The Secret Legacy of Jesus by Jeffrey J. Bütz

Author:Jeffrey J. Bütz
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Religion/Secret Societies
ISBN: 9781594779213
Publisher: Inner Traditions / Bear & Company
Published: 2010-10-11T16:00:00+00:00

JEWISH CHRISTIANITY IN THE TALMUD

In addition to the knowledge we can gain of the Ebionites through these few and precious morsels from the Gospel of the Hebrews, we are again indebted to the Jewish rabbis for preserving in the Talmud some invaluable historical recollections of their disputes with the Ebionites. Let us begin with a passage that Hugh Schonfield calls, “of the utmost importance to Christian antiquities.”29 In this passage, Rabbi Eliezer, the brother-inlaw of Rabbi Gamaliel (whom we know from Acts had sympathy for the Nazarenes) is accused of heresy and taken to a Roman tribunal for judgment, where he is declared innocent. In reflecting on why he could possibly have been associated with heresy, Eliezer recalls that, “I was once walking in the upper-market of Sepphoris when I came across one of the disciples of Yesu han-nosri [Jesus the Nazarene], Jacob of Kephar Sikhnaya by name . . .”30 Rabbi Eliezer goes on to say that Jacob quoted to him a teaching of Jesus, the truth of which he found pleasing, and it is to this that he attributes having become infected with heresy. This Jacob of the village of Kephar Sikhnaya (more commonly known as Sikhnin) is mentioned in other places in the Talmud, and was apparently a well-known Jewish Christian of the first century, whom we will discuss further in a moment.

But first, there is another passage in the Talmud about Rabbi Eliezer’s contacts with Ebionites in Galilee. Eliezer’s wife goes to a certain “philosopher” for advice on a legal matter concerning her inheritance from her father. The philosopher tells her, “From the day you were exiled from your land the law of Moses is invalid and the law of the gospel has been substituted . . .” These words clearly indicate that this philosopher is a Christian, and he apparently refers to Jesus’s teaching in the Gospel of the Hebrews in advising this Jewish woman on the matter of inheritance. He quotes a passage from the Gospel of the Hebrews that we have already examined: “I have looked further to the end of the book, and in it is written, ‘I am not come to take away from the law of Moses, and I am not come to add to the law of Moses.’”31 So, here again, the unfortunate Rabbi Eliezer came into contact with the heresy of the Notsrim.

Another intriguing passage from the Talmud discusses the case of a nephew of Rabbi Ishmael, Rabbi Eleazar ben Dama, who is bitten by a serpent and seeks healing from the aforementioned Jacob of Sikhnin, who apparently also had the reputation of a healer (interesting, since according to the gospels and Acts, the Nazarenes continued the healing ministry of Jesus). Ben Dama’s uncle counsels him not to go, and while Ben Dama is attempting to show his uncle that seeking such healing is permitted in the Torah, he dies.32

Another example in the Talmud of the Nazarenes’ reputation for healing is the case of a grandson of Rabbi Joshua ben Levi, who gets something stuck in his throat.

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