V. The Counter-Gospels.

V. The Counter-Gospels.In the thirteenth century it became known among the Christians that the Jews were in possession of an anti-evangel. It was kept secret, lest the sight of it should excite tumults, spoliation and massacre. But of the fact of its existence Christians were made aware by the account of converts.There are, in reality, two such anti-evangels, each called Toldoth Jeschu, not recensions of an earlier text, but independent collections of the stories circulating among the Jews relative to the life of our Lord.The name of Jesus, which in Hebrew is Joshua or Jehoshua (the Lord will sanctify) is in both contracted into Jeschu by the rejection of anAin, ישו for ישוע.The Rabbi Elias, in his Tischbi, under the word Jeschu, says,“Because the Jews will not acknowledge him to be the Saviour, they do not call him Jeschua, but reject the Ain and call him Jeschu.”And the Rabbi Abraham Perizol, in his book Maggers Abraham, c. 59, says,“His name was Jeschua; but as Rabbi Moses, the son of Majemoun of blessed memory, has written it, and as we find it throughout the Talmud, it is written Jeschu. They have carefully left out theAin, because he was not able to save himself.”The Talmud in the Tract. Sanhedrim99says,“It is not lawful to name the name of a false God.”On this account the Jews, rejecting the mission of our Saviour,[pg 068]refused to pronounce his name without mutilating it. By omitting theAin, the Cabbalists were able to give a significance to the name. In its curtailed form it is composed of the letters Jod, Schin, Vau, which are taken to stand for ימח שמו וזכרונו jimmach schemo vezichrono,“His name and remembrance shall be extinguished.”This is the reason given by the Toledoth Jeschu.Who were the authors of the books called Toledoth Jeschu, the two counter-Gospels, is not known.Justin Martyr, who died A.D. 163, speaks of the blasphemous writings of the Jews about Jesus;100but that they contained traditions of the life of the Saviour can hardly be believed in presence of the silence of Josephus and Justus, and the ignorance of the Jew of Celsus. Origen says in his answer, that“though innumerable lies and calumnies had been forged against the venerable Jesus, none had dared to charge him with any intemperance whatever.”101He speaks confidently, with full assurance. If he had ever met with such a calumny, he would not have denied its existence, he would have set himself to work to refute it. Had such calumnious writings existed, Origen would have been sure to know of them. We may therefore be quite satisfied that none such existed in his time, the middle of the third century.The Toledoth Jeschu comes before us with a flourish of trumpets from Voltaire.“Le Toledos Jeschu,”says he,“est le plus ancien écrit Juif, qui nous ait été transmis contre notre religion. C'est une vie de Jesus Christ, toute contraire à nos Saints Evangiles: elle parait être du premier siècle, et même écrite avant les evangiles.”102[pg 069]A fair specimen of reckless judgment on a matter of importance, without having taken the trouble to examine the grounds on which it was made! Luther knew more of it than did Voltaire, and put it in a very different place:—“The proud evil spirit carries on all sorts of mockery in this book. First he mocks God, the Creator of heaven and earth, and His Son Jesus Christ, as you may see for yourself, if you believe as a Christian that Christ is the Son of God. Next he mocks us, all Christendom, in that we believe in such a Son of God. Thirdly, he mocks his own fellow Jews, telling them such disgraceful, foolish, senseless affairs, as of brazen dogs and cabbage-stalks and such like, enough to make all dogs bark themselves to death, if they could understand it, at such a pack of idiotic, blustering, raging, nonsensical fools. Is not that a masterpiece of mockery which can thus mock all three at once? The fourth mockery is this, that whoever wrote it has made a fool of himself, as we, thank God, may see any day.”Luther knew the book, and, translated it, or rather condensed it, in his“Schem Hamphoras.”103There are two versions of the Toledoth Jeschu, differing widely from one another. The first was published by Wagenseil, of Altdorf, in 1681. The second by Huldrich at Leyden in 1705. Neither can boast of an antiquity greater than, at the outside, the twelfth century. It is difficult to say with certainty which is the earlier of the two. Probably both came into use about the same time; the second certainly in Germany, for it speaks of Worms in the German empire.According to the first, Jeschu (Jesus) was born in the year of the world 4671 (B.C. 910), in the reign of Alexander[pg 070]Jannaeus (B.C. 106-79)! He was the son of Joseph Pandira and Mary, a widow's daughter, the sister of Jehoshua, who was affianced to Jochanan, disciple of Simeon Ben Schetah; and Jeschu became the pupil of the Rabbi Elchanan. Mary is of the tribe of Juda.According to the second, Jeschu was born in the reign of Herod the Proselyte, and was the son of Mary, daughter of Calpus, and sister of Simeon, son of Calpus, by Joseph Pandira, who carried her off from her husband, Papus, son of Jehuda. Jeschu was brought up by Joshua, son of Perachia, in the days of the illustrious Rabbi Akiba! Mary is of the tribe of Benjamin.The anachronisms of both accounts are so gross as to prove that they were drawn up at a very late date, and by Jews singularly ignorant of the chronology of their history.In the first, Mary is affianced to Jochanan, disciple of Simeon Ben Schetah. Now Schimon or Simeon, son of Scheta, is a well-known character. He is said to have strangled eighty witches in one day, and to have been the companion of Jehudu Ben Tabai. He flourished B.C. 70.In the second life we hear of Mary being the sister of Simeon Ben Kalpus (Chelptu). He also is a well-known Rabbi, of whom many miracles are related. He lived in the time of the Emperor Antoninus, before whom he stood as a disciple, when an old man (circ. A.D. 160).In this also the Rabbi Akiba is introduced. Akiba died A.D. 135. Also the Rabbi Jehoshua Ben Levi. Now this Rabbi's date can also be fixed with tolerable accuracy. He was the teacher of the Rabbi Jochanan, who compiled the Jerusalem Talmud. His date is A.D. 220.[pg 071]We have thus, in the two lives of Jeschu, the following personages introduced as contemporaries:I.II.Jeschu born (date given), B.C. 910.Herod the Great, B.C. 70-4.Alexander Jannaeus, B.C. 106-79.R. Jehoshua Ben Perachia,c.B.C. 90.R. Simeon Ben Schetach, B.C. 70.R. Akiba, A.D. 135.R. Papus Ben Jehuda,c.A.D. 140.R. Jehoshua Ben Levi,c.A.D. 220.The second Toledoth Jeschu closes with,“These are the words of Jochanan Ben Zaccai;”but it is not clear whether it is intended that the book should be included in“The words of Jochanan,”or whether the reference is only to a brief sentence preceding this statement,“Therefore have they no part or lot in Israel. The Lord bless his people Israel with peace.”Jochanan Ben Zaccai was a priest and ruler of Israel for forty years, from A.D. 30 or 33 to A.D. 70 or 73. He died at Jamnia, near Jerusalem (Jabne of the Philistines), and was buried at Tiberias.Nor are these anachronisms the only proofs of the ignorance of the composers of the two anti-evangels. In the first, on the death of King Alexander Jannaeus, the government falls into the hands of his wife Helena, who is represented as being“also called Oleina, and was the mother of King Mumbasius, afterwards called Hyrcanus, who was killed by his servant Herod.”The wife of Alexander Jannaeus was Alexandra, not Helena; she reigned from B.C. 79 to B.C. 71. She was the mother of Hyrcanus and Aristobulus; but was quite distinct from Oleina, mother of Mumbasius, and Mumbasius was a very different person from Hyrcanus. Oleina was a queen of Adiabene in Assyria.The first Life refers to the Talmud:“This is the same[pg 072]Mary who dressed and curled women's hair, mentioned several times in the Talmud.”Both give absurd anecdotes to account for monks wearing shaven crowns; both reasons are different.In the first Life, the Christian festivals of the Ascension“forty days after Jeschu was stoned,”that of Christmas, and the Circumcision“eight days after,”are spoken of as institutions of the Christian Church.In the VIIIth Book of the Apostolical Constitutions, the festivals of the Nativity and the Ascension are spoken of,104consequently they must have been kept holy from a very early age. But it was not so with the feast of the Circumcision.The 1st of January was a great day among the heathen. In the Homilies of the Fathers down to the eighth century, the 1st of January is called the“Feast of Satan and Hell,”and the faithful are cautioned against observing it. All participation in the festivities of that day was forbidden by the Council“in Trullo,”in A.D. 692, and again in the Council of Rome, A.D. 744.Pope Gelasius (A.D. 496) forbade all observance of the day, according to Baronius105, in the hope of rooting out every remembrance of the pagan ceremonies which were connected with it. In ancient Sacramentaries is a mass on this day,“de prohibendo ab idolis.”Nevertheless, traces of the celebration of the Circumcision of Christ occur in the fourth century; for Zeno, Bishop of Verona (d. A.D. 380), preached a sermon on it. In the ancient Mozarabic Kalendar, in the Martyrology wrongly attributed to St. Jerome, and in the Gelasian Sacramentary, the Circumcision is indicated on January 1. But though noted in the Kalendars, the day was, for the reason of its being observed as a heathen festival, not[pg 073]treated by the Church as a festival till very late. Litanies and penitential offices were appointed for it.The notice in the Toledoth Jeschu, therefore, points to a time when the feast was observed with outward demonstration of joy, and the sanction of the Church accorded to other festivities.The Toledoth Jeschu adopts the fable of the Sanhedrim and King having sent out an account of the trial of Jesus to the synagogues throughout the world to obtain from them an expression of opinion. The synagogue of Worms remonstrated against the execution of Christ.