Jesus in the Talmud

3. The Frivolous DiscipleJesus’ role as a disciple and his relationship with his teacher is the subjectof yet another colorful story preserved in the Bavli. This time Jesus hasa teacher explicitly mentioned by name and is coupled only with Gehazi,one of the other ill-behaved disciples known from the Bible whom we encounteredin the previous story. The fate of both Gehazi and Jesus is putunder the rabbinic maxim: “Let the left hand push away but the righthand always draw near!” 1 Their teachers are now presented as prime examplesof (bad) teachers who did not follow this maxim but pushed theirstudents away with both their hands and did not help them to mend theirwrongdoing: “Not as Elisha, who pushed Gehazi away with both hands,and not as Yehoshua b. Perahya, who pushed Jesus the Nazarene awaywith both hands.” 2We know Elisha as Gehazi’s master/teacher from the Bible—but whatabout the strange connection of Jesus with Yehoshua b. Perahya? The Talmudexplains as follows:What was the incident with Yehoshua b. Perahya? When King Yannaikilled the rabbis, 3 R. Yehoshua b. Perahya 4 fled to EgyptianAlexandria. When there was peace, Shimon b. Shetah sent (the followingmessage):