Yeshu ( Hebrew : יֵשׁוּ Yēšū ) is the name of an individual or individuals mentioned in rabbinic literature , thought by some to refer to Jesus when used in the Talmud . The name Yeshu is also used in other sources before and after the completion of the Babylonian Talmud . It is also the modern Israeli spelling of Jesus .
183-575: The identification of Jesus with any number of individuals named Yeshu has numerous problems, as most of the individuals are said to have lived in time periods far detached from that of Jesus; Yeshu the sorcerer is noted for being executed by the Hasmonean government which lost legal authority in 63 BCE, Yeshu the student is described being among the Pharisees who returned to Israel from Egypt in 74 BC, and Yeshu ben Pandera/ben Stada 's stepfather
366-498: A Mishnaic era teaching that Yeshu practised black magic, deceived and led Israel astray. This quote is seen by some as an explanation in general for the designation Yeshu . According to Dr. Rubenstein, the account in Sanhedrin 107b recognizes the kinship between Christians and Jews, since Jesus is presented as a disciple of a prominent rabbi. But it also reflects and speaks to an anxiety fundamental to Rabbinic Judaism . Prior to
549-645: A Roman citizen and former general in the Galilee, who survived the Jewish–Roman wars of the 1st century, was a Jew who was captured by and cooperated with the Romans, and wrote his books under Roman patronage. The continuing Hellenization of Judea pitted traditional Jews against those who eagerly Hellenized. The latter felt that the former's orthodoxy held them back. Jews were divided both between those favoring Hellenization and those opposing it and over allegiance to
732-516: A critical apparatus with diacritical marks indicating to which version each line (Gr. στίχος) belonged. Perhaps the Hexapla was never copied in its entirety, but Origen's combined text was copied frequently (eventually without the editing marks) and the older uncombined text of the Septuagint was neglected. The combined text was the first major Christian recension of the Septuagint, often called
915-491: A Greek polis replete with gymnasium and ephebeion (2 Maccabees 4). Whether this step represents the culmination of a 150-year process of Hellenisation within Jerusalem in general, or whether it was only the initiative of a small coterie of Jerusalem priests with no wider ramifications, has been debated for decades." Hellenised Jews are known to have engaged in non-surgical foreskin restoration (epispasm) in order to join
1098-696: A Greek-English interlinear Septuagint. It includes the Greek books of the Hebrew canon (without the apocrypha) and the Greek New Testament; the whole Bible is numerically coded to a new version of the Strong numbering system created to add words not present in the original numbering by Strong. The edition is set in monotonic orthography . The version includes a Bible concordance and index. The Orthodox Study Bible , published in early 2008, features
1281-518: A Roman client state and marked the end of the Hasmonean dynasty. Even then, Herod tried to bolster the legitimacy of his reign by marrying a Hasmonean princess, Mariamne , and planning to drown the last male Hasmonean heir at his Jericho palace. In 6 CE, Rome joined Judea proper, Samaria and Idumea into the Roman province of Judaea . In 44 CE, Rome installed the rule of a procurator side by side with
1464-492: A Yeshu is mentioned as a student of Joshua ben Perachiah who was sent away for misinterpreting a word that in context should have been understood as referring to the inn; he instead understood it to mean the innkeeper's wife. His teacher said "Here is a nice inn", to which he replied "Her eyes are crooked", to which his teacher responded "Is this what you are occupied in?" (This happened during their period of refuge in Egypt during
1647-584: A Yeshu who burns his food in public, possibly a reference to pagan sacrifices. The account is discussing Manasseh the king of Judah, infamous for having turned to idolatry and having persecuted the Jews (2 Kings 21). It is part of a larger discussion about three kings and four commoners excluded from paradise. These are also discussed in the Shulkhan Arukh where the son who burns his food is explicitly stated to be Manasseh. In Sanhedrin 107b and Sotah 47a
1830-489: A ben-Stada was caught by hidden observers and hanged in the town of Lod on the eve of Passover . The debate then follows. It begins by asking if this was not ben Pandera rather than ben Stada. This is refuted by the claim that it is both, his mother's husband was Stada but her lover was Pandera. This is countered with the claim the husband was Pappos ben Yehuda (a 2nd-century figure elsewhere remembered as having locked up his unfaithful wife and visiting Rabbi Akiva in jail after
2013-537: A civil war took on the character of an invasion when the Hellenistic kingdom of Syria sided with the Hellenising Jews against the traditionalists. As the conflict escalated, Antiochus prohibited the practices of the traditionalists, thereby, in a departure from usual Seleucid practice, banning the religion of an entire people. Other scholars argue that while the rising began as a religious rebellion, it
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#17327653786012196-464: A derogatory account of the life of Jesus resulting from Jewish reaction to persecution by Christians. The name Yeshu has also been found on the 1st-century CE ossuary of a Yeshua bar Yehoseph , published by E. L. Sukenik in 1931, and catalogued by L. Y. Rahmani in 1994. Although Sukenik considered this the same as the term in the Talmud, he also entertained the possibility that the final letter ayin
2379-575: A disciple of a prominent rabbi. But it also reflects and speaks to an anxiety fundamental to Rabbinic Judaism. Prior to the destruction of the Temple in 70, Jews were divided into different sects, each promoting different interpretations of the law. Rabbinic Judaism domesticated and internalized conflicts over the law, while vigorously condemning any sectarianism. In other words, rabbis are encouraged to disagree and argue with one another, but these activities must be carefully contained, or else they could lead to
2562-494: A false god. He argued that Jesus' original name was "Yeshua" and as Jews did not recognize him as saviour ( moshia` ) or that he had even saved ( hoshia` ) himself, they left out the ayin from the root meaning "to save". Eisenmenger's book against Judaism was denounced by the Jews as malicious libel, and was the subject of a number of refutations. Early-20th-century writers such as Herford (1903 , pp. 37–38) and Klausner assume that references to Yeshu and Yeshu ha Notzri in
2745-695: A fragment of the Jerusalem Talmud from the Cairo Genizah , a depository for holy texts which are not usable due to age, damage or errors. Flusser takes this as evidence of the term being a name; however, the standard text of the Jerusalem Talmud refers to one of the numerous Rabbi Yehoshua s of the Talmud and moreover the fragment has the latter name at other points in the text. Yeshu is also mentioned in Isaac Luria 's "Book of
2928-605: A friendly conference, where he persuaded him to dismiss his army of 40,000 men, promising to give him Ptolemais and other fortresses. Jonathan fell into the trap; he took with him to Ptolemais 1,000 men, all of whom were slain; he himself was taken prisoner. When Diodotus Tryphon was about to enter Judea at Hadid, he was confronted by the new Jewish leader, Simon, ready for battle. Tryphon, avoiding an engagement, demanded one hundred talents and Jonathan's two sons as hostages, in return for which he promised to liberate Jonathan. Although Simon did not trust Diodotus Tryphon, he complied with
3111-509: A healer of the grandson of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi is described as being of ben Pandera. The source of this account is Shabbat 14:4-8 and Avodah Zarah 40 in the Jerusalem Talmud, but there ben Pandera is not mentioned. The word Yeshu is however found as a secondary marginal gloss to the first passage in the Leiden manuscript which together with the Midrashic version show that the account
3294-423: A historical/biographical question that bedevils historians to this day. However, a probable answer is that rabbinic literature is often not literal but allegorical, thus stories can be made up to conjure a deeper meaning or a secret message that requires insider knowledge to fully understand. In 1240, Nicholas Donin , with the support of Pope Gregory IX , referred to Yeshu narratives to support his accusation that
3477-489: A mercenary army to capture Madaba and Schechem , significantly increasing his regional influence. Hyrcanus conquered Transjordan , Samaria , and Idumea (also known as Edom ), and forced Idumeans to convert to Judaism: Septuagint The Septuagint ( / ˈ s ɛ p tj u ə dʒ ɪ n t / SEP -tew-ə-jint ), sometimes referred to as the Greek Old Testament or The Translation of
3660-863: A new translation of the Septuagint based on the Alfred Rahlfs' edition of the Greek text . Two additional major sources have been added: the 1851 Brenton translation and the New King James Version text in places where the translation matches the Hebrew Masoretic text. This edition includes the NKJV New Testament and extensive commentary from an Eastern Orthodox perspective. Nicholas King completed The Old Testament in four volumes and The Bible . Brenton's Septuagint, Restored Names Version (SRNV) has been published in two volumes. The Hebrew-names restoration, based on
3843-479: A number of canonical and non-canonical psalms in the Dead Sea scroll 11QPs(a) (also known as 11Q5), a first-century-CE scroll discovered in 1956. The scroll contains two short Hebrew psalms, which scholars agree were the basis for Psalm 151. The canonical acceptance of these books varies by Christian tradition. It is unclear to what extent Alexandrian Jews accepted the authority of the Septuagint. Manuscripts of
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#17327653786014026-511: A rival claimant to the Seleucid throne: Alexander Balas , who purported to be the son of Antiochus IV Epiphanes and a first cousin of Demetrius. Demetrius was forced to recall the garrisons of Judea, except those in the City of Acre and at Beth-zur, to bolster his strength. Furthermore, he made a bid for the loyalty of Jonathan, permitting him to recruit an army and to reclaim the hostages kept in
