raised by the Min is obvious ;
the Psalm which refers to the earlier event comes after
that which refers to the later one. R. Abahu replied
that the difficulty was only felt by those who did not
interpret 'contexts.' He meant that there were
reasons, apart from succession or priority in time,
why the Scripture mentions one event in connexion
with another. The Scriptures were regarded as con-
taining the whole of revealed truth, and therefore as
being much more than a mere historical record. Re-
ligious and moral lessons were taught in it, for the
sake of which historical consistency was disregarded.
The principle of deduction from 'contexts,' pioo
to which R. Abahu referred, was followed in the
Rabbinical schools long before his time. R. Eliezer,
in the first century, made use of it, as did also R.
El'azar ben Azariah, his younger contemporary.
R. Aqiba appears to have been the first to formulate
the principle into a canon of interpretation, in the
form ruo»n msh rvronb hdiod pnv mrm ^d, i.e. ' every section
is explained by the one that stands next to it'
(Siphri, on Num. xxv. 1, § 131, p. 47a). In the third
century, R. El'azar ben Pedath gave a Scripture
proof of the principle, or at least warrant for it, from

274 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

Ps. cxi. 8, They are established (d'oidd) for ever and
ever, i.e, ' The d^didd are for ever and ever ' ; they
are eternally true. This dictum of R. El'azar ben
Pedath is mentioned in the Gemara, immediately
after the answer of R. Abahu to the Min. The
printed text wrongly ascribes it to R. Johanan.
Rabbinowicz shows, on the authority of the Munich
MS., that the true reading is 'El'azar.' R. Abahu
did not explain to the Min how he would apply the
principle in the case of the two texts quoted. The
illustration given in the Gemara, in connexion with
the saying of R. El'azar, refers to a different pair of
texts. That the Minim did not follow this prin-
ciple in their interpretation of Scripture is evident,
not merely from R. Abahu's statement, but from the
fact that, as he pointed out, the difficulty would not
have been felt by them if they had followed the
principle.

R. Abahu and a Min. The Souls of the
Departed

(99) b. Shabb. 152b.— A certain Min said to R.
Abahu, 'Ye say that the souls of the right-
eous are stored up under the Throne of Glory.
How did the necromancer call up Samuel by
witchcraft?' [1 Sam. xxviii. 12]. He said to
him, 'That happened within twelve months
[from death]. For it is tradition, that during
twelve months a man's body remains, and his
soul goes up and comes down; after twelve
months the body perishes, and his soul goes
up and does not come down again.'

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 275

Commentary, — It will be noticed that in the pre-
ceding passage, as well as in the present one, there
is no polemical intention in the question of the
Minim to R. Abahu, but only a desire for instruction.
This helps to make clearer such a friendly attitude
of both parties to each other as is implied in the story
of R. Saphra already discussed (see above, p. 266).
On the other hand, the passage does not throw any
light upon the theology of the Min ; the question is
not in itself heretical, but merely an inquiry by one
who was a heretic.

R. Abahu and a Min. God a Jester ;
God a Priest

(100) b. Sanh. 39d.— A certain Min said to R.
Abahu, ' Your God is a jester, for he said to
Ezekiel [Ezek. iv. 4], Lie upon thy left side,
and it is written [ib.9 6], and thou shalt lie on
thy right side.' There came a certain disciple
and said to him [Abahu], ■ What is the mean-
ing of the Sabbath-year ? ' He said, ' I will
say to you a word which will answer both of
you. The Holy One, Blessed be He, said to
Israel [Exod. xxiii. 10, 11], Sow six years, and
refrain the seventh, that ye may know that
the land is mine.' But they did not do so,
but sinned, and were carried away captive.
It is the custom of the world that a king of
flesh and blood, against whom a city is re-
bellious, if he is cruel will slay all the people,
if he is merciful he will slay half, and if he is
full of mercy he chastises the great ones among

276 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

them with chastisement. Thus did the Holy
One, Blessed be He, chastise Ezekiel, that he
might wipe away the sins of Israel.'

A certain Min said to R. Abahu, 'Your
God is a priest, for it is written [Exod. xxv.
2], That they take for me a heave-offering.
When he buried Moses, wherewith did he
purify [bathe] himself? If you say, 'with
water,' then see what is written [Isa. xl. 12],
Who hath measured the waters in the hollow
of his hand' He said to him, ' With fire did
he purify himself, as it is written [Isa. lxvi.
15], For behold the Lord will come with fire'
[He said], 'Does then purification by fire
avail ? ' He said, ' The very essence of puri-
fication is in fire, as it is written [Num. xxxi.
23], All that abideth not the fire, thou shalt make
to pass through the water'
Commentary. — There is little to be said upon these
two anecdotes. The questions contain nothing
characteristic of Minuth, and only serve to illustrate
the relations between It. Abahu and the Minim.
They occur in the middle of a long passage, contain-
ing many references to Minuth, and several instances
of dialogues between Jewish Rabbis and Minim.
These have been, or will be, dealt with in connexion
with the several Rabbis mentioned.

R. Abahu and a Min. The Coming
of the Messiah

(101) b. Sanh. 99a. — And this is what a certai
Min said to R. Abahu, ' When will the Messial

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 277

come ? ' He said to him, ' When darkness
hath covered these men [i.e. covered you].'
He said, ' Thou art cursing me ! ' He said,
• The text is written [Isa. lx. 2], For behold
darkness shall cover the earth and gross dark-
ness the people ; but the Lord shall arise upon
thee and his glory shall be seen upon thee'
Commentary. — The reference in the opening words
is to an anonymous parable of a cock and a bat
who were waiting for the dawn. The cock said to
the bat, I am waiting for the light, for the light is
mine ; but what have you to do with light ? In other
words, none but Jews have any concern with the
coming of the Messiah. This, says the Gemara, is
the point of the answer, made by R. Abahu to a
certain Min, etc., and then follows the above passage.
The only interest in it is that it is, so far as I know,
the only passage where a Min refers to the Messiah.
If the Minim are, or include Jewish Christians, one
would naturally expect that the alleged Messiahship
of Jesus would be a subject of controversy. This,
however, is not the case ; and the fact might be used
as an argument in support of the theory that the
Minim are not Christians. In the present instance
the Min can hardly have been a Jewish Christian,
because Abahu by his answer implies that he is a
Gentile. But the incident is too slight to serve as
the foundation for any argument.

R. Abahu and a Min (Sason)

(102) b. Succ. 48b. — A certain Min, whose name
was Sason, said to R. Abahu, Ye will draw

278 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

water for me, in the world to come, for it is
written [Isa. xii. 3], With joy [sason] shall ye
draw water, etc. He said to him, ■ If it were
written for joy, it would be as you say. But
. it is written, with joy [with sason] ; we shall
make a waterskin of the skin of this man [i.e.
of your skin], and draw water from it.'
Commentary. — This is only a piece of witty repartee
and needs no comment. The name Sason occurs
elsewhere ; there was a Rabbi 'Anani bar Sason,
as Bacher points out, who appears to have been a
contemporary of R. Abahu. There is nothing to
imply that Sason was a Min, beyond the mere state-
ment of the text.

This concludes the series of dialogues in which R.
Abahu was concerned. Several are of but small im-
portance, and are only given here for the sake of
completeness. It is my endeavour to present to the
reader every passage in the Talmud in which Minim
and Minuth are referred to.

R. Ami and a Min. The Resurrection
of the Dead

(103) b. Sanh. 91a. — A certain Min said to R.
Ami, • Ye say that the dead live. But, lo,
they are dust ; and how shall dust live ? ' He
said to him, ' I will tell thee a parable. Unto
what is the thing like ? Unto a king of flesh
and blood who said to his servants, Go, build
for me a great palace in a place where there
is neither water nor dust. They went and
built it. After a time it fell. He said, Build

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 279

it again, in a place where there is dust and
water. They said to him, We cannot. He
was angry with them, and said to them, Ye
have built it in a place where there was neither
water nor dust; how much more in a place
where there is water and dust.

6 But, if thou dost not believe [that dust can
live], go into the valley and see the mouse,
which to-day is half flesh and half earth, and
to-morrow has crept out and is become alto-
gether flesh. And, lest thou say, This is
through length of time, go to the hill and see
that to-day there is but one snail ; to-morrow
the rains have fallen, and the place is filled
with snails.'
Commentary. — R. Ami was a disciple of R.
Johanan, and thus a contemporary of R. Abahu. The
Min would seem to have been an unbeliever in resur-
rection altogether. If so, of course, he cannot have
been a Jewish Christian. The argument of the
Minim against the resurrection was usually a denial
that the doctrine could be proved from the Torah.
This appears from the passage already quoted (see
above, p. 232), where Rn. Gamliel tries to refute their
argument. The Mishnah at the head of this section
of Sanhedrin is the famous one [M. Sanh. x. 1], already
several times mentioned, which enumerates those who
have no portion in the world to come. Amongst
others, it specifies those who say that there is no
resurrection from the dead. The common text adds
the words, nroim p, f according to the Torah ' ; but
Rabbinowicz, on the passage, shows that these words
are an interpolation. This is confirmed by the

280 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

Tosephta (T. Sanh. xiii. 5), which condemns "those
who lie concerning the resurrection of the dead," but
does not allude to a denial of scripture proof for the
doctrine. The words interpolated are probably from
the Gemara, a few lines further down (p. 90b), where
the question is raised 'what is the proof of the
resurrection according to the Torah ? ' The scripture
proof of the doctrine is merely a special branch of
the general subject. Accordingly, the Gemara, here
and elsewhere, deals with the subject, sometimes in
reference to the general, sometimes to the special
question. The Minim ask Rn. Gamliel for a proof
of the resurrection of the dead, and he gives them
texts from Scripture (see above, p. 231, No. 85). A
few lines further down, on the same page of Sanhedrin,
the ' Romans ' ask R Jehoshua b. Hananjah the
same question, and he also answers them by quoting
texts. Then follows a passage in which, according to
the received text, it is alleged that the ' Books of the
Minim ' contain denials of the scripture proof of the
doctrine of resurrection. But the correct reading is
not Minim, but Cuthim (Samaritans), as is shown by
the parallel passages, Siphri, p. 33b, cp. 87% also by the
MS. authority cited by Rabbinowicz. On the last
line of p. 90b of Sanhedrin is a passage in which an
Emperor (io>p)9 puts to Rn. Gamliel the very same
question which the Min puts to R. Ami in the
passage at present under consideration. The answer
is different in the two cases, but in both it is addressed
to an opponent who denies the doctrine of resurrection
in general, not merely the scripture proof of it. The
denial is natural enough coming from a heathen
emperor (presumably Hadrian). But I do not know

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 281

what class of heretic — Min — denied that doctrine.
In the time when R. Ami lived, the end of the third
and beginning of the fourth century, there were no
Sadducees. The denial of the resurrection of the
dead was not a Gnostic tenet.1 I am inclined to
think that the opponent of R. Ami was really a
heathen, incorrectly or inadvertently called a Min in
the Gemara.

The passage is evidently introduced merely for
the sake of R. Ami's answer. His parable of the
building of the palace is easily explained. If God
could form man out of nothing, much more could he
form again a living being out of dust. The Rabbi's
curious illustrations from the natural history of the
mouse and the snail rest upon what in his time were
accepted facts.

Gebiha B. Pesisa and a Min. The
Resurrection of the Dead

(104) b. Sanh. 91a. — A certain Min said to Gebiha
ben Pesisa, ' Woe to you guilty who say that
the dead live. If the living die, how shall the
dead live ? ' He said, ' Woe to you guilty who
say that the dead do not live. If those who
were not, live, those who have been, live all
the more.' He said to him, ' Thou callest me
guilty. Suppose I prove it by kicking thee
and tearing thy scalp from thee.' He said,
'If thou doest thus, thou shalt be called a
faithful physician, and shalt receive a great
reward.'

1 The resurrection of the body, however, was denied by the Gnostics.

282 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

Commentary. — This passage follows immediately
after the one about R. Ami, just translated. I have
included it here, because it deals with the same sub-
ject, not because it belongs chronologically to this
place. Gebiha ben Pesisa is a legendary character,
traditionally contemporary with Alexander the Great.
Two anecdotes are given on the same page of
Sanhedrin, describing how Geb. b. Pesisa acted as
advocate for the Jews before Alexander the Great.
I can throw no light upon him. The repartee about
the resurrection of the dead was connected with his
name, and for that reason presumably he is mentioned
by the compiler of the Gemara immediately after
R. Ami.

The meaning of his further answer to the threat of
violence is, that if the Min killed him, he would
confer immortality and thus prove himself a great
physician by giving life by means of death. A rather
dangerous doctrine for physicians.

R. Tanhuma, Caesar and a Min. All one
People

(105) b. Sanh. 39a. — Csesar said to R. Tanhuma,
1 Come, let us all be one people.' He said,
' So be it. But we, who circumcise ourselves,
cannot become like you. Do ye circumcise
yourselves and become like us.' He said to
him, 'Thou hast spoken well. Nevertheless,
everyone who prevails over a king, they cast
him into the vivarium' They cast him into
the vivarium, but [the beast] did not eat him.
A certain Min said to him (Caesar), ' The

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 283

reason why [the beast] did not eat him is that
it was not hungry.' They cast him [the Min]
[into the vivarium] and [the beast] ate him.
Commentary. — R. Tanhuma lived in Palestine, in
the generation after R. Abahu, thus about the middle
of the fourth century. Bacher (A. d. Pal. Am., hi.
467) admits that this anecdote rests upon a historical
event, and supposes that the emperor referred to
must have been a Christian. The emperors con-
temporary with R. Tanhuma were, with one notable
exception, Christians. That exception was Julian the
Apostate (a.d. 361-363), and I suggest that the
Emperor in the story is intended for Julian, rather
than for one of the Christian emperors. It is true
that Julian is nowhere mentioned by name in the
Talmud (unless the reading mho DU&&, j. Ned. 37d, be
preferred to the reading » Ptttyfrpn in the parallel
passage, j. Shebhu. 34d). There is, however, no a
priori reason why he should be entirely ignored, at all
events in the Babylonian Gemara. It is known that
Julian was disposed to be friendly towards the Jews,
even to the extent of offering to rebuild the Temple
in Jerusalem. His friendship was, no doubt, influ-
enced in part by his dislike of the Christians, in part,
perhaps, also by his desire to have the Jews on his side
in his contemplated war with Persia. No Christian
emperor would be described as suggesting to a Jew,
in a friendly conference, that he and his countrymen
should forsake their religion and become one people
with their sovereign. There is extant a letter to the
Jews in which Julian speaks of his desire to see their
holy city rebuilt, and to join with them in offering
praise there to the All-Good (/cat «/ avrfi Sd£w S(oao>

284 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

jxeff vfxcjp to* KpeLTTovi, cited by Gratz, iv. n. 34).
This hope was never realised, and the projected re-
building of the Temple was abandoned. The Jews
do not appear to have been greatly in favour of the
project, perhaps because it was due to a pagan
emperor in the interests of pagan rather than of
Jewish religion.

The story before us seems to reflect such a relation
between the emperor and the Jews. Julian actually
was in Antioch in the year 362 ; and R. Tanhuma,
though not the Nasi, was one of the few eminent
representatives of his people in Palestine. He was
therefore a likely personage for the emperor to con-
verse with if he held any intercourse with Jews, as he
certainly did. I do not mean to suggest that the
story refers to anything so definite as the project
of rebuilding the Temple, only that it describes an
incident made possible by such an intention on the
part of Julian. If this be so, then the reply of the
Rabbi would reflect the view which the Jews took of
the overtures of a heathen emperor, viz., that they
would not purchase his friendship at the cost of their
religion, even for the sake of seeing their Temple
rebuilt. The emperor would naturally be mortified
at such a rebuff; but it is in keeping with the
character of Julian, the philosopher, that he should
have admitted the force of the Rabbi's argument,
while punishing him for his rashness in opposing the
imperial will. The story goes on to say that the
Rabbi was cast into the vivarium,1 to be devoured by a

1 Vivarium ; this is evidently the equivalent of "Q'Q, although vivarium
in classical Latin does not mean a den of wild beasts, such as is clearly
implied in the story.

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 285

wild beast, and that for some reason the beast would
not touch him. Amongst the bystanders was a
Min, who explained the reason of the Rabbi's safety
by the suggestion that the beast was not hungry.
Whereupon he was sent to prove the worth of his
own suggestion by being himself cast into the den,
where he was immediately devoured. If the Min
were a Christian, it is conceivable that Julian should
have so dealt with him ; or, if not that, it is not
unnatural that the author of the story should have so
expressed his own dislike of the Christians under
cover of the known antipathy towards them of Julian.
This anecdote does not, of course, throw much
light, if any, upon the general subject of the Minim ;
but, if the suggestion made above be warranted, it is
at least interesting as affording a glimpse into a period
of Jewish history concerning which the Rabbinical
literature is almost silent.

R. Idi and a Min : MetatrOn

(106) b. Sanh. 38b.— R. Nahman said, 'He who
knows how to answer the Minim like R. Idi,
let him answer; if not, let him not answer.'
A certain Min said to R. Idi, ' It is written
[Exod. xxiv. 1], And he said unto Moses,
Come up unto the Lord. He ought to have
said, Come up unto me.' He [R. Idi] said,
1 This is Metatron, whose name is as the name
of his Master. For it is written [Exod. xxiii.
21], For my name is in him.' ' If so, worship
him.' ■ It is written \ibid.\ Provoke him not
[i.e. Do not mistake him for me].' ■ If so,

286 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

what have I to do with [ibid.'] he will not
pardon thy transgressions ? ' He [R. Idi] said
to him, ■ Be sure of this, that even as a guide
we would not receive him ; for it is written
[Exod. xxxiii. 15], If thy presence go not [with
us, carry us not up hencey
Commentary. — Rab Idi1 is classed by Bacher
(A. d. P. A., iii. 704) amongst the Palestinian
Amoras of the fourth century, though without any
indication of the place where he lived. R. Nahman,
who refers to him, is R. Nahman bar Jitzhaq, a Baby-
lonian, president of the College at Pumbeditha, who
died a.d. 356. R. Idi appears to have travelled in
Babylonia, and may there have met with R. Nahman.
His dispute with the Min probably took place in
Palestine, as it is said, b. Hull. 13a, that there are no
Minim amongst the Gentiles, and b. Pesah., 56h9
that there are no Minim in Nehardea.

The dialogue between R. Idi and the Min belongs,
in any case, to the fourth century. Friedlander, in his
work der Vorchristliche judiscJie Grnosticismus, p. 103
fol., makes some use of the passage before us, and begins
by transferring it to the Tannaite period, thus ante-
dating it by nearly two hundred years ! In accordance
with his theory, he regards the Min as a Gnostic, on
the strength of the identification which he proposes
between ' Metatron ' and the Gnostic ' Horos ' ("Opos,
Metator). But he overlooks the fact that it is the
Jew, and not the Min, who mentions Metatron.
And the Rabbi's argument surely is that the Min is

1 'Idi' is the correct reading. The form 'Idith,' as in the text, occurs
only here, and the evidence of the authorities quoted by Rabbinowicz shows
that even here the name should be read ' Idi.'

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 287

wrong in hinting at a second God, because the
reference is to Metatron, and not to a second God.
If the Min was a Gnostic, and if Metatron were
identical with Horos, then the Rabbi would merely
have been playing into the hands of the Min.

The point in dispute is the doctrine of the Two
Powers in Heaven, which we have already met with
in other polemical discussions (see above, p. 262 fol.).
The Min quoted a text, which appeared to imply the
existence of more than one divine being, And he
said unto Moses, come up unto tJie Lord. If it were
God himself speaking, then He ought to have said,
Coine up unto me. Who was it to whom Moses
was told to go up ? The Jew was ready with his
answer. The reference was to Metatron, a recognised
personage in the Rabbinical theology, where he
always appears as the chief of the angels, nearest to
God but subject to God, acting as his messenger
and representative, but never regarded as being in
any sense himself God. Metatron is so far from
being identical with the Logos of the Jewish Alex-
andrine philosophy, or with the Horos of Gnosticism,
that he may be regarded as the expression of the
Rabbinical rejection of those conceptions. In other
words, the doctrine of Metatron is the reply of the
Rabbinical theology to the doctrine of the Logos
and to the Gnostic systems. No doubt there is
common to all three conceptions the idea of a delega-
tion of divine power ; but, in the case of Metatron,
the line is sharply drawn between sen ant and
Master, creature and Creator. This is shown, in
a curious way, in a passage (107) [b. Hag. 15a],
which describes how Elisha ben Abujah entered

288 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

Paradise, and there " saw Metatron, to whom was
given power to sit and write down the merits of
Israel. He [Elisha b. A.] said, ' It is taught that on
high there is no sitting, no strife, no parting and no
joining. Can there be, heaven forbid, two powers ? '
They brought out Metatron and gave him sixty lashes
of fire" This was done, as Tosaphoth rightly
explains, to show that Metatron was not superior in
kind to the other angels, however much he might
be in degree. Friedlander, in the work already
referred to (Vorchr. jud. Gnosticismus, 102), quotes,
or rather paraphrases, this passage ; " Bei seinem
Eindringen in das Paradies sah Acher [El. b. Abujah],
wie berichtet wird, zu seinem schrecken eine zweite
Gottheit im Himmel, den Metatron." Friedlander,
however, does not mention the concluding words,
translated above, which expressly contradict the
assertion that Metatron was a second God. Elisha
ben Abujah may have believed that Metatron was
such ; but the Talmud stamps that belief as a heresy.
And it is quite clear that the Rabbinical theology
recognised Metatron, while it certainly did not admit
the Gnostic conception with which Friedlander
would identify Metatron.

I now return to the dialogue between R. Idi
and the Min. The former has explained that the
reference|in the text quoted by the latter, Come up
unto the Lord, is to Metatron, for his name is as the
name of his^Master, as it is written [Exod. xxiii. 21],
For my name is in Him. The Min rejoins, ' Then
why do you not worship him?' If, that is, the
name and by implication the power of God is com-
mitted^ Metatron, why should he not be worshipped \

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 289

A question very much to the point, if the Min, as sug-
gested above (p. 265 fol.), be a Jewish Christian whose
theology was that of the Epistle to the Hebrews.
The Jew meets the argument by a rather strained
interpretation of the text : Provoke him not. The
word translated ' provoke ' he derives from another
root, meaning • to change ' ; and he translates, * Do
not mistake him for me.' His object is to emphasise,
as much as possible, the intrinsic difference between
God and the inferior being (Metatron), which was
already clearly marked in the original text. The
Min replies that if there be such a marked difference
between the two, why is it said he will not pardon
your sins ? Does not this imply that he, of whom
this is said, has power to pardon or withhold pardon ?
And if so, can he be only a subordinate, to whom
worship must not be offered ? The answer of the
Rabbi is rather obscure, ' Be assured of this, that
even as a guide we would not receive him, for it is
written, If thy presence go not with us, carry us not
up hence.' The connexion of this with the argument
of the Min is suggested by the remark of Rashi, in
his commentary on the verse in Exodus, that it was
not the function of the angel to pardon sins ; he was
to be a guide, and nothing more. He will not
pardon your sins, because that is out of his depart-
ment. The Rabbi seems to have interpreted the words
in a similar way. Metatron was sent as a guide,
with no power to pardon sins. 'But even as a
guide,' he goes on, ' we would not receive him.'
The promised guide, to whom the words in Exod.
xxiii. refer, was never sent. For it appears from
Exod. xxxiii. 12-17 that Moses prayed that God

290 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

himself would lead his people, and that his prayer
was granted. Thus, from the Jewish point of view,
the argument of the Min was completely met. So
far from there being, as suggested, a second God,
there was only an angel, supreme amongst angels
perhaps, but by more than a little ' lower than God.'

Friedlander makes the needless remark (op. cit.9
p. 104) that the Rabbi, driven into a corner, only
extricated himself by a violent exegesis that made
nonsense of the text. The real matter in dispute
was not a point of exegesis, but a fundamental
theological doctrine. And even if exegesis had been
in question, the Rabbi was only following the usage
of the schools in applying exegetical methods which
were haggadic and not scientific. This will already
have appeared, from the numerous examples we have
seen of Rabbinical interpretation of Scripture.

R. Abina and a Min

(108) b. Sanh. 39a.— A certain Min said to R. Abina,

6 It is written [2 Sam. vii. 23], Who is like thy

people, like Israel, one nation in the earth ?

What is their excellence ? Ye also are

mingled with them, for it is written [Isa. xl.

17], All the nations are as nothing before

him' He said to him, ' Your own [prophets]

bear witness concerning us, for it is written

[Num. xxiii. 9], It sliall not be reckoned among

the nations'

Commentary. — Abina is the name of two Rabbis,

both Palestinian, and both living in the fourth

century, though not in the same generation. Bacher

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 291

holds that the Abina of this passage is the elder of
the two.1 The passage is of little importance. The
Min sought to show that Israel had no claim to pre-
eminence over the other nations, on the ground that
all the nations were as nothing before God. The Rabbi
retorted by quoting the words of a heathen prophet,
viz., Balaam, to the effect that Israel was not to be
reckoned amongst the nations. The Min evidently
was a Gentile, and therefore probably a Christian,
since no other Gentile would be able to quote from
the O.T. scriptures. It is possible that the reference
to Balaam has something of the anti- Christian animus
noted above (p. 66 fol.). But if this were the inten-
tion, we should expect the reference to be made more
prominent.

This concludes the series of passages in which
Jewish Rabbis meet Minim in controversy. I shall
next present a further series of passages containing
polemical allusions to the Minim. To some extent I
have classified them, according to their subject matter;
but I shall have to include several in a miscellaneous
group, having little or nothing in common except the
allusion to Minim. I give, first, a group of texts
referring to the doctrine of the Unity of God and the
opposed doctrines of Two Powers in Heaven.

SECTION III. POLEMICAL ALLUSIONS
TO THE MINIM

Man Created Solitary

(109) M. Sanh. iv. 5. — For this reason man was
created solitary [for various reasons], and in

1 A. d. P. Amor., iii. 539.

292 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

order that Minim might not say there are

several Powers in Heaven.
(110) T. Sanh. viii. 7. — Man was created last.

And why was he created last? That the

Minim might not say there was a companion

with Him in the work.
Commentary, — I have omitted from ( 109 ) a few lines,
in which are suggested several rather fantastic reasons
why man was created solitary. My object, of course,
is not to expound Haggadah, but to examine references
to Minim. It should be noticed that in (109) the
Minim are charged with believing in several Powers
in Heaven; in (110) they are charged with asserting
the existence of a being who aided God in the work
of creation. The commentators on (109) explain the
passage thus, that, if several men had been created at
once, the Minim might say one deity had created one
man, another another, and so on. It is not evident
what doctrine is aimed at in (109). At first sight it
would seem to be that of mere Gentile polytheism ;
but the ordinary Gentiles are never, so far as I know,
called Minim. The Gnostics did, it is true, believe
in 'several Powers' in Heaven, but not several
creators, and the argument of the Mishnah has no
point, unless the doctrine combatted be that of
several creators. It is possible that the word
translated 'several' may only imply 'more than one,'
in which case the passage would be in harmony with
most of the others where the doctrine of the Minim
touching the creation is alluded to.

In the second passage (110) it is clear that only
two Powers are alleged. Man is said to have been
created last in order that the Minim might not say

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 293

that He, i.e. God, had a companion in the work of
creation. That ' He ' refers to God and not to man
is evident from the sense of the passage, and is more-
over explicitly stated in the Gemara [b. Sanh. p. 38a].
If it were in the power of the Minim to show that a
being, other than the Supreme God, had shared in
the work of creation, then that would have been a
strong argument in their favour, supposing them to
have been, as suggested above (p. 265 fol.), Jewish
Christians of the type represented by the theology of
the Epistle to the Hebrews.

The two passages (109) and (110) are reproduced
in the Babylonian Gemara (b. Sanh. 38a), but not in
that of Palestine. There is no discussion of either
passage in the Gemara. There is, however, in the
same context a further reference to the denial of the
Unity of God by the Minim. Indeed, this part of
b. Sanhedrin is full of allusions to heresy, several of
which have already been examined.

The Unity of God. Texts appealed
to by the Minim

(111) b. Sanh. 38b.— We teach there R. Eliezer
says, ' Be careful to learn Torah, and know
what thou shalt answer to an Epiquros.' R.
Johanan said, 'They only taught this concerning
a Gentile Epiquros, but [it applies] all the more
to a Jewish Epiquros, for he is more defiant.'

R. Johanan said, ' In every place [i.e. text
of Scripture] which the Minim misinterpret,
the context refutes them. [Gen i. 26], Let us
make man in our image; [ib. 27], And God

394 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

created [sing.] man in his image. [Gen. xi. 7],
Go to, now, let us go down and there confound
their language [ib. 5]; And the Lord went
down [sing.] to see the city and the tower.
[Gen. xxxv. 7], For there God was [plur.]
revealed to him ; [ib. 3], unto God who answered
[sing.] me in the day of my trouble. [Deut. iv.
7], For what great nation is there that hath a
God so nigh [plur.] unto them as the Lord our
God is whensoever we call upon him [sing.].
[2 Sam. vii. 23], And what one nation in the
earth is like thy people, even like Israel, whom
God went [plur.] to redeem unto himself [sing.]
for a people. [Dan. vii. 9], Until thrones
were set, and one that was ancient of days did
sit. What do these words mean, according to
[the theory] of R. Johanan ? For R. Johanan
said, 'The Holy One, Blessed be He, doeth
nothing except he have taken counsel with the
family above, as it is said [Dan. iv. 17], The
sentence is by decide of the watchers and the
demand by the word of the holy ones. All
this may be admitted ; but what is to be said
of until thrones were set ? One for Him and
one for David; for it is tradition, 'One for
Him and one for David ; the words of R.
Aqiba.' R. Jose said to him, 'Aqiba, how
long wilt thou make the Shechinah profane?
It is One for justice and one for righteousness.'
He [Aqiba] received it [i.e. the correction] from
him, or he did not receive it. Come and see.
For it is tradition, ' One for justice and one
for righteousness; the words of R. Aqiba/

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 295

R. El'azar ben Azariah said to him, 'Aqiba,
what hast thou to do with Haggadah ? Be
off to 'wounds' and 'tents/ It is 'One for
his throne and one for his footstool. A throne
to sit on and a footstool for the support of
his feet.'
Commentary, — The first part of this passage, re-
ferring to the Epiquros, has been dealt with already
(see above, p. 120 fol., where the meaning of the term
Epiquros is examined). The advice of R. Johanan
concerning the Jewish Epiquros is usually understood
to mean that such an opponent was to be shunned
as dangerous. This is not what R. Johanan said.
He adopted the words of R. El'azar b. Arach, ' Know
what to answer to an Epiquros,' and said, ' This was
spoken in reference to the Gentile Epiquros ; but
it applies all the more to the Jewish one.' In other
words, the Jew was to be especially careful how he
replied to a Jewish Epiquros, because he was more
dangerous. But that is not the same as saying that
the Jew was not to meet the Jewish Epiquros in
argument. And, since a Jewish Epiquros was
practically a Min, we have already met with many
examples of such polemical encounters.

The connexion between Epiquros (freethinker) and
Min (heretic) is indicated in the present passage by
the word *peqar' (npo), which means in general 'to
be free from restraint, thence to act as a freethinker,'
and (in relation to Scripture) 'to interpret heretically.'
The name Epiquros, borrowed, of course, from the
Greek, was adopted for the sake of the play upon
the word ipeqar.' R. Johanan said that the Jewish
Epiquros 'p'qar* more than the Gentile one; also

296 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

that the Minim ' peqaru' in their interpretation of
Scripture.

The examples given of texts relied on by the Minim
and refuted by the context have, with the exception
of the last, been already dealt with. The last is Dan.
vii. 9, Until thrones were set, and one that was ancient
of days did sit. The Gemara asks what is the ex-
planation of this, according to the theory of R.
Johanan (i.e. that the context refutes the heretical
misuse of the text). The refutation is found, hardly
in the context, but so far away as Dan. iv. 17. R.
Johanan, accordingly, understood that the ' thrones,'
which the heretics said were intended for, and im-
plied the existence of, more than one God, were for
the use of the ' family above,' the angels with whom
God was said to take counsel. It is not surprising
that this text caused some perplexity to the Rabbinical
interpreters of Scripture. In addition to the explana-
tion of R. Johanan, the Gemara gives three earlier
interpretations. R. Aqiba said that the thrones were
for God and David; whereupon R. Jose [ha-Galili]
rebuked him for 'making the Shechinah profane,'
in other words, associating a man with God in equality
of dignity. Possibly David stands for ' the Son of
David,' i.e. the Messiah ; and Aqiba may have been
thinking of Ps. ex. i., T/ie Lord said unto my lord,
sit thou at my right hand. R. Jose* felt the danger of
such an explanation, in admitting the possibility of
other divine beings associated with God. His own
explanation, a very forced one, was that both thrones
(assuming them to have been only two)were for the
use of God. He sat on one to dispense justice, on
the other to do righteousness, or rather to show mercy.