“The people of Girmajesa (Germany) and all the neighbouring country round Girmajesa which is now called Wormajesa (Worms), and which lies in the realm of the Emperor, and the little council in the town of Wormajesa, answered the King (Herod) and said, Let Jesus go, and slay him not! Let him live till he falls and perishes of his own accord.”The synagogues of several cities in the Middle Ages did in fact, produce apocryphal letters which they pretended had been written by their forefathers remonstrating with the Jewish Sanhedrim at Jerusalem, and requesting that Jesus might be spared. An epistle was produced by the Jews of Ulm in A.D. 1348, another by the Jews of Ratisbon about the same date, from the council at Jerusalem to their synagogues.106The Jews of Toledo pretended to possess similar letters in the reign of Alfonso the Valiant, A.D. 1072. These letters probably served to protect them from feeling the full stress of persecution which oppressed the Jews elsewhere.The most astonishing ignorance of Gospel accounts of Christ and the apostles is observable in both anti-evangels. Matthias and Matthew are the same, so are[pg 074]John the Baptist and John the Apostle, whilst Thaddaeus is said to be“also called Paul,”and Simon Peter is confounded with Simon Magus.107These are instances of the confusion of times and persons into which these counter-Gospels have fallen, and they are sufficient to establish their late and worthless character.The two anti-Gospels are clearly not two editions of an earlier text. The only common foundation on which both were constructed was the mention of Jeschu, son of Panthera, in the Talmud. Add to this such distorted versions of Gospel stories as circulated among the Jews in the Middle Ages, and we have the constituents of both counter-Gospels. Both exhibit a profound ignorance of the sacred text, but a certain acquaintance with prominent incidents in the narrative of the Evangelists, not derived directly from the Gospels, but, as I believe, from miracle-plays and pictorial and sculptured representations such as would meet the eye of a mediaeval Jew at every turn.We have not to cast about far for a reason which shall account for the production of these anti-evangels.The persecution to which the Jews were subjected in the Middle Ages from the bigotry of the rabble or the cupidity of princes, fanned their dislike for Christianity into a flame of intense mortal abhorrence of the Founder of that religion whose votaries were their deadliest foes. The Toledoth Jeschu is the utterance of this deep-seated hatred,—the voice of an oppressed people execrating him who had sprung from the holy race, and whose blood was weighing on their heads.And it is not improbable that the Gospel record of the patient, loving life of Jesus may have exerted an[pg 075]influence on the young who ventured, with the daring curiosity of youth, to explore those peaceful pages. What answer had the Rabbis to make to those of their own religion who were questioning and wavering? They had no counter-record to oppose to the Gospels, no tradition wherewith to contest the history written by the Evangelists. The notices in the Talmud were scanty, incomplete. It was open to dispute whether these notices really related to Christ Jesus.Under such circumstances, a book which professed to give a true account of Jesus was certain to be hailed and accepted without too close a scrutiny as to its authenticity; much as in the twelfth century Joseph Ben Gorion's“Jewish War”was assumed to be authentic.The Toledoth Jeschu or“Birth of Jesus”boldly identified the Jesus of the Gospels with the Jeschu of the Talmud, and attempted to harmonize the Rabbinic and the Christian stories.There is a certain likeness between the two counter-Gospels, but this arises solely from each author being actuated by the same motives as the other, and from both deriving from common sources,—the Talmud and Jewish misrepresentations of Gospel events.But if there be a likeness, there is sufficient dissimilarity to make it evident that the two authors wrote independently, and had no common written text to amplify and adorn.[pg 076]VI. The First Toledoth Jeschu.We will take first theWagenseiledition of theToledoth Jeschu,108and give an outline of the story, only suppressing the most offensive particulars, and commenting on the narrative as we proceed. Wagenseil's Toledoth Jeschu begins as follows:“In the year of the world 4671, in the days of King Jannaeus, a great misfortune befel Israel. There arose at that time a scape-grace, a wastrel and worthless fellow, of the fallen race of Judah, named Joseph Pandira. He was a well-built man, strong and handsome, but he spent his time in robbery and violence. His dwelling was at Bethlehem, in Juda. And there lived near him a widow with her daughter, whose name was Mirjam; and this is the same Mirjam who dressed and curled women's hair, who is mentioned several times in the Talmud.”It is remarkable that the author begins with the very phrase found in Josephus. He calls the appearance of our Lord“a great misfortune which befel Israel.”Josephus, after the passage which has been intruded into his text relative to the miracles and death of Christ, says,“About this time another great misfortune set the Jews in commotion;”from which it appears as if Josephus regarded the preaching of Christ as a great misfortune. That he made no such reference has been already shown.[pg 077]The author also places the birth of Jesus, in accordance with the Talmud, in the reign of Alexander Jannaeus, who reigned from B.C. 106 to B.C. 79. He reckons from the creation of the world, and gives the year as 4671 (B.C. 910). This manner of reckoning was only introduced among the Jews in the fourth century after Christ, and did not become common till the twelfth century.The Wagenseil Toledoth goes on to say that the widow engaged Mirjam to an amiable, God-fearing youth, named Jochanan (John), a disciple of the Rabbi Simeon, son of Shetach (fl. B.C. 70); but he went away to Babylon, and she became the mother of Jeschu by Joseph Pandira. The child was named Joshua, after his uncle, and was given to the Rabbi Elchanan to be instructed in the Law.One day Jeschu, when a boy, passed before the Rabbi Simeon Ben Shetach and other members of the Sanhedrim without uncovering his head and bowing his knee. The elders were indignant. Three hundred trumpets were blown, and Jeschu was excommunicated and cast out of the Temple. Then he went away to Galilee, and spent there several years.“Now at this time the unutterable Name of God was engraved in the Temple on the corner-stone. For when King David dug the foundations, he found there a stone in the ground on which the Name of God was engraved, and he took it and placed it in the Holy of Holies.“But as the wise men feared lest some inquisitive youth should learn this Name, and be able thereby to destroy the world, which God avert! they made, by magic, two brazen lions, which they set before the entrance to the Holy of Holies, one on the right, the other on the left.“Now if any one were to go within, and learn the holy Name, then the lions would begin to roar as he came out, so that, out of alarm and bewilderment, he would lose his presence of mind and forget the Name.[pg 078]“And Jeschu left Upper Galilee, and came secretly to Jerusalem, and went into the Temple and learned there the holy writing; and after he had written the incommunicable Name on parchment, he uttered it, with intent that he might feel no pain, and then he cut into his flesh, and hid the parchment with its inscription therein. Then he uttered the Name once more, and made so that his flesh healed up again.“And when he went out at the door, the lions roared, and he forgot the Name. Therefore he hasted outside the town, cut into his flesh, took the writing out, and when he had sufficiently studied the signs he retained the Name in his memory.”It is scarcely necessary here to point out the amazing ignorance of the author of the Toledoth Jeschu in making David the builder of the Temple, and in placing the images of lions at the entrance to the Holy of Holies. The story is introduced because Jeschu, son of Stada, in the Talmud is said to have made marks on his skin. But the author knew his Talmud very imperfectly. The Babylonian Gemara says,“Did not the son of Stada mark the magical arts on his skin, and bring them with him out of Egypt?”The story in the Talmud which accounted for the power of Jeschu to work miracles was quite different from that in the Toledoth Jeschu. In the Talmud he has power by bringing out of Egypt, secretly cut on his skin, the magic arts there privately taught; in the Toledoth he acquires his power by learning the incommunicable Name and hiding it under his flesh.However, the author says,“He could not have penetrated into the Holy of Holies without the aid of magic; for how would the holy priests and followers of Aaron have suffered him to enter there? This must certainly have been done by the aid of magic.”But the author gives no account of how Jeschu learned magic. That[pg 079]we ascertain from the Huldrich text, where we are told that Jeschu spent many years in Egypt, the head-quarters of those who practised magic.Having acquired this knowledge, Jeschu went into Galilee and proclaimed himself to have been the creator of the world, and born of a virgin, according to the prophecy of Isaiah (vii. 14). As a sign of the truth of his mission, he said:“Bring me here a dead man, and I will restore him to life. Then all the people hasted and dug into a grave, but found nothing in it but bones.