4209-516: A schism. Although this story may not present a historically accurate account of Jesus' life, it does use a fiction about Jesus to communicate an important truth about the rabbis. Moreover, Rubenstein sees this story as a rebuke to overly harsh rabbis. Boyarin suggests that the rabbis were well aware of Christian views of the Pharisees and that this story acknowledges the Christian belief that Jesus
4392-402: A schism. Although this story may not present a historically accurate account of Jesus' life, it does use a fiction about Jesus to communicate an important truth about the rabbis. Moreover, Rubenstein sees this story as a rebuke to overly harsh rabbis. Boyarin suggests that the rabbis were well aware of Christian views of the Pharisees and that this story acknowledges the Christian belief that Jesus
4575-519: A single tractate . The earliest known example of this theory comes from medieval Toledot Yeshu narratives. This has led to the accusation, first voiced by the anti-Judaist writer Johann Andreas Eisenmenger in his Entdecktes Judenthum , that "Yeshu" was always such a deliberately insulting term for Jesus. Eisenmenger claimed that Jews believed that they were forbidden to mention names of false gods and instead were commanded to change and defame them and did so with Jesus' name as they considered him
4758-437: A stronger Greek influence. The Septuagint may also clarify pronunciation of pre- Masoretic Hebrew; many proper nouns are spelled with Greek vowels in the translation, but contemporary Hebrew texts lacked vowel pointing . However, it is unlikely that all Biblical Hebrew sounds had precise Greek equivalents. The Septuagint does not consist of a single, unified corpus. Rather, it is a collection of ancient translations of
4941-531: A temple and the presence of a bronze animal. Robert Eisler considered the name to be derived from Pandaros . He also argued that it may not have been a real name but instead as a generic name for a betrayer. He notes that in the Iliad , Pandaros betrays the Greeks and breaks a truce confirmed by solemn oath. He argues that the name came to be used as a generic term for a betrayer and was borrowed by Hebrew. The name
5124-706: Is a literary device, and that the Yeshu stories provide a more complex view of early Rabbinic-Christian interactions. Whereas the Pharisees were one sect among several others in the Second Temple era, the Amoraim and Tannaim sought to establish Rabbinic Judaism as the normative form of Judaism. Like the rabbis, early Christians claimed to be working within Biblical traditions to provide new interpretations of Jewish laws and values. The sometimes blurry boundary between
5307-614: Is also found in the Tractate Megillah of the Babylonian Talmud : King Ptolemy once gathered 72 Elders. He placed them in 72 chambers, each of them in a separate one, without revealing to them why they were summoned. He entered each one's room and said: "Write for me the Torah of Moshe , your teacher". God put it in the heart of each one to translate identically as all the others did. Philo of Alexandria writes that
5490-560: Is anonymous. In Gittin 56b, 57a it is used for one of three foreign enemies of Israel, the other two being from past and present with Yeshu representing a third not identified with any past or present event. These accounts of Celsus and the Toledot Yeshu do not form part of Orthodox Jewish interpretation. The only classical Jewish commentator to equate Yeshu with Jesus was the Rishon (early commentator) Abraham Ibn Daud who held
5673-611: Is derived from Notzri and did not mean a person from Nazareth. In 1180 CE Maimonides in his Mishneh Torah , Hilchos Melachim 11:4 briefly discusses Jesus in a passage later censored by the Church. He uses the name Yeshua for Jesus (an attested equivalent of the name unlike Yeshu ) and follows it with HaNotzri showing that regardless of what meaning had been intended in the Talmudic occurrences of this term, Maimonides understood it as an equivalent of Nazarene. Late additions to
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5856-722: Is found in Isaiah 7:14 , in which the Hebrew word עַלְמָה ( ‘almāh , which translates into English as "young woman") is translated into the Koine Greek as παρθένος ( parthenos , which translates into English as "virgin"). The Septuagint became synonymous with the Greek Old Testament, a Christian canon incorporating the books of the Hebrew canon with additional texts. Although the Catholic Church and
6039-644: Is identical in the Septuagint, Vulgate and the Masoretic Text, and Genesis 4:8 to the end of the chapter is the same. There is only one noticeable difference in that chapter, at 4:7: The differences between the Septuagint and the MT fall into four categories: The Biblical manuscripts found in Qumran , commonly known as the Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS), have prompted comparisons of the texts associated with
6222-704: Is indeed found in Genesis Rabba 50 in the expression qol Pandar (literally "voice of Pandaros" denoting false promises of a betrayer) used as a derogatory placeholder name for a judge of Sodom. The -a at the end of the form Pandera can be understood to be the Aramaic definite article. In the surviving pre-censorship Talmud manuscripts, Yeshu is sometimes followed by the epithet Ha-Notzri . R. Travers Herford , Joseph Klausner and others translated it as "the Nazarene". The term does not appear consistently in
6405-509: Is made on each of their names, and they are executed. It is mentioned that excessive leniency was applied because of Yeshu's influence with the royal government ( malkhut ). In the Florence manuscript of the Talmud (1177 CE) an addition is made to Sanhedrin 43a saying that Yeshu was hanged on the eve of the Sabbath . In Gittin 56b, 57a a story is mentioned in which Onkelos summons up
6588-422: Is most important in that world where you are now? Jesus said to him: The Jewish people. Onkelos asked him: Should I then attach myself to them in this world? Jesus said to him: Their welfare you shall seek, their misfortune you shall not seek, for anyone who touches them is regarded as if he were touching the apple of his eye. Onkelos said to him: What is the punishment of that man, a euphemism for Jesus himself, in
6771-490: Is no evidence that the Septuagint included these additional books. These copies of the Septuagint include books known as anagignoskomena in Greek and in English as deuterocanon (derived from the Greek words for "second canon"), books not included in the modern Jewish canon. These books are estimated to have been written between 200 BCE and 50 CE. Among them are the first two books of Maccabees ; Tobit; Judith;
6954-410: Is no one authoritative Toledot Yeshu story; rather, various medieval versions existed that differ in attitudes towards the central characters and in story details. It is considered unlikely that any one person wrote it, and each version seems to be from a different set of storytellers. In these manuscripts, the name "Yeshu" is used as designation of the central character. The stories typically understand
7137-643: Is noted as speaking with Rabbi Akiva shortly before the rabbi's execution, an event which occurred in c. 134 AD. During the Middle Ages, Ashkenazi Jewish authorities were forced to interpret these passages in relation to the Christian beliefs about Jesus of Nazareth . As historian David Berger observed, Whatever one thinks of the number of Jesuses in antiquity, no one can question the multiplicity of Jesuses in Medieval Jewish polemic. Many Jews with no interest at all in history were forced to confront
7320-508: Is paralleled in the Tosefta in Shabbat 11:15 and Sanhedrin 10:11 respectively. The Tannaim and Amoraim who recorded the accounts in the Talmud and Tosefta use the term Yeshu as a designation in Sanhedrin 103a and Berakhot 17b in place of King Manasseh 's real name. Sanhedrin 107b uses it for a Hasmonean era individual who in an earlier account (Jerusalem Talmud Chagigah 2:2)
7503-437: Is used to answer a question about Biblical law, is common to both the rabbis and early Christians. The vulgar content, however, may have been used to parody Christian values. Dr. Boyarin considers the text to be an acknowledgment that rabbis often interacted with Christians, despite their doctrinal antipathy. A medieval account of Jesus, in which Jesus is described as being the son of Joseph, the son of Pandera (see translation of
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7686-487: The min (heretic) named Jacob naming his mentor Yeshu ben Pandera (Yeshu son of Pandera). The surname ben Pandera is not found in the Talmud account. (Rodkinson's translation drawing on the Tosefta account paraphrases the reference to Yeshu having taught Jacob by "so taught Jeshu b. Panthyra", in this case not translating "Yeshu" as "Jesus".) The name is found again in the Midrashic text Kohelet Rabba 10:5 where
7869-624: The Achaemenid Empire , and Alexander the Great 's Hellenic Macedonian empire ( c. 330 BCE), although Jewish religious practice and culture had persisted and even flourished during certain periods. The entire region was heavily contested between the successor states of Alexander's empire, the Seleucid Empire and Ptolemaic Kingdom, during the six Syrian Wars of the 3rd–1st centuries BCE: "After two centuries of peace under
8052-502: The Bar-Kokhba revolt ) and that the mother was named Stada. This is then refuted by the claim that the mother was named Miriam, the dresser of women's hair, but that she had gone astray from her husband (a Miriam the daughter of Bilgah, is mentioned elsewhere as having had an affair with a Roman soldier). In Aramaic, "gone astray" is satat da , thus a Midrashic meaning for the term Stada is obtained. Real historical relationships between
8235-501: The Battle of Antioch resulted in the final defeat of Alexander Balas by the forces of his father-in-law Ptolemy VI. Ptolemy himself, however, was among the casualties of the battle. Demetrius II Nicator remained sole ruler of the Seleucid Empire and became the second husband of Cleopatra Thea . Jonathan owed no allegiance to the new King and took this opportunity to lay siege to the Acra ,
