In the Talmud, Jeschu is first stoned and then crucified. The object of

this double punishment being attributed to him is obvious. The Rabbis of

the Gemara period had begun—like the Jew of Celsus—to confuse Jesus son of

Mary with Jeschu the sorcerer. Their tradition told of a Jeschu who was

stoned; Christian tradition, of a Jesus who was crucified. They combined

the punishments and fused the persons into one. But this was done very

clumsily. It is possible that more than one Jehoshua has contributed to

form the story of Jeschu in the Talmud. For his mother Stada is said to

have been married to Paphos, son of Jehuda. Now Paphos Ben‐Jehuda is a

Rabbi whose name recurs several times in the Talmud as an associate of the

illustrious Rabbi Akiba, who lived after the destruction of Jerusalem, and

had his school at Bene‐Barah. To him the first composition of the Mischna

arrangements is ascribed. As a follower of the pseudo‐Messiah Barcochab,

in the war of Trajan and Hadrian, he sealed a life of enthusiasm with a

martyr’s death, A.D. 135, at the capture of Bether. When the Jews were

dispersed and forbidden to assemble, Akiba collected the Jews and

continued instructing them in the Law. Paphus remonstrated with him on the

risk. Akiba answered by a parable. “A fox once went to the river side, and

saw the fish flying in all directions. What do you fear? asked the fox.

The nets spread by the sons of men, answered the fish. Ah, my friends,

said the fox, come on shore by me, and so you will escape the nets that

drag the water.” A few days after, Akiba was in prison, and Paphus also.

Paphus said, “Blessed art thou, Rabbi Akiba, because thou art imprisoned

for the words of the Law, and woe is me who am imprisoned for matters of

no importance.”(93)

We naturally wonder how it is that Stada, the mother of Jeschu, who was

born about B.C. 120, should be represented as the wife of Paphus, son of

Jehuda, who died about A.D. 150, two centuries and a half later.

It is quite possible that this Paphus lost his wife, who eloped from him

with one Pandira, and became mother of a son named Jehoshua. The name of

Jehoshua or Jesus is common enough.

In Gittin, Paphus is again mentioned. “There is who finds a fly in his

cup, and he takes it out, and will not drink of it. And this is what did

Paphus Ben‐Jehuda, who kept the door shut upon his wife, and nevertheless

she ran away from him.”(94)

Mary, the plaiter of woman’s hair, occurs in Chajigah. “Rabbi Bibai, when

the angel of death at one time stood before him, said to his messenger,

Go, and bring hither Mary, the women’s hair‐dresser. And the young man

went,” &c.(95)

According to the Toledoth Jeschu, as we shall see presently, Mary’s

instructor is the Rabbi Simon Ben Schetach. She is visited and questioned

by the Rabbi Akiba. This visitation by Akiba is given in the Talmudic

tract, Calla,(96) and thence the author of the Toledoth Jeschu drew it.

“As once the Elders sat at the gate, there passed two boys before them.

One uncovered his head, the other did not. Then said the Rabbi Elieser,

The latter is certainly a Mamser; but the Rabbi Jehoshua(97) said, He is a

Ben‐hannidda. Akiba said, He is both a Mamser and a Ben‐hannidda. They

said to him, How canst thou oppose the opinion of thy companions? He

answered, I will prove what I have said. Then he went to the boy’s mother,

who was sitting in the market selling fruit, and said to her, My daughter,

if you will tell me the truth I will promise you eternal life. She said to

him, Swear to me. And he swore with his lips, but in his heart he did not

ratify the oath.” Then he learned what he desired to know, and came back

to his companions and told them all.(98)

We have here corroborative evidence that this Stada and her son Jeschu

lived at the time of Akiba and Paphus, that is, after the fall of

Jerusalem, in the earlier part of the second century.

I think that probably the story grew up thus:

A certain Jehoshua, in the reign of Alexander Jannaeus, went down into

Egypt, and there learnt magic. He returned to Judaea, where he practised

it, but was arrested at Lydda and executed by order of the Sanhedrim, by

being stoned to death.

But who was this Jehoshua? Tradition was silent. However, there was a

floating recollection of a Jehoshua born of one Stada, wife of Paphus, son

of Jehuda, the companion of Akiba. The two Jehoshuas were confounded

together. Thus stood the story when Origen wrote against Celsus in A.D.

176.

By A.D. 500 it had grown considerably. The Jew of Celsus had already fused

Jesus of Nazareth with the other two Jehoshuas. This led to the Rabbis of

the Gemara relating that Jehoshua was both stoned and crucified.

I do not say that this certainly is the origin of the story as it appears

in the Talmud, but it bears on the face of it strong likelihood that it

is. Jehoshua who went into Egypt could not have been stoned to death after

the destruction of Jerusalem and the revolt of Barcochab, for then the

Jews had not the power of life and death in their hands. The execution

must have taken place long before; yet the Rabbis whose names appear in

connection with the story—always excepting Jehoshua son of Perachia—all

belong to the second century after Christ.

The solution I propose is simple, and it explains what otherwise would be

inexplicable.

If it be a true solution, it proves that the Jews in A.D. 500, when the

Babylonian Gemara was completed, had no traditions whatever concerning

Jesus of Nazareth.

We shall see next how the confusion that originated in the Talmud grew

into the monstrous romance of the Toledoth Jeschu, the Jewish counter‐

Gospel of the Middle Ages.

V. The Counter‐Gospels.

In the thirteenth century it became known among the Christians that the

Jews were in possession of an anti‐evangel. It was kept secret, lest the

sight of it should excite tumults, spoliation and massacre. But of the

fact of its existence Christians were made aware by the account of

converts.

There are, in reality, two such anti‐evangels, each called Toldoth Jeschu,

not recensions of an earlier text, but independent collections of the

stories circulating among the Jews relative to the life of our Lord.

The name of Jesus, which in Hebrew is Joshua or Jehoshua (the Lord will

sanctify) is in both contracted into Jeschu by the rejection of an _Ain_,

ישו for ישוע.

The Rabbi Elias, in his Tischbi, under the word Jeschu, says, “Because the

Jews will not acknowledge him to be the Saviour, they do not call him

Jeschua, but reject the Ain and call him Jeschu.” And the Rabbi Abraham

Perizol, in his book Maggers Abraham, c. 59, says, “His name was Jeschua;

but as Rabbi Moses, the son of Majemoun of blessed memory, has written it,

and as we find it throughout the Talmud, it is written Jeschu. They have

carefully left out the _Ain_, because he was not able to save himself.”

The Talmud in the Tract. Sanhedrim(99) says, “It is not lawful to name the

name of a false God.” On this account the Jews, rejecting the mission of

our Saviour, refused to pronounce his name without mutilating it. By

omitting the _Ain_, the Cabbalists were able to give a significance to the

name. In its curtailed form it is composed of the letters Jod, Schin, Vau,

which are taken to stand for ימח שמו וזכרונו jimmach schemo vezichrono,

“His name and remembrance shall be extinguished.” This is the reason given

by the Toledoth Jeschu.

Who were the authors of the books called Toledoth Jeschu, the two counter‐

Gospels, is not known.

Justin Martyr, who died A.D. 163, speaks of the blasphemous writings of

the Jews about Jesus;(100) but that they contained traditions of the life

of the Saviour can hardly be believed in presence of the silence of

Josephus and Justus, and the ignorance of the Jew of Celsus. Origen says

in his answer, that “though innumerable lies and calumnies had been forged

against the venerable Jesus, none had dared to charge him with any

intemperance whatever.”(101) He speaks confidently, with full assurance.

If he had ever met with such a calumny, he would not have denied its

existence, he would have set himself to work to refute it. Had such

calumnious writings existed, Origen would have been sure to know of them.

We may therefore be quite satisfied that none such existed in his time,

the middle of the third century.

The Toledoth Jeschu comes before us with a flourish of trumpets from

Voltaire. “Le Toledos Jeschu,” says he, “est le plus ancien écrit Juif,

qui nous ait été transmis contre notre religion. C’est une vie de Jesus

Christ, toute contraire à nos Saints Evangiles: elle parait être du

premier siècle, et même écrite avant les evangiles.”(102) A fair specimen

of reckless judgment on a matter of importance, without having taken the

trouble to examine the grounds on which it was made! Luther knew more of

it than did Voltaire, and put it in a very different place:—

“The proud evil spirit carries on all sorts of mockery in this

book. First he mocks God, the Creator of heaven and earth, and His

Son Jesus Christ, as you may see for yourself, if you believe as a

Christian that Christ is the Son of God. Next he mocks us, all

Christendom, in that we believe in such a Son of God. Thirdly, he

mocks his own fellow Jews, telling them such disgraceful, foolish,

senseless affairs, as of brazen dogs and cabbage‐stalks and such

like, enough to make all dogs bark themselves to death, if they

could understand it, at such a pack of idiotic, blustering,

raging, nonsensical fools. Is not that a masterpiece of mockery

which can thus mock all three at once? The fourth mockery is this,

that whoever wrote it has made a fool of himself, as we, thank

God, may see any day.”

Luther knew the book, and, translated it, or rather condensed it, in his

“Schem Hamphoras.”(103)

There are two versions of the Toledoth Jeschu, differing widely from one

another. The first was published by Wagenseil, of Altdorf, in 1681. The

second by Huldrich at Leyden in 1705. Neither can boast of an antiquity

greater than, at the outside, the twelfth century. It is difficult to say

with certainty which is the earlier of the two. Probably both came into

use about the same time; the second certainly in Germany, for it speaks of

Worms in the German empire.

According to the first, Jeschu (Jesus) was born in the year of the world

4671 (B.C. 910), in the reign of Alexander Jannaeus (B.C. 106‐79)! He was

the son of Joseph Pandira and Mary, a widow’s daughter, the sister of

Jehoshua, who was affianced to Jochanan, disciple of Simeon Ben Schetah;

and Jeschu became the pupil of the Rabbi Elchanan. Mary is of the tribe of

Juda.