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 297

R. Aqiba, according to one tradition, adopted this
explanation. Another contemporary, R. El'azar ben
Azariah, rebuked him as R. Jose' had done (probably
on the same occasion), and in his turn suggested the
explanation that one throne was for God to sit on,
the other to serve as a footstool. This, again, was a
forced interpretation, evidently intended ,to guard
against the danger involved in that of R. Aqiba. It
is remarkable that R. Aqiba, who was sufficiently
alive to all danger of heresy, should not have detected
the fault in his own interpretation of the text. The
rebuke that he knew nothing of Haggadah, but only
of Halachah, was unduly severe ; though it is no
doubt true that he was greater in the latter depart-
ment than in the former. The reference to ' wounds '
and ' tents ' denotes the halachahs concerning injuries
and ceremonial uncleanness. R. Aqiba, as a master
of Halachah, was virtually one of the founders of
the Mishnah. His work, in beginning the codification
of the halachahs, was made use of by R. Jehudah ha-
Qadosh, to whom the completion of the Mishnah is due.

77. The Unity of God. An Offering
to JHVH

(112) Siphri, § 143 p. 54a. — Shim'on ben Azai says,
Come and see : In all the offerings [mentioned]
in the Torah, it is not said, in connexion
with them, either ' God ' or ' thy God ' or
1 Almighty ' or ' of Hosts,' but ■ JH,' a singular
[not plural] name. So as not to give to the
Minim an occasion to humble us.

(113) b. Menah. 110*.— Tradition : R. Shim'on

298 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

ben Azai said, Come and see what is written
in the chapter on offerings, viz., that it is not
said, in connexion with them, either God [El] or
'God' [Elohim], but JHVH, so as not to give
to the adversary an occasion to distinguish.
(114) Siphra. 4C. — The same, in substance, as (112),
but ascribed to R. Jose [ben Halaphta], instead
of to Shimon ben Azai.

The saying is also found in Jalqut Shim'oni,
§ 604.
Commentary. — Shim'on ben Azai was a younger
contemporary of R. Aqiba, in the early years of the
second century. The point of his remark, in the
above passages, is that all offerings prescribed in the
Torah are mentioned in connexion with the individual
name of God, i.e. JHVH, and not with the generic
names for God, which are mostly plural in form.
The older texts, Siphri and Siphra, have * Minim,' as
the opponent against whom Ben Azai directed his
remark. The Gemara in b. Menahoth reads merely
' the adversary,' and it is remarkable that Rabbinowicz
gives no variant in support of the reading ' Minim.'
There can, however, be no doubt that 'Minim' is
the original reading, whatever may be the explana-
tion of the alteration in the Gemara. Bacher (A. d.
Tann., i. 422) says that the Minim here are the
Gnostics. This may be so, but I venture to sub-
mit that Bacher does not quite accurately represent
the argument of Ben Azai. Bacher regards the
names ■ God,' ■ Almighty,' ' Hosts,' as being intended
to refer to the divine power, whereas the name
JHVH refers to the divine goodness. The Gnostics
held that the laws concerning offerings were given

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 299

by the Demiurgos, who was powerful but not good.
But if this had been the argument of Ben Azai, the
Gnostics would have met it by denying that the
name JHVH implied the divine goodness. The
point is, that the name JHVH is an individual
name, which could not possibly be applied to more
than one divine being ; whereas the other names
might be, and were, so interpreted. Siphri ex-
pressly says, that the name JHVH is an individual
name. And that the Gemara evidently took the
same view, is shown in the concluding words of
(113), "so as not to give the adversary an occasion
to distinguish" i.e. to distinguish between a plurality
of divine persons. The argument is directed merely
against the doctrine of Two Powers, already familiar
from previous discussions. The term Minim, as used
here, might certainly include the Gnostics ; but there
is nothing to prove that the Minim, in this passage,
are in any way different from the Minim who have
been already considered.

In Echa. r. on i. 1, p. 10a, is a Haggadic inter-
pretation by Ben Azai, founded on the word Echa
(.-d>k) (115) : " Israel did not go into exile until they
had denied the one only [God], the practice of
circumcision, the ten commandments and the five
books of Torah." The Minim are not mentioned
here, but are probably intended. With the form
of the expression, cp. the saying of R. Johanan
quoted above, p. 181 fol.

The Unity of God. Two Powers

(116) Siphri, § 329, p. 189b.— [Deut. xxxii. 39],
See now, that I, even I, am He. This is the

300 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

answer to them that say there is no power in
heaven. He that says there are two powers in
heaven, they answer him, and say unto him
[Deut., ibid,], And there is no God with vie.
And, lest [one should say], He cannot make
alive or kill, or do evil or do good, learn to
say [Deut., ibid,], I kill and I make alive.
And Scripture says [Isaiah xliv. 6], Thus saith
the Lord, the King of Israel and his redeemer,
the Lord of Hosts, ' I am the first and I am
the last, and beside me there is no God"
(117) Mechilta, p. 66b.— Scripture says [Dan. vii. 9],
J beheld, until thrones were set, and it says
[ib. 10], A fiery stream issued and came forth

from before him. So as not to give to the
peoples of the world an opportunity to say,
' These are two powers.' But / am the Lord
your God. I am [God] on the sea and on
the dry land, in the past and in the future,
in this world and in the world to come. As
it is said [Deut. xxxii. 39], See, now, that I,
even I, am He; [Isa. xlvi. 4], Even to old
age I am He; [ib. xliv. 6], Thus saith the
Lord, the King of Israel and his redeemer,
the Lord of Hosts, ' / am the first and I am
the last.' And it says [ib. xli. 4], Who hath
wrought and done it, calling the generations

from the beginning? I, the Lord, the first,
etc. R. Nathan says, Hence is an answer to
the Minim who say, 'There are two powers.'
For when the Holy One, Blessed be He, stood
up and said, < I am the Lord thy God,' who
stood up and protested ?

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 301

Commentary, — For the general question of the
doctrine of Two Powers in Heaven, see above,
p. 262. These two passages belong to the stratum
of tradition contemporary with the Mishnah. The
Minim are not mentioned in (116), but are clearly in-
tended, as is shown by (117). In (117) 'the peoples
of the world* may be an error for 'the Minim,'
caused by the fact that in the same context there
are several polemical allusions to 'the peoples
of the world/ where the ordinary Gentiles are
intended.

R. Nathan was a Babylonian, settled in Palestine,
contemporary with R. Jehudah ha-Qadosh.

In Mechilta, Beshallach, § 4 p. 37b, there is another
allusion to the doctrine of two powers, based on the
text [Dan. vii. 9] about the thrones. The doctrine
is ascribed to the ' peoples of the world,' not to ' the
Minim.'

The Unity of God. "He who will Err,
let him Err "

(118) Ber. r. viii. p. 22d.— R Shemuel bar Nahman,
in the name of R. Jonathan, said, When
Moses was writing the Torah, he wrote the
deeds of each day [of creation]. When he
came to this verse, as it is written [Gen. i. 26],
And God said, let us make man in our image,
according to our likeness, he said, ' Lord of the
world, how thou art giving a chance to the
Minim ! I am astonished ! ' He said to him,
' Write ; and he who will err, let him err ! '
Commentary. — R. Jonathan has already been
mentioned several times in connexion with Minim ;

802 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

(see above, p. 216) R. Shemuel bar Nahman was
one of his disciples.

The grim humour of the reply to Moses is some-
what spoiled by a feeble explanation added on to it.
The explanation is the same as that given by R.
Johanan (see above, p. 296), that God took counsel
with 'the family above,' i.e. the angels. In the
present passage, the explanation is contained in a
second speech, beginning, " And the Holy One,
Blessed be He, said to Moses," etc. I have ven-
tured to regard this merely as a gloss, and to leave
R. Jonathan's daring invention untouched. It is by
far the best retort which the Rabbis made to the
Minim on this text.

The Unity of God. God has no Son

(119) j. Shabb. 8d.— [Dan. iii. 25], Like a son of
God. Reuben said, In that hour, an angel
descended and struck that wicked one [i.e.
Nebuchadnezzar] upon his mouth, and said to
him, Amend thy words : Hath He [i.e. God]
a son? He turned and said [v. 28], Blessed
be the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-
nego, who — it is not written, hath sent his son,
but — hath sent his angel, and hath delivered his
servants who trusted in him.
Commentary. — This is part of a haggadic inter-
pretation of the story, in Dan. iii., of the three
men cast into the furnace. The fact that, in v. 25,
Nebuchadnezzar uses the phrase ' son of God J while
in v. 28 he speaks of a • messenger,' not of a * son,' of
God, is ingeniously turned to account as an argument

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 303

against the Christian doctrine. There can be no
question that the polemic here is anti- Christian. Of
Reuben, the author of this haggadah, nothing is cer-
tainly known. Probably he is the same as Reuben
ben Aristobulos, who belonged to the generation after
the war of Bar Cocheba, and of whom one or two
sayings are recorded.

The Minim are not alluded to in this passage.

With this reference to Christian doctrine may be
connected another, equally unmistakable, upon the
same subject.

The Unity of God. God has no Son

(120) Shem. r. xxix. 5, p. 51b. — Another explanation

[Exod. xx. 2], / am tJw Lord thy God. R.

Abahu said, A parable of a king of flesh and

blood ; he reigns, and he has a father or a

brother. The holy one, blessed be He, saith,

I am not so [Isa. xliv. 6], / am the first, I

have no father ; and I am the last, I have no

son, and beside me there is no God, 1 have no

brother.

Commentary. — For other anti-Christian sayings of

R. Abahu, see above, p. 266 fol. The Minim are not

mentioned. There can be no question that the

Christian doctrine is here attacked ; and it is worth

noticing that the text made use of by R. Abahu [Isa.

xliv. 6] is one which we have met with already as

an argument against the Minim (see above, p. 300).

This goes to strengthen the contention that the

Minim are — or include — Jewish Christians. But

hitherto, as will have been observed, in the passages

304 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

where the doctrine of the two powers is ascribed to
the Minim, there has been no decisive proof that
Christians were referred to. The following passage
appears to supply that proof.

The Unity of God. The Son of
the Harlot

(121) Pesiq. r. xxi. p. 100b. — R. Hija bar Abba

said, If the son of the harlot shall say to

thee, ' These are two Gods,' say unto him, ' I

am He of the Sea ; I am He of Sinai,' ....

[another explanation], R. Hija bar Abba

said, If the son of the harlot shall say to

thee, 'These are two Gods,' say unto him

[Deut. v. 4], Face to face the Lord spake

[sing, not plural] with you.

Commentary. — This is part of a haggadah on the

Ten Commandments, and more particularly on the

words, ' I am the Lord thy God.' In the course of

the discussion many texts are introduced which we

have already met with in connexion with the doctrine

of Two Powers. R. Hija's remark was occasioned

by the quotation of [Dan. vii. 9], Until thrones were

set, a text which gave a good deal of trouble to

the Rabbinical interpreters (see above, p. 296 fol.).

Those who deduced from this text the doctrine of

Two Powers were the Minim. In the present

passage the doctrine of two Gods 1 is ascribed to the

1 son of the Harlot.' This phrase can refer to none

1 The terms ( Two Powers ' and ' Two Gods ' are interchangeable, though
the former is the more usual. The Minim, who are credited with holding
the doctrine of ' Two Powers,' asked R. Simlai, c How many Gods created
the world V (see above, p. 255).

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 305

other than Jesus, the story of whose birth was thus
coarsely represented in the Rabbinical tradition (see
above, p. 41 fol.). Hence the inference that the
Minim included Christians, though it does not follow
that all Minim were Christians. Friedmann, in the
edition of Pesiqta, from which I quote the above
passage, has a suggestive note (p. 101a), " Son of the
harlot: this is to be interpreted 'son of Minuth.'
'Min' is rendered in the targum 'zan,' see Aruch.
s.v. jt. And perhaps the reference here is to what is
suggested in Midrash Tillim on Psalm xxii. 1, 'My
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ' ; i.e. the
God of the Red Sea, and the God of Sinai. The
Midrash, perhaps, had in view him who prayed, ' My
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me. ' " ' Minuth, '
according to this view, is closely akin to 'zanuth'
(fornication), even etymologically. If this is correct,
it throws light on the real significance of the term
'Min,' and shows that the fundamental idea of heresy
in the Rabbinical theology is the same as in that of
the prophets, viz., spiritual unfaithfulness symbolised
as conjugal unfaithfulness. This subject will be more
fully dealt with in the concluding section of this work.

The Midrash in Ps. xxii. 1 appears to explain the
double use of 'my God' by the twofold revelation
of God to his people, first at the Red Sea, second on
Sinai. The Psalmist accordingly is not appealing to
two Gods, but to one and the same. Friedmann
adds, that the Midrash probably had in mind the
utterance of Jesus on the Cross [Matt, xxvii. 46],
which is a quotation of Ps. xxii. 1 in the Aramaic,
not in the Hebrew.

There can be no doubt that in the passage before
us, the reference is to Jesus ; and this, in connexion

306 ■ CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

with passages previously considered, establishes the
close association of Minuth with Christianity.

R. Hija bar Abba was a Babylonian settled in
Palestine; he belonged to the group of disciples of
R. Johanan, and may thus be placed in the latter half
of the third century and the beginning of the fourth.

The Unity of God. Two Powers:
A Second God.

(122) Debar, r. ii. 33, p. 104c.— [Prov. xxiv. 21], ;
Meddle not with them that are given to change.
Meddle not with those who say there is a
second God. R. Jehudah bar Simon said
[Zech. xiii. 8], And it shall come to pass that
in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein
shall be cut off and die. The mouths that
say, There are two powers, shall be cut off;
and die. And who will remain in existence ?
[Zech., ibid.\ And the third part therein shall
be left, these are Israel, who are called thirds,
for they are threefold, Priests, Levites, Israel-
ites, from three fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob. Another explanation, because they
praise the Holy One, Blessed be He, with
three ' holies ' — holy, holy, holy. R. Aha said,
The Holy One, Blessed be He, was angry with
Solomon, because he had said this verse [Prov.
xxiv. 21]. He said to him, ' In the matter of
hallowing my name, thou hast spoken in terms
of " Notariqon," * Meddle not with them that are

1 * Notariqon,' a species of cipher, or cryptogram, usually formed by
reading the initials of several words as one word. In the present instance
nothing more seems intended than a play upon the words DOE?, two, and
DOIC, ' given to change.'

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 307

given to change.' Immediately he [Solomon]
turned and made the matter plain [by saying,
Ecc. iv. 8], There is one and there is no
second; he hath neither son nor brother. He
hath neither brother nor son, but [Deut. vi. 4],
Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord
is one.

The above passage occurs, almost in the
same words, in Bamm. r. xvi. 14, p. 66c.
Commentary. — It is only needful to point out that
here the doctrine of Two Powers is usefully para-
phrased as the doctrine of a second God. This con-
firms what has been said in explanation of the doctrine
under previous heads. The Minim are not mentioned,
but are clearly intended.

R. Jehudah bar Simun was a Palestinian, of the
fourth century. If the interpretation of the text in
Zechariah may be taken literally, it would show that
the Minim as compared with the Jews were in a
majority. But it is more probable that the 'two
parts ' (lit. the ' two mouths ') are only used to serve
as the basis for the interpretation " the mouths which
say there are two Gods." In like manner the word
translated ' given to change ' (nvw) is connected with
the word meaning ' second ' (ws>).

In Pesiqta r., p. 98a, there is a passing reference
to the doctrine of Two Powers. Moses charges
the angels with holding that doctrine, and refutes
them with the text, / am the Lord thy God
[Exod. xx. 2}

308 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

The Torah. The ' Carping ' of the Minim

(123) j. Ber. 3C. — And they recited the 'Ten
Words,' 'Hear [O Israel],' 'And it shall be
if them hearest; ' And he said: R. Ami in the
name of Resh Laqish [said], ' This shows that
the benedictions do not hinder.' R. Ba said,
'That proves nothing; we do not learn any-
thing thence. For the " Ten Words," these
are the very essence of the Shema'.' R.
Mathnah and R. Shemuel bar Nahman both
said, ' It was sought that they should recite
the " Ten Words " every day. And why do
they not recite them? Because of the mis-
representation of the Minim, that they might
not say, "These alone were given to Moses
on Sinai."'

(124) b. Ber. 12a.— And they recite the 'Ten
Words,' ' Hear [O Israel]: ' And it shall be if
thou Iwarest; ' And he said: 'True and stead-
fast,' ' Service,' and the ' Blessing of the Priests.'
R. Jehudah said that Shemuel said, ' Even in
the surrounding districts [of Jerusalem] they
sought to recite thus; but they had already
discontinued it because of the carping of the
Minim.' For it is tradition also, R. Nathan
said, ' In the surrounding districts they sought
to recite thus, but they had already discon-
tinued it because of the carping of the Minim.'
Rabah bar Rab Huna thought to establish it
in Sura; but R. Hisda said to him, 'They
have already discontinued it, because of the
carping of the Minim.' Amemar thought to

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 309

establish it in Nehardea ; but R. Ashi said
to him, 'They have already discontinued it,
because of the carping of the Minim. '
(125) b. Pesah. 56\ — Our Rabbis have taught,
How did they connect [the words of] the
Shema'? They said, ' Hear, O Israel, the
Lord our God the Lord is one,' and they did
not divide [the words] : the words of R. Meir.
R. Jehudah said, They did divide (them), but
not so as to say, ' Blessed be the name of the
glory of his kingdom for ever and ever.' And
we, on what ground do we say it ? [i.e. Blessed
be the name, etc.]. According to the exposi-
tion of R. Shim'on ben Laqish. For R.
Shim'on ben Laqish said [Gen. xlix. 1], And
Jacob called together his sons, and said. Gather
yourselves together and I will declare ; Jacob
sought to reveal to his sons the end of the
days, but the Shechinah departed from him.
He said, • Perhaps, Heaven forbid, there has
been a defect in my marriage-bed, as there was
to Abraham, from whom proceeded Ishmael,
and to Isaac my father, from whom proceeded
Esau.' His sons said to him [Deut. vi. 4],
Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God the Lord
is one. They said, ' Even as in thy heart there
is but One, so in our heart there is but One.'
In that hour Jacob our father began to say,
'Blessed be the name of the glory of his
kingdom for ever and ever.' Our Rabbis said,
' How shall we act ? If we say it [i.e. Blessed,
etc.], Moses our master did not say it. If we
do not say it, Jacob did say it.' They ordered

310 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

that men should say it in a whisper. R.

Jitzhaq said (some say that one of the school

of R. Ami said), A parable of a king's daughter

who smelt spices [and desired them]. If she

said so, she would be disgraced ; if she did

not say so, she would suffer. Her servants

began to bring them to her silently. R. Abahu

said, They ordered that men should say it in a

loud voice because of the carping of the Minim ;

but in Nehardea, where there are no Minim,

they even now say it in a whisper.'

Commentary. — The three passages translated above

are connected together by their subject-matter, the

main point in them all being some peculiarity in the

recital of the daily prayers, which was said to be due

to the 'carping' of the Minim. In (123) and (124)

it is explained that this was the reason why the

Decalogue was not recited every day. In (125) an

explanation is attempted of the origin and varying

method of recital of the liturgical response, " Blessed

be the name of the glory of his kingdom for ever and

ever." The Shema', which is mentioned in all three

passages, is the central point of the liturgy, and

consists of three groups of verses from Scripture, viz.,

Deut. vi. 4-9, ib. xi. 13-21, and Num. xv. 37-41.

The term Shema' is used in a stricter sense, to denote

the opening words of the first of these groups, i.e. the

words, Hear [Shema', vow], O Israel, the Lord thy

God, the Lord is one. The second group is referred

to, from its opening words, as, 'And it shall be ,' and

the third, in like manner, as, 'And he said.' In the

liturgy, the response, 'Blessed be the name,' etc.,

comes immediately after 'Hear, O Israel,' etc., and

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 311

is thus seen to be an interpolation into the Scripture
text. The Decalogue was intended to be recited
immediately before the Shema'.1

It is clear, from the contents of the above passages,
that nothing was certainly known concerning the
omission of the Decalogue, or the addition of the
response, except the fact that both were due to the
\ carping of the Minim.' In other words, both gave
to the Minim the opportunity to misrepresent the
Jewish religion and to advance their own heretical
opinions. If the Decalogue were repeated every day,
it was thought that the Minim would say that only
the Ten Commandments [Hebr., the Ten Words]
were given to Moses, and that all the rest was un-
inspired. Of more importance is the addition of the
response, " Blessed be the name," etc. This follows
immediately after "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our
God, the Lord is one" This text is the watchword of
the Divine Unity ; and it was in connexion with this
that the misrepresentation of the Minim was most to
be expected. In (125) it is said by one Rabbi that
in the recital of this text the words were divided by
a pause, so that presumably the meaning would be,
"The Lord is our God; the Lord is one." By
another Rabbi it is said that the words were not
divided by a pause, and that the response was not
added. In this case the text would read, " The Lord
our God the Lord, is one " ; and perhaps this form

1 In the Jewish Quarterly Reviewy April 1903, p. 392 ff., there is a very
interesting account of a papyrus fragment in Hebrew, containing the Deca-
logue immediately followed by the Shema\ The fragment appears to date
from the first century of our era, and the text shows slight divergencies
from the Massoretic text The papyrus is now in the Cambridge University
Library.

312 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

would lend itself to heretical misrepresentation, by
those who denied the Divine Unity, more than the
first form. However this may be, the addition of the
response after the word ' one ' would be much more
likely to lead to misrepresentation, especially if, as is
stated in (125), it was originally said in a whisper.
The effect would be that, in the recital of the liturgy,
after the declaration of the Divine Unity followed a
pause during which something was whispered. The
reason why it was whispered at first is no doubt
truly indicated in the fantastic haggadah of (125),
viz., that it was an extra-biblical interpolation into a
Scripture text. But it appears that this practice of
whispering the response was misrepresented by the
Minim ; and consequently it was ordered that the
response should be said aloud, so that there might be
no uncertainty as to the words really used. Apart
from that reason, the older method of whispering the
response was preferred ; and accordingly, in places
where there were no Minim, the practice was kept
up. This is expressly stated by R. Abahu, who
explains why it was ordered that the response should
— where there were Minim — be said in a loud voice.

The attempts described in (124) of several Rabbis
to introduce in Babylonia some practice already dis-
continued owing to the Minim, refer, I think, to the
recital of the Decalogue before the Shema', and not
to the response after it.

It remains to inquire into the date at which the
order was made in regard to the recital of the
response in a loud voice. With this object in view,
1 include here another passage, in which mention is
made of ordinances directed against the Minim.

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 313

(126) M. Ber. ix. 5. — All who concluded benedic-
tions in the sanctuary used to say 'from the
world ' [i.e. from of old]. After the Minim
corrupted [religion] and said that there was
only one world, they ordered that they should
say * from world to world ' [i.e. ' from age to
age,' ' for ever and ever ']. And they ordered
that a man should greet his companion with
the Name, as it is said [Ruth ii. 4], And,
behold, JSoaz went, etc.
This passage is from the Mishnah, and thus older
than the three previous ones. Although the Minim
are here mentioned, it is doubtful whether they are
really intended. The mention of the change in the
liturgy, by the substitution of the fuller doxology
' from world to world,' may be nothing more than an
inference from Neh. ix. 5, and the reason for it a
recollection of the Sadducees. It is true that the
Minim are said to have denied the doctrine of
Immortality ; but, as has been already shown (see
above, p. 232 fol.), what they really denied was
the Scripture proof of the doctrine. Moreover, the
liturgical alteration referred to in (126) seems a rather
feeble counterblast against a denial of Immortality.

Gratz (G. d. J., iv. 458) suggests the revolt of
Bar Cocheba, 135 a.d., as the date when the two
ordinances referred to in (126) were made. This is
possible, and perhaps not improbable ; but I cannot
find any sufficient evidence for the suggestion. It is
remarkable that the Mishnah passes over in silence
the famous change in the liturgy made by Gamliel II.
at Jabneh, when the ■ formula concerning the Minim '
was drawn up (see above, p. 125 fol.), and incorpor-

314 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

ated in the Eighteen Benedictions. If the ordinance
about greeting with the Name, i.e. the sacred name
JHVH, had any reference to the Minim, it is at
least possible that it was made at the same time as
the formula against the Minim. Liturgical precau-
tions against Minuth seem to imply a time when
Minim might be expected to be present in the syna-
gogues where the liturgy was recited. Thus the
regulations referred to in (123), (124), and (125), the
origin of which was clearly unknown to those who
recorded them, may, with some probability, be referred
to the same period. But certainty on the point is
unattainable ; and it should be noted that in regard
to (125), R. Hananel, in his commentary on the
passage, appears to have read in his text of Pesahim
that the ordinance was made in Usha. If this rests
on anything historical, then the date would be that
of the famous assembly at Usha, held after the
suppression of the revolt of Bar Cocheba, say about
140 a.d. But in the references to the decrees of that
assembly, no mention is made of liturgical changes,
or of the Minim. The attention of the assembly
seems to have been mainly given to questions affect-
ing property and family life, in view of the disorders
resulting from the war and the subsequent persecution
by the Romans. No manuscript authority is quoted
by Rabbinowicz in favour of the reading which men-
tions Usha. On the whole, while disclaiming any
certainty, I think it is probable that the liturgical
changes referred to in the passages under considera-
tion were made by the assembly at Jabneh, in the
time of Gamliel II., say about the end of the first
century.

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 315

For some other liturgical peculiarities deemed
heretical, see above, p. 199 fol.

Immortality

(127) Shem. r. xliv. 6, p. 73c, d.— Another explana-
tion [Exod. xxxii. 13]: Remember Abraham
[Isaac and Israel]. Why does he mention
the three Fathers? R. Levi said, 'Moses
said, Lord of the world, are the dead living ?
He said to him, Moses, thou art become a
Min,' etc.

Commentary. — This passage is of interest only as
showing that to deny the Scripture warrant for im-
mortality is a sign of Minuth. For the attitude of
the Minim to the doctrine of Immortality, see above,
pp. 232, 280. The rest of the passage quoted has
nothing to do with Minuth. R. Levi was a younger
contemporary of R. Johanan.

SECTION IV. MISCELLANEOUS PASSAGES
REFERRING TO MINIM, MINUTH

The Ground of Departure of the Minim

(128) T. Meg. iv. 37.— Hence R. Shim'on ben
EFazar used to say, One man alone is not
competent to reply to a corrupting speech;
for the Minim take their ground of departure
from the answer that Aaron gave to Moses.

Commentary. — The reference is to Exod. xxxii
22-24, in which Aaron excuses himself to Moses
for having made the golden calf. The Erfurt MS.
of Tosephta reads, ' The answer which Moses gave to

316 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

Aaron,' which is obviously an error. The 'ground
of departure' of the Minim would seem to be the
rejection of the authority of Moses implied in the
act of making the calf. R. Shim'on ben El'azar was
a disciple of R. Meir, in the second half of the second
century. There is nothing to identify the Minim
with Christians in this passage; what is said would
apply to all Jewish heretics.

In (129) b. Meg. 25b there is a somewhat differ-
ent version of the above passage. R. Shim'on ben
El'azar says, 'Let a man always be careful in his
answers ; for from the answer which Aaron gave to
Moses, the Minim [so ace. to the MSS.] have gone
astray ; for it is said [Exod. xxxii. 24], I cast it in the
fire, and there came out this calf.* The commentators
explain this to mean that the Minim inferred from
the answer of Aaron that there was some truth in
so-called false religion.

Do not give Place to the Minim

(130) T. Par. iii. 3. — They said, in the presence of

R. Aqiba, in the name of R. Ishma'el, Cups of

stone were hung on the horns of the oxen ;

when the oxen stooped to drink, the cups

were filled. He said to them, 'Do not give

occasion to the Minim to humble you.'

Commentary. — The phrase, ' Do not give occasion

to the Minim to humble you,' occurs also in the

following passages : (i) M. Par. iii. 3, where the

speaker is R. Jose, and the printed text has D>pm' in

place of p>» ; (ii) T. Joma iii. 2, where the speaker

is R. Aqiba. The subject-matter in every case is

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 317

different. The Mishnah in Joma does not contain
the phrase ; but in the Babylonian Gemara, Joma
40b, it is quoted in a Baraitha apparently from the
Tosephta. Here the printed text has D*pm in place
of p*o ; but the latter is the reading of the MSS.
and of the early editions, as shown by Rabbinowicz.

The literal meaning of the phrase is clear; but
the application of it is very difficult to understand.
In every instance where it occurs, the matter under
discussion is a minute detail of ritual, connected with
either the killing of the red heifer [Num. xix. 1-13]
or the casting of lots for the scape-goat [Lev. xvi. 8
fol.]. In the time of R. Aqiba (or R. Jos£, i.e.
probably R. Jose' ben Halaphta) the ritual in question
was no longer practised, having ceased to be possible
when the Temple was destroyed. The discussion
upon them was therefore purely academic. Accord-
ingly the difficulty arises, What reason was there to
fear the Minim? From all that we have learnt
hitherto, it does not appear that the Minim took part
or interest in the discussions upon halachah in the
Rabbinical assemblies. The frequent controversies
between Minim and Jewish Rabbis turned chiefly
upon the interpretation of texts of Scripture, and
were concerned with doctrine rather than with ritual.
If the ceremonies referred to had been actually per-
formed in the time of R. Aqiba, it would be more
easy to understand that the Minim might have found
occasion to criticise, and in some way to 'humble/
the Jews. But the ceremonies had long been dis-
used, together with all else that depended upon the
existence of the Temple.

Since, then, the discussion related to the manner

318 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

in which these ceremonies had once been performed,
or ought to have been performed, we may interpret
the phrase about the Minim as a suggestion that the
opinions of those to whom R. Aqiba (or R. Jose)
addressed the remark were heretical, or at least
would support the contentions of the Minim. I can
offer no better explanation than this, and am aware
that it is not complete. I cannot show in what way
the opinions put forward tended to favour heresy.
The commentators on the passage in b. Joma 40b,
where the discussion refers to the scape-goat, explain
that the Minim will say that Azazel, for whom the
scape-goat was intended, was a second God, and
thus will taunt the Jews with admitting the doctrine
of Two Powers. But that criticism on the part of
the Minim, if it were made at all, would be applic-
able to the original text in Lev. xvi., not merely to
one small detail of the ritual connected with the
scape-goat. And as for the reference to the 'cups
of stone ' hung on the horns of the oxen, it is hard
to see what this has to do with Minuth, or why the
Minim should object to it more than to the whole
series of ceremonies of which it was a small part.
If it were alleged that the Minim did object to, or
rather deny the validity of, the whole procedure in
reference to the red heifer and to the scape-goat,
then it might be pointed out that these two are
mentioned in the Epistle to the Hebrews, a writing
with which we have seen reason to believe the Minim
were familiar. It is, of course, possible that such a
reference underlies the phrase we are considering,
but in itself it is quite too slight and vague to serve
as the foundation for any such conclusion.

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 319

An alternative explanation is that the reference
is not to the Minim but to the Sadducees. This is
supported by the printed text of the Mishnah, and
by the fact that in two other passages of b. Joma, 19b
and 53b, the Sadducees are undoubtedly referred to
in a discussion upon certain matters of ritual. It
is true that the Sadducees passed out of history
along with the Temple, at least it is probable they
did so. But there might, and indeed did, remain
the tradition of Sadducean practice and theory ; and
the phrase under consideration would, in this case,
mean that the opinions against which Aqiba pro-
tested were, in his judgment, Sadducean. But there
is nothing to establish any connexion between the
opinions put forward and the teaching or practice
of the Sadducees. And if there were, it is a ques-
tion whether it would have been worth while for
R. Aqiba to have referred to a virtually extinct
opponent. The Minim, whoever they were, were
by no means extinct in the time of R. Aqiba ; and
although it be now impossible to explain the precise
force of his remark, there can be little doubt that he
intended it to guard against a danger which he felt
to be real.

