Jesus in the Talmud

Bavli Manuscripts and Censorship 141Firenze II.1.8–9Karlsruhe 2BarcoVilnaJesus the Nazarene had five disciplesJesus the Nazarene had five disciples[???] 26 had five disciples[whole passage deleted by censor]8. Jesus’ punishment in hellb Git 57ab Git 57aVatican 130he went and brought up Jesus the NazareneVatican 140he went and brought up JesusMunich 95he went and brought up JesusSoncino he went and brought up 27Vilnahe went and brought up the sinners of IsraelFrom this overview a number of conclusions can be drawn:(1) The son of Stada/Stara–son of Pandera passage in b Shabbat/Sanhedrin (chapter 1) is very stable. Most remarkably, this is the only passagein the Bavli which mentions these two names in relation to Jesus (thecopyist of Ms. Vatican 108, therefore, feels compelled to explain that weare indeed talking about Jesus). Hence, it seems very likely that the Talmudresponds to a Palestinian tradition about Jesus’ names (son of Stada and sonof Pandera respectively). All the other son of Pandera/Pantera/Pantiri referencesappear solely in Palestinian sources: t Hullin and Qohelet Rabba inchapter 4; and t Hullin, y Avodah Zarah, y Shabbat, and Qohelet Rabbain chapter 5. Here again the textual tradition is very stable: whereas thePalestinian sources have son of Pandera, etc., this time clearly identifiedas Jesus, 28 the Bavli manuscripts have exclusively Jesus the Nazarene. 29Moreover, none of the Bavli manuscripts mentioning Jesus the Nazareneis censored. The only conspicuous result of this overview is the fact thatthe Bavli in chapter 5, unlike the Palestinian sources, does not say explicitlythat Jacob came to heal in the name of Jesus: according to the Bavlipattern, we would expect its editor to substitute “in the name of Jesus theNazarene” for the Palestinian “in the name of Jesus son of Pandera” (as inchapter 4). But this certainly cannot be taken as proof that the Bavli did