Jacob the Heretic

Last updated
Jacob the heretic
NationalityJewish
OccupationHealer
Known forBeing a 2nd-century heretic (min) referenced in the Tosefta and Talmud

Jacob the heretic is the name given to a 2nd-century heretic (Hebrew min) whose doings were used as examples in a few passages of the Tosefta and Talmud to illustrate laws relating to dealing with heresy (minut).

Contents

Accounts

Jacob comes to heal a snake bite

Tosefta Chullin 2:22-23 tells how Rabbi Eleazar ben Damma was bitten by a snake. Jacob came to heal him in the name of Yeshu ben Pandera. Rabbi Ishmael tells Rabbi Eleazar that Jacob is not allowed to heal; Rabbi Eleazar insists that it is allowed, but dies before he is able to provide proof. Rabbi Ishmael comments that Rabbi Eleazar is fortunate to have died before breaking the law, and quotes Ecclesiastes 10:8, "He who breaks a fence will be bitten by a snake." ("Fence" is used to refer to decrees of the sages meant to protect Jews from situations where they may unwittingly break a commandment. Typically, Jews are allowed to break the law in order to save a life; here Rabbi Ishmael teaches that one should rather die than traffic with minim .)

The Jerusalem Talmud Avodah Zarah 2:2 IV.I and Babylonian Talmud Avodah Zarah 27b provide a similar account to Chullin 2:22-23.

Jacob prepares medicine for a leg

Avodah Zarah 28a in the Babylonian Talmud continues the discussion which included the above example and again mentions Jacob. This time noting that he prepared medicine for the leg of Rabbi Abbahu, a distinguished man. The name Jacob the Min for him comes from this passage.

The arrest of Eliezer ben Hyrcanus

Tosefta Chullin 2:24 tells how Rabbi Eliezer was once arrested and charged with minuth. When the chief judge (hegemon) interrogated him, the rabbi answered that he "trusted the judge." Although Rabbi Eliezer was referring to God, the judge interpreted him to be referring to the judge himself, and freed the Rabbi. The remainder of the account concerns why Rabbi Eliezer was arrested in the first place. Rabbi Akiva suggests that perhaps one of the minim had spoken a word of minuth to him and that it had pleased him. Rabbi Eliezer recalls that this was indeed the case, he had met Jacob of the town of Sakhnin in the streets of Sepphoris who spoke to him a word of minuth in the name of Yeshu ben Pandera, which had pleased him.

Avodah Zarah, 16b-17a in the Babylonian Talmud essentially repeats the account of Chullin 2:24 about Rabbi Eliezer and adds additional material. It tells that Jacob quoted Deuteronomy 23:19: "You shall not bring the fee of a whore or the price of a dog into the house of the Lord your God in fulfillment of any vow." Jacob says that he was taught this by Yeshu. Jacob then asked Eliezer whether it was permissible to use a whore's money to build a toilet for the high priest. When Rabbi Eliezer did not reply, Jacob quoted Micah 1:7, "For they were amassed from whores' fees and they shall become whores' fees again." This was the teaching that had pleased Rabbi Eliezer.

Interpretation of Jacob being a Christian healer

Modern scholars are divided on whether the earliest forms of the Talmud contains direct references to Christianity. On the one hand stand scholars such as Peter Schäfer who sees the Gemara as containing developed reaction to Christianity, on the other scholars such as Daniel J. Lasker who see references to Christianity in the Talmud as "embryonic". Likewise a similar spectrum exists regarding the references to Jesus in the Talmud from, on the one hand, scholars like Maier (1978) who sees insertions of the name "Yeshu" into the Talmud as later interpolations in "Reaktion" to Christian "Provokation," and on the other those such as Joseph Klausner (1925) who argued that there were traces of the historical Jesus visible in Talmudic traditions. Related to these stories in the Talmud are those recounted by the pagan Celsus.

During the Disputation of Paris, 1240, and Disputation of Barcelona 1263, references to Jesus in the Talmud became a pretext for Christian persecution and Jehiel ben Joseph in Paris, [1] Nahmanides in Barcelona, defended the Jewish community from Christian inquisitors by denying that the "Yeshu" passages had anything to do with Christianity. Jacob ben Meir (1100-1171) and Jacob Emden (1697-1776) also took this position. In the censorship and self-censorship of the Talmud which followed Adin Steinsaltz notes that references to Christianity were censored out of the Talmud, even where the reference was not negative. [2]

Today scholars generally recognise some reference to Jesus in the Talmud but differ as to which texts are original. [3] Recently, some scholars have argued that the references to Jesus in the Talmud provide a more complex view of early Rabbinic-Christian interactions. Whereas the Pharisees were one sect among several others in the Second Temple era, the Amoraim and Tannaim sought to establish Rabbinic Judaism as the normative form of Judaism. Like the Rabbis, early Christians claimed to be working within Biblical traditions to provide new interpretations of Jewish laws and values. The sometimes blurry boundary between the Rabbis and early Christians provided an important site for distinguishing between legitimate debate and heresy. Scholars like Rabbi Jeffrey Rubenstein (PhD. in Religion from Columbia University; professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University) and Dr. Daniel Boyarin, a professor of Talmud at the University of California, Berkeley, argue that it was through the Yeshu narratives that Rabbis confronted this blurry boundary. [4] [5]

