title: Jesus in the Talmud
author:  Peter Schfer 
description: <b>"Peter Schfer, Winner of the 2007 Distinguished Achievement Award from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation"</b><br /><br />"Schfer's fine new book should be of interest to a wide audience, and not only to specialists in the field of the historical interaction of Judaism and Christianity in late antiquity (who will be right to devour it). . . . Schfer's book tells a fascinating story. . . . His great scholarship now provides Jews and Christians interested in developing a new and better relationship with a way to work through many of the hateful things that we have said about each other in the past, but without pretending that this bad past was not as bad as it really was or that it can simply be forgotten. . . . The sources that Schfer adduces are virulent and dangerous, but his analysis of them leaves one unexpectedly full of hope."<b>---David Novak, <i>New Republic</i></b><br /><br />"In the talmudic references to Jesus . . . Schfer persuasively finds sophisticated 'counternarratives that parody the New Testament stories,' composed by Jews who evinced a precise knowledge of the New Testament. The true accomplishment of <i>Jesus in the Talmud</i> is to show how certain talmudic passages are actually subtle rereadings of the New Testament, 'a literary answer to a literary text.' With considerable skill, Schfer weaves these together until they can be seen to form an intricate theological discourse that prefigures the disputations between Jews and Christians in the Middle Ages."<b>---Benjamin Balint, <i>First Things</i></b><br /><br />"Meticulously researched and argued as well as clearly and accessibly written, this most intriguing--albeit radical--book is sure to spark interest, debate, and controversy. An essential purchase for academic religion collections and theological libraries." (<i>Library Journal</i>)<br /><br />"In [this] book Schfer has proven himself not only a formidable scholar of ancient and medieval Jewish texts . . . but also a talented author from whose hands the text flows like the water to which the rabbis likened the Torah."<b>---Galit Hasan-Rokem, <i>Jewish Quarterly Review</i></b><br /><br />"Peter Schafer's <i>Jesus in the Talmud</i> reviews well-trodden territory but derives new and important readings from this familiar evidence. Applying contemporary historiographical methods, Schafer offers a convincing explanation of the talmudic texts about Jesus."<b>---Ruth Langer, <i>Studies in Christian-Jewish Relations</i></b><br /><br />"Peter Schafer deserves great merit for having taken up a subject whose reexamination has been overdue for a long time already and that is of major interest to New Testament scholars, Talmudists, and historians of ancient Judaism alike...The great achievement of this book is that it reopens the discussion of texts that are of greatest significance for the study of the relationship of Judaism and Christianity in antiquity and the early Middle Ages. It presents the Jewish intellectual elite in a new light, as active respondents to Christian claims and allegations and forceful combatants in the Christian-Jewish dispute."<b>---Catherine Hezser, <i>Review of Biblical Literature</i></b><br /><br />"Schafer's excellent study shows that, by ridiculing fundamental Christian claims, Babylonian Jewry rejected any notion that the old covenant had been superseded by the new, Judaism had nothing for which to reproach itself: its superiority over Christianity was incontestable."<b>---Anthony Phillips, <i>Church Times</i></b><br /><br />"Peter Schfer...provides a sophisticated treatment of the subject of Jesus and other figures in the New Testament in Talmudic literature. This subject has a long history, but have never been undertaken with the kind of rigor and sensitivity to contextual factors, including the differences between the evidence available in the Babylonian versus Jerusalem versions...Clear and accessible reading for the non-specialist, this is a careful, scholarly treatment that sets the agenda for future studies" (<i>Jewish Book World</i>)<br /><br />"One of the greatest Hebrew scholars, Peter Schfer, published a book on a very controversial and difficult subject--Jesus in the Talmud. <i>Jesus in the Talmud</i> is a work of great value. Although the author declares that the book is not a scholarly treatise, but only a kind of extensive essay, the investigation is thorough and all its theses are excellently and fully argued."<b>---Maciej Tomal, <i>Palamedes</i></b>
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  Jesus in the Talmud
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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  Jesus in the Talmud
  
  
  Peter Schäfer
  
  
  Princeton University Press
  
  
  Princeton and Oxford
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Copyright © 2007 by Princeton University Press
  
  
  Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New
  Jersey 08540
  
  
  In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 3 Market Place, Woodstock,
  Oxfordshire OX20 1SY
  
  
  All Rights Reserved
  
  
  Schäfer, Peter, 1943–
  
  
  Jesus in the Talmud / Peter Schäfer.
  
  
  p. cm.
  
  
  Includes bibliographical references and index.
  
  
  eISBN: 978-1-40082-761-9
  
  
  1\. Jesus Christ—Jewish interpretations. 2. Talmud—Criticism, interpretation,
  etc.
  
  
  3\. Rabbinical literature—History and criticism. 4. Bible. N.T.—Controversial
  literature—History and criticism. I. Title.
  
  
  BM620.S27 2007
  
  
  296.1'206—dc22 2006050392
  
  
  British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available
  
  
  This book has been composed in Electra
  
  
  Printed on acid-free paper. ∞
  