PASSAGES RELATING TO JESUS
41
time of the story related in the Gospels. That story
undoubtedly lays itself open to the coarse interpreta-
tion put upon it by Jewish enemies of Jesus, viz.,
that he was born out of wedlock. The Talmud
knows that his mother was called Miriam, and knows
also that Miriam (Mary) of Magdala had some con-
nexion with the story of his life. Beyond that it
knows nothing, not even the meaning of the names
by which it refers to Jesus. The passage in the
Talmud under examination cannot be earlier than the
beginning of the fourth century, and is moreover a
report of what was said in Babylonia, not Palestine.
MARY THE MOTHER OF JESUS
(2) b. Hag.
4b.-When Rab Joseph came to this
verse (Exod. xxiii. 17), he wept,
There is that
is destroyed without justice
(Prov. xiii. 23). He
said, Is there any who has departed before his
time ? None but this [told] of Rab Bibi bar
Abaji. The Angel of Death was with him.
The Angel said to his messenger, 'Go, bring
me Miriam the dresser of women's hair.' He
brought him Miriam the teacher of children.
He [the Angel] said, 'I told thee Miriam the
dresser of women's hair.' He said, ' If so, I
will take this one back.' He said,
'
Since
thou hast brought this one, let her be among
the number [of the dead].'
(2a) Tosaphoth.-Il The Angel of Death was with
him : he related what had already happened,
for this ' about Miriam the dresser of women's
hair took place in [the time of] the second
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