“Now when they told him that they had found only bones, he said, Bring them hither to me.“So when they had brought them, he placed the bones together, and surrounded them with skin and flesh and muscles, so that the dead man stood up alive on his feet.“And when the people saw this, they wondered greatly; and he said, Do ye marvel at this that I have done? Bring hither a leper, and I will heal him.“So when they had placed a leper before him, he gave him health in like manner, by means of the incommunicable Name. And all the people that saw this fell down before him, prayed to him and said, Truly thou art the Son of God!“But after five days the report of what had been done came to Jerusalem, to the holy city, and all was related that Jeschu had wrought in Galilee. Then all the people rejoiced greatly; but the elders, the pious men, and the company of the wise men, wept bitterly. And the great and the little Sanhedrim mourned, and at length agreed that they would send a deputation to him.“For they thought that, perhaps, with God's help, they might overpower him, and bring him to judgment, and condemn him to death.“Therefore they sent unto him Ananias and Achasias, the noblest men of the little council; and when they had come to him, they bowed themselves before him reverently, in order to[pg 080]deceive him as to their purpose. And he, thinking that they believed in him, received them with smiling countenance, and placed them in his assembly of profligates.“They said unto him, The most pious and illustrious among the citizens of Jerusalem sent us unto thee, to hear if it shall please thee to go to them; for they have heard say that thou art the Son of God.“Then answered Jeschu and said, They have heard aright. I will do all that they desire, but only on condition that both the great and lesser Sanhedrim and all who have despised my origin shall come forth to meet me, and shall honour and receive me as servants of their Lord, when I come to them.“Thereupon the messengers returned to Jerusalem and related all that they had heard.“Then answered the elders and the righteous men, We will do all that he desires. Therefore these men went again to Jeschu, and told him that it should be even as he had said.“And Jeschu said, I will go forthwith on my way! And it came to pass, when he had come as far as Nob,109nigh unto Jerusalem, that he said to his followers, Have ye here a good and comely ass?“They answered him that there was one even at hand. Therefore he said, Bring him hither to me.“And a stately ass was brought unto him, and he sat upon it, and rode into Jerusalem. And as Jeschu entered into the city, all the people went forth to meet him. Then he cried, saying, Of me did the prophet Zacharias testify, Behold thy King cometh unto thee, righteous and a Saviour, poor, and riding on an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass!“Now when they heard this, all wept bitterly and rent their clothes. And the most righteous hastened to the Queen. She was the Queen Helena, wife of King Jannaeus, and she[pg 081]reigned after her husband's death. She was also called Oleina, and had a son, King Mumbasus, otherwise called Hyrcanus, who was slain by his servant Herod.110“And they said to her, He stirreth up the people; therefore is he guilty of the heaviest penalty. Give unto us full power, and we will take him by subtlety.“Then the Queen said, Call him hither before me, and I will hear his accusation. But she thought to save him out of their hands because he was related to her. But when the elders saw her purpose, they said to her, Think not to do this, Lady and Queen! and show him favour and good; for by his witchcraft he deceives the people. And they related to her how he had obtained the incommunicable Name....“Then the Queen answered, In this will I consent unto you; bring him hither that I may hear what he saith, and see with my eyes what he doth; for the whole world speaks of the countless miracles that he has wrought.“And the wise men answered, This will we do as thou hast said. So they sent and summoned Jeschu, and he came and stood before the Queen.”In the sight of Queen Helena, Jeschu then healed a leper and raised a dead man to life.“Then Jeschu said, Of me did Isaiah prophesy: The lame shall leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing.“So the Queen turned to the wise men and said, How say ye that this man is a magician? Have I not seen with my eyes the wonders he has wrought as being the Son of God?“But the wise men answered and said, Let it not come into the heart of the Queen to say so; for of a truth he is a wizard.“Then the Queen said, Away with you, and bring no such accusations again before me![pg 082]“Therefore the wise men went forth with sad hearts, and one turned to another and said, Let us use subtlety, that we may get him into our hands. And one said to another, If it seems right unto you, let one of us learn the Name, as he did, and work miracles, and perchance thus we shall secure him. And this counsel pleased the elders, and they said, He who will learn the Name and secure the Fatherless One shall receive a double reward in the future life.“And thereupon one of the elders stood up, whose name was Judas, and spake unto them, saying, Are ye agreed to take upon you the blame of such an action, if I speak the incommunicable Name? for if so, I will learn it, and it may happen that God in His mercy may bring the Fatherless One into my power.“Then all cried out with one voice, The guilt be on us; but do thou make the effort and succeed.“Thereupon he went into the Holiest Place, and did what Jeschu had done. And after that he went through the city and raised a cry, Where are those who have proclaimed abroad that the Fatherless is the Son of God? Cannot I, who am mere flesh and blood, do all that Jeschu has done?“And when this came to the ears of the Queen, Judas was brought before her, and all the elders assembled and followed him. Then the Queen summoned Jeschu, and said to him, Show us what thou hast done last. And he began to work miracles before all the people.“Thereat Judas spake to the Queen and to all the people, saying, Let nothing that has been wrought by the Fatherless make you wonder, for were he to set his nest between the stars, yet would I pluck him down from thence!“Then said Judas, Moses our teacher said:“If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers;“Namely, of the gods of the people which are round about[pg 083]you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth;“Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him:“But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people.“And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die; because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.“But the Fatherless One answered, Did not Isaias prophesy of me? And my father David, did he not speak of me? The Lord said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Desire of me, and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost part of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt rule them with a rod of iron, and break them in pieces like a potter's vessel. And in like manner he speaks in another place, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies my footstool! And now, behold! I will ascend to my Heavenly Father, and will sit me down at His right hand. Ye shall see it with your eyes, but thou, Judas, shalt not prevail!“And when Jeschu had spoken the incommunicable Name, there came a wind and raised him between heaven and earth. Thereupon Judas spake the same Name, and the wind raised him also between heaven and earth. And they flew, both of them, around in the regions of the air; and all who saw it marvelled.“Judas then spake again the Name, and seized Jeschu, and thought to cast him to the earth. But Jeschu also spake the Name, and sought to cast Judas down, and they strove one with the other.”Finally Judas prevails, and casts Jeschu to the ground, and the elders seize him, his power leaves him, and he[pg 084]is subjected to the tauntings of his captors. Then sentence of death was spoken against him.“But when Jeschu found his power gone, he cried and said, Of me did my father David speak, For thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.“Now when the disciples of Jeschu saw this, and all the multitude of sinners who had followed him, they fought against the elders and wise men of Jerusalem, and gave Jeschu opportunity to escape out of the city.“And he hasted to Jordan; and when he had washed therein his power returned, and with the Name he again wrought his former miracles.