Toledot Yeshu

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 (Yeshu) 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." 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.

Yeshu

Yeshu (ישו in the Hebrew alphabet) is the name of an individual or individuals mentioned in Rabbinic literature. Modern scholarship generally considers the name Yeshu in the Talmud to be a reference to Jesus in the Talmud. The name Yeshu is also used in other sources before and after the completion of the Babylonian Talmud.

According to the Babylonian Talmud (Sanhedrin 43a) the name is generally believed to be an acronym for י = Yimaḥ ש = Shĕmo ו = Wezikhro = meaning, May his name and memory be stricken out. The oldest works in which references to Yeshu occur are the Tosefta and the Talmud, although some scholars consider the references to Yeshu to be post-Talmudic additions.

During the Middle Ages, Ashkenazic Jewish authorities were forced to interpret these passages in relation to the Christian beliefs about Jesus of Nazareth. As historian David Berger observed,

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 of Nazareth, but that the other passages referred to other people. In 1372, John of Valladolid, with the support of the Archbishop of Toledo, made a similar accusation against the Jewish community; Moses ha-Kohen de Tordesillas argued that the Yeshu narratives referred to different people and could not have referred to Jesus of Nazareth.Asher ben Jehiel also asserted that the Yeshu of the Talmud is unrelated to the Christian Jesus.