The terms of the disputation demanded that the four rabbis defend the Talmud against Donin's accusations that it contained blasphemies against the Christian religion, attacks on Christians themselves, blasphemies against God, and obscene folklore. The attacks on Christianity were from passages referring to Jesus and Mary. There is a passage, for example, of someone named Jesus who was sent to hell to be boiled in excrement for eternity. The Jews denied that this is the Jesus of the New Testament, stating "not every Louis born in France is king." Among the obscene folklore is a story that Adam copulated with each of the animals before finding Eve. Noah, according to the Talmudic legends, was castrated by his son Ham. It was common for Christians to equate the religion of the Jews with the Mosaic faith of the Old Testament, so the Church was surprised to realize that the Jews had developed an authoritative Talmud to complement their understanding of the Bible. Twentieth-century Jewish scholar Hyam Maccoby alleges that the purpose of the Paris disputation was to rid the Jews of their "belief in the Talmud", in order that they might return to Old Testament Judaism and eventually embrace Christianity. He says that the hostility of the Church during this disputation had less to do with the Church's attitude and more to do with Nicholas Donin. Donin's argumentation exploited controversies that were debated within Judaism at the time, according to Maccoby. Maccoby also suggests that the disputation may have been motivated by Donin's previous affiliations with the Karaite Jews, and that his motivations for joining the Church involved his desire to attack rabbinic tradition. Outcome The Disputation set in place a train of events which culminated in a burning of a great number of Jewish holy texts, on June 17, 1242. "One estimate is that the 24 wagonloads included up to 10,000 volumes of Hebrew manuscripts, a startling number when one considers that the printing press did not yet exist, so that all copies of a work had to be written out by hand." The burning of the texts was apparently witnessed by the Maharam of Rothenburg, who wrote about the incident. Donin's translation of statements taken from the Talmud into French changed the Christian perception about Jews. Christians had viewed the Jews as the followers of the Old Testament who honored the Law of Moses and the prophets, but the