Tertullian Mocks Jewish ‘Slanders’
Tertullian wrote this passage late in the 2nd century, CE. In the context he is imagining himself, after Jesus’ triumphant return, mocking the now damned Jews for their perversions of of the truth about Jesus (from his point of view). Much of what he accuses the Jews of saying/doing is straight out of the canonical […]
Celsus on Jesus
Celsus lived in during the 2nd century, CE. Origen is refuting him in the 3rd century. Celsus’ writings no longer survive in tact, but we have access to some of his work when Origen quotes passages for the purpose of refutation. The following is one such passage. [AH]Origen, Contra Celsum 1.28Translation, quoted from Mead. Jesus had come from […]
Toledoth Yeshu
This is a derogatory version of the life of Jesus, growing out of the response of the Jewish community to Christianity. The tradition presented here is most commonly dated to approximately the 6th century CE. The text it self is closer to the 14th c. There is no scholarly consensus on to what extent the […]
Evidence of Innocence Sought in Vain
This is one of the (few early) passages that Goldstein judges to be a possibly authentic reference to Jesus. He identifies two difficulties: the details do not fit well with the gospel accounts, and Yeshu / Yeshua / Yeshoshua (all forms of the same name) was an extremely common name. In its favor, the fact […]
Yeshu and Joshua b. Perachiah
This story cannot be directly connected with any of the traditional events in the life of Jesus, and it is set about 100 years before Jesus presumably lived. Yeshu/Yeshua is not an uncommon name, and it may be that we simply have a story about a Jewish ‘bad boy’ whose name happens to be the […]
Tertullian Mocks Jewish ‘Slanders’
Tertullian wrote this passage late in the 2nd century, CE. In the context he is imagining himself, after Jesus’ triumphant return, mocking the now damned Jews for their perversions of the truth about Jesus (from his point of view). Much of what he accuses the Jews of saying/doing is straight out of the canonical gospels, […]
Celsus on Jesus
Celsus lived in during the 2nd century, CE. Origen is refuting him in the 3rd century. Celsus’ writings no longer survive intact, but we have access to some of his work when Origen quotes passages for the purpose of refutation. The following is one such passage. [AH]Origen, Contra Celsum 1.28Translation, quoted from Mead. Jesus had come from a […]
Josephus on Jesus
The so called Testimonium Flavianum. This is the only direct discussion of Jesus to be found in the writings of Josephus. Unfortunately, the text as we have it in extant copies of Josephus’ Antiquities appears to have been dramatically re-written from a Christian point of view. (The writings of Josephus were brought down to us from antiquity not […]