[.ca] Jesus in the Talmud (ISBN 0691129266)

A must read for those interested in Jewish-Christian relations in antiquity:
Schafer, in Jesus and the Talmud, discusses what the title might suggest: the perception of Christianity's founder in the Yerushalami and especially in the Bavli, the two massive collaborative works of rabbinic Judaism in late antiquity. His contention is that the Talmudim present their readers with a series of cleverly devised "counternarratives" to the stories about Jesus' life found in the gospels, with malicious intent. The counternarratives ridicule and subvert Christian claims that Jesus was born of a virgin, that he led a sinless life, that he was the Messiah and rightful recipient of the Christological titles given him. Most of all, the Talmudim reverse the NT Passion narrative, contending that yes, the Jews were responsible for Jesus' execution. He was guilty for a myriad of reasons, not least his blasphemy and idolatry. Now, instead of eternal resurrected bliss Jesus suffers unending punishment in hell, where his followers will join him shortly. With careful attention to where his sources are coming from, Schafer is able to propose that the historical context of Sasanid Babylonia provided an ideal matrix for these self-confident polemics against Christianity. In Roman and Byzantine Palestine, by contrast, Christians held the upper hand over the Jews. Accordingly, the Palestinian Yerushalmi was necessarily tight-lipped about Jesus, while the Bavli allowed its Babylonian contributors to speak freely against Christians. In Schafer's estimation, the Talmudim show a remarkable familiarity with New Testament traditions, perhaps in the Syriac Diatesseron or in the Gospel of John. Their writings display virtually no independent knowledge of Jesus' life which is useful for reconstructing the "historical Jesus." It was for this reason that Johann Maier dismissed the Talmudic Jesus traditions as worthless. Schafer, however, rightfully contends that the texts are worth studying for a different reason; for the light that they cast on rabbinic attitudes towards Christians in late antiquity. Moreover, when read with careful attention to sources, there is much to be learned about fundamental differences between Palestinian and Sasanian Sages. One point of criticism may be in order. Schafer emphasizes and re-emphasizes that the "Jesus passages" in the Talmudim are like the proverbial drop in the "ocean of Talmud." Nevertheless, he contends that these passages demonstrate an aggressive and sharp discourse between rabbinic elitists and Christianity. Certainly, when the relevant texts are read in conjunction with each other, a more nuanced picture arises. However, we ought not lose sight of what Schafer reminds us of in his introduction: these passages are neither quantitatively impressive, and Jesus (or his relations) is brought up merely to illustrate some point or another. The rabbinic corpus holds no detailed portrait of Jesus until the relatively late Toledot Yeshu, which falls beyond the limits of this study. Jesus in the Talmud might lead the reader to the (wrong) assumption that the Talmud(im) presents a detailed and unified picture of Jesus when, in reality, such a picture requires a great deal of extrapolation from extremely limited source material. Nevertheless, Schafer's book is a lucidly written, engaging, and responsible treatment of a subject which will, no doubt, capture the interest of a diverse audience.