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THE DEFENSE OF THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS

Brother John G. Gassaway


I will continue with the material on the Talmud and other first ten or so century writings that admit the historicity of Jesus of Nazareth. Included are passages that show that they recognized the historicity and how they unwittingly gave credence to His story. I have made every effort to show the source of this material as it is given here but included are the writings found in GREEN, WHO IS THIS JESUS Nashville: THOMAS NELSON, 1992; Jesus in the Mishnah and Talmud, Robert A. Morey; He Walked gmong Us, Quoted by McDowell and Wilson, and of course, the Holy Bible. Some of our best testimony comes from the Soncino edition but there were other writings paralleling the Soncino which further amplified the frantic effort of the Masorites and others who sought to remove or discredit the story of Jesus found in the Gospels. Although the evidence was edited out since 1631, copies of older Talmuds were retained in certain libraries of the world. While the Soncino edition of the Babylonian Talmud is a censored text, the editors usually give uncensored original readings in a footnote. Where the Soncino documents are used below, we have put the statements in the footnotes about Jesus back into the text where they originally belonged and have indicated this by placing in brackets [].

Refer to the previous article for the rest of the evidence, as I had to split this up at a less than natural point in interest of space.

I will repeat here with a biography of Jesus that is found below piecemeal throughout the writings in the Soncino Talmud and other documents such as the Toledoth Jesbu and others. Jesus was a son of a woman. [Galatians 4:4, But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law]. Jesus' hometown was Nazareth. [Luke 1:26, 2:4]. Jesus' mother, Mary, was Heli's daughter. [Luke 3] Jesus was born under unusual circumstances, leading some rabbis to address him as ben Pandira and "a bastard of an adulteress." [Matthew 1:18, 23; Luke 1:27; John 8]. Jesus had at least five disciples. [Common to the Gospels and the twelve] Jesus performed miracles, i.e. the Pharisees charged that He practiced "sorcery" or magic. [Matthew 9:34, 12:24; Mark 3:22] Jesus' name has healing power. [Luke 7:7, Mark 16:17] Jesus claimed to be God, the son of God, the son of man. [The general theme of the Gospels]. Jesus was near to the kingdom and near to kingship. [Spoken of by Jesus on numerous occasions, as the kingdom of heaven or kingdom of God, such as Mark 12:34]. Jesus was crucified on the eve of Passover. [John 19:31]. Jesus made himself alive by the name of God. [Assumed from the evidence] Jesus ascended and claimed that he would return again. [Mark 16:19, Luke 24:51, Acts 1:10, 11].

The claims of Jesus to be the Son of God and that He would raise from the dead is attested to by Rabbi Eliezar, writing about 160 AD. Here they turn Balaam's prophecy in Numbers 24 into a warning of a deceiver rather than the prophecy of a Messiah, an incredible twisting of scripture. Green cites the statements of Eliezar in the Talmud: "God saw that a man, son of a woman, was to come forward in the future, who would attempt to make himself God and lead the whole world astray. And if he says he is God he is a liar. And he will lead men astray, and say that he will depart and will return at the end of days." [GREEN, WHO IS THIS JESUS? Nashville: THOMAS NELSON, 1992], p.60 - cited in WE BELIEVE SERIES-BASICS OF CHRISTIANITY, JESUS KNOWING OUR SAVIOR, author Max Anders, Nashville: THOMAS NELSON, 1995, p. 136) And, "Rabbi Eliezer ha-Kappar said: 'God gave strength to his (Balaam's) voice so that it went from one end of the world to the other, because he looked forth and beheld the nations that bow down to the sun and moon and stars, and to wood and stone, and he looked forth and saw that there was a man, born of a woman, who should rise up and seek to make himself God, and to cause the whole world to go astray. Therefore God gave power to the voice of Balaam that all the peoples of the world might hear, and thus he spake. Give heed that ye go not astray after that man, for is written, God is not a man that he should lie.

And if he says that he is God, he is a liar; and he will deceive and say that he departed and cometh again at the end. He saith and he shall not perform. See what is written: And he took up his pararable and said, Alas, when God doeth this. Balaam said, Alas, who shall live - of what nation which heareth that man who hath made himself God." (Yalkut Shimeon, [S alonica] sec. 725 on wayissa mishalo [Num. 23. 7], according to Midrash Y'lamm' denue).

