56
CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD
Shabb. 104b) to the effect that the Egyptian magi-
cians did not allow anyone to carry away magical
charms from their country ; and therefore, since Jesus
could not take them away in writing, he concealed
them in the manner described, or perhaps tattooed
magical signs on his flesh. Whether Rashi had any
authority for his statement, or whether he only
devised it to explain the passage before him, I do
not know. The date of the passage under considera-
tion is to some extent determined by the fact that it
is taken from the Tosephta (see above, p. 21), a collec-
tion which represents an earlier stratum of tradition
than that embodied in the Gemara. The Eliezer who
is mentioned is of course the same as the one men-
tioned in (1) above, and we may take it that the
reference there, p. 36, to a ' Baraitha,' is a reference to
the present passage. The answer, that
'
Ben Stada
was a fool,' does not perhaps imply any censure on
Jesus, but merely that any one would be foolish who
should act as Ben Stada was said to have done.'
JESUS ` BURNS
His FOOD'
(9) b. Sanh. 103a.-For Rab Hisda said that Rab
Jeremiah bar Abba said, ' What is that which
is written : There shall no evil befall thee,
neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling
[Ps. xci.
10].
Another explanation :
There shall no evil befall thee,
[means],
'
that
evil dreams and evil thoughts may tempt thee
not,' and neither shall any plague come nigh
But see below, p. 345 n., for a poeeible alternative to the foregoing
explanation.
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