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123-474: The Toledot portrays Jesus (known as Yeshu by the author) as an illegitimate child who practiced sorcery , taught a heretical Judaism , seduced women, and died a shameful death. Interestingly, the author also shows a paradoxical respect for Jesus. Perhaps surprisingly, instead of denying the miracles the New Testament claims Jesus had performed, Toledot Yeshu doubles down. The difference, of course,

246-537: A safe haven if celebrated in an Anglican church. Still, many "clandestine" marriages occurred. In many societies, people born out of wedlock did not have the same rights of inheritance as those within it, and in some societies, even the same civil rights . In the United Kingdom and the United States, as late as the 1960s and in certain social strata even up to today, nonmarital birth has carried

369-418: A social stigma . In previous centuries unwed mothers were socially pressured to give their children up for adoption . In other cases nonmarital children have been reared by grandparents or married relatives as the "sisters", "brothers" or "cousins" of the unwed mothers. In most national jurisdictions , the status of a child as a legitimate or illegitimate heir could be changed—in either direction—under

492-667: A "godless heresy". One early version of the Toledot Yeshu gave a milder description of Christianity. It did not cast aspersions on the characters of Mary and Jesus, instead it sought to undermine the tenets of the Christian faith. The goal was to seek the return of apostates to the Jewish fold. In keeping with this, Paola Tartakoff believes that the Toledot may have been modified by Jews to fit into specific situations. From

615-400: A 25 percent increase from 2002. Most births to teenagers in the United States (86% in 2007) are nonmarital; in 2007, 60% of births to women 20–24, and nearly one-third of births to women 25–29, were nonmarital. In 2007, teenagers accounted for just 23% of non-marital births, down steeply from 50% in 1970. In 2014, 42% of all births in the 28 EU countries were nonmarital. The percentage

738-532: A Latin translation, as Historia Jeschuae Nazareni by "Johannes Jocabus Huldricus". This was based on a Hebrew manuscript, now lost, and has its own unique variants. A summary of it is presented by Rev. Sabine Baring-Gould, The Lost and Hostile Gospels (1874, London) pages 102–115, who surmised (because of some of the errors and anecdotes) that it was of medieval German origin, perhaps not even predating Martin Luther (page 115). Baring-Gould noted (pages 69–71) that

861-527: A book on the rock band Rush with his wife, Carol Selby Price, Mystic Rhythms: The Philosophical Vision of Rush (1999). Price is currently the editor of the Journal of Higher Criticism . Price was born in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1954 and moved to New Jersey in 1964. He received a Master of Theological Studies in New Testament from Gordon–Conwell Theological Seminary in 1978. At Drew University , he

984-471: A book titled "Satan's Flaming Arrow" ( Tela Ignea Satanae ). The first section treats Jesus's life; later sections deal with the exploits of his apostles . Supplementary chapters tell of Nestorius and his attempts to keep Christians obeying Jewish custom, and the story of Simeon Kepha who is construed to be the Apostle Peter or Paul. Jesus is portrayed as a deceiver and a heretic , showing

1107-681: A child being known as a bastard , a love child , a natural child , or illegitimate . In Scots law , the terms natural son and natural daughter carry the same implications. The importance of legitimacy has decreased substantially in Western developed countries since the sexual revolution of the 1960s and 1970s and the declining influence of Christian churches, especially Catholic , Anglican , and Lutherans , in family and social life. A substantial proportion of births are now outside marriage, in multiple countries in Western Europe ,

1230-720: A connection to the traditions in Celsus and Justin Martyr (see above). A great misfortune struck Israel in the year 3651 ( c.  110 BC ). A man of the tribe of Judah , Joseph Pandera , lived near a widow who had a daughter called Miriam. This virgin was betrothed to Yohanan, a Torah-learned and God-fearing man of the house of David . Before the end of a certain Sabbath , Joseph looked lustfully at Miriam, knocked on her door and pretended to be her husband, but she only submitted against her will. When Yohanan came later to see her, she

1353-586: A filthy cistern in Jerusalem, and upon confirming this, the people of Ai rise in rebellion. To put down the revolt, Rabbi Judah allows Yeshu's uncle, Simeon, to learn the name of God and perform miracles in Yeshu's name. Ultimately, Yeshu's followers compile several books of lies , and their faith continues to expand. Realizing the rebellion has only grown, Simeon uses the name of God to fake an ascension into Heaven, during which he actually flies to Rome and implores

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1476-593: A kind of initiation ritual. Price was in charge of the majority of the early Cthulhu anthologies by Chaosium ; his first book published by Chaosium was The Hastur Cycle (1993), a short story anthology about a single element of Lovecraftian stories, and following this was Mysteries of the Worm (1993), a collection Cthulhu Mythos fiction by Robert Bloch . In 2010 Price became one of three new hosts on Point of Inquiry (the Center for Inquiry 's podcast ), following

1599-516: A lame man. As his follower base grows, Helena is appraised of the situation by concerned Jews. Jesus appears before Helena and says he is the prophesied Messiah, resurrecting a dead man using the Shem HaMephorash as further proof. Though Helena is amazed at the miracle, the Jews are in uproar, and Jesus flees to the upper Galilee, where he sends word to the queen not to fight on his behalf. In

1722-608: A more skeptical and humanistic approach to Christianity. Price questioned the historicity of Jesus in a series of books, including Deconstructing Jesus (2000), The Incredible Shrinking Son of Man (2003), Jesus Is Dead (2007), and The Christ-Myth Theory and Its Problems (2012), as well as in Jesus at the Vanishing Point , a contribution to The Historical Jesus: Five Views (2009). Price uses critical-historical methods, but also uses "history-of-religions parallel[s]," or

1845-542: A natural son of Robert III of Scotland was ancestral to the Shaw Stewarts of Greenock . In Scots law an illegitimate child, a "natural son" or "natural daughter", would be legitimated by the subsequent marriage of his parents, provided they had been free to marry at the date of the conception. The Legitimation (Scotland) Act 1968 extended legitimation by the subsequent marriage of the parents to children conceived when their parents were not free to marry, but this

