64
CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD
whole world to go astray. Therefore God gave
power to his voice that all the peoples of the world
might hear, and thus he spake,
'
Give heed that ye
go not astray after that man, for it is written
(Num. xxiii. 19),
God is not man that he should he,
and if he says that he is God he is a liar, and he will
deceive and say that he departeth and cometh again
in the end, he saith and he shall not perform. See
what is written (Num. xxiv. 23) :
And he took up
his parable and said, Alas, who shall live when God
doeth this. Balaam said, `Alas, who shall live, of
that nation which heareth that man who hath made
himself God.'
R. El'azar ha-Qappar, who is reported to have said
all this, was earlier than Abahu, for he died about
260 A.D. Bacher (Ag. d. Tann. ii. 506 n.2) shows that
only the first clause of the passage in Jalqut is to be
ascribed to El'azar ha-Qappar,
i.e.
the statement that
the voice of Balaam resounded from one end of the
world to the other. All the rest is probably of much
later date ; but it may very well have been suggested
by Abahu's words. It will be observed that Balaam
is not identified with Jesus, but is made to prophesy
his coming. That, however, Jesus is referred to is
even more evident
than in the shorter saying of
Abahu. It is curious that this later Haggadah is
attached to the words not of Abahu but of El'azar
ha-Qappar.
JESUS AND BALAAM
(12) M. Sanh. x.
2.-Three kings and four private
men have no part in the world to come ; the
three kings are Jeroboam, Ahab and
Manasseh
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