62
CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD
in either passage. The same is true of the Tosephta,
so far as I can observe. We may, perhaps, infer that
the figurative use of the phrase originated in the
Babylonian schools, where, as we have already seen
(see above (1) (2) (7)), the Rabbis speculated a good
deal about Jesus. Possibly R. JPrrrriah bar Abba,
who used the phrase in the passage we have been
studying, was himself the author of the figurative
application of it, and also of the explanation of its
meaning, b. Ber. 34a. He and It. Hisda were con-
temporaries and friends, and the latter claimed (p. 37
above) to know something about Jesus. To one or
other of them the origin of the phrase as denoting
a tendency to heresy may with great probability be
ascribed.
THE CLAIM OF JESUS DENIED
(10) j. Taanith 65b.--R. Abahu said : If a man say
to thee ' I am God,' he is a liar ; if [he says, I
'
am] the son of man,' in the end people will
laugh at him ; if [he says] ' I will go up to
heaven,' he saith, but shall not perform it.
Commentary.-So far as I know, this saying occurs
only here. That it refers to Jesus there can be no
possibility of doubt. R. Abahu, the speaker, was a
very well-known Rabbi, who lived in Caesarea, at the
end of the third and the beginning of the fourth
century ; and we shall see hereafter that he had a
great deal of intercourse, friendly and also polemical,
with heretics, who, in some instances at all events,
were certainly Christians. It is not necessary to
assume an acquaintance with any of the Gospels to
account for the phrases used by R. Abahu. The
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