“Thereafter he went and took two millstones, and made them swim on the water; and he seated himself thereon, and caught fishes to feed the multitudes that followed him.”Before going any further, it is advisable to make a few remarks on what has been given of this curious story.The Queen Helena is probably the mother of Constantine, who went to Jerusalem in A.D. 326 to see the holy sites, and, according to an early legend, discovered the three crosses on Calvary. There are several incidents in the apocryphal story which bear a resemblance to the incidents in the Toledoth Jeschu.The Empress Helena favours the Christians against the Jews. Where three crosses are found, a person suffering from“a grievous and incurable disease”is applied to the crosses, and recovers on touching the true one. Then the same experiment is tried with a dead body, with the same success.111According to the Apocryphal Acts of St. Cyriacus, a Jew named Judas was brought before the Empress, and ordered to point out where the[pg 085]cross was buried. Judas resisted, but was starved in a well till he revealed the secret. The resemblance between the stories consists in the names of Helena and Judas, and the miracles of healing a leper, and raising a dead man to life.According to the Apocryphal Acts of St. Cyriacus, Judas was the grandson of Zacharias, and nephew of St. Stephen the protomartyr.112It is remarkable that Jeschu should be made to quote two passages in the Psalms as prophecies of himself, both of which are used in this manner in the New Testament: Ps. ii. 7, in Acts xiii. 33, and again Heb. i. 5, and v. 5; and Ps. cx. 1, in St. Matthew xxii. 44, and the corresponding passages in St. Mark and St. Luke; also in Acts ii. 34, in 1 Cor. xv. 25, and Heb. i. 13.The scene of the struggle in the air is taken from the contest of St. Peter with Simon Magus, and reminds one of the contest in the Arabian Nights between the Queen of Beauty and the Jin in the story of the Second Calender.The putting forth from land on a millstone on the occasion of the miraculous draught of fishes is probably a perversion of the incident of Jesus entering into the boat of Peter—the stone—before the miracle was performed, according to St. Luke, v. 1-8. In the Toledoth Jeschu there are two millstones which our Lord sets afloat, and he mounts one, and then the fishes are caught; in St. Luke's Gospel there are two boats.“He saw two ships standing by the lake.... And he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon's, and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people out of the ship. Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught.”[pg 086]It was standing on the swimming-stone, according to the Huldrich version, that Jeschu preached to the people, and declared to them his divine mission.The story goes on. The Sanhedrim, fearing to allow Jeschu to remain at liberty, send Judas after him to Jordan. Judas pronounces a great incantation, which obliges the Angel of Sleep to seal the eyes of Jeschu and his disciples. Then, whilst they sleep, he comes and cuts from the arm of Jeschu a scrap of parchment on which the Name of Jehovah is written, and which was concealed under the flesh. Jeschu awakes, and a spirit appears to him and vexes him sore. Then he feels that his power is gone, and he announces to his disciples that his hour is come when he must be taken by his enemies.The disciples, amongst whom is Judas, who unobserved, has mingled with them, are sorely grieved; but Jeschu encourages them, and bids them believe in him, and they will obtain thrones in heaven. Then he goes with them to the Paschal Feast, in hopes of again being able to penetrate into the Holy of Holies, and reading again the incommunicable Name, and of thus recovering his power. But Judas forewarns the elders, and as Jeschu enters the Temple he is attacked by armed men. The Jewish servants do not know Jeschu from his disciples. Accordingly Judas flings himself down before him, and thus indicates whom they are to take. Some of the disciples offer resistance, but are speedily overcome, and take to flight to the mountains, where they are caught and executed.“But the elders of Jerusalem led Jeschu in chains into the city, and bound him to a marble pillar, and scourged him, and said, Where are now all the miracles thou hast wrought? And they plaited a crown of thorns and set it on his head. Then the Fatherless was in anguish through thirst, and he[pg 087]cried, saying, Give me water to drink! So they gave him acid vinegar; and after he had drunk thereof he cried, Of me did my father David prophesy, They gave me gall to eat, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.113But they answered, If thou wert God, why didst thou not know it was vinegar before tasting of it? Now thou art at the brink of the grave, and changest not. But Jeschu wept and said, My God, my God! why hast thou forsaken me? And the elders said, If thou be God, save thyself from our hands. But Jeschu answered, saying, My blood is shed for the redemption of the world, for Isaiah prophesied of me, He was wounded for our transgression and bruised for our iniquities; our chastisement lies upon him that we may have peace, and by his wounds we are healed.114Then they led Jeschu forth before the greater and the lesser Sanhedrim, and he was sentenced to be stoned, and then to be hung on a tree. And it was the eve of the Passover and of the Sabbath. And they led him forth to the place where the punishment of stoning was wont to be executed, and they stoned him there till he was dead. And after that, the wise men hung him on the tree; but no tree would bear him; each brake and yielded. And when even was come the wise men said, We may not, on account of the Fatherless, break the letter of the law (which forbids that one who is hung should remain all night on the tree). Though he may have set at naught the law, yet will not we. Therefore they buried the Fatherless in the place where he was stoned. And when, midnight was come, the disciples came and seated themselves on the grave, and wept and lamented him. Now when Judas saw this, he took the body away and buried it in his garden under a brook. He diverted the water of the brook elsewhere; but when the body was laid in its bed, he brought its waters back again into their former channel.“Now on the morrow, when the disciples had assembled and had seated themselves weeping, Judas came to them and said, Why weep you? Seek him who was buried. And[pg 088]they dug and sought, and found him not, and all the company cried, He is not in the grave; he is risen and ascended into heaven, for, when he was yet alive, he said, He would raise him up, Selah!”When the Queen heard that the elders had slain Jeschu and had buried him, and that he was risen again, she ordered them within three days to produce the body or forfeit their lives. In sore alarm, the elders seek the body, but cannot find it. They therefore proclaim a fast.“Now there was amongst them an elder whose name was Tanchuma; and he went forth in sore distress, and wandered in the fields, and he saw Judas sitting in his garden eating. Then Tanchuma drew near to him, and said to him, What doest thou, Judas, that thou eatest meat, when all the Jews fast and are in grievous distress?“Then Judas was astonished, and asked the occasion of the fast. And the Rabbi Tanchuma answered him, Jeschu the Fatherless is the occasion, for he was hung up and buried on the spot where he was stoned; but now is he taken away, and we know not where he is gone. And his worthless disciples cry out that he is ascended into heaven. Now the Queen has condemned us Israelites to death unless we find him.“Judas asked, And if the Fatherless One were found, would it be the salvation of Israel? The Rabbi Tanchuma answered that it would be even so.“Then spake Judas, Come, and I will show you the man whom ye seek; for it was I who took the Fatherless from his grave. For I feared lest his disciples should steal him away, and I have hidden him in my garden and led a water-brook over the place.“Then the Rabbi Tanchuma hasted to the elders of Israel, and told them all. And they came together, and drew him forth, attached to the tail of a horse, and brought him before[pg 089]the Queen, and said, See! this is the man who, they say, has ascended into heaven!“Now when the Queen saw this, she was filled with shame, and answered not a word.“Now it fell out, that in dragging the body to the place, the hair was torn off the head; and this is the reason why monks shave their heads. It is done in remembrance of what befel Jeschu.“And after this, in consequence thereof, there grew to be strife between the Nazarenes and the Jews, so that they parted asunder; and when a Nazarene saw a Jew he slew him. And from day to day the distress grew greater, during thirty years. And the Nazarenes assembled in thousands and tens of thousands, and hindered the Israelites from going up to the festivals at Jerusalem. And then there was great distress, such as when the golden calf was set up, so that they knew not what to do.“And the belief of the opposition grew more and more, and spread on all sides. Also twelve godless runagates separated and traversed the twelve realms, and everywhere in the assemblies of the people uttered false prophecies.“Also many Israelites adhered to them, and these were men of high renown, and they strengthened the faith in Jeschu. And because they gave themselves out to be messengers of him who was hung, a great number followed them from among the Israelites.“Now when the wise men saw the desperate condition of affairs, one said to another, Woe is unto us! for we have deserved it through our sins. And they sat in great distress, and wept, and looked up to heaven and prayed.“And when they had ended their prayer, there rose up a very aged man of the elders, by name Simon Cephas, who understood prophecy, and he said to the others, Hearken to me, my brethren! and if ye will consent unto my advice, I will separate these wicked ones from the company of the Israelites, that they may have neither part nor lot with Israel. But the sin do ye take upon you.[pg 090]“Then answered they all and said, The sin be on us; declare unto us thy counsel, and fulfil thy purpose.“Therefore Simon, son of Cephas, went into the Holiest Place and wrote the incommunicable Name, and cut into his flesh and hid the parchment therein. And when he came forth out of the Temple he took forth the writing, and when he had learned the Name he betook himself to the chief city of the Nazarenes,115and he cried there with a loud voice, Let all who believe in Jeschu come unto me, for I am sent by him to you!