1968-579: A rage and flees to the Galilee . Dejected, Yeshua adopts the name "Yeshu" to reflect the rabbis' curse over him, and begins preaching a heretical interpretation of the Torah. Over time he acquires five disciples: Simon, Mattai, Eliakim, Mordecai, and Jonathan, whose names he also changes to Simon Peter , Matthew , Luke , Mark , and John . Using the name of God, Yeshu performed several miracles, attracting many followers whom he would then baptize to bring into

2091-408: Is "virtually nothing left." Price does not see in the Q document a reliable source for the historical Jesus , simply because Q shows everywhere a Cynic flavor, representing a school of thought rather than necessarily the teaching of a single person. Price acknowledges that outside the New Testament there are a small number of ancient sources ( Tacitus , for example) who would testify that Jesus

2214-466: Is a historicized synthesis of mainly Egyptian , Jewish , and Greek mythologies , viewing Jesus of Nazareth as an invented figure conforming to the Rank-Raglan mythotype . Price argues that the early Christians adopted the model for the figure of Jesus from the popular Mediterranean dying-rising saviour myths of the time, such as that of Dionysus . He argues that the comparisons were known at

2337-465: Is also Euhemerist. Price argues that Jesus is like other ancient mythic figures, in that no mundane, secular information seems to have survived. Accordingly, Jesus also should be regarded as a mythic figure, but Price admits to some uncertainty in this regard. He writes at the conclusion of his 2000 book Deconstructing Jesus : "There may have been a real figure there, but there is simply no longer any way of being sure." Price believes that Christianity

2460-572: Is an American New Testament scholar who argues in favor of the Christ myth theory  – the claim that a historical Jesus did not exist. Price is the author of a number of books on biblical studies and the historicity of Jesus . A former Baptist minister, Price was a fellow of the Jesus Project , a group of 150 individuals who studied the historicity of Jesus and the Gospels,

2583-567: Is considerably higher (by roughly 10%, for the EU), as marriage often takes place after the first baby has arrived. For example, for the Czech Republic, whereas the total nonmarital births are less than half, 47.7%, (third quarter of 2015) the percentage of first-born outside marriage is more than half, 58.2%. In Australia , in 1971, only 7% of births were outside of marriage, compared to 36% in 2020. The proportion of births outside of marriage

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2706-660: Is listed on the birth certificate . In the United States, in the early 1970s a series of Supreme Court decisions held that most common-law disabilities imposed upon illegitimacy were invalid as violations of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution . Still, children born out of wedlock may not be eligible for certain federal benefits (e.g., automatic naturalization when

2829-481: Is outraged at the incident and orders the execution of Pandera and his children, who then flee to Egypt. After some time, a famine in Egypt forces Pandera and his family to return to Israel. Pandera and Miriam move to Nazareth and change their names, while Yeshua comes of age and travels to Jerusalem to study under Rabbi Joshua ben Perachiah . During this time, he begins learning the secrets of Merkabah mysticism and

2952-520: Is safe, Yeshu stays in the house of his in-laws, and begins preaching and performing miracles within the city. When Yom Kippur comes, Yeshu and his closest disciples do not fast, and engorge themselves on wine which had secretly been mixed with "waters of forgetfulness" . While unconscious, Yeshu is arrested by Herod's men, and imprisoned. When Yeshu's followers arrive at the Temple for the pilgrimage of Sukkot , they are ambushed and stoned to death outside

3075-430: Is that in this polemic his powers are chalked up to sacrilegious sorcery, while the authors of the New Testament portrayed these events as proof of divine power. In some versions of Toledot Yeshu, Jesus is noted to have revived a man from the dead, turn clay statues into flying birds, and lift his arms like the wings of an eagle, ascending towards the heavens for an airborne battle with Judah Iskarioto. As Joseph Dan notes in

3198-418: Is the author, since the narrative itself has a number of different versions, which differ in terms of the story details and the attitude towards the central characters. Even individual versions seem to come from a number of storytellers. Some scholars assert that the source material is no earlier than the 6th century, and the compilation no earlier than the 9th century. Although individual anecdotes that make up

3321-402: Is the subject of the documentary "The Gospel According to Price" by writer/director Joseph Nanni, and appears in the films of Jozef K. Richards in the documentary, Batman & Jesus , and comedy series, Holy Shit . In 2020, Price was in the process of bringing back a fantasy adventure anthology series called Flashing Swords! , which was popular in the late 1970s. In the introduction to

3444-583: The Toledot (called the Helena-recension and unattested before the 13th century) refer to Christian festivals and observances that only originated after the 4th century. This does not account for all of the manuscripts and those that were created earlier do not mention the festivals. In Origen 's Contra Celsum (likely written in the 3rd century AD), Origen quotes Celsus as calling Jesus " son of Pantera ," which would point to Celsus' knowledge of

3567-703: The Toledot exist, almost all of them late medieval (the oldest manuscript being from the 11th century). The earliest stratum of composition was probably in Aramaic. There are recensions extant in Hebrew , and later versions in Judeo-Persian and Arabic , as well as in Yiddish and Ladino (Judeo-Spanish). The date of composition cannot be determined with certainty and there are conflicting views as to what markers denote dates. For instance, some manuscripts of

3690-490: The Toledot scarcely ever denies Gospel miracles, but merely changes good to evil.) Judas Iscariot , the hero of the tale, learns the Divine Name as well, and Jesus and Judas fly through the sky engaged in aerial combat , with Judas victorious. The now powerless Jesus is arrested and put to death by being hung upon a carob tree, and buried. The body is taken away and his ascension is claimed by his apostles on

3813-478: The Toledot Yeshu may all come from sources dating before the sixth century, there is no evidence that their gathering into a single narrative is that early. Some scholars, like Jeffrey Rubenstein, favour a later composition date, after the 7th century. The earliest known mention is an oblique mention by Agobard , archbishop of Lyon , c.  826 , and then another mention by his successor, Amulo , c.  849 . However, since Agobard does not refer to