8418-642: The Battle of Elasa (Laisa), where this time it was the Hasmonean commander who was killed. (161/160 BCE). Bacchides now established the Hellenes as rulers in Israel; and upon Judah's death, the persecuted patriots, under Jonathan, brother of Judah, fled beyond the Jordan River. (ib. 9:25–27) They set camp near a morass by the name of Asphar, and remained, after several engagements with the Seleucids, in
8601-645: The Dead Sea Scrolls found at Qumran . Sirach , whose text in Hebrew was already known from the Cairo Geniza , has been found in two scrolls (2QSir or 2Q18, 11QPs_a or 11Q5) in Hebrew. Another Hebrew scroll of Sirach has been found in Masada (MasSir). Five fragments from the Book of Tobit have been found in Qumran: four written in Aramaic and one written in Hebrew (papyri 4Q, nos. 196-200). Psalm 151 appears with
8784-770: The Eastern Orthodox Church include most of the books in the Septuagint in their canons, Protestant churches usually do not. After the Reformation , many Protestant Bibles began to follow the Jewish canon and exclude the additional texts (which came to be called the Apocrypha) as noncanonical. The Apocrypha are included under a separate heading in the King James Version of the Bible. All
8967-572: The Encyclopaedia Judaica (1972, 1997). and the Encyclopedia Hebraica (Israel). R. Travers Herford based his work on the understanding that the term refers to Jesus, and it was also the understanding of Joseph Klausner . They agree that the accounts offer little independent or accurate historical evidence about Jesus. Herford argues that writers of the Talmud and Tosefta had only vague knowledge of Jesus and embellished
9150-489: The Euphrates . In 116 BCE, a civil war between Seleucid half-brothers Antiochus VIII Grypus and Antiochus IX Cyzicenus broke out, resulting in a further breakup of the already significantly reduced kingdom. This provided opportunity for semi-independent Seleucid client states such as Judea to revolt. In 110 BCE, John Hyrcanus carried out the first military conquests of the newly independent Hasmonean kingdom, raising
9333-647: The Hasmonean Civil War in 63 BCE and made it into a client state, marking the decline of Hasmonean dynasty; Herod the Great displaced the last reigning Hasmonean client-ruler in 37 BCE. Simon Thassi established the dynasty in 141 BCE, two decades after his brother Judas Maccabeus ( יהודה המכבי Yehudah HaMakabi ) had defeated the Seleucid army during the Maccabean Revolt of 167 to 141 BCE. According to 1 Maccabees , 2 Maccabees , and
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#17327653786019516-641: The Hexaplar recension . Two other major recensions were identified in the century following Origen by Jerome , who attributed these to Lucian (the Lucianic, or Antiochene, recension) and Hesychius (the Hesychian, or Alexandrian, recension). The oldest manuscripts of the Septuagint include 2nd-century-BCE fragments of Leviticus and Deuteronomy (Rahlfs nos. 801, 819, and 957) and 1st-century-BCE fragments of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and
9699-422: The Jews of Alexandria were likely to have been the writers of the Septuagint, but dismisses Aristeas' account as a pious fiction . Instead, he asserts that the real origin of the name "Septuagint" pertains to the fact that the earliest version was forwarded by the authors to the Jewish Sanhedrin at Alexandria for editing and approval. The Jews of Alexandria celebrated the translation with an annual festival on
9882-409: The Josippon also refer to Jesus as Yeshua HaNotzri but not Yeshu HaNotzri . Among other passages, the Talmud names Yeshu HaNotzri ( Jesus the Nazarene ) as a character who was sentenced by God to spend his afterlife in boiling excrement for having “mocked the words” of the Jewish sages: Onkelos then went and raised Jesus the Nazarene from the grave through necromancy. Onkelos said to him: Who
10065-502: The Letter of Jeremiah , the Book of Odes , the Prayer of Manasseh and Psalm 151 are included in some copies of the Septuagint. The Septuagint has been rejected as scriptural by mainstream Rabbinic Judaism for a couple of reasons. First, the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew source texts in many cases (particularly in the Book of Job ). Second, the translations appear at times to demonstrate an ignorance of Hebrew idiomatic usage. A particularly noteworthy example of this phenomenon
10248-444: The Letter of Jeremiah , which became chapter six of Baruch in the Vulgate ; the additions to Daniel ( The Prayer of Azarias , the Song of the Three Children , Susanna , and Bel and the Dragon ); the additions to Esther ; 1 Maccabees ; 2 Maccabees ; 3 Maccabees ; 4 Maccabees ; 1 Esdras ; Odes (including the Prayer of Manasseh ); the Psalms of Solomon , and Psalm 151 . Fragments of deuterocanonical books in Hebrew are among
10431-532: The MT seemed doubtful" Modern scholarship holds that the Septuagint was written from the 3rd through the 1st centuries BCE, but nearly all attempts at dating specific books (except for the Pentateuch, early- to mid-3rd century BCE) are tentative. Later Jewish revisions and recensions of the Greek against the Hebrew are well-attested. The best-known are Aquila (128 CE), Symmachus , and Theodotion. These three, to varying degrees, are more-literal renderings of their contemporary Hebrew scriptures compared to
10614-459: The Mishnah nor the two Talmuds refer to Jesus. Bauckham notes that the spelling Yeshu is found on one ossuary, Rahmani 9, which supports that the name Yeshu was not invented as a way of avoiding pronouncing the name Yeshua or Yehoshua in relation to Jesus, but that it may still be that rabbinical use of Yeshu was intended to distinguish Jesus from rabbis bearing the biblical name "Joshua", Yehoshua . Foote and Wheeler considered that
10797-405: The Old Testament of his Vulgate from Hebrew rather than Greek. His choice was sharply criticized by Augustine , his contemporary. Although Jerome argued for the superiority of the Hebrew texts in correcting the Septuagint on philological and theological grounds, because he was accused of heresy he also acknowledged the Septuagint texts. Acceptance of Jerome's version increased, and it displaced
10980-453: The Sabbath . Other Jews then reasoned that they must fight when attacked, even on the Sabbath. The institution of guerrilla warfare practices by Judah over several years led to victory against the Seleucids: It was now, in the fall of 165, that Judah's successes began to disturb the central government. He appears to have controlled the road from Jaffa to Jerusalem, and thus to have cut off the royal party in Acra from direct communication with
11163-485: The Septuagint that was codified by Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Christians. The other primary source for the Hasmonean dynasty is the first book of The Wars of the Jews and a more detailed history in Antiquities of the Jews by the Jewish historian Josephus , (37– c. 100 CE). Josephus' account is the only primary source covering the history of the Hasmonean dynasty during the period of its expansion and independence between 110 and 63 BCE. Notably, Josephus,
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#173276537860111346-439: The Talmud and other Jewish texts deemed offensive and blasphemous to Christians. Thus the Yeshu passages were removed from subsequently published editions of the Talmud and Tosefta. Nevertheless, several church writers would refer to the passages as evidence of Jesus outside the Gospels. Jehiel Heilprin held that Yeshu the student of Yehoshua ben Perachiah was not Jesus. Jacob Emden 's writings also show an understanding that
11529-432: The Tanakh , along with other Jewish texts that are now commonly referred to as apocrypha . Importantly, the canon of the Hebrew Bible was evolving over the century or so in which the Septuagint was being written. Also, the texts were translated by many different people, in different locations, at different times, for different purposes, and often from different original Hebrew manuscripts. The Hebrew Bible , also called
11712-490: The Tanakh , has three parts: the Torah ("Law"), the Nevi'im ("Prophets"), and the Ketuvim ("Writings"). The Septuagint has four: law, history, poetry, and prophets. The books of the Apocrypha were inserted at appropriate locations. Extant copies of the Septuagint, which date from the 4th century CE, contain books and additions not present in the Hebrew Bible as established in the Jewish canon and are not uniform in their contents. According to some scholars, there
11895-436: The Twelve Minor Prophets ( Alfred Rahlfs nos. 802, 803, 805, 848, 942, and 943). Relatively-complete manuscripts of the Septuagint postdate the Hexaplar recension, and include the fourth-century-CE Codex Vaticanus and the fifth-century Codex Alexandrinus . These are the oldest-surviving nearly-complete manuscripts of the Old Testament in any language; the oldest extant complete Hebrew texts date to about 600 years later, from
12078-411: The Twelve Tribes of Israel —from Jerusalem to Alexandria to translate the Tanakh from Biblical Hebrew into Koine Greek, for inclusion in his library . This narrative is found in the possibly pseudepigraphic Letter of Aristeas to his brother Philocrates, and is repeated by Philo of Alexandria , Josephus (in Antiquities of the Jews ), and by later sources (including Augustine of Hippo). It
12261-520: The swamp in the country east of the Jordan. Following the death of his puppet governor Alcimus , High Priest of Jerusalem, Bacchides felt secure enough to leave the country, but two years after the departure of Bacchides from Israel, the City of Acre felt sufficiently threatened by Maccabee incursions to contact Demetrius and request the return of Bacchides to their territory. Jonathan and Simeon, now more experienced in guerrilla warfare , thought it well to retreat farther, and accordingly fortified in
12444-419: The "antiquated" and "outdated" religion practised in Jerusalem, and to rid it of superstitious elements. They were the ones who egged on Antiochus IV and instituted the religious reform in Jerusalem. One suspects that [Bickermann] may have been influenced in his view by an antipathy to Reform Judaism in 19th- and 20th-century Germany. Tcherikover, perhaps influenced by socialist concerns, saw the uprising as one of