“Then there came to him multitudes as the sand on the sea-shore, and they said to him, Show us a sign that thou art sent! And he said, What sign? They answered him, Even the signs that Jeschu wrought when he was alive.”Accordingly he heals a leper and restores a dead man to life. And when the people saw this, they submitted to him, as one sent to them by Jeschu.Then said Simon Cephas to them, Yea, verily, Jeschu did send me to you, and now swear unto me that ye will obey me in all things that I command you.“And they swore to him, We will do all things that thou commandest.“Then Simon Cephas said, Ye know that he who hung on the tree was an enemy to the Israelites and the Law, because of the prophecy of Isaiah, Your new moons and festivals my soul hateth.116And that he had no pleasure in the Israelites, according to the saying of Hosea, Ye are not my people.117Now, although it is in his power to blot them in the twinkling of an eye from off the face of the earth, yet will he not root them out, but will keep them ever in the midst of you as a witness to his stoning and hanging on the tree. He endured these pains and the punishment of death, to redeem your souls from hell. And now he warns and commands you[pg 091]to do no harm to any Jew. Yea, even should a Jew say to a Nazarene, Go with me a mile, he shall go with him twain; or should a Nazarene be smitten by a Jew on one cheek, let him turn to him the other also, that the Jews may enjoy in this world their good things, for in the world to come they must suffer their punishment in hell. If ye do these things, then shall ye merit to sit with them (i.e.the apostles) on their thrones.118“And this also doth he require of you, that ye do not celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread, but that ye keep holy the day on which he died. And in place of the Feast of Pentecost, that ye keep the fortieth day after his stoning, on which he went up into heaven. And in place of the Feast of Tabernacles, that ye keep the day of his Nativity, and eight days after that ye shall celebrate his Circumcision.”The Christians promised to do as Cephas commanded them, but they desired him to reside in the midst of them in their great city.To this he consented.“I will dwell with you,”said he,“if ye will promise to permit me to abstain from all food, and to eat only the bread of poverty and drink the water of affliction. Ye must also build me a tower in the midst of the city, wherein I may spend the rest of my days.”This was done. The tower was built and called“Peter,”and in this Cephas dwelt till his death six years after.“In truth, he served the God of our fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and composed many beautiful hymns, which he dispersed among the Jews, that they might serve as a perpetual memorial of him; and he divided all his hymns among the Rabbis of Israel.”On his death he was buried in the tower.After his death, a man named Elias assumed the place of messenger of Jeschu, and he declared that Simon[pg 092]Cephas had deceived the Christians, and that he, Elias, was an apostle of Jeschu, rather than Cephas, and that the Christians should follow him. The Christians asked for a sign.Elias said“What sign do ye ask?”Then a stone fell from the tower Peter, and smote him that he died.“Thus,”concludes this first version of the Toledoth Jeschu,“may all Thine enemies perish, O Lord; but may those that love Thee be as the sun when it shineth in its strength!”Thus ends this wonderful composition, which carries its own condemnation with it.The two captures and sentences of Jeschu are apparently two forms of Jewish legend concerning Christ's death, which the anonymous writer has clumsily combined.The scene in Gethsemane is laid on the other side of Jordan. It is manifestly imitated from the Gospels, but not directly, probably from some mediaeval sculptured representation of the Agony in the Garden, common outside every large church.119In place of an angel appearing to comfort Christ, an evil spirit vexes him. The kiss of Judas is transformed into a genuflexion or prostration before him, and takes place, not in the Garden but in the Temple. The resistance of the disciples is mentioned. Jeschu is bound to a marble pillar and scourged. Of this the Gospels say nothing; but the pillar is an invariable feature in artistic representations of the scourging. Two of the sayings on the Cross are correctly given. In agreement with the account in the[pg 093]Talmud, Jeschu is stoned, and then, to identify the son of Panthera with the son of Mary, is hung on a tree. The tree breaks, and he falls to the ground. The visitor to Oberammergau Passion Play will remember the scene of Judas hanging himself, and the tree snapping. The Toledoth Jeschu does not say that Jeschu was crucified, but that he was hung. The suicide of Judas was identified with the death of Jesus. If the author of the anti-evangel saw the scene of the breaking bough in a miracle-play, he would perhaps naturally transfer it to Christ.The women seated late at night by the sepulchre, or coming early with spices, a feature in miracle-plays of the Passion, are transformed into the disciples weeping above the grave. The angel who addresses them, in the Toledoth Jeschu, becomes Judas.In miracle-plays, Claudia Procula, the wife of Pilate, assumes a prominence she does not occupy in the Gospels; she may have originated the idea in the mind of the author of Wagenseil's Toledoth, of the Queen Helena. That he confounded the Queen of King Jannaeus with the mother of Constantine is not wonderful. The latter was the only historical princess who showed sympathy with the Christians at Jerusalem, and of whose existence the anonymous author was aware, probably through the popular mediaeval romance of Helena,“La belle Helène.”He therefore fell without a struggle into the gross anachronism of making the Empress Helena the wife of Jannaeus, and contemporary with Christ.In the Toledoth Jeschu of Wagenseil, Simon Peter is represented as a Jew ruling the Christians in favour of the Jews. The Papacy must have been fully organized when this anti-evangel was written, and the Jews must have felt the protection accorded them by the Popes[pg 094]against their persecutors. St. Gregory the Great wrote letters, in 591 and 598, in behalf of the Jews who were maltreated in Italy and Sicily. Alexander II., in 1068, wrote a letter to the Bishops of Gaul exhorting them to protect the Jews against the violence of the Crusaders, who massacred them on their way to the East. He gave as his reason for their protection the very one put into Simon Cephas' mouth in the Toledoth Jeschu, that God had preserved them and scattered them in all countries as witnesses to the truth of the Gospel. In the cruel confiscation of their goods, and expulsion from France by Philip Augustus, and the simultaneous persecution they underwent in England, Innocent III. took their side, and insisted, in 1199, on their being protected from violence. Gregory IX. defended them when maltreated in Spain and in France by the Crusaders in 1236, on their appeal to him for protection. In 1246, the Jews of Germany appealed to the Pope, Innocent IV., against the ecclesiastical and secular princes who pillaged them on false charges. Innocent wrote, in 1247, ordering those who had wronged them to indemnify them for their losses.In 1417, the Jews of Constance came to meet Martin V., as their protector, on his coronation, with hymns and torches, and presented him with the Pentateuch, which he had the discourtesy to refuse, saying that they might have the Law, but they did not understand it.The claim made in the Toledoth Jeschu that the Papacy was a government in the interest of the Jews against the violence of the Christians, points to the thirteenth century as the date of the composition of this book, a century when the Jews suffered more from Christian brutality than at any other period, when their exasperation against everything Christian was wrought to its highest pitch, and when they found the[pg 095]Chair of Peter their only protection against extermination by the disciples of Christ.Some dim reference may be made to the anti-pope of Jewish blood, Peter Leonis, who took the name of Anacletus II., and who survives in modern Jewish legend as the Pope Elchanan. Anacletus II. (A.D. 1130-1138) maintained his authority in Rome against Innocent II., and from his refuge in the tower of St. Angelo, defied the Emperor Lothair, who had marched to Rome to install Innocent. Anacletus was accused of showing favour to the Jews, whose blood he inherited—his father was a Jewish usurer. When Christians shrank from robbing the churches of their silver and golden ornaments, required by Anacletus to pay his mercenaries and bribe the venal Romans, he is said to have entrusted the odious task to the Jews.Jewish legend has converted the Jewish anti-pope into the son of the Rabbi Simeon Ben Isaac, of Mainz, who died A.D. 1096. According to the story, the child Elchanan was stolen from his father and mother by a Christian nurse, was taken charge of by monks, grew up to be ordained priest, and finally was elected Pope.As a child he had been wont to play chess with his father, and had learned from him a favourite move whereby to check-mate his adversary.The Jews of Germany suffered from oppression, and appointed the Rabbi Simeon to bear their complaints to the Pope. The old Jew went to Rome and was introduced to the presence of the Holy Father. Elchanan recognized him at once, and sent forth all his attendants, then proposed a game of chess with the Rabbi. When the Pope played the favourite move of the old Jew, Simeon Ben Isaac sprang up, smote his brow, and cried out,“I thought none knew this move save I and my long-lost child.”