Yeshu

Yeshu (Hebrew: יֵשׁוּ Yēšū) is the name of possibly one individual or numerous separate individuals mentioned in rabbinic literature. The name is thought by some to refer to Jesus when used in the Talmud. The name Yeshu is also used in other sources before and after the completion of the Babylonian Talmud. It is also the modern Israeli spelling of Jesus. The identification of Jesus with any number of individuals named Yeshu has numerous problems, as most of the individuals with this name in Rabbinic texts are referenced as having lived in time periods far detached from, and non-overlapping with that of Jesus. For example, Yeshu the sorcerer is noted for being executed by the Hasmonean government which lost legal authority in 63 BC, Yeshu the student is described being among the Pharisees who returned to Israel from Egypt in 74 BC, and Yeshu ben Pandera/ben Stada's stepfather is noted as speaking with Rabbi Akiva shortly before the rabbi's execution, an event which occurred in c. 134 AD. During the Middle Ages, Ashkenazi Jewish authorities were forced by Catholic clergy to interpret these passages as being in relation to the Christian beliefs about Jesus of Nazareth. As historian David Berger observed, Whatever one thinks of the number of Jesuses in antiquity, no one can question the multiplicity of Jesuses in Medieval Jewish polemic. Many Jews with no interest at all in history were forced to confront a historical/biographical question that bedevils historians to this day. In 1240, Nicholas Donin, with the support of Pope Gregory IX, referred to Yeshu narratives to support his accusation that the Jewish community had attacked the virginity of Mary and the divinity of Jesus. In the Disputation of Paris, Yechiel of Paris conceded that one of the Yeshu stories in the Talmud referred to Jesus...