12627-417: The "u" to the diphthong "ua") as would have had to occur if Yeshu were derived from Yeshua in such a manner. Kutscher noted moreover that the guttural ayin was still pronounced in most parts of Galilee. The earliest undisputed occurrences of the term Yeshu are found in five anecdotes in the Tosefta ( c 200 CE ) and Babylonian Talmud ( c 500 CE). The anecdotes appear in the Babylonian Talmud during
12810-522: The 15th-century Yemenite manuscript: Toledot Yeshu ), gives a contemporary view of Jesus and where he is portrayed as an impostor. The meaning and etymology of this name are uncertain. Besides the form Pandera, variations have been found in different Tosefta manuscripts for example Pantiri and Pantera . Saul Lieberman's investigation of Tosefta variations revealed Pandera to be the original form. (Some authors such as Herford spell it Pandira in English.) Celsus in his discourse The True Word gives
12993-477: The 2nd century BCE, and early manuscripts datable to the 2nd century BCE. After the Torah, other books were translated over the next two to three centuries. It is unclear which was translated when, or where; some may have been translated twice (into different versions), and then revised. The quality and style of the translators varied considerably from book to book, from a literal translation to paraphrasing to an interpretative style. The translation process of
13176-418: The City of Acre. Jonathan gladly accepted these terms, took up residence at Jerusalem in 153 BCE, and began fortifying the city. Alexander Balas offered Jonathan even more favourable terms, including official appointment as High Priest in Jerusalem, and despite a second letter from Demetrius promising prerogatives that were almost impossible to guarantee, Jonathan declared allegiance to Balas. Jonathan became
13359-477: The English translation. Reflecting on those problems, American orientalist Robert W. Rogers (d. 1930) noted in 1921: "it is most unfortunate that Syria and Syrians ever came into the English versions. It should always be Aram and the Aramaeans". The first English translation (which excluded the apocrypha) was Charles Thomson's in 1808 , which was revised and enlarged by C. A. Muses in 1954 and published by
13542-672: The Falcon's Wing Press. The Septuagint with Apocrypha: Greek and English was translated by Lancelot Brenton in 1854. It is the traditional translation, and most of the time since its publication it has been the only one readily available. It has also been continually in print. The translation, based on the Codex Vaticanus , contains the Greek and English texts in parallel columns. It has an average of four footnoted, transliterated words per page, abbreviated Alex and GK . The Complete Apostles' Bible (translated by Paul W. Esposito)
13725-503: The Governor (the text uses the word for chief judge) interrogated him, the rabbi answered that he "trusted the judge." Boyarin has suggested that this was the Jewish version of the Br'er Rabbit approach to domination, which he contrasts to the strategy of many early Christians, who proclaim their beliefs in spite of the consequences (i.e. martyrdom). Although Rabbi Eliezer was referring to God,
13908-410: The Governor interpreted him to be referring to the Governor himself, and freed the rabbi. According to them the account also reveals that there was greater contact between Christians and Jews in the 2nd century than commonly believed. They view the account of the teaching of Yeshu as an attempt to mock Christianity. According to Dr. Rubenstein, the structure of this teaching, in which a biblical prooftext
14091-638: The Hebrew Bible (including the Septuagint). Emanuel Tov , editor of the translated scrolls, identifies five broad variants of DSS texts: The textual sources present a variety of readings; Bastiaan Van Elderen compares three variations of Deuteronomy 32:43, the Song of Moses : The text of all print editions is derived from the recensions of Origen, Lucian, or Hesychius: One of the main challenges, faced by translators during their work, emanated from
14274-405: The Hebrew Bible. In the Greek translation, the region of Aram was commonly labeled as "Syria", while Arameans were labeled as "Syrians". Such adoption and implementation of terms that were foreign ( exonymic ) had far-reaching influence on later terminology related to Arameans and their lands, since the same terminology was reflected in later Latin and other translations of the Septuagint, including
14457-557: The Hebrew Pandera as they do not match phonetically. He noted that Hebrew would have represented the sounds correctly if any of these were the origin. The interpolated form Panthyra appearing in the Rodkinson translation of the Talmud suffers the same problem. Neubauer understand the name to be Pandareus . The Toledot Yeshu narratives contain elements resembling the story of Pandareus in Greek mythology, namely stealing from
14640-531: The Hebrew name Hashmona'i is linked with the village of Heshmon , mentioned in Joshua 15:27 . P.J. Gott and Logan Licht attribute the name to "Ha Simeon", a veiled reference to the Simeonite Tribe . Canaan State of Israel (1948–present) The lands of the former Kingdom of Israel and Kingdom of Judah ( c. 722 –586 BCE), had been occupied in turn by Assyria , Babylonia ,
14823-520: The Hebrew text was, according to Irenaeus, interpreted by Theodotion and Aquila (Jewish converts ), as a "young woman" who would conceive. Again according to Irenaeus, the Ebionites used this to claim that Joseph was the biological father of Jesus. To him that was heresy facilitated by late anti-Christian alterations of the scripture in Hebrew, as evident by the older, pre-Christian Septuagint. Jerome broke with church tradition, translating most of
15006-693: The Hebrew text when it is unclear, corrupted, or ambiguous. According to the New Jerusalem Bible foreword, "Only when this (the Masoretic Text) presents insuperable difficulties have emendations or other versions, such as the [...] LXX, been used." The translator's preface to the New International Version reads, "The translators also consulted the more important early versions (including) the Septuagint [...] Readings from these versions were occasionally followed where
15189-478: The Hellenistic party's complaints against Jonathan. In 147 BCE, Demetrius II Nicator , a son of Demetrius I Soter, claimed Balas' throne. The governor of Coele-Syria , Apollonius Taos, used the opportunity to challenge Jonathan to battle, saying that the Jews might for once leave the mountains and venture out into the plain . Jonathan and Simeon led a force of 10,000 men against Apollonius' forces in Jaffa , which
15372-569: The Jewish community had attacked the virginity of Mary and the divinity of Jesus . In the Disputation of Paris , Yechiel of Paris conceded that one of the Yeshu stories in the Talmud referred to Jesus of Nazareth, but that the other passages referred to other people. In 1372, John of Valladolid , with the support of the Archbishop of Toledo, made a similar accusation against the Jewish community; Moses ha-Kohen de Tordesillas argued that
15555-651: The Jewish community. The Septuagint therefore satisfied a need in the Jewish community. The term "Septuagint" is derived from the Latin phrase Vetus Testamentum ex versione Septuaginta Interpretum ("The Old Testament from the version of the Seventy Translators"). This phrase in turn was derived from the Ancient Greek : Ἡ μετάφρασις τῶν Ἑβδομήκοντα , romanized : hē metáphrasis tôn hebdomḗkonta , lit. 'The Translation of
15738-515: The Jews first made the acquaintance of Hellenism and of the more corrupt sides of Greek culture; and it was from Antioch that Judea henceforth was ruled." The major source of information about the origin of the Hasmonean dynasty is the books 1 Maccabees and 2 Maccabees , held as canonical scripture by the Catholic , Orthodox , and most Oriental Orthodox churches and as apocryphal by Protestant denominations, although they do not comprise
15921-508: The Jews who supported him. The author of the Second Book of Maccabees presented the conflict as a struggle between "Judaism" and "Hellenism", words that he was the first to use. Modern scholarship tends to the second view. Most modern scholars argue that the king was intervening in a civil war between traditionalist Jews in the countryside and Hellenised Jews in Jerusalem. According to Joseph P. Schultz, modern scholarship, "considers
16104-589: The Jews. His government set up an idol of Zeus on the Temple Mount , which Jews considered to be desecration of the Mount; it also forbade both circumcision and possession of Jewish scriptures, on pain of death. According to Josephus, "Now Antiochus was not satisfied either with his unexpected taking the city, or with its pillage, or with the great slaughter he had made there; but being overcome with his violent passions, and remembering what he had suffered during
16287-466: The Maccabean revolt less as an uprising against foreign oppression than as a civil war between the orthodox and reformist parties in the Jewish camp." In the conflict over the office of High Priest, traditionalists with Hebrew/Aramaic names like Onias contested against Hellenisers with Greek names like Jason or Menelaus. Other authors point to social and economic factors in the conflict. What began as
16470-478: The Nazarene, who was a Jewish sinner, sought their well-being. Sanhedrin 43a relates the trial and execution of Yeshu and his five disciples. Here, Yeshu is a sorcerer who has enticed other Jews to apostasy. A herald is sent to call for witnesses in his favour for forty days before his execution. No one comes forth and in the end he is stoned and hanged on the eve of Passover . His five disciples, named Matai, Nekai, Netzer, Buni, and Todah, are then tried. Word play
16653-521: The Old Greek (the original Septuagint). Modern scholars consider one (or more) of the three to be new Greek versions of the Hebrew Bible. Although much of Origen 's Hexapla (a six-version critical edition of the Hebrew Bible) is lost, several compilations of fragments are available. Origen kept a column for the Old Greek (the Septuagint), which included readings from all the Greek versions in