A Canon of Minuth.

(131) Ber. r. xlviii. 6, p. 97b, c.— R. Jonathan said,
Everywhere that ■ hypocrisy ' (pibupi) occurs in
a verse, the Scripture speaks of Minuth ; and
the common element in them all is [indicated
by Isa. xxxiii. 14], The sinners in Zion are
afraid ; trembling hath seized the hypocrites.

Commentary. — This is really only an obiter dictum

320 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

founded on the text in Isaiah. It never was applied
as a regular canon of interpretation. It amounts to
little more than the assertion that the essence of
Minuth is ' hypocrisy.' The word so translated has
the root-meaning of * change,' ' substitution,' and
thence 'pretence.' It is most frequently used in
reference to religion, and implies either the pre-
tence of being religious, or the fact of being irre-
ligious ; thus, either ' hypocrisy ' or * godlessness.' R.
Jonathan accordingly declared that Minuth consisted
in hypocrisy, an outward profession of religion, i.e.
the Jewish religion, together with the denial of the
substance of it. The text in Isaiah was intended
as a convenient reminder of the alleged connexion
between hypocrisy and Minuth, but probably R.
Jonathan's remark about Minuth was suggested to
him by the occurrence of the word 'hypocrites,'
when he was expounding the text in Isaiah.
For R. Jonathan, see above, pp. 216, 254.

A Chance for the Minim. "I have hardened
Pharaoh's Heart"

(132) Shem. r. xiii. 3, p. 24b. — Another explana-
tion : For I have hardened his heart [Exod. x.
1]. R. Johanan said, ' Here is an " opening
of the mouth " for the Minim to say, It was
not in his [Pharaoh's] power that he should
repent, as it is said, For I have hardened his
heart.' R. Shimon ben Laqish said to him,
' Let the mouth of the Minim be shut ! But
[Prov. iii. 34], Surely he scorneth the scorners !
For the Holy One, Blessed be He, warns a

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 321

man once, twice, thrice ; and [if] he does not
turn, then He closes his [the man's] heart
against repentance, so as to punish him for
the sin which he committed. Even so [of)
Pharaoh the wicked. When the Holy One,
Blessed be He, had sent to him five times,
and he had not taken heed to His words, then
the Holy One, Blessed be He, said to him,
Thou hast stiffened thy neck, and thou hast
hardened thine heart. Lo, I add to thee un-
cleanness to thy uncleanness.'
Commentary. — R. Johanan and his colleague R.
Shim on ben Laqish have been frequently mentioned.
They lived in Tiberias in the latter half of the
third century. Who are referred to as the Minim
in this passage is not clear. Bacher (A. d. P. A.,
i. 258 n. 1) says that "the Minim here are Gnostics,
who held that the God of the O.T. did not desire
the good," and therefore did not allow Pharaoh to
repent. 1 do not presume to say that this inter-
pretation is incorrect. Yet the argument of R.
Shimon ben Laqish seems to show that the point
in dispute was, not the goodness or otherwise of God,
but the possibility of repentance on the part of
Pharaoh. The Minim are charged by R. Johanan
with saying, ■ It was not in the power of Pharaoh
to repent, because God hardened his heart/ The
rejoinder to that is that Pharaoh could have repented,
and was given five opportunities to repent, and that
only when he had neglected all these did God close
his heart against repentance, so that Pharaoh might
be justly punished for his sins. That many Gnostics

thought that the God of the O.T. did not desire the

322 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

good, is perhaps true. But if the Minim are to be
identified with such Gnostics, then we should expect
that the question of the goodness of God would be
frequently debated between Minim and Jews ; and
this we have not found to be the case.

An alternative interpretation is not impossible.
We have already found reason to connect with the
doctrines of the Minim the teaching of the Epistle to
the Hebrews (see above, pp. 265 fol.). Now, in that
Epistle, vi. 6, there is a remarkable saying about
repentance, It is impossible to renew them to re-
pentance. The writer of the epistle applies this to
those who were once enlightened .... and fell away.
And, of course, such a case as that of Pharaoh does
not come within the range of the principle laid down.
But that would not prevent an opponent from saying
that the Epistle to the Hebrews taught the im-
possibility of repentance. And if, further, such
impossibility was held to be not merely on the part
of man but on the part of God, then R. Johanan
might with justice say that the text which he quoted,
/ have hardened his heart, bore out the doctrine
which he supposed the Minim to hold. R. Shim'on
ben Laqish agreed with him in supposing that the
Minim held such a doctrine ; but he sought to show
that the text quoted did not support it, and that if
a man did not repent, it was his own fault. God
did not prevent him from repenting, but only, after
repeated warning, accepted the fact and inflicted
punishment.

It is worth notice that this very case of Pharaoh
is mentioned in the Epistle to the Romans, ix. 17, 18,
For the Scripture saith unto Pharaoh [cp. Exod. ix.

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 323

16], ' For this very purpose did I raise thee up, that
I might show in thee my power, and that my name
might be publislied abroad in all the earth" So then
he hath mercy on whom he will, and whom lie will he
hardeneth. That the Epistle to the Romans was
known to the Rabbis is extremely doubtful. But it
may have been known to the readers of the Epistle
to the Hebrews ; and if not that, there is at least so
much of connexion of thought between the two
epistles as to make it probable that the idea of the
unconditional sovereignty of God would be accept-
able to the readers of the Epistle to the Hebrews.
On the whole, therefore, while admitting that the
Minim in the present passage may represent Gnostics,
I think it more probable that, as elsewhere, so here
they denote Jewish Christians holding the doctrines
of the Epistle to the Hebrews.

Four Classes of Minim

(133) Jalq. Shim., Ps. lx. 9 (7). — Another ex-
planation [Ps. lx. 9], Gilcad is mine. R.
Shim'on ben Laqish said, ' If the Minim say to
thee that the Holy One, Blessed be He, doth
not revive the dead, say to them, Behold
Elijah, who was of Tishbi in Gilead, testifying
that I have revived the dead by his hand. And
Manasseh is mine. If they say to thee that
the Holy One, Blessed be He, doth not
receive repentance, say to them, Behold
Manasseh, testifying that I received him in
repentance, as it is said [2 Chron. xxxiii. 13],
And he prayed to the Lord; and he was

324 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

intreated of him and heard his prayer.
Ephraim is the defence of my head. And if
they say unto thee that the Holy One, Blessed
be He, doth not visit the barren, Behold
Elkanah of whom it is written [1 Sam. i. 1],
A son of Tohu, a son of Zoph, an Ephraimite,
testifying that I visited Hannah. Judah is my
sceptre. And if they say unto thee that the
Holy One, Blessed be He, doth not deliver
from the fire, Behold Hananiah and his com-
panions testifying that He delivered them
from the fire ; as it is said [Dan. i. 6], Now
among them were of the children of Judah,
Daniel, Hananiah.
Commentary. — The above passage occurs, with no
important variations, in Bamm. r. xiv. 1 ; and in
Tanhuma, Nissa, § 30. The author is undoubtedly
R. Shimon ben Laqish, as Bacher points out.

The text of Ps. lx. 9 is not interpreted, but is
forced by sheer violence to suggest a refutation of
four heretical doctrines, which are ascribed to the
Minim. It is only indeed in connexion with the first
heresy, viz., the denial of the resurrection of the
dead, that the Minim are mentioned ; but they are
clearly intended in all four instances of alleged
heresy. Moreover, the heresy that God does not
receive a penitent is expressly ascribed to the Minim
in the passage translated above (p. 320), where the
refutation is given by R. Shim on ben Laqish. I do
not know of any ground for ascribing, either to
Gnostics or to Jewish Christians, the doctrines that
God does not give children to the barren women,
and that he does not save men from the fire. Who,

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 325

therefore, are meant by the Minim in these two
instances, I am unable to suggest.

Words of the Minim

(134) Siphri, § 48, p. 84a.— R. Shimon ben Menasja
says [Prov. v. 15], Drink waters out of thine
own well, drink the waters of thy creator;
and do not drink foul waters, lest thou be
drawn with the words of the Minim.

Commentary. — R. Shim'on ben Menasja was a
contemporary of R. Jehudah ha-Qadosh, in the
beginning of the third century.

The application of the text in Prov. v. 15 to the
Minim is chiefly of interest because it is found in an
early Midrash. In itself it contains nothing new.
We have already seen that this chapter of Proverbs
was by other Rabbis interpreted in reference to
Minuth (see above, p. 185).

92. "They that hate Me." The Minim

(135) Siphri, § 331, p. 140a.— {Deut. xxxii. 41],
/ will render vengeance to mine adversaries,
these are the Cuthiim [Samaritans] ; as it is
said [Ezra iv. 1], And the adversaries of Judah
and Benjamin heard that the children of the
captivity were building the Temple. And I will
recompense tliem that hate me, these are the
Minim ; and thus He [i.c God, in Scripture]
saith [Ps. cxxxix. 21, 22], Do I not hate them
which liate thee, O Lord ? and am I not grieved
with those that rise up against thee ? I hate

826 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

them with a perfect hatred ; they have become

as enemies to me.

Commentary. — Observe that the Minim are here

distinguished from the Samaritans. In a few

passages the reading varies between Minim and

Cuthiim.

For the application of Ps. cxxxix. 21, 22 to the
Minim, see above, p. 156, where R. Ishmael cites the
same text in reference to the books of the Minim.

A Reply to the Minim. Genealogies

(136) b. B. Bath. r. 91a. — And R. Hanan bar
Rabba said that Rab said, The mother of
Abraham was Amathlai bath Carnebo ; the
mother of Haman was Amathlai bath Orbathi ;
and thy signs are, ' Unclean, unclean,' ' Clean,
clean/ The mother of David was Nizzebath
bath Adael, the mother of Samson was Zelal-
ponith, and his sister Nesiin. To what does
this tend? To an answer to the Minim.
Commentary. — R. Hanan b. Rabba was a son-in-
law of Rab, the disciple of R. Jehudah ha-Qadosh,
who carried to Babylonia the tradition embodied in
the Mishnah. Rab is the sole authority for the
names of personages in the above list. He may
have invented them. Only one, Zelalponith, is found
in the O.T., and that, in a slightly different form,
1 Chr. iv. 3. Whether Rab intended them to serve
as an 'answer to the Minim,' there is nothing to
show. The Gemara does not explain how they
could serve such a purpose. Rashi says, "The
Minim asks us concerning these more than concern-

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 327

ing other women, and we reply that [the names] have
been handed down to us, orally, by the prophets."
Why the Minim, whether Gnostics or Jewish
Christians, should have been curious on the subject,
I do not know. Possibly the reference to 'endless
genealogies,' 1 Tim. i. 3, may have some bearing on
the point.

The Minim and the New Moon

(137) M. R. ha-Sh., ii. 1.— If they do not know
him, they send another with him to vouch for
him. Formerly they used to receive evidence
as to the new moon from anyone. Since the
Minim acted perversely, they ordained that
they should not receive evidence except from
such as were known.
Commentary, — This passage is from the Mishnah,
and its extreme terseness of style requires some expan-
sion. The subject under discussion is the question
of determining the time of new moon, the time upon
which depended the date of the festivals in the suc-
ceeding month. The beginning of the month was
the day on which the new moon was first seen after
conjunction with the sun. Evidence was therefore
taken from those who had seen the new moon. Such
witnesses must of course be trustworthy; therefore
(and here our passage begins), if a witness was un-
known to those appointed to receive evidence, another
man accompanied him, in order to vouch for his
credibility. Formerly anyone might give evidence.
But from the time that the Minim introduced some
mischievous practice, it was ordered that only the

328 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

evidence of such witnesses as were personally known
should be received.

This is an interesting as well as an obscure passage ;
and though both the Gemaras make some reference
to it, they do not give a complete explanation.

In the first place, there is no doubt that the read-
ing ' Minim ' [p*o] is the correct one. It is the read-
ing of the Mishnah, as printed separately, and of the
text of the Mishnah incorporated in the Gemaras.
(See Rabbinowicz on b. R. ha-Sh. 22b.) The verse of
the Mishnah immediately following (R. ha-Sh., ii.
2) mentions the Samaritans [D*n»], as having intro-
duced some corrupt practice. Thus the Mishnah is
aware that the Samaritans are not the same as the
Minim, and therefore the mention of the Minim is
intentional. When we turn to the Tosephta and the
Gemaras, we find a source of confusion in a story
about certain people called Baithusin [^Din^n] who
also introduced corrupt practices. The Tosephta
gives this story [R. ha-Sh., i. 15], and does not say
anything about the Minim. It says, " Formerly they
used to receive evidence from any man. On one
occasion the Baithusin hired two witnesses to come
and deceive the Wise ; because the Baithusin do
not admit that Atzereth [Pentecost] should be on
[any day] except the day after a Sabbath." [There-
fore they sought to influence the calculation upon
which the day of the feast ultimately depended.]

The Palestinian Gemara R. ha-Sh. 57d, in its com-
ments upon the alleged corrupt practices, appears to
depend upon the notice in Tosephta just mentioned.
The Minim are not referred to by name. It is stated
that the ' corrupt practice ' consisted in keeping Pente-

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 329

cost on the day after a Sabbath, and assuming that
that day had been consecrated as the feast day ;
whereas the right day, according to the view of the
Talmudic Rabbis, the fiftieth day from the first
Paschal day, might fall later in the week. After this
explanation has been given there follows the story
about the Baithusin and their false witnesses. It is
possible, therefore, that the explanation about the
fiftieth day being kept on a Sunday does not refer
to the Baithusin, but to the Minim.

In the Babylonian Gemara, R. ha-Sh. 22b, the
printed text has the following: — (138) "Formerly
they used to receive evidence concerning the new
moon from any man. [This is the quotation of the
Mishnah.] Our Rabbis have taught : What corrupt
practice did the ■ Baithusin ' commit ? On one occa-
sion," etc., and then follows the story about the false
witnesses. Now the correct reading in this passage is
not ' Baithusin,' but ' Minim ' (see Rabbinowicz on
R. ha-Sh. 22b). The alteration has no doubt been
made on account of the mention of the Baithusin in
the story which follows. That story, a graphically-
told anecdote, seems to me to have obscured the re-
ference to the Minim, and led to the belief that the
Mishnah, in its charge against the Minim, was really
referring to the Baithusin; accordingly the story is
quoted in explanation. Who the Baithusin were is
not certain, probably the name indicates more than
one religious party at different epochs. The story of
their false witnesses implies Jerusalem for the scene
of it, and, if historical, is thus earlier than a.d. 70.
But the ' corrupt practices ' which had to be guarded
against continued long after that date. In the

330 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

Palestinian Gemara, R. ha-Sh. 57d, it is stated that
R. Nehorai once went to Usha * to corroborate a wit-
ness for the new moon. Thereupon follows immedi-
ately the explanation already given about the day of
Pentecost being kept on a Sunday.

Now, whether the Minim are identical with the
Baithusin or not, it is quite possible that the Minim
may have had their own reasons for holding a similar
view with regard to the proper days of Passover and
Pentecost. If the Minim were Jewish Christians, it is
easy to understand that they would have an interest
in the date of Pentecost, and the corresponding
fiftieth day previous to Pentecost. The Jewish
Christians kept the Jewish feasts, but read into them
a Christian meaning, and connected with Passover
and Pentecost the death of Jesus and the gift of the
Holy Ghost. Jesus was crucified on a Friday, and,
according to the Gospels, rose again on the Sunday
following. The first Christian Pentecost was likewise
on a Sunday. Now, according to the Jewish usage,
the fourteenth day of Nisan, the day of Passover,
might fall upon any day of the week. The Jewish
Christians would naturally prefer that it should fall
on a Friday, so that the fast and feast days should
correspond with those of the original Passion-week
and the subsequent Pentecost. Since it was the
custom, according to the Mishnah, to fix the appear-
ance of the new moon by the evidence of eye-wit-
nesses, and to determine the days of the month
accordingly, Jewish Christians could give evidence as

1 The Sanhedrin, or at least the Nasi and his colleagues, met at Usha
a.d. 130 circa, and again in a.d. 140 circa. Probably the visit of R. Nehorai
took place at the earlier date.

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 331

well as others. And, whether or not they ever
attempted to influence the determination of the days
of the month, their evidence would be open to sus-
picion, because they were known to be biassed in
favour of a particular day of the week for the four-
teenth of Nisan.

If, then, according to the reading of the Mishnah,
the Minim are really referred to in connexion with
the subject of the new moon witnesses, there is some
amount of ground for identifying them with Jewish
Christians. That the Minim in this instance can be
Gnostics is out of the question. The Gnostics did
not pay any regard to the ' set feasts ' of the Jewish
religion, and would not care what might be the day
of the week on which they fell.

The Minim and Alexander the Great

In Vajiqr. r. xiii. 5, p. 19c, it is related that
Alexander the Great showed honour to the High
Priest, Shim'on ha-Tzaddiq, and that the 'Minim'
remonstrated with him for doing so. The story
occurs in Josephus, Antiq., xi. 8, 5, and is repeated in
b. Joma 69d, and Pesiqta d. R. Kahana, Parah, p. 41a.
Neither of the two Hebrew texts mentions the word
1 Minim.' The text in Joma has simply ' they said to
him ' ; the text in Pesiqta has ■ his courtiers said to
him.' The reading 'Minim,' or rather ■ Minai,' in
Vajiqr. r. may be explained as being, at the late date
of the compilation of this Midrash, merely a general
term for enemies of the Jews. It is sufficient to
mention this passage without going to the trouble of
translating it.

332 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

In like manner it will be sufficient to mention,
without comment, some few passages which merely
allude to Minim, but contain nothing of importance
for the study of them. These passages are as
follows : —

Minim, Casual References

(i) b. Ber. 7a, Sanh. 105b, A. Zar. 4b.— R. Jehoshua
ben Levi is annoyed by a Min, who lived
near him. The fact is mentioned on account
of the device which the Rabbi made use of,
unsuccessfully, to draw down a curse upon
his enemy.

(ii) b. Ber. 5V — The Minim say there is only one
world. See above, p. 313 fol. The reading
1 Minim ' is correct, yet it is possible that the
original reference was to the Sadducees.

(iii) lb., 56b. — A Min asks R. Ishmael to interpret
certain dreams. There is no reference to
Minuth.

(iv) lb. 58a. — A Min converses with R. Shesheth.
There is no reference to Minuth. Probably
the Min in this instance was a Persian, and
a fire- worshipper. If so, 'Min' may re-
present ' Mani.'

(v) b. Meg. 23a. — Jacob the Min asks a question
of R. Jehudah. There is no reference to
Minuth. Tosaphoth doubts whether Jacob
was a Min at all.

(vi) b. B. Bathra 25a.— R. Shesheth would not turn
to the east because the Minim teach con-
cerning it. Here, as in No. (iv), Minim

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 333

probably denotes fire-worshippers. It should
be added, however, that Rashi believes the
reference to be to ' the disciples of Jesus.'

(vii) b. Sanh. 37a.--R. Kahana answers the question
of a Min concerning a woman who is ma.
No reference to Minuth.

(viii) M. Jad. iv. 8. — 'A Min of Galilee' said
to the Pharisees, etc., see Geiger, Urschrift,
p. 146 ; Schurer, G. d. J. V., ii. 318. The
Min here is a political rather than a religious
partisan. Probably a follower of Judah of
Galilee is meant. The date of the passage
is uncertain, probably not earlier than the
codification of the Mishnah by Rabbi.
Therefore it cannot be quoted as the earliest
instance of the use of the term Min. The
printed text of the Misnah reads Tzadduqi
in place of Min; but the latter reading is
shown by Schurer to be the right one.

As the printed texts of the Talmud are subject to
the censorship of the press, it is frequently the case
that the word Min (Minim) is struck out and re-
placed by Tzadduqi, Cuthi, Romi, or some other
innocent word. This defect is found in most of the
printed texts since the edition of Basle, 1578. The
comparison of manuscripts, and early editions, as
performed by Rabbinowicz,1 has made it possible to
correct these mischievous errors. A few passages

1 The invaluable work of Rabbinowicz, entitled Diqduqe Sopherim, is
unfortunately incomplete. It extends over perhaps three-fourths of the
Talmud, including the most important of the treatises.

834 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

remain, in which the reading Tzadduqi, or Cuthi, is
the right one. I subjoin a list of references to such
passages as I have met with where this is the case.
There are probably others. My purpose, however,
is not to collect references to the Sadducees, or to
the Samaritans, but to give a list of the references
to the Minim as complete as I can, and also as
free as possible from the intrusion of what does not
belong to it.

In the following passages, the reading Tzadduqi is
correct, and the reference is to the Sadducees.

(A.) Mishnah (collected by Schiirer, op. cit., ii.
317 fol.); Erubh. vi. 2 (uncertain); Mace. i. 6;
Parah. iii. 7; Nidd. iv. 2; Jad. iv. 6, 7, 8. (B.)
Talmud. Joma 19b, 53a ; B. Bathr. 115b; Mace. 5b ;
Nidd. 33b. (C.) Tosephta ; Hagg. iii. 35.

97. JacoB of Chephar Neburaia

A passage has already been quoted (see above,
p. 219) from the Midrash Qoh. r. (on vii. 26,
p. 21d), in which it is stated that "R. Isi of
Csesarea expounded this verse in reference to Minuth :
The good is R. El'azar, the sinner is Jacob of Chephar
Neburaia," etc., after which follows a list of five other
examples of contrasted saints and sinners. There can
be no possible doubt that the intention of R. Isi was
to pronounce Jacob of Ch. N. a Min. It is therefore
desirable to ascertain what may be known about this
Jacob. I have not included him in the list of those
Minim who had polemical discussions with Jews,
because no such controversies are ascribed to him.
Controversies he certainly had, but in the records

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 335

of them he is not called a Min. Moreover, certain
sayings of his are mentioned with approval, and the
Babylonian Gemara does not seem to have any
suspicion of his * Minuth.' I have therefore thought
it best to deal with him in a separate section, and
to put that as an appendix to the main body of
evidence collected on the subject of Minuth.

Jacob of Chephar Neburaia lived in the fourth
century, and is most frequently mentioned in con-
nexion with Tyre and Cassarea. The site of the
village from which he took his name has not been
identified. He 'targumed' Hagg. ii. 19, in the
synagogue Maradta in Caesarea, and his exposition
was approved by the Rabbis (j. Bice. iii. 3. 65*, b.
Sanh. 7% and Midr. Samuel c. 7 (6) *). He expounded
Ps. lxv. 2 at Tyre ; and his exposition is quoted in
j. Ber. 12d. In b. Meg. 18a it is quoted, but is
ascribed to R. Jehudah of Chephar Neburaia. This
is the result of a confusion between Jacob of Ch. N.
and R. Jehudah bar Nahmani, who had been inter-
preter (pnn») of R. Shimon ben Laqish.

Further, Jacob of Ch. N. was involved in con-
troversy with R. Haggai of Tyre upon questions
of halachah. Two instances of this are given, and
appear together in several passages in the Rabbinical
literature. The two halachic decisions which he gave
were, first, that the son of a Gentile woman might be
circumcised on the Sabbath; and second, that the
rules relating to the killing of cattle for food applied
also to fishes. For both these decisions he was called
to account by R. Haggai, who ordered him on each

1 This reference is given by Bacher, A. d. P. A., iii. 710, 3. I have not
the means of verifying it.

336 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

occasion to come and be scourged for having given a
wrong decision. Jacob asked R. Haggai by what
authority he scourged him? The Rabbi quoted
texts to show that Jacob's teaching was wrong, after
which Jacob lay down and submitted to be scourged.
The first of these two incidents is described in j.
Kidd. 64d, j. Jebam. 4a. The two together are found
in Ber. r. vii. 2, Bamm. r. xix. 3, Pesiqta d. R. Kahana,
§ Parah., 35b, 36% Tanhuma, Huqqath, 56\ 57a.

In b. Kethub. 65a a halachic decision by Jacob of
Ch. N. is mentioned and debated, with no hint that
any suspicion attached to him. In j. Shabb. 17b
there is the following : — Jacob of Chephar Neburaia
asked R. Haggai, ' Is then a child that is born in
the twilight circumcised in the twilight ? ' He said
to him, * If thou and I were entering in at one door,
perhaps we might be able to decide the point.' The
meaning of this plainly is, that Jacob was no longer
considered by the Rabbi to be in fellowship and thus
open to conviction on Jewish principles. It is no-
where said that Jacob was excommunicated, but it
seems reasonable to infer that in some way he was
excluded from the community of Israel and regarded
as a heretic. His question to R. Haggai may in-
dicate that he still regarded himself as being a
member of the community.

In the passage already mentioned, Qoh. r. vii. 28,
21d, he is charged with Minuth, in contrast with a
certain El'azar otherwise unknown.

The above passages contain, I believe, all that is
known of Jacob of Chephar Neburaia. They are
too scanty to be of much use, and for that reason I
have not translated them. Scanty as they are, how-

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 337

ever, they prove that Jacob of Ch. N. was a real
person, and that he became a heretic. It is there-
fore needless, and unwarranted, to say, as Friedlander
says (Vorch. jud. Gnosticismus, p. 108), that in the
list of contrasted saints and sinners, Qoh. r. vii. 26,
Jacob of Ch. N. is plainly Jacob of Ch. Sechanja
(see above, p. 221 n.) We may also perhaps infer
that the distinction between Jew and Min was not
regarded, from the side of the Minim, as being a
very sharp one. Here may be compared the very
curious story of R. Saphra and the Minim of Caesarea
(see above, p. 266 fol.). There the Minim, strange as
it seems, actually engaged a Jewish Rabbi to be their
teacher. It is true he did not suit them ; but that
was owing to his defective knowledge of Scripture,
not to the fact of his being a Jew. Is it possible
that Jacob of Ch. N. stood in some similiar relation
towards the Minim, and that less staunch than R.
Saphra, he was perverted by those to whom he
ministered? That he did become a Min is shown
not merely by the passage in Qoh. r., but also by
that in j. Shabb. 17b, where R. Haggai speaks of
himself and Jacob as not entering at the same door.
But it is worthy of note that his apostasy does not
appear to have been known outside of his own
country. He is mentioned in the Babylonian
Gemara, Kethub. 65\ and an opinion given by him
is debated without any reference to his being a Min.
Further, if I am right in supposing that the passage
j. Shabb. 17b refers to a time after he had become a
Min, then it would seem that he still kept up his
interest in halachah. If so, he might be a Jewish

Christian, but scarcely a Gnostic. There is, however,

338 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

nothing to show what was the change which turned
him from a Jew into a Min. He remains a shadowy
figure, tantalising by its vagueness, the ghost of an
ancient heretic.

The Priesthood of Melchizedek

(139) b. Nedar. 32b. — R. Zechariah said, in the
name of R. Ishmael, The Holy one, Blessed be
He, sought to cause the priesthood to go forth
from Shem. For it is said [Gen. xiv. 18], And
he was priest of God Most High, As soon as
he put the blessing of Abraham before the
blessing of God, he caused it to go forth from
Abraham, as it is said [ib. 19], And he blessed
him and said, 'Blessed be Abraham of God
Most High, possessor of heaven and earth, and
blessed be God Most High' Abraham said to
him, ■ Do they put the blessing of the servant
before the blessing of his owner ? ' Immedi-
ately it was given to Abraham, as it is said
[Ps. ex. 1], The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit
thou at my right hand until I make thy enemies
the footstool for thy feet. And further down
it is written [ib. 4], The Lord hath sworn,
and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever
after the order of Melchizedek, according to the
saying of Melchizedek. And this is what is
written [Gen. xiv. 18], And he was priest of
God Most High. He was priest; his seed
were not priests.
Commentary. — The point of the above haggadah
is that the priesthood was taken away from

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 339

Melchizedek and given to Abraham. God, it is
said, had at first intended that the priesthood should
'go forth from Shem,' i.e. should be handed down
along the line of his posterity. Melchizedek is here
identified with Shem, as elsewhere in the Midrash.
The divine purpose, however, was changed, and the
priesthood was caused to descend in the line of
Abraham. Tosaphoth points out that Abraham
himself was one of the descendants of Shem, and
gives the explanation that the priesthood was taken
away from all the other descendants of Shem, and
given to Abraham and his posterity. In any case
it was taken away from Melchizedek. Now Mel-
chizedek was the subject of a great deal of specu-
lation in the early centuries of the common era.
There was a Gnostic sect who called themselves
after his name, regarding him as an incarnation of
the divine power. Also, in the Epistle to the
Hebrews, Melchizedek is represented as a type of
Christ, and the comparison is worked out in detail
[Heb. vii.]. Evidently the intention of R. Ishmael,
in his haggadah, was to destroy the foundation for
this exalted conception of Melchizedek, by showing
that the priesthood was taken away from him. This
R. Ishmael is the same whom we have already met
with several times as an opponent of Minim. It was
he who forbade the attempted cure of his nephew,
Ben Damah, by a Min who was beyond question a
Christian (see above, p. 103 fol.). It was he, also,
who severely condemned the Scriptures of the Minim
(see above, p. 156 fol.). He lived in Palestine at the
end of the first, and well on into the second century.
The depreciation of Melchizedek would serve as

40 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

an argument against both the Gnostic sect and the
Christian readers of the Epistle to the Hebrews ; but
1 see no reason to restrict the reference to the first.
The Melchizedekites do not appear to have been a
very important or very aggressive sect, certainly not
more prominent than the Jewish Christians. It has
been suggested above (p. 265) that the doctrine of
Two Powers in Heaven, ascribed to the Minim, is
the Jewish version of the Christology of the Epistle
to the Hebrews. I take the present passage to be
additional evidence in support of the view that the
teaching of that Epistle was known to the Rabbis,
and that the Minim were, or at least included, Jewish
Christians whose theology was represented in that
Epistle. It should be noticed that R. Ishmael, as
well as the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews,
made use of Ps. ex. 4 in support of his argument. The
Rabbi interpreted the words >n-m by (Eng. version,
After the order of), to mean according to the saying
of Melchizedek. That is, Melchizedek himself, by
what he had said, forfeited the priesthood so that it
passed to Abraham. The citation of Ps. ex. may,
however, be due not to the Rabbi's acquaintance with
the Epistle to the Hebrews, but merely to the fact
that Melchizedek is mentioned in the Psalm. That
his argument does impugn the doctrine of the Epistle
to the Hebrews there can be no question.

This completes the series of passages in which I
have found a reference to Christianity, in the person
of its Founder or of his followers. That the whole
material is exhausted I do not venture to affirm.

REFERENCES TO MINIM AND MINUTH 341

The Rabbinical literature is enormous, and, moreover,
has never been indexed, so that I dare not claim to
have overlooked nothing. Nevertheless, I believe I
have gathered all the important passages, and nearly
all the less important ones. A few I have in-
tentionally left out, which have been thought to
have some polemical reference, but in which I could
find no allusion, however remote, to Christianity.
Also, I have omitted passages where a mere verbal
likeness might be traced to some phrase in the New
Testament. The subject of parallel passages did not
come within the limits which I had marked out for
my work.

It remains now to collect the general results of the
mass of evidence presented in the foregoing pages ;
and to this task I shall devote the concluding section
of this book.

DIVISION II

GENERAL RESULTS

I have called this book by the title of " Christianity
in Talmud and Midrash," and have offered to the
reader a number of passages from the Rabbinical
literature of the first four centuries containing what
I believe to be references to Christianity, either in the
person of its Founder, or of his followers. In doing
so I have been unable to avoid giving provisional
answers to questions which cannot be fully answered
until all the evidence has been presented, and have
thus, to some extent, taken for granted what ought
to be proved. In this concluding section I shall try
to complete my case by a general review of the evi-
dence, and shall show first that Jesus is referred to in
the Rabbinical literature ; and second, that the Minim,
who are so often mentioned, are, or at all events
include, Jewish Christians. Under the first head I
shall, after proving as I hope that the historical Jesus
of Nazareth is referred to, sum up the main heads of
the traditions concerning him, and inquire into their
origin and value. Under the second head I shall in
like manner, after presenting the case for the Chris-
tianity of the Minim, collect the evidence for their

342

GENERAL RESULTS 343

theology, their relation to Judaism, and whatever else
may serve to give clearness and distinctness to the
picture. The problem of the Minim has often been
discussed, for it is one of the riddles of the Talmud.
The solution of that problem attempted here may
claim at least the merit of being based upon a larger
body of evidence than has, so far as I know, ever
been collected before. If the reader is dissatisfied
with that solution, he has now before him the
materials for a better.