“I am that child,”answered the[pg 096]Pope, and he flung himself into the arms of the aged Jew.120That the Wagenseil Toledoth Jeschu was written in the eleventh, twelfth or thirteenth century appears probable from the fact stated, that it was in these centuries that the Jews were more subjected to persecution, spoliation and massacre than in any other; and the Toledoth Jeschu is the cry of rage of a tortured people,—a curse hurled at the Founder of that religion which oppressed them.In the eleventh century the Jews in the great Rhine cities were massacred by the ferocious hosts of Crusaders under Ernico, Count of Leiningen, and the priests Folkmar and Goteschalk. At the voice of their leaders (A.D. 1096), the furious multitude of red-crossed pilgrims spread through the cities of the Rhine and the Moselle, massacring pitilessly all the Jews that they met with in their passage. In their despair, a great number preferred being their own destroyers to awaiting certain death at the hands of their enemies. Several shut themselves up in their houses, and perished amidst flames their own hands had kindled; some attached heavy stones to their garments, and precipitated themselves and their treasures into the Rhine or Moselle. Mothers stifled their children at the breast, saying that they preferred sending them to the bosom of Abraham to seeing them torn away to be nurtured in a religion which bred tigers.Some of the ecclesiastics behaved with Christian humanity. The Bishops of Worms and Spires ran some risk in saving as many as they could of this defenceless people. The Archbishop of Treves, less generous, gave refuge to such only as would consent to receive baptism, and coldly consigned the rest to the knives and halters[pg 097]of the Christian fanatics. The Archbishop of Mainz was more than suspected of participation in the plunder of his Jewish subjects. The Emperor took on himself the protection and redress of the wrongs endured by the Jews, and it was apparently at this time that the Jews were formally taken under feudal protection by the Emperor. They became his men, owing to him special allegiance, and with full right therefore to his protection.The Toledoth Jeschu of Wagenseil was composed by a German Jew; that is apparent from its mention of the letter of the synagogue of Worms to the Sanhedrim. Had it been written in the eleventh century, it would not have represented the Pope as the refuge of the persecuted Jews, for it was the Emperor who redressed their wrongs.But it was in the thirteenth century that the Popes stood forth as the special protectors of the Jews. On May 1, 1291, the Jewish bankers throughout France were seized and imprisoned by order of Philip the Fair, and forced to pay enormous mulcts. Some died under torture, most yielded, and then fled the inhospitable realm. Five years after, in one day, all the Jews in France were taken, their property confiscated to the Crown, the race expelled the realm.In 1320, the Jews of the South of France, notwithstanding persecution and expulsion, were again in numbers and perilous prosperity. On them burst the fury of the Pastoureaux. Five hundred took refuge in the royal castle of Verdun on the Garonne. The royal officers refused to defend them. The shepherds set fire to the lower stories of a lofty tower; the Jews slew each other, having thrown their children to the mercy of their assailants. Everywhere, even in the great cities, Auch, Toulouse, Castel Sarrazen, the Jews were left to[pg 098]be remorselessly massacred and their property pillaged. The Pope himself might have seen the smoke of the fires that consumed them darkening the horizon from the walls of Avignon. But John XXII., cold, arrogant, rapacious, stood by unmoved. He launched his excommunication, not against the murderers of the inoffensive Jews, but against all who presumed to take the Cross without warrant of the Holy See. Even that same year he published violent bulls against the poor persecuted Hebrews, and commanded the Bishops to destroy their Talmud, the source of their detestable blasphemies; but he bade those who should submit to baptism to be protected from pillage and massacre.The Toledoth Jeschu, therefore, cannot have been written at the beginning of the fourteenth century, when the Jews had such experience of the indifference of a Pope to their wrongs. We are consequently forced to look to the thirteenth century as its date. And the thirteenth century will provide us with instances of persecution of the Jews in Germany, and Popes exerting themselves to protect them.In 1236, the Jews were the subject of an outburst of popular fury throughout Europe, but especially in Spain, where a fearful carnage took place. In France, the Crusaders of Guienne, Poitou, Anjou and Brittany killed them, without sparing the women and children. Women with child were ripped up. The unfortunate Jews were thrown down, and trodden under the feet of horses. Their houses were ransacked, their books burned, their treasures carried off. Those who refused baptism were tortured or killed. The unhappy people sent to Rome, and implored the Pope to extend his protection to them. Gregory IX. wrote at once to the Archbishop of Bordeaux, the Bishops of Saintes, Angoulême and Poictiers, forbidding constraint to be exercised on the Jews to[pg 099]force them to receive baptism; and a letter to the King entreating him to exert his authority to repress the fury of the Crusaders against the Jews.In 1240, the Jews were expelled from Brittany by the Duke John, at the request of the Bishops of Brittany.In 1246, the persecution reached its height in Germany. Bishops and nobles vied with each other in despoiling and harassing the unfortunate Hebrews. They were charged with killing Christian children and devouring their hearts at their Passover. Whenever a dead body was found, the Jews were accused of the murder. Hosts were dabbled in blood, and thrown down at their doors, and the ignorant mob rose against such profanation of the sacred mysteries. They were stripped of their goods, thrown into prison, starved, racked, condemned to the stake or to the gallows. From the German towns miserable trains of yellow-girdled and capped exiles issued, seeking some more hospitable homes. If they left behind them their wealth, they carried with them their industry.A deputation of German Rabbis visited the Pope, Innocent IV., at Lyons, and laid the complaints of the Jews before him. Innocent at once took up their cause. He wrote to all the bishops of Germany, on July 5th, 1247, ordering them to favour the Jews, and insist on the redress of the wrongs to which they had been subjected, whether at the hands of ecclesiastics or nobles. A similar letter was then forwarded by him to all the bishops of France.At this period it was in vain for the Jews to appeal to the Emperor. Frederick II. was excommunicated, and Germany in revolt, fanned by the Pope, against him. A new Emperor had been proposed at a meeting at Budweis to the electors of Austria, Bohemia and Bavaria, but the proposition had been rejected. Henry of Thuringia,[pg 100]however, set up by Innocent, and supported by the ecclesiastical princes of Germany, had been crowned at Hochem. A crusade was preached against the Emperor Frederick; Henry of Thuringia was defeated and died. The indefatigable Innocent, clinging to the cherished policy of the Papal See to ruin the unity of Germany by stirring up intestine strife, found another candidate in William of Holland. He was crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle, October 3, 1247. From this time till his death, four years after, the cause of Frederick declined. Frederick was mostly engaged in wars in Italy, and had not leisure, if he had the power, to attend to and right the wrongs of his Jewish vassals.It was at this period that I think we may conclude the Toledoth Jeschu of Wagenseil was written.Another consideration tends to confirm this view. The Wagenseil Toledoth Jeschu speaks of Elias rising up after the death of Simon Cephas, and denouncing him as having led the Christians away.Was there any Elias at the close of the thirteenth century who did thus preach against the Pope? There was. Elias of Cortona, second General of the Franciscan Order, the leader of a strong reactionary party opposed to the Spirituals or Caesarians, those who maintained the rule in all its rigour, had been deposed, then carried back into the Generalship by a recoil of the party wave, then appealed against to the Pope, deposed once more, and finally excommunicated. Elias joined the Emperor Frederick, the deadly foe of Innocent IV., and, sheltered under his wing, denounced the venality, the avarice, the extortion of the Papacy. As a close attendant on the German Emperor, his adviser, as one who encouraged him in his opposition to a Pope who protected the Jews, the German Jews must have heard of him. But the stone of excommunication firing at him struck him[pg 101]down, and he died in 1253, making a death-bed reconciliation with Rome.But though it is thus possible to give an historical explanation of the curious circumstance that the Toledoth Jeschu ranges the Pope among the friends of Judaism and the enemies of Christianity, and provide for the identification of Elias with the fallen General of the Minorites,—the story points perhaps to a dim recollection of Simon Peter being at the head of the Judaizing Church at Jerusalem and Rome, which made common cause with the Jews, and of Paul, here designated Elias, in opposition to him.[pg 102]