16836-686: The Persians, the Hebrew state found itself once more caught in the middle of power struggles between two great empires: the Seleucid state with its capital in Syria to the north and the Ptolemaic state, with its capital in Egypt to the south. ... Between 319 and 302 BCE, Jerusalem changed hands seven times." Under Antiochus III the Great , the Seleucids wrested control of Judea from the Ptolemies for
17019-592: The Ptolemies or Seleucids. In 175 BCE, conflict broke out between High Priest Onias III (who opposed Hellenisation and favoured the Ptolemies ) and his brother Jason (who favoured Hellenisation and the Seleucids). A period of political intrigue followed, with both Jason and Menelaus bribing the king to win the High Priesthood, and accusations of murder of competing contenders for the title. The result
17202-691: The Reincarnations", chapter 37. Within the long list of Jewish Tzadiks it is written: Hasmonean dynasty The Hasmonean dynasty ( / h æ z m ə ˈ n iː ən / ; Hebrew : חַשְׁמוֹנָאִים Ḥašmōnāʾīm ; Greek : Ασμοναϊκή δυναστεία ) was a ruling dynasty of Judea and surrounding regions during the Hellenistic times of the Second Temple period (part of classical antiquity ), from c. 140 BCE to 37 BCE. Between c. 140 and c. 116 BCE
17385-580: The Roman Republic to remove the Greeks: "In the year 161 BCE he sent Eupolemus the son of Johanan and Jason the son of Eleazar , 'to make a league of amity and confederacy with the Romans.'" A Seleucid army under General Nicanor was defeated by Judah (ib. 7:26–50) at the Battle of Adasa , with Nicanor himself killed in action. Next, Bacchides was sent with Alcimus and an army of twenty thousand infantry and two thousand cavalry, and met Judah at
17568-588: The Roman historian Livy , the Roman senate dispatched the diplomat Gaius Popilius to Egypt who demanded Antiochus to withdraw. When Antiochus requested time to discuss the matter Popilius "drew a circle round the king with the stick he was carrying and said, 'Before you step out of that circle give me a reply to lay before the senate.'" While Antiochus was campaigning in Egypt, a rumor spread in Judah that he had been killed. The deposed high priest Jason took advantage of
17751-573: The Seleucid Empire under attacks from the rising powers of the Roman Republic and the Parthian Empire allowed Judea to regain some autonomy; however, in 63 BCE, the kingdom was invaded by the Roman Republic , broken up and set up as a Roman client state . Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II , Simon's great-grandsons, became pawns in a proxy war between Julius Caesar and Pompey . The deaths of Pompey (48 BCE) and Caesar (44 BCE), and
17934-413: The Seleucid fortress in Jerusalem and the symbol of Seleucid control over Judea. It was heavily garrisoned by a Seleucid force and offered asylum to Jewish Hellenists. Demetrius was greatly incensed; he appeared with an army at Ptolemais and ordered Jonathan to come before him. Without raising the siege, Jonathan, accompanied by the elders and priests, went to the king and pacified him with presents, so that
18117-594: The Seleucid throne appeared in the person of the young Antiochus VI Dionysus , son of Alexander Balas and Cleopatra Thea. He was three years old at most, but general Diodotus Tryphon used him to advance his own designs on the throne. In the face of this new enemy, Demetrius not only promised to withdraw the garrison from the City of Acre, but also called Jonathan his ally and requested him to send troops. The 3,000 men of Jonathan protected Demetrius in his capital, Antioch , against his own subjects. As Demetrius II did not keep his promise, Jonathan thought it better to support
18300-694: The Septuagint initially in Alexandria but elsewhere as well. The Septuagint also formed the basis for the Slavonic , Syriac , Old Armenian , Old Georgian , and Coptic versions of the Christian Old Testament . The Septuagint is written in Koine Greek. Some sections contain Semiticisms , which are idioms and phrases based on Semitic languages such as Hebrew and Aramaic . Other books, such as Daniel and Proverbs , have
18483-467: The Septuagint and from the Septuagint into other versions can be divided into several stages: the Greek text was produced within the social environment of Hellenistic Judaism , and completed by 132 BCE. With the spread of Early Christianity , this Septuagint in turn was rendered into Latin in a variety of versions and the latter, collectively known as the Vetus Latina , were also referred to as
18666-517: The Septuagint have been found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, and were thought to have been in use among various Jewish sects at the time. Several factors led most Jews to abandon the Septuagint around the second century CE. The earliest gentile Christians used the Septuagint out of necessity, since it was the only Greek version of the Bible and most (if not all) of these early non- Jewish Christians could not read Hebrew. The association of
18849-552: The Septuagint was given to Ptolemy two days before the annual Tenth of Tevet fast. According to Aristobulus of Alexandria 's fragment 3, portions of the Law were translated from Hebrew into Greek long before the well-known Septuagint version. He stated that Plato and Pythagoras knew the Jewish Law and borrowed from it. In the preface to his 1844 translation of the Septuagint , Lancelot Charles Lee Brenton acknowledges that
19032-460: The Septuagint with a rival religion may have made it suspect in the eyes of the newer generation of Jews and Jewish scholars. Jews instead used Hebrew or Aramaic Targum manuscripts later compiled by the Masoretes and authoritative Aramaic translations, such as those of Onkelos and Rabbi Yonathan ben Uziel . Perhaps most significant for the Septuagint, as distinct from other Greek versions,
19215-538: The Septuagint's Old Latin translations . The Eastern Orthodox Church prefers to use the Septuagint as the basis for translating the Old Testament into other languages, and uses the untranslated Septuagint where Greek is the liturgical language. Critical translations of the Old Testament which use the Masoretic Text as their basis consult the Septuagint and other versions to reconstruct the meaning of
19398-413: The Septuagint. Matthew 2:23 is not present in current Masoretic tradition either; according to Jerome , however, it was in Isaiah 11:1 . The New Testament writers freely used the Greek translation when citing the Jewish scriptures (or quoting Jesus doing so), implying that Jesus, his apostles, and their followers considered it reliable. In the early Christian Church, the presumption that the Septuagint
19581-470: The Septuagint. The Books of Chronicles , known collectively as Παραλειπομένων (Of Things Left Out) supplement Reigns. The Septuagint organizes the minor prophets in its twelve-part Book of Twelve, as does the Masoretic Text. Some ancient scriptures are found in the Septuagint, but not in the Hebrew Bible. The books are Tobit ; Judith ; the Wisdom of Solomon ; Wisdom of Jesus son of Sirach ; Baruch and
19764-587: The Seventy ( Ancient Greek : Ἡ μετάφρασις τῶν Ἑβδομήκοντα , romanized : Hē metáphrasis tôn Hebdomḗkonta ), and often abbreviated as LXX , is the earliest extant Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible from the original Hebrew . The full Greek title derives from the story recorded in the Letter of Aristeas to Philocrates that "the laws of the Jews" were translated into the Greek language at
19947-657: The Seventy';. It was not until the time of Augustine of Hippo (354–430 CE) that the Greek translation of the Jewish scriptures was called by the Latin term Septuaginta . The Roman numeral LXX (seventy) is commonly used as an abbreviation, in addition to G {\displaystyle {\mathfrak {G}}} or G . According to tradition, Ptolemy II Philadelphus (the Greek Pharaoh of Egypt) sent seventy-two Hebrew translators —six from each of
20130-463: The Talmud and Jesus. Menachem Meiri observed that the epithet Ha-Notzri attached to Yeshu in many instances was a late gloss. Friar Raymond Martini , in his anti-Jewish polemical treatise Pugio Fidei , began the accusation echoed in numerous subsequent anti-Jewish pamphlets that the Yeshu passages were derogatory accounts of Jesus. In 1554 a papal bull ordered the removal of all references from
20313-466: The Talmud relate to Jesus. Indeed, in the Septuagint and Greek language Jewish texts such as the writings of Josephus and Philo of Alexandria , Jesus is the standard Greek translation of the common Hebrew name Yehoshua יְהוֹשֻׁעַ (Joshua), Greek having lost the h sound, as well as of the shortened form Yeshua יֵשׁוּעַ which originated in the Second Temple period. Jesus
20496-590: The Wisdom of Solomon; Sirach; Baruch (including the Letter of Jeremiah), and additions to Esther and Daniel. The Septuagint version of some books, such as Daniel and Esther , are longer than those in the Masoretic Text , which were affirmed as canonical in Rabbinic Judaism . The Septuagint Book of Jeremiah is shorter than the Masoretic Text. The Psalms of Solomon , 1 Esdras , 3 Maccabees , 4 Maccabees ,
20679-503: The Yeshu narratives referred to different people and could not have referred to Jesus of Nazareth. Asher ben Jehiel also asserted that the Yeshu of the Talmud is unrelated to the Christian Jesus. There are some modern scholars who understand these passages to be references to Christianity and the Christian figure of Jesus, and others who see references to Jesus only in later rabbinic literature. Johann Maier argued that neither
20862-628: The Yeshu of the Talmud was not Jesus. Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz translates "Yeshu" as "Jesus" in his translation of the Talmud. Elsewhere he has pointed out that Talmudic passages referring to Jesus had been deleted by the Christian censor. The interpretation of Yeshu as a proto-Jesus first seen in Abraham ibn Daud's work would be revisited by Egyptologist Gerald Massey in his essay The historical Jesus and Mythical Christ , and by G. R. S. Mead in his work Did Jesus Live 100 B.C.? . The same view
