Jesus in the Talmud

Features

• Cover Type: Hard Cover with 232 pages
• Published by: Princeton University Press January 15, 2007
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0691129266
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0691129266
• Book Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Weighs: 14.9 ounces

Product Review
"Funnily enough, the rabbis' tactics are not so different in principle than those of Lenny Bruce or Sarah Silverman." -- Stephen Hazan Arnoff, Haaretz

"In arguing this thesis he is scholarly, clear and accessible." -- Richard Harries, Times Higher Education Supplement

Meticulously researched and argued as well as clearly and accessibly written, this most intriguing--albeit radical--book is sure to spark interest, debate, and controversy. An essential purchase for academic religion collections and theological libraries. Library Journal Schafer bases his clearly written and exquisitely informed work on a collection of the fragmented texts about Jesus from the heart of the rabbinic period, a cluster of passages he assembles from material scattered throughout the Jerusalem and Babylonian Talmuds and contemporaneous rabbinic literature. The simple gathering of these newly translated texts in one place makes the book an great English-language resource for researchers and laypersons alike. -- Stephen Hazan Arnoff Haaretz Peter Schafer's Jesus in the Talmud reviews well-trodden territory but derives new and important readings from this familiar evidence. Applying contemporary historiographical methods, Schafer offers a convincing explanation of the talmudic texts about Jesus. -- Ruth Langer Studies in Christian-Jewish Relations In the talmudic references to Jesus Schafer persuasively finds sophisticated 'counternarratives that parody the New Testament stories,' composed by Jews who evinced a precise knowledge of the New Testament. The true accomplishment of Jesus in the Talmud is to show how certain talmudic passages are actually subtle rereadings of the New Testament, 'a literary answer to a literary text.' With considerable skill, Schafer weaves these together until they can be seen to form an intricate theological discourse that prefigures the disputations between Jews and Christians in the Middle Ages. -- Benjamin Balint First Things Schafer's fine new book should be of interest to a wide audience, and not only to specialists in the field of the historical interaction of Judaism and Christianity in late antiquity (who will be right to devour it) Schafer's book tells a fascinating storyi His great scholarship now provides Jews and Christians interested in developing a new and better relationship with a way to work through many of the hateful things that we have said about each other in the past, but without pretending that this terrible past was not as terrible as it really was or that it can simply be forgotten The sources that Schafer adduces are virulent and dangerous, but his analysis of them leaves one unexpectedly full of hope. -- David Novak New Republic Peter Schafer deserves great merit for having taken up a subject whose reexamination has been overdue for a long time already and that is of major interest to New Testament scholars, Talmudists, and historians of ancient Judaism alikeThe great achievement of this book is that it reopens the discussion of texts that are of greatest significance for the study of the relationship of Judaism and Christianity in antiquity and the early Middle Ages. It presents the Jewish intellectual elite in a new light, as active respondents to Christian claims and allegations and forceful combatants in the Christian-Jewish dispute. -- Catherine Hezser Review of Biblical Literature Schafer's great study shows that, by ridiculing fundamental Christian claims, Babylonian Jewry rejected any notion that the old covenant had been superseded by the new, Judaism had nothing for which to reproach itself: its superiority over Christianity was incontestable. -- Anthony Phillips Church Times Peter Schaferprovides a sophisticated treatment of the subject of Jesus and other figures in the New Testament in Talmudic literature. This subject has a long history, but have never been undertaken with the kind of rigor and sensitivity to contextual factors, including the differences between the evidence available in the Babylonian versus Jerusalem versionsClear and accessible reading for the non-specialist, this is a careful, scholarly treatment that sets the agenda for future studies Jewish Book World

Product Review
Meticulously researched and argued as well as clearly and accessibly written, this most intriguing--albeit radical--book is sure to spark interest, debate, and controversy. An essential purchase for academic religion collections and theological libraries.
(Library Journal )

Schäfer bases his clearly written and exquisitely informed work on a collection of the fragmented texts about Jesus from the heart of the rabbinic period, a cluster of passages he assembles from material scattered throughout the Jerusalem and Babylonian Talmuds and contemporaneous rabbinic literature. The simple gathering of these newly translated texts in one place makes the book an great English-language resource for researchers and laypersons alike.
(Stephen Hazan Arnoff Haaretz )

Peter Schafer's Jesus in the Talmud reviews well-trodden territory but derives new and important readings from this familiar evidence. Applying contemporary historiographical methods, Schafer offers a convincing explanation of the talmudic texts about Jesus.
(Ruth Langer Studies in Christian-Jewish Relations )