McDowell reports another rabbi, writing a hundred years after Eliezer, who states: "Rabbi Abahu said, If a man says 'I am God,' he lies; if he says, 'I am the Son of man' he shall rue it; I will go up to heaven," (to this applies Num. xxiii 19) he saith, but shall not perform it." (Jerusalem Talmud Taanith-65b) [See and compare John 20:17 and Mark 14:62, the very words that condemned Jesus in the "trial"].

McDowell finds the following admission of Jesus having disciples in the Talmud: "Our rabbis taught: 'Yesha had Five disciples - Mattai, Nakkai, Netzer, Buni, and Todah.'" (Sanhedrin 43a).

McDowell states, "The purpose for singling out only five of Jesus' disciples could be due to the fact that other rabbis in the Talmud such as Yohanan ben Zakkai and Akiba are also said to have had five disciples." (MoDowell & Wilson, p. 65). Josh McDowell continues from the Talmud:
"Our teachers have taught: When R. Eliezer [the Great] was arrested for Minuth they brought him to the tribunal for judgment. The Procurator said to him, 'Does an old man like you busy himself with such idle matters? He answered, 'trust him that judges me.' So the Procurator thought that he spoke of him, whereas he spoke of his heavenly father. The Procurator said to him, 'Since you trust in me you are dimissus, acquitted.' When he returned home his disciples came in to console him, but he would not accept their consolations. R. Akiba said to him, 'Suffer me to tell you one thing of what you have taught me.' He answered, '(Say on).' He said, 'Perhaps [a word of] minuth came upon you and pleased you and therefore you were arrested.' (Tosefta reads: 'Perhaps one of the Minim had said to thee a word of Minuth and it pleased thee?) He answered, 'Akiba, you have reminded me! Once I was walking along the upper market (Tosefta reads "street") of Sepphoris and found one [of the disciples of Jesus of Nazareth] and Jacob of Kefar Sekanya (Tosefta reads "Sakanin") was his name.' He said to me, 'So [Jesus ofNazareth] taught me (Tosefta replaces the name of Jesus with 'Yeshu ben Pantere'): For the hire of a harlot hath she gathered them, and unto the hire of a harlot shall they return; from the place of filth they come, and unto the place of filth they shall go.' And the saying pleased me, and because of this I was arrested for Minuth. And I transgressed against what is written in the Law: Keep thy way far from her - that is Minuth; and come not nigh the door of her house - that is the civil government.'" (McDowell & Wilson, pp. 67-68).

Minuth means "heresy." The titles Minuth and Minim were applied to Christians. Note also that "of the disciples of Jesus of Nazareth" is in brackets. All of the bracketed phrases in all of the above are quotes that were originally in the Talmud and Haggadah, meaning they WERE in the original tractate before 1631 after which every attempt was made to remove all evidence of Jesus in the Talmud. This was written "Yeshu ben Pantere" but of course we have already seen that the Talmud authors referred to Jesus by this name. The disbelieving Jews never quite learned how to deal with the reality of Jesus in their history. They tried to turn Him into various puns that only Jews were supposed to understand. Yet non-Jews found Jesus in them which forced the Talmud's authors eventually to remove any and all evidence of Him. Thankfully intact copies of the pre-1631 writings were kept at Oxford University. Morey quotes the following:

"Yohanan Ben Zakkai, a disciple of Rabbi Hillel (first century AD), in his book, Biography of Jesus the Nazarene, writes, 'The king and the Jewish rabbis had condemned Jesus to death because he blasphemed when he claimed that he was the Son of God ... and God.'

Then he added, 'When Christ was on his way to death the Jews shouted in front of him, May You destroy Your enemies, O Lord!" [(cited in Faris al-Qayrawani's Was Christ Really Crucified? p.49); Jesus in the Mishnah and Talmud, Robert A. Morey].

Compare the preceding statements on the deity of Christ and his ascension with the following NT passages: Mark 14:61-62; John 10:27-39, 14:1-3,16:28, 20:17; Acts 1:9-11,7:55-56.