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3936-473: The Toledot Yeshu or its source material. In his Incredible Shrinking Son of Man , Robert M. Price states that the Toledot Yeshu is "dependent on second-century Jewish-Christian gospel", and Alexander argues that the oral traditions behind the written versions of the Toledot Yeshu might go all the way back to the formation of the canonical narratives themselves. It is unlikely that one person

4059-536: The Encyclopaedia Judaica , "The narrative in all versions treats Jesus as an exceptional person who, from his youth, demonstrated unusual wit and wisdom, but disrespect toward his elders and the sages of his age." Robert Van Voorst calls the Toledot Yeshu a record of popular polemic "run wild." The Toledot 's profane portrayal of the person Christians consider divine has provided fodder for Christian antisemitism and anti-Judaism . Until

4182-492: The Americas , and in many former European colonies. England 's Statute of Merton (1235) stated, regarding illegitimacy: "He is a bastard that is born before the marriage of his parents." This definition also applied to situations when a child's parents could not marry, as when one or both were already married or when the relationship was incestuous. The Poor Act 1575 formed the basis of English bastardy law. Its purpose

4305-472: The Caesar to grant him permission to destroy the rebellion himself. Illegitimate child Legitimacy , in traditional Western common law , is the status of a child born to parents who are legally married to each other, and of a child conceived before the parents obtain a legal divorce . Conversely, illegitimacy , also known as bastardy , has been the status of a child born outside marriage, such

4428-1278: The Dominican Republic , 58% in Argentina , 55% in Mexico . In Brazil , non-marital births increased to 65.8% in 2009, up from 56.2% in 2000. In Chile , non-marital births increased to 70.7% in 2013, up from 48.3% in 2000. Even in the early 1990s, the phenomenon was very common in Latin America. For example, in 1993, out-of-wedlock births in Mexico were 41.5%, in Chile 43.6%, in Puerto Rico 45.8%, in Costa Rica 48.2%, in Argentina 52.7%, in Belize 58.1%, in El Salvador 73%, in Suriname 66%, and in Panama 80%. Out-of-wedlock births are less common in Asia: in 1993

4551-677: The Jerusalem Temple and learned the letters of God's ineffable name (one could do anything desired by them). He gathered 310 young men and proclaimed himself the Messiah , claiming Isaiah 's "a virgin shall conceive and bear a son" and other prophets prophesied about him . Using God's name he healed a lame man, they worshipped him as the Messiah. The Sanhedrin decided to arrest him, and sent messengers to invite him to Jerusalem. They pretended to be his disciples to trick him. When he

4674-637: The Law with teachers. The miracle working powers of Jesus are attributed to having stolen the Name of God from the Temple . Jesus claims messianic dignity and is accused of sorcery by the Jews in front of Queen Helena of Jerusalem , but Jesus raises a man from the dead in front of the Queen's eyes and is released. Jesus goes to Galilee where he brings clay birds to life and makes a millstone float. (Klausner notes that

4797-614: The Roman Catholic Church ) was traditionally very strong, the social changes of the 1960s and 1970s have led to a negative reaction of the population against the lifestyles promoted by the church. One of the explanations of the current high rates of unmarried cohabitation in Quebec is that the traditionally strong social control of the church and the Catholic doctrine over people's private relations and sexual morality has led

4920-742: The United States were born to unmarried mothers, a significant increase from the 5% of half a century earlier. That includes 73% of non-Hispanic black children, 53% of Hispanic children (of all races), and 29% of non-Hispanic white children. In 2020, the proportion was almost similar, with 40.5% of children born in the United States being born to unmarried mothers. In April 2009, the National Center for Health Statistics announced that nearly 40 percent of American infants born in 2007 were born to an unwed mother ; that of 4.3 million children, 1.7 million were born to unmarried parents,

5043-415: The civil law : A legislative act could deprive a child of legitimacy; conversely, a marriage between the previously unmarried parents, usually within a specified time, such as a year, could retroactively legitimate a child's birth. Fathers of illegitimate children often did not incur comparable censure or legal responsibility, due to social attitudes about sex , the nature of sexual reproduction, and

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5166-561: The nationality laws of many countries, which do not apply jus sanguinis (nationality by citizenship of a parent) to children born out of wedlock, particularly in cases where the child's connection to the country lies only through the father. This is true, for example, of the United States, and its constitutionality was upheld in 2001 by the Supreme Court in Nguyen v. INS . In the UK,

5289-424: The "Principle of Analogy," to show similarities between Gospel narratives and non-Christian Middle Eastern myths. Price criticizes some of the criteria of critical Bible research, such as the criterion of dissimilarity and the criterion of embarrassment . Price further notes that "consensus is no criterion" for the historicity of Jesus. In Jesus at the Vanishing Point, Price acknowledges that he stands against

5412-496: The 1970s and 1980s included legalization of divorce , decriminalization of adultery , introduction of gender equality in family law , and removal of the ban on contraception . In many countries there has been a dissociation between marriage and fertility, with the two no longer being closely associated—with births to unmarried couples, as well as childless married couples, becoming more common and more socially acceptable. Contributions to these societal changes have been made by

5535-572: The 9th through the 20th centuries, the Toledot Yeshu has inflamed Christian hostility towards Jews. In 1405, the Toledot was banned by Church authorities. A book under this title was strongly condemned by Francesc Eiximenis ( d. 1409) in his Vita Christi , but in 1614 it was largely reprinted by a Jewish convert to Christianity, Samuel Friedrich Brenz , in Nuremberg, as part of his book vilifying his former religion, titled Skin Shed by

5658-725: The Christ myth theory, believing Jesus did not exist in Roman Galilee . Price is also a writer, editor, and critic in the field of speculative fiction . He has written about the Cthulhu Mythos , a shared universe created by the writer H. P. Lovecraft . Price was appointed executor of Lin Carter 's literary estate. In 2020, an inflammatory introduction he wrote to Lin Carter's Flashing Swords! 6 anthology caused multiple authors to withdraw their work in protest. He co-wrote