CHAPTER I

Jesus in the Talmud and Midrash

Is the historical Jesus of Nazareth mentioned in the
Rabbinical literature ? Or, to state the question
somewhat differently, are the persons variously named
Ben Stada, Ben Pandira, Jeshu', Jeshu ha-Notzri, one
and the same individual, and he, Jesus of Nazareth ?
The answer to this question is clearly given by a
comparison of parallel passages. Thus : —

(a) T. Sanh. x. 11 (see above, p. 79, No. (19)), " And
thus they did to Ben Stada in Lud, .... and they
brought him to the Beth Din and stoned him."

(b) b. Sanh. 67a (see above, p. 79, No. (21)), "And
they bring him to the Beth Din and stone him ; and
thus they did to Ben Stada in Lud, and they hung
him on the eve of Pesah."

(c) b. Sanh. 43a (see above, p. 83, No. (22)), " On
the eve of Pesah they hung Jeshu ha-Notzri." . . .
" Jeshu ha-Notzri goeth forth to be stoned because he
hath practised magic, tpo , and deceived and led astray
Israel."

(d) b. Shabb. 104b (see above, p. 35, No. (1)), "And
did not Ben Stada bring magic spells, d^sdd, from
Egypt?"

344

JESUS IN THE TALMUD AND MIDRASH 345

There can be no reasonable doubt that Ben Stada
is here equivalent to Jeshu ha-Notzri.1 Next, let us
compare Ben Pandira with Jeshu ha-Notzri. We
have

(e) T. Hull ii. 24 (see above, p. 138, No. (45)). R.
Eliezer said, "Once I was walking in the street of
Sepphoris ; I found Jacob of Chephar Sichnin, and he
said a word of Minuth in the name of Jeshu ben
Pantiri."

if) b. A. Zar. 16b, 17a (see above, p. 138, No. (46)).
It. Eliezer said, " Once I was walking in the upper street
of Sepphoris, and I found a man, one of the disciples
of Jeshu ha-Notzri, and Jacob of Chephar Sechanja
was his name," . . . . " and he said to me, Thus hath
Jeshu ha-Notzri taught me."

The name Jeshu ben Pantiri in (e) is, on the same

1 Note that the form Jeshu ben Stada does not occur. Ben Stada is
clearly identified with Jeshu ha-Notzri ; but the possibility remains that
originally they were not identical. R. Eliezer, who mentions Jeshu ben
Pandira, mentions also Ben Stada, with no indication that the two names
denote one person. I venture to suggest, as worth consideration, the hypo-
thesis that Ben Stada originally denoted " that Egyptian " [Acts xxi. 38 :
Josephus Antiqq., xx. 8, 6 ; B. J., ii. 13, 5], who gave himself out as a
prophet, led a crowd of followers to the Mount of Olives, and was routed
there by the Procurator Felix. This man is called a sorcerer ; at least he
promised that the walls of Jerusalem "should fall at his approach. Now R.
Eliezer said of Ben Stada that he brought magical spells from Egypt ; and
the Rabbis, to whom he made this remark, replied that ' Ben Stada was a
fool.' This verdict is more appropriate to the Jewish-Egyptian impostor
than to the much more dangerous Jeshu ha-Notzri. In later times the
two might easily be confused together. If there is anything in this
suggestion, the name Stada, the pronunciation of which is guaranteed by
the explanation 'Stath da,' might have some connexion with avda-raros,
* seditious,' or at least with some cognate form from the root • sta.' It should
be observed that R. Eliezer does not say that Ben Stada was put to death at
Ltid, and that according to Josephus the Egyptian himself escaped. The
execution of Ben Stada at Lud is the result of identifying Ben Stada with
Jeshu ha-Notzri.

346 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

page a few lines higher up, given in the form Jeshua
ben Pandiri. The passages (e) and (f) clearly prove
the identity of Jeshu ben Pandira with Jeshu ha-
Notzri.

For the identification of Ben Stada with Ben
Pandira, which indeed would logically follow from
the passages given above, we have the explicit state-
ment.

b. Shabb. 104b (see above, p. 35, No. (1)), "Ben
Stada is Ben Pandira."

So far as the identification of the names is con-
cerned the case is clear. Do these names denote the
historical Jesus of Nazareth, the Founder of Chris-
tianity ? The following passages supply the answer.

{g) b. Sanh. 107b (see above, p. 51, No. (7)). "Jeshu
ha-Notzri practised magic and deceived and led astray
Israel."

(h) b. Sanh. 43a (see above, p. 84, No. (22)), " It
was different with Jeshu ha-Notzri, for he was near to
the kingdom."

(i) Ibid, (see above, p. 90), " Jeshu [ha-Notzri] had
five disciples."

(j) T. Hull. ii. 22, 23 (see above, p. 103, No. (28)),
" There came in Jacob a man of Chephar Sama to
cure him in the name of Jeshua ben Pandira."

(k) j. A. Zar. 40d, 41a (see above, p. 104, No. (30)).
" He said, We will speak to thee in the name of
Jeshu ben Pandira."

Taking all these passages together, we find that
the person named in them was one who ' deceived
and led astray Israel,' who was tried and executed for
doing so, who had disciples, and in whose name those
disciples performed, or sought to perform, cures of

JESUS IN THE TALMUD AND MIDRASH 347

sick persons. Finally, since the person here named is
called Jeshu ha-Notzri, the conclusion follows that he
was either the historical Jesus of Nazareth, or else
some otherwise totally unknown man of the same
name and dwelling-place. There can be no question
that the first of the two alternatives is the right
one.

This conclusion is arrived at strictly from the evi-
dence as given above, and takes no account of the
a priori probability that a man, so important in Jewish
history as Jesus, would be mentioned in the Talmud.
That probability certainly strengthens the conclusion.
Yet it is remarkable how very little the Talmud does
say about Jesus, although there be no longer any
room for doubt that he is referred to.

The conclusion here arrived at is sufficient to
dispose of the arguments founded on chronological
grounds, which are intended to show that there are
in the Talmud two persons called Jesus, neither of
whom is the historical Jesus of Nazareth. The earlier
of these is the one mentioned in (7) above (p. 52 fol.)
as the disciple, and therefore contemporary, of R.
Jehoshua ben Perahjah, who lived a century before
the Christian era. The second is the Ben Stada who
was put to death at Lud, and who was supposed
to be contemporary with R. Aqiba, a century after
that era began. It is quite possible that the com-
pilers of the Talmud were not aware of the identity
of these two ; it is certain that chronology was not a
science in which the Rabbis excelled, or one in which
they laid stress upon accuracy.

Having now established the fact that the historical
Jesus of Nazareth is referred to in the Talmud and

348 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

Midrash, I proceed to collect the scanty traditions
therein contained, so as to show what was the extent
of the Rabbinical knowledge or belief concerning him,
and what were the probable sources of that knowledge.

Jesus, called ha-Notzri, Ben Stada, or Ben Pandira,
was born out of wedlock (p. 43). His mother was
called Miriam [Mary], and was a dresser of women's
hair (pp. 35, 41). Her husband was Pappus ben
Jehudah (p. 35). Her paramour was Pandira (p. 35).
She is also said to have been descended from princes
and rulers, and to have played the harlot with a
carpenter (p. 48).

Jesus had been in Egypt and brought magic thence
(pp. 35, 51). He was a magician (p. 51), and led
astray and deceived Israel (ibid, and p. 83). He
sinned and caused the multitude to sin (p. 51). He
mocked at the words of the wise (ibid, and p. 68), and
was excommunicated (p. 51). He was tainted with
heresy (p. 57).

[He] 1 called himself God, also the son of man, and
said that he would go up to heaven (p. 62). [He] 1
made himself to live by the name of God (p. 75).

He was tried in Lud as a deceiver and as a teacher
of apostasy (p. 79). Witnesses were concealed so as
to hear his statements, and a lamp was lighted over
him, that his face might be seen. He was brought to
the Beth Din (p. 79).

He was executed in Lud, on the eve of Pesah,
which was also the eve of Sabbath (pp. 79, 88). He
was stoned (p. 79) and hung (p. 80), or crucified (p. 87).
A herald proclaimed that he was to be stoned, and

1 Jesus is not mentioned by name, but is evidently referred to. See the
commentary on the passage.

JESUS IN THE TALMUD AND MIDRASH

invited evidence in his favour; but none was given
(p. 83).

He [under the name of Balaam] was put to death
by Pinhas the robber [Pontius Pilatus] (p. 72), and at
the time of his death was thirty-three years old (ibid.).

He was punished in Gehinnom, by means of boil-
ing filth (p. 68).

He was a revolutionary (p. 83). He was near to
the kingdom (p. 84).

He had five disciples (p. 90).

Under the name of Balaam he is excluded from the
world to come (p. 65 fol.).

In the foregoing paragraphs we have, I believe,
all that refers to Jesus in the Rabbinical literature of
the first four centuries. The reasons for asserting the
fact of this reference will be found in the commentary
on the several passages.

It is remarkable that no mention is made of the
alleged Messiahship of Jesus, even as a reason for
putting him to death.

What are the sources of this tradition concerning
Jesus ? And, especially, do they imply a knowledge
of the contents of a Gospel or Gospels ? First let us
investigate the authorities for the tradition, i.e. the
various Rabbis who made the statements containing
it, as presented in the passages successively translated
in the earlier pages of this book.

It has been explained in the Introduction that the
Talmud consists of two parts, Mishnah and Gemara,
related to each other as text and commentary. The
close of the Mishnah is usually dated at about a.d.
220. The Palestinian Gemara covers the period
from the close of the Mishnah down to the middle

650 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

or end of the fourth century ; while the Babylonian
Gemara was not completed till the end of the fifth,
or possibly even the beginning of the sixth, century.
Both the Gemaras, however, contain a great deal of
material handed down from the period covered by
the Mishnah. These two main periods, represented
by the Mishnah and Gemaras, are known as the
period of the Tannaim and of the Amoraim respec-
tively. To the earlier period belong, not only the
Mishnah, but the Tosephta, and the chiefly halachic
Midrashim, Siphri, Siphra and Mechilta. There are
no works holding a quite similar position in relation
to the Gemaras ; but while such Midrashim as
Pesiqta, Pesiqta Rabbathi, Midrash Rabbah, are for
the most part of much later date, even extending
down to the eleventh or twelfth century, they also
contain traditions from the period of the Amoraim
and even of the Tannaim. The closing of the
Mishnah thus marks a division in the Rabbinical
literature which is of great importance. Many
traditions recorded in the Amoraite collections may
date from very early times. But traditions recorded
in works of the Tannaite period have an additional
warrant of authenticity.

Of the traditions concerning Jesus, the following are
contained in the literature of the Tannaite period : —

(A.) Mishnah : [Jesus] born out of wedlock (p. 43).
Balaam [Jesus] excluded from the world to
come (p. 65).

(B.) Tosephta: Ben Stada [Jesus] a magician (p. 54).
[Jesus] crucified (p. 87).

Healing in the name of Jeshu ben Pandira
(p. 103).

JESUS IN THE TALMUD AND MIDRASH 351

A word of heresy in the name of Jeshu ben

Pantiri (p. 138).
Ben Stada [Jesus] tried at Lud (p. 79).
(C.) Baraithas (i.e. traditions of the Tannaite period,
and distinguished as such in the Gemaras) :
Ben Stada [Jesus] brought magic from Egypt

(p. 35).
Ben Stada tried and hung at Lud on the eve

of Pesah (p. 80).
A herald announced that Jeshu ha-Notzri was
to be stoned, and invited evidence in his
favour ; but none was given. He was hung
on the eve of Pesah [and eve of Sabbath]
(p. 83).
Jeshu had five disciples (p. 90).
The remaining traditions are found in the Gemaras,
and to a very small extent in the later Midrashim.

Considering, for the present, the traditions of the
Tannaite period, it will be noticed that the Mishnah
does not contain the names Jeshu, or Ben Stada, or
Ben Pandira. Tosephta contains all three, but not
the form Jeshu ha-Notzri. Neither Siphri, Siphra, nor
Mechilta contain, so far as I know, any allusion to
Jesus. Tosephta further contains a covert reference
to Jesus in certain questions put to, and answered by,
R. Eliezer ben Horqenos (p. 46). These scarcely add
any details to the tradition, because they are so obscure
that their meaning is very uncertain. But they help
to carry back the Tradition to an early date ; and not
only so, but they lend additional probability to the
suggestion that the Tradition concerning Jesus really
started with the aforesaid R. Eliezer. It was he who
referred to Ben Stada as a magician, and said that

352 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

he brought magic from Egypt (p. 35). It was he,
also, who said that he had conversed with a disciple
of Jeshu ben Pandira, who had repeated a saying
which the latter had taught him. And the reader
will be reminded in the following chapter that this
same R. Eliezer was arrested on a charge of Minuth,
which he ascribed to his intercourse with the disciple
of Jesus just referred to ; also, that he was the author
of two interpretations of texts bearing upon Minuth,
which were often appealed to by later Rabbis. Now
R. Eliezer was the disciple of R. Johanan ben Zaccai ;
and the latter must certainly have seen and heard
Jesus ; for he died, an old man, before a.d. 80, and his
life was mainly spent in Jerusalem. We may, there-
fore, take it as probable that R. Eliezer was the chief
original authority for the Tradition about Jesus ; and,
if this be so, then it becomes easier to understand
why the series of questions (p. 46) referring to ' a
certain person' should have been addressed to R.
Eliezer. The answers to these questions show a
reluctance to speak openly of the person concerned,
and a similar reluctance may be discerned in the
Mishnah, which, as we have seen, does not mention
Jesus by name.

If the Tradition concerning Jesus began with R.
Eliezer, we may with much probability assign the
next stage in its development to R. Aqiba. It is
true that no recorded saying of his mentions Jesus.
But R. Aqiba was a disciple of R. Eliezer ; and not
only so, but when R. Eliezer was grieving over his
having been arrested on the charge of Minuth (p.
137), R. Aqiba said to him (ibid.), "Rabbi, suffer me
to say something of what thou hast taught me. . . .

JESUS IN THE TALMUD AND MIDRASH 353

Perhaps there has come Minuth into thy hand and
it has pleased thee." Evidently R. Eliezer had told
R. Aqiba something about Minuth, and more par-
ticularly about his encounter with Jacob the disciple
of Jeshu ha-Notzri. It is further to be observed that
Shimon ben Azai, who discovered in Jerusalem the
book of pedigrees (p. 43), was the intimate associate
of R. Aqiba. Another disciple of R. Aqiba was
R. Meir, who told the parable about the crucified
King (p. 86).

Thus we have a well-marked line of descent of
the Tradition concerning Jesus, coming down virtually
to the end of the Tannaite period ; for the Mishnah
is chiefly based upon the work of R. Aqiba and
R. Meir.

With this line of descent may be connected the
remaining references to Jesus in the Tannaite period.
R. Gamliel, who uttered the famous gibe against the
Christian judge (p. 147), " The ass has come and
trodden out the lamp," was the brother-in-law of R.
Eliezer. And, although this story is not found in the
Tannaite literature, but in that of the Amoraite period,
it dates, if genuine, from the first century. R. Gamliel
was the grandfather of R. Jehudah ha-Qadosh, who
completed the Mishnah. Thus we have another
line of descent from R. Eliezer down to Rabbi, who
in his turn was the source from which nearly all the
Amoraite tradition was derived.

Having now examined the Tradition concerning
Jesus as contained in the Tannaite literature, I pro-
ceed to investigate that Tradition in the Gemaras.
The Tradition at once divides into a Palestinian and

a Babylonian form. At the head of each line stands

354 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

a disciple of Rabbi. The Palestinian Tradition comes
for the most part through R. Johanan, directly or
indirectly. The Babylonian Tradition was begun by
Rab, who founded the school at Sura.

The Palestinian Tradition, in the Amoraite period,
adds extremely little that is new concerning Jesus.
R. Abahu, a disciple of R. Johanan, uttered the
famous saying (p. 62), " If a man say, ' I am God,'
he is a liar," etc. A saying by a Rabbi of uncertain
date, Reuben, is also recorded, " God has no son,"
etc. (p. 302). Beyond these, we have only repeti-
tions of the earlier statements about Ben Stada, and
healing in the name of Jeshu ben Pandira. A second
instance of the latter is recorded in connexion with
R. Jehoshua ben Levi, a contemporary of R. Johanan
(p. 108). But, on the whole, it would seem as if
the Palestinian Rabbis, in the Amoraite period,
ceased to take any interest in the Tradition concern-
ing Jesus. We shall see, however, that this is not
the case in regard to the development of the Christian
heresy.

When we turn to the Babylonian Gemara, we
find several additions to the Tradition concerning
Jesus. And we are clearly right in placing R.
Hisda next after his teacher Rab in the line of
descent. It was R. Hisda who tried to explain the
relation of Jesus to Stada and Pandira (p. 35). His
explanation was wrong as regards the first, but right
as regards the second. Also it was R. Hisda who
quoted from R. Jeremiah bar Abba the saying that
"Jeshu ha-Notzri burned his food in public" (p. 56).
We shall see, in the next chapter, that R. Hisda
uttered several sayings about Minuth.

JESUS IN THE TALMUD AND MIDRASH 355

The explanatory note concerning Ben Stada
(p. 35) suggests another stage in the line of descent.
R. Hisda's theory that Stada was the husband in the
case is rejected, and the explanation is given, "the
husband was Pappus ben Jehudah, the mother was
Stada. The mother was Miriam, the dresser of
women's hair, as we say in Pumbeditha, such a one
hath gone aside from her husband." Evidently this
tradition comes from Pumbeditha ; and the college
at this place was founded by R. Jehudah ben Jehezq'el,
a disciple of Rab and contemporary with R. Hisda.
The successor of R. Jehudah was R. Joseph bar
Hija. Now this R. Joseph vouches for the story
about Miriam, the dresser of women's hair, told by
R. Bibi bar Abaji, his son-in-law (p. 41). I suggest
that the remark above, " as we say in Pumbeditha,"
points to R. Joseph as the author of the explanation
that Stada was the mother, and that while her real name
was Miriam, the dresser of women's hair, Stada was
a nickname derived from her unfaithfulness to her
husband. The explanation of the name Stada may
possibly be original to R. Joseph ; but the name
* Miriam, the dresser of women's hair,' — Miriam
megaddela nashaia — clearly is traditional, since it
represents the name ' Miriam magdalaah,' i.e. Mary
Magdalene. The line of tradition here accordingly
is, Rabbi, Rab, R. Jehudah, R. Joseph.

Another addition is the statement of Ulla that
Jesus was a revolutionary and that he was * near to
the kingdom ' (p. 83). Ulla was a Palestinian Rabbi,
a disciple of R. Johanan ; but he removed to Baby-
lonia, where he was closely associated with R.
Jehudah and with R. Hisda. It is possible that the

356 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

Jesus-Tradition may have reached the two Babylonian
teachers through Ulla, not through Rab.

A further trace of the descent of the Jesus-Tradi-
tion is to be seen in the saying of R. Papa (p. 47),
" She, who was descended from princes and rulers,
played the harlot with a carpenter." R. Papa re-
ceived some of his teaching from Abaji, the disciple of
R. Joseph of Pumbeditha, already mentioned. The
remaining steps of the general Talmudic tradition,
including, of course, that relating to Jesus, are
R. Papa, R. Kahana, R. Ashi, the last being the
redactor of the Babylonian Gemara.

What remains of the Jesus-Tradition in the Gemara
is anonymous. Such are, the story of Jeshu ha-
Notzri and his excommunication by R. Jehoshua ben
Perahjah (p. 50) ; the story of Balaam and Jesus in
Hell (p. 67) ; the age of Balaam (p. 72). The story
about the birth of Jesus (p. 48) is also anonymous,
and later than the Gemara.

Outside the Gemara, very few references to Jesus
in the Amoraite period are found. R. Hija bar Abba
refers to the " son of the harlot " (p. 804) in Pesiqta r.
This Rabbi was contemporary with R. Johanan. R.
Abahu, another disciple of R. Johanan, uttered a
parable on the subject, 'God has no son' (p. 303).
But these add nothing new to the Jesus-Tradition.

We have traced, so far as the evidence allows, the
line of descent of the Jesus-Tradition during the
period covered by the Mishnah and the Gemaras.
The question remains, What were the sources of this
Tradition? Did the Rabbis, who made the several
statements concerning Jesus, base their assertions
upon oral information, derived ultimately from actual

JESUS IN THE TALMUD AND MIDRASH 357

recollection of the career of Jesus ? Or did they, to
any extent, obtain their knowledge from acquaintance
with the written Gospel, in any of its forms ? The
latter question belongs partly to the following chapter,
where the ' Books of the Minim ' will be discussed ;
but it cannot be wholly omitted here.

If the summary of the Jesus-Tradition, given above
(pp. 348-9) be examined, it will be found to contain
little, if anything, which would imply the knowledge
of a Gospel, or Gospels, on the part of the Rabbis.
The general outline of the Tradition is sufficiently
like the outline of the story in the Gospels to show
that the same person is referred to ; but the differences
are hard to explain, if a knowledge of the Gospels be
assumed. And since the Gospels themselves rest
upon an oral tradition, it is more natural to suppose
that some of that Christian tradition may have been
known and repeated in Jewish circles than that the
Rabbis should have read the written record of that
tradition. In the beginning, the Jesus-Tradition was
propagated by Jews amongst Jews ; and while it was
carefully preserved amongst the disciples of Jesus,
it would not be wholly forgotten amongst those who
were hostile to him, though there would be no induce-
ment to them to remember it with accuracy. This
applies to that part of the Tradition which related
to the birth and parentage of Jesus. Of his public
career, and of his trial and death, there would naturally
be an independent Jewish tradition, however vague
and defective it might be.

In regard to the birth and parentage of Jesus,
the earliest tradition (p. 43) merely indicates that he
was born out of wedlock. This is, obviously, only a

358 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

coarse interpretation of the statement in the Christian
tradition that Jesus was not the son of his mother's
husband. There is a trace of this view of the origin
of Jesus in the questions to R. Eliezer (p. 45),
" What of a ' Mamzer ' (bastard) as to his inheriting ? "
Whether the name of * Miriam megaddela' (Mary
Magdalene), as that of the mother of Jesus, passed
into the Jewish tradition at this early stage I do not
know. I am inclined to think that it did ; for,
although it does not appear till the time of R. Joseph
(p. 355), in the fourth century, yet he cannot have
derived it from a Gospel, since the same Gospel
which recorded the name would have shown that
Mary of Magdala was not the mother of Jesus. If
this be allowed, then the further detail, that the
mother of Jesus mated with a carpenter (p. 47), may
be explained in the same way, i.e. as an early tradition
not recorded till a late date. The earliest tradition
knows the name Ben Pandira as an epithet of Jesus ;
but the explanation that Pandira was the name of the
paramour of the mother of Jesus is not given till the
time of R. Hisda (p. 354), in the third century. It is
at least possible that the name Pandira, whatever it
may have meant, was not originally intended to de-
note the father of Jesus, and that Ben Pandira was
a descriptive epithet, like the name Boanerges, ' sons
of thunder,' applied to James and John [Mark iii. 17].
In any case, the ascription to Jesus of the name Ben
Pandira does not imply any acquaintance with a
Gospel.

In regard to the tradition of the public career of
Jesus, such acquaintance with a Gospel is even less
to be assumed. The scanty and imperfect notices of

JESUS IN THE TALMUD AND MIDRASH 359

the ministry and the death of Jesus, contained in the
Rabbinical literature, are only what one would ex-
pect in reference to a person whose deeds and whose
fate were of no immediate importance to the Rabbis,
and whom they knew only as a renegade Jew, a
troubler of Israel in former times. I think it is a
mistake to suppose that the Rabbis took much
interest in Jesus, or cared to know much about him.
And for the mere fragments of tradition which, in
connexion with legal questions, they recorded about
him, no other foundation need be looked for than
such oral communication as might have been made
by those who saw him ; communications not intended
as explicit teaching, but merely as casual remarks in
conversation. In this way most if not all of the
tradition concerning the public life and the execution
of Jesus may be reasonably accounted for. The
statements about Jesus in Hell (p. 67), and of his
* burning his food ' (p. 56), and of his exclusion from
the world to come (p. 65), are not to be regarded as
parts of the tradition concerning him, but merely as
haggadic inventions, based on the subject-matter of
the tradition.

As to the historical value of the Jesus-Tradition in
the Rabbinical literature, little need be said. It will
have become evident, both from the consideration of
the several passages in the earlier part of the book
and from the analysis of them just made, that they
add nothing new to the authentic history of Jesus, as
contained in the Gospels. In general, though not in
detail, they serve to confirm the Christian tradition,
by giving independent, and indeed hostile, evidence
that Jesus of Nazareth really existed, a fact which

360 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD.

has by some been called in question. But if, beyond
this, the Rabbinical Jesus-Tradition has no value for
the history of Christianity, it does throw some light
upon the attitude of Judaism, as represented by the
Rabbis, towards Jesus. It shows how the violent
hostility directed against him during his life left only
the vague and careless memory of a deceiver and an
apostate. Of the great personality of Jesus not a
trace remains, no sign of recognition that the ' Sinner
of Israel ' had been a mighty man. His birth, which
Christian devotion had transfigured into a miracle,
Jewish contempt blackened into a disgrace ; and
his death, which has been made the central point
of Christian theology, was dismissed as the mere
execution of a pernicious criminal. Judaism went on
its way, but little troubled in mind at the thought of
the man whom it had cast out. And this is natural,
because Rabbinical Judaism was in some respects so
fundamentally different from the religion of Jesus
that no real recognition of him, or assimilation of his
teaching, was possible. This is by no means to say
that Judaism stands condemned by its rejection of
Jesus. It is merely to say that Rabbinical Judaism
and the religion of Jesus stand at opposite poles of
religious thought; they are mutually exclusive, but
have equal right to exist ; and each is proved, by the
witness of history during nineteen centuries, to be
capable of all the functions of a living religion.

CHAPTER II

The Minim

In this final chapter I shall try to collect the
general results to be obtained from the mass of
evidence already presented, in the hope of being able
to answer the questions, Who were the Minim?
Why were they so called ? What relation did they
bear to the Gnostics? What is their place in the
history of the Christian Church? In answering
these questions, some repetition is unavoidable of
what has been said in the earlier parts of this book,
in relation to separate passages. In like manner, it
was not practicable there to avoid provisional con-
clusions upon some points which can only be fully
dealt with when the whole of the material has been
collected. The very title of the book, Christianity
in Talmud and Midrash, contains such a provisional
conclusion, so far, at all events, as relates to the identi-
fication of the Minim with Christians. I wished the
title to indicate the final result obtained (if my argu-
ments are sound) from the evidence presented, not
the process by which it was obtained. I trust I have
sufficiently guarded myself against the charge of
having begged the question that I set out to answer.

361

362 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

I proceed now to deal with the several problems
already indicated which are suggested by the study
of the Minim.

§. i. The Name Min (Minim, Minuth)

The word Min (po), as the term applied to a
heretic, is derived by Levy (N. H. W., hi. 104a) from
an Arabic root, ' man/ meaning to lie, speak falsely.
He also compares the Syriac, 'mania,' 'madness.'
The Syriac word, however, is plainly borrowed from
the Greek fMavia, and throws no light upon the Hebrew
word. I have no knowledge of Arabic ; and if it be
really necessary to go to that language for the ety-
mology of the word j»d, I cannot criticise Levy's
hypothesis. But I suggest that it is not necessary
to go beyond the limits of Hebrew, or, at all events,
Aramaic. Levy's explanation implies a similarity in
form and sound between two words derived from
different roots. I would rather explain the word po,
denoting heretic, as a special use of the ordinary and
familiar word po, denoting ' sort ' or ' kind.'

po occurs frequently in the O.T., always in the
adverbial phrase wo1?, Gen. i. 2, or the cognate forms ;
here its meaning is ' kind,' ' species,' ' sort.' There is
also found in the O.T. another word meaning ' kind,'
' species,' viz. : — the word ft (zan). It is found, Ps.
cxliv. 13 and 2. Chron xvi. 14. It is the same as
the Aramaic word *u?, which is used in the Targum
to translate the word }^d . Thus, in Gen. i. 2, wnb is
rendered rrofo

Now there is also in Hebrew the word rut (Aram.
ri?), which means ' to commit fornication ' ; and

THE MINIM 363

although the word \i, just mentioned, is probably
from the root pt, it was believed to be connected
with the root rut, as is shown by the punctuation,
n>;\ not D% 2 Chron. xvi. 14. A curious illustration
of this supposed connexion is found in the Talmud,
b. B. Qamma 16b, in a comment upon the verse in
2 Chron. The passage is as follows : — TPW mpm jnuain

trm n^ &o jna nnon W OW3 tok s:£ru in (In place of
hot, the Aruch has ma, which is probably the correct
reading, as it undoubtedly expresses the correct
meaning. )

Translation. — They buried him in a bed that was

filled with spices and ■ z'nim" What are spices and

z'nim ? R. El'azar said, ' Different kinds [of spices]/

R. Shemuel bar Nahmani said, ' Spices such that he

who smelt them was tempted to fornication.'

We have then the word |t, supposed to be con-
nected with n:r ; and |i is equivalent to \^. A
further step in the argument is that, according to
the well-known symbolism of the O.T., unfaithful-
ness towards the covenant-relation with the God of
Israel was represented under the figure of conjugal
infidelity. The word rut is used both in the literal
and in the figurative sense of ' being unfaithful.'
This usage is frequent in the O.T. ; in the Talmud
the literal meaning is much more common. I
suggest that as pe = ;t = * kind,' ' species,' * sort,' the
association of |t with put led to an extension of the
meaning of yn in the same direction ; and that
whereas n:i in the Talmud usually denotes literal
unfaithfulness, pe referred almost exclusively to
figurative unfaithfulness, i.e. some form of apostasy

364 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

from the national religion. That is unquestion-
ably the connotation of pb, whatever the denota-
tion may be. The theory worked out here is based
on the suggestion of Friedmann in his note to
Pesiqta 101a, quoted above, p. 304. If it is correct,
then it explains why, in several of the passages which
have been examined in the earlier part of the book,
there is a secondary reference to fornication in the
mention of the Minim and of Minuth. The inter-
pretation of Prov. v. 8, Keep thy way far from her,
and of Ecc. vii. 26, the woman whose heart is snares
and nets, in reference to Minuth, lies ready to hand,
if Minuth be spiritual unfaithfulness ; while, on the
other hand, the way is open for the suggestion that
Minuth led to actual immorality. This appears
plainly in the story of R. Jonathan and the Minim
(see above, p. 215). Further, this explanation of the
term Min is in close agreement with the fact that
those to whom the name was applied were of Jewish
origin. None but a Jew could be guilty of unfaith-
fulness towards the covenant-relation between God
and Israel. Hence, if the above etymology be
correct, a Min must be an unfaithful Jew ; and, in
examining the various instances where the term is
used, we have found that in almost every case the
Jewish origin of the Minim is either implied or not
contradicted. In a few instances the term appears to
be applied to Gentiles, in the sense of 'enemies of
Judaism' (see above, pp. 248-9, and elsewhere).

Finally, if the explanation here given be correct, it
accounts for the fact that the word po in the Talmud
is often used in its common and original meaning of
1 sort ' or * kind ' (see above, p. 161).

THE MINIM 365

Other suggested derivations of the word are —

1st. That it is contracted from p&Mp, a ' believer,' and
denotes a ' believer in the doctrine of Two Powers.'
This is to give to the word * believer ' a specialised
meaning which is without warrant. No doubt the
Minim did hold this particular belief; but that is no
reason for calling them ' believers ' par excellence. If
the idea of 'belief is introduced at all into the
meaning of the word, then there would be more reason
for approving the explanation that,

2nd. The word po is composed of the initial letters
of n¥ti iK" i^dkd , i.e. ' believer [in] Jesus the Nazarene.'
This is ingenious, but nothing more.

3rd. The derivation from the name Manes, the
founder of the Manichaean system, is merely a guess
based on some resemblance in form, and some sup-
posed resemblance between the tenets of the
Manichaeans and those of the Minim. How the form
Min is to be derived from Manes is not explained.

