Jesus in the Talmud

158 Notes to Chapter 430. See on this Levene, “and by the Name of Jesus,” p. 301 (he suggests thatthis spelling, with an initial Aleph, “possibly represents a transcription of theChristian Syriac form not as it is spelled ...but as it is pronounced”).31. The plural “holy spirits” is most likely a misunderstanding on part of the(Jewish) writer of the bowl, as has been observed also by Shaul Shaked: “Jesus inthe Magic Bowls: Apropos Dan Levene’s ‘. . . and by the name of Jesus ...’,” JSQ6, 1999, p. 314.32. The bowl, however, is not the only bowl text written in Jewish BabylonianAramaic that makes an explicit allusion to Jesus, as Shaked claims (ibid., p. 309);the first bowl mentioning Jesus is the one published by Montgomery (above, n. 26).33. Shaked, “Jesus in the Magic Bowls,” p. 315.34. The connection with magic has also been emphasized by ElchananReiner: “From Joshua to Jesus: The Transformation of a Biblical Story to a LocalMyth; A Chapter in the Religious Life of the Galilean Jew,” in Sharing the Sacred:Religious Contacts and Conflicts in the Holy Land, First-Fifteenth CenturiesCE, ed. Arieh Kofsky and Guy G. Stroumsa, Jerusalem: Yad Izhak Ben Zvi,1998, pp. 258–260.Chapter 4The Torah Teacher1. See also Lk. 21:37; Mt. 26:55; Mk. 14:49; John 7:14–16, 18:20.2. t Hul 2:24; QohR 1:24 on Eccl. 1:8 (1:8 [3]).3. Also in the sense of “trustworthy,” “right.”4. Or “right.”5. The Bavli and all the parallels use here the Latin word in Hebrew characters(dimus).6. This is the reading in t Hul (matzati, lit. “I found”); QohR has “and ...came to me”; the Talmud manuscripts: “one of the disciples of ...found me(metza>ani).”7. The explicit reference to Jesus in Mss. Munich 95, Paris Suppl. Heb.1337, and JTS Rab. 15.8. Or “Sikhnaya.”9. t Hul: “He told me a word of heresy (minut) in the name of Jesus ben Pantiri/Pandera”(the following exegesis of Deut. 23:19 and Mic. 1:7 is missing in