Jeffrey Rubenstein has argued that the accounts in Chullin and Avodah Zarah reveal an ambivalent relationship between rabbis and Christianity. In his view the tosefta account reveals that at least some Jews believed Christians were true healers, but that the rabbis saw this belief as a major threat. Concerning the Babylonian Talmud account in Avoda Zarah, Dr. Boyarin views Jacob of Sechania as a Christian preacher and understands Rabbi Eliezer's arrest for minuth as an arrest by the Romans for practising Christianity (the text uses the word for heretic). When the Governor (the text uses the word for chief judge) interrogated him, the Rabbi answered that he "trusted the judge." Boyarin has suggested that this was the Jewish version of the Br'er Rabbit approach to domination, which he contrasts to the strategy of many early Christians, who proclaim their beliefs in spite of the consequences (i.e. martyrdom). Although Rabbi Eliezer was referring to God, the Governor interpreted him to be referring to the Governor himself, and freed the Rabbi. According to them the account also reveals that there was greater contact between Christians and Jews in the 2nd century than commonly believed. They view the account of the teaching of Yeshu as an attempt to mock Christianity. According to Dr. Rubenstein, the structure of this teaching, in which a biblical prooftext is used to answer a question about Biblical law, is common to both the Rabbis and early Christians. The vulgar content, however, may have been used to parody Christian values. Dr. Boyarin considers the text to be an acknowledgment that Rabbis often interacted with Christians, despite their doctrinal antipathy. [4]

Jacob's home town

R. Travers Herford used a translation of the passages which named Jacob's hometown as Sama in the first account strictly speaking the name of a town nine miles away from Sakhnin (the account is mentioned in corresponding passages of the Jerusalem Talmud (Avodah Zarah 2:2 IV.I), and Babylonian Talmud (Avodah Zarah 27b) where his home town is Sama in the former but Sakhnin (Aramaic Shekhania) in the latter). As a result of the variant reading Herford considered the question of whether the account is about the same Jacob or not, but concluded that it is. [6] Saul Lieberman who compared early manuscripts to identify copying errors found Sakhnin to be the correct reading.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Judah ha-Nasi</span> 2nd-century rabbi and editor of the Mishnah

Judah ha-Nasi or Judah I, known simply as Rebbi or Rabbi, was a second-century rabbi and chief redactor and editor of the Mishnah. He lived from approximately 135 to 217 CE. He was a key leader of the Jewish community in Roman-occupied Judea after the Bar Kokhba revolt.

Adherents of Judaism do not believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah nor do they believe he was the Son of God. In the Jewish perspective, it is believed that the way Christians see Jesus goes against monotheism, a belief in the absolute unity and singularity of God, which is central to Judaism; Judaism sees the worship of a person as a form of idolatry, which is forbidden. Therefore, considering Jesus divine, as “God the Son”, is forbidden. Judaism's rejection of Jesus as the Messiah is based on Jewish eschatology, which holds that the coming of the true Messiah will be associated with events that have not yet occurred, such as the rebuilding of The Temple, a Messianic Age of peace, and the ingathering of Jews to their homeland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tosafot</span> Medieval commentaries on the Talmud

The Tosafot,Tosafos or Tosfot are medieval commentaries on the Talmud. They take the form of critical and explanatory glosses, printed, in almost all Talmud editions, on the outer margin and opposite Rashi's notes.

Yeshu is the name of an individual or individuals mentioned in rabbinic literature, thought by some to refer to Jesus when used in the Talmud. The name Yeshu is also used in other sources before and after the completion of the Babylonian Talmud. It is also the modern Israeli spelling of Jesus.

Bar Kappara was a Jewish scholar of the late second and early third century CE. He was active in Caesarea Maritima, the capital of the Roman province of Syria Palaestina, from around 180 to 220 CE. His name, meaning "Son of Qappara", was taken from his father, Eleazar ha-Kappar. He was one of the students of Judah ha-Nasi and a first-generation amora.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tiberius Julius Abdes Pantera</span> Roman soldier of the Cohors I Sagittariorum (c. 22 BC - AD 40)

Tiberius Julius Abdes Pantera was a Roman-Phoenician soldier born in Sidon, whose tombstone was found in Bingerbrück, Germany, in 1859.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gamaliel II</span> Judean rabbi and nasi from c. 80 to c. 118

Rabban Gamaliel II was a rabbi from the second generation of tannaim. He was the first person to lead the Sanhedrin as nasi after the fall of the Second Temple in 70 CE.

Joshua ben Perahiah or Joshua ben Perachya was Nasi of the Sanhedrin in the latter half of the 2nd century BC.

<i>Avodah Zarah</i> Tractate of the Talmud

Avodah Zarah is the name of a tractate of the Talmud, located in Nezikin, the fourth Order of the Talmud dealing with damages. The main topic of the tractate is laws pertaining to Jews living amongst Gentiles, including regulations about the interaction between Jews and "avodei ha kochavim", which literally interpreted is "Worshipers of the stars", but is most often translated as "idolaters", "pagans", or "heathen."