4th. A better derivation is that from the root |*q,
to deny, cp. wi from Bwn. This alone has any pre-
tension to etymological soundness ; and I only reject it
because the derivation given above seems to me to be
etymologically no less sound, and more in accordance
with the usage of the word, as shown in the various
passages considered above.

§ ii. Who were the Minim

We have seen that the term 'Min' denotes an
unfaithful Jew, one who was not loyal at heart to the
principles of the Jewish religion, and who either in
thought, word, or deed was false to the covenant

$66 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

between God and Israel. We have now to inquire
whether the term was applied to all Jews tainted with
heresy, or whether it was restricted to the adherents
of one particular heresy and, if so, which heresy ?

A passage has been given above (see p. 118 fol.) in
which a severe censure is passed upon four classes of
offenders, Minim, Meshummadim ( apostates ) , Masoroth
(betrayers), and Epiqurosin (T. Sanh. xiii. 4, 5). If
Minim were a general term for all unfaithful Jews,
there would have been no need of four descriptive
names. And the construction of the sentence forbids
us to assume that Minim is the genus, of which
Meshummadim, Masoroth, and Epiqurosin are the
species. All four seem to be placed on the same
footing. The distinction between their several
meanings seems to be as follows : — ' Masoroth ' denotes
' delators,' political betrayers. ' Epiqurosin ' are free-
thinkers, whether Jewish or Gentile. 'Meshum-
madim ' are those who wilfully transgress some part
of the ceremonial law, and thereby proclaim their
apostasy from the Jewish religion. The Minim are
( those who are false at heart, but who do not
necessarily proclaim their apostasy. They are the
more dangerous because more secret. They do not
withdraw from the community of Israel, but have to
be cast out. This is the end to be attained by the
various devices for the detection of Minim, which we
have met with in passages cited from the Talmud and
Midrash. These are, the Formula against the Minim
(p. 125 fol.), and the references to liturgical and ritual
variations (pp. 199, 204). We do not find any such
precautions taken against Meshummadim, Masoroth
or even Epiqurosin. The result of such a policy of

THE MINIM S67

exclusion would be that the Minim would form
communities of their own, and thus hold a position
of independence as regards Jews ; but the possibility
would always remain that Minim might be found in
the Jewish synagogues. Hence, the Talmud speaks
of the Minim as a definite and distinct body or sect,
'the Minim said, or did so-and-so.' And, in the
curious story about R. Saphra (p. 266 fol.), it clearly
appears that the Minim had a separate organisation
of their own, while at the same time they regarded
themselves as being so little different from Jews that
they could ask for, and obtain, a Jewish Rabbi of
unimpeachable orthodoxy to be their teacher.

The Minim, then, are unfaithful Jews condemned
as such, but not admitting themselves to be such.
Therefore the name applied to them was a term of
abuse, not merely a descriptive epithet such as
' apostate,' ' betrayer,' or * freethinker.' A Min
might be an apostate, or a betrayer, and could hardly
fail to be a freethinker ; but the real nature of his
offence was rather that of a moral taint than an intel-
lectual perversity. This is shown by the interpreta-
tion of Num. xv. 39, Ye shall not walk after your
heart ; as a definition of Minuth (see p. 195 fol.). This
is to find in the prompting of selfish passion and lust,
and not in the dictates of reason, the ground of
departure from the true way in religion prescribed
by authority. And it should be observed that this
interpretation, which is contained in Siphri, § 115,
p. 35\ is the earliest indication of the meaning of the
term Min. It is in close accordance with the ety-
mology of the word, as already explained.

The question who were the persons called Minim

368 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

practically resolves itself into the choice between
Jewish Gnostics and Jewish Christians. That they
were Jews is beyond dispute. A Gentile is never
called a Min, unless in one or two instances through
ignorance or inadvertence (pp. 249, 332). A Gnostic
might, of course, be or claim to be a Christian, and
therefore the terms are not strictly exclusive ; but the
Jewish Christian, generally speaking, was sufficiently
distinct from the Gnostic to make it possible, and
therefore necessary, to ascertain whether the Minim
are to be identified with the first or the second. To
the discussion of this important question I now pro-
ceed, and I shall examine first the arguments in
favour of the theory that the Minim are Gnostics.

The latest advocate of this view is Friedlander, in
the work already several times referred to, JDer vor-
christliche jiidische Gnosticismus. The conclusion
reached in this book is the definite statement (p. 68)
that the Minim are Gnostics of the Ophite sect, one
branch of which sect were further known as Cainites.
Friedlander rejects the theory commonly held, that
the Minim are Jewish Christians, as being based upon
a merely superficial study of the Rabbinical literature,
and fortifies his own theory with abundant citations.
With the first half of his work, in which he illustrates
the subject of Gnosticism from Philo and the early
Christian Fathers, I have nothing to do. For any-
thing I know, his statements may be accurate, and
his conclusions sound. In the second portion he
deals with the evidences of Gnosticism in the
Rabbinical literature, and sets up his proof of the
identification of the Minim with the Gnostics.

The most ancient Gnosticism, he says, was con-

THE MINIM 369

cerned with the two main topics of Cosmology and
Theosophy ; and he has no difficulty in showing that
such speculation was well known amongst the Rabbis
of the first and second centuries. They referred to it
under the names of ' Maaseh Bereshith ' and ■ Maaseh
Mercabah,' i.e. ' The Work of Creation,' and < The
Work of the Chariot,' the latter name being an
allusion to the vision of Ezekiel. The study of these
subjects is mentioned in the Mishnah, and the restric-
tions named under which alone it might be pursued.
The text of the Mishnah and of the Gemara upon it
are to be found in b. Hag. llb, certainly a most
instructive passage for the study of Jewish Gnosti-
cism. Further, he describes the well-known case of
Ben Zoma, a proficient in such studies, who appears
to have lost his reason in consequence. He quotes
from the Talmud a saying by R. El'azar of Mod'in
[Aboth. iii. 15], " He who profanes the Sabbaths, and
despises the set feasts, and makes void the covenant
of Abraham our father, and gives interpretations of
the Torah which are not according to the halachah,
even though he have Torah and good works, he has
no portion in the world to come." Then he says
(p. 68), "When we look closer at this antinomian
Gnosticism, as it filled Palestine with its noise in the
time of Jesus, we are struck at the first glance by
its relationship to Ophitism. If we examine more
thoroughly the Talmudic passages bearing on the
subject, we soon come to the conclusion that the
heretics so often opposed by the Rabbis, the so-called
Minim, belonged to the Ophite sect." That Fried-
lander is right in concluding that Gnosticism is
referred to in the passages about the ■ Chariot ' and

370 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

* Creation,' in the story of Ben Zoma, and the saying
of It. El'azar of Mod'in, is probable enough. But if
the Minim are the Gnostics in question, it is at least
remarkable that the term Min is never used in con-
nexion with those persons who are said to have
pursued such studies. The long passage, b. Hag.
llb fol., which may be called the locus classicus for
Gnosticism in the Talmud, makes no reference to
Minim or Minuth.1 Ben Zoma is never called a
Min, or even said to have been in danger of becoming
one. Ben Azai, who was another great student of
theosophy, is in like manner never even remotely
associated with Minuth ; in fact, as we have seen
above (p. 297), he was the author of a haggadah
directed against the Minim. And, most striking of
all, the arch-Gnostic of the Talmud, Elisha ben
Abujah, known by the nickname of Aher, is never
once called a Min. In the case of Ben Zoma and
Ben Azai, their orthodoxy was never disputed ; but
Elisha ben Abujah did become an outcast from the
community of Judaism, and if Min was the proper
term to apply to him, as a Gnostic, it must surely
have been once at least applied to him. The most
that is said of him is that he used to read books of
Minuth. And if it be said that this at once proves
him to have been a Min, the answer is that he also
read his Bible without on that account being an
orthodox Jew. In any case the fact remains that
he is nowhere in so many words said to have been a
Min. When, therefore, Friedlander says that " Acher
was the Min /car' Ifox^V (p. 110), the phrase is his
own, not that of the Talmud.

1 Except the statement that Elisha b. Abujah read books of Minuth.

THE MINIM 371

Having then stated his thesis that the Minim are
Gnostics, Friedlander proceeds to support it by citing
passages where Minim are referred to ; all of which
he makes use being included in the collection we
have already examined. On p. 71 fol. he gives the
story of R. Eliezer who was arrested for Minuth (see
above, p. 137 fol.). Then he says (p. 74), "We
would ask, What is there in this passage which in the
remotest degree points to Christianity ? Nothing ;
absolutely nothing. Rather the other way. If our
Talmudists had been able to read the Talmud with
less conceit and more impartiality, they would never
have made the mistake of imagining Christianity in
this and similar passages." No one would guess
from the foregoing extract that in the text of the
Talmud, as Friedlander must have had it before him,
the Min says to the Rabbi, nvun w *wch P, " thus hath
Jesus the Nazarene taught me." Friedlander has no
right to find fault with the treatment of the Talmud
by other scholars when he himself can be guilty of
such an omission. To have given the passage in
full would have damaged his theory, but it would
have been more honest. Unfortunately, most of his
readers will not be in a position to verify his refer-
ences. The result of this correction is to show that,
whatever Minuth may be, a notorious Min was, on
his own showing, a Christian disciple. This fact
does much to weaken the force of the arguments
which Friedlander founds upon other references to
Minim. Whatever likeness there may be between
Minuth and Gnosticism, still the fact remains that in
one instance, rightly called by Friedlander " sehr lehr-
reich," Minuth is expressly associated with Christianity.

372 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

On p. 80 he quotes the passage about the " Giljonim
and the books of the Minim" (b. Shabb. 116a; see
above, p. 160 fol. I have translated from the version
in T. Shabb. xiii. 5, which, however, is almost the
same as that in the Gemara). Friedlander asserts
that the Giljonim (properly margins of written
scrolls) are identical with the Diagramma of the
Ophite Gnostics ; and his best argument is the
application of Isa. lvii. 8, Behind the doors and the
posts thou hast set up thy memorial. The Talmud,
however, does not say what was in the Giljonim,
except nrDTK, sacred names, so that the identification
of them with the Diagramma is at best only con-
jectural. But Friedlander, in his translation of the
passage, again misleads his reader by manipulating
the text. The Talmud says, comparing idolaters
with Minim, fntfon proe p* Mm pawi p*DD Mn, i.e.
" These [viz. the Minim] acknowledge [God] and lie ;
those [the idolaters] do not acknowledge [Him] and
lie." Friedlander translates "denn diese, die Minim
namlich, sind Wissende und leugnen ; jene aber
leugnen aus Unwissenheit." By using the word
' Wissende,' which he emphasises, Friedlander allows
it to be thought that the Talmud uses a word corre-
sponding to 'Gnostic.' If it did, that would be a
strong argument in support of his theory. But the
Talmud does not say anything about ' knowing.' The
word to express that would be pjn*. The word
actually used is proo* ' acknowledge,' ' recognise.'
The Minim, being Jews, acknowledged the God of
Israel while they spoke falsely. The idolaters, being
Gentiles, did not acknowledge him, and spoke falsely.
Here again it is not fair to the reader who may be

THE MINIM 373

unable to consult the original text to deal with it as
Friedlander does, nor does it increase one's respect
for Friedlander himself as a reliable exponent of the
Talmud. The text of the passage is indeed printed
in a footnote ; but the mistranslation is allowed to
stand, and is repeated with emphasis on p. 82. As
to the identification of the Giljonim with the Dia-
gramma there is not sufficient evidence to decide one
way or the other. Very possibly the Diagramma
was included in the condemnation pronounced upon
heretical writings in the present passage. But
' Giljonim ' does not mean ' tables/ ' tafeln,' as Fried-
lander says it does, p. 83.

On p. 100 fol. Friedlander deals in detail with the
case of Elisha ben Abujah (Aher) and the story of
the four men who entered Paradise. He has no
difficulty in showing that all this refers to Gnosticism.
But here again he makes changes which tell in favour
of his theory. He suppresses words in the original
text which contradict his interpretation of the pas-
sage b. Hag. 15a about Aher and Metatron, as has
been shown (see above, p. 288). And, in his discus-
sion of the doctrine of Metatron (p. 103 in Friedl.),
he says, " Very instructive in regard to the position
ascribed to Metatron in the haggadic literature of the
first two Christian centuries, is the following dialogue,
contained in the Talmud, between R. Idi and a Min,"
etc. The reference is to b. Sanh. 38b (see above,
p. 286). Now R. Idi did not live in the second
century, but in the fourth, a fact of which Friedlander
ought to have been aware, and which makes the
passage referred to useless as evidence in support of
his theory.

374 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

On p. 108 (Friedl.) is another instance of misre-
presentation of the text. The passage is quoted
(Qoh. r. on vii. 26, see above, p. 219), in which R.
Isi of Csesarea expounded Ecc. vii. 26 in reference to
Minuth. Six pairs of names are mentioned, of which
the first in each pair represents those who " please God
and escape" from Minuth, the second the "sinners
who are caught." The first pair is ' R. Eliezer and
Jacob of Chephar Neburaia.' Friedlander says that
this is plainly meant to be Jacob of Chephar Sechanja.
But Jacob of Ch. Neburaia was a well-known person,
and possibly contemporary with R. Isi, who mentions
him. The last pair, according to Friedlander, are
"R. Elieser and R. Jehoshua, and (the sinner is)
Elisha ben Abuja." Now the original text does not
say this. It gives the last name simply as 'Elisha.7
Even if this be the correct reading, the fact remains
that nowhere else does 'Elisha' mean 'Elisha ben
Abujah.1 That man is always referred to either by his
full name, or else by his nickname of Aher. It might
be argued that in this instance Elisha does mean E.
b. Abujah. But Friedlander does not argue it; he
simply takes it for granted, and allows his reader to
suppose that he is supported by the original text.

Here then are no less than five instances in which
Friedlander supports his theory by misrepresentations
of the evidence, as contained in the original texts.
A theory which rests upon such arguments cannot
look for much favour. Previous Talmud scholars,
who have held a different theory, and upon whose
ignorance and superficiality Friedlander pours scorn,

1 Except for brevity, when he has already been mentioned previously in
the same passage. This is not the case here.

THE MINIM 375

may have been mistaken in their opinion ; but at least
they dealt fairly both with their text and with their
readers, and did not descend to such methods as
those here exposed.

Bereft of its false witnesses, the theory of Fried-
lander does not amount to much. Gnosticism, be-
yond a doubt, was known to the Talmudic Rabbis,
and Elisha ben Abujah was the chief representative
of it. In some instances the practices ascribed to
the Minim are such as are associated with Gnostics,
and especially Ophite Gnostics. And, if there were
no other evidence, it would be reasonable enough to
identify the Minim with the Gnostics. But, if we
are at liberty to assume that what is true of one Min
is true of all Minim (and Friedlander rests his whole
argument upon this assumption), then the evidence
connecting Minuth with Jewish Christianity is suffi-
cient to disprove the alleged identity of the Minim
with the Gnostics. Neither Friedlander nor anyone
else would propose to identify the Jewish Christians
with Gnostics, which is the only alternative. This
much, however, may be conceded as a possibility, not
as a certainty, that the Rabbis did not so sharply
distinguish between Jewish Christians and Gnostics
but that they occasionally attributed to the one what
was really to the discredit of the other. In this way
may be explained the unsavoury stories about the
Minim, and the allegations against them of immoral
conduct, of which we have met with several examples.
Finally, there is to be reckoned in favour of Fried-
lander's theory the a priori probability that the
Gnostics, rather than the Jewish Christians, would
come into hostile relations with orthodox Jews. The

376 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

Gnostics gave much trouble to the Christian Church
as well as to the Jewish. Whereas the Jewish
Christians, if they adhered to the ceremonial law, as
they are usually supposed to have done, and differed
from the main body of Jews only in regard to the
Messiahship of Jesus, might seem to be comparatively
harmless. This is, indeed, the strongest argument
in favour of Friedlander's theory; and it is to be
regretted that he did not give more attention to it,
instead of damaging his case by less respectable
attempts at proof.

The view has usually been held that the Minim
were, or included, Jewish Christians. That this is
the right view seems to me to be put beyond dispute
by the evidence of the passages in which the Minim
are mentioned, at all events if we are at liberty to
assume that what is said of Minim in one instance is
true of Minim in general. In many of the passages
examined there is nothing distinctive in what is said
concerning the Minim, certainly nothing definitely
Christian. But in a few of the passages a connexion
between Minuth and Christianity is so definitely
stated that it cannot be excluded from neutral
passages except on the ground of an equally definite
statement to the opposite effect. There is nowhere
to be found, so far as I know, a definite statement
connecting the Minim with some persons other than
Christians.

The evidence for the connexion of Minim with
Christians may be briefly summed up as follows: —

1st. In the passage already often referred to, b. A.
Zar. 16b fol. (see above, p. 137), it is related how R.
Eliezer was put on his trial for Minuth. He accounted

THE MINIM 377

for this, in conversation afterwards, by saying that he
had once met 'one of the disciples of Jesus the
Nazarene, by name Jacob of Chephar Sechanja,' who
told him an exposition of a text which he said he had
learnt from Jesus. In the version in T. Hull. ii. 24,
it is said that this Jacob ■ said a word of Minuth in
the name of Jeshu ben Pantiri.' Also in b. A. Zar.
27b (see p. 104) this same ' Jacob of Chephar Sechanja'
is called 'Jacob the Min,' and he is described as
proposing to heal a sick man ; according to the
version T. Hull. ii. 22, 23, he wished to do this ' in
the name of "Jeshua" ben Pandira.' This is the
locus classicus for the identification of Minim with
Christians.

2nd. In b. Shabb. 116a (see pp. 146, 156, 161)
there are mentioned in close connexion the books
of the Minim and the Evangelion.

3rd. Qoh. r. on i. 8 (see above, p. 211) gives the
story of the Minim of Capernaum and their treatment
of Hananjah, nephew of R. Jehoshua. The Rabbi
says to his nephew, ' Since the ass of that wicked one
has roused itself against thee,' etc. Here there is an
unmistakable allusion to Jesus. The mention of
Capernaum points in the same direction.

4th. The doctrine of Two Powers in Heaven is in
many passages ascribed to the Minim (see above, p.
262 and elsewhere). In one place, Pesiqta r. xxi. p.
100b (see above, p. 304), is the phrase, ' If the son of
the harlot saith to thee, there are two Gods,' etc. The
' son of the harlot ' clearly indicates Jesus. The con-
nexion of the doctrine of Two Powers in Heaven
with Christianity is further shown by internal evi-
dence, as the doctrine in question appears to rest upon

378 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

the Christology of the Epistle to the Hebrews (see
the discussion, p. 264 fol.).

The combined force of all these separate arguments
seems to me to be very great, and to decide the
question at issue in favour of the identification of
Minim with Jewish Christians.

A remarkable confirmation of this view is found
in a passage of Jerome (Ep. 89 ad Augustin : quoted
by Gieseler, Ecc. Hist, i. 98 n. 4, Eng. Tr.), "Usque
hodie per totas Orientis synagogas inter Judaeos
haeresis est, quae dicitur Minaearum, et a Pharisaeis
nunc usque damnatur, quos vulgo Nazaraeos
nuncupant, qui credunt in Christum, filium Dei,
natum de virgine Maria, et eum dicunt esse qui sub
Pontio Pilato passus est et resurrexit ; in quern et nos
credimus, sed, dum volunt et Judaei esse et Christiani,
nee Judaei sunt nee Christiani." I have not till now
referred to this interesting passage, because I wished
to decide the question of the identity of the Minim
from the evidence of the Rabbinical literature.
Having done so, it is fair to call in this unimpeach-
able witness who can speak of the Minim out of his
own personal knowledge. He says that they are a
sect of the Jews who profess to be both Jews and
Christians, and are, in fact, neither. This agrees
exactly with what we have already ascertained, viz.,
that the Minim are secretly unfaithful Jews, claiming
to be Christians, but yet remaining in communion
with Jews.1 Hence they were objects of suspicion
and hatred to the Jews, while not acknowledged by

1 Note that, according to Jerome, the Minim are to found 'per totas
Orientis synagogas ' ; they needed, therefore, to be detected by such devices
as the 'formula against the Minim.'

THE MINIM 379

the great body of non-Jewish Christians. It is also
interesting that Jerome says that the Minim are
' commonly called Nazaraei,' the equivalent of Notzri.
This identification is not found expressly stated in
the Talmud, though it is implied.1 It is worth
mentioning here that the term Ebionite (p*3k), is
nowhere used in the Rabbinical literature to designate
heretics, whether Minim or any other.

The theory that the Minim are intended to desig-
nate Jewish Christians I regard as having been now
conclusively proved. This may be otherwise ex-
pressed by saying that wherever the Talmud or the
Midrash mentions Minim, the authors of the state-
ments intend to refer to Jewish Christians. The
possibility is still open that the Rabbis attributed to
Minim opinions or actions which in fact were not
held by Christians, or that they occasionally used
the term Min as a name for enemies of Judaism,
and applied it to Gentiles. These are exceptional
cases, and do not affect the main argument.

It must, however, be admitted that the theory
which identifies Minim with Jewish Christians is not
free from difficulties, which would be serious if the
evidence in favour of the theory were less decisive.
It will have struck every reader who has gone
through the long series of polemical discussions
examined in the earlier part of the book, that the
subjects of debate are not what we should have ex-
pected in the controversies of Jews with Christians.
Most remarkable is the absence of all reference to
the alleged Messiahship of Jesus. That Gentile

1 The Notzrim are mentioned by R. Johanan (p. 171), and the Christian
Sunday is called the Nazarene day (ibid.).

380 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

Christians should have ignored this might be under-
stood ; but that neither Jews nor Jewish Christians
should have a word to say about it seems very
strange. Even in the passages where Jesus himself
is mentioned there is no allusion to his alleged
Messiahship, though it is perhaps implied in the
statement that he was a deceiver. And in the
passage in b. Sanh. 97-98, where a good deal is said
about the ' coming of the Son of David/ there is no
reference to the alleged fulfilment of the prophecy
in Jesus. I can only account for this by supposing
that the Minim were Jewish Christians whose Christ-
ology was developed beyond the point at which the
Messiahship was the chief distinction of Jesus. In
support of this view it is important to recall the
evidence of likeness between the doctrines of the
Minim and the Christology of the Epistle to the
Hebrews (see above, pp. 264, 272, 322, 340). The
identification of the Minim with Jewish Christians,
vouched for as it is by the explicit statements already
quoted, cannot claim the support of anything very
distinctive in the evidence furnished by the polemical
references. For the most part such evidence is
hardly more than neutral. It must be remembered,
however, that it was no part of the purpose of the
Talmud to supply a full description of the Minim.
They are only mentioned casually, where there was
opportunity or need for marking them off from the
faithful Jews.

I answer the question, then, ' Who were the
Minim ? ' by adopting the common view that they
were Jewish Christians, and add only these two
qualifications — first, that the name may occasionally

THE MINIM 381

denote other heretics, but most often refers to Jewish
Christians ; second, that the Jewish Christians desig-
nated by the name Minim held a Christology similar
to that of the Epistle to the Hebrews.1

§ iii. The Place of the Minim in History

This is perhaps a too ambitious title, seeing that
the notices of the Minim are so fragmentary as we
have found them to be. All that I can hope to do
is to try and bring the scanty facts recorded about
them into connexion with the history of their times,
and particularly to inquire if any light can be ob-
tained upon their relation to the Christian Church.
I repeat here what I said in the preface, that I make
no attempt to give a complete illustration of the sub-
ject from the side of the early Christian literature. If
I can provide material that may be useful to students
in that field, I shall be well content.

The first historical fact recorded in connexion with
the Minim is the composition of the formula against
them, known as the Birchath ha-Minim (see above,
p. 125 fol.). This liturgical addition was introduced
when R. Gamliel II. was president of the assembly
at Jabneh, and it marks the first official recognition
of the existence of the Minim. Why was it intro-

1 This is virtually the same view as that of Gratz (G. d. J., iv. pp. 90-93,
and especially Note ii. p. 433). I am the more glad to find myself in agree-
ment with so distinguished a scholar, because I have worked out my case
independently. His book presents the solution of the Minim-problem with
admirable clearness, but with the brevity demanded by the other claims of
his vast subject. There is therefore room for a discussion of the problem
in minute detail such as I have attempted in this book.

382 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

duced at this time, and not earlier or later? The
factors which determine the date are three, viz., the
presidency of R. Gamliel, who ordered the formula ;
the death of Shemuel ha-Qaton, who composed it,
and lived at least a year afterwards ; and the de-
struction of the Temple and the desolation of
Jerusalem in a.d. 70. The first and second of these
factors are sufficient to fix the date, at all events
approximately. The third is necessary, however,
because it points to the reason why a formula against
the Minim was needed.

The chronology of the period immediately after
the fall of Jerusalem is extremely obscure in regard
to the lives of the leading Rabbis. R. Johanan ben
Zaccai made Jabneh the headquarters of Rabbinical
Judaism, having, according to tradition (b. Gitt. 56a),
obtained from Vespasian the gift of that city 'with
its wise men.' Evidently there was an assembly of
some kind at Jabneh even before the capture of
Jerusalem. R. Johanan ben Zaccai presided for a
time at Jabneh, but probably not for more than two
or three years. He was not there when he died, for
it is said that his disciples after his death went to
Jabneh. He is said to have had a school (Beth ha-
midrash) at Berur Hail (b. Sanh. 32b), and no doubt
that is where he died. After his death R. Gamliel
II., as chief of the descendants of Hillel, took the
lead, and was acknowledged apparently even by the
Roman government (M. Edu. vii. 7) as the official
head of the Jews. But when this took place, and
whether immediately after the death or retirement
of Johanan, cannot be determined. There is no
certain evidence which would warrant us in dating

THE MINIM 383

the beginning of Gamliel's presidency much earlier
than a.d. 80.

The death of Shemuel ha-Qaton can hardly be
placed later than that year, if the reasons given above
(p. 129 fol.) are valid.

The bearing upon the question before us of the
destruction of the Temple is this, that to Jewish
Christians no less than to Jews the cessation of the
Temple services and all connected therewith was
an event of profound significance. As long as the
Temple yet stood, the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem
appear to have taken part in the ritual observances
equally with the non- Christian Jews, while at the
same time they formed a community to some extent
separate from the Jews. But when the Temple was
destroyed, and the ceremonial law thereby became
a dead letter, there was ground for a divergence of
opinion as to the real meaning of that event and
the practical lesson to be drawn from it. The Jews
maintained the validity de jure of the whole cere-
monial law, though de facto its operation was sus-
pended. But it was equally possible to maintain
that de jure also the ceremonial law was abrogated,
and that henceforth its meaning was to be regarded
as symbolic instead of literal. That the Jewish
Christians as a whole took this view cannot be
shown, and is indeed unlikely. But that many of
them did so can hardly be doubted. For this is
precisely the link which connects the original Jewish
Christians with the Minim. If I am right in
ascribing to the Minim a theology akin to that set
forth in the Epistle to the Hebrews, then the infer-
ence lies ready to hand that it was the symbolic

384 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

interpretation of the ceremonial law which opened
the way for a Christology more highly developed
than that of the orginal Jewish Christians. I do not
intend to say that this change of view was the result
of the teaching of the Epistle to the Hebrews. I
would rather say that the epistle was the result of
the change, and that the real cause was the cessa-
tion of the ritual of the Temple. The epistle, wher-
ever it may have been written and to whom-
soever addressed, reflects the change by which the
original Jewish Christians became the Minim. Gratz
(G. d. J., iv. p. 433) even holds that the Epistle to the
Hebrews is a sort of declaration of independence on
the part of the Minim, by which they marked their
severance from Judaism. I would not go so far as
that; because, as we have seen, the Minim did not
sever themselves from Judaism, but claimed to be
Jews no less than Christians.1 It was their secret,
not open, disloyalty to Judaism which made them
the object of distrust and fear on the part of the
Rabbis. But that there is a very close connexion
between the Minim and the Epistle to the Hebrews
is beyond question; and it is worth observing that
Harnack (Chronologie, p. 479), arguing on quite other

1 In this connexion cp. Rev. ii. 9, The blasphemy of them which say they
are Jews, and they are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Also Rev. iii. 9,
where almost the same words occur. Vischer, in his famous monograph, in
which he shows that the Apocalypse is a Jewish work edited by a Christian,
allows that cc. L— iii. are of Christian origin. No doubt for the most part
they are. Yet it is hard to understand why a Christian should blame other
Christians for saying that they are Jews when they are not. Is it not possible
that in these phrases (and also in the references to Balaam ii. 14 and the
Nicolaitans ii. 6, 15), however they may have been interpreted by the
Christian editor, there is a trace of original Jewish hostility to the Minim ?
I can only suggest the question, and leave the solution of it to N.T. scholars.

THE MINIM 385

lines, places the date of the Epistle between a.d.
65 and 95. We cannot, therefore, be far wrong in
assigning the formula against the Minim to the year
80, or thereabouts. The formula represents the
official condemnation by the Rabbis of the spurious
Judaism which was growing secretly in their
midst, and at the same time furnished a means of
detection.

The formula against the Minim was only one out
of several liturgical phrases which served as means
of detecting heresy. These have been examined
already (see above, p. 199 fol.). When these were
first associated with Minuth cannot be exactly de-
termined. The Gemara which comments on the
Mishnah containing them throws no light on their
origin, and very little on their interpretation. This
of itself, however, implies a considerable antiquity;
and although certainty on the point is not attainable,
it is at least a reasonable theory that they are due
to the same assembly at Jabneh which adopted the
formula against the Minim. We have also seen
(above, p. 197 fol.) that the book of Ecclesiastes
(Qoheleth) was by some deemed heretical, and that
on that account the Rabbis sought to withdraw it,
i.e. pronounce it uncanonical. The allegation of
heresy, Minuth, rests, it is true, only upon the
evidence of R. Benjamin b. Levi and R. Shemuel
b. Jitzhaq, who both lived in the fourth century.
But the Mishnah (Jad. iii. 8) states expressly that
the question of withdrawing the book was debated
in the assembly at Jabneh, and that this took place
on the day when R. Gamliel was temporarily deposed

and R. El'azar b. Azariah elected Nasi in his stead.

386 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

The Mishnah does not give Minuth as the reason
why the withdrawal of Ecclesiastes was proposed,
nor is that assigned as the reason in b. Shabb. 30b,
where the proposal is referred to. On that account
I do not venture positively to affirm that an alleged
tendency to Minuth was one of the reasons. But
at least the passage in the Mishnah (with the context
before and after), does show that a considerable
amount of attention was bestowed by the assembly
at Jabneh on questions affecting Scripture; and it
is certainly not improbable, still less impossible, that
the existence of Minuth, which had led to the
drawing up of the formula against the Minim should
have been one of the causes which shaped the de-
cisions of the Rabbis. The assertion that the debate
on the book of Qoheleth, and on the other points
mentioned, took place on the very day of the
deposition of R. Gamliel can hardly be accepted
literally, if only because no one day would suffice
for such a varied discussion, to say nothing of the
stormy scene which no doubt accompanied the
deposition of R. Gamliel. May we not refer the
decisions which are said to have been made 'on
that day ' to the time during which the degradation
of R. Gamliel lasted? The year in which his
deposition took place cannot be exactly determined,
but was probably about a.d. 100.1

1 I obtain the date suggested in the text from the following considerations.
When E. Gamliel was deposed, R. Eliezer was already excommunicated, for
his name does not occur amongst those present on the occasion (b. Ber. 27b,
28a) ; and, further, the report of what was done " on that day" was carried
to him in Lud, by one of his disciples (T. Jad. ii. 16). The excommuni-
cation of R. Eliezer took place probably in or about a.d. 95 (see above,
p. 144 n.). R. Gamliel, shortly afterwards, made his journey to Rome, and

THE MINIM 387

In the absence of more decisive evidence, it may
be taken as fairly probable that the various regula-
tions, liturgical and scriptural, concerning the Minim
were made by the assembly at Jabneh, under the
presidency of R. Gamliel, and thus dated from the
end of the first century. The alternative is that
they were made at Usha, where an assembly
(Sanhedrin) was twice held. But very little is
known of what was done at either of these assemblies,
and that little does not refer to liturgical matters;
there is, therefore, nothing beyond the bare possibility
to warrant the theory that the regulations mentioned
above were framed at Usha.

