52
CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD
from Jerusalem is mentioned in j. Hag. ii.
2; j.
Sanh. vi. 9.1
The passage j. Hag. ii. 2 gives a very
brief account of the dissension between the Rabbi
and
1
1 one of his disciples," but does not give the name
of the latter. This is probably the basis of what was
afterwards expanded in the Babylonian Gemara.
The passage before us is the
locus classicus
for the
second Talmudic theory as to the time when Jesus
lived. ' Jannai the king' is Alexander Janneeus, who
reigned from 104 to 78 B.C., thus a full century before
Jesus lived. Shim'on b. Shetah, the king's brother-
in-law, and Jehoshua b. Perahjah (as also Jehudah
b. Tabbai of the Palestinian version) were leading
Pharisees of the time ; and the massacre of the
Rabbis, which led to the escape of one of them to
Alexandria, is a historical event. The question is,
how did the name of Jesus come to be introduced
into a story referring to a time so long before his
own ? E Bearing in mind that the Rabbis had
' Where, however, the fugitive is not Jehoehua ben Perahjah but Jehndah
ben Tabbai.
I The name of Jesus is found in this passage in the codices of Munich,
Florence, and Carlsruhe, used by Rabbinowicz, also in all the older editions
of the Talmud. In the edition of Basel, 1578-81, and in all later ones, the
censor of the press has expunged it. See Rabbinowicz Varies Lectionea, Sanh.
ad loc.
Here is perhaps the beat place to refer to the epithet ha-Notzri
(+1Y1)U as applied to Jesus. It is well known that the name of Nazareth
does not occur in the Talmud, and indeed first appears in Jewish writings
so late as the hymns of Qalir (A.D. 900 circa), in the form Netzerath. This
is probably the correct Hebrew form ; but there must have been another
form, Notzerath, or Notzerah, to account for the adjective Notzri. Perhaps
Notzerah was the local pronunciation in the dialect of Galilee, where the
sound o or n frequently represents the 8 or if of new Hebrew ; thus,
101P for 10P, K]111' for I-
(Jordan), K51]1U for K5110 (Magdala). With
this corresponds the
fact that the Syriac gives Notzgrath and Notzarojo
for the name of the town and of its inhabitants. That from Notzerath or
Notzerah could be formed an adjective Notzri is shown by the examples
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