Eliezer ben Hurcanus or Hyrcanus was one of the most prominent Sages (tannaim) of the 1st and 2nd centuries in Judea, disciple of Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai and colleague of Gamaliel II, and of Joshua ben Hananiah. He is the sixth most frequently mentioned sage in the Mishnah.

Joshua ben Hananiah, also known as Rabbi Yehoshua, was a leading tanna of the first half-century following the destruction of the Second Temple. He is the seventh-most-frequently mentioned sage in the Mishnah.

Eleazar ben Shammua or Eleazar I was a rabbi of the 2nd century, frequently cited in rabbinic writings as simply Rabbi Eleazar (Bavli) or Rabbi Lazar רִבִּי לָֽעְזָר (Yerushalmi). He was of priestly descent and rich, and acquired great fame as a teacher of traditional law.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Haninah ben Teradion</span> 2nd century Jewish rabbi and teacher

Rabbi Haninah ben Teradion or Hananiahben Teradion was a rabbi and tanna of the third generation. He was a contemporary of Eleazar ben Perata I and of Halafta, together with whom he established certain ritual rules. Known as one of the wealthiest men in Galilee, he also served as the treasurer of a fund for the poor. Following the Bar Kokhba revolt, he was executed by the Romans for ignoring the ban on teaching Torah, and is considered one of the Ten Martyrs.

Sefer Toledot Yeshu, often abbreviated as Toledot Yeshu, is a medieval text which presents an alternative, anti-sectarian view, as well as a disputed biography of Jesus of Nazareth. It exists in a number of different versions, none of which is considered either canonical or normative within Rabbinic literature, but which appear to have been widely circulated in Europe and the Middle East in the medieval period. A 15th-century Yemenite version of the text was titled Maaseh Yeshu, or the "Episode of Jesus", in which Jesus is described either as being the son of Joseph or the son of Pandera. The account portrays Jesus as an impostor.

Jacob ben Abraham Faitusi was a Tunisian Jewish scholar. He settled in the later part of his life at Jerusalem, whence he was sent as a collector of alms to Italy and Algeria.

Gilyonim, or avon gilyon, are terms used by the Mishnah and Talmud to refer to certain heretical works.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nazarene (title)</span> People from the city of Nazareth

Nazarene is a title used to describe people from the city of Nazareth in the New Testament, and is a title applied to Jesus, who, according to the New Testament, grew up in Nazareth, a town in Galilee, located in ancient Judea. The word is used to translate two related terms that appear in the Greek New Testament: Nazarēnos ('Nazarene') and Nazōraios ('Nazorean'). The phrases traditionally rendered as "Jesus of Nazareth" can also be translated as "Jesus the Nazarene" or "Jesus the Nazorean", and the title Nazarene may have a religious significance instead of denoting a place of origin. Both Nazarene and Nazorean are irregular in Greek and the additional vowel in Nazorean complicates any derivation from Nazareth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jesus in the Talmud</span> Possible references to Jesus in the Talmud

There are several passages in the Talmud which are believed by some scholars to be references to Jesus. The name used in the Talmud is "Yeshu", the Aramaic vocalization of the Hebrew name Yeshua.

Opposition to Christianity in Chazalic literature consists of direct questioning and at times invalidating of Christianity as found in Chazalic literature. Of the notable reasons of Chazalic opposition to Christianity is that Christianity is founded on the belief of the Trinity, whereas Judaism follows the belief of unitarian monotheism. Another source of opposition is the belief that the Torah, as given by Moses, along with its interpretation by Chazal, is the supreme and exclusive indicator of Yahweh's instruction to Jews and mankind.

The Birkat haMinim is a curse on heretics which forms part of the Jewish rabbinical liturgy. It is the twelfth in the series of eighteen benedictions that constitute the core of prayer service in the statutory daily 'standing prayer' of religious Jews.

References

  1. ↑ Jehiel ben Joseph of Paris, Vikuakh, ed. R. Margaliot, Lemberg (1928)
  2. ↑ Steinsaltz The essential Talmud - Page 105 2006 "Wherever the Talmud makes derogatory reference to Jesus or to Christianity in general, the comment was completely erased, and the name of Christ was systematically removed, even when the reference was not negative."
  3. ↑ Thiessen and Merz draw on Dalman (1893), Maier (1982), and Thoma (1990) in reaching this conclusion. Theissen, Gerd and Annette Merz. The historical Jesus: a comprehensive guide. Fortress Press. 1998. translated from German (1996 edition). p. 74-76.
  4. 1 2 Jeffrey Rubenstein Rabbinic Stories (The Classics of Western Spirituality) New York: The Paulist Press, 2002
  5. ↑ Daniel Boyarin, Dying for God: Martyrdom and the Making of Christianity and Judaism Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1999
  6. ↑ R. Travers Herford, Christianity in Talmud and Midrash (London: Williams & Norgate, 1903)
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.