5781-461: The Galilee, Jesus makes a large millstone float in the sea to demonstrate his supposed power – and again, Helena is amazed, and commends Jesus' bravery. The elders of Israel ask Helena to request an audience with Jesus, and then allow a man named Juda Scariot into the Temple to learn the secret of the Shem HaMephorash . When Jesus comes to Helena, he flies upward using the Shem HaMephorash , but

5904-1106: The Humber , 52% in East Midlands , 50.8% in Scotland , 50.4% in West Midlands , 48.5% in South West England , 45.5% in East of England , 43.2% in Northern Ireland , 42.9% in South East England , and 35.7% in London . In France, in 2012, 66.9% of births were non-marital in Poitou-Charentes , while only 46.6% were in Ile-de-France (which contains Paris ). One of the reasons for the lower prevalence of non-marital births in

6027-555: The Ineffable Name (the Divine Name ), but not to diabolical incantations. Some of the anecdotes recounted in the Toledot seem to have been drawn from non-canonical early Christian writings known as apocryphal gospels , datable to the 4th–6th centuries AD. The attribution of Yeshu's paternity to a soldier named Pandera or Pantera can be traced to the second-century Greek philosopher Celsus , although Celsus himself

6150-530: The Jewish Snake . An indirect witness to the Christian condemnation of the book can be found in one manuscript of the Toledot , which has this cautionary note in its introduction: [This booklet] should be shown only to people of discretion, for one never knows what the morrow may bring. [...] I copied it from three different pamphlets from three different countries, not just one, The contents of all these pamphlets were identical, except that I wrote it in

6273-536: The Law of Moses, and the king acquiesces. Judah then goes undercover and ingratiates himself to Yeshu, making him believe that he is a loyal follower. Whilst lodging among the people of Ai , Yeshu takes a wife. After humiliating himself in exchange for a donkey and some bread, Yeshu rides for Jerusalem. Judah arrives ahead of Yeshu, convincing the people of the city to feign cooperation with Yeshu in order that he may let his guard down and be captured. Once finally convinced it

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6396-609: The Legitimation (Scotland) Act 1968 extended this right to children conceived when their parents were not free to marry. The Family Law Reform Act 1969 (c. 46) allowed a bastard to inherit on the intestacy of his parents. In canon and in civil law , the offspring of putative marriages have also been considered legitimate. Since December 2003 in England and Wales , April 2002 in Northern Ireland and May 2006 in Scotland , an unmarried father has parental responsibility if he

6519-538: The Talmudic anecdotes are clearly fictitious or absurd, and some seem incompatible with each other or with known historical fact. In some instances, the Talmudic source of the Toledot is very obscure or of doubtful authenticity, and may not originally have been relevant to Jesus. Significantly, the Toledot seems to know (although sometimes only superficially) of the miracles of the canonical Gospels, and does not deny their occurrence, but instead attributes them to Yeshu's use of Egyptian magic, or his appropriation of

6642-443: The Toledot. Attitudes towards the work became more diversified during the Age of Enlightenment . Long unknown to Christians, the Toledot was first translated into Latin by Ramón Martí , a Dominican friar , toward the end of the 13th century, in a work entitled Pugio fidei adversus Mauros et Judaeos ("The Dagger of Faith against the Moors and the Jews"). During the reign of Queen Helena , two bronze dogs were placed at

6765-445: The UK in 1981 and by Ireland in 1988. In later years, the inheritance rights of many illegitimate children have improved, and changes of laws have allowed them to inherit properties. More recently, the laws of England have been changed to allow illegitimate children to inherit entailed property, over their legitimate brothers and sisters. Despite the decreasing legal relevance of illegitimacy, an important exception may be found in

6888-408: The Wagenseil version contains historical references that place its 'Yeshu' at least a century before the Jesus and Pontius Pilate of the New Testament, and the Huldrich version contains references that place its 'Yeshu' at least a full century after the time of the Gospels. During the reign of Herod the Great , a woman of the Tribe of Benjamin named Miriam, sister of Simeon of Jerusalem ,

7011-590: The anthologies and the individual stories, Price traces the origins of Lovecraft's entities, motifs, and literary style. The Cthulhu Cycle , for example, saw the origins of Cthulhu the octopoid entity in Alfred, Lord Tennyson 's " The Kraken " (1830) and particular passages from Lord Dunsany , while The Dunwich Cycle points to the influence of Arthur Machen on Lovecraft's " The Dunwich Horror ." Price's religious background often informs his Mythos criticism, seeing gnostic themes in Lovecraft's fictional god Azathoth and interpreting " The Shadow Over Innsmouth " as

7134-410: The basis of the empty tomb. However, Jesus's body is found hidden in a garden and is dragged back to Jerusalem and shown to Queen Helena. Among the versions of the Toledot , the version published by Johann Christian Wagenseil is perhaps the most prominent. In 1681, Wagenseil, a professor at the University of Altdorf , published a Hebrew text of the Toledot Yeshu with a Latin translation, in

7257-405: The born during the matrimony, out of matrimony and of the adopted children" as one of the principles of family law. The European Convention on the Legal Status of Children Born out of Wedlock came into force in 1978. Countries which ratify it must ensure that children born outside marriage are provided with legal rights as stipulated in the text of this convention. The convention was ratified by

7380-544: The caliber of the insults: Jesus, illegitimate son of Panthera, a Roman legionary, was a charlatan and a magician killed by the Jews; after His death, marvels were invented by His disciples concerning Him. Other tales of a still lower grade circulated, in which Jesus figured as a bandit and one possessed. At a later age, these obscenities were compiled in the infamous Toledot Yeshu . The first textual evidence consists of fragments of Aramaic manuscripts discovered in Cairo. A recent study reports that more than 100 manuscripts of

