Jesus in the Talmud

Jesus in the Talmud 99her son a bastard—was the Jewish answer to the Christian propaganda ofthe divine origin of Jesus.The other allusions in our rabbinic texts to sexual promiscuity refer tothe bad son, to the frivolous disciple, and to the understanding of Christianityas an orgiastic cult. The bad son who spoils his food by leading anindecent life turns out to be the true son of his adulterous mother, accordingto the motto: what else could be expected from him? Again, thisaccusation may have been upholstered with the New Testament story ofJesus’ acquaintance with the immoral woman, later identified with MaryMagdalene—or else with the gnostic story of Jesus being the “lover” ofMary Magdalene, of all women. 15 With such a family history, no wonderthat also the grown-up student (Jesus) of a pious rabbi (Yehoshua b. Perahya)gets silly ideas and insinuates to his teacher immodest thoughts (thenotorious female hostess of an inn), 16 which the rabbi indignantly rejectsand therewith unintentionally brings about the birth of the Christian sect.And finally, the accusation against R. Eliezer b. Hyrkanos of clandestinelypracticing Christianity which is understood as an orgiastic cult connectedwith prostitution. Here we enter different territory: we are nolonger dealing with Jesus himself, his origins, behavior, and fate, but witha prominent rabbi who becomes, as it were, the rabbinic prototype of anearly Christian, modeled along the lines of sexual promiscuity (andmagic). Both sexual promiscuity and magic are often closely intertwined(I will return to the latter soon). The sexual misconduct brought up hereis not that of an individual (Jesus) but, much worse, that of his followerswho indulge in sexual mass orgies: the adherents of Jesus’ sect follow hisadvice to such an extreme that sexual orgies have become, so to speak, the“trademark” of the believers in Jesus. This accusation can be found earlyon in the pagan and Christian literature, and it should not come as a surprisethat R. Eliezer was charged with it by the Roman authorities. It appearsalready in the Christian apologist Justin Martyr’s Dialogue withTrypho, written in Rome around the mid-second century C.E. There,Justin addresses his Jewish interlocutors as follows:My friends, is there any accusation you have against us other thanthis, that we do not observe the law, nor circumcise the flesh as ourforefathers did, nor observe the Sabbath as you do? Or do you also