In the thirteenth century it became known among the Christians that the Jews were in possession of an anti-evangel. It was kept secret, lest the sight of it should excite tumults, spoliation and massacre. But of the fact of its existence Christians were made aware by the account of converts.

There are, in reality, two such anti-evangels, each called Toldoth Jeschu, not recensions of an earlier text, but independent collections of the stories circulating among the Jews relative to the life of our Lord.

The name of Jesus, which in Hebrew is Joshua or Jehoshua (the Lord will sanctify) is in both contracted into Jeschu by the rejection of anAin, ישו for ישוע.

The Rabbi Elias, in his Tischbi, under the word Jeschu, says,“Because the Jews will not acknowledge him to be the Saviour, they do not call him Jeschua, but reject the Ain and call him Jeschu.”And the Rabbi Abraham Perizol, in his book Maggers Abraham, c. 59, says,“His name was Jeschua; but as Rabbi Moses, the son of Majemoun of blessed memory, has written it, and as we find it throughout the Talmud, it is written Jeschu. They have carefully left out theAin, because he was not able to save himself.”

The Talmud in the Tract. Sanhedrim99says,“It is not lawful to name the name of a false God.”On this account the Jews, rejecting the mission of our Saviour,[pg 068]refused to pronounce his name without mutilating it. By omitting theAin, the Cabbalists were able to give a significance to the name. In its curtailed form it is composed of the letters Jod, Schin, Vau, which are taken to stand for ימח שמו וזכרונו jimmach schemo vezichrono,“His name and remembrance shall be extinguished.”This is the reason given by the Toledoth Jeschu.

Who were the authors of the books called Toledoth Jeschu, the two counter-Gospels, is not known.

Justin Martyr, who died A.D. 163, speaks of the blasphemous writings of the Jews about Jesus;100but that they contained traditions of the life of the Saviour can hardly be believed in presence of the silence of Josephus and Justus, and the ignorance of the Jew of Celsus. Origen says in his answer, that“though innumerable lies and calumnies had been forged against the venerable Jesus, none had dared to charge him with any intemperance whatever.”101He speaks confidently, with full assurance. If he had ever met with such a calumny, he would not have denied its existence, he would have set himself to work to refute it. Had such calumnious writings existed, Origen would have been sure to know of them. We may therefore be quite satisfied that none such existed in his time, the middle of the third century.

The Toledoth Jeschu comes before us with a flourish of trumpets from Voltaire.“Le Toledos Jeschu,”says he,“est le plus ancien écrit Juif, qui nous ait été transmis contre notre religion. C'est une vie de Jesus Christ, toute contraire à nos Saints Evangiles: elle parait être du premier siècle, et même écrite avant les evangiles.”102[pg 069]A fair specimen of reckless judgment on a matter of importance, without having taken the trouble to examine the grounds on which it was made! Luther knew more of it than did Voltaire, and put it in a very different place:—

“The proud evil spirit carries on all sorts of mockery in this book. First he mocks God, the Creator of heaven and earth, and His Son Jesus Christ, as you may see for yourself, if you believe as a Christian that Christ is the Son of God. Next he mocks us, all Christendom, in that we believe in such a Son of God. Thirdly, he mocks his own fellow Jews, telling them such disgraceful, foolish, senseless affairs, as of brazen dogs and cabbage-stalks and such like, enough to make all dogs bark themselves to death, if they could understand it, at such a pack of idiotic, blustering, raging, nonsensical fools. Is not that a masterpiece of mockery which can thus mock all three at once? The fourth mockery is this, that whoever wrote it has made a fool of himself, as we, thank God, may see any day.”

Luther knew the book, and, translated it, or rather condensed it, in his“Schem Hamphoras.”103

There are two versions of the Toledoth Jeschu, differing widely from one another. The first was published by Wagenseil, of Altdorf, in 1681. The second by Huldrich at Leyden in 1705. Neither can boast of an antiquity greater than, at the outside, the twelfth century. It is difficult to say with certainty which is the earlier of the two. Probably both came into use about the same time; the second certainly in Germany, for it speaks of Worms in the German empire.

According to the first, Jeschu (Jesus) was born in the year of the world 4671 (B.C. 910), in the reign of Alexander[pg 070]Jannaeus (B.C. 106-79)! He was the son of Joseph Pandira and Mary, a widow's daughter, the sister of Jehoshua, who was affianced to Jochanan, disciple of Simeon Ben Schetah; and Jeschu became the pupil of the Rabbi Elchanan. Mary is of the tribe of Juda.

According to the second, Jeschu was born in the reign of Herod the Proselyte, and was the son of Mary, daughter of Calpus, and sister of Simeon, son of Calpus, by Joseph Pandira, who carried her off from her husband, Papus, son of Jehuda. Jeschu was brought up by Joshua, son of Perachia, in the days of the illustrious Rabbi Akiba! Mary is of the tribe of Benjamin.

The anachronisms of both accounts are so gross as to prove that they were drawn up at a very late date, and by Jews singularly ignorant of the chronology of their history.

In the first, Mary is affianced to Jochanan, disciple of Simeon Ben Schetah. Now Schimon or Simeon, son of Scheta, is a well-known character. He is said to have strangled eighty witches in one day, and to have been the companion of Jehudu Ben Tabai. He flourished B.C. 70.

In the second life we hear of Mary being the sister of Simeon Ben Kalpus (Chelptu). He also is a well-known Rabbi, of whom many miracles are related. He lived in the time of the Emperor Antoninus, before whom he stood as a disciple, when an old man (circ. A.D. 160).

In this also the Rabbi Akiba is introduced. Akiba died A.D. 135. Also the Rabbi Jehoshua Ben Levi. Now this Rabbi's date can also be fixed with tolerable accuracy. He was the teacher of the Rabbi Jochanan, who compiled the Jerusalem Talmud. His date is A.D. 220.

We have thus, in the two lives of Jeschu, the following personages introduced as contemporaries:

The second Toledoth Jeschu closes with,“These are the words of Jochanan Ben Zaccai;”but it is not clear whether it is intended that the book should be included in“The words of Jochanan,”or whether the reference is only to a brief sentence preceding this statement,“Therefore have they no part or lot in Israel. The Lord bless his people Israel with peace.”Jochanan Ben Zaccai was a priest and ruler of Israel for forty years, from A.D. 30 or 33 to A.D. 70 or 73. He died at Jamnia, near Jerusalem (Jabne of the Philistines), and was buried at Tiberias.

Nor are these anachronisms the only proofs of the ignorance of the composers of the two anti-evangels. In the first, on the death of King Alexander Jannaeus, the government falls into the hands of his wife Helena, who is represented as being“also called Oleina, and was the mother of King Mumbasius, afterwards called Hyrcanus, who was killed by his servant Herod.”

The wife of Alexander Jannaeus was Alexandra, not Helena; she reigned from B.C. 79 to B.C. 71. She was the mother of Hyrcanus and Aristobulus; but was quite distinct from Oleina, mother of Mumbasius, and Mumbasius was a very different person from Hyrcanus. Oleina was a queen of Adiabene in Assyria.

The first Life refers to the Talmud:“This is the same[pg 072]Mary who dressed and curled women's hair, mentioned several times in the Talmud.”

Both give absurd anecdotes to account for monks wearing shaven crowns; both reasons are different.

In the first Life, the Christian festivals of the Ascension“forty days after Jeschu was stoned,”that of Christmas, and the Circumcision“eight days after,”are spoken of as institutions of the Christian Church.

In the VIIIth Book of the Apostolical Constitutions, the festivals of the Nativity and the Ascension are spoken of,104consequently they must have been kept holy from a very early age. But it was not so with the feast of the Circumcision.

The 1st of January was a great day among the heathen. In the Homilies of the Fathers down to the eighth century, the 1st of January is called the“Feast of Satan and Hell,”and the faithful are cautioned against observing it. All participation in the festivities of that day was forbidden by the Council“in Trullo,”in A.D. 692, and again in the Council of Rome, A.D. 744.

Pope Gelasius (A.D. 496) forbade all observance of the day, according to Baronius105, in the hope of rooting out every remembrance of the pagan ceremonies which were connected with it. In ancient Sacramentaries is a mass on this day,“de prohibendo ab idolis.”Nevertheless, traces of the celebration of the Circumcision of Christ occur in the fourth century; for Zeno, Bishop of Verona (d. A.D. 380), preached a sermon on it. In the ancient Mozarabic Kalendar, in the Martyrology wrongly attributed to St. Jerome, and in the Gelasian Sacramentary, the Circumcision is indicated on January 1. But though noted in the Kalendars, the day was, for the reason of its being observed as a heathen festival, not[pg 073]treated by the Church as a festival till very late. Litanies and penitential offices were appointed for it.

