Norm and Anomaly in the Jewish Life of Jesus (Toledot Yeshu)

The Toledoth Yeshu, the “Generation,” or “Life of Jesus,” have been described as an anti-Gospel, or a parody of the Gospel. This protean tradition, witnessed in more than hundred manuscripts and printed editions, offers a “counter-history” of the life of Jesus and the origins of Christianity. According to this mischievous narrative Jesus was an illegitimate child turned charlatan, and his disciples a bunch of violent and senseless rogues who continued to stir up trouble in Israel even following their leader’s shameful hanging. The Toledoth Yeshu is the story of an anomaly (Jesus and the birth of Christianity). It is also a story about confusion: marital confusion, social confusion, and religious confusion. As an exercise in “historical imagination,” the Toledoth Yeshu offers a narrative of religions compared, and a reflection on social and religious borders, on their instability and fragility, and ultimately on their necessity. The present paper will explore the normative dimension of the Toledoth Yeshu tradition: the way the “disorder of things” the narrative relates also conveys a powerful discourse on social and religious norms. We will also seek to map this tradition in the broader context of medieval Jewish discussions on Jesus (particularly Maimonides) as a “case” in the religious history of mankind, addressing issues of false prophecy, religious deviation, transgression, and heresy.

Ms. hebr. oct. 157 - Pirḳe moshe

Vorbesitzer: Abraham Merzbacher

Ms. hebr. oct. 82 - Sefer ha-mitsṿot

Vorbesitzer: Eljāqīm Carmoly; Abraham Merzbacher

Ms. hebr. fol. 15 - Mishne Torah

Vorbesitzer: Abraham Merzbacher

Constitutiones de luctu

Vorlage d. Digitalisats aus d. Besitz d. Theol. Hochschule St. Georgen

Commentarius critico-typicus de Tabernaculo Mosis, ad Exod. Cap. XXV.-XXX.

Vorlage d. Digitalisats aus d. Besitz d. Theol. Hochschule St. Georgen

Sefer ha-Mitsṿot

she-ḥiber ... Mosheh ben Maymon

Sefer more nevukhim

le-ha-Rav rabenu Mosheh ben Maimon ha-Sefaradi [[Elektronische Ressource]] : Bd. 1/3

Inc. hebr. 39 - Mishneh Torah

Vorbesitzer: Abraham Merzbacher;

Inc. hebr. 41 - Mishneh Torah : Lib. 1-3

Transliterationsvarianten: Mišne Tōrā. Mischne Tora.

Inc. hebr. 42 - Moreh nevukhim

Vorbesitzer: Abraham Berliner oder Abraham Merzbacher;

Inc. hebr. 40 - Mishneh Torah

Vorbesitzer: Wilhelm Carl von Rothschild;

(Doctor perplexorum) oder: theologisch-philosophische Erörterungen über die Übereinstimmung der mosaischen und rabbinischen Religionsquellen mit der Philosophie

von Rabbi Moses Maimonides. Aus dem Hebr. des Ebn Thybbon ins Dt. übers., und kommentiert von R. I. Fürstenthal

More nebochim : theologisch-philosophische Abhandlung zur Klärung der Ideen über mosaische und rabbinische Glaubensdogmen wie zur Eröterung ihrer Übereinstimmung mit der Philosophie

von Moses ben Maimon (Maimonides). Zum ersten Male mit Benutzung der französischen Übers. S. Munk's nach dem arabischen Urtexte in's Deutsche übers. mit erklärenden Noten