According to the second, Jeschu was born in the reign of Herod the

Proselyte, and was the son of Mary, daughter of Calpus, and sister of

Simeon, son of Calpus, by Joseph Pandira, who carried her off from her

husband, Papus, son of Jehuda. Jeschu was brought up by Joshua, son of

Perachia, in the days of the illustrious Rabbi Akiba! Mary is of the tribe

of Benjamin.

The anachronisms of both accounts are so gross as to prove that they were

drawn up at a very late date, and by Jews singularly ignorant of the

chronology of their history.

In the first, Mary is affianced to Jochanan, disciple of Simeon Ben

Schetah. Now Schimon or Simeon, son of Scheta, is a well‐known character.

He is said to have strangled eighty witches in one day, and to have been

the companion of Jehudu Ben Tabai. He flourished B.C. 70.

In the second life we hear of Mary being the sister of Simeon Ben Kalpus

(Chelptu). He also is a well‐known Rabbi, of whom many miracles are

related. He lived in the time of the Emperor Antoninus, before whom he

stood as a disciple, when an old man (circ. A.D. 160).

In this also the Rabbi Akiba is introduced. Akiba died A.D. 135. Also the

Rabbi Jehoshua Ben Levi. Now this Rabbi’s date can also be fixed with

tolerable accuracy. He was the teacher of the Rabbi Jochanan, who compiled

the Jerusalem Talmud. His date is A.D. 220.

We have thus, in the two lives of Jeschu, the following personages

introduced as contemporaries:

I. II.

Jeschu born (date given), B.C. Herod the Great, B.C. 70‐4.

910.

Alexander Jannaeus, B.C. R. Jehoshua Ben Perachia, _c._

106‐79. B.C. 90.

R. Simeon Ben Schetach, B.C. R. Akiba, A.D. 135.

70.

R. Papus Ben Jehuda, _c._ A.D.

140.

R. Jehoshua Ben Levi, _c._

A.D. 220.

The second Toledoth Jeschu closes with, “These are the words of Jochanan

Ben Zaccai;” but it is not clear whether it is intended that the book

should be included in “The words of Jochanan,” or whether the reference is

only to a brief sentence preceding this statement, “Therefore have they no

part or lot in Israel. The Lord bless his people Israel with peace.”

Jochanan Ben Zaccai was a priest and ruler of Israel for forty years, from

A.D. 30 or 33 to A.D. 70 or 73. He died at Jamnia, near Jerusalem (Jabne

of the Philistines), and was buried at Tiberias.

Nor are these anachronisms the only proofs of the ignorance of the

composers of the two anti‐evangels. In the first, on the death of King

Alexander Jannaeus, the government falls into the hands of his wife

Helena, who is represented as being “also called Oleina, and was the

mother of King Mumbasius, afterwards called Hyrcanus, who was killed by

his servant Herod.”

The wife of Alexander Jannaeus was Alexandra, not Helena; she reigned from

B.C. 79 to B.C. 71. She was the mother of Hyrcanus and Aristobulus; but

was quite distinct from Oleina, mother of Mumbasius, and Mumbasius was a

very different person from Hyrcanus. Oleina was a queen of Adiabene in

Assyria.

The first Life refers to the Talmud: “This is the same Mary who dressed

and curled women’s hair, mentioned several times in the Talmud.”

Both give absurd anecdotes to account for monks wearing shaven crowns;

both reasons are different.

In the first Life, the Christian festivals of the Ascension “forty days

after Jeschu was stoned,” that of Christmas, and the Circumcision “eight

days after,” are spoken of as institutions of the Christian Church.

In the VIIIth Book of the Apostolical Constitutions, the festivals of the

Nativity and the Ascension are spoken of,(104) consequently they must have

been kept holy from a very early age. But it was not so with the feast of

the Circumcision.

The 1st of January was a great day among the heathen. In the Homilies of

the Fathers down to the eighth century, the 1st of January is called the

“Feast of Satan and Hell,” and the faithful are cautioned against

observing it. All participation in the festivities of that day was

forbidden by the Council “in Trullo,” in A.D. 692, and again in the

Council of Rome, A.D. 744.

Pope Gelasius (A.D. 496) forbade all observance of the day, according to

Baronius(105), in the hope of rooting out every remembrance of the pagan

ceremonies which were connected with it. In ancient Sacramentaries is a

mass on this day, “de prohibendo ab idolis.” Nevertheless, traces of the

celebration of the Circumcision of Christ occur in the fourth century; for

Zeno, Bishop of Verona (d. A.D. 380), preached a sermon on it. In the

ancient Mozarabic Kalendar, in the Martyrology wrongly attributed to St.

Jerome, and in the Gelasian Sacramentary, the Circumcision is indicated on

January 1. But though noted in the Kalendars, the day was, for the reason

of its being observed as a heathen festival, not treated by the Church as

a festival till very late. Litanies and penitential offices were appointed

for it.

The notice in the Toledoth Jeschu, therefore, points to a time when the

feast was observed with outward demonstration of joy, and the sanction of

the Church accorded to other festivities.

The Toledoth Jeschu adopts the fable of the Sanhedrim and King having sent

out an account of the trial of Jesus to the synagogues throughout the

world to obtain from them an expression of opinion. The synagogue of Worms

remonstrated against the execution of Christ. “The people of Girmajesa

(Germany) and all the neighbouring country round Girmajesa which is now

called Wormajesa (Worms), and which lies in the realm of the Emperor, and

the little council in the town of Wormajesa, answered the King (Herod) and

said, Let Jesus go, and slay him not! Let him live till he falls and

perishes of his own accord.”

The synagogues of several cities in the Middle Ages did in fact, produce

apocryphal letters which they pretended had been written by their

forefathers remonstrating with the Jewish Sanhedrim at Jerusalem, and

requesting that Jesus might be spared. An epistle was produced by the Jews

of Ulm in A.D. 1348, another by the Jews of Ratisbon about the same date,

from the council at Jerusalem to their synagogues.(106) The Jews of Toledo

pretended to possess similar letters in the reign of Alfonso the Valiant,

A.D. 1072. These letters probably served to protect them from feeling the

full stress of persecution which oppressed the Jews elsewhere.

The most astonishing ignorance of Gospel accounts of Christ and the

apostles is observable in both anti‐evangels. Matthias and Matthew are the

same, so are John the Baptist and John the Apostle, whilst Thaddaeus is

said to be “also called Paul,” and Simon Peter is confounded with Simon

Magus.(107)

These are instances of the confusion of times and persons into which these

counter‐Gospels have fallen, and they are sufficient to establish their

late and worthless character.

The two anti‐Gospels are clearly not two editions of an earlier text. The

only common foundation on which both were constructed was the mention of

Jeschu, son of Panthera, in the Talmud. Add to this such distorted

versions of Gospel stories as circulated among the Jews in the Middle

Ages, and we have the constituents of both counter‐Gospels. Both exhibit a

profound ignorance of the sacred text, but a certain acquaintance with

prominent incidents in the narrative of the Evangelists, not derived

directly from the Gospels, but, as I believe, from miracle‐plays and

pictorial and sculptured representations such as would meet the eye of a

mediaeval Jew at every turn.

We have not to cast about far for a reason which shall account for the

production of these anti‐evangels.

The persecution to which the Jews were subjected in the Middle Ages from

the bigotry of the rabble or the cupidity of princes, fanned their dislike

for Christianity into a flame of intense mortal abhorrence of the Founder

of that religion whose votaries were their deadliest foes. The Toledoth

Jeschu is the utterance of this deep‐seated hatred,—the voice of an

oppressed people execrating him who had sprung from the holy race, and

whose blood was weighing on their heads.

And it is not improbable that the Gospel record of the patient, loving

life of Jesus may have exerted an influence on the young who ventured,

with the daring curiosity of youth, to explore those peaceful pages. What

answer had the Rabbis to make to those of their own religion who were

questioning and wavering? They had no counter‐record to oppose to the

Gospels, no tradition wherewith to contest the history written by the

Evangelists. The notices in the Talmud were scanty, incomplete. It was

open to dispute whether these notices really related to Christ Jesus.

Under such circumstances, a book which professed to give a true account of

Jesus was certain to be hailed and accepted without too close a scrutiny

as to its authenticity; much as in the twelfth century Joseph Ben Gorion’s

“Jewish War” was assumed to be authentic.

The Toledoth Jeschu or “Birth of Jesus” boldly identified the Jesus of the

Gospels with the Jeschu of the Talmud, and attempted to harmonize the

Rabbinic and the Christian stories.

There is a certain likeness between the two counter‐Gospels, but this

arises solely from each author being actuated by the same motives as the

other, and from both deriving from common sources,—the Talmud and Jewish

misrepresentations of Gospel events.

But if there be a likeness, there is sufficient dissimilarity to make it

evident that the two authors wrote independently, and had no common

written text to amplify and adorn.

VI. The First Toledoth Jeschu.

We will take first the WAGENSEIL edition of the TOLEDOTH JESCHU,(108) and

give an outline of the story, only suppressing the most offensive

particulars, and commenting on the narrative as we proceed. Wagenseil’s

Toledoth Jeschu begins as follows:

“In the year of the world 4671, in the days of King Jannaeus, a

great misfortune befel Israel. There arose at that time a scape‐

grace, a wastrel and worthless fellow, of the fallen race of

Judah, named Joseph Pandira. He was a well‐built man, strong and

handsome, but he spent his time in robbery and violence. His

dwelling was at Bethlehem, in Juda. And there lived near him a

widow with her daughter, whose name was Mirjam; and this is the

same Mirjam who dressed and curled women’s hair, who is mentioned

several times in the Talmud.”

It is remarkable that the author begins with the very phrase found in

Josephus. He calls the appearance of our Lord “a great misfortune which

befel Israel.” Josephus, after the passage which has been intruded into

his text relative to the miracles and death of Christ, says, “About this

time another great misfortune set the Jews in commotion;” from which it

appears as if Josephus regarded the preaching of Christ as a great

misfortune. That he made no such reference has been already shown.