7503-418: The child." Under English law , a bastard could not inherit real property and could not be legitimized by the subsequent marriage of father to mother. There was one exception: when his father subsequently married his mother, and an older illegitimate son (a "bastard eignè") took possession of his father's lands after his death, he would pass the land on to his own heirs on his death, as if his possession of

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7626-434: The children. In criticizing the priests who refused to baptize out-of-wedlock children, Pope Francis argued that the mothers had done the right thing by giving life to the child and should not be shunned by the church: In our ecclesiastical region there are priests who don't baptise the children of single mothers because they weren't conceived in the sanctity of marriage. These are today's hypocrites. Those who clericalise

7749-422: The church. Those who separate the people of God from salvation. And this poor girl who, rather than returning the child to sender, had the courage to carry it into the world, must wander from parish to parish so that it's baptised! The proportion of children born outside marriage has been rising since the turn of the 21st century in most European Union countries, North America, and Australia. In Europe, besides

7872-515: The city. Jews all over the Roman Empire petition Herod not to execute Yeshu, that his suffering may be prolonged, but the king does not listen and has Yeshu hanged outside of Jerusalem just before Passover . However, the people of Ai refuse to accept his death and threatened to rebel. To stymie the city's discontent, an agent of Herod tells the people that Yeshu had been resurrected by a bout of heavenly fire three days after his execution. However, Rabbi Judah boasts that Yeshu's corpse still remains in

7995-449: The date of origin of the Toledot Yeshu . The earliest layers are considered to have been manufactured orally, and written source material of the Toledot Yeshu is much older than the work itself. As Flannery states: Most offensive to Christians were Jewish insults to the person of Christ, about which St. Justin, Tertullian, Eusebius, Hippolytus, and Origen complained [...] In his Against Celsus [A.D. 248], Origen provides an idea of

8118-405: The difficulty of determining paternity with certainty . By the final third of the 20th century, in the United States , all the states had adopted uniform laws that codified the responsibility of both parents to provide support and care for a child, regardless of the parents ' marital status , and gave non-marital as well as adopted persons equal rights to inherit their parents' property. In

8241-414: The dogs by writing the letters of the Name on parchment, and then slipping this parchment into a self-inflicted wound on his leg, allowing him to smuggle the knowledge out of the precinct. In spreading knowledge of the Name, Jesus gathers 310 followers and declares that he is the Messiah, the son of a virgin birth, and the Son of God. When asked to prove his claims, Jesus uses the Shem HaMephorash to heal

8364-410: The dueling works Did Jesus Exist? and Price's Bart Ehrman and the Quest of Historical Jesus of Nazareth: An Evaluation of Ehrman's Did Jesus Exist? Price has been a figure in H. P. Lovecraft scholarship and fandom for many years. He is the editor of the journal Crypt of Cthulhu . (published by Necronomicon Press ) and of a series of Cthulhu Mythos anthologies. In essays that introduce

8487-440: The early 1970s, a series of Supreme Court decisions abolished most, if not all, of the common-law disabilities of non-marital birth, as being violations of the equal-protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution . Generally speaking, in the United States, "illegitimate" has been supplanted by the phrase "born out of wedlock." Robert M. Price Robert McNair Price (born July 7, 1954)

8610-414: The early 21st century (with few exceptions), mainstream Jewish and Christian scholars paid little attention to the Toledot Yeshu . The opinion of noted advocate of Christian-Jewish reconciliation, Father Edward H. Flannery , is representative: This scurrilous fable of the life of Jesus is a medieval work, probably written down in the tenth century. [...] Though its contents enjoyed a certain currency in

8733-423: The elders command Juda to ascend after him. After wrestling in midair, Juda and Jesus plummet to the ground, where the latter breaks his arm. Injured and disoriented, Jesus is then beaten by a mob wielding pomegranate branches, and is brought before Helena to plead his case. When Helena sees that the supposedly divine Jesus is so injured that he cannot even speak, she declares Jesus to be guilty of deceit, and allows

8856-522: The entrance of the Temple in Jerusalem, to deter intruders from stealing the secret of the Shem HaMephorash , the ineffable name of God . If an intruder learned the secret of the Name and attempted to leave, the dogs would bark so ferociously that the intruder would forget the secret of the Name. Jesus of Nazareth came into the Temple in Jerusalem, and stole the secret of the Name, but circumvented

8979-566: The father becomes a US citizen) unless the child has been legitimized in the appropriate jurisdiction. Many other countries have legislatively abolished any legal disabilities of a child born out of wedlock. In France , legal reforms regarding illegitimacy began in the 1970s, but it was only in the 21st century that the principle of equality was fully upheld (through Act no. 2002-305 of 4 March 2002, removing mention of "illegitimacy" — filiation légitime and filiation naturelle ; and through law no. 2009-61 of 16 January 2009). In 2001, France

9102-483: The father being fertile, there was a presumption of paternity that a married woman's child was her husband's child. That presumption could be questioned, though courts generally sided with the presumption, thus expanding the range of the presumption to a "Seven Seas Rule". But it was only with the Marriage Act 1753 that a formal and public marriage ceremony at civil law was required, whereas previously marriage had

9225-400: The fold. Learning that the son of Pandera still lived, Herod orders Yeshu's arrest. While he and most of his disciples are able to escape, Herod's men capture John and behead him . Now claiming to be the son of God and God incarnate, Yeshu extolls his followers to perform graver blasphemies. Three rabbis, led by one Judah ben Zechariah, petition Herod for permission to try Yeshu for violating

9348-521: The grave, they searched it and could not find him. But the gardener confessed he had taken it to prevent his followers from stealing his body and claiming his ascension to heaven . Recovering the body, the sages tied it to a horse's tail and took it to the queen. Convinced he was a false prophet , she ridiculed his followers and commended the sages. A third major recension was published by Johann Jacob Huldreich (or Huldrich) in Leyden, Holland, in 1705, with

