42
CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD
temple, for she was the mother of a certain
person, as it is said in Shabbath, p. 104."
Commentar
y.-This
passage, like the preceding
one, is centuries later than the time of Jesus. R.
Bibi bar Abaji, as also R. Joseph, belonged to the
end of the third and beginning of the fourth century,
and both lived in Babylonia. R. Joseph was head of
the college at Pumbeditha, in which office Abaji, the
father of Bibi, succeeded him. As the story is told
it involves a monstrous anachronism, which is noted
by the authors of the Tosaphoth (mediaeval com-
mentators on the Talmud). The compilers of the
Gemara can scarcely have believed that Miriam, the
dresser of women's hair, was still living in the time of
R. Joseph and R. Bibi ; for, as the preceding passage
shows, she was thought to have been the mother of
Jesus. So far as I know, this is the only reference to
the Miriam in question which brings down her life-
time to so late a date ; and, if we do not accept the
explanation of the Tosaphoth, that the Angel of
Death told R. Bibi what had happened long ago, we
may suppose that what is described is
a dream of the
Rabbi's. Of the Miriam who, according to the story,
was cut off by death before her time, nothing what-
ever is known. The passage merely shows that the
name of Miriam, the dresser of women's hair, was
known in the Babylonian schools at
the end of the
third and the beginning of the fourth century. The
incident of the fate of the two Miriams is merely
brought in to illustrate the text that
some are cut
of without justice.
And this again forms part of a
discussion on the duty of appearing three times in
the year before the Lord. This passage adds nothing
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