The author also places the birth of Jesus, in accordance with the Talmud,

in the reign of Alexander Jannaeus, who reigned from B.C. 106 to B.C. 79.

He reckons from the creation of the world, and gives the year as 4671

(B.C. 910). This manner of reckoning was only introduced among the Jews in

the fourth century after Christ, and did not become common till the

twelfth century.

The Wagenseil Toledoth goes on to say that the widow engaged Mirjam to an

amiable, God‐fearing youth, named Jochanan (John), a disciple of the Rabbi

Simeon, son of Shetach (fl. B.C. 70); but he went away to Babylon, and she

became the mother of Jeschu by Joseph Pandira. The child was named Joshua,

after his uncle, and was given to the Rabbi Elchanan to be instructed in

the Law.

One day Jeschu, when a boy, passed before the Rabbi Simeon Ben Shetach and

other members of the Sanhedrim without uncovering his head and bowing his

knee. The elders were indignant. Three hundred trumpets were blown, and

Jeschu was excommunicated and cast out of the Temple. Then he went away to

Galilee, and spent there several years.

“Now at this time the unutterable Name of God was engraved in the

Temple on the corner‐stone. For when King David dug the

foundations, he found there a stone in the ground on which the

Name of God was engraved, and he took it and placed it in the Holy

of Holies.

“But as the wise men feared lest some inquisitive youth should

learn this Name, and be able thereby to destroy the world, which

God avert! they made, by magic, two brazen lions, which they set

before the entrance to the Holy of Holies, one on the right, the

other on the left.

“Now if any one were to go within, and learn the holy Name, then

the lions would begin to roar as he came out, so that, out of

alarm and bewilderment, he would lose his presence of mind and

forget the Name.

“And Jeschu left Upper Galilee, and came secretly to Jerusalem,

and went into the Temple and learned there the holy writing; and

after he had written the incommunicable Name on parchment, he

uttered it, with intent that he might feel no pain, and then he

cut into his flesh, and hid the parchment with its inscription

therein. Then he uttered the Name once more, and made so that his

flesh healed up again.

“And when he went out at the door, the lions roared, and he forgot

the Name. Therefore he hasted outside the town, cut into his

flesh, took the writing out, and when he had sufficiently studied

the signs he retained the Name in his memory.”

It is scarcely necessary here to point out the amazing ignorance of the

author of the Toledoth Jeschu in making David the builder of the Temple,

and in placing the images of lions at the entrance to the Holy of Holies.

The story is introduced because Jeschu, son of Stada, in the Talmud is

said to have made marks on his skin. But the author knew his Talmud very

imperfectly. The Babylonian Gemara says, “Did not the son of Stada mark

the magical arts on his skin, and bring them with him out of Egypt?” The

story in the Talmud which accounted for the power of Jeschu to work

miracles was quite different from that in the Toledoth Jeschu. In the

Talmud he has power by bringing out of Egypt, secretly cut on his skin,

the magic arts there privately taught; in the Toledoth he acquires his

power by learning the incommunicable Name and hiding it under his flesh.

However, the author says, “He could not have penetrated into the Holy of

Holies without the aid of magic; for how would the holy priests and

followers of Aaron have suffered him to enter there? This must certainly

have been done by the aid of magic.” But the author gives no account of

how Jeschu learned magic. That we ascertain from the Huldrich text, where

we are told that Jeschu spent many years in Egypt, the head‐quarters of

those who practised magic.

Having acquired this knowledge, Jeschu went into Galilee and proclaimed

himself to have been the creator of the world, and born of a virgin,

according to the prophecy of Isaiah (vii. 14). As a sign of the truth of

his mission, he said:

“Bring me here a dead man, and I will restore him to life. Then

all the people hasted and dug into a grave, but found nothing in

it but bones.

“Now when they told him that they had found only bones, he said,

Bring them hither to me.

“So when they had brought them, he placed the bones together, and

surrounded them with skin and flesh and muscles, so that the dead

man stood up alive on his feet.

“And when the people saw this, they wondered greatly; and he said,

Do ye marvel at this that I have done? Bring hither a leper, and I

will heal him.

“So when they had placed a leper before him, he gave him health in

like manner, by means of the incommunicable Name. And all the

people that saw this fell down before him, prayed to him and said,

Truly thou art the Son of God!

“But after five days the report of what had been done came to

Jerusalem, to the holy city, and all was related that Jeschu had

wrought in Galilee. Then all the people rejoiced greatly; but the

elders, the pious men, and the company of the wise men, wept

bitterly. And the great and the little Sanhedrim mourned, and at

length agreed that they would send a deputation to him.

“For they thought that, perhaps, with God’s help, they might

overpower him, and bring him to judgment, and condemn him to

death.

“Therefore they sent unto him Ananias and Achasias, the noblest

men of the little council; and when they had come to him, they

bowed themselves before him reverently, in order to deceive him as

to their purpose. And he, thinking that they believed in him,

received them with smiling countenance, and placed them in his

assembly of profligates.

“They said unto him, The most pious and illustrious among the

citizens of Jerusalem sent us unto thee, to hear if it shall

please thee to go to them; for they have heard say that thou art

the Son of God.

“Then answered Jeschu and said, They have heard aright. I will do

all that they desire, but only on condition that both the great

and lesser Sanhedrim and all who have despised my origin shall

come forth to meet me, and shall honour and receive me as servants

of their Lord, when I come to them.

“Thereupon the messengers returned to Jerusalem and related all

that they had heard.

“Then answered the elders and the righteous men, We will do all

that he desires. Therefore these men went again to Jeschu, and

told him that it should be even as he had said.

“And Jeschu said, I will go forthwith on my way! And it came to

pass, when he had come as far as Nob,(109) nigh unto Jerusalem,

that he said to his followers, Have ye here a good and comely ass?

“They answered him that there was one even at hand. Therefore he

said, Bring him hither to me.

“And a stately ass was brought unto him, and he sat upon it, and

rode into Jerusalem. And as Jeschu entered into the city, all the

people went forth to meet him. Then he cried, saying, Of me did

the prophet Zacharias testify, Behold thy King cometh unto thee,

righteous and a Saviour, poor, and riding on an ass, and a colt

the foal of an ass!

“Now when they heard this, all wept bitterly and rent their

clothes. And the most righteous hastened to the Queen. She was the

Queen Helena, wife of King Jannaeus, and she reigned after her

husband’s death. She was also called Oleina, and had a son, King

Mumbasus, otherwise called Hyrcanus, who was slain by his servant

Herod.(110)

“And they said to her, He stirreth up the people; therefore is he

guilty of the heaviest penalty. Give unto us full power, and we

will take him by subtlety.

“Then the Queen said, Call him hither before me, and I will hear

his accusation. But she thought to save him out of their hands

because he was related to her. But when the elders saw her

purpose, they said to her, Think not to do this, Lady and Queen!

and show him favour and good; for by his witchcraft he deceives

the people. And they related to her how he had obtained the

incommunicable Name....

“Then the Queen answered, In this will I consent unto you; bring

him hither that I may hear what he saith, and see with my eyes

what he doth; for the whole world speaks of the countless miracles

that he has wrought.

“And the wise men answered, This will we do as thou hast said. So

they sent and summoned Jeschu, and he came and stood before the

Queen.”

In the sight of Queen Helena, Jeschu then healed a leper and raised a dead

man to life.

“Then Jeschu said, Of me did Isaiah prophesy: The lame shall leap

as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing.

“So the Queen turned to the wise men and said, How say ye that

this man is a magician? Have I not seen with my eyes the wonders

he has wrought as being the Son of God?

“But the wise men answered and said, Let it not come into the

heart of the Queen to say so; for of a truth he is a wizard.

“Then the Queen said, Away with you, and bring no such accusations

again before me!

“Therefore the wise men went forth with sad hearts, and one turned

to another and said, Let us use subtlety, that we may get him into

our hands. And one said to another, If it seems right unto you,

let one of us learn the Name, as he did, and work miracles, and

perchance thus we shall secure him. And this counsel pleased the

elders, and they said, He who will learn the Name and secure the

Fatherless One shall receive a double reward in the future life.

“And thereupon one of the elders stood up, whose name was Judas,

and spake unto them, saying, Are ye agreed to take upon you the

blame of such an action, if I speak the incommunicable Name? for

if so, I will learn it, and it may happen that God in His mercy

may bring the Fatherless One into my power.

“Then all cried out with one voice, The guilt be on us; but do

thou make the effort and succeed.

“Thereupon he went into the Holiest Place, and did what Jeschu had

done. And after that he went through the city and raised a cry,

Where are those who have proclaimed abroad that the Fatherless is

the Son of God? Cannot I, who am mere flesh and blood, do all that

Jeschu has done?

“And when this came to the ears of the Queen, Judas was brought

before her, and all the elders assembled and followed him. Then

the Queen summoned Jeschu, and said to him, Show us what thou hast

done last. And he began to work miracles before all the people.

“Thereat Judas spake to the Queen and to all the people, saying,

Let nothing that has been wrought by the Fatherless make you

wonder, for were he to set his nest between the stars, yet would I

pluck him down from thence!

“Then said Judas, Moses our teacher said:

“If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy

daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as

thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve

other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers;

“Namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh

unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth

even unto the other end of the earth;

“Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither

shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt

thou conceal him:

“But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon

him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the

people.

“And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die; because he

hath sought to thrust thee away from the Lord thy God, which

brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.

“But the Fatherless One answered, Did not Isaias prophesy of me?

And my father David, did he not speak of me? The Lord said unto

me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Desire of me,

and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance and the

uttermost part of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt rule

them with a rod of iron, and break them in pieces like a potter’s

vessel. And in like manner he speaks in another place, The Lord

said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine

enemies my footstool! And now, behold! I will ascend to my

Heavenly Father, and will sit me down at His right hand. Ye shall

see it with your eyes, but thou, Judas, shalt not prevail!

