PASSAGES RELATING TO JESUS
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prwterierunt duo pueri quorum unus caput
operuit, alter revelavit. Dixit R. Eliezer,
de illo qui Caput revelaverat, 'Spurius est';
R. jehoshua
` Menstruw filius ' ; R. Aqiba
'Spurius, et menstrua' filius.' Responderunt
illi, 'Quomodo cor to inflat, ut verbis sociorum
contradixeris !' Dixit eis `Rem
confirmabo.'
Abut ad matrem pueri, quam vidit in foro
sedentem dum legumina vendebat. Dixit
ei ` Filia mea, si mihi id de quo rogabo
respondeas, in seculum futurum to ducam.'
Respondit illi
'
Jura mihi.' Juravit R. Aqiba
ore, sed corde irritum fecit.' Dixit ei 'Filius
hic tuus, qualis est ?' Respondit 'Quum
thalamum introivi menstrua eram, et separavit
a me conjux; paranymphus autem venit ad
me, quapropter hic puer et spurius est et
menstrua filius.' Responderunt
(Rabbini)
'Magnus erat R. Aqiba, quum magistros
suos refutaret.' Ilia hora dixerunt ' Benedictus
Deus Israel, qui R. Agibm secretum suum
revelavit 1 '
Commentary.-I
give the above passage with some
hesitation, because I doubt whether it has anything
to do with the legendary history of Jesus. There is
nothing to point him out as the child in question,
and the few details which the story contains do not
agree with what we have gathered hitherto as the
Rabbinical account of the parentage of Jesus. So
far as I know, this passage stands by itself, without
being mentioned or referred to in any other Talmudic
tractate ; and the tractate Kallah, in which it is found,
is of later origin than the main body of the Talmud.
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