Answers to Questions by Yair Davidiy
Does the Jewish religion consider Jesus a heretic?
Christianity along with Islam, says the Rabbinical authority, Maimonides, are fulfilling a positive role in so far as they are preparing mankind to eventually receive the Truth.
Nevertheless the person known as Jesus is censored for having mislead the world concerning the nature and task of the Messiah and for causing Jews to be persecuted (Maimonides, Laws of Kings, 11;4).
The person known as Jesus is spoken of, and usually referred to as "Yeshu," or "Yeshu ha-Notsri" i.e. Yeshu the Christian.
There are differences of opinion as to whether there were two such heretics or only one.
There are also other matters of uncertainty.
We have a few observations in the Talmud and related literature. It has been claimed that these are later insertions.
Jewish religious sources were the subject of attack by Christians. They were also subject to Censors in Spain, in Austria, Italy,
Russia, and probably elsewhere as well. In addition Jews would censor their own books in order to avoid misunderstandings by Christians.
As far as Jesus was concerned people would put things in, take things out, change things, etc.
For a discussion of these matters from an academic point of view and some sources see:
Yeshu. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeshu
For those who can read Hebrew see:
Binyamin Shlomoh Hamburger, "Mashichi HaSheker," Bnei Brak, 5776.
Here is a brief summary of what we consider to be the mainstream consensus:
Jesus is known as "Yeshu" which is a form of the name Yehoshua.
He may also be referred to as "Ben Stadia" and other names.
The mother of Yeshu was "Miriam Migdala the Hairdresser" (Talmud, Gittin 90;a Rashi). This woman was also known as "Stada," and so Yeshu is sometimes referred to as "Ben (son of) Stadia."
[This is apparently the lady known as "Mary Magdalene" in Christian sources.]
Miriam had an affair with a Gentile named Pantira or Pandera. Yeshu came from this union (Talmud Yerushalmi 14;4).
Yeshu became a disciple of the Sage Rabbi Yehoshua ben-Perachyah. After a misunderstanding they parted ways (Talmud, Sota 47;a).
Yeshu had five disciples, Matai, Nakai, Netser, Boni, Todah (Talmud Sanhedrin 43;b). Yeshu HaNotsri was hanged on the eve of Pesach because he incited Israel to worship idolatry (Talmud Sanhedrin 43;a).
By "hang" here it means execution by Stoning. Ben Stadia (i.e. Yeshu) was executed by Stoning (Talmud Yerushalmi, Yebamot 16;5). Stoning was the punishment for idolatry. "Stoning" means he was thrown backwards off a building. If after the fall he was still alive then very large rocks were dropped on his chest. Prior to the punishment his sense were to have been numbed by a special type of strong unadulterated wine. Towards evening the body would have been strung up on a wooden gibbet and then immediately taken down after sunset as commanded (Deuteronomy 22:22-23)
All those executed had their bodies “hung†after the execution.
The execution took place ca. 200 years before the destruction of the Second Temple (Nachmanides, Wars, 5) i.e. in ca. 130 BCE.
This was before the Roman Rule and in the reign of Alexander Yannai.
The early followers of Yeshu were Edomites and they are ones who brought their faith to Rome (Nachmandies, Safer HaGeulah 3;1).
Edomites were to be found not only in the Land of Edom to the southeast of Judah but also in the region of Tyre and elsewhere.
Descendants of Edom were also prominent among the Romans and Germans (Talmud, Megilla 6). The Edomites were descended from Esau (Esav) the twin brother of Jacob otherwise known as Israel (Genesis 25:25).
