Description
One of the most controversial books in history, Toledot Yeshu recounts the life story of Jesus from a negative and anti-Christian perspective. It ascribes to Jesus an illegitimate birth, a theft of the Ineffable Name of God, heretical activities, and, finally, a disgraceful death. Perhaps for centuries, the Toledot Yeshu circulated orally until it coalesced into various literary forms. Although the dates of these written compositions remain obscure, some early hints of a Jewish counter-history of Jesus can be found in the works of pagan and Christian authors of Late Antiquity, such as Celsus, Justin, and Tertullian. In the Middle Ages, the book became the object and tool of a most acrimonious controversy. Jews, Christians, and atheists - such as Ibn Shaprut, Luther, and Voltaire - quoted and commented on Toledot Yeshu , trying to disprove the beliefs of their opponents and revealing their own prejudices. Due to the offensive nature of the book, scholars have until recently paid little attention to Toledot Yeshu . In 2007, Peter Schäfer launched a project at Princeton University to prepare a scholarly edition with translation and commentary based on all the available manuscripts (about 150). Along with this project, Peter Schäfer, Michael Meerson, and Yaacov Deutsch organized an international conference, attended by the leading scholars of the subject, to discuss the present state of research. The conference contributions, published in this volume, mark a new stage in Toledot Yeshu research.
Chapter
Michael Sokoloff: The Date and Provenance of the Aramaic Toledot Yeshu on the Basis of Aramaic Dialectology
The Publication of the Aramaic Texts
Previous Discussions of the Aramaic Language of the Texts
Linguistic Analysis of the Vocabulary of TY
Peter Schäfer: Agobard's and Amulo's Toledot Yeshu
William Horbury: The Strasbourg Text of the Toledot
Adina M. Yoffie: Observations on the Huldreich Manuscripts of the Toledot Yeshu
The Manuscript Evidence and Implications for Authorship
Preliminary Efforts at Dating the Huldreich
The Uniqueness of the Huldreich: Rewriting Old Traditions
Michael Stanislawski: A Preliminary Study of a Yiddish "Life of Jesus" (Toledot Yeshu): JTS Ms. 2211
1. The editor's knowledge and citation of different narrative traditions.
2. Talmud and trial of Jesus.
3. Historical inaccuracy.
4. Linguistic markers of the distinctions between Jews and Gentiles.
8. Differences in narrative itself.
Pierluigi Piovanelli: The Toledot Yeshu and Christian Apocryphal Literature: The Formative Years
The Discovery of a Strange Jewish Anti-Gospel in 1985
The Rediscovery of a Strange Christian Gospel in 1998
The Rediscovery of a Strange Gnostic Gospel in 2006–07
Here and now: The Absence of a Strange Jewish Christian Gospel
Eli Yassif: Toledot Yeshu: Folk-Narrative as Polemics and Self Criticism
Toledot Yeshu as a Volksbuch
From Polemics to Self-criticism
Philip Alexander: The Toledot Yeshu in the Context of Jewish-Muslim Debate
The Toledot Yeshu and the Muslim World
Copies of the Toledot from the Muslim world
The Toledot and the Christian Gospel in the Muslim world
The Toledot Yeshu and the Muslim "Gospel"
Sarit Kattan Gribetz: Hanged and Crucified: The Book of Esther and Toledot Yeshu
Toledot Yeshu and the Book of Esther
Purim and Anti-Christianity
Toledot Yeshu as Megillah
Michael Meerson: Meaningful Nonsense: A Study of Details in Toledot Yeshu
Ora Limor and Israel Jacob Yuval: Judas Iscariot: Revealer of the Hidden Truth
The Legend of the Finding of the True Cross
The Biography of Judas in the Golden Legend
Epilogue: Judah, Jew, and Israel
John Gager: Simon Peter, Founder of Christianity or Saviour of Israel?
Galit Hasan-Rokem: Polymorphic Helena - Toledot Yeshu as a Palimpsest of Religious Narratives and Identities
Yaacov Deutsch: The Second Life of the Life of Jesus: Christian Reception of Toledot Yeshu
Paola Tartakoff: The Toledot Yeshu and Jewish-Christian Conflict in the Medieval Crown of Aragon
The Toledot Yeshu as a Form of Internal Jewish anti-Christian Polemic
The Toledot Yeshu as a Jewish Tool for Recruiting Repentance
The Toledot Yeshu in Open Confrontations with Christians
The Toledot Yeshu as a Weapon in the Hands of Jewish Apostates