9471-636: The increase in nonmarital births from the late 20th century on has been linked to secularization, enhanced women's rights and standing in society, and the fall of authoritarian dictatorships. Before the dissolution of Marxist–Leninist regimes in Europe, women's participation in the workforce was actively encouraged by most governments, but socially conservative regimes such as that of Nicolae Ceausescu practiced restrictive and natalist policies regarding family reproduction, such as total bans on contraception and abortion, and birth rates were tightly controlled by

9594-512: The land had been retroactively converted into true ownership. A younger non-bastard brother (a "mulier puisnè") would have no claim to the land. There were many "natural children" of Scotland 's monarchy granted positions which founded prominent families. In the 14th century, Robert II of Scotland gifted one of his illegitimate sons estates in Bute , founding the Stewarts of Bute , and similarly

9717-545: The language of prudence [- namely, Hebrew, because Gentiles do not understand it]. Martin Luther quoted the Toledot (evidently the Strassburg version) at length in his general condemnation of Jews in his book Vom Schem Hamphoras in 1543. In the two centuries after Luther, the Toledot reached the height of its fame and was well sought after by scholars and travelers alike. In 1681 Professor Johann Christoph Wagenseil published an entire volume devoted to refuting

9840-584: The low levels of fertility rates and the delay of motherhood, another factor that now characterizes fertility is the growing percentage of births outside marriage. In the EU , this phenomenon has been on the rise in recent years in almost every country; and in eight EU countries, mostly in northern Europe, as well as in Iceland outside of the EU, it already accounts for the majority of births. In 2009, 41% of children born in

9963-501: The majority view of scholars, but cautions against attempting to settle the issue by appeal to the majority . In Jesus at the Vanishing Point (2010), Price gives three key points for the traditional Christ myth theory , which originated with Bruno Bauer and the Dutch Radical School : In The Christ-Myth Theory and Its Problems (2011), Price maintains that the Christ myth theory is the most likely explanation for

10086-549: The meantime. The Legitimacy Act 1959 extended the legitimisation even if the parents had married others in the meantime and applied it to putative marriages which the parents incorrectly believed were valid. Neither the 1926 nor 1959 Acts changed the laws of succession to the British throne and succession to peerage and baronetcy titles. In Scotland children legitimated by the subsequent marriage of their parents have always been entitled to succeed to peerages and baronetcies and

10209-423: The media, but research by sociologist Michael Gilding traced these overestimates back to an informal remark at a 1972 conference. The detection of unsuspected illegitimacy can occur in the context of medical genetic screening, in genetic family name research, and in immigration testing. Such studies show that covert illegitimacy is in fact less than 10% among the sampled African populations, less than 5% among

10332-652: The metropolis is the high number of immigrants from conservative world regions. In Canada, in Quebec , the majority of births since 1995 onwards have been outside marriage. As of 2015, 63% of births were outside marriage in Quebec. Traditionally conservative Catholic countries in the EU now also have substantial proportions of non-marital births, as of 2016 (except where otherwise stated): Portugal (52.8% ), Spain (45.9%), Austria (41.7% ), Luxembourg (40.7% ) Slovakia (40.2% ), Ireland (36.5%), Malta (31.8% ) The percentage of first-born children born out of wedlock

10455-573: The mob to punish him as they see fit. The wise men attempt to hang Jesus, but no tree can hold his weight, as Jesus had previously sworn by the Shem HaMephorash that no tree would allow him to be hanged. Instead, Jesus is hanged from the sturdy stem of a grassy herb – the same herb that, every year, grows in the sanctuary of the Temple. In the Strassburg Manuscript, Mary was seduced by a soldier called Ben Pandera. The child Jesus shows great impudence by appearing bareheaded and disputing

10578-555: The name of God. While playing near the Temple Mount , Yeshua becomes injured and removes his head covering. As such a thing was considered disrespectful, the Rabbis investigate Yeshua, and after traveling to Nazareth and learning from Miriam that he is a bastard , they expel him from the Temple after pronouncing a curse of damnatio memoriae over him. After learning the truth of his origins from his mother, Yeshua murders Pandera in

10701-558: The name. Yeshu was arrested and beaten with pomegranate staves. He was taken to Tiberias and bound to a synagogue pillar. Vinegar was given to him to drink and a crown of thorns was put on his head. An argument broke out between the elders and Yeshu followers resulting in their escape to Antioch (or Egypt). On the day before the Passover , Yeshu decided to go to the Temple and recover the secret name. He entered Jerusalem riding on an ass , but one of his followers, Judah Iskarioto, told

10824-408: The notions of reproductive and sexual rights, individuals—not the state, church, community, etc.—shall decide whether and when individuals shall have children, their number and spacing, the circumstances under which individuals will or will not be sexually active, and their choice of intimate partners and type of relationship. It is argued that in some places where the control of the church (especially

10947-496: The oral traditions of the Jewish masses, it was almost totally ignored by official or scholarly Judaism. Antisemites have not failed to employ it as an illustration of the blasphemous character of the Synagogue . This disregard has recently shifted towards a growing level of discussion on the text's possible scholarly use as a window into the early history of Jewish-Christian relations . Recent scholarship has drawn attention to

11070-488: The organizer of a Web community for those interested in the history of Christianity , and a member of the advisory board of the Secular Student Alliance . He is a religious skeptic , especially of orthodox Christian beliefs, occasionally describing himself as a Christian atheist . Price eventually moved to a maximalist (or rather minimalist, by analogy with biblical minimalism ) position in favor of

11193-426: The origin of Christianity, giving another overview of arguments: Price argues that if critical methodology is applied with ruthless consistency, one is left in complete agnosticism regarding Jesus's historicity. Price is quoted saying, "There might have been a historical Jesus, but unless someone discovers his diary or his skeleton, we'll never know." He also similarly declared in a 1997 public debate: If there

11316-463: The policy was changed so that children born after 1 July 2006 could receive British citizenship from their father if their parents were unmarried at the time of the child's birth; illegitimate children born before this date cannot receive British citizenship through their father. Legitimacy also continues to be relevant to hereditary titles, with only legitimate children being admitted to the line of succession . Some monarchs, however, have succeeded to