Of the practical effect of these detective formulas
nothing is known. No instance is recorded of any
heretic having been discovered through their means.
We can only assume that the general result was to
widen the breach between Jews and Minim, and
make it more difficult for the latter to remain in
open association with the former. Yet, as we have
seen (above, p. 378), according to Jerome the Minim
were in his day to be found 'per totas Orientis
synagogas.'

The consideration of the Formula against the
Minim, and the liturgical variations connected there-
with, leads naturally to the subject of the mutual
relations between Jews and Minim. I go on, there-
fore, to inquire what general conclusions may be
drawn from the evidence presented in the earlier
part of the book upon that subject. In this con-
must have been absent at least some months. I do not know of any
evidence for fixing the date of his deposition immediately after his return,
and therefore give it only approximately as a.d. 100.

388 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

nexion the story of the arrest of R. Eliezer (see
above, p. 137 fol.) is of great importance and de-
serving of further study. It will be remembered
that R. Eliezer was arrested and tried on a charge
of Minuth, and that after his acquittal he accounted
for his having been accused on such a charge by
recalling an encounter which he had once had with
a Min, by name Jacob of Chephar Sechanja, a
disciple of Jesus. The date of the arrest I have
given as a.d. 109. That he was arrested for Minuth
is, of course, the Jewish way of describing the affair.
The Roman government knew nothing of Minim
as such, but only of adherents of Jesus, as distinct
from Jews, with whom they did not interfere. R.
Eliezer evidently felt the charge of Minuth as a
worse calamity than his arrest and trial. After his
acquittal he went home in great trouble and refused
to be comforted, a thing he certainly would not
have done merely for having escaped with his life
from a Roman tribunal. It was not merely that
he had been tried for Minuth, but that, as he was
reminded by the question of R. Aqiba, he had
actually compromised himself by intercourse with a
Min. The story shows that the existence of the
Minim was recognised by the Jews as an actual
source of danger to Judaism, and that the Minim,
however much they desired to be regarded as Jews,
were, as Christians, known as a distinct body of
people, and were regarded as such not only by Jews
but also by Gentiles. R. Eliezer himself, having
suffered through Minuth, uttered many warnings on
the subject. He interpreted Pro v. v. 8, Keep thy
way far from her, and come not near the door of her

THE MINIM 389

house, in reference to Minuth. Also, probably,
Prov. ii. 19, None that go to her return again ; and
If they return they do not attain the patlis of life
(see above, pp. 188-9). Also Ps. xiv. 1, The fool
hath said in his heart there is no God (p. 196 n.).
Also Ecc. vii. 26, For she hath cast down many
wounded (p. 138), and he used to say, "Ever let a
man flee from what is hateful, and from that which
resembles what is hateful." It should be remembered,
in this connexion, that R. Eliezer is the original
authority for the tradition concerning Jesus (p. 351).
This attitude of hostility towards, and dread of, the
Minim finds expression in the rule laid down in T.
Hull, ii. 20, 21, " Slaughtering by a Min is idolatry ;
their bread is Samaritan bread, their wine is wine
offered to idols, their fruits are not tithed, their books
are books of witchcraft, and their sons are bastards.
One does not sell to them or receive from them or take
from them or give to them. One does not teach their
sons trades, and does not obtain healing from them,
either healing of property or healing of lives " (above,
p. 177). This is not a halachah, an authoritative legal
decision, but it represents a consensus of opinion
amounting almost to a law. Therefore the instances
are mentioned in which it was not observed. Such
was the famous case of Ben Damah (above, p. 103),
which is recorded immediately after the passage just
quoted, in T. Hull. And it is followed by the case of
R. Eliezer's arrest. The rule laid down about having
no intercourse with the Minim may be fairly ascribed
to the Rabbis of Jabneh, possibly owing to the mis-
fortune of R. Eliezer. In the case of Ben Damah,
the danger which was said to threaten him, if he let

390 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

himself be healed by Jacob the Min, was that he
would thereby transgress the words of the Wise,
i.e. the Rabbis. The reference is clearly to some
such rule as is here laid down.

Intercourse between Jews and Minim was thus
hindered as far as possible, but it could not be
altogether prevented. And one especial source of
danger was to be found in the books of the Minim,
lest they should find their way into the hands of Jews
and be read by them. So the rule just mentioned
says that the books of the Minim are books of
witchcraft. Another rule, contained in T. Jad. ii. 13,
states that ' the Rolls (or margins) and books of the
Minim do not defile the hands,' in other words, are
not to be regarded as sacred (see above, p. 160). It
would not have been necessary to make this rule un-
less such books contained sacred names and citations
of texts from the Hebrew scriptures. It can hardly
be doubted that amongst the books of the Minim
were included Gospels, but there is no definite state-
ment on the point. The story of Imma Shalom,
R. Gamliel, and the Christian judge (p. 146) shows
that, perhaps as early as a.d. 72 or 73, texts were
known to the Jews which are now found in one of
the canonical Gospels. But the earliest authentic
use of the term Evangelion is to be found in the
witticism of R. Meir, the date of which is the middle
of the second century (p. 162). The only evidence
that the Gospels were actually known to the Jews is
the merely negative evidence of the strong prohibition
of the books of the Minim. The strongest de-
nunciations of the books of the Minim are those of
R. Ishmael andiR. Tarphon (p. 155), in the early

THE MINIM 391

part of the second century. With this reprobation
of the writings of the Minim may be associated the
doubts as to the canonicity of the book of Ecclesiastes,
on the ground that it contained words which led to
Minuth. This probably was one of the grounds on
which the proposed decanonization of the book was
based ; but it is not distinctly stated to have been so
until the fourth century (p. 197).

That the Jews, besides hating the Minim, could
not afford to disregard them, is shown by the state-
ment that certain proposed modifications of the
liturgy were not carried out because of the ' carping '
of the Minim, in other words, because they would
give to the Minim an opportunity to deride the
religious observances of the Jews (p. 308 fol.). With
this may be connected the counsel of R. Aqiba
(p. 316), 'Do not give occasion to the Minim to
humble you.' The same words are also ascribed to R.
Jose ben Halaphta. What the precise bearing of the
advice was I am unable to say, but it clearly points
to a fear as well as a dislike of the Minim. The
same is true of the story about the false witnesses
and the new moon (p. 327 fol.).

The Rabbinical literature nowhere gives a complete
account of the Minim. It relates many anecdotes
about Minim, and also records dialogues between a
Min and a Rabbi. Both classes of statement show
the Minim in an unfavourable light ; but the former
do so much more than the latter. The anecdotes
about the Minim show them as grossly immoral in
their lives, and also as practising magical arts. Ex-
amples of such allegations are found in the stories
about the Minim of Capernaum (p. 211), and the

392 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

adventures of R. Jonathan (p. 215) and R. Jehudah
ben Naqosa (p. 218), of which Capernaum may have
been the scene. Compare also the story of the
woman who desired to be received as a proselyte
(p. 188). We have here an echo of the charges of
immorality against which the Christian Apologists
had to defend their co-religionists. For the allegation
of magical powers the evidence is found in the stories
(pp. 112, 115), of ' signs and wonders ' done by Minim.
And with these must certainly be classed the stories
of attempts by Minim to heal sick persons in the
name of Jesus (pp. 103, 108). The Talmud draws no
distinction between such deeds done by Minim and
similar deeds done by the Rabbis. And it is noted
that R. Jehoshua ben Hananjah was more than a
match for the Minim in respect of power to do such
deeds.

When, however, we turn to the records of dia-
logues between Jews and Minim, we find no trace
of such repulsive characteristics. The conversation
usually turns upon disputed interpretations of Scrip-
ture, often, but not always, with a hostile intention
on the part of the Min. R. Eliezer, indeed, on his
own showing, was pleased with what Jacob the Min
said to him. And in many of the dialogues which
have been presented in the earlier part of this book
there is hardly more than a civil exchange of opinion,
certainly nothing answering to the strong language
used against the Minim by R. Tarphon and R.
IshmaeL There is, however, no real contradiction
between these two representations of the Minim.
The one indicates what the Rabbis thought of the
Minim, the other what they said to them. And it

THE MINIM

may be further remarked that relations between Jews
and Minim were probably most hostile at the end of
the first century and the beginning of the second,
and that gradually they became more friendly as the
Minim proved to be less dangerous and less powerful.
For, in the first century, even at the close of it,
when the official condemnation of the Minim was
made, it was not evident to the Jews that the
development of the Christian Church would proceed
on Gentile lines, and would leave the Minim, i.e.
the Jewish Christians, behind. The Jewish dread
of Minuth was really dread of the Christian heresy ;
and as it gradually appeared that the Minim did not
represent the strength of the Christian movement,
the danger of Minuth became less ; because there
was obviously less danger to Judaism from a mainly
Gentile Christianity than from a Jewish form of it,
connected at so many points with pure Judaism. Of J
Gentile Christianity the Rabbinical literature takes
scarcely any notice at all. We have met, indeed,
with a polemical reference to Christian Rome (p. 210)
by R. Aha, who lived in or after the time of
Constantine the Great. Beyond this one instance, n
I do not know of any further allusion to Gentile
Christianity.1 The references to the ' kingdom being
turned to Minuth' (p. 207) only indicates the hos-

1 There are a few cases, noted as they occurred, where the Min was prob-
ably a Gentile, not a Jew ; but nothing turns on the Christianity of the
Min in such cases. He is merely an opponent of the Jews. When it is
said (p. 179) that there are no Minim among the Gentiles, that means that
a Gentile could not be a Min, although he might be a Christian. It does
not imply that Minim were never to be found in Gentile countries. At
least, if that were implied, it is not true, for we have met with Minim in
Rome (p. 228), Alexandria (p. 221), and probably Antioch (p. 283).

394 CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

tility to Minuth already mentioned. The increase
of that deadly heresy is not stated as a fact, but
noted as one of the signs of the future advent of
the Messiah.

It is in accordance with this view of the diminish-
ing hostility between Jews and Minim that the
curious story about R. Saphra and the Minim of
Caesarea (p. 266) becomes intelligible. There we
find that R. Abahu, an unimpeachable Jew, re-
commended R. Saphra, another unimpeachable Jew,
to the Minim as their teacher, and that they accepted
him as such. Even if, as Bacher suggests, R. Saphra
was engaged not as a teacher but as an accountant,
the fact would still remain that a Jew entered the
service of the Minim upon the recommendation of
another Jew. That would have been impossible in
the first century, or even the second. R. Abahu
himself had frequent intercourse with the Minim.
The case of Jacob of Chephar Neburaia (p. 334 fol.)
also goes to show the diminished hostility of relations
between Jews and Minim in the fourth century.
And the general conclusion may be drawn that the
Minim, or Nazarenes, were by that time recognized
to be a comparatively harmless body, though possibly
numerous. They had no share in the vitality either
of Judaism or Christianity, being rejected by the
adherents of both religions. As Jerome says (p. 378),
" They profess to be both Jews and Christians,
while in fact they are neither Jews nor Christians."
They had no inherent power of progress, and appear
to have gradually died out.

Of a history of the Minim, or Nazarenes, there
can be no question, since the data are far too incom-

THE MINIM 395

plete. From the collection of passages, examined in
the earlier part of this book, we gain a number of
passing glances at them, and learn a few facts, some
of great importance, some of little or none. They
are represented as a kind of spurious Jews, vainly-
claiming fellowship with the true Judaism, and re-
jected because of their connexion with Christianity.
They were in Judaism, but not of it. They fre-
quented the synagogues, where suspicion of them
found expression in liturgical devices for their de-
tection, and in the noting of various phrases and
gestures which were thought to betray their heresy.
In their theology, so far as it can be ascertained,
they departed from the strict monotheism of Judaism,
and held the doctrine of the relation between God
and Christ which is set forth in the Epistle to the
Hebrews. Apparently they did not go any further
along the line subsequently followed by Christian
theology. There is, so far as I know, only the
slightest trace of any reference to the doctrine of
the Trinity to be found in the Rabbinical allusions
to Minuth.1 The Talmud knows of Gnostics and
Gnosticism ; but it does not identify these with
Minim and Minuth, although it is possible that the
line between them was not always clearly marked.
In the early days of the separation of Christianity
from Judaism, the Minim were hated and feared.

1 See above, p. 256, where the Minim ask R. Simlai to explain the three-
fold designation, ■ God, God, the Lord.' This can hardly be other than an
allusion to the three Persons of the Trinity ; but it is remarkable that there
is no further allusion. The question most frequently debated was that of
Two Powers or One. If the Jewish doctrine of the Divine Unity were to
be maintained, it mattered nothing whether the alternative was a doctrine of
Two Powers or of three, or of several.

CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD

This hostility gradually diminished ; and, in any case,
it was chiefly in Palestine that the existence of
Minuth was felt to be a danger. In the Babylonian
schools there was hardly more than a vague know-
ledge of what Minuth was and why it was dangerous.

I have now reached the end of my task, which was
to present, in as full detail as possible, all the refer-
ences which I could find in the Rabbinical literature
of the first four centuries to the origin and develop-
ment of Christianity. Looking back on the miscel-
laneous collection of extracts which we have examined,
it is interesting to observe how the two main groups
into which it is divided have but slight connexion
with each other. One group contains the evidence
for the Jesus-Tradition, the other the notices of the
Minim. These two groups stand apart not merely
because they have been dealt with separately, but by
reason of the curious fact that in the passages which
mention Minim and Minuth there is seldom any
direct mention of Jesus. There is only enough to
justify the identification of Minim with some form
of Christians. In other words, the Jesus-Tradition
was apparently handed down within the Rabbinical
schools mainly as a tradition, and received little or no
additions from the intercourse between Jews and
Minim, of which so many instances have been given.

The general result of the whole study in which we
have been engaged is to show, in two ways, how
Judaism released itself from what it considered to
be the danger of Christianity. It preserved only a
careless and contemptuous tradition about Jesus, and
resolutely resisted all attempts on the part of his

THE MINIM 397

Jewish-born disciples to come to terms with Jewish
belief and practice. Judaism fought the enemy
within her gates; of the rival outside, growing in
power with every century, she took no notice. She
went on her way, and on the line she chose for herself
worked out her own salvation through centuries of
noble and most tragic history. In like manner,
though on other lines, Christianity went on its way
and forgot its Jewish origin. In the land of its
birth, and amongst the people who furnished the first
disciples, Christianity was represented by a discredited
and dwindling sect, claiming kinship with Jews and
Christians, and disowned by both.

In the hope that this study of an obscure field of
history may be of service to scholars, in spite of the
scantiness of the harvest which has been gathered,
and that it may awaken in perhaps one or two readers
something of the same deep interest which it has
given to me during my labours upon it, I finish this
book ; and, in parting from it, take regretful leave of
what has been to me a friend and companion through
many years.

APPENDIX

CONTAINING THE ORIGINAL TEXTS TRANSLATED

AND COMMENTED ON IN THE COURSE OF

THE WORK

TEXTS OF PASSAGES TRANSLATED IN THE
FOREGOING PAGES.

(1) p. 35.

b. Shabb. 104b:— "ft*** Wp* ntia Khflfl :lira b* tftDttl

mi b*« nomoa onnta ertibo (rwi a-rao p abm trasrib
p rrao p] dnswn pa n^n pr«w fm rr»n now ib man

p diss b*n an^s b^m fcnao b*n anon "1 toa Kin tf-n-ws
p-totf-D irm k^ed ab-w£ D*n£ iek *nt:o ies »in rmrr»

: [nbrao *n nt3D ar-matron

The passage enclosed in [ ], which occurs also in b. Sanh. 67a,
is not found in the modern Editions; it is supplied from Rabbi-
nowicz, Diqduqe Sopherim, on the authority of the Munich and
Oxford Mss, and the older Editions.

(2) p. 41.

b. Hagg. 4b aba nsoD wm "»aa sip ^nb nwa *o cio^ an
m tro am an ■o f* mnoi aba bn&n a^a m iti» tssi^ta
wa bn nwb©b rrt ton rron ^ab* rroa main mn *«*
■»pTn Kbi>£ s'nti rrt mi bra n*»ta w» aba-na D*na ^b
Wi w rrt ton ^b vKfti MFW tr»« ab-ftfc d^-ie aoa rrt -i£«
:as^Eb vimb ninww b^m rrt -usa nmn«

(2a) ibid. Tosaphoth on same passage: ^abtt ma* rTOE ITin

26 :

402 APPENDIX

(3) p. 43.

M. Jeb. IV. 13:— Jlb>E ^nK2E iKT* p JW3» W -|tt«

tr*fb e^k n«KB inafld v&fc B*» nn wtn tffrffrna font*

(4) p. 45.

b. Joma 66b Kb y» Knn obiyb ijto iyfca t&Qm 'n n* ^bK©
onb -rta» ffjin p NKfi nym bwib *ftj ^iba by aba Whw
onbnEK *nKn p nymn b^snb ma fflttsn by aba w6*« Kb
mt> on* wa «n* Kin n* itee nyinn by KbK ^inbKB Kb
KbK D'ncna p,4wt» "WP Kb top dk -nob irna irra h* nob
:'iai Dbiya in wo W* Kb© nm iek Kb© i»b

(5) p. 47.

b. Sanh. I06a:— 'i "itiK ooip Cjionbi K^is nbnra pm^ h IttK
**to 'nnab ir^K ''Kin nrt»i *mwb *w* "n^Ki ir>in kbs

(6) p. 48.

b. Kallah 51a 2HDW W TTtttt n£1K W6» Wl D^D T*

Wi nnK oys :msn pi -imo w« Kmpy w msn p wik
mk noD -iHK mpi^n w tarrafib i-Dyi vm o^tm ta^pr
-ieik wbK w i»ki n» nb^ra nr i»m n« rib*** inKi iek-i
msn pi itm ieik Kmpy w rrar p ieik y»w w "flrwo
•Tv»an ,nai by ninyb pb ^Kba ^n Kmpy imb ib rtaai
rotti^ nrrvne nm piw bin iek b^K ibn -iD^pK ^k pb iek
lom im * rrvaiK nK dk ira nb -iek -pirn nroap rroitti
w n^n • ^b ya»n ib n-i£K Knn obiy ^nb ^m ^k ^bKifc
niBK wb na nr !» nb *m* inbn bran m«fi ynra i&p?
nyovno ^y Km ^b$i xton rwi wn rro nsmb ^mosci) ib
wi bra rw * man 711 nrao pirnnn ksed nr p * n^ni
^nbK 'n linn ii^k ny» nniKa ■ i^nini rat wmnvn Ki^py ^a-i

APPENDIX 403

(7) p. 50.

WWr* w bra pa* »Db» ■wr vtrtept? s^n nw n^nis p
n^b nb© XEb© Kin 'o n^istt bo ir»TDC0bl6 [wn] mrfife p
K^-nsoDbK "o^b ©iipn w [bbfcw] WB nt:© p |WWD
np 'WW* rwn *»M»n iDUta *r* *** [vnn»] piitisb©
ib« ^nit: mp* mb tt» irrwil avjwta) [n^b] nstrm ana
n^b ibk mtmt: n'w w (w) n^b iia« ir k^sodk W n*n
ana mrasn *w** msia wn» p^sa pow nna pa Wi
*w rrta m©ta up mn *6 ibnp rrt iM fw* nfio mtipfr
inb ■nrm ^biapb iao rrapb ana sra© irnp np xp mn -in
nb ninm»nn aro^ab qpT brx n^b ^i mrtm iao «in rmrai
a^msi aainn bD ^m ^baipfc p n^b itt« p tin rrt i«»
■nrwi w» to nttKi nai©n ni©*b rra "pp^ott pa cram n«

(8) p. 54.

T. Shabb. XL 15. DTOam a^na ir^ba '-i vntt b* onpferi
Yta* pa aba i^b xb rm p tfbm wbK *i nnb tok fncftft

(9) p. 56.

b. Sanh. 103a WQ SIX 11 rWTf '1 TOK tfion '1 TOSH

k"i Tbnxa sip-' ab aei n*i *pba namn nb a^nai

(10) p. 62.

j. Taan. 65b:— ITDtt W b^ Dl» lb IttX^ DK ina« '1 113*

iwm mnn D^ti»b nbi^ laws in mnnb ibid ^dx aix p man

insEy1 xbn

404 APPENDIX

(11) p. 63.

Jalq. Shim. § 766, HD Dmbsn )tM Iff* TftpM 1T*bs th

wrt\ nsi* nmo b'oon i&io tfi Dbi5?rr cpott nbi* wn ibipn
rtrn nasi psbi pbi D'ODiDbi ni^bi oaob oimnotto ttmtii
rntorti nibs 1TQS5? rrwwS opn^o -n wb i w» nos p dis o^o
•pi obisn RWtti bD thMNJ ibipn no -jre ■p'fcb *1D obi*n bs
o^s Kb 'so o^sn irtni 'nns ni*ob sbo ddwi ■» w* mn
mm* tw wn dtdb sin bs smo wtn dsi dtd^i bs
airo na nsi nw» 161 its» owpb sm pbnoa smo wfri
i* ^is osbn ies bs ieioe nm^ *c tm fcieirn ibo» so^i
: nibs ita* no*o o^sn mis +im nsiaoo ntns nrnwa nw

(12) p. 64.

M. Sanh. X. 2:— pbn onb p» rrafnn *msi mata nobo

*ms nowi nsns o*aii Q'rtia nobo sin obi*b

jnmi bainmsi asu D*ba niamn

(13) p. 67.

b. Gitt. 56b. 57a. oit:^i nmns in oip^ibp in oibpDis
■jstt n^b i*s msoa owob n^pos brs nwm6 va nin
rrti tok inn yo-pkb ima bsio^ st4 ies s*b* smnn n^on
sab* smnn inn ■nam bn inawipb ni»o sbi ?mto w6*b
no5?D bsio^b i^an bn lai osib n*ni im n^roi so^i rwn
n^ocis piotn ^s*n b"s ^s^n sina sinm rwn n^b itjs osi
nos maw n^b ibpi rnb ^"ni ifw»pb rrt ^osd* hot bD
sttb* smnn n^on "js* n^b ies irooa o*bnb n^pos bTs *w
bD annual Dttibo ointi sb b"s inn ipinTsb m» bsio^ b"s
brs rwtn *tr nnDon b"s ^s^n sina sinm ran b"s bww
b"s sab* smnn n^on pro b"s bsio^ **oisb imaa n^pos
ww bn ointi sb own oin orate b"s inn ^pimsb vna bsio-<
nsisa b"s ^s^n sina sinm n^m b"si^y nnnn wiDib^sD pn
nnnii msn )TP5 DTodti 11m b5? avbtin bD itt nasi nnnn
:r"^ "nav obi^n rmis wxb bsio^ ^oifi pa n* nn sn

* So the older Editions; the moderns read "WIS. The DlBSIp reads nur1^.

APPENDIX 405

(14) p. 70. n.

b. Sanh. i06b:— ab inbisi m-iib worn rrnsj TO b"«

(15) p. 72.

b. Sanh. I06b D*bi lb y^w ^ K^an trt norm ^"inn b"«
maitn D*»tn *&* a'wro aba i^m Kb im^e b"« mn rrai n
b"« *i-iki frth -a ia pa» nbm pnbri -in on^i ism sb

(16) p. 75.

The passage in brackets was struck out by the Censor,
but is vouched for by Rabbinowicz, on the authority of Mss.
and the older Editions.

(17) p. 76.

b. B. Bathr. 14b:~ :D*bl MWl HDD 1M rtOT

This is repeated, in almost the same words, in j. Sotah. 20d.

(18) p. 77.

j. Ber. I. 8. (3°) ftWtl IBM fOm 11 btflTO 111 ItTtt m

pa ™ ^fiiai ffv bn nun iw v^p im© mn p-b p-iaa
isms 'iib iba tern im xb« panan na*t3 *ara }nia rmp
pii anur ii nw ^m ma parti 11 ban*© *i : ^oi no^b
pnip pa ma tann Bp boa o*bn pbi tuna pup im« mn
rwa» avw ijm 'ti» mm '1 -tiawi by "norib Kb© ami
i"k rrehm m* pi a*»ro« wo nan pa '1 ia m '1 mnpi
itravcbi tmoft rmna mini© wa -wba

(19) p. 78.

406 APPENDIX

•no nsn nx ib |y6Wi ptmi man a»ii xini TOSta maa

-nba x-jbd pb4 ito pi ibip nx fW0\ mix pirn im«
:imbpoi5 droan yyitfari ^» t^ wa

Cod. Wien fWB 3 (C. Erfurt) om. 2 (Cod. Erfurt) fTftn «
inxwn add ■ (ed. Venice 1522) -mx \D\Hb (C. Wien.) tfVJO niab 4

(Cod. Wien) J*i n*cb

(20) p. 79.

j. Sanh. VII. 16. p. 25e- d. DDJl xn * 'ID UH* tfUJ HT mottn

■hd i^aa by -on nx ffrtrari )wm rv»aa irtu ywihwi nm

: inibpoi i"ab vrorcam on»nn unAri *w i** tfltorn

[The same passage is found j. Jeb. 15d with no material
variation.!

(21) p. 79.

b. Sanh. 67a p x mina© mwna w ba ix©i xwr
nr»aa nan nx ib •pp^b-ra ib ptw wd ira fin pib* jwoao
mix *piri p w© *hd jwrm n^aa dt* ib pawtji wiwi

pro TtoK ib -mix nbm pix nxn i^x xini ibip nx fWiH
nx n^s ^n -nam nbm ib n£ix xini twa ^b rwoiWB
on ataita in inn ax d^aaia rrna* -nawi Dnaaw i^nbx
•jx'Ofc -pnatt ■pSEi©© d'nyn lib ns^ pi wotti x^n p -mx
imxbni -nba xido pb iw pi mix "pbpw pi n^ab mix

: *wi x-jao p : nos a-tta

(22) p. 83.

b. Sanh. 43a:— mam2 i©^b inixbn noan atto* x^nm
nx nTm n^ni qo^D© by bpo^b xm3 dv '£ i^sb xtr
mar ib ixttt xbi i^b* -rab^i xa^ mar ib *-ni© *m bD bx-i©-»
xin miDT4 ^Disn -ia3 xiaoni [xbi* -iex] nos a-tta1 imxbni
w ■**» i^b* noDn xbi biisnn xb -ibx xaiami xin n^ott

:mn mDbttb niipi'2

(Cod. Monac.) add i-iSian 2 (Cod. Flor) nos a-isai nn\a nn5?n «

(Cod. Monac.) add n^b 4 (Cod. Mon.) add i-isian IUJ-i 3

APPENDIX 407

(23) p. 86.

M. Sanh. VI. 4.:— D^ttsnm gWT*H •*! ^Ot|4W F&pttttta

:d"*d navni spattn aba nbna i^a JsrnBrm

(24) p. 86.

T. Sanh. IX. 7:— nbbp ^ -na* lAn na *WW T*tti 'n n^n

bs by ib» ins nrb nr |n?n BWnw d*™ i3©b *6n Dinba
x^wo^bb »ii© nr csna isr -inab a^BCbb atti -man ibiD nbiyn
IbfcniD swn 'i« Ml n:ny bs iron nibtn by inia fsh/n Wh

1*411 mnba nbbp *q 1&kj TDb nibs

(25) p. 90.

b. Sanh. 43a itfpD mapfia W»b lb W Di-pfcbn niman n"n
^n^ n^nsn y*r* ina inb -i£a in*b rmm n-nni isini -ixa
nw ^rva n^nm snm in* pa ib rwm oipba ia& nxnxi am
p*m ipai mn snrn laps mb -iiaa iap& rtm tw nam
m^na V3 a"iJt1 B'nnotja nvoi arrn i»pa j** ib ttwi mnn ba
n* vflaa mp iitonma -iS3i n^riDi aw isd mb niaa -irb
nvna awrfi nm *paptt nobi&n nnai afwi aw ntt pa
pa nb rraa bnrw» rasa itt a^nan jrw Wi mb t&M iDinb
■raa n-nnb m*nft tvm Tpa na jhn iDDa ran *wi aw w
awi aw rmn pa b"a nrnrt tnsna a^nan aw nun n*

:i3W n-nn nair

(26) p. 95.

Abarbanel, TWWTl WE, on Dan. VII. 8.:— n«n oa niO

"iai iwoia aon

(27) p. 97.

b. Sotah 47a:— yw hrm ba*tt ann Dbiyb pan isn
p yn»WD abi irp in»a nroi iwrw y^baa ab ranpa

408 APPENDIX

Tbn *bb Kb T4n TtaiM awi 6*w np bKin ptt itiHD

g|0Dn n* nnpb ran iriK-ipb want) b?tt »i« fan i©kd
n*i rvms>©i d^wi npm pn bnroi own d'hsq nnpbi
nniKn pmi *i iek b^p©i Kin d'Hsai qos ^kh ^bis b^p©
W yw swn lb to* d^*i© mca pen* *©^bK mn n*©
dbvb Tanni p pmn p*D n*n*i d^s-i© nD£© -is© bwb
n©b©i irm nr prwi w tok dwi» tt! d^©dk waiKi
wmnb ^brr© pm* *> "WH Tbn rifcb p©*i *©^bK ■£*! to
^bnipfc p ib "tm p inn ib toa nm Kbi nnwro vmb
r™*b rwi vp1&D* P* awn na unsrw-n Kt>n© ^ bs toe
awr« riKanb * nbn nnK© p» ■man kd^k -o* ^ke roiun
jieisk nb ppn d© 'nttKi kd^ki pKb d^B© Vs tTWWl
rrnspia nm pen *teiri kdw *|b m$ »bi ^k rrm r*wt)
•uroK -i©k Diptan ks rtsn *©^bK bK d^K^n ■» rrwrfi ?wi
:p^m inn Kb aorswi 15H bbDtt wo ns T** Q© D'wn

[Part of this passage occurs in b. Sanh. I07b and forms
the beginning of the extract given as (7) p. 49 above. To
give the text of the version in Sanh. is needless, as it contains
nothing of any importance beyond what is contained in the
much fuller version in Sotah now before us.]

(28) p. 103.

*bi K^-isa p y«r» di©a vrwtonb keo nto ©*<k nipsn von
^k ib nttK mrr p ^k©*i rrnK ik lb nttK bKjra©"' *i wan
'-i TDK now if >TKn K^anb p^oan abi ^KS-n© mK-i lb k*ok
b© frd nrr* Kbi Dib©n inKi^© mn p ^i»» bK*a©^
w rtf id rwr* cpob Dnasn b© yvna pram bs© awn

(29) p. 103.

