PASSAGES RELATING TO JESUS
71
of Peter, James and John. But it seems to me at
least highly probable that Gehazi, at all events, means
Paul. It would certainly be strange if the man who
more than all else except Jesus I troubled Israel'
(cf. Acts xxi.
27 fol.) should have been left out of
this black list. A passage will be given presently
where
the story of Gehazi and Elisha is told in such
a way as strongly to suggest Paul the renegade
disciple of Gamaliel.
(See below, No. (27), p. 97, b.
Sotah. 47a).
As for Doeg and Ahitophel, I do not know of any
evidence for a particular identification.
May not,
however, Doeg the Edomite, who betrayed` David
(1
Sam. xxii.
9), possibly denote Judas Iscariot, the
traitor? And the high honour in which Ahitophel
was held (2 Sam. xvi. 23) suggests him as a type of
Peter. These are only guesses, and as regards the
proposed identification of Doeg with Judas Iscariot,
I must allow that it would be more likely that the
Talmud should exalt the betrayer of Jesus into a
hero than condemn him to exclusion from the world
to come. At the same time, I would submit that the
three names which are most prominent in the list of
the Apostles, the three figures which would be most
likely to dwell in the memory as connected with
Jesus, are Peter, Judas Iscariot, and Paul. And
therefore, in spite of difficulties, I
am inclined to
hold that these three are denoted by Ahitophel,
Doeg, and Gehazi, in the passage we have been
considering.
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