Friday, April 03, 2026

Jewish Responses to Jesus’ Crucifixion and Resurrection

DR. BARRY DOV WALFISH AND DR. RABBI ZEV FARBER: Behind the Mockery: Jewish Responses to Jesus’ Crucifixion and Resurrection (TheTorah.com).
The products of a period in which Judaism was considered to have been superseded by Christianity and Jews were treated as inferiors, the Talmud and Toledot Yeshu literature developed a biting, farcical retelling of Jesus’ story, which, at the same time, reveals the Jewish struggle to explain his massive impact on world religion. Yet, medieval rabbis also responded to Jesus’ death in a serious way, noting that ultimately, things turned out for the best: Jesus always planned to be crucified, and Jesus asked God to forgive everyone involved.
For more on Toledot Yeshu start here and follow the links. Arguably on linguistic grounds, the earliest (Aramaic) version was composed as early as the third or fourth century. For some discussion see, e.g., here.

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