In the talmudic references to Jesus . . . Schäfer persuasively finds sophisticated 'counternarratives that parody the New Testament stories,' composed by Jews who evinced a precise knowledge of the New Testament. The true accomplishment of Jesus in the Talmud is to show how certain talmudic passages are actually subtle rereadings of the New Testament, 'a literary answer to a literary text.' With considerable skill, Schäfer weaves these together until they can be seen to form an intricate theological discourse that prefigures the disputations between Jews and Christians in the Middle Ages.
(Benjamin Balint First Things )

Schafer's fine new book should be of interest to a wide audience, and not only to specialists in the field of the historical interaction of Judaism and Christianity in late antiquity (who will be right to devour it). Schafer's book tells a fascinating story…His great scholarship now provides Jews and Christians interested in developing a new and better relationship with a way to work through many of the hateful things that we have said about each other in the past, but without pretending that this terrible past was not as terrible as it really was or that it can simply be forgotten. The sources that Schafer adduces are virulent and dangerous, but his analysis of them leaves one unexpectedly full of hope.
(David Novak New Republic )

Peter Schafer deserves great merit for having taken up a subject whose reexamination has been overdue for a long time already and that is of major interest to New Testament scholars, Talmudists, and historians of ancient Judaism alikeThe great achievement of this book is that it reopens the discussion of texts that are of greatest significance for the study of the relationship of Judaism and Christianity in antiquity and the early Middle Ages. It presents the Jewish intellectual elite in a new light, as active respondents to Christian claims and allegations and forceful combatants in the Christian-Jewish dispute.
(Catherine Hezser Review of Biblical Literature )

Schafer's great study shows that, by ridiculing fundamental Christian claims, Babylonian Jewry rejected any notion that the old covenant had been superseded by the new, Judaism had nothing for which to reproach itself: its superiority over Christianity was incontestable.
(Anthony Phillips Church Times )

Peter Schäferprovides a sophisticated treatment of the subject of Jesus and other figures in the New Testament in Talmudic literature. This subject has a long history, but have never been undertaken with the kind of rigor and sensitivity to contextual factors, including the differences between the evidence available in the Babylonian versus Jerusalem versionsClear and accessible reading for the non-specialist, this is a careful, scholarly treatment that sets the agenda for future studies
(Jewish Book World )

Reader Reviews
Why don't we see such works more often? No, not because "the Jews" control "the establishment". Rather--as most (though not all) of the four- and five-star reviews here show--such a book would becomes a magnet to the ignorant antisemitic fringe, who shower the author with undesired praise and attention for "daring to say THE TRUTH about the evil Jews". In fact, of course, Schafer's book does nothing of the kind--nor does he intend to. It was well known that the Talmud and other Jewish writings of the period express occassional anti-Jesus and anti-Christian sentiment. What's new is Schafer's claim that (a) the criticism wasn't random, but a parody and inversion of Christian sources, and (b) careful examination of precisely *what* the rabbis are parodying and inverting shows the sages of the Talmud were more aware of contemporary Christian writings (esp. the most antisemitic of the Gospels, John) than previously supposed. They reacted to the antisemitic biases of the Christian sources with their own anti-Christian bias. The fascinating thing about this book is the "treasure hunt": how obscure references from dozens of seperate tractates are put together to show the coherent thought behind them. If the book has a weakness, it is that, by necessity, the rarity and obscurity of the material (in many cases criticism had to be disguised, for example by using pseudonyms for 'Jesus') sometimes force Prof. Schafer to guess more than he would like about missing material. But this is the general flaw of all historical works about obscure subjects; Schafer might be wrong in his thesis, for all we know, but he sure does his very best to show it is correct with the material available. For the record, Schaffer of course knows very well that 99.99% of the Talmud has nothing to do with Jesus; that its (rare) anti-Christian sentiments express particular rabbis' opinions, and are not a command to all Jews to hate Jesus; and that, in any case, the vast majority of Jews are completely unaware of the very existence of these obscure Talmudic claims about Jesus. Unfortunately for the antisemites praising the book, Prof. Schafer hasn't "exposed the awful truth about the Jews"; he simply puts forward an interesting literary thesis. But, hey, guys--thanks for showing everybody, in your enthusiastic though totally inaccurate reviews, everbody the *real* reason serious scholars dislike writing about such subjects. They're not afraid of making "the Jews in the establishment" their enemies; they just don't want to make *you* their friends. With friends like these...