“And when Jeschu had spoken the incommunicable Name, there came a

wind and raised him between heaven and earth. Thereupon Judas

spake the same Name, and the wind raised him also between heaven

and earth. And they flew, both of them, around in the regions of

the air; and all who saw it marvelled.

“Judas then spake again the Name, and seized Jeschu, and thought

to cast him to the earth. But Jeschu also spake the Name, and

sought to cast Judas down, and they strove one with the other.”

Finally Judas prevails, and casts Jeschu to the ground, and the elders

seize him, his power leaves him, and he is subjected to the tauntings of

his captors. Then sentence of death was spoken against him.

“But when Jeschu found his power gone, he cried and said, Of me

did my father David speak, For thy sake are we killed all the day

long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.

“Now when the disciples of Jeschu saw this, and all the multitude

of sinners who had followed him, they fought against the elders

and wise men of Jerusalem, and gave Jeschu opportunity to escape

out of the city.

“And he hasted to Jordan; and when he had washed therein his power

returned, and with the Name he again wrought his former miracles.

“Thereafter he went and took two millstones, and made them swim on

the water; and he seated himself thereon, and caught fishes to

feed the multitudes that followed him.”

Before going any further, it is advisable to make a few remarks on what

has been given of this curious story.

The Queen Helena is probably the mother of Constantine, who went to

Jerusalem in A.D. 326 to see the holy sites, and, according to an early

legend, discovered the three crosses on Calvary. There are several

incidents in the apocryphal story which bear a resemblance to the

incidents in the Toledoth Jeschu.

The Empress Helena favours the Christians against the Jews. Where three

crosses are found, a person suffering from “a grievous and incurable

disease” is applied to the crosses, and recovers on touching the true one.

Then the same experiment is tried with a dead body, with the same

success.(111) According to the Apocryphal Acts of St. Cyriacus, a Jew

named Judas was brought before the Empress, and ordered to point out where

the cross was buried. Judas resisted, but was starved in a well till he

revealed the secret. The resemblance between the stories consists in the

names of Helena and Judas, and the miracles of healing a leper, and

raising a dead man to life.

According to the Apocryphal Acts of St. Cyriacus, Judas was the grandson

of Zacharias, and nephew of St. Stephen the protomartyr.(112)

It is remarkable that Jeschu should be made to quote two passages in the

Psalms as prophecies of himself, both of which are used in this manner in

the New Testament: Ps. ii. 7, in Acts xiii. 33, and again Heb. i. 5, and

v. 5; and Ps. cx. 1, in St. Matthew xxii. 44, and the corresponding

passages in St. Mark and St. Luke; also in Acts ii. 34, in 1 Cor. xv. 25,

and Heb. i. 13.

The scene of the struggle in the air is taken from the contest of St.

Peter with Simon Magus, and reminds one of the contest in the Arabian

Nights between the Queen of Beauty and the Jin in the story of the Second

Calender.

The putting forth from land on a millstone on the occasion of the

miraculous draught of fishes is probably a perversion of the incident of

Jesus entering into the boat of Peter—the stone—before the miracle was

performed, according to St. Luke, v. 1‐8. In the Toledoth Jeschu there are

two millstones which our Lord sets afloat, and he mounts one, and then the

fishes are caught; in St. Luke’s Gospel there are two boats.

“He saw two ships standing by the lake.... And he entered into one

of the ships, which was Simon’s, and prayed him that he would

thrust out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the

people out of the ship. Now when he had left speaking, he said

unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a

draught.”

It was standing on the swimming‐stone, according to the Huldrich version,

that Jeschu preached to the people, and declared to them his divine

mission.

The story goes on. The Sanhedrim, fearing to allow Jeschu to remain at

liberty, send Judas after him to Jordan. Judas pronounces a great

incantation, which obliges the Angel of Sleep to seal the eyes of Jeschu

and his disciples. Then, whilst they sleep, he comes and cuts from the arm

of Jeschu a scrap of parchment on which the Name of Jehovah is written,

and which was concealed under the flesh. Jeschu awakes, and a spirit

appears to him and vexes him sore. Then he feels that his power is gone,

and he announces to his disciples that his hour is come when he must be

taken by his enemies.

The disciples, amongst whom is Judas, who unobserved, has mingled with

them, are sorely grieved; but Jeschu encourages them, and bids them

believe in him, and they will obtain thrones in heaven. Then he goes with

them to the Paschal Feast, in hopes of again being able to penetrate into

the Holy of Holies, and reading again the incommunicable Name, and of thus

recovering his power. But Judas forewarns the elders, and as Jeschu enters

the Temple he is attacked by armed men. The Jewish servants do not know

Jeschu from his disciples. Accordingly Judas flings himself down before

him, and thus indicates whom they are to take. Some of the disciples offer

resistance, but are speedily overcome, and take to flight to the

mountains, where they are caught and executed.

“But the elders of Jerusalem led Jeschu in chains into the city,

and bound him to a marble pillar, and scourged him, and said,

Where are now all the miracles thou hast wrought? And they plaited

a crown of thorns and set it on his head. Then the Fatherless was

in anguish through thirst, and he cried, saying, Give me water to

drink! So they gave him acid vinegar; and after he had drunk

thereof he cried, Of me did my father David prophesy, They gave me

gall to eat, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.(113)

But they answered, If thou wert God, why didst thou not know it

was vinegar before tasting of it? Now thou art at the brink of the

grave, and changest not. But Jeschu wept and said, My God, my God!

why hast thou forsaken me? And the elders said, If thou be God,

save thyself from our hands. But Jeschu answered, saying, My blood

is shed for the redemption of the world, for Isaiah prophesied of

me, He was wounded for our transgression and bruised for our

iniquities; our chastisement lies upon him that we may have peace,

and by his wounds we are healed.(114) Then they led Jeschu forth

before the greater and the lesser Sanhedrim, and he was sentenced

to be stoned, and then to be hung on a tree. And it was the eve of

the Passover and of the Sabbath. And they led him forth to the

place where the punishment of stoning was wont to be executed, and

they stoned him there till he was dead. And after that, the wise

men hung him on the tree; but no tree would bear him; each brake

and yielded. And when even was come the wise men said, We may not,

on account of the Fatherless, break the letter of the law (which

forbids that one who is hung should remain all night on the tree).

Though he may have set at naught the law, yet will not we.

Therefore they buried the Fatherless in the place where he was

stoned. And when, midnight was come, the disciples came and seated

themselves on the grave, and wept and lamented him. Now when Judas

saw this, he took the body away and buried it in his garden under

a brook. He diverted the water of the brook elsewhere; but when

the body was laid in its bed, he brought its waters back again

into their former channel.

“Now on the morrow, when the disciples had assembled and had

seated themselves weeping, Judas came to them and said, Why weep

you? Seek him who was buried. And they dug and sought, and found

him not, and all the company cried, He is not in the grave; he is

risen and ascended into heaven, for, when he was yet alive, he

said, He would raise him up, Selah!”

When the Queen heard that the elders had slain Jeschu and had buried him,

and that he was risen again, she ordered them within three days to produce

the body or forfeit their lives. In sore alarm, the elders seek the body,

but cannot find it. They therefore proclaim a fast.

“Now there was amongst them an elder whose name was Tanchuma; and

he went forth in sore distress, and wandered in the fields, and he

saw Judas sitting in his garden eating. Then Tanchuma drew near to

him, and said to him, What doest thou, Judas, that thou eatest

meat, when all the Jews fast and are in grievous distress?

“Then Judas was astonished, and asked the occasion of the fast.

And the Rabbi Tanchuma answered him, Jeschu the Fatherless is the

occasion, for he was hung up and buried on the spot where he was

stoned; but now is he taken away, and we know not where he is

gone. And his worthless disciples cry out that he is ascended into

heaven. Now the Queen has condemned us Israelites to death unless

we find him.

“Judas asked, And if the Fatherless One were found, would it be

the salvation of Israel? The Rabbi Tanchuma answered that it would

be even so.

“Then spake Judas, Come, and I will show you the man whom ye seek;

for it was I who took the Fatherless from his grave. For I feared

lest his disciples should steal him away, and I have hidden him in

my garden and led a water‐brook over the place.

“Then the Rabbi Tanchuma hasted to the elders of Israel, and told

them all. And they came together, and drew him forth, attached to

the tail of a horse, and brought him before the Queen, and said,

See! this is the man who, they say, has ascended into heaven!

“Now when the Queen saw this, she was filled with shame, and

answered not a word.

“Now it fell out, that in dragging the body to the place, the hair

was torn off the head; and this is the reason why monks shave

their heads. It is done in remembrance of what befel Jeschu.

“And after this, in consequence thereof, there grew to be strife

between the Nazarenes and the Jews, so that they parted asunder;

and when a Nazarene saw a Jew he slew him. And from day to day the

distress grew greater, during thirty years. And the Nazarenes

assembled in thousands and tens of thousands, and hindered the

Israelites from going up to the festivals at Jerusalem. And then

there was great distress, such as when the golden calf was set up,

so that they knew not what to do.

“And the belief of the opposition grew more and more, and spread

on all sides. Also twelve godless runagates separated and

traversed the twelve realms, and everywhere in the assemblies of

the people uttered false prophecies.

“Also many Israelites adhered to them, and these were men of high

renown, and they strengthened the faith in Jeschu. And because

they gave themselves out to be messengers of him who was hung, a

great number followed them from among the Israelites.

“Now when the wise men saw the desperate condition of affairs, one

said to another, Woe is unto us! for we have deserved it through

our sins. And they sat in great distress, and wept, and looked up

to heaven and prayed.

“And when they had ended their prayer, there rose up a very aged

man of the elders, by name Simon Cephas, who understood prophecy,

and he said to the others, Hearken to me, my brethren! and if ye

will consent unto my advice, I will separate these wicked ones

from the company of the Israelites, that they may have neither

part nor lot with Israel. But the sin do ye take upon you.

