48
CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD
which they say, She was the descendant of
princes and rulers, she played the harlot with
carpenters.'
Coinvnentary.-It
will be shown subsequently that
Jesus is often referred to in the Talmud under the
f i gure of Balaam, and the words just translated occur
in the middle of a long passage about Balaam. No
name is mentioned to indicate what woman is meant.
But the context suggests that the mother of Jesus is
intended ; and the suggestion is borne out by the
statement that the woman mated with a carpenter.'
The passage, as it stands, is of a late date ; for R.
Papa,
who said the words, was head of the college at
Sura from 354 to 374
A.D.
Possibly it arose out of
some imperfect acquaintance with the genealogies in
the Gospels, these being regarded as giving the
ancestry of Mary instead of that of Joseph. The
mistake might naturally arise ; for if Joseph were not
the father of Jesus, and if Jesus were alleged to be
the son of David, or of royal descent, as the Talmud
itself (b. Sanh. 43a) is by some thought to admit,2 then
evidently his royal ancestry must have
been on his
mother's side.
ALLEGED CONFESSION BY THE MOTHER OF JESUS
(6) b. Kallah.
51a.-Impudens : R. Eliezer dicit
spurium esse, R. Jehoshua menstruw filium,
R. Aqiba et spurium et menstruw filium.
Sedebant quondam seniores apud portam,
1.
The Munich MS. has in the margin ,3] instead of 1123, i.e. the singular,
not the plural.
2
This at least is one interpretation of the expression
rn55n5 11,p, we
below, p. 89.
 |  |  |