36
CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD
discussion upon the words in the Mishnah which
forbid all kinds of writing to be done on the Sabbath.
Several kinds are specified, and among them the
making of marks upon the flesh. The words at the
beginning of the translation are the text, so to speak,
of the Mishnah which is discussed in what follows.
To illustrate the practice of marking or cutting the
f l esh, the compilers of the Gemara introduce a tradition
(Baraitha, not included in the Mishnah, see above, p.
21) according to which R. Eliezer asked the question,
Did not Ben Stada bring magical spells from Egypt
in an incision upon his flesh ?' His argument was
that as Ben Stada had done this, the practice might be
allowable. The answer was that Ben Stada was a
fool, and his case proved nothing. Upon the mention
however of Ben Stada, a note is added to explain who
that person was, and it is for the sake of this note
that the passage is quoted. First I will somewhat
expand the translation, which I have made as bald and
literal as I could.'
Ben Stada, says the Gemara, is the same as Ben
Pandira. Was he then the son of two fathers? No.
Stada was the name of the husband (of his mother),
Pandira the name of her paramour. This is the
opinion
of my work relating to Jesus I have made constant use of his book, and can
hardly claim to have done more than rearrange his material and modify
some of his conclusions. If it had not
been my purpose to extend my own
work over a wider field than that which he has so thoroughly explored, I
should not have written at all.
1 In all the translations which I shall
give, I shall
make no attempt to
write elegant English ; I wish to keep as closely as possible to a word for
word rendering, so that the reader who does not understand the original
text may have some idea of what it is like, and what it really says. A f l
owing translation often
becomes a mere paraphrase, and sometimes seriously
misrepresents the original.
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