On the one hand, Jesus is beneath contempt. On the other, he is dangerously powerful.
The joke, if that’s what it is, goes like this: “You’ll have to forgiveus Jews for being a little nervous. Two thousand years of Christianlove have worn down our nerves.” That says it all, doesn’t it? The scars of antisemitism and missionaryactivity, the pathos-drenched sense of humor, the contempt forChristianity — this is certainly how I regarded our local majorityreligion as I was growing up.
When I was a child, Christianity was likethe big, stupid bully: at once idiotic, and overwhelmingly powerful.Couldn’t they see how ridiculous their religion was? A virgin birth?Santa Claus? An Easter Bunny? A messiah who got killed, but actuallydied for our sins? And yet, these were the people running our country,telling us which days we get off from school and which we don’t, andplaying their insidious music every winter.[snip]
The image of Jesus that one gets from the Talmud is that of anillicit, sex-crazed black magician who uses trickery to lead Israelastray. In BT Sanhedrin 103a, Jesus is depicted as a poor disciple who“spoiled his food,” which Schafer speculates may be a euphemism forsexual misconduct: “to eat the dish” being a recognized Talmudiceuphemism known for the sex act itself. A later emendation adds that he“practiced magic and led Israel astray.” And the virgin birth isridiculed as a cover-up of Jesus’ true parentage: His mother was an“illicit woman” (another Talmudic locution), perhaps even a prostitute.
Strongstuff — no wonder they don’t teach it in Sunday school. Butfascinating, as well, as long as, of course, we don’t take it tooseriously (which, doubtless, some Jews do). The texts Schafer adduces —all of them relatively late, dating to the third- or fourth-centuryC.E., suggesting a conscious effort to fight the upstart sect — showthat the Talmudic rabbis did not reject Jesus for the noble reasonsthat Klinghoffer and his ilk suggest. At least according to thesetexts, they rejected him because they thought he was evil, or saw himas a threat.