“Then answered they all and said, The sin be on us; declare unto

us thy counsel, and fulfil thy purpose.

“Therefore Simon, son of Cephas, went into the Holiest Place and

wrote the incommunicable Name, and cut into his flesh and hid the

parchment therein. And when he came forth out of the Temple he

took forth the writing, and when he had learned the Name he betook

himself to the chief city of the Nazarenes,(115) and he cried

there with a loud voice, Let all who believe in Jeschu come unto

me, for I am sent by him to you!

“Then there came to him multitudes as the sand on the sea‐shore,

and they said to him, Show us a sign that thou art sent! And he

said, What sign? They answered him, Even the signs that Jeschu

wrought when he was alive.”

Accordingly he heals a leper and restores a dead man to life. And when the

people saw this, they submitted to him, as one sent to them by Jeschu.

Then said Simon Cephas to them, Yea, verily, Jeschu did send me to

you, and now swear unto me that ye will obey me in all things that

I command you.

“And they swore to him, We will do all things that thou

commandest.

“Then Simon Cephas said, Ye know that he who hung on the tree was

an enemy to the Israelites and the Law, because of the prophecy of

Isaiah, Your new moons and festivals my soul hateth.(116) And that

he had no pleasure in the Israelites, according to the saying of

Hosea, Ye are not my people.(117) Now, although it is in his power

to blot them in the twinkling of an eye from off the face of the

earth, yet will he not root them out, but will keep them ever in

the midst of you as a witness to his stoning and hanging on the

tree. He endured these pains and the punishment of death, to

redeem your souls from hell. And now he warns and commands you to

do no harm to any Jew. Yea, even should a Jew say to a Nazarene,

Go with me a mile, he shall go with him twain; or should a

Nazarene be smitten by a Jew on one cheek, let him turn to him the

other also, that the Jews may enjoy in this world their good

things, for in the world to come they must suffer their punishment

in hell. If ye do these things, then shall ye merit to sit with

them (_i.e._ the apostles) on their thrones.(118)

“And this also doth he require of you, that ye do not celebrate

the Feast of Unleavened Bread, but that ye keep holy the day on

which he died. And in place of the Feast of Pentecost, that ye

keep the fortieth day after his stoning, on which he went up into

heaven. And in place of the Feast of Tabernacles, that ye keep the

day of his Nativity, and eight days after that ye shall celebrate

his Circumcision.”

The Christians promised to do as Cephas commanded them, but they desired

him to reside in the midst of them in their great city.

To this he consented. “I will dwell with you,” said he, “if ye will

promise to permit me to abstain from all food, and to eat only the bread

of poverty and drink the water of affliction. Ye must also build me a

tower in the midst of the city, wherein I may spend the rest of my days.”

This was done. The tower was built and called “Peter,” and in this Cephas

dwelt till his death six years after. “In truth, he served the God of our

fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and composed many beautiful hymns,

which he dispersed among the Jews, that they might serve as a perpetual

memorial of him; and he divided all his hymns among the Rabbis of Israel.”

On his death he was buried in the tower.

After his death, a man named Elias assumed the place of messenger of

Jeschu, and he declared that Simon Cephas had deceived the Christians, and

that he, Elias, was an apostle of Jeschu, rather than Cephas, and that the

Christians should follow him. The Christians asked for a sign.

Elias said “What sign do ye ask?” Then a stone fell from the tower Peter,

and smote him that he died. “Thus,” concludes this first version of the

Toledoth Jeschu, “may all Thine enemies perish, O Lord; but may those that

love Thee be as the sun when it shineth in its strength!”

Thus ends this wonderful composition, which carries its own condemnation

with it.

The two captures and sentences of Jeschu are apparently two forms of

Jewish legend concerning Christ’s death, which the anonymous writer has

clumsily combined.

The scene in Gethsemane is laid on the other side of Jordan. It is

manifestly imitated from the Gospels, but not directly, probably from some

mediaeval sculptured representation of the Agony in the Garden, common

outside every large church.(119) In place of an angel appearing to comfort

Christ, an evil spirit vexes him. The kiss of Judas is transformed into a

genuflexion or prostration before him, and takes place, not in the Garden

but in the Temple. The resistance of the disciples is mentioned. Jeschu is

bound to a marble pillar and scourged. Of this the Gospels say nothing;

but the pillar is an invariable feature in artistic representations of the

scourging. Two of the sayings on the Cross are correctly given. In

agreement with the account in the Talmud, Jeschu is stoned, and then, to

identify the son of Panthera with the son of Mary, is hung on a tree. The

tree breaks, and he falls to the ground. The visitor to Oberammergau

Passion Play will remember the scene of Judas hanging himself, and the

tree snapping. The Toledoth Jeschu does not say that Jeschu was crucified,

but that he was hung. The suicide of Judas was identified with the death

of Jesus. If the author of the anti‐evangel saw the scene of the breaking

bough in a miracle‐play, he would perhaps naturally transfer it to Christ.

The women seated late at night by the sepulchre, or coming early with

spices, a feature in miracle‐plays of the Passion, are transformed into

the disciples weeping above the grave. The angel who addresses them, in

the Toledoth Jeschu, becomes Judas.

In miracle‐plays, Claudia Procula, the wife of Pilate, assumes a

prominence she does not occupy in the Gospels; she may have originated the

idea in the mind of the author of Wagenseil’s Toledoth, of the Queen

Helena. That he confounded the Queen of King Jannaeus with the mother of

Constantine is not wonderful. The latter was the only historical princess

who showed sympathy with the Christians at Jerusalem, and of whose

existence the anonymous author was aware, probably through the popular

mediaeval romance of Helena, “La belle Helène.” He therefore fell without

a struggle into the gross anachronism of making the Empress Helena the

wife of Jannaeus, and contemporary with Christ.

In the Toledoth Jeschu of Wagenseil, Simon Peter is represented as a Jew

ruling the Christians in favour of the Jews. The Papacy must have been

fully organized when this anti‐evangel was written, and the Jews must have

felt the protection accorded them by the Popes against their persecutors.

St. Gregory the Great wrote letters, in 591 and 598, in behalf of the Jews

who were maltreated in Italy and Sicily. Alexander II., in 1068, wrote a

letter to the Bishops of Gaul exhorting them to protect the Jews against

the violence of the Crusaders, who massacred them on their way to the

East. He gave as his reason for their protection the very one put into

Simon Cephas’ mouth in the Toledoth Jeschu, that God had preserved them

and scattered them in all countries as witnesses to the truth of the

Gospel. In the cruel confiscation of their goods, and expulsion from

France by Philip Augustus, and the simultaneous persecution they underwent

in England, Innocent III. took their side, and insisted, in 1199, on their

being protected from violence. Gregory IX. defended them when maltreated

in Spain and in France by the Crusaders in 1236, on their appeal to him

for protection. In 1246, the Jews of Germany appealed to the Pope,

Innocent IV., against the ecclesiastical and secular princes who pillaged

them on false charges. Innocent wrote, in 1247, ordering those who had

wronged them to indemnify them for their losses.

In 1417, the Jews of Constance came to meet Martin V., as their protector,

on his coronation, with hymns and torches, and presented him with the

Pentateuch, which he had the discourtesy to refuse, saying that they might

have the Law, but they did not understand it.

The claim made in the Toledoth Jeschu that the Papacy was a government in

the interest of the Jews against the violence of the Christians, points to

the thirteenth century as the date of the composition of this book, a

century when the Jews suffered more from Christian brutality than at any

other period, when their exasperation against everything Christian was

wrought to its highest pitch, and when they found the Chair of Peter their

only protection against extermination by the disciples of Christ.

Some dim reference may be made to the anti‐pope of Jewish blood, Peter

Leonis, who took the name of Anacletus II., and who survives in modern

Jewish legend as the Pope Elchanan. Anacletus II. (A.D. 1130‐1138)

maintained his authority in Rome against Innocent II., and from his refuge

in the tower of St. Angelo, defied the Emperor Lothair, who had marched to

Rome to install Innocent. Anacletus was accused of showing favour to the

Jews, whose blood he inherited—his father was a Jewish usurer. When

Christians shrank from robbing the churches of their silver and golden

ornaments, required by Anacletus to pay his mercenaries and bribe the

venal Romans, he is said to have entrusted the odious task to the Jews.

Jewish legend has converted the Jewish anti‐pope into the son of the Rabbi

Simeon Ben Isaac, of Mainz, who died A.D. 1096. According to the story,

the child Elchanan was stolen from his father and mother by a Christian

nurse, was taken charge of by monks, grew up to be ordained priest, and

finally was elected Pope.

As a child he had been wont to play chess with his father, and had learned

from him a favourite move whereby to check‐mate his adversary.

The Jews of Germany suffered from oppression, and appointed the Rabbi

Simeon to bear their complaints to the Pope. The old Jew went to Rome and

was introduced to the presence of the Holy Father. Elchanan recognized him

at once, and sent forth all his attendants, then proposed a game of chess

with the Rabbi. When the Pope played the favourite move of the old Jew,

Simeon Ben Isaac sprang up, smote his brow, and cried out, “I thought none

knew this move save I and my long‐lost child.” “I am that child,” answered

the Pope, and he flung himself into the arms of the aged Jew.(120)

That the Wagenseil Toledoth Jeschu was written in the eleventh, twelfth or

thirteenth century appears probable from the fact stated, that it was in

these centuries that the Jews were more subjected to persecution,

spoliation and massacre than in any other; and the Toledoth Jeschu is the

cry of rage of a tortured people,—a curse hurled at the Founder of that

religion which oppressed them.

In the eleventh century the Jews in the great Rhine cities were massacred

by the ferocious hosts of Crusaders under Ernico, Count of Leiningen, and

the priests Folkmar and Goteschalk. At the voice of their leaders (A.D.

