PASSAGES RELATING TO JESUS
37
of Rab Hisda,a Babylonian teacher of the third century
(A.D.
217-309). But that cannot be true, says the
Gemara, because the husband is known to have been
called Pappus ben Jehudah. Stada must have been
not the father but the mother. But how can that be,
because the mother was called Miriam the dresser of
women's hair? Miriam was her proper name, con-
cludes the Gemara, and Stada a nickname, as people
say in Pumbeditha
S'tath da,
she has gone aside, from
her husband.
The two names Ben Stada and Ben Pandira
evidently refer to the same person, and that that
person is Jesus is shown clearly by the fact that we
sometimes meet with the full name ' Jeshu ben
Pandira'-thus T. Hull, ii. 23,
GG
in the name of Jeshu
ben Pandira " ; and also the fact that 'Jeshu' is
sometimes found as a variant of ' Ben Stada' in parallel
passages-thus b. Sanh. 43a says, "On the eve of Pesah
(Passover) they hung Jeshu," while in the same
tractate, p. 67a, it is said, Thus did they to Ben
Stada in Lud, they hung him on the eve of Pesah.
Ben Stada is Ben Pandira, etc." Then follows the
same note of explanation as in the passage from
Shabbath which we are studying. (See below,
p. 79).
There can be no reasonable doubt that the
Jeshu ' who is variously called Ben Stada and Ben
Pandira is the historical Jesus, the founder of
Christianity. It is true that the name Jeshu'a, though
not common, was the name of others beside Jesus of
Nazareth ; and even in the New Testament
(Col. iv.
11) there is, mention of one
Jesus who is called
Justus.
It is also true that the Jewish com-
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