Jesus in the Talmud

80 Chapter 7summarizes the story of Jesus’ life and death (the Jews asked Pilate to executeJesus, although they did not find a cause for a death sentence; after hewas killed he was taken down “from the tree” 25 and buried in a tomb, butGod raised him from the dead), 26 he begins his series of biblical proof textswith a full quotation of Psalm 2:7: “You are my son; today I have begottenyou!” Finally, the author of the epistle to the Hebrews, introducing Jesus asGod’s son and hence superior to the angels, again quotes Psalm 2:7 to bolsterhis claim. 27Second, Buni insists on being God’s firstborn. This is obviously an allusionto the claim, expressed frequently by Paul, that Jesus is the true firstbornof and before all creation: “He [Jesus] is the image of the invisibleGod, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and onearth were created, ...all things have been created through him and forhim.” 28 Since he is also the “firstborn from the dead,” 29 all his followerswill live through him: “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead,the first fruits of those who have died. For since death came through a humanbeing, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a humanbeing; for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ.” 30 Jesusand his followers form the new Israel, the “children of the promise” as opposedto the “children of flesh”: “This means that it is not the children ofthe flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise arecounted as descendants.” 31 And Paul continues, quoting Hosea: “Thosewho were not my people I will call my people, and the unloved I will callbeloved.” 32 Therefore, when Buni maintains he is God’s (beloved) son,his (true) firstborn, he expresses the claim of the Christian Church tohave superseded the “old Israel” of the Jews. And it is to this supersessionistclaim that the judges reply: You fool, you are not God’s but thePharaoh’s firstborn, the son of the wicked, who tried in vain to destroy Israel.The self-appointed Messiah turns out to be the descendant of theworst of all of Israel’s oppressors, the archenemy of Israel.Finally, Todah, the last of Jesus’ disciples. The Hebrew word todahmeans “thanks” and “thanksgiving,” more specifically also “thank offering,”and it is this latter meaning with which our text plays. Todah, the“disciple,” maintains: “I am the thank offering for Israel and as such to bepraised rather than to be executed,” but the judges counter with: “On thecontrary, your execution—which is by no means a sacrifice in the cultic