APPENDIX 409

(30) p. 104.

j. A.Zar.40d, 41a: — Same as (29) except that after the words
WW* M9T1 is added:— : »TB)D p W Dtta lb W lb 1£tf

(31) p. 104.

b. A. Zar. 27b:— JWVtt pm ftfOT D* D1K pim Ktt^ 8b

ba?E©^ *i b« irvma p sei pa nwa nw *nb ib^sa piti
abi imas-ib undo i^d tr^« dots mp:^ »m tsna www
tan we Kfi-ttn ib mn ^na ba*w H b"in biew* H irwi
trm na *tm6 p^son «bi ftna mra ntwi pa inpo *ons
yrato arm p the* buttrtr *i t*» xip ran inttiw wfwc i*
in© v^an *tn by mn* «bi nintjn ^nfciw nr-tt'n Tina
7»^Eb ^nan *OTBxn rwtt W «ns ^d©^ via pisn D'nEis

nnvnnn

(32) p. 108.

j. Shabb. i4d:— fl» -a in ana *bn mb nin n^-Q m

i«tt b"a p^fis id DW«h xn^iDB wh rfw& pa n^b ambi

:t3^b»n wba WTO '»«» p n^b Bun p abi

(33) p. 109.

b. A. Zar. 28a:— n^b imarfi mri nii»n dian insx w am
imsnbT ^os wi ^tt« ^m xb im n^p«« bed nwtt mpj^

:n^pfcb nrSpOD nv»b

(34) p. 112.

j. Sanh. 25d:— "pb2 «n^py "Yi *«W *T) "Wb '1 Kfcbl

•rai na tdk "«wo m firan -"na^i ^owi jnw ^no^b
ren mm p sew na stow 'nb nreb Yk "s^d "pri^sm
tot na *i»w 'i "toa rwa p» p^sa nj *w nan m
in n^b aw mn b^bsi pm ba nw ;n:nn nw tt&m
inn» lib n*« -np^nsn n^b nw mn p^so-j faa bsi npimr*
pa "pbw fib1^ pm» -vn« pan *n» n*h from ^rnisi n^
rnn^D -ies ■ DDn nxi nti an a i^fc Kinnb y^in^ i"a ppttn

410 APPENDIX

«e*> wscpm i£*n ntt **wb ainn i^a xwb fftnri pa a*rb

mitt na mb rrt Tn*« • 'tt'o fiam nana in* p abi yh iek

fftwi mb -pitta ym lib KM iii^taei pi n»tt *pbni ^b

:m*bm awi niE by SMDW *i "in W3Q ^bn 'rt*ttb

(35) p. 115.

j. Sank 25d:— p^ip n^OD *«tf iW WJWl p 2TTW 1"S

sfaoi V*** rtw p$T>ft l^ntan pb^a pb mn*i pmtDiai
•^tt in rwn ^-ii^s-i atnoa Kinn fcwnn fbntt w i"k
i"a p abi -bay mnsntti nm mm attiib mb pin Tins n^oD
p^a abi^n^so bD *jn fH»tw M aittt in ^oi^ 'i atn ir*b
am nnoa ab itt^D -nttiM in piitbi mat ©im niannb •pbw
sip miob aba b** mnsmai Kttinb mpin mi in ao^tt
nrwi wa »»in i"a • trt w*a annpn pa b3# mb nwi
Kin nos iwo in rnttm "pin^n ansia pb'wn a^in b^stt
mittai mna *bJ# amsntti anna mm attiib mpm ababia
: iw DWP nnna ab ^«i sin n©*tt nxm ribna pa ^b itta • anab

(36) p. 118.

inabi Bim ib* d*w nn "parwi rami pw pirn dbi*n
y*wi inabis Damn sp»a pun nbn fniESfl mn nwp ow
'a© n^isn *by\ men nnn imrstti pr« miT mini i*>»
uk Di^b d^is iban man nnn i&a w "o trwi brrtfcn
■povnpwi miiottm pitti»ttm p^ttn bna : mans ^i ua» n©i*
s^nsn n^nnn iisdei nn^i tama p»inwi nuna musvt
•orwi a»n«n n^ni^ ^iiD cmn ra iwanm stsrno tp ton
emaKi rfews tarn bwa omm iut&b^i D^rni po omn^n
D^wapn a^tussn ^i^sn isii uiem w mm ^inb nn parmn
■wa bDb iixn m nnsn xb wm rrmn »b on^bin ^d ^
pb oti ^ bi»» nibab dusi w pia pnu vm nba bi«©
'3» oiptin nta xbs bmr pin ib biiT^ w binta nmi^ teton
jD^biy ^nnob hdb *|b bmr in^a ^msn ma

The above occurs in b. R. ha. Sh. 17a almost in the same words.

APPENDIX 411

(37) p. 125.

r*p D^sn W* Kb n^b fn^a 'jwb* :pp«a ito nsnon d"ht

(38) p. 125.

b. Ber. 28b. 29a:— tVlD-Q rt** -VHOfi ^bipsn 'pyE© n"n
DibD t^EDnb yi onb iek n^n -non b* bKibfc> pn ^3fib
ropm iii:pn bKiE© -je? swan ro-Q ipnb *tw oik »i
imbsn Kbi m*E rfttn ta^ra nn sppttm nnD© mnK nDttb
nis-n ban n*o ffi tbk mw nn n^Km inib^n Kb wok
Kta& )sw«n ima pbw mhm nmnn ini» i*yts pa jte
: rra rin KEb^n nrrtA napn wm ptspn buna© ^kb mn fnp

(39) p. 128.

T. Sotah. XIII. 4.:— yiWflP wwo wroa wik Kin 5|K
•pK^o ipyi «pab ke* HWpl Kbttpb "WOHl Kainb bK^Etfii

:p£K ma-iK pttbai kdi *nnK JW

(40) p. 129.

j. Sotah 24^, Same as (39) except that after the words
ftOR tl^TM IWbai, there follows ; 1£K ntt im *bl

(41) p. 129. b Sotah 48b, same as (39).

(42) p. 129. b Sanh. lla same as (39).

(43) p. 136-

T. Ber. III. 25:— 1X6 DTQDn WOKE tTOHl tTtVP tWOO

:«r* pa**b V5K

(44) p. 136.

j. Ber. IV. 3. (8a):- M *ntt D1K fj nttK^ DK W*l Y'K

412 APPENDIX

(45) p. 137.

T. Hull. II. 24.:— mana 'nan by osnafc wba "ft m&yta
pioy^ TmfcD ipr ritttti irna * -nan Jrtb «oab irm "torn
nfctf ab© fittth ima linos ^by f*i paw ib nfca ibbn ovinia
■iawfemw b>inn ib is* onavM it** i*a aba fwe «bi ib aba
ibbn n^imn ta^yra ibbn in^on© i©jdx imaa *p ^a 5j» ^by
osna© nydstt n-ri raran pa idsaiBDi trap rem ■nn own
twi anipy i oasa bnp *i itanab wrt rooaM rrana "nan by
"iti« tfDK ib taw ns^tt rjna pn «£© nm fatf ieik 1 ib
trcoan ibk twn two b» in ib ies pawi pa trm xnv ib
^nasia i-n^s bo ^msio^s ^brm vrai nna dys ^rnoiti
nttca p w ditro hwa b» nm n^ai jraoo ia:a trw nipy
pmn rmc\ i-oi by irw» nia^a *nm by TO&wri ,«bm
nb^n d^bbn dw ^ wra nn& ba n-ipn bin isrt rr»by»
pai Tiy^n pa mm dia asr dbiyb toi« -wba n mra w

:wbb nann

(46) p. 138.

b. A. Zar. I6b. I7a: ai-nab mibyn nwob K"n osnaiTD Vn
fiibtas d*nn-D pw ishede ipr Tnan vf« ib -nan pri
wia »in i^by ywxn mix iinon pm ^by pa*a ib to* ibbn
wttam b^in ib -yok D^vas to« tod aba nfca ab rtn
idnab ibsa i*n^abn loasa in^nb 'xn»D nnx iitjs own ytep
-jna nai -iaib ^tnn w y"n ib nta» Twnan T*? ^P ^
7Tb bO rw* ket& mi ib n^x nittx ib nia» ^armaib* n^^
nna dys ^arrotn an^py ib tea [ms^b] nosinD i^byi tiem
■nnibWD] inx [tr»] ^waiai wj b* p^byn piM ibn^a m^n
dDniinn ninD ^b nti« itt« k^dd ^bd »i» mpy^i [*r.iiia>i w»
Kbi 5i"Db o"Dni i^^n mizjyb imj 'iSn nsir prm aonn nth
nsir pinna [^niiin w*] iaw* *p 4 "nan dibD ib ttwn
iDb^ nsiat:n dipfcb lie nsi3dn diptiti law nsir pn« tn n$np

APPENDIX 413

trtra ninD« ns b* w6*i rrart inotnD nr *ti b* mm w»ti
: trm it nrrfe nns ba nipn bai rwt: •» inn rrttta pmn

[ ] add. cod. Monac. teste Rabbnowicz.
(47) p. 139.

Qoh. r. on I. 8. p. 4a:— nair "pntf a^on ab DDrmro niro
pnab i^iica pipb "4 ifctf ^tid** lb MrTOMl in n£ lbs -rrmi
iro pi ntt2i ^b ies nnn nirtfi na $"m ib ^rmsa tt»
nsbn ^ee n£b?im r™« nsi * ■'mas maos tdi rmtnifc

(48) p. 146.

b. Shabb. H6a-b: n^nna w4k Sam inn^m D*» KfciS
b^pE mrh n^tronM «aioibia Kinn nin ^in b^b£* pm
annrr *wi© rrt »b^v» m* ^mnab tto *nmi& bnptt abi ke©
■raa i»3 wi ^oaaa * xbvtri mspm nib man mqpi 5mn
ran pa b"a nwn Kb atms am Diptm ]b n^ns b"« ivibs inb
arenas nswnw n«£i xn^tx mbtttnitf iiD*itf£ iwban
b^y tw inab pmn anna amni am rra awi *Trba ii*i
nm otw aiscn wVKh n^s© mb ies amb aian m n^b
nrrwYm by wiab abi 'twin toot ar.^na pa nna^b Kb «dk
mb nnfca nmi ab »mn am Dipaa nm n^nDi wr« niDOT
ivanxh tosh ai^n ana b*ob£3> pi b"a Rantta fWb iins

* Cod. Oxford, Rabbinowicz.

(49) p. 155.

T. Shabb. XIII. 5. pftK 1^2£ p* pana 113DD1 DWban

binn fcu ib^ban w 'i in^rrrawi ]n pahpto in ,p£>i©3 Kbx
nsp« T*fiD 'i itttf iK«n nK sp^W Hftth rYraran n« nip
quin ib*tt ininiiDT^i in isii© r»«J ii^b ixin^ d»» ^:n n«
*TTWD pvab D3DD idixi nir mm* n^nb imddm ^inx cirn

414 APPENDIX

f*m\ ima f*tm ttm ia piaini ima proa p* n6* wra*

"i iek "pfxsfl raft nnnam nbin -ipiki -naiK mrorr BH4sft in
•»»» Dipfcfi TOR irittKb OW pn D^tt tfWi bk n^ai bK*ttc
nK3pi nn^K pb^E© |Wb "nan wan b* nnw RtUpa nran
inm©2 nam nan nnK b* DW» tarroKb ban»i fa nnnrn
ksek •* "pasM irfth will won arrtiri pwdtki jn
dtbdi ^b f*i '1Kb D*>nK3© fiK3© mbnn tstaipriK TTOttpwn
■wa Kb iniK pb^a pit td np^bin ^s>& piK pb$rg p*»
^ptwah nan bDE Kbi D^n TOD Kbi (rrttton

1 Cod. Vienna, and b Shabb. 116a. 2 Cod. Vienna.

(50) p. 156. j. Shabb. 15c almost the same words.

(51) p. 156. b. Shabb. 116a almost the same words.

(52) p. 157.

b. Gittin 45b:— TO b* If^ ^IBK nnb tfTTO 5H rrt nEK

n"o nDtt see rnpib "pwi "naa k* pnpib pin Kin "jn^i
pans nn iek n»b k^i ta piip D^nnin -m* -pn K*d»

nb •naan ot nb ■nEK n^bsco mi* -nn kses w ptt to

jljn awp «b in p-rtp Tt« awi rav» Tro

(53) p. 160.

T. Jadaim II 13:— niKtitttt pK py»tt 'HBOI DWbafi

pK Tb^Ki i*Dtj mro3i& di-bdo bsi an^o p *n£>o twn ™

D^Tfi mk putswa

(54) p. 161.

b. Shabb. ii6a:— innK 'to pan nn qoi*» nn nwo ?*a
pb^xti p* ik np^b-in ^3£>b piK pb^sE fro* tn *nfio W
itw ■ab p» bm pr»n» "tob bva Kb m n*TO r#fl iKbi p»
taMtj nib • rrt in^K bvK pnan ^nb b^K Kb *t*d ^nb bKi^c
^b »i»pi wrma kd^k irsto Kbpi mb n^K p»»n» ^nb IW Kb

APPENDIX 415

■Hp two w rwobb va b*w *nn ast^r **»wa wcnott

: fl** yw n^b "Hp pn^ *i prta fttl rrt

1 Cod. Monac. pro N3^b. 2 Cod. Monac. pro rrnpS^a.

(55) p. 165.

b. Shabb. 152a:— »b tt"E OTtfl p Jttim *4 ID^p b"a

•pnsi «b im&3 y*vb* wino abn nits b"a itok iab rv*n»

(56) p. 165.

b. A. Zar. 17b:— 11* ntt» pWW "Si mfltf Kb tD"fc b"a

jo^bjpa *gwift kee 15$ antral wri pt

(57) p. 165.

b. Erub. 79b. 80a:— bD nn -»£« DfiO mEtf KVi 1t^

•pso n^a baratn n^nin^Bti inarm p»i ran* pttyiB dviapte
:dt»» Di^n mnb imrn *tnx* w jw»b *itri w ■naam

(58) p. 171.

b. A. Zar. 6a (ib. 7b):— to* nsnttl -Q KS^blnn m TOTl
:-noa abisb bwm4,i ^nn "na-tb "TOIS tffi btfifctt

(59) p. 171.

b. Taan. 27b:— TOtTi 1113 W fWltt TO **b TOE an*a

: D^-iMn wia pni^ 'n tok ab d"s raw thuo jib** toed rp

(60) p. 173.

T. B. Mez. II. 33:— Kb rr«fcwi ftpi flora QWiSH d^wi
abi "p-miti rTniown D^-rowtim i^an pr-nt abi pbtfB

: fini

(61) p. 173.

b. A. Zar. 26a- b: *13OTl pW tTH "**p IfDK W "Wl

Twan baa fi*rai Kbi plana Kb npi nana wn d^did
bsb mv ^k Vk piw Kbi y*mm w yttrium rvmoiam

416 APPENDIX

■jkde ^ao "p-mra rai maa nan nanan na tva-ib *pna riT^a
naian i«d pna*>nb rnb^os bam naian pes mb ^ibi naia
-rama bw fm ownb mb^ra bDia -mop DW6 mb'oa bsna
-ptj owrib naia "pna^nb toa in aawi ana nn ^bs nana
•dwi nr T»n w« aba -ram ^ D^anfe *■** naa -im *nn
ht ■nn inx trim na -ina w» bna ^i^ti d^did ^ba
bwrt vn ttrtrt w ^npi ain onwfci «Dn am Wfla

tttrwan awa

(62) p. 177.

T. Hull. II. 20. 21: TO SiaMTS irvia ^ TO axaSE 1C1

WQ D^na ^nir m»n nr "nn tm* tm **Nrt ni&o -noa *pan
yrtwrai ids p eowi **P ri*> ins r* "p*5"1 ra^n© n&MrtJ
lim pb ynaroa f* : pros* jmai pwwp "nsp Jim** rbna
na i^Tob pm pb ■parte T^ I™3 p*W f<w pa "pnpib
: rnwo wi abi fitna *wn ab pa painr-ia pai rmi ftm

[Note. Here follow the stories of Elazar ben Dama who
wished to be healed by Jacob of Chephar Sama, a Min, and
of R. Eliezer's arrest on the charge of Minuth; see above

n08 28, 45.]

(63) p. 178.

b. Hull. I3b:— ttnmr ribas o^nDis tiv ntnn© na naa
maian p^a "P* *™a "& W ">*** 1*™ ^n ^^ ^n V* **a©
rrnDiD ^-m* mi "pa aa'w aD'w pmap am kefd i-nv
c-iD3 ■pn'n n"a ana -a a^n "i "iaa- an 'd nb -qo wn
p^mna ansa aba p D'ODia n-ra* 'nwb pab nsinn©
maiaa "pta pa Pn- ^ "»*** wra -a Qtm nn -raa p*r»a
ba-i©*>- "pa ™^n© anion nt^nfcb aa^a ^aab D^aw iiai*
bamm an©n fnTftfe aba a^na D^aois -ni*- a-noa maa

:a^na oiaaia ini^i y*r»ttb

(64) p. 181.

j. Sanh. 29°:— D^W 1W3t? 1^ baitt?^ iMi ab prTfi T'a

ba f^« ■*« ^bi» ma p atma na :n^^a b« mn^D ^n-iai

APPENDIX 417

(65) p. 182.

b. A. Zar. I7a:— mpn b8i nis^fc ir "pvi n^b** prnn
it ^d-ii mb*tt pmn "maKi 8^81 ni©nn it nn^n nns ba
n-i iatt nsani ww it nn^n nns b8 nnpn b«i rwum tram
nvo rra "»«tt mw nan? pnatt ^n pn-n nitt8 *nn8 8-ion
-itt83© ifoit) **rt cponb n-o©3© hfltt bD 8-jonm -iE8i 8ion
1*111 ma an arbsi T&nb ^nni ^b ins 8b "jDinxi yftM tNftn
©*>8 '83© -nbn n^n* vftj b© m*np 8b8 mm mo8 8b ms
m« nm ■$ »bi* tunc* nibab innpn 8b im 18© bD b8 ©i»
Wi "08 nb ■n^ai vt*T "08 nmn«b inb p©3£ mn ah *ott
7b di©e iiD8 «iab*n m^p iftv iE8i mfmi rt^rn 8^b*n
ma m© npibsb mpn 8b mshsh mno -nno irwa fhaw "7b
nipsns© m3n m© bip 8npi? -i* iti* an an ^8£ an an
nwa ttot ^i 8an 8nn nrn abvn mwari Dsn^E
wrw bip 8api* ta to* 8-ion an n*8 vnan 8d^8 nrwnm
nTn a!wa rmtron mpjns© msa m© ->b i#an irtpim np*i2
nn8t3 w o^n mmia ^©*> 8bi "pan©^ 8b n^8a bD 8an 8an
n^n mn-na iw 8b law* Dtfi p"n law p1^ in© 8b©
an n^iapb ">8n8-j 8^nn am n^fc FWW ©man ban vnwzb
bran nsa^a ppn nsn nn©3? nibpn© nbp n^b mE8i 8ion
nip nnti«pitt nntt 8bi wmo nb m-it: 8ion m nb npn
i^b© 8-nn 8b-j 8inn nn 8^n np WWi bbr« nn©y nibpa©
8^nn «ni 8b n-i^n^^ ^8 trowa "nasi 8d^8 nr« 8b n^tnsi
nn»i 8miiT nb rniT n"n b"8i 8-on an wnp ^8n8i
8b n-psjw nn ^*in ^^ msw bbDtt rnbpn© nbp rmaxpTti

msi ^mrttn p 8"i by i^b? v«oi« irwn

bip nn nn:^ mia©3 nm^© t» rroaa n^ai i^-a i^i i©8n
nn^n^n 8Dn Mm 8nn Dbi^n ^nb ftfira iwiTfri p 8"n mom
*an nrn r^i twnaa i^ra nn p^i8- p^a « onn smn arm

27*

418 APPENDIX

j*wi tan imK

(66) p. 188.

Qoh. r. I. 8.:— wft* 1 b2K fiKn© nnK n©an n©*E
mtt» fW* na ima nb "to* ^mp W * ni£K n^Mnnb
vn» nbnpi *»w *i bsK nsbn nn qra iron ,wo iiapn iaa
nana© pa Dnb tb« n-ipE nnKi pni£ w6» *i i^Tttbn ib
d»i paw «b man bn ainm obisb rr»n ra* T?»wjb nwn

sarin ninniK iaw^ Kb imtn

(67) p. 191.

d^toik birwi wri awon w? Kb© i-d n^nn *i iek tarrtb
n©i* nnMpn n& aarrab pw ^a p* pbina iidki b^ain
W nb© nfcas© Bomb pTtti Dm "jfibn* frrai ^abfc nb©E
ann mibn nbnsb rami aarrw pwi win bbn YiaibM
:pm *a ms maw iin onia rombi st* nnms

(68) p. 192.

Bamm. r. XVIII. 17. p. 75d:— Wn iW* Wt* IT^ba l"a

pun mnn mm pn abia Kin© rrob pan W nth jna
7inn mn© pnn inia b^nnn ana1* mab ann o»a pnh tt*n
7D pn b© hW inia rr*i in ban W* am pimn fma
niin 13a i©25© s"*a nbnintt ms£ inn to Kb baimnai arfi
jonnpn aiiran misn in *irt inbnro tti

(69) p. 193.

j. Sanh. 27d pD -iaa in iT*b inn pnii inn • anyfran
'11 irsba *3i paai pbia n»»i pn taa nnm aiao pa i^ai
nnK raamr&a pha aisna b© n^nb nt* in pro in baitt©
n* b* cik pn ab£ Kin© mnb fan ly« ibin itititm p^

jK^bns sNrna Kin rftttri ksixj jh« nwd rrt 'n^a jhk-

APPENDIX 419

(70) p. 195.

Siphri. § 115. p. 35a:— tWtt IT DDllb +*m TtWl »bl

'use ir»n ii&k nttitn na ttftwa i» *»3» armi ibme "pyi
jnvibai rw Tbiani rm'' DTtfa nib onnm

(71) p. 196.

Siphri. § 320. p. 137b:— pi 'p^ttfi lb» DTODtt blD 1130

:D^nba pa iibi bis ies ieik am

(72) p. 196.

Vajiqr. r. § 28. 1. p. 40c- d:— Ittpl *6 p pfciaa 1 IttK

tusk nwia lib bwq on© p*nan in ixsee nbnp iso rtai
n*o lib p^tm -rnnb^i wo rra« i&ib rftito -nan n^n in
nEbtn oi^y *nnai nuib ■nwi ininn abi it>» nm "prnnm
Vi rrt win mrvm aba »pwf naian pS wo ibm ie»
es^ei o^nban law nba bi by 13 yn itt»» p*o pn rrti
iso n»b ittpi ^tiro ia bai»» '1 iiaa nfcbtf rat hfe* ma*
n^n *p iiek nwo isb anaii on© d^w in i»»a» nbnp
rmn bw nb^yi cm bi^ di*6 jw rna itrib th* nab©
si* b*w* i^n pww b*y ban iiaa ** mean Ytm y£«fci
fctp ban aba rwni »m «h Kin tfmw nun b» nb^yi
J biyna nun bfc ib^yi bis !m WW mn ib^yi

(73) p. 198.

b. Sank 38b:— ptt pair*! D18 11 ltt« HTW 11 ltt»

rna "jk W»* ib taitri w*n bat n^nba 'n aip^i iw&» n^n

i'Wi 71b

(74) p. 199.

M. Meg. IV. 8. 9 cf. M. Ber. V. 3:— i»b 1115? V* WttW

sirr* qM iar» tnn biDoi my «b 'o^ibi &|* pares* raw
by rans nisia m pm nsio nbiay inbsn rrtWtn niy »b
rna by nsnsi inr i^t rtttnan 711 it t*i it od by i» in«o

rwmi Tii it *n ib« ibpana

420 APPENDIX

fwn ww t*i ip b* m^ian ttt 1? **i d^ib TEW iwww
j*tti im» pp*Wfi D^-nti d'hib TtstD w nit: b*i

(75) p. 204.

j. Ber. 9C (v. 4):— ina •jiatT* n)D p rtW Wl an** W

•pb^ttn "pna • nana in nmn iirwn nnp in na* to snara
tcwi 'ib» *6 p *»w tn ai&a p^o w * -tea p»» trt
• yten ^an nDi»« * wk TmnE ym r»wa ttb© d^™ nwrw
ysatti D^n^n mma iia* ab« w fih win pwma pa bsb
rmri p» tati r» -Dbttrvi woi anr

(76) p. 207.

M. Sotah. IX. 15:— rnapya ■ w«* bran w£» w

: "iai rtf^ft i&nn rrDbwri awo^ MBann iwnwa

(77) p. 210.

j. Nedar. 38a:— Wirt TO* W Win W DttQ tfntf W

tfbtf D^DID "pm '** D*0 TTHW BOT *7Dp BTO OWE fQ

:in abisb n^aaiaa n^ain ip-ntti itt« nan n*a aipiis

(78) p. 211.

Qoh. r. on I 8. p. 4b:— minb bra row 'n ina p wan
anat&a aton a^ai mm ■pban nbfc ■we mb pwi sins -©a
•W»tfi jr© b"a win nwo iiby arm ma-an row frtoab bra
nna baiim »*T»a •n© bw nx mb »*i»-i mnm aian p

:m*bra pan wi baab pan p mb

(79) p. 215.

Qoh. r. on! 8 (p. 4b):— ■ jwaab ^wabn fg in phji jrwfr.l
f*ito» p smna bwo pub* -niwt»» p -d* mnrom bw
mm labiab W ma o*o liaina bwi ^ffii a^na p »bi mb
anon bitia wtnn ^ni mb ftem imrtt ^nis ywri ms

APPENDIX 421

jfirww p Jib iek nna na^na Deploy faanan i?n anba *nnb
wjha b^n ^b-m nmna yw p abi rrt pna* "p™ >rwn

-ntai y-inb ataisi iy mnna "pma ywvn rn& mm '*iyi d'o
r.bDno^ I6i roan abi 7*3*6 anbai bva irw 1 "pisa •■pmsan
*pna rnnfi pirn n* p -im** p rtaraw rwn ibisn p

:pro mis min

(80) p. 218.

Qoh. r. on I. 8:— B*>pE*n£ yW3tl Y*1 KOlpa p mW '"I

by "jib tq» -a^msi imx pfctftt a^Mi inia a^baiE W toy
man nan ©a "^ bm pr^a -paya "pri* "pa^ta pna pta
-y pmnifc y»n pb nsa mrri oaiipa nrnam rvrra yas ittf

inia by ibbsnni xb pta byi ffc tdk rraai ^jm pi lp**,o
ban rtnbantai n^aita s^aaa nabB nmm& rann nma San OTtti

: ytanto nabia t»iw

(81) p. 219.

Qoh. r. VII. 26 p. 21d:— MOT$J m'np nn& pypl "V"H 1

nr aita xHi vrtGB nso »i« aipy^ nr ataim -iryba 1 nr nit:
nr aita a"i aiaao -isa fl^a aipy nr msttm a^i p "iryba
nr ait: a"-r nma -i&d « iba nm y©im 1 ina p nwi
jit ataim ina 'n m ana a"i awon iba msnm aoipa p nw
jjrtrta nr ataim y©im *m iry^ba i nr ait: a"i i-pBbn

(82) p. 221.

b. Hagg. 5b:— VQT\ ntSK KOT1 DI^O ^3D -WlO» inon *oaai

an ia naia Dibna ama ^a& imnontt ^s by 3a na"pn toa
p ww 'i -pmoD *n bsai 'wt> ia^by smtaa rp -ma qoii
wviran k& wna amn rrt ^in» -io^p ^a i»p mn n^aan
'nb id^p n^b itiK na^by mica rr* n^b ^n» rrwa rr*ub rwa
»a^i rwna WW6 m-to 'Wimari «»y lb ^n» vm ycm^
n^nje >*ma M8to ainnb n^b in^x la^by n^itaa it rrt xa^nta
ibrf »b ib *w» imwi nwa (n^sb) rrnfc ■wnrimni K^y n^b

422 APPENDIX

asbtt ^ttp w annttn tfb lima i«ti *t abi anna i-nast
™» rran p mrp vn rr»tw ams ap * imbtopi imp&a
matt fis* man onb it* Juttw njp jb* *iw*i ikb pan rrt

maia b» Dnfcnn nmos B'tttt ns* mn»» ft*a Drnann nmoa

: abi*ri
(83) p. 226.

b. Emb. ioia: — man p sww ^mb *wn] awi b"K

^npi n^ob bw *W rrt n£« piro Kilo "da a*»nm nap-in
ibbn D^pimn deo pinn DniD *»»ti »b«i tomato nv a^nm
ami: in« "in i^b* "paiya ttt& d-oib p rtrrowi by i^tt
tj "pi* na wn top **» earnib Dv*nn na "pp-irmt? p-ra
: "fti taw ana* iryirri roirw Q^s Tfiimsi bra d^»k 73np

(84) p. 228.

Shem. r. XXX. 9. p. 53c- d:— Sttim ID b^btta pin fitttttt

wn "pa de> wm TOib inbnfc sn^p? *ti smr* p »ktl
rnwb ainrotb wik aim rms nna »in» mi -irann nn"pn b»
in» in» pti de mi -p i^« nn"pm Dibs ntw ira «im
■ro» D^nba srntta sb nrn aba wnm "p« Dnb n*a ik^e
■pa Dbi*n» wi ib 1113^ nn©n tiK ieee ir» n»b tow
owbiwi ib ytb» p b"s nnrcn wsn ^inn bDbtsb ^oi dik
ib^s«i maa yn^n bn ab£ n^«3® nn"pfi bE w*n D^mnnm
n^nn ib iieh p btt» irrop «bia btabtMa i^a srva* nm* Qis

:*qk aba pan nai oifc»n n» abrt

(85) p. 231.

pn Dwasn pi minn p nnb -i^k n^ma wra Kin 71m
rwn b« 'n -uaaoi n^nsi nmnn p laiatt ibn^p »bi diainDn
nsn nrn o^n Dpi K^b^i ib in^K Dpi Trims d^ aaw i^n
iaaio 135-11 wpsi iiiaipi ^nbna •jinta 1W a^nDi tfwaan p
rrmw wra iw*ni b*wi o^iem f i«i Tbta rmni bD ^ wt
D^ntD^b ^inb 7bin aitan i^d ^dhi n^nsi D^ainsn p b^pmi
:Ktib5?n nwiM? n»nnia i»mi Kttb^ii B^wn *»md» aan

APPENDIX 423

(86) p. 235.

b. Jebam. 102b:— fbm WOSP *** K^£ MM >rt IKK

Kbi ti n* Epab **■! tnpoai WKaa awi nwfi ma tfb

era fin Dnb fin n^ro ^ rraw rrt itttt aroa pbn ikwt

(87) p. 237.

b. Ber. 10a:— JTip* "tfl a^fO K^-Ob K^E KWl nb 1£K

rwob yw *iw mb mM w mb^ Kbi nicia rnS1* Kb
i«tt aba 'n n£K nbi*a isafla nnn'M xa ow ia a^roi Knpi
rrtfi »b» mp* ni&Kb mrw b*rw noaa w rrfr" Kb mp*

iWrtfi dsrrob n^a

(88) p. 239.

b. Hull 87a:— Kna Kb ram mi ^ *arb k^e Kinn b"K
*?oi ffnn ns^ nan ^ a^-j tfnn -^ Kb mi k-d» to mn
rrt i»» ibid maa* 'n K-ipi j-rsnob b^» nemo rrt tbK m-i
nbn w aw Knaw ^b m\ mm >»y» Knbn nam ^b oipa
KnnK ^Kp aero rrt iiek TW va Kp rem ■* anwia jw
■rtaiK ^k niais nvYflsa w ib -iek *w «n woa wi iek
■won© ^pin ib toh rwi wn p bssi ^ik rawn two Kb *jb
nriK nana b© did b"K wi ibaK© nnKb pi * n^K ^bSK
^k nana bio did ib -iEK btaia nnK ownr Di*niK ik nmti
D^ainr nnsa-iK mtP nana b» did mtjin bip na nnsi nnw
■p-npi wi ^b™ pa rms»fc nmKb rw -pii* pn*i 'n to«

jcoarnb na nn&ttti nniK

(89) p. 245.

b. Sanh. 38b:— Wi 'na bK*£tn 'lb K^tt Mm H* "YaK

inana n nKtt tan wHbbdi nnia^ byi diio by TitMan 'm a^ns
torn aewn rrt nornrw ksk ^pzw oniD Kinn b"K rrt w»b
KbK rrt vai ^»3 ^^b ^«3 ^bip iana» nbsi my TOfi ^b
kh lb KDti b"K wi Knp wm *Ba KDn ^n Kip vn»i3

424 APPENDIX

(90) p. 247.

b. Pesah. 87b:— WiS) npll arthffl ^att WV*m *1 tea

*d*W nwarr Tab i-ihdib banana na"pn nw np-js banana
ids a^na idpwq p^ia "pa itoon wd a^a mwi b"a-i
^»- stoa pa isawK pa ibai *tti de atn liwin n»« ^2
bWD ina TEbn Tb bst:^ Ufnri lb -tea »HWifl lab piajfrp abn
iribia pban ro*n "Wi w»W abi oiwa ¥* wdmi *i mb
naa ansnap aniabtt iab **$ was »dw ^a£ "d*o» man*
: ppbo lew p*t& ana to aa* rrt

(91) p. 250.

b. Joma 56b. 57a-.— 1*0 anttfi VGm ** IBmj KW! ttb 1tt»

(92) p. 251.

b. Gitt 57a:— wipima ^-vip© »a^an wi lona ainn *tt:a
na pnma iw pa nr *»as to na a^na ias pa rrt "112a
■ps© ftitai anm mb* pattm© pra banttn p» qa "n»a

: jntfl mb* ■pntm

(93) p. 253.

Ber. r. § 82. p. I55b:— rrrap wvnA 71*30 napni bm ntttil
ana pan^ tin jwt» wi ikf ^a*i dnb tv*a a^n nnsa fna
abm *ai i-we d^n ^naba a^nai ^aa wba© wna ainrr
fro napni a^nai mw» biaaa bm n-napi •ptna biaaa nibs
^an b"a win :poa ^a^ va nn-isa onb n^a awi nn-isa
biaaa dto* 'a nasfci bm rmap d* ■nwtt m*n ^naba iti»
Twaa biaao i-tob wn ^naba itDsn n^ai nabsa "pE^a
:*pm ^m bm n-iiap d* dim* 'a naiftai nsbsa

(94) p. 255.