That Jesus was a healer is stated in the following: "It happened with R. Elazar ben Damah whom a serpent bit, that Jacob, a man of Kefar Soma, came to heal him in the name of Yeshua ben Pantera (the name substituted for Jesus Christ); but R. Ishmael did not let him. He said, You are not permitted, Ben Damah.' He answered, 'I will bring you proof that he may heal me.' But he had no opportunity to bring proof, for he died. (Whereupon) R. Ishmael said, 'Happy art thou, Ben Damah, for you have gone in peace and you have not broken down the fence of the Sages; since everyone who breaks down the fence of the Sages, to him punishment will ultimately come, as it is in Scripture. Whoso breaketh through a fence, a serpent shall bite him.' [(Tosefta Hullin 2.22; Jerusalem Talmud, Shabbath 14d and Abodah Zarah 40d, 41a; Babylonian Talmud, Abodah Zarah 27b); Jesus in the Mishnah and Talmud, Robert A. Morey].

There is even an admission of sorts to the empty tomb and an attempt to discredit it by stating that Jesus was buried nearby in a common grave. Of course this flies in the face of the early actions of the Jewish leaders, and their not stopping the preaching by SHOWING the body! McDowell quotes from Faris al-Qayrawani:

"There is another Jewish hostile manuscript called Toledoth Jeshu. This manuscript does not refer to Jesus only, but it also relates to us a fictitious story about what happened to his body after His death. Its author claimed that Jesus' disciples plotted to steal Christ's body, but a certain gardener, whose name was Judas, discovered the conspiracy. He came secretly and removed the body from Joseph's tomb and relocated it in a newly-dug grave. When the disciples came to the original tomb and found it empty, they proclaimed that He had risen from the dead. Soon after, the Jewish leaders also approached Joseph's tomb and found it empty. The gardener then took them to the newly dug grave and showed them Jesus' body.

Though this tradition was not compiled before the fifth century A.D., it undoubtedly echoed an earferJewish tradition that was widespread among the Jewish circles after the resurrection of Christ (Matthew 28.11-15). This manuscript, despite its hostility to Christianity, is strong evidence for Christ's crucifixion, death and resurrection, because it is the testimony of an avenging foe." [(Faris al-Qayrawani, Was Christ Really Crucified? [Light of Life P.O. Box 13 A-9503 Villach • Austria, 1997], p. 48); He Walked Among Us, Quoted by McDowell and Wilson].

We can see that all of the above Talmudic records, some very clearly, and others obliquely, admit to the known facts about Jesus even though in a distorted way. In conclusion, I repeat from the beginning statement; the Talmud collectively refers to the following facts that are in the New Testament Gospels:

1. Jesus was a son of a woman. [Galatians 4:4, etc.].
2. Jesus' mother, Mary, was Heli's daughter. [Luke 3].
3. Jesus was born under unusual circumstances, leading some rabbis to address him as ben Pandira and "a bastard of an adulteress." [Matthew 1:18,23; Luke 1:27; John 8].
4. Jesus' hometown was Nazareth. [Luke 1:26, 2:4].
5. Jesus had at least five disciples. [Common to the Gospels and the twelve].
6. Jesus performed miracles, i.e. the Pharisees charged that He practiced "sorcery." [Matthew 9:34,12:24; Mark 3:22].
7. Jesus claimed to be God, the Son of God, the son of man. [The general theme of the Gospels].
8. Jesus' name has healing power. [Luke 7:7, Mark 16:17].
9. Jesus was near to the kingdom and near to kingship. [Spoken of by Jesus on numerous occasions, as the kingdom of heaven or kingdom of God, such as Mark 12:34].
10. Jesus was crucified on the eve of Passover. [John 19:31].
11. Jesus made himself alive by the name of God. [Assumed from the evidence].
12. Jesus ascended and claimed that he would return again. [Mark 16:19, Luke 24:51, Acts 1:10,11].

At this point, I ask you, was there a "historic" Jesus. We have more than adequate evidence to say, "Yes!" We also can state with assurance that the Gospels are even validated by an unbelieving world in what they state about the historic Jesus. The Jews who rejected Him attest to that in their own Talmud.

To be continued...PART SEVEN; THE HISTORIC JESUS OF THE GOSPELS; THE KNOWN FACTS; THE CLAIMS OF THE NAYSAYERS; THE DEFENSE AND CONCLUSIONS