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''Sefer Toledot Yeshu'' (ספר תולדות ישו, ''The Book of the Generations/History/Life of Jesus''), often abbreviated as ''Toledoth Jeschu'' is a medieval “anti-gospel”, a parody of the Christian gospel. It exists in a number of different versions, none of which are considered either canonical or normative within rabbinic literature,〔 〕 but which appear to have been widely circulated in Europe and the Middle East in the medieval period.〔 The stories claim that Jesus was an illegitimate child, and that he practiced magic and heresy, seduced women, and died a shameful death. But they also show a paradoxical respect for Jesus. As Joseph Dan notes in the ''Encyclopedia Judaica'', "The narrative in all versions treats Jesus as an exceptional person who from his youth demonstrated unusual wit and wisdom, but disrespect toward his elders and the sages of his age." 〔Dan, Joseph, "Toledot Yeshu" in ''Encyclopedia Judaica'', 2nd ed. (2007)〕 Robert Van Voorst calls the Toledot a record of popular polemic "run wild".〔 〕 The Toledot’s profane portrayal of the person Christians consider divine has provided material for antisemitic polemics.〔 〕 Both Jewish and Christian scholars in modern times have paid little attention to the Toledot.〔Van Voorst. p. 123〕 The opinion of Father Edward H. Flannery is representative: This scurrilous fable of the life of Jesus is a medieval work, probably written down in the tenth century. .... Though its contents enjoyed a certain currency in the oral traditions of the Jewish masses, it was almost totally ignored by official or scholarly Judaism. Anti-Semites have not failed to employ it as an illustration of the blasphemous character of the Synagogue."〔Flannery, Edward H., ''The Anguish of the Jews: Twenty-three centuries of Anti-Semitism'' (1965, NY, Macmillan) page 283 (footnote 30 to chapter 2).〕 This disregard has recently been lifting as the text becomes discussed as a possible window into the early history of polemic between Christians and Jews. ==Composition and dating== A recent study reports that more than 100 manuscripts of the Toledot exist, almost all of them late medieval (the oldest manuscript being from the 11th century).〔Ben Ezra, Daniel Stokl, ''An Ancient List of Christian Festivals in Toledot Yeshu'', Harvard Theological Review, vol. 102, nr. 4 (Oct. 2009) pages 483-484.〕 The earliest stratum of composition was probably in Aramaic. There are recensions extant in Hebrew, and later versions in Judeo-Persian and Arabic as well as Yiddish and Ladino (Judeo-Spanish). The date of composition cannot be ascertained with certainty and there are conflicting views as to what markers denote dates. For instance, the Toledot refers to Christian festivals and observances that only originated after the 4th century.〔Ben Ezra, Daniel Stokl, ''An Ancient List of Christian Festivals in Toledot Yeshu'', Harvard Theological Review, vol. 102, nr. 4 (Oct. 2009) p. 488; also, Leiman, Sid Z., ''The Scroll of Fasts: The Ninth of Tebeth'', Jewish Quarterly Review, vol. n.s. 74, nr. 2 (Oct. 1983) p.186-188, p.195. See also Van Voorst, ‘’op. cit.’’, p.122, 127.〕 However, in his ''Incredible Shrinking Son of Man'' Robert M. Price states that the Toledot Yeshu is "dependent on second-century Jewish-Christian gospel"〔Price, Robert (2003) ''Incredible Shrinking Son of Man'' pg 40〕 It is unlikely that one person is the author, since the narrative itself has a number of different versions, which differ in terms of the story details and the attitude towards the central characters. Even individual versions seems to come from a number of storytellers.〔 Some scholars assert that the source material is no earlier than the 6th century, and the compilation no earlier than the 9th century.〔Worth, Roland H., Jr., ''Alternative Lives of Jesus: Noncanonical accounts through the early middle ages'' (2003, NC, McFarland & Co.) pages 49-50; also, Dan, Joseph, "Toledot Yeshu" in ''Encyclopedia Judaica'' (2nd ed. 2007, Farmington Hills, Mich., Macmillin Reference USA) page 29; "The complete narrative, which could not have been written before the tenth century, used earlier sources ....".〕 Although the individual anecdotes that make up the Toledot Yeshu may all come from sources dating before the sixth century, there is no evidence that their gathering into a single narrative is that early.〔Klausner, Joseph, ''Jesus of Nazareth: His life, times, and teaching'' (orig. 1922, Engl. transl. 1925, London, George Allen & Unwin) pages 52-53 ("The present Hebrew ''Tol'doth Yeshu'', even in its earliest form, ... was not composed before the tenth century").〕 Some scholars, such as Jeffrey Rubenstein, favour a late composition date, posterior to the seventh century.〔Jeffrey L. Rubenstein, ''Stories of the Babylonian Talmud’’ (2010), p 272: "There is not one shred of evidence that Toledot Yeshu existed in written form in Babylonian in the seventh century, as Gero claims it did, nor that the Bavli knew it."〕 The earliest known mention is an oblique mention by Agobard, archbishop of Lyon, circa. 826, and then another mention by his successor, Amulo, circa 849.〔〔Agobard of Lyons, ''De Iudaicis Superstitionibus'', cited in Van Voorst, ''op. cit.''〕 〔Schonfield, Hugh J., ''According to the Hebrews'' (1937, London: Duckworth) pages 29-30.〕 However, since Agobard does not refer to the source by name it cannot be certain that this is the Toledot.