Jesus in the Talmud

Jesus in the Talmud 115color,” the Bavli’s attention is focused on the person of Jesus, particularlyhis birth and death. 68 In other words, it is, amazingly enough, only thelater source—and moreover the one that is geographically much furtherremoved from the scene of action—that explicitly and openly deals withthe main character of the events. This striking result deserves our attention,all the more so since it has been largely ignored by most of the scholarsdealing with Jesus in the Talmud.Why the Bavli?First, the question needs to be addressed: why not the Palestinian sources?Why are the Yerushalmi and the midrashim so restrained with traditionsabout or reactions to the person of Jesus? The answer to this question isrelatively easy. Palestinian Judaism was under the direct and continuouslygrowing impact of Christianity in the Holy Land. When the emperor ofthe West, Constantine, defeated the emperor of the East, Licinius, in 324C.E., it was the first time a Christian would become the ruler ofPalestine—with profound and long-lasting consequences not least for theJews. Already in 313 C.E., Constantine had issued the edict of Milan inwhich he granted legal status to Christianity, officially ending the persecutionof Christians. Now, after the victory over his rival in the East, Constantinecould promulgate—and carry through—the edict also in the eastof his empire, including Palestine. Now began the inescapable and inexorableprocess that would lead to the eventual triumph of Christianity inPalestine, a triumph that clearly did not leave the Jews unaffected. Christiancommunities spread throughout Palestine, Christian churches werebuilt, a Christian infrastructure was set up, and Christian pilgrims wereattracted from all parts of the empire. Helena, the emperor’s mother, visitedPalestine in 327 C.E. and founded a number of churches, most importantand magnificent among them the Church of the Holy Sepulchrein Jerusalem and the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem (although theconstruction of the former had already began before she arrived inJerusalem: no doubt, the emperor did not need much persuasion by hismother). Relics were found in great numbers, not least the relic of the