APPENDIX 425

mb* is-d i®« tn d^ies-i EFirt sd bisrc ^ '3» iittsin
g-js D\nbs sin -iibs BWi pft sbs isd ama rs psn b* dis
*an p* -itis D*>nbs ihfii rrosin avem rrt litis psn b*
lips© oipti bD ^sbtit? *i *»* sin sbs antD "pat nmn una
dis nwa men ps nti mis ibstn 11m Tfaa nm©n fOTBH
■jsn nmn "ps Gtibsn aisn ns una*] jrtb itis iDmitiin imtibsn
nnmi ibsb tnnftn * ttb* itibsn Di^n ns arrtu ma*] aba
i£#n it] sins dis m?Eb pnb itis n^ttti nns nti lib nspn
iDmitiin wrtsa f*m [?isnti] oisti Disn pa nsma mtti
sbn imajbb s"s irnsn sbn mwwi *"*] n»j<n sbn tnsb s"s
n^nbs bs 'n ambs bs nmm pn nti mix ibstn pmi htftrc
mi sin aba -j»d aina f»» DWV on pb itis rm sin 'n
n^ttti nns nti 13b nspn nim ibsb *i wtahn * TttH mro
oimzrus ioip oinbioa tori ©sisn ins M p«ib» pb itis
ps sipii ia*n 'n ombs bs amm ima vr* ibs»i nm
mp*i t^i sbs nmn ps isn mo isipii ran *&\ pb itis
itis ai©ti nns nti isbi nips nim ibsb iai witibn * rfl»
iim papisms pta pstiis itisi ttftfia ins D« pttbE pb
ni»np pb itis sin Di©np ambs in amm inti mis ibsan
i^iitibn ib litis sin ssp bs sin sbs ^sd n^ro ps ntin
»np pnt^ w -itis a^»ti nns nti isbi mpz rwrn ibsb ^nn
wnpa iDm nn"pn sns ^i em pi^ h itisi ntcnp wq bDn
D^nbs rwnpa wnr riD^inn yiynpa lawi ntrnpa i-iim
iDibxn *jDm ©Tipa o\nbs rnrnpa syn n©npa n^isi s-iid
b^ n©^ D^nbs nwiipa inciti tnipn ^bti *» 'i^bn ntrnpa
nvnpa wvr ns^©n ■o'n D^nbs rtfnpa rwn i»ip «od
TWtt nDitiD to wnpa TW^ >mp .wip smr ns 'n 5|«?n
n»s bn> ^a ^ti a*»«Di ps inti mis ibs»i nm »iipa
nn^bs la^sip ban ismbs 'ns pb ton i^bs D^imp D^nbs ib
w i^i^tibn ib litis i^bs i^sip ban sbs ^sd a^ro ps
^^ti b^a mip pb itis n^©ti nns nti vb nspn rwn ibsb

jninnp

426 APPENDIX

(95) p. 265, 304.

Pesiqta. r. XXL p. 100b. 101a: — dS ana -Q S^n h *H3S

san sin sds n^b ioti ii^s d^nbs jnn nrren ira 7b -ras^
s-d Tb ^as^ ds sns *o **n *n -ies s"-; — "wi sin sds
n^nn ^S nai d^sn d^s n* S^S "JI^S d\nbs inn WffOfi

:dD£* 'n im sbs ^sd

(96) p. 266.

b. A. Zar. 4a:— dis-j snso n-Q web inns *i inb nnntttt
tum* wow in *w tw no^rn son-ia rrt ipa» sin bna

upas p by n*nsn tmttm bD£ wr» dnns p-i n^nn n^b
n^b p^o£ nnsma awo n^b rtnri i»ti kww bn ns dn^b*
spi nnsitn smo h*4 Ttn *f»fc sbi inb -i£s sbi p^nte^s
irvnttna wtti* inb ies m^nn©s inns in sns rrt "WXtJ
■jb ittnft rn sbi sin bra disi ib nn*s sbi rrt nm n^b
•na ^snpn ^ssnn inb ■mtsm w» inb -itts spies m »«w»
pwatti ps inb tos jirwrn "pns »#t n^b nfcs inb nt»
»»* rr»b vnaa w«i sb w* pw fmott jaw tdim
rmtm disb mm imn n»b bans dDb bittnaa inb ies ns f>
oflwa tana 12^13 *tm mms i»3iw -insi mms -ins s"Dn m

: tins nnn mwa *nw isdie

(97) p. 270.

Ber. r. XXV. 1. p. 55c:— 11ES inns imb ibStt 'pomp^S

mtae lb ma» n*b onb ntts ^lanb wwa i^siia iss -pa lb
f«m b*£ 73ns ns npib 'n di^n ia ibnb m&sii nmpb i»d
•jbnb toaoi nn^pb "jsn tom airm dns nmpbb ds dnb ies
w p^»n nsn sttinsn n"s ■psv -ponti ns inn npib ^^n

: inns

(98) p. 272.

b. Ber. io*:— tiete aw inns 'lb S^tt sinn lb "Ml
^D&tt mnnn snnfc mb n^nm ia dib»ns WA m-an -inb
wma nm bis« man rwi *wna nin nir#i3 sn rnraa bistD

APPENDIX 427

■pa iab x^top "parao prp»-n Kb-j pna rrt lEtf wnn aiinab

:"jb *OEp ab d^aitto p«vn

(99) p. 274.

b. Shabb. I52b: — jrflatta irvniaa inaa "nb kfe a-inn b"a
rppoa aa^n s^tio aia iiaan aoa nnn rnrm d^-ji b»
ba urern mri Ann io ow ytro dinn b"a rrtaa bunstfe
Bftth ©in a*i nnab HTWI fibi* iiroawi d^p ims ©in a'"*

:nw fiff* awi nbi* intrtwi bt>a

(100) p. 275.

b. Sanh. 39a:— pm daifiba 1TOK Wi MftB XlJin b"X

b^ naa©i atta ibatowi Tis by aa© bapm^b rrt n^api sin
»n«n b"a artpatn t:"£ b"a rrakti kwi ana wtFH Tis
»» inr binr% na"pn n^a wnrti irwi arfrng iab graft
aba p iw «b pi aon *» f nan© wn» rp ya» WttBni
rpTfi Y4* nmo» tin -nra ^bE dbi? b« waq ibai istan
pm d^ d^sn awi am pm da fbia na mi am *nraa da
na"pn p oa •ptioia pa© D*6ron noina mn vnarn »bts
binr« b© dmrm* ptab **} baprm na np^Ma
* mpii atrial *yi pa damba inaa ,crt ntm **ti ¥*
m airom a^a a^n w biap ^a^a nwtjb rmap ia mmn
W sen rcaa 'n nan ■* a^nai b^ats aniDa b"a D^ts ib*»a Yitt
iiri msa areata ipv na-na b"a amaa anibiaa apbo
rianja wa*h «aa aa^ ab ni&» bai a^nai

(101) p. 276.

b. Sanh. 99a:— iritis max Wb a^E aififi b"ai W>Wl

: nxn^ i^by iTaai 'n rnn T^byi

(102) p. 277.

b. Succ. 48b:— inaa *6 ii»» mnh w» aim b"«

428 APPENDIX

rpm»E ywm a^na- xnion r™ap-ja ywtb a^na mn -»a b"a
j*»tj rra p*tfi a-m mb piuns ana* srmm

(103) p. 278.

b. Sanh. 91a:— *m *OaiTH Witt* ^fca 'lb 83^*) aiHfi b"a

nam nnb bvn 7b biEEa b"a *m ap ^ mwn a-is# Yin am
mp^a Bf^TO "p-itabfi ^b 1531 nab Ynayb -naatt c-n i©a ^btsb wn
iaai nm onb iJpn ibso wrt irna iasi nabn nwn d^ p*»
an^b* oso ^w iaa ya ib itoa twi itt> m mptn ima
nam dNfl i&i» Y^a* DTTCfii nsjn n^ ya© Diptsa pb tcai
■oa* mrri r&psb at yaafc nna ^a can n^ai n^a nna by
-n&a "fro nwai •pni&n irrab mrw Y*»fi nraa ^in oiito
yrbn aba ia ya DW» nail inb nb? rtama fttA i^an a£»
:nwbn ibia abanai trws rrf inttb ma

(104) p. 281.

b. Sanh. 9ia:— fob *n ao^DB p jttWMfe i»na amn b"a

fob Ti b"a yin mnn wd ym y*n WB yrrmaan rm
«>"a ab ^n 11m ^n Tin abi yn ab we prmftan a^a^n
'(trinpyb aot^ww ia swot aKnaitp ^a ^b n*np a^a^n b"a
: bitan nam -ottn a-ipn pi* awn p WW nna na b"a v**

(105) p. 282.

b. Sanh. 39a:— yia iwb an atnnsn 'ib -ioip mb -nsa

yna la^rnia wia psa ab pbntn ya ^nb toa m a^yb

abi ^an wna ainn b"a nibaa abi na^ab mnw "la^ab nrnttS

The same story is told in Jalq. Shim, on Zeph III. 9, with
no essential variation.

(106) p. 285.

b. Sanh. 38b:~ DWob »vnrtt6 ^"i^i pKU ^an "j^n: a-i 112a
rv-na1 a-ib imQ ainn -rtaa Tirrt ab ab in tirr* n^i^a1 ana
inr b"a w* ^^a^ ^ba ri& *n ba nb* ntsa m»r bai a*vo

APPENDIX 429

inbss2 wi ^ impn ^e© *3 n*nm inn a©D is©© pitrjE
rrab an?©sb «ttn ab p as in iqrtnan bs in -ran bs n^nn rnb
awi n^np4 sb nsniparmKi ib^san p-a3 xniD^n b"*ob

:'im a^nbin "pss pa ax rtn -ie*oi

1 ■*!•* Cod. Monac. apud. Rabbcz. 2 in^tj idem. 3 -p^n idem.
4 h^yfrap idem.

The above is contained also in Jalq. Shim., Mishpat. § 359.
(107) p. 287.

ra^an ab *m ab nb*t>b-j a-v^a 'ton btftrn aniinr nnn^b

iirten ^obifi prw wrm fnop'nA impsa

(108) p. 290.

b. Sanh. 39a:— *n tto fc^ns *>nnb «o*nq ainn rrt 1E8
wni* na pn» nr*rrcn mna pan ins *a bvntro *pa*n
•p* two* irnto mb -iek YEA pan o^iarr bn iwi pm

(109) p. 291.

(110) p. 292.

(111) p. 293.

b. Sanh. 38b:— mm iittbb up© ivi wi* «"i ann pn
oi-iip^a aba 13© ab pni^ 1 tan oimp^ab n^©n© ™ jhi
pm1* "V'a is© ipsn ©*n b*n©i ompifia bna a^nnin i-ni* b©
bwi xtsbsa bth n©TD pisn inm©n cwtan rtpw aipro bn
msnb 'n -nil dumb a© nbnai rmfl nan ittbtn a-an na ainba
irrw nsisn bab aifiban iiba ibw a© in bia»n mn wn nx

430 APPENDIX

f6 ^ba wz*\~\p D\nb« ib n©a bna *fl *>* ■« im* dyo
i»» f nan -ina *fl bihro 7**d to i^ba i5»np ban wrbp
aw ?w pwn i^n frfcrd *1 i* t#b ft ifrirt D^nba iDbn
raw ain Tins ttnpn ra prm n"ai prm "cmD *>b rab 7nn
attar* 1W* WTN&3 n^a^E rib*fc bra a^bfc&n fbiaD d"^^ -qi
Kb* i»a man twto *h -& ^nbiD n^snn MriNito •ptriip itawjn
yi i*th trfe tfttft ib in^ awn Tfft -mai ib -ma wnab
aba bin wd» m«r nna ^ra -t? anip* ■** *i b"a an^p^
©"n mwa nbnp ab ia mm nbnp npisb mai f^b ina
p nr*ba 'n b"a a^p* *i "nan npisb -mai ^-ib -ina a^m
ina aba nibnai OTMB bsa 7bD rmi bsa 7b sma anip* avw
rrton Biinb q-ifc-nci rt« nt^b aoD rpsnfcb -mai aosb

(112) p. 297.

(113) p. 297.

b. Menah. 110a:— nail ail W* p JWD» *1 ilea IJW

n^nba abi ba ab ona n^ai ab« niDmp rw*a smt rra
jpibnb *pi bsob n& "pirns ir^b abfc 'n aba

(114) p. 297.

Siphra 4C: Same in substance as (112), but ascribed to
R. Jose [ben Halaphta] instead of to R. Shim'on ben Azai.
The saying is also found in Jalq. Shim. § 604.

(115) p. 299.

Echah. r. I. 1. p. 10a:— TO1WI TflDDID "CP ba-fl&i iba ab

rrtnarai rmain mwn ruin D*nwb rtarcm rbvosn obi* b»

jrniri tw

(116) p. 299.

Siphri § 329. p. 139b:— nar am ^a ^a ^D nn* nn
OTaw rrrwi *nfc -man erava m«i ^a BfhBrwfe nawn

APPENDIX 431

bw ■pa k»» IK *W n^nba "pai "6 D*nBi8i vrtm pn^iTa
mna'i rvnaa ^a bti a*t»ib abn ynnb ab r™>ib «bi nwinb
•o«i ITOan ^a ttuoi H ibKian b*n«n Tbtt 'n tdk sin ifciai

:D*>nba pa •nybatii *pnna

(117) p. 300.

Mechilta Jithro § 5. p. 66b:— *1 1$ WT1 rim K«fUH

jrv» »b» 'iai imoip pa psai to wn nni wwn i*>ttn ftwo
** ''DDK aba p rrpwi tie toib dbvn nitt'iab hid yinns
^a asb -j^n^b *oa -oyBb i» nttm by •»» dm by ^» tpvAh
nipt is sin *w ^a ^ nriy nn to«b» an"yb *m nrn Dbiyb
wi iitan ^k mans "* ibawi b»w» ^bfc 'ii •«* no una ^k
Vmtr\ ^a *■ ^a tttfTa wwin snip ntn bys na towi jinn*
p rvrnfln me ointiiKto pweb TOi»n |ipta -tola jft *i

(118) p. 301.

•pri** inia nr« ma abwr fen i^b tos WWD lifcbsn dia

iwtji myob wron biro ib -wn vntti owrib ne

(119) p. 302.

j. Shabb. 8d:— n* to© nm^a pun to» vnba nab nn
rrt n*»« iai Tb^fc ppm b"a v* by y©n tfinnb *wi labia
sma nb© *i iaa iayi iirta Tn© "n ?innb* T*ta wi nrn
wmrti "h vtrtak xwwn maabd nb© *i aba po a*«tp ri^b

: ^mby

(120) p. 303.

Shem. r. XXIX. 5. p. 51b:— 1TOS n"X T^^ tl "»D3» a"l

^5« TO"pn n^^ n» i« na * vn ^bitj dti nos fbrt b»»

:n» ••b p»» D^nbK v»

432 APPENDIX

(121) p. 304.

Pesiq. r. XXI. p. 100b: same as (95) above.

(122) p. 306.

Debar, r. II. 33. p. 104c:— DiWlMJ iba D* ai2in]n ba DtW 02

pan ban wn jwo is rrrtri n"a a^nn bx lw n-iba r«

in m^n ^n© eMfihirtb m^n twi vrtn na mn ■* 'n Das
*6tt na irnri h'lr'Viati o^p rvmb -pn* im tram ima^
p» u*j* OT n^ib D^na •pEbiiBfc on© prflfc impw ba-n*n
'aa na"pnb v^P* F& •"^ aipm ?*& wrw maa 'Ma
nab© b* na"pn o*a ana 'n hwu tmp rnp «mp rwnp
■pita nana nm tost »Tp bio nai b"a nrn piosn n^atta
-ins ©*» nam na rf#i nrn "wa a-^nn ba dw an yphgtt
b«hir« *w& aba p abi n» ib ■pn nb p» nm p ds ^b vai

:ma 'n trv&fi 'n

(123) p. 308.

j. Ber. 3C:— 21tt© DM n'ffl *b» nimi mw impl
an va ttusan rviron 'pas? maia nar b"n dm nam *i w
see b© nana in p mnain mw« nibs &"© rpb am p 'pa
w» mn via rnaa prw^ to* pro T* baiEE in nana nm
iaw vrtu ynnp p* ™ ^s*tt W baa rnwri rnw "pip
twaa n»ttb ib wo iab iba D^wia irn aba? itrnan n»o

(124) p. 308.

b. Ber. i2a:~ yna» Da wfi *eb trna-in rnw pttpn
bffltro n»» nw V* -owa nanai n-nayi aim rraa -torn

ntronn t«B Dibaa naa» aba p rmpb wpa "pbiaaa qa
aba p rmpb iBpa -pbiafia wra -jro *i wi to »w pwon

wroprt nao *n"aa nan p^n rmijnn xva Dibaa ^aa©
nao ntt^a ywom nmnn w Dibtaa naa aion an b"a amoa
ntttnn i»tt nibtaa -iaa i»» an b"a n> r tftu w^apqb

* »5in 3"» *»n Rabbcz.

APPENDIX ' 433

(125) p. 309.

*i m-re rrt p-raa a£2tt in pm tn fiWA imabti -ma
isoan ^am raa ba aipy* anpvi b"a©n 'ton V»pi p jurw
idee npbinon ptwi J p 1XOS! nibab aipyi ©p^a Dab nrasn
man vetw amaaa bios mora •* Bribn on mm to» nra©
'n bran *£© toj ib ma» to xm *rv» pnr» ^ai Mtitaw
laaba ^» *p ina aba Tibs pa© n©a niaa ma ft tmbM
-naa o© linn na*i iraa aipy nna n*© nmaa ina aba
ywmu »b irmtaw tost wi pn "nan -cri obvb irrota
mix Detain w» naipnn aipji maa wrttMp ab rah m
7b» nib b©tt nan w w ■n'aa pn& w tan ^a©na
nb ©^ -naan xb ia:a nb ©^ n^an aa rrmp ipi* rornn©
w» nrpnn nnaa ^an tdk im a^ai-ib nma* ib^nnn -or*
aa^bi amroai "p^w HOThn ^wa on bipa ima d*wpi»

(126) p. 313.

(127) p. 315.

Shem. r. XLIV. 6. p. 73c- d:— Tom mab DSVOab TOT a"l

(128) p. 315.

fprt i©n& d©«

* Cod. Vienn. nwab ininx.

28*

434 APPENDIX

(129) p. 316.

•paiwi* mpB ni&Eb Tnna "OMBtw mwtriittab wgnbttai'v^
:rim ba*ri am Ban w*mi *na»ai&

* So the Mss.; text has fc^STOo.

(130) p. 316.

T. Par. IIL 3:— blttflWP 1 DIM N3$9 1 i»b TTD*

: or-ina

(131) p. 319.

Ber. r. XL VIII. 6. p. 97b- c:— tomb rtfiWl bD ftW V*

(132) p. 320.

Shem. r. XIII. 3. p. 24d:— "tt6 fttt mm « *0 «"l

WD t»t] wm Kb nt* jwA ns> pnwD peia pw V*

or* nrio^ «^pb p o'h b"a tab na •^rrtDn -o 'hod ratm
DUO in mm nn"pn© pV* »in a^sbb da aba DWd b»
■pa iab by« aim ta inn ■omn tw4*i m» rowsn d*s>
fro *mn nr* p tpt atDnt? rra latna yns>b na nsngm
nnx nn"pn b"« y»w b* mm »bi onj*fc 'n myn tm
by na^ia *?b spans wn pb ra man yen* rv»»pn

: inwaia

(133) p. 323.

Jalqut Shimoni. on Ps. LX. 9 [Hebr.; 7. Engl.]:— ^b 8"f

m*pn pn» piian 7b inw dk [•»*]* p ffrw V* "ttb*
•WW* twa -ttb* tmrna m** ■nn osib -mai D^n* rrma
nanm bnp£ nn"pn ,p«w ib mam ds man *i .it by

bbsm toast? nawra won ^nbips: T» Mm ^n tinb tek

APPENDIX 435

tnap a«i noun r*£ a^neai .mbsn w»^ ib *wn 'n ba
in mroTB nspb» *tni [anb -nriK] rvnp* np» ra"pn •pa© 7b
ippinti rrw .nsnb "Wpw TWO im&» (fa p *f*i p
wnm n^an *ti »an pa b^ro nn"pn "p«» Twaa1* on
rrw ^nta unawn ie^de m pa oft* b^in© er^-rana

:rran b*on

(134) p. 325.

Siphri § 48. p. 84a:— ttm TIRO Wl* IPtKO p p*WD '1

:dwq "nm

(135) p. 325.

Siphri § 331. p. 140a:— TWOT D^rVD *» "mi Dp5 n*>»S

■wMnabi "tn bn^nn OTfO nbian >kj "na ptwai *iw "ns w#*i

■praiprai kd»k Ti TKHta abn w* mn pi man iba ob»x

(136) p. 326.

B. Bathr. 91a:— mm T\ ttt* ipn "Q pn in TaKI

ww mn iKbrnaa pm nmaa ms-o nn mbnw nmasn
[ma«] ban* nn mm tm rrw nina -vinta aaa «eb yw
nnii&nb n^ta apitt •wttb "pro rrnnai nw&bbs pan una*

: i won

(137) p. 327.

M. R. ha-Sh. II. 1.:— nUK pnbwa Wl* 'pTOtl p» BK

ibpbpwtt aia bna «nnn rrm pbnpB rti reroana wawib w
tyvwi pa aba pbnp* w ab» wpnn iwon

(138) p. 329.

b. R. ha-Sh. 22b:— bntt mnn rvn* ftoftn rtt fiDlttana

:'w nna a*a pcwwi ibpbp bipbp ma pan wi "lai ana

(139) p. 338.

pna p*»b* bab pn mrin ■ydhstd bee rare mnnb na"pn

436 APPENDIX

TOM DirQKE raratti nipttn romb Dmna nana D^ipno
Tnai pai pwe wip ^b* bab ama fn* i£*oi WW
XNp romb -n* nam v*^Pti W cin^ax * iek jrt* ba
rrn&a i* wp* w ■tfwb ti Q»d iimm nmnab nsns tna
pte nna dh^ abi 'n *ied s^ro rmwn Tbsnb arm t^ik
n^riDi lyitm pis ■oho b© Tturn by pis ^b£ inw by Db^b
:pD i*it -pan pa «m rrt* bab po aim

INDICES

I. INDEX OF SUBJECTS.
II. INDEX OF PERSONS.

III. INDEX OF PLACES.

IV. INDEX OF O.T. TEXTS REFERRED TO.

V. INDEX OF N.T. TEXTS REFERRED TO.

VI. INDEX OF RABBINICAL PASSAGES
REFERRED TO.

I.— INDEX OF SUBJECTS

Angel of Death, 41.

Ark, to go before the, 59, 125,

199.
Ascension, the, of Christ, 76,

271.
Asherah, 165.
Ass, associated with Jesus, 154,

211.

worship of, 154 n.

and lamp, 146, 152 f.

Athenaeum, 168.

Baithusin, 328.
Baraitha, 21.

Bath Qol, 135 n., 184, 240.
Be Abldan, l6l, l64f.

Athina, 167.

Nitzraphi, l6l, l69f.

Beth Din, 81 n.

Books of Minim, see headings
of sections.

Cocheba Bar, War of, 28, 45, 84,
94, 131, 212, 225, 238,303,
313.

Contexts in Scripture, 273 f.

Deity of Christ, 76, 102.
Demiurgus, 263, 299.
Deposition of R. Gamliel, 386 n.
Diagramma (Ophite), 155 n.,

372, 3.
Divorce, law of, 58.
Dualism, 262.

Ebionites, 266, 379-

Ecclesiastes, book of, 4, 197,
385, 391.

Empire, Roman, adopted Chris-
tianity, 124, 185, 209, 249.

Epiquros, 119, 295, 366.

Essenes, 200.

Evangelion, 149, 163-4, 239,
390.

Food, burns his, phrase ex-
plained, 57-60, 187.

Gehinnom, 118, 125, 187, 191,

226.
Gemara, 19, 349.
Giljonim, 155 n., 373, 390.
Gnostics, 321, 368-70, 374.
Gospel, 72, 357-9, 390.

of Matthew, 45, 150-2, 239.

Greek Language, 89.

Haggadah, 12-14, 24.

Halachah, 11-12.

Halatz, 235 f.

Healing, in the name of Jesus,

103 f., 108 f.
Hebrews, Epistle to the, 265 f.,

272, 289, 293, 318, 322, 339,

378, 380-1, 395.
Horos, see Metatron, 286.
Horseleach, daughters of the,

183.
Hitzonim, 200.

438

INDEX

439

Jalqut Shim'oni, 25.
Jelam'denu (Midrash), 25.

Kingdom, near to the, 48, 89.
turned to Minuth, 209.

Loadstone, 101-2.
Logia, 151.

Masoroth (delatores), 119, 174,
366.

Massoreth, tradition, 8 n.

Mechilta (Midrash), 24.

Meshummad, 366.

Metatron, 286-8, 373.

Mezuzah, 158.

Midrash, 22-5.

Rabbah (Rabboth), 25.

Min, Minim, Minuth, see head-
ings of sections, and last
chapter of conclusion, passim.

Miracles, 31-2, 114 f.

Mishnah, 17.

Mumar, 174-5.

Nazirite, proverb concerning

the, 186.
Nebheloth, 174.
Notzri, Notzrim, 52 n., 164, 170,

172, 344 f., 379.

Odeum, 167.

Pedigrees, book of, 43.
Pentecost, 328.

Persecution of Christians, Q4
141. '

Pesiqta (Midrash), 25.
Philosoph, 146, 148.
Philosophy, Greek, 106, 168.

Qabbala, 8 n.

Qoheleth, see Ecclesiastes.

Rabbah, 212.

Rabbinical literature, 17-31.
Rabbinism, central idea of, 7.
Repentance, 322.
Resurrection of the dead, 232
279, 313, 322.

Sadducees, 319, 334.
Serpent, the, a Min, 199.
Shema', the, 3, 310.
Siphra (Midrash), 24, 350.
Siphri (Midrash), 24, 350.
Soul after death, 274.
Synagogue, the Great, 4, 6.

Talmud, 17-21.

of Jerusalem, 20 n.

Tanhuma (Midrash), 25.
Temple, destruction of, 129
382-3.

rebuilding of, 283-4.

Tephillin, 158, 200.
Torah, 2-7, 15.
Tosephta, 21-2. .
Tradition, 8-14.

Zugoth, 2.

II.— INDEX OF PERSONS

th™rr\ A th% IannAaite Peri°d (See P- 350>' are distinguished
thus (T.), those of the Amoraite period thus (A.) after the name.

Abahu (AA 62, 109 f., 161 f„
173, 176, 266 f„ 270, 278,
303, 310.

Abarbanel, 95.

Abba bar Kahana (A.), 209 n
Abba Shaul (T.), 65.
Abina (A.), 290.
Adam, 199.

4*0

INDEX

Aha (A.), 174, 204, 210, 257,

306, 393.
Ahitophel, 60, 65, 70-1, 75,

192.
Alexander the Great, 282, 331.
Amemar (A.), 308.
Ami (A.), 109, 279, 308.
Amram, D. W., 58.
Antigonos of Socho, 2.
Aqiba (T.), 10, 17, 40, 43, 45,

57, 65, 84, 112, 130, 137, 208,

228, 273, 296, 316.
Ashi (A.), 70 n., 157, 172, 309.
Asi (A.), 109.

Ba (A.), 308.

Bacher, W., 1 1 n., 27 n., 64, 74,
130, 134, 153, 166 n., 185 n.,
189, 193, 197, 205, 207,
208, 209 n., 213, 223, 229 n.,
232, 254, 259, 269, 271, 283,
286, 290, 298, 321, 335 n.

Balaam, 63-78 passim, 29 1.

Bar Livianos (Julianos), 244.

Qappara (T.), 108.

Ben Azai, Shim' on (T.), 43 f.,
50, 297-9, 353, 370.

Damah El'azar, 103 f.

Netzer, 73 n., 95-6.

Pandira (Pantiri), 35 f.,

103 f., 138, 344 f.

Stada, 35 f., 55, 79 f., 344 f.

Zoma (T.), 370.

Benjamin ben Levi (A.), 196.

Berachjah (A.), 191.

Beruria (T.), 237 f.

Bibi bar Abaji (A.), 41 f., 355.

Bodia (A.), 157.

Buni, disciple of Jesus, 91 f.

Caesar, 165, 222, 282.

Damah, see Ben Damah.
Doeg, 60, 65 I, 70-1, 75, 192.
Domitian, 141.
Drummond, J., 207 n.
Edersheim, A., 47, 59 n., 95,
143, 201.

El'azar ben Azariah (T.), 113,

228, 273, 295 f.

ben Jose (T.), 136.

ben Pedath (A.), 77, 115

193, 273.

ha-Qappar (T.), 63-4.

of Mod'in(T.), 369.

Eliezer ben Horqenos (T.), 35 f.,
45 f., 48, 54, 84, 106, 137 f.,
140, 143, 185, 196 n., 207,
219, 273, 293, 351, 386 n.,
388.

Elisha, the prophet, 60, 96 f.

ben Abujah (T.), 163, 219,

221, 288, 370, 373.

Etheridge, J. W., 2.

Eusebius, 141, 217.

Ezra, 4.

Frankel, Z., 131.

Friedlander, M., 122 n., 145 n.,

155 n., 221 n., 286 f., 337,

368-76.
Friedmann, M., 305, 364.

Gamliel II. (T.), 84,89, 127 f.,
144n., 147 f., 198, 212, 228 f.,
231 f., 235 f., 240, 280, 313,
353, 381, 385.

Gehazi, 60, 65, 71, 97 f.

Geiger, A., 333.

Gratz, H., 96, 130, 135, 144,
223, 259, 284, 313, 381 n.,
384.

Hadrian, 45, 132, 167, 223, 225.
Haggai (A.), 335 f.
Hamburger, J., 1, 126 n., 131,

165, 190.
Hamnuna (A.), 159.
Hanan bar Rabba (A.), 326.
Hananel, 314.
Hananjah, nephew of R.

' Jehoshua (T.), 211 f., 268.
Hanina bar Hama (A.), 72 f.,

" 247 f., 250, 251 f.

bar Hananjah (A.), 11 6.

ben Teradjon (T.), 237.

INDEX

441

Hamack, A., 384.

Hija bar Abba (A.), 6, 179, 306,

356.
Hillel(T.)} 2, 6n., 57 f„ 135.
Hisda (A.), 37, 57, 60 n., 124,

187 f., 308, 354-5.
Hitzig, 39 n.
Hoshaia (A.), 247 f.
Huna (A.), 77, 186, 210.

Idi (A.), 286 f.

Imma Shalom, 146 f.

Ishmael ben Elisha (T.), 29,

103 f., 129 f., 156 f., 172,

339.

ben Jose (T.), 245.

Isiof Csesarea (A.), 215, 219 f.,

334.

Jacob of Chephar Sama (Sech-

anja), 106f., 138 f.

the Min, 109, 111.

Jannai (A.), 115, 253, 258.

the King, 52.

Jehoshua ben Hananjah (T.),

43 f., 48, 115 f.', 117, 153, 165,

188, 211 f., 221 f., 226 f., 280.

ben Levi (A.), 108, 332, 354.

ben Perahjah, 38, 52 f., 97,

347.
Jehudah II. (Nesiah) (A.), 109.
ben Jehesq'el (A.), 126,

223, 227, 30*8, 355.

ben Naqosa (T.), 218 f.

ben Tabbai, 52.

bar Zebuda (A.), 77.

ha-Qadosh (Rabbi) (T.),

17, 128, 184, 208, 218, 223,

240 f., 297, 353.
Jeremiah bar Abba (A.), 56 f.
Jerome, 378.
Jesus, 9, 37-96 passim, 102, 117,

143, 150, 214, 224 n., 234,

305, 330, 344-60 passim;

Internet Archive Audio

Featured

Top

Images

Featured

Top

Software

Featured

Top

Books

Featured

Top

Video

Featured

Top

Mobile Apps

Browser Extensions

Archive-It Subscription

Save Page Now

Full text of "Christianity in Talmud and Midrash"

See other formats