〔See Klausner, Joseph, ''Jesus of Nazareth: His life, times, and teaching'' (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1925), page 53 note.〕 The source material for the Toledot can be said to derive from four sources: (1) Jewish rabbinic literature; (2) canonical Christian scriptures; (3) noncanonical Christian writings; (4) pagan anti-Christian writings of the Roman period. The largest source of input to the Toledot seems to be anecdotes gathered from various parts of the Talmud and Midrash.〔E.g., the Talmudic references in Division 1.A of Herford, R. Travers, ''Christianity in Talmud and Midrash'' (1903, London; reprinted 1966, NJ, Reference Book Publ'rs) pages 35-96 https://archive.org/details/christianityinta00herfuoft .〕 These appear to be popular adaptions of material aimed against two Christian doctrines, the virgin birth and the ascension.〔 Some of the Talmudic anecdotes are clearly fictitious or absurd, and some seem incompatible with each other or with known historical fact.〔Klausner, Joseph, ''Jesus of Nazareth: His life, times, and teaching'' (orig. 1922, Engl. transl. 1925, London, George Allen & Unwin) pages 26 & 51 ("the book contains no history worth the name"), as an example.〕 In some instances, the Talmudic source of the Toledot is very obscure or of doubtful authenticity, and may not originally have been relevant to Jesus.〔For example, the "nativity" account in chapter 1 of the Strassburg version of the Toledot is derived from ''Kallah'', a purported Talmudic tractate whose provenance is so uncertain that it did not appear in print until 1864. (See Herford, R. Travers, ''Christianity in Talmud and Midrash'' (London, 1903) pages 487-50; Strack, H.L., & Stemberger, G., ''Introduction to the Talmud and Midrash'' (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1991) page 250; Klausner, Joseph, ''Jesus of Nazareth: His life, times, and teaching'' (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1925) page 52.) Moreover, the anecdote in ''Kallah'' may not refer to Jesus at all (See Schonfield, Hugh J., ''According to the Hebrews'' (London: Duckworth, 1937) page 222; Herford, ''op.cit'', page 49; and Klausner, ''op.cit.'', page 31.〕 Significantly, the Toledot seems to know (though sometimes only superficially) of the miracles of the canonical Gospels, and does not deny their occurrence, but instead attributes them to Yeshu's use of Egyptian magic, or his misuse of the secret Divine Name - though not to diabolical influences. 〔Concurrences with the gospel accounts include the fact that Jesus's parents were named Joseph and Mary; that he was born in Bethlehem; that he was bold toward the Jewish elders; that he could perform miracles (here made out to be sorcery); that he claimed to be born of a virgin; that he claimed to be the Son of God; that he applied Isaiah 7:14 to himself; that he raised the dead; that he healed a leper; that Jews fell down and worshipped him; that he entered Jerusalem upon an ass; that he applied to himself Zacharias 9:9; that he charged the Jews with being stiff-necked people; that he applied to himself the 2nd and 110th Psalms; that he walked on water; that he was betrayed by Judas; that he was scourged, crowned with thorns, and given vinegar to drink; that he was put to death on the Passover and buried before the Sabbath began; and that his twelve apostles spread a story of his resurrection.〕 〔Trachtenberg, Joshua, ''The Devil and the Jews'' (1961, Philadelphia, Jewish Publ'n Society) page 230 (footnote 11 to chapter 4).〕 Some of the anecdotes recounted in the Toledot seem to have been drawn from non-canonical early Christian writings known as apocryphal gospels, datable to the 4th – 6th centuries CE.〔e.g.,the Strassburg version of Toledot tells the story that Yeshu, using magic, made clay birds come to life and fly. This closely resembles a story about the young Jesus found in the apocryphal “Infancy gospel of Thomas” and “Infancy gospel of pseudo-Matthew”. See Schonfield, Hugh J., ''According to the Hebrews'' (London: Duckworth, 1937), page 43; James, M.R., ''The Apocryphal New Testament'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1924), pages 49, 55, and 76; Mead, George R.S., ''Did Jesus Live 100 BC?'' (London: Theosophical Publ'g Society, 1903), pages 264-265. For other examples see Baring-Gould, Sabine, ''The Lost and Hostile Gospels: an essay on the Toledoth Jeschu, and the Petrine and Pauline Gospels of the first three centuries of which fragments remain'' (London, 1874), pages 103-104.〕 The attribution of Yeshu’s paternity to a soldier named Pandera or Pantera can be traced to the second-century Greek philosopher Celsus,〔Cited by Origen, ('' Contra Celsus'' 1.32 )〕 though Celsus himself may have picked up this detail from a Jewish source. Jews apparently polemicised actively against the new Christian religion, as can be inferred from the 2nd century Christian writer Justin Martyr's ''Dialogue with Trypho'', a fictional dialogue between a Christian and a Jew. In chapter 17 Justin claims that the Jews had sent out "chosen men" throughout the Roman Empire to polemicize against Christianity, calling it a "godless heresy".〔Justin Martyr, (Dialogue with Trypho ch. 17. )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Toledot Yeshu」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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