PASSAGES RELATING TO JESUS
93
Twelve ; indeed, it
is doubtful whether they, and
Thodah, were ever names of persons at all. At
most they may have been nick-names, and they
certainly raise the suspicion that they have been
chosen for the sake of the texts. I suggest that the
ease stands thus :-five disciples of Jesus,
i.e.
five
Christians, were on some occasion condemned to
death, that their real names, if known, were not
mentioned, that one of them was designated Matthai
with reference to the name attached to the first
Gospel, that the play upon his name suggested a
similar device in the case of the others, and that for
them other names were invented, each of which had
some reference to Jesus, as regarded of course by
Christians. Thus Naqi, the innocent, is obviously
applicable to Jesus from the Christian point of view,
and is as obviously satirical from that of the Rabbis,
as already shown. Netzer, the branch, is the Hebrew
word occurring in the two texts quoted from Isaiah,
of which the former was interpreted Messianically,
and would therefore be applied to Jesus. But
perhaps more probably there is a reference to the
name Notzri, the Nazarene, which we have -already
met with as an epithet of Jesus (for the derivation
of the word Notzri, and its meaning, see above,
p. 52 n.). Buni, as used in both the texts, is taken
to mean 'my son,' a frequent designation of the
Messiah, and therefore applicable by Christians to
Jesus. For the name Thodah,
'
praise,' I do not
know any connexion with Jesus ; but it is possible
that the apt retort of the second text, whoso sacri-
equivalent to Nicodemus. There may, therefore, be an allusion to
Nicodemus, who came to Jesus by night (John iii. 1).
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