21045-413: The accounts to discredit him while disregarding chronology. Klausner distinguishes between core material in the accounts which he argues are not about Jesus and the references to "Yeshu" which he sees as additions spuriously associating the accounts with Jesus. Recent scholars in the same vein include Peter Schäfer, Steven Bayme , and Dr. David C. Kraemer . Recently, some scholars have argued that Yeshu
21228-632: The books in Western Old Testament biblical canons are found in the Septuagint, although the order does not always coincide with the Western book order. The Septuagint order is evident in the earliest Christian Bibles, which were written during the fourth century. Some books which are set apart in the Masoretic Text are grouped together. The Books of Samuel and the Books of Kings are one four-part book entitled Βασιλειῶν ( Of Reigns ) in
21411-539: The canonical books of the Hebrew Bible . The books cover the period from 175 BCE to 134 BCE during which time the Hasmonean dynasty became semi-independent from the Seleucid empire but had not yet expanded far outside of Judea. They are written from the point of view that the salvation of the Jewish people in a crisis came from God through the family of Mattathias, particularly his sons Judas Maccabeus, Jonathan Apphus, and Simon Thassi, and his grandson John Hyrcanus . The books include historical and religious material from
21594-530: The city of Ekron along with its outlying territory. The people of Azotus complained to King Ptolemy VI, who had come to make war upon his son-in-law, but Jonathan met Ptolemy at Jaffa in peace and accompanied him as far as the River Eleutherus. Jonathan then returned to Jerusalem, maintaining peace with the King of Egypt despite their support for different contenders for the Seleucid throne. In 145 BCE,
21777-523: The city. He remained governor as a Seleucid vassal . For the next two decades of his reign, Hyrcanus continued, like his father, to rule semi-autonomously from the Seleucids. The Seleucid empire had been disintegrating in the face of the Seleucid–Parthian wars and in 129 BCE Antiochus VII Sidetes was killed in Media by the forces of Phraates II of Parthia , permanently ending Seleucid rule east of
21960-484: The course of broader discussions on various religious or legal topics. The Venice edition of the Jerusalem Talmud contains the name Yeshu, but the Leiden manuscript has a name deleted, and "Yeshu" added in a marginal gloss. Schäfer (2007) writes that due to this, Neusner treats the name as a gloss and omitted it from his translation of the Jerusalem Talmud. In the Tosefta, Chullin 2:22-24 there are two anecdotes about
22143-426: The desert a place called Beth-hogla; there they were besieged several days by Bacchides. Jonathan offered the rival general a peace treaty and exchange of prisoners of war . Bacchides readily consented and even took an oath of nevermore making war upon Jonathan. He and his forces then vacated Israel. The victorious Jonathan now took up his residence in the old city of Michmash . From there he endeavoured to clear
22326-401: The destruction of the Temple in 70, Jews were divided into different sects, each promoting different interpretations of the law. Rabbinic Judaism domesticated and internalized conflicts over the law, while vigorously condemning any sectarianism. In other words, rabbis are encouraged to disagree and argue with one another, but these activities must be carefully contained, or else they could lead to
22509-430: The dominant Hellenistic cultural practice of socialising naked in the gymnasium, where their circumcision would have carried a social stigma; Classical , Hellenistic , and Roman culture found circumcision to be a cruel, barbaric and repulsive custom. In spring 168 BCE, after successfully invading the Ptolemaic kingdom of Egypt, Antiochus IV was humiliatingly pressured by the Romans to withdraw. According to
22692-488: The dynasty ruled Judea semi-autonomously in the Seleucid Empire , and from roughly 110 BCE, with the empire disintegrating, Judea gained further autonomy and expanded into the neighboring regions of Perea , Samaria , Idumea , Galilee , and Iturea . The Hasmonean rulers took the Greek title basileus ("king") as the kingdom became a regional power for several decades. Forces of the Roman Republic intervened in
22875-691: The eastern parts of the Roman Empire at the time and the language of the Greco-Roman Church, while Aramaic was the language of Syriac Christianity . The relationship between the apostolic use of the Septuagint and the Hebrew texts is complicated. Although the Septuagint seems to have been a major source for the Apostles , it is not the only one. St. Jerome offered, for example, Matthew 2:15 and 2:23 , John 19:37, John 7:38, and 1 Corinthians 2:9 as examples found in Hebrew texts but not in
23058-614: The election was performed in Hellenistic fashion. Simon, having made the Jewish people semi-independent of the Seleucid Greeks, reigned from 142 to 135 BCE and formed the Hasmonean dynasty, finally capturing the citadel [Acra] in 141 BCE. The Roman Senate accorded the new dynasty recognition c. 139 BCE, when the delegation of Simon was in Rome. Simon led the people in peace and prosperity, until in February 135 BCE, he
23241-504: The figures mentioned cannot be inferred due to the Midrashic nature of the debate. Pappos and Miriam might have been introduced simply as a result of their being remembered in connection with a theme of a woman having gone astray. Ben-Stada is also mentioned in the Jerusalem Talmud. In Shabbat 12:4 III he is mentioned as having learnt by cutting marks in his flesh. In Sanhedrin 7:12 I he is mentioned as an example of someone caught by hidden observers and subsequently stoned. This information
23424-526: The final time, defeating Ptolemy V Epiphanes at the Battle of Panium in 200 BCE. Seleucid rule over the Jewish parts of the region then resulted in the rise of Hellenistic cultural and religious practices: "In addition to the turmoil of war, there arose in the Jewish nation pro-Seleucid and pro-Ptolemaic parties; and the schism exercised great influence upon the Judaism of the time. It was in Antioch that
23607-589: The first book of The Jewish War by historian Josephus (37 – c. 100 CE), the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes ( r. 175–164 ) moved to assert strict control over the Seleucid satrapy of Coele Syria and Phoenicia after his successful invasion of Ptolemaic Egypt (170–168 BCE) was turned back by the intervention of the Roman Republic. He sacked Jerusalem and its Temple , suppressing Jewish and Samaritan religious and cultural observances, and imposed Hellenistic practices ( c. 168–167 BCE). The steady collapse of
23790-463: The first half of the 10th century. The 4th-century Codex Sinaiticus also partially survives, with many Old Testament texts. The Jewish (and, later, Christian) revisions and recensions are largely responsible for the divergence of the codices. The Codex Marchalianus is another notable manuscript. The text of the Septuagint is generally close to that of the Masoretes and Vulgate. Genesis 4:1–6
23973-573: The island of Pharos, where the Lighthouse of Alexandria stood—the location where the translation was said to have taken place. During the festival, a large gathering of Jews, along with some non-Jewish visitors, would assemble on the beach for a grand picnic. The 3rd century BCE is supported for the translation of the Pentateuch by a number of factors, including its Greek being representative of early Koine Greek, citations beginning as early as
24156-463: The king not only confirmed him in his office of high priest, but gave to him the three Samaritan toparchies of Mount Ephraim , Lod , and Ramathaim-Zophim . In consideration of a present of 300 talents the entire country was exempted from taxes , the exemption being confirmed in writing. Jonathan in return lifted the siege of the Acra and left it in Seleucid hands. Soon, however, a new claimant to
24339-593: The land of "the godless and the apostate ". The chief source, 1 Maccabees, says that with this "the sword ceased in Israel", and in fact nothing is reported for the five following years (158–153 BCE). An important external event brought the design of the Maccabeans to fruition. Demetrius I Soter 's relations with Attalus II Philadelphus of Pergamon (reigned 159–138 BCE), Ptolemy VI of Egypt (reigned 163–145 BCE), and Ptolemy's co-ruler Cleopatra II of Egypt were deteriorating, and they supported
24522-479: The leadership (142 BCE), receiving the double office of High Priest and Ethnarch (Prince) of Israel. The leadership of the Hasmoneans was established by a resolution, adopted in 141 BCE, at a large assembly "of the priests and the people and of the elders of the land, to the effect that Simon should be their leader and High Priest forever, until there should arise a faithful prophet " (1 Macc. 14:41). Ironically,
24705-482: The manuscripts and Menachem Meiri (1249 – c. 1310) in his commentary on the Talmud Beit HaBechirah regarded it as a late interpolation. Klausner noted objections by other scholars on grammatical and phonetic grounds to the translation of Notzri as "Nazarene" meaning a person from Nazareth (Hebrew Natzrat ), however the etymology of "Nazarene" is itself uncertain and one possibility is that it
24888-486: The marginal glosses.) Kohelet Rabba also relates the account of Rabbi Eliezer ( Kohelet Rabba 1:24) in this case some copies mention Yeshu ben Pandera as in the Tosefta passage but others instead read peloni a placeholder name equivalent to English "so-and-so". Jeffrey Rubenstein has argued that the accounts in Chullin and Avodah Zarah reveal an ambivalent relationship between rabbis and Christianity. In his view
25071-536: The name "Yeshu" to be the acronym Y'mach Sh'mo V'Zichrono , but justify its usage by claiming that it is wordplay on his real name, Yehoshua (i.e. Joshua , a Hebrew equivalent of "Jesus"). The story is set in the Hasmonean era , reflecting the setting of the account of Yeshu the student of Yehoshuah ben Perachiah in the Talmud. Due to the Gospel parallels, the Toledot Yeshu narratives are typically viewed as
