Jesus in the Talmud

Jesus’ Punishment in Hell 83heaven on a cloud, and the angels explain to the amazed disciples that hewill later return from where he has gone, that is from heaven. Hence it issafe to assume that he will stay in heaven until his last and final appearanceon earth.It is again reserved to the Babylonian Talmud to tell a counternarrative tothe New Testament’s message, in fact the exact opposite of what the NewTestament proclaims, namely a most graphic and bizarre story about Jesus’descent to and punishment in hell. The context is a large aggadic complexabout the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple during the first JewishWar and of Bethar, the last stronghold of the rebels, during the second JewishWar (the so-called Bar Kokhba revolt). The purpose of the story is to figureout why Jerusalem and Bethar were destroyed. Bethar is not our concernhere, but with regard to Jerusalem, the argument goes as follows. 5A certain Bar Qamtza was offended at a banquet and, holding the rabbispartly responsible for this offense, denounces them to the authorities inRome. He tells the Roman emperor that they are preparing a rebellion andoffers, as a proof for this accusation, that they will refuse to offer the customarysacrifice for the emperor in the Temple. 6 When the emperor sends hisanimal for the sacrifice, Bar Qamtza renders it halakhically unfit (adducinga tiny bodily blemish) to be offered at the Temple. The rabbis are neverthelessinclined to sacrifice the unfit animal, in order not to offend the Romangovernment, but one of their colleagues convinces them that such a poorcompromise wouldn’t be acceptable. Hence, the Talmud concludes, becauseof this uncompromising halakhic rigidity the Temple was destroyed.At first, and historically quite anachronistically, the Romans send theEmperor Nero against the Jews, but Nero, when he realizes that Godwants to use him as his tool to punish his people, flees and becomes aproselyte (from whom, grotesquely enough, R. Meir is descendent). Thenthe Romans dispatch Vespasian, who, when he learns that he is electedemperor, sends Titus in his stead (historically quite correct). Titus defilesthe Temple by entering the Holy of Holies (which is the privilege of thehigh priest only) and fornicating there with a whore on a Torah scroll.The burning of the Temple is not explicitly mentioned; only that Titusrobs the utensils of the Temple for his triumph in Rome. 7 However, as apunishment for the arrogant and wicked emperor, God sends a gnat,which enters his brain through his nostril and feeds upon his brain for