PASSAGES RELATING TO JESUS
61
hereafter, that Ahitophel, Doeg and Gehazi, are all,
in the view of the Talmud, tainted with heresy
(Minuth). These three, along with
Balaam, the
chief infidel, are said in the Mishnah, Sanh. x. 1, to
have no part in the world to come. And the same
Mishnah makes a similar declaration in regard to
Jeroboam, Ahab and Manasseh. The passage in
b. Ber. 17b, as quoted in the Aruch (s.v.
nnp) reads
thus, " burns his food in public, like Manasseh."
And this has probably led the author of that work
to explain the meaning of
'
burns his food in public'
by ' sets up idols in public,' establishes false worships.
But, as Rabbinowicz has shown, not " Manasseh,",
but "Jeshu ha-Notzri," is the original reading ; and
this fact is conclusive against the explanation of the
author of the Aruch. It is absurd to say of Jesus
that he set up idols. I conclude, therefore, that in
the passage before us the reference to Jesus is
intended as an example of one who inclined to
heresy.'
It is worthy of note that the Palestinian Gemara
does not make the reference to Jesus, either in Ber.
or Sanh., nor does it use the phrase ' burns his food'
spoken by the disciples of R. Hisda (or, according to another tradition,
R. Shemuel b. Nahmani), when they left the lecture room. This tends
to confirm the connexion of the phrase under discussion with R. Hisda.
1 Jost,
"
Geesch. d. Judentums u s. Sekten," i. p. 264 n., says, speaking of
the literal interpretation of ' burns his food,' "sie wind, aber, geniigend
widerlegt durch die in jener Zeit bekannte Bedeutung des Wortes,
15
,e'. n n+npn, b. Ber.
17b, b. Sanh. 103s, wo es geradezu in dem
Sinne : den
eigenen
oder
des Hawses guten Ruf preisgeben,
angewendet
wird,-wie schon Zipser, Orient 1850, s. 316 nachgewiesen hat." I do not
know on what authority he says that the phrase was so understood at the
time, in view of the quite different interpretation given
by the Talmud
itself in b. Ber. 34a.
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