1096), the furious multitude of red‐crossed pilgrims spread through the

cities of the Rhine and the Moselle, massacring pitilessly all the Jews

that they met with in their passage. In their despair, a great number

preferred being their own destroyers to awaiting certain death at the

hands of their enemies. Several shut themselves up in their houses, and

perished amidst flames their own hands had kindled; some attached heavy

stones to their garments, and precipitated themselves and their treasures

into the Rhine or Moselle. Mothers stifled their children at the breast,

saying that they preferred sending them to the bosom of Abraham to seeing

them torn away to be nurtured in a religion which bred tigers.

Some of the ecclesiastics behaved with Christian humanity. The Bishops of

Worms and Spires ran some risk in saving as many as they could of this

defenceless people. The Archbishop of Treves, less generous, gave refuge

to such only as would consent to receive baptism, and coldly consigned the

rest to the knives and halters of the Christian fanatics. The Archbishop

of Mainz was more than suspected of participation in the plunder of his

Jewish subjects. The Emperor took on himself the protection and redress of

the wrongs endured by the Jews, and it was apparently at this time that

the Jews were formally taken under feudal protection by the Emperor. They

became his men, owing to him special allegiance, and with full right

therefore to his protection.

The Toledoth Jeschu of Wagenseil was composed by a German Jew; that is

apparent from its mention of the letter of the synagogue of Worms to the

Sanhedrim. Had it been written in the eleventh century, it would not have

represented the Pope as the refuge of the persecuted Jews, for it was the

Emperor who redressed their wrongs.

But it was in the thirteenth century that the Popes stood forth as the

special protectors of the Jews. On May 1, 1291, the Jewish bankers

throughout France were seized and imprisoned by order of Philip the Fair,

and forced to pay enormous mulcts. Some died under torture, most yielded,

and then fled the inhospitable realm. Five years after, in one day, all

the Jews in France were taken, their property confiscated to the Crown,

the race expelled the realm.

In 1320, the Jews of the South of France, notwithstanding persecution and

expulsion, were again in numbers and perilous prosperity. On them burst

the fury of the Pastoureaux. Five hundred took refuge in the royal castle

of Verdun on the Garonne. The royal officers refused to defend them. The

shepherds set fire to the lower stories of a lofty tower; the Jews slew

each other, having thrown their children to the mercy of their assailants.

Everywhere, even in the great cities, Auch, Toulouse, Castel Sarrazen, the

Jews were left to be remorselessly massacred and their property pillaged.

The Pope himself might have seen the smoke of the fires that consumed them

darkening the horizon from the walls of Avignon. But John XXII., cold,

arrogant, rapacious, stood by unmoved. He launched his excommunication,

not against the murderers of the inoffensive Jews, but against all who

presumed to take the Cross without warrant of the Holy See. Even that same

year he published violent bulls against the poor persecuted Hebrews, and

commanded the Bishops to destroy their Talmud, the source of their

detestable blasphemies; but he bade those who should submit to baptism to

be protected from pillage and massacre.

The Toledoth Jeschu, therefore, cannot have been written at the beginning

of the fourteenth century, when the Jews had such experience of the

indifference of a Pope to their wrongs. We are consequently forced to look

to the thirteenth century as its date. And the thirteenth century will

provide us with instances of persecution of the Jews in Germany, and Popes

exerting themselves to protect them.

In 1236, the Jews were the subject of an outburst of popular fury

throughout Europe, but especially in Spain, where a fearful carnage took

place. In France, the Crusaders of Guienne, Poitou, Anjou and Brittany

killed them, without sparing the women and children. Women with child were

ripped up. The unfortunate Jews were thrown down, and trodden under the

feet of horses. Their houses were ransacked, their books burned, their

treasures carried off. Those who refused baptism were tortured or killed.

The unhappy people sent to Rome, and implored the Pope to extend his

protection to them. Gregory IX. wrote at once to the Archbishop of

Bordeaux, the Bishops of Saintes, Angoulême and Poictiers, forbidding

constraint to be exercised on the Jews to force them to receive baptism;

and a letter to the King entreating him to exert his authority to repress

the fury of the Crusaders against the Jews.

In 1240, the Jews were expelled from Brittany by the Duke John, at the

request of the Bishops of Brittany.

In 1246, the persecution reached its height in Germany. Bishops and nobles

vied with each other in despoiling and harassing the unfortunate Hebrews.

They were charged with killing Christian children and devouring their

hearts at their Passover. Whenever a dead body was found, the Jews were

accused of the murder. Hosts were dabbled in blood, and thrown down at

their doors, and the ignorant mob rose against such profanation of the

sacred mysteries. They were stripped of their goods, thrown into prison,

starved, racked, condemned to the stake or to the gallows. From the German

towns miserable trains of yellow‐girdled and capped exiles issued, seeking

some more hospitable homes. If they left behind them their wealth, they

carried with them their industry.

A deputation of German Rabbis visited the Pope, Innocent IV., at Lyons,

and laid the complaints of the Jews before him. Innocent at once took up

their cause. He wrote to all the bishops of Germany, on July 5th, 1247,

ordering them to favour the Jews, and insist on the redress of the wrongs

to which they had been subjected, whether at the hands of ecclesiastics or

nobles. A similar letter was then forwarded by him to all the bishops of

France.

At this period it was in vain for the Jews to appeal to the Emperor.

Frederick II. was excommunicated, and Germany in revolt, fanned by the

Pope, against him. A new Emperor had been proposed at a meeting at Budweis

to the electors of Austria, Bohemia and Bavaria, but the proposition had

been rejected. Henry of Thuringia, however, set up by Innocent, and

supported by the ecclesiastical princes of Germany, had been crowned at

Hochem. A crusade was preached against the Emperor Frederick; Henry of

Thuringia was defeated and died. The indefatigable Innocent, clinging to

the cherished policy of the Papal See to ruin the unity of Germany by

stirring up intestine strife, found another candidate in William of

Holland. He was crowned at Aix‐la‐Chapelle, October 3, 1247. From this

time till his death, four years after, the cause of Frederick declined.

Frederick was mostly engaged in wars in Italy, and had not leisure, if he

had the power, to attend to and right the wrongs of his Jewish vassals.

It was at this period that I think we may conclude the Toledoth Jeschu of

Wagenseil was written.

Another consideration tends to confirm this view. The Wagenseil Toledoth

Jeschu speaks of Elias rising up after the death of Simon Cephas, and

denouncing him as having led the Christians away.

Was there any Elias at the close of the thirteenth century who did thus

preach against the Pope? There was. Elias of Cortona, second General of

the Franciscan Order, the leader of a strong reactionary party opposed to

the Spirituals or Caesarians, those who maintained the rule in all its

rigour, had been deposed, then carried back into the Generalship by a

recoil of the party wave, then appealed against to the Pope, deposed once

more, and finally excommunicated. Elias joined the Emperor Frederick, the

deadly foe of Innocent IV., and, sheltered under his wing, denounced the

venality, the avarice, the extortion of the Papacy. As a close attendant

on the German Emperor, his adviser, as one who encouraged him in his

opposition to a Pope who protected the Jews, the German Jews must have

heard of him. But the stone of excommunication firing at him struck him

down, and he died in 1253, making a death‐bed reconciliation with Rome.

But though it is thus possible to give an historical explanation of the

curious circumstance that the Toledoth Jeschu ranges the Pope among the

friends of Judaism and the enemies of Christianity, and provide for the

identification of Elias with the fallen General of the Minorites,—the

story points perhaps to a dim recollection of Simon Peter being at the

head of the Judaizing Church at Jerusalem and Rome, which made common

cause with the Jews, and of Paul, here designated Elias, in opposition to

him.

VII. The Second Toledoth Jeschu.

We will now analyze and give extracts from the second anti‐evangel of the

Jews, the TOLEDOTH JESCHU OF HULDRICH.(121)

It begins thus: “In the reign of King Herod the Proselyte, there lived a

man named Papus Ben Jehuda. To him was betrothed Mirjam, daughter of

Kalphus; and her brother’s name was Simeon. He was a Rabbi, the son of

Kalphus. This Mirjam, before her betrothal, was a hair‐dresser to

women.... She was surpassing beautiful in form. She was of the tribe of

Benjamin.”

On account of her extraordinary beauty, she was kept locked up in a house;

but she escaped through a window, and fled from Jerusalem to Bethlehem

with Joseph Pandira, of Nazareth.

As has been already said, Papus Ben Jehuda was a contemporary of Rabbi

Akiba, and died about A.D. 140. In the Wagenseil Toledoth Jeschu, Mirjam

is betrothed to a Jochanan. In the latter, Mary lives at Bethlehem; in the

Toledoth of Huldrich, she resides at Jerusalem.

Many years after, the place of the retreat of Mirjam and Joseph Pandira

having been made known to Herod, he sent to Bethlehem orders for their

arrest, and for the massacre of the children; but Joseph, who had been

forewarned by a kinsman in the court of Herod, fled in time with his wife

and children into Egypt.

After many years a famine broke out in Egypt, and Joseph and Mirjam, with

their son Jeschu and his brethren, returned to Canaan and settled at

Nazareth.

“And Jeschu grew up, and went to Jerusalem to acquire knowledge,

in the school of Joshua, the son of Perachia (B.C. 90); and he

made there great advance, so that he learned the mystery of the

chariot and the holy Name.(122)

“One day it fell out that Jeschu was playing ball with the sons of

the priests, near the chamber Gasith, on the hill of the Temple.

Then by accident the ball fell into the Fish‐valley. And Jeschu

was very grieved, and in his anger he plucked the hat from off his

head, and cast it on the ground and burst into lamentations.

Thereupon the boys warned him to put his hat on again, for it was

not comely to be with uncovered head. Jeschu answered, Verily,

Moses gave you not this law; it is but an addition of the lawyers,

and therefore need not be observed.

“Now there sat there, Rabbi Eliezer and Joshua Ben Levi (A.D.