25254-475: The name "Yeshu" was simply a shortened form of the name "Yehoshua" or Joshua. Another explanation given is that the name "Yeshu" is actually an acronym for the formula ימח שמו וזכרו(נו) ( Y imach Sh emo V 'Zichro[no] ), meaning "may his name and memory be obliterated". There are instances in the Talmud where the name "Yeshu" is written with gershayim , a punctuation mark used to indicate acronyms or abbreviations, however, this only occurs in
25437-412: The name as Panthera in Greek. This name is not known from any graves or inscriptions, but the surname Pantera (a Latin rendering) is known from the 1st-century tombstone of Tiberius Julius Abdes Pantera . Origen (c. 248 CE) responded to Celsus' claim by saying that Pantheras was the patronymic of Joseph the husband of Mary on account of his father, Jacob, being called Panther. An alternative claim
25620-638: The need to implement appropriate Greek forms for various onomastic terms, used in the Hebrew Bible. Most onomastic terms (toponyms, anthroponyms) of the Hebrew Bible were rendered by corresponding Greek terms that were similar in form and sounding, with some notable exceptions. One of those exceptions was related to a specific group of onomastic terms for the region of Aram and ancient Arameans . Influenced by Greek onomastic terminology, translators decided to adopt Greek custom of using "Syrian" labels as designations for Arameans, their lands and language, thus abandoning endonymic (native) terms, that were used in
25803-466: The new king when Diodotus Tryphon and Antiochus VI seized the capital, especially as the latter confirmed all his rights and appointed his brother Simon (Simeon) strategos of the Paralia (the sea coast), from the "Ladder of Tyre " to the frontier of Egypt . Jonathan and Simon were now entitled to make conquests; Ashkelon submitted voluntarily while Gaza was forcibly taken. Jonathan vanquished even
25986-423: The next world? Jesus said to him: He is punished with boiling excrement. As the Master said: Anyone who mocks the words of the Sages will be sentenced to boiling excrement. And this was his sin, as he mocked the words of the Sages. The Gemara comments: Come and see the difference between the sinners of Israel and the prophets of the nations of the world. As Balaam , who was a prophet, wished Israel harm, whereas Jesus
26169-429: The number of scholars was chosen by selecting six scholars from each of the twelve tribes of Israel . Caution is needed here regarding the accuracy of this statement by Philo of Alexandria , as it implies that the twelve tribes were still in existence during King Ptolemy's reign, and that the Ten Lost Tribes of the twelve tribes had not been forcibly resettled by Assyria almost 500 years previously. Although not all
26352-504: The official religious leader of his people, and officiated at the Feast of Tabernacles of 153 BCE wearing the High Priest's garments. The Hellenistic party could no longer attack him without severe consequences. Hasmoneans held the office of High Priest continuously until 37 BCE. Soon, Demetrius lost both his throne and his life, in 150 BCE. The victorious Alexander Balas was given the further honour of marriage to Cleopatra Thea , daughter of his allies Ptolemy VI and Cleopatra II. Jonathan
26535-416: The overthrow of his appointee, Menelaus, he may have been responding to a Jewish revolt that had drawn on the Temple and the Torah for its strength, or he may have been encouraged by a group of radical Hellenisers among the Jews. The author of the First Book of Maccabees regarded the Maccabean revolt as a rising of pious Jews against the Seleucid king who had tried to eradicate their religion and against
26718-408: The people of the ten tribes were scattered, many peoples of the ten tribes sought refuge in Jerusalem and survived, preserving a remnant of each tribe and their lineages. Jerusalem swelled to five times its prior population due to the influx of refugees. According to later rabbinic tradition (which considered the Greek translation as a distortion of sacred text and unsuitable for use in the synagogue),
26901-431: The persecutions of Pharisees 88–76 BCE ordered by Alexander Jannæus . The incident is also mentioned in the Jerusalem Talmud in Chagigah 2:2 , but there the person in question is not given any name.) After several returns for forgiveness he mistook Perachiah's signal to wait a moment as a signal of final rejection, and so he turned to idolatry (described by the euphemism "worshipping a brick"). The story ends by invoking
27084-409: The previous statement. In such debates the various statements and their refutations are often of a Midrashic nature, sometimes incorporating subtle humour and should not always be taken at face value. The purpose of the passage is to arrive at a Midrashic meaning for the term Stada. Shabbat 104b relates that a ben Stada brought magic from Egypt in incisions in his flesh. Sanhedrin 67a relates that
27267-410: The rabbis and early Christians provided an important site for distinguishing between legitimate debate and heresy. Scholars like Jeffrey Rubenstein and Daniel Boyarin argue that it was through the Yeshu narratives that rabbis confronted this blurry boundary. According to Jeffrey Rubenstein, the account in Sanhedrin 107b recognizes the kinship between Christians and Jews, since Jesus is presented as
27450-411: The related Roman civil wars , temporarily relaxed Rome's grip on the Hasmonean kingdom, allowing a brief reassertion of autonomy backed by the Parthian Empire, rapidly crushed by the Romans under Mark Antony and Augustus . The Hasmonean dynasty had survived for 103 years before yielding to the Herodian dynasty in 37 BCE. The installation of Herod the Great (an Idumean ) as king in 37 BCE made Judea
27633-406: The request of Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285–247 BCE) by seventy-two Hebrew translators —six from each of the Twelve Tribes of Israel . Biblical scholars agree that the first five books of the Hebrew Bible were translated from Biblical Hebrew into Koine Greek by Jews living in the Ptolemaic Kingdom , centred on the large community in Alexandria , probably in the early or middle part of
27816-428: The request so that he might not be accused of the death of his brother. But Diodotus Tryphon did not liberate his prisoner; angry that Simon blocked his way everywhere and that he could accomplish nothing, he executed Jonathan at Baskama , in the country east of the Jordan. Jonathan was buried by Simeon at Modin . Nothing is known of his two captive sons. One of his daughters was an ancestor of Josephus. Simon assumed
27999-518: The rule of the Herodian kings (specifically Agrippa I 41–44 and Agrippa II 50–100). The family name of the Hasmonean dynasty originates from the ancestor of the house, whom Josephus called by the Hellenised form Asmoneus or Asamoneus ( Greek : Ἀσαμωναῖος ), said to have been the great-grandfather of Mattathias , but about whom nothing more is known. The name appears to come from the Hebrew name Hashmonay ( Hebrew : חַשְׁמוֹנַאי , romanized : Ḥašmonay ). An alternative view posits that
28182-519: The rural peasants against the rich elite. According to I and II Maccabees, the priestly family of Mattathias (Mattitiyahu in Hebrew), which came to be known as the Maccabees , called the people forth to holy war against the Seleucids. Mattathias' sons Judas (Yehuda), Jonathan (Yonoson/Yonatan), and Simon (Shimon) began a military campaign, initially with disastrous results: one thousand Jewish men, women, and children were killed by Seleucid troops because they refused to fight, even in self-defence, on
28365-417: The sea and thus with the government. It is significant that this time the Syrian troops, under the leadership of the governor-general Lysias, took the southerly route, by way of Idumea. Towards the end of 164, Judah felt strong enough to enter Jerusalem and the formal religious worship of Yahweh was re-established. The feast of Hanukkah was instituted to commemorate the recovery of the temple. Antiochus, who
28548-482: The siege, he compelled the Jews to dissolve the laws of their country, and to keep their infants uncircumcised, and to sacrifice swine's flesh upon the altar." He also outlawed observance of the Sabbath and the offering of sacrifices at the Jerusalem Temple and required Jewish leaders to sacrifice to idols; punitive executions were also instituted. Possession of Jewish scriptures was made a capital offence. The motives of Antiochus are unclear. He may have been incensed at
28731-506: The situation, attacked Jerusalem, and drove away Menelaus and his followers. Menelaus took refuge in Akra , the Seleucids fortress in Jerusalem. When Antiochus heard of this, he sent an army to Jerusalem to sort things out. Jerusalem was taken, Jason and his followers were driven out, and Menelaus reinstated as high priest. He then imposed a tax and established a fortress in Jerusalem. Antiochus tried to suppress public observance of Jewish laws, apparently in an attempt to secure control over
28914-431: The spirit of a Yeshu who sought to harm Israel. He describes his punishment in the afterlife as boiling in excrement , but encourages Onkelos to convert to Judaism, prompting the Talmud to praise "the sinners of Israel." The current standard text does not name the individual Onkelos summons, but a footnote cites a textual variant that identifies the tormented spirit as Yeshu . Sanhedrin 103a and Berachot 17b talk about
29097-565: The strategoi of Demetrius II far to the north, in the plain of Hazar, while Simon at the same time took the strong fortress of Beth-zur on the pretext that it harboured supporters of Demetrius. Like Judah in former years, Jonathan sought alliances with foreign peoples. He renewed the treaty with the Roman Republic and exchanged friendly messages with Sparta and other places. However, the documents referring to those diplomatic events are of questionable authenticity. Diodotus Tryphon went with an army to Judea and invited Jonathan to Scythopolis for
29280-579: The term refers to Jesus at all and argues that Jewish tradition knew of no historical Jesus. Similar views have been expressed by skeptical science writer Frank R. Zindler in his polemical work The Jesus the Jews Never Knew: Sepher Toldoth Yeshu and the Quest of the Historical Jesus in Jewish Sources , deliberately published outside the realm of Christian and Jewish scholarship. Writers have thus differed on several distinct but closely related questions: The Toledot Yeshu are not part of rabbinic literature and are considered neither canonical nor normative. There
