Jesus in the Talmud

Jesus’ Punishment in Hell 85by necromancy and asked him/them: Who is important in thatworld?He/they [Jesus/the sinners of Israel] answered: Israel![Onqelos:] What then about joining them?[Jesus/the sinners of Israel:] Seek their welfare, seek not theirharm. Whoever touches them is as though he touches the apple ofhis [God’s] eye! 12[Onqelos:] What is your punishment?[Jesus/the sinners of Israel:] With boiling excrement.For the master has said: Whoever mocks the words of the Sages ispunished with boiling excrement.Come and see the difference between the sinners of Israel and theprophets of the gentile nations! 13It has been taught (tanya): R. Eleazar 14 said: Come and see how greatis the power of humiliation. For the Holy One, Blessed be He, sidedwith Bar Qamtza and destroyed His house and burnt His Temple!The story opens with Onqelos, who is well known as the alleged translatorof the Hebrew Bible into Aramaic (and sometimes confused with Akylas/Aquila, the translator of the Bible into Greek). The Bavli makes him theson of Titus’ sister, pondering whether he should convert to Judaism, presumablybecause Titus himself did not convert (unlike his “predecessor”Nero) but instead preferred to destroy the Temple of the Jews. 15 This Onqelosbrings up by means of necromancy three arch villains of Jewish historyout of their graves to get their informed advice: Titus, the destroyer ofthe second Temple; Balaam, the prophet of the nations; and Jesus theNazarene, who is quite dubious, however, because in some versions of theBavli he is replaced by the broad category of the “sinners of Israel.” Allthree are obviously in the Netherworld (the biblical She’ol or Gehinnom)where they are punished for their grave misdeeds.The background of our story is the famous passage in the Mishna thatlists those terrible sinners who have no portion in the world to come. 16Among them are certain heretics and Balaam as one of the four “commoners”(together with Doeg, Ahitophel, and Gehazi). As we have seen,