11439-732: The population - see religion in Europe ) correlates with the proportion of non-marital births (e.g., Greece, Cyprus, Croatia have a low percentage of births outside marriage), but this is not always the case: Portugal (56% in 2018 ) is among the most religious countries in Europe. The proportion of non-marital births is also approaching half in the Czech Republic (48.5%. in 2021 ), the United Kingdom (48.2% as of 2017 ) and Hungary (46.7% as of 2016 ). The prevalence of births to unmarried women varies not only between different countries, but also between different geographical areas of

11562-535: The population to rebel against traditional and conservative social values; since 1995 the majority of births in this province are outside marriage, and as of 2015, in Quebec, 63% of children were born to unmarried women. The past few decades have seen decreased marriage rates in most Western countries, and this decrease has been accompanied by increased emergence of non-traditional family forms. Average marriage rates across OECD countries have fallen from 8.1 marriages per 1,000 people in 1970 to 5.0 in 2009. Research on

11685-862: The rate in Japan was 1.4%; in Israel , 3.1%; in China , 5.6%; in Uzbekistan , 6.4%; in Kazakhstan , 21%; and in Kyrgyzstan , 24%. However, in the Philippines , the out-of-wedlock birth rate was 37% in 2008–2009, which skyrocketed to 52.1% by 2015. Covert illegitimacy is a situation which arises when someone who is presumed to be a child's father (or mother) is in fact not the biological father (or mother). Frequencies as high as 30% are sometimes assumed in

11808-577: The retirement of host D. J. Grothe from the show. Having appeared on the show twice before as a guest (see external links below), he hosted until 2012. Price hosted The Bible Geek , a podcast where Price answered listeners' questions. The most recent show was in June 2019. Price was a regular guest on an interview podcast about religion, "MythVision Podcast." In 2005, Price appeared in Brian Flemming 's documentary film The God Who Wasn't There ,

11931-408: The rule of Claudius Caesar (41–54 CE), Price argues that these "varying dates are the residue of various attempts to anchor an originally mythic or legendary Jesus in more or less recent history." Price also propounds the belief that the town of Nazareth did not exist during the first half of the first century CE, and is a pseudo-historical invention. Price and Bart Ehrman disputed this issue in

12054-461: The sages he was in the Temple. On a day before the Passover, they tried to hang him on a tree; using the name, he caused it (and any tree they should use) to break. A cabbage stalk, not being a tree, was used successfully to hang him on, and he was buried. His followers on Sunday told the queen that he was not in his grave, that he ascended to heaven as he had prophesied. As a gardener took him from

12177-821: The same country: for example, in Germany, there are very strong differences between the regions of former West Germany and East Germany with a non-religious majority. Significantly more children are born out of wedlock in eastern Germany than in western Germany. In 2012, in eastern Germany 61.6% of births were to unmarried women, while in western Germany only 28.4% were. In the UK, in 2014, 59.4% of births were non-marital in North East of England , 58.9% in Wales , 54.2% in North West England , 52.4% in Yorkshire and

12300-496: The sampled Native American and Polynesian populations, less than 2% of the sampled Middle Eastern population, and generally 1%–2% among European samples. The rise in illegitimacy noted in Britain throughout the eighteenth century has been associated with the rise of new employment opportunities for women, making them less dependent upon a husband's earnings. However, the Marriage Act 1753 sought to curb this practice, by combining

12423-534: The situation in Bulgaria has concluded that: [The rise in unmarried cohabitation] shows that for many people it is not of great importance [whether] their union is a legal marriage or [a] consensual union. This [indicates] clear changes in [people's] value orientations [...] and less social pressure for marriage. Certainty of paternity has been considered important in a wide range of eras and cultures, especially when inheritance and citizenship were at stake, making

12546-407: The sixth volume, he had made several statements that readers and other collaborating authors felt were transphobic , misogynistic , and racist . Several authors, in response, had their names and works retracted from the volume. In 1999, Price debated William Lane Craig , arguing against the historicity of Jesus' resurrection. In 2010, he debated James White , arguing against the reliability of

12669-475: The source by name it cannot be certain that this is the Toledot . The source material for the Toledot can be said to derive from four sources: The largest source of input to the Toledot seems to be anecdotes gathered from various parts of the Talmud and Midrash . These appear to be popular adaptations of material aimed against two Christian doctrines: the virgin birth and the ascension . Some of

12792-539: The spousals and nuptials; and by the start of the 19th century, social convention prescribed that brides be virgins at marriage, and illegitimacy became more socially discouraged, especially during the Victorian era . Later in the 20th century, the social changes of the 1960s and 1970s started to reverse this trend, with an increase in cohabitation and alternative family formation. Elsewhere in Europe and Latin America,

12915-506: The state. After the dissolution of those regimes, the population was given more choices on how to organize their personal lives, and in regions such as former East Germany, the rate of births outside marriage increased dramatically: as of 2012, 61.6% of births there were outside marriage. Far-right regimes such as those of Francoist Spain and Portugal's Estado Novo also fell, leading to the democratization and liberalization of society. In Spain and Portugal, important legal changes throughout

13038-457: The status of legitimacy of children born to the couple during their putative marriage , i.e. , between their marriage ceremony and the legal annulment of their marriage. For example, canon 1137 of the Roman Catholic Church 's Code of Canon Law specifically affirms the legitimacy of a child born to a marriage that is declared null following the child's birth. The Catholic Church is also changing its attitude toward unwed mothers and baptism of

13161-479: The throne despite the controversial status of their legitimacy. For example, Elizabeth I succeeded to the throne though she was legally held illegitimate as a result of her parents' marriage having been annulled after her birth. Her older half-sister Mary I had acceded to the throne before her in a similar circumstance: her parents' marriage had been annulled in order to allow her father to marry Elizabeth's mother . Annulment of marriage does not currently change