220), and the Rabbi Akiba (A.D. 135) hard by, in the school, and

they heard the words that Jeschu had spoken.

“Then said the Rabbi Eliezer, That boy is certainly a Mamser. But

Rabbi Joshua, son of Levi, said, He is a Ben‐hannidda. And the

Rabbi Akiba said also, He is a Ben‐hannidda.(123) Therefore the

Rabbi Akiba went forth out of the school, and asked Jeschu in what

city he was born. Jeschu answered, I am of Nazareth; my father’s

name is Mezaria,(124) and my mother’s name is Karchat.

“Then the Rabbis Akiba, Eliezer and Joshua went into the school of

the Rabbi Joshua, son of Perachia, and seized Jeschu by the hair

and cut it off in a circle, and washed his head with the water

Boleth, so that the hair might not grow again.”

Ashamed at this humiliation, according to the Toledoth Jeschu of Huldrich,

the boy returned to Nazareth, where he wounded his mother’s breast.

Probably the author of this counter‐Gospel saw one of those common

artistic representations of the Mater Dolorosa with a sword piercing her

soul, and invented the story of Jesus wounding his mother’s breast to

account for it.

When Jeschu was grown up, there assembled about him many disciples, whose

names were Simon and Matthias, Elikus, Mardochai and Thoda, whose names

Jeschu changed.

“He called Simon Peter, after the word Petrus, which in Hebrew

signifies the First. And Matthias he called Matthew; and Elikus he

called Luke, because he sent him forth among the heathen; and

Mardochai he named Mark, because he said, Vain men come to me; and

Thoda he named Pahul (Paul), because he bore witness of him.

“Another worthless fellow also joined them, named Jochanan, and he

changed his name to Jahannus on account of the miracles Jeschu

wrought through him by means of the incommunicable Name. This

Jahannus advised that all the men who were together should have

their heads washed with the water Boleth, that the hair might not

grow on them, and all the world might know that they were

Nazarenes.

“But the affair was known to the elders and to the King. Then he

sent his messengers to take Jeschu and his disciples, and to bring

them to Jerusalem. But out of fear of the people, they gave timely

warning to Jeschu that the King sought to take and kill him and

his companions. Therefore they fled into the desert of Ai

(Capernaum?). And when the servants of the King came and found

them not, with the exception of Jahannus they took him and led him

before the King. And the King ordered that Jahannus should be

executed with the sword. The servants of the King therefore went

at his command and slew Jahannus, and hung up his head at the gate

of Jerusalem.(125)

“About this time Jeschu assembled the inhabitants of Jerusalem

about him, and wrought many miracles. He laid a millstone on the

sea, and sailed about on it, and cried, I am God, the Son of God,

born of my mother by the power of the Holy Ghost, and I sprang

from her virginal brow.

“And he wrought many miracles, so that all the inhabitants of Ai

believed in him, and his miracles he wrought by means of the

incommunicable Name.

“Then Jeschu ordered the law to be done away with, for it is said

in the Psalm, It is time for thee, Lord, to lay too thine hand,

for they have destroyed thy law. Now, said he, is the right time

come to tear up the law, for the thousandth generation has come

since David said, He hath promised to keep his word to a thousand

generations (Ps. cviii. 8).

“Therefore they arose and desecrated the Sabbath.

“When now the elders and wise men heard of what was done, they

came to the King and consulted him and his council. Then answered

Judas, son of Zachar,(126) I am the first of the King’s princes; I

will go myself and see if it be true what is said, that this man

blasphemeth.

“Therefore Judas went and put on other clothes like the men of Ai,

and spake to Jeschu and said, I also will learn your doctrine.

Then Jeschu had his head shaved in a ring and washed with the

water Boleth.

“After that they went into the wilderness, for they feared the

King lest he should take them if they tarried at Ai. And they lost

their way; and in the wilderness they lighted on a shepherd who

lay on the ground. Then Jeschu asked him the right way, and how

far it was to shelter. The shepherd answered, The way lies

straight before you; and he pointed it out with his foot.

“They went a little further, and they found a shepherd maiden, and

Jeschu asked her which way they must go. Then the maiden led them

to a stone which served as a sign‐post. And Peter said to Jeschu,

Bless this maiden who has led us hither! And he blessed her, and

wished for her that she might become the wife of the shepherd they

had met on the road.

“Then said Peter, Wherefore didst thou so bless the maiden? He

answered, The man is slow, but she is lively. If he were left

without her activity, it would fare ill with him. For I am a God

of mercy, and make marriages as is best for man.”

This is a German story. There are many such of Jesus and St. Peter to be

found in all collections of German household tales. They go together on a

journey, and various adventures befal them, and the Lord orders things

very differently from what Peter expects. To this follows another story,

familiar to English school‐boys. The apostles come with their Master to an

inn, and ask for food. The innkeeper has a goose, and it is decided that

he shall have the goose who dreams the best dream that night. When all are

asleep, Judas gets up, plucks, roasts and eats the goose. Next morning

they tell their dreams. Judas says, “Mine was the best of all, for I

dreamt that in the night I ate the goose; and, lo! the goose is gone this

morning. I think the dream must have been a reality.” Among English

school‐boys, the story is told of an Englishman, and Scotchman, and an

Irishman. The latter, of course, takes the place of Judas.

Some equally ridiculous stories follow, inserted for the purpose of making

our blessed Lord and his apostles contemptible, but not taken, like the

two just mentioned, from German folk‐lore.

“After that Judas went to Jerusalem, but Jeschu and Peter tarried

awaiting him (at Laish), for they trusted him. Now when Judas was

come to Jerusalem, he related to the King and the elders the words

and deeds of Jeschu, and how, through the power of the

incommunicable Name, he had wrought such wonders that the people

of Ai believed in him, and how that he had taken to wife the

daughter of Karkamus, chief ruler of Ai.

“Then the King and the elders asked counsel of Judas how they

might take Jeschu and his disciples. Judas answered, Persuade

Jagar Ben Purah, their host, to mix the water of forgetfulness

with their wine. We will come to Jerusalem for the Feast of

Tabernacles; and then do ye take him and his disciples. For Jager

Purah is the brother of the Gerathite Karkamus; but I will

persuade Jeschu that Jager Purah is the brother of Karkamus of Ai,

and he will believe my words, and they will all come up to the

Feast of Tabernacles. Now when they shall have drunk of that wine,

then will Jeschu forget the incommunicable Name, and so will be

unable to deliver himself out of your hands, so that ye can

capture him and hold him fast.

“Then answered the King and the elders, Thy counsel is good; go in

peace, and we will appoint a fast. Therefore Judas went his way on

the third of the month Tisri (October), and the great assembly in

Jerusalem fasted a great fast, and prayed God to deliver Jeschu

and his followers into their hands. And they undertook for

themselves and for their successors a fast to be hold annually on

the third of the month Tisri, for ever.

“When Judas had returned to Jeschu, he related to him, I have been

attentive to hear what is spoken in Jerusalem, and none so much as

wag their tongues against thee. Yea! when the King took Jahannus

to slay him, his disciples came in force and rescued him. And

Jahannus said to me, Go say to Jesus, our Lord, that he come with

his disciples, and we will protect him; and see! the host, Jager

Purah, is brother of Karkamus, ruler of Ai, and an uncle of thy

betrothed.

“Now when Jeschu heard the words of Judas, he believed them; for

the inhabitants of Jerusalem and their neighbours fasted

incessantly during the six days between the feast of the New Year

and the Day of Atonement,—yea, even on the Sabbath Day did some of

them fast. And when those men who were not in the secret asked

wherefore they fasted at this unusual time, when it was not

customary to fast save on the Day of Atonement, the elders

answered them, This is done because the King of the Gentiles has

sent and threatened us with war.

“But Jeschu and his disciples dressed themselves in the costume of

the men of Ai, that they might not be recognized in Jerusalem; and

in the fast, on the Day of Atonement, Jeschu came with his

disciples to Jerusalem, and entered into the house of Purah, and

said, Of me it is written, Who is this that cometh from Edom, with

dyed garments from Bozrah? I that speak in righteousness, mighty

to save. I have trodden the wine‐press alone, and of the people

there was none with me.(127) For now am I come from Edom to the

house of Purah, and of thee, Purah, was it written, Jegar

Sahadutha!(128) For thou shalt be to us a hill of witness and

assured protection. But I have come here to Jerusalem to abolish

the festivals and the holy seasons and the appointed holy days.

And he that believeth in me shall have his portion in eternal

life. I will give forth a new law in Jerusalem, for of me was it

written, Out of Zion shall the law go forth, and the word of the

Lord from Jerusalem.(129) And their sins and unrighteousness will

I atone for with my blood. But after I am dead I will arise to

life again; for it is written, I kill and make alive; I bring down

to hell, and raise up therefrom again.(130)

“But Judas betook himself secretly to the King, and told him how

that Jeschu and his disciples were in the house of Purah.

Therefore the King sent young priests into the house of Purah, who

said unto Jeschu, We are ignorant men, and believe in thee and thy

word; but do this, we pray thee, work a miracle before our eyes.

“Then Jeschu wrought before them wonders by means of the

incommunicable Name.

“And on the great Day of Atonement he and his disciples ate and

drank, and fasted not; and they drank of the wine wherewith was

mingled the Water of Forgetfulness, and then betook themselves to

rest.

“And when midnight was now come, behold! servants of the King

surrounded the house, and to them Purah opened the door. And the

servants broke into the room where Jeschu and his disciples were,

and they cast them into chains.

“Then Jeschu directed his mind to the incommunicable Name; but he

could not recall it, for all had vanished from his recollection.

“And the servants of the King led Jeschu and his disciples to the

prison of the blasphemers. And in the morning they told the King

that Jeschu and his disciples were taken and cast into prison.

Then he ordered that they should be detained till the Feast of

Tabernacles.