29463-401: The territory of Galilee , and Alexander Jannaeus conquered the territory of Iturea . In addition to territorial conquests, the Hasmonean rulers, initially reigning only as rebel leaders, gradually assumed the religious office of High Priest during the reign of Jonathan Apphus in 152 BCE and the monarchical title of Ethnarch during the reign of Simon Thassi in 142 BCE, eventually assuming
29646-410: The third century BCE. The remaining books were presumably translated in the 2nd century BCE. Some targums translating or paraphrasing the Bible into Aramaic were also made during the Second Temple period . Few people could speak and even fewer could read in the Hebrew language during the Second Temple period; Koine Greek and Aramaic were the most widely spoken languages at that time among
29829-564: The title of King ( basileus ) in 104 BCE by Aristobulus I. In c. 135 BCE, John Hyrcanus, Simon's third son, assumed the leadership as both the High Priest (Kohen Gadol) and Ethnarch, taking a Greek " regnal name " (see Hyrcania ) in an acceptance of the Hellenistic culture of his Seleucid suzerains . Within a year of the death of Simon, Seleucid King Antiochus VII Sidetes attacked Jerusalem. According to Josephus , John Hyrcanus opened King David 's sepulchre and removed three thousand talents which he paid as tribute to spare
30012-414: The tosefta account reveals that at least some Jews believed Christians were true healers, but that the rabbis saw this belief as a major threat. Concerning the Babylonian Talmud account in Avoda Zarah , Dr. Boyarin views Jacob of Sechania as a Christian preacher and understands Rabbi Eliezer's arrest for minuth as an arrest by the Romans for practising Christianity (the text uses the word for heretic). When
30195-401: The view that the Jesus of Christianity had been derived from the figure of Yeshu the student of ben Perachiah. Ibn Daud was nevertheless aware that such an equation contradicted known chronology but argued that the Gospel accounts were in error. Other Rishonim , namely Rabbi Jacob ben Meir ( Rabbeinu Tam ), Nachmanides , and Yechiel of Paris explicitly repudiated the equation of the Yeshu of
30378-498: Was assassinated at the instigation of his son-in-law Ptolemy , son of Abubus (also spelled Abobus or Abobi), who had been named governor of the region by the Seleucids. Simon's eldest sons, Mattathias and Judah, were also murdered. After achieving semi-independency from the Seleucid Empire, the dynasty began to expand into the neighboring regions. Perea was conquered already by Jonathan Apphus , subsequently John Hyrcanus conquered Samaria and Idumea , Aristobulus I conquered
30561-400: Was a brief civil war. The Tobiads , a philo-Hellenistic party, succeeded in placing Jason into the powerful position of High Priest. He established an arena for public games close by the Temple. Author Lee I. Levine notes, "The 'piece de resistance' of Judaean Hellenisation, and the most dramatic of all these developments, occurred in 175 BCE, when the high priest Jason converted Jerusalem into
30744-413: Was also used for the name Hoshea in the Septuagint in one of the three places where it referred to Joshua son of Nun .) The term "Yeshu" is not undisputedly attested prior to the Talmud and Tosefta, let alone as a Hebrew original for "Jesus". (In the case of the Jesus of Christianity, Clement of Alexandria and St. Cyril of Jerusalem claimed that the Greek form itself was his original name and that it
30927-429: Was away on a campaign against the Parthians , died at about the same time in Persis . Antiochus was succeeded by Demetrius I Soter , the nephew whose throne he had usurped. Demetrius sent the general Bacchides to Israel with a large army, in order to install Alcimus with the office of high priest. Bacchides subdued Jerusalem and returned to his King. After five years of war and raids, Judah sought an alliance with
31110-401: Was forgiving and the Pharisees were not (see Mark 2), while emphasizing forgiveness as a necessary rabbinic value. An intermediate view is that of Hyam Maccoby , who argues that most of these stories were not originally about Jesus, but were incorporated into the Talmud in the belief that they were, as a response to Christian missionary activity. Dennis McKinsey has challenged the view that
31293-462: Was forgiving and the Pharisees were not (see Mark 2:1–2), while emphasizing forgiveness as a necessary rabbinic value. Another title found in the Tosefta and Talmud is ben Stada (son of Stada). However, in Shabbat 104b and Sanhedrin 67a in the Babylonian Talmud, a passage is found that some have interpreted as equating ben Pandera with ben Stada. The passage is in the form of a Talmudic debate in which various voices make statements, each refuting
31476-405: Was gradually transformed into a war of national liberation. The two greatest twentieth-century scholars of the Maccabean revolt, Elias Bickermann and Victor Tcherikover, each placed the blame on the policies of the Jewish leaders and not on the Seleucid ruler, Antiochus IV Epiphanes, but for different reasons. Bickermann saw the origin of the problem in the attempt of "Hellenised" Jews to reform
31659-418: Was invited to Ptolemais for the ceremony, appearing with presents for both kings, and was permitted to sit between them as their equal; Balas even clothed him with his own royal garment and otherwise accorded him high honour. Balas appointed Jonathan as strategos and "meridarch" (i.e., civil governor of a province; details not found in Josephus), sent him back with honours to Jerusalem, and refused to listen to
31842-468: Was left out due to lack of space between the decorations between which it was inscribed. The fully spelled out name Yeshua and the patronymic are also found on the ossuary. Richard Bauckham considers this a legitimate, if rare, form of the name in use at the time, and writes that this ossuary shows that the name Yeshu "was not invented by the rabbis as a way of avoiding pronouncing the real name of Jesus of Nazareth". The name Yeshu has also been found in
32025-463: Was made in the Teaching of Jacob (634 CE) where Panther is said to be the grandfather of Mary. Friedrich August Nitzsch (1840) suggested that the name may refer to a panther being a lustful animal and thus have the meaning of "whore", additionally being a pun on parthenos meaning virgin. Herford also considered the Greek pentheros meaning father-in-law, however he dismissed all of these forms including Celsus' Panthera as spurious explanations of
32208-479: Was not a transliteration of a Hebrew form.) Adolf Neubauer (19th century), aware of the problem but believing the term to be a reference to Jesus, argued that it was a shortened form of Yeshua resulting from the final letter ayin no longer being pronounced. Hugh J. Schonfield argued in a similar fashion that it was the northern pronunciation resulting from a silent ayin . This view was shared by Joachim Jeremias and Flusser (1989 , p. 15) who argue that it
32391-524: Was published in 2007. Using the Masoretic Text in the 23rd Psalm (and possibly elsewhere), it omits the apocrypha. A New English Translation of the Septuagint and the Other Greek Translations Traditionally Included Under that Title (NETS), an academic translation based on the New Revised Standard version (in turn based on the Masoretic Text) was published by the International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies (IOSCS) in October 2007. The Apostolic Bible Polyglot , published in 2003, features
32574-430: Was reiterated by Rabbi Avraham Korman . These views reflect the theosophical stance and criticism of tradition popular at the time but was rejected by later scholars. It has been revived in recent times by Alvar Ellegård . Modern critical scholars debate whether Yeshu does or does not refer to the historical Jesus, a view seen in several 20th-century encyclopedia articles including The Jewish Encyclopedia , Joseph Dan in
32757-407: Was that the Septuagint began to lose Jewish sanction after differences between it and contemporary Hebrew scriptures were discovered. Even Greek-speaking Jews tended to prefer other Jewish versions in Greek (such as the translation by Aquila ), which seemed to be more concordant with contemporary Hebrew texts. The Early Christian church used the Greek texts, since Greek was a lingua franca of
32940-431: Was the Galilean pronunciation. The views of these theological scholars however are contradicted by the studies of Hebrew and Aramaic philologist E. Y. Kutscher, Professor of Hebrew Philology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and member of the Hebrew Language Academy, who noted that although the ayin became a silent letter it is never dropped from written forms nor is its effect on the preceding vowel lost (the change of
33123-438: Was translated by Jews before the time of Christ and that it lends itself more to a Christological interpretation than 2nd-century Hebrew texts in certain places was taken as evidence that "Jews" had changed the Hebrew text in a way that made it less Christological. Irenaeus writes about Isaiah 7:14 that the Septuagint clearly identifies a "virgin" (Greek παρθένος ; bethulah in Hebrew) who would conceive. The word almah in
33306-403: Was understood to be about a follower of Yeshu ben Pandera. (Herford again takes liberty and adds "in the name of Jeshu Pandera" to his translation of the Talmud passages despite these words not being in the original text. Schäfer similarly provides a paraphrased translation mentioning "Jesus son of Pandera" which he admittedly has constructed himself by combining the Talmudic and Midrashic texts and
33489-411: Was unprepared for the rapid attack and opened the gates in surrender to the Jewish forces. Apollonius received reinforcements from Azotus and appeared in the plain in charge of 3,000 men including superior cavalry forces. Jonathan assaulted, captured and burned Azotus along with the resident temple of Dagon and the surrounding villages. Alexander Balas honoured the victorious High Priest by giving him
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