13284-408: The time, as early church father Justin Martyr had admitted the similarities. Price suggests that Christianity simply adopted themes from the dying-rising god stories of the day and supplemented them with themes (escaping crosses, empty tombs, children being persecuted by tyrants, etc.) from contemporaneous popular stories in order to come up with the narratives about Christ. Price asserts that there

13407-409: The tracking of a man's estate and genealogy a central part of what defined a "legitimate" birth. The ancient Latin dictum, " Mater semper certa est " ("The [identity of the] mother is always certain", while the father is not), emphasized the dilemma. In English common law , Justice Edward Coke in 1626 promulgated the "Four Seas Rule" ( extra quatuor maria ) asserting that, absent impossibility of

13530-521: The weakening of social and legal norms that regulate peoples' personal lives and relations, especially in regard to marriage, secularization and decreased church control of reproduction, increased participation of women in the labor force , changes in the meaning of marriage, risk reduction, individualism, changing views on female sexuality , and availability of contraception . New concepts have emerged, such as that of reproductive rights , though these concepts have not been accepted by all cultures. Under

13653-491: Was a historical Jesus lying back of the gospel Christ, he can never be recovered. If there ever was a historical Jesus, there isn't one any more. Price notes that historians of classical antiquity approached mythical figures such as Heracles by rejecting supernatural tales while doggedly assuming that "a genuine historical figure" could be identified at the root of the legend. He describes this general approach as Euhemerism , and argues that most historical Jesus research today

13776-458: Was a person who really lived. However, Price points out that, even assuming the authenticity of these references, they relate more to the claims of the Christians who lived at that time on Jesus, and do not prove that Jesus was a contemporary of the writers of antiquity. Citing accounts that have Jesus being crucified under Alexander Jannaeus (83 BCE) or in his 50s by Herod Agrippa I under

13899-533: Was also 42% in 2018. In 2018, births outside of marriage represented the majority of births in eight EU member states: France (60%), Bulgaria (59%), Slovenia (58%), Portugal (56%), Sweden (55%), Denmark and Estonia (both 54%), and the Netherlands (52%). The lowest percentage were in Greece, Cyprus, Croatia, Poland and Lithuania, with a percentage of under 30%. To a certain degree, religion (the religiosity of

14022-489: Was an almost complete fleshing out of the details of the gospels by a midrashic rewriting of the Septuagint , Josephus , Homer , and Euripides ' The Bacchae . According to Price, "virtually every story in the gospels and Acts can be shown to be very likely a Christian rewrite of material" from those sources and "virtually every case of New Testament narrative" can be traced back to a literary prototype, so that there

14145-666: Was awarded one Ph.D. in Systematic Theology in 1981 and another in New Testament in 1991. Price was pastor of the First Baptist Church in Montclair, New Jersey . He has served as Professor of Religion at Mount Olive College . He additionally did some work at minor institutions, including professorships at nonaccredited schools Johnnie Colemon Theological Seminary and the Center for Inquiry Institute . Price challenges biblical literalism and argues for

14268-406: Was brought, bound, before Queen Helen , the sages accused him of sorcery . When he brought a corpse to life, she released him. Accused again, the queen sent for his arrest. He asked his disciples not to resist. Using God's name he made birds of clay and caused them to fly. The sages then got Judah Iskarioto to learn the name. At a contest of miracles between the two, they both lost knowledge of

14391-478: Was citing a Jewish contemporary in his account. Jews apparently polemicised actively against the new Christian religion, as can be inferred from the 2nd century Christian writer Justin Martyr 's Dialogue with Trypho , a fictional dialogue between a Christian and a Jew. In chapter 17 Justin claims that the Jews had sent out "chosen men" throughout the Roman Empire to polemicize against Christianity, calling it

14514-534: Was forced by the European Court of Human Rights to change several laws that were deemed discriminatory, and in 2013 the Court ruled that these changes must also be applied to children born before 2001. In some countries, the family law itself explicitly states that there must be equality between the children born outside and inside marriage: in Bulgaria, for example, the new 2009 Family Code lists "equality of

14637-436: Was married to a man named Pappos ben Yehuda. A man named Joseph Pandera lusted after Miriam, and after accosting her, took her from Jerusalem to Bethlehem and impregnated her. Several years passed, during which Miriam gave birth to a child named Yeshua and several more sons and daughters. After Pappos is informed by a traveler that his wife Miriam is alive and cohabiting with another man, he goes before Herod and complains. Herod

14760-514: Was repealed in 2006 by the amendment of section 1 of the Law Reform (Parent and Child) (Scotland) Act 1986 (as amended in 2006) which abolished the status of illegitimacy stating that "(1) No person whose status is governed by Scots law shall be illegitimate ...". The Legitimacy Act 1926 of England and Wales legitimised the birth of a child if the parents subsequently married each other, provided that they had not been married to someone else in

14883-531: Was surprised how strange his behavior was. Thus they both knew of Pandera's crime and Miriam's fault. Without witnesses to punish Pandera, Yohanan left for Babylonia. Miriam gave birth to Yeshua , whose name later depreciated to Yeshu . When he was old enough, she took him to study the Jewish tradition. One day he walked with his head uncovered, showing disrespect, in front of the sages. This betrayed his illegitimacy and Miriam admitted him as Pandera's son. Scandalised, he fled to Upper Galilee . Yeshu later went to

15006-744: Was the highest in the Northern Territory (59%) and the lowest in the ACT (28%). Latin America has the highest rates of non-marital childbearing in the world (55–74% of all children in this region are born to unmarried parents). In most countries in this traditionally Catholic region, children born outside marriage are now the norm. Recent figures from Latin America show non-marital births to be 74% in Colombia , 70% in Paraguay , 69% in Peru , 63% in

15129-438: Was to punish a bastard child's mother and putative father, and to relieve the parish from the cost of supporting mother and child. "By an act of 1576 ( 18 Elizabeth C. 3), it was ordered that bastards should be supported by their putative fathers, though bastardy orders in the quarter sessions date from before this date. If the genitor could be found, then he was put under very great pressure to accept responsibility and to maintain

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