“And on that feast all the people of the Lord came together to the

feast, as Moses had commanded them. Then the King ordered that

Jeschu’s disciples should be stoned outside the city; and all the

Israelites looked on, and heaped stones on the disciples. And all

Israel broke forth into hymns of praise to the God of Israel, that

these men of Belial had thus fallen into their hands.

“But Jeschu was kept still in prison, for the King would not slay

him till the men of Ai had seen that his words were naught, and

what sort of a prophet he was proved to be.

“Also he wrote letters throughout the land to the councils of the

synagogues to learn from them after what manner Jeschu should be

put to death, and summoning all to assemble at Jerusalem on the

next feast of the Passover to execute Jeschu, as it is written,

Whosoever blasphemeth the name of the Lord, he shall surely be put

to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him.(131)

“But the people of Girmajesa (Germany) and all that country round,

what is at this day called Wormajesa (Worms) in the land of the

Emperor, and the little council in the town of Wormajesa, answered

the King in this wise, Let Jesus go, and slay him not! Let him

live till he die and perish.

“But when the feast of the Passover drew nigh, it was heralded

through all the land of Judaea, that any one who had aught to say

in favour, and for the exculpation, of Jeschu, should declare it

before the King. But all the people with one consent declared that

Jeschu must die.(132)

“Therefore, on the eve of the Passover, Jeschu was brought out of

the prison, and they cried before him, So may all thine enemies

perish, O Lord! And they hanged him on a tree outside of

Jerusalem, as the King and elders of Jerusalem had commanded.

“And all Israel looked on and praised and glorified God.

“Now when even was come, Judas took down the body of Jeschu from

the tree and laid it in his garden in a conduit.

“But when the people of Ai heard that Jeschu had been hung, they

became enemies to Israel. And the people of Ai attacked the

Israelites, and slew of them two thousand men. And the Israelites

could not go to the feasts because of the men of Ai. Therefore the

King proclaimed war against Ai; but he could not overcome it, for

mightily grew the multitude of those who believed in Jeschu, even

under the eyes of the King in Jerusalem.

“And some of these went to Ai, and declared that on the third day

after Jeschu had been hung, fire had fallen from heaven, which had

surrounded Jeschu, and he had arisen alive, and gone up into

heaven.(133)

“And the people of Ai believed what was said, and swore to avenge

on the children of Israel the crime they had committed in hanging

Jeschu. Now when Judas saw that the people of Ai threatened great

things, he wrote a letter unto them, saying, There is no peace to

the ungodly, saith the Lord; therefore do the people take counsel

together, and the Gentiles imagine a vain thing. Come to Jerusalem

and see your false prophet! For, lo! he is dead and buried in a

conduit.

“Now when they heard this, the men of Ai went to Jerusalem and saw

Jeschu lying where had been said. But, nevertheless, when they

returned to Ai, they said that all Judas had written was false.

For, lo! said they, when we came to Jerusalem we found that all

believed in Jeschu, and had risen and had expelled the King out of

the city because he believed not; and many of the elders have they

slain. Then the men of Ai believed these words of the messengers,

and they proclaimed war against Israel.

“Now when the King and the elders saw that the men of Ai were

about to encamp against them, and that the numbers of these

worthless men grow—they were the brethren and kinsmen of

Jeschu—they took counsel what they should do in such sore straits

as they were in.

“And Judas said, Lo! Jeschu has an uncle Simon, son of Kalpus, who

is now alive, and he is an honourable old man. Give him the

incommunicable Name, and let him work wonders in Ai, and tell the

people that he does them in the name of Jesus. And they will

believe Simon, because he is the uncle of Jeschu. But Simon must

make them believe that Jeschu committed to him all power to teach

them not to ill‐treat the Israelites, and he has reserved them for

his own vengeance.

“This counsel pleased the King and the elders, and they went to

Simon and told him the matter.

“Then went Simon, when he had learned the Name, and drew nigh to

Ai, and he raised a cloud and thunder and lightning. And he seated

himself on the cloud, and as the thunder rolled he cried, Ye men

of Ai, gather yourselves together at the tower of Ai, and there

will I give you commandments from Jeschu.

“But when the people of Ai heard this voice, they were sore

afraid, and they assembled on all sides about the tower. And lo!

Simon was borne thither on the cloud; and he stepped upon the

tower. And the men of Ai fell on their faces before him.(134) Then

Simon said, I am Simon Ben Kalpus, uncle of Jeschu. Jeschu came

and sent me unto you to teach you his law, for Jesus is the Son of

God. And lo! I will give you the law of Jesus, which is a new

commandment.

“Then he wrought before them signs and wonders, and he said to the

people of Ai, Swear to me to obey all that I tell you. And they

swore to him. Then said Simon, Go to your own homes. And all the

people of Ai returned to their dwellings.

“Now Simon sat on the tower, and wrote the commandments even as

the King and elders had decided. And he changed the Alphabet, and

gave the letters new names, as secretly to protest that all he

taught written in those letters was lies. And this was the

Alphabet he wrote: A, Be, Ce, De, E, Ef, Cha, I, Ka, El, Em, En,

O, Pe, Ku, Er, Es, Te, U, Ix, Ejed, Zet.

“And this is the interpretation: My father is Esau, who was a

huntsman, and was weary; and lo! his sons believed in Jesus, who

lives, as God.

“And Simon composed for the deception of the people of Ai lying

books, and he called them ‘Avonkelajon’ (Evangelium), which, being

interpreted, is the End of Ungodliness. But they thought he said,

‘Eben gillajon,’ which means Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. He also

wrote books in the names of the disciples of Jeschu, and

especially in that of Johannes, and said that Jeschu had given him

these.

“But with special purpose he composed the Book of Johannes (the

Apocalypse), for the men of Ai thought it contained mysteries,

whereas it contained pure invention. For instance, he wrote in the

Book of Johannes that Johannes saw a beast with seven heads and

seven horns and seven crowns, and the name of the beast was

blasphemy, and the number of the beast 666. Now the seven heads

mean the seven letters which compose in Hebrew the words, ‘Jeschu

of Nazareth.’ And in like manner the number 666 is that which is

the sum of the letters composing this name. In like way did Simon

compose all the books to deceive the people, as the King and the

elders had bidden him.

“And on the sixth day of the third month Simon sat on the cloud,

and the people of Ai were gathered together before him to the

tower, and he gave them the book Avonkelajon, and said to them,

When ye have children born to you, ye must sprinkle them with

water, in token that Jeschu was washed with the water Boleth, and

ye must observe all the commandments that are written in the book

Avonkelajon. And ye must wage no war against the people of Israel,

for Jeschu has reserved them to avenge himself on them himself.

“Now when the people of Ai heard these words, they answered that

they would keep them. And Simon returned on his cloud to

Jerusalem. And all the people thought he had gone up in a cloud to

heaven to bring destruction on the Israelites.(135)

“Not long after this, King Herod died, and was succeeded by his

son in the kingdom of Israel. But when he had obtained the throne,

he heard that the people of Ai had made images in honour of Jesus

and Mary, and he wrote letters to Ai and ordered their

destruction; otherwise he would make war against them.

“Then the people of Ai sent asking help of the Emperor against the

King of Israel. But the Emperor would not assist them and war

against Israel. Therefore, when the people of Ai saw that there

was no help, they burned the images and bound themselves before

the sons of Israel.

“And about this time Mirjam, the mother of Jeschu, died. Then the

King ordered that she should be buried at the foot of the tree on

which Jeschu had hung; and there he also had the brothers and

sisters of Jeschu hung up. And they were hung, and a memorial

stone was set up on the spot.

“But the worthless men, their kinsmen, came and destroyed the

memorial stone, and set up another in its stead, on which they

wrote the words, ‘Lo! this is a ladder set upon the earth, whose

head reaches to heaven, and the angels of God ascend and descend

upon it, and the mother rejoices here in her children, Allelujah!’

“Now when the King heard this, he destroyed the memorial they had

erected, and killed a hundred of the kindred of Jeschu.

“Then went Simon, son of Kalpus, to the King and said, Suffer me,

and I will draw away these people from Jerusalem. And the King

said, Be it so; go, and the Lord be with thee! Therefore Simon

went secretly to these worthless men, and said to them, Let us go

together to Ai, and there shall ye see wonders which I will work.

And some went to Ai, but others seated themselves beside Simon on

his cloud, and left Jerusalem with him. And on the way Simon cast

down those who sat on the cloud with him upon the earth, so that

they died.(136)

“And when Simon returned to Jerusalem, he told the King what he

had done, and the King rejoiced greatly. And Simon left not the

court of the King till his death. And when he died, all the Jews

observed the day as a fast, and it was the 9th of the month Teboth

(January).

“But those who had gone to Ai at the word of Simon believed that

Simon and those with him had gone up together into heaven on the

cloud.

“And when men saw what Simon had taught the people of Ai in the

name of Jesus, they followed them also, and they took them the

daughters of Ai to wife, and sent letters into the furthest

islands with the book Avonkelajon, and undertook for themselves,

and for their descendants, to hold to all the words of the book

Avonkelajon.

“Therefore they abolished the Law, and chose the first day of the

week as the Sabbath, for that was the birthday of Jesus, and they

ordained many other customs and bad feasts. Therefore have they no

part and lot in Israel. They are accursed in this world, and

accursed in the world to come. But the Lord bless his people

Israel with peace.

“These are the words of the Rabbi Jochanan, son of Saccai, in

Jerusalem.”

That this second version of the “Life of Jeschu” is later than the first

one, I think there can be little doubt. It is more full of absurdities

than the first, it adopts German household tales, and exhibits an

ignorance of history even more astounding than in the first Life. The

preachers of the “Evangelium” marry wives, and there is a burning of

images of St. Mary and our Lord. These are _perhaps_ indications of its

having been composed after the Reformation.

Luther did not know anything of the Life published later by Huldrich. The

only Toledoth Jeschu he was acquainted with was that afterwards published

by Wagenseil.