70
CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD
connexion in the Rabbinical mind between Jesus
and Balaam ; and if it proves a guide to the mean-
ing of other passages where Balaam is referred to,
it will be to that extent confirmed and made more
probable. These other passages will be mentioned
presently. For the moment I return to the passage
(12), quoted above, from M. Sanh. x.
2, where it is
said that Balaam, Doeg, Ahitophel and Gehazi are
shut out from the world to come. Having seen that
Balaam here denotes Jesus, it is natural to enquire
into the meaning of the other three names. That
they merely denote the three persons mentioned
in the Books of Samuel and Kings is not probable ;
for there is nothing in the facts there recorded to
show why just these three should have been so
severely condemned. Following immediately after
Balaam-Jesus, we can hardly avoid the conclusion
that the three O.T. names denote three of the
Apostles, as having shared in the work of heresy
which Jesus began. Each of the three is elsewhere
mentioned in the Talmud as being tainted with
heresy, as will be shown hereafter (see below, pp. 99,
192). Which of the Apostles are referred to, if this
hypothesis be accepted, is a question of which the
answer must remain uncertain. One thinks, naturally,
the passage about the age of Balaam, to be given below) :-(14) Mar
bar Rabina said to his son, ' Do not multiply Midrash, in regard to all
these except in regard to Balaam, the wicked ; whatever you find in him,
expound of him.' ' In regard to all these,' i.e. the four men, Balaam, Doeg,
Ahitophel and Gehazi. Rashi, in his note on the passage, says that the
multiplying of Midrash means doing so 'Kli', with malicious intention. The
son of Mar bar Rabina, mentioned above, was the younger Rabina, contem-
porary with and colleague of Ashi the redactor of the Babylonian Gemara
Ashi, of course, was responsible for the inclusion in the Gemara of the
anonymous passages concerning the excommunication of Jesus (see p. 51).
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