The notice in the Toledoth Jeschu, therefore, points to a time when the feast was observed with outward demonstration of joy, and the sanction of the Church accorded to other festivities.

The Toledoth Jeschu adopts the fable of the Sanhedrim and King having sent out an account of the trial of Jesus to the synagogues throughout the world to obtain from them an expression of opinion. The synagogue of Worms remonstrated against the execution of Christ.“The people of Girmajesa (Germany) and all the neighbouring country round Girmajesa which is now called Wormajesa (Worms), and which lies in the realm of the Emperor, and the little council in the town of Wormajesa, answered the King (Herod) and said, Let Jesus go, and slay him not! Let him live till he falls and perishes of his own accord.”

The synagogues of several cities in the Middle Ages did in fact, produce apocryphal letters which they pretended had been written by their forefathers remonstrating with the Jewish Sanhedrim at Jerusalem, and requesting that Jesus might be spared. An epistle was produced by the Jews of Ulm in A.D. 1348, another by the Jews of Ratisbon about the same date, from the council at Jerusalem to their synagogues.106The Jews of Toledo pretended to possess similar letters in the reign of Alfonso the Valiant, A.D. 1072. These letters probably served to protect them from feeling the full stress of persecution which oppressed the Jews elsewhere.

The most astonishing ignorance of Gospel accounts of Christ and the apostles is observable in both anti-evangels. Matthias and Matthew are the same, so are[pg 074]John the Baptist and John the Apostle, whilst Thaddaeus is said to be“also called Paul,”and Simon Peter is confounded with Simon Magus.107

These are instances of the confusion of times and persons into which these counter-Gospels have fallen, and they are sufficient to establish their late and worthless character.

The two anti-Gospels are clearly not two editions of an earlier text. The only common foundation on which both were constructed was the mention of Jeschu, son of Panthera, in the Talmud. Add to this such distorted versions of Gospel stories as circulated among the Jews in the Middle Ages, and we have the constituents of both counter-Gospels. Both exhibit a profound ignorance of the sacred text, but a certain acquaintance with prominent incidents in the narrative of the Evangelists, not derived directly from the Gospels, but, as I believe, from miracle-plays and pictorial and sculptured representations such as would meet the eye of a mediaeval Jew at every turn.

We have not to cast about far for a reason which shall account for the production of these anti-evangels.

The persecution to which the Jews were subjected in the Middle Ages from the bigotry of the rabble or the cupidity of princes, fanned their dislike for Christianity into a flame of intense mortal abhorrence of the Founder of that religion whose votaries were their deadliest foes. The Toledoth Jeschu is the utterance of this deep-seated hatred,—the voice of an oppressed people execrating him who had sprung from the holy race, and whose blood was weighing on their heads.

And it is not improbable that the Gospel record of the patient, loving life of Jesus may have exerted an[pg 075]influence on the young who ventured, with the daring curiosity of youth, to explore those peaceful pages. What answer had the Rabbis to make to those of their own religion who were questioning and wavering? They had no counter-record to oppose to the Gospels, no tradition wherewith to contest the history written by the Evangelists. The notices in the Talmud were scanty, incomplete. It was open to dispute whether these notices really related to Christ Jesus.

Under such circumstances, a book which professed to give a true account of Jesus was certain to be hailed and accepted without too close a scrutiny as to its authenticity; much as in the twelfth century Joseph Ben Gorion's“Jewish War”was assumed to be authentic.

The Toledoth Jeschu or“Birth of Jesus”boldly identified the Jesus of the Gospels with the Jeschu of the Talmud, and attempted to harmonize the Rabbinic and the Christian stories.

There is a certain likeness between the two counter-Gospels, but this arises solely from each author being actuated by the same motives as the other, and from both deriving from common sources,—the Talmud and Jewish misrepresentations of Gospel events.

But if there be a likeness, there is sufficient dissimilarity to make it evident that the two authors wrote independently, and had no common written text to amplify and adorn.

VI. The First Toledoth Jeschu.We will take first theWagenseiledition of theToledoth Jeschu,108and give an outline of the story, only suppressing the most offensive particulars, and commenting on the narrative as we proceed. Wagenseil's Toledoth Jeschu begins as follows:“In the year of the world 4671, in the days of King Jannaeus, a great misfortune befel Israel. There arose at that time a scape-grace, a wastrel and worthless fellow, of the fallen race of Judah, named Joseph Pandira. He was a well-built man, strong and handsome, but he spent his time in robbery and violence. His dwelling was at Bethlehem, in Juda. And there lived near him a widow with her daughter, whose name was Mirjam; and this is the same Mirjam who dressed and curled women's hair, who is mentioned several times in the Talmud.”It is remarkable that the author begins with the very phrase found in Josephus. He calls the appearance of our Lord“a great misfortune which befel Israel.”Josephus, after the passage which has been intruded into his text relative to the miracles and death of Christ, says,“About this time another great misfortune set the Jews in commotion;”from which it appears as if Josephus regarded the preaching of Christ as a great misfortune. That he made no such reference has been already shown.[pg 077]The author also places the birth of Jesus, in accordance with the Talmud, in the reign of Alexander Jannaeus, who reigned from B.C. 106 to B.C. 79. He reckons from the creation of the world, and gives the year as 4671 (B.C. 910). This manner of reckoning was only introduced among the Jews in the fourth century after Christ, and did not become common till the twelfth century.The Wagenseil Toledoth goes on to say that the widow engaged Mirjam to an amiable, God-fearing youth, named Jochanan (John), a disciple of the Rabbi Simeon, son of Shetach (fl. B.C. 70); but he went away to Babylon, and she became the mother of Jeschu by Joseph Pandira. The child was named Joshua, after his uncle, and was given to the Rabbi Elchanan to be instructed in the Law.One day Jeschu, when a boy, passed before the Rabbi Simeon Ben Shetach and other members of the Sanhedrim without uncovering his head and bowing his knee. The elders were indignant. Three hundred trumpets were blown, and Jeschu was excommunicated and cast out of the Temple. Then he went away to Galilee, and spent there several years.“Now at this time the unutterable Name of God was engraved in the Temple on the corner-stone. For when King David dug the foundations, he found there a stone in the ground on which the Name of God was engraved, and he took it and placed it in the Holy of Holies.“But as the wise men feared lest some inquisitive youth should learn this Name, and be able thereby to destroy the world, which God avert! they made, by magic, two brazen lions, which they set before the entrance to the Holy of Holies, one on the right, the other on the left.“Now if any one were to go within, and learn the holy Name, then the lions would begin to roar as he came out, so that, out of alarm and bewilderment, he would lose his presence of mind and forget the Name.[pg 078]“And Jeschu left Upper Galilee, and came secretly to Jerusalem, and went into the Temple and learned there the holy writing; and after he had written the incommunicable Name on parchment, he uttered it, with intent that he might feel no pain, and then he cut into his flesh, and hid the parchment with its inscription therein. Then he uttered the Name once more, and made so that his flesh healed up again.“And when he went out at the door, the lions roared, and he forgot the Name. Therefore he hasted outside the town, cut into his flesh, took the writing out, and when he had sufficiently studied the signs he retained the Name in his memory.”It is scarcely necessary here to point out the amazing ignorance of the author of the Toledoth Jeschu in making David the builder of the Temple, and in placing the images of lions at the entrance to the Holy of Holies. The story is introduced because Jeschu, son of Stada, in the Talmud is said to have made marks on his skin. But the author knew his Talmud very imperfectly. The Babylonian Gemara says,“Did not the son of Stada mark the magical arts on his skin, and bring them with him out of Egypt?”The story in the Talmud which accounted for the power of Jeschu to work miracles was quite different from that in the Toledoth Jeschu. In the Talmud he has power by bringing out of Egypt, secretly cut on his skin, the magic arts there privately taught; in the Toledoth he acquires his power by learning the incommunicable Name and hiding it under his flesh.However, the author says,“He could not have penetrated into the Holy of Holies without the aid of magic; for how would the holy priests and followers of Aaron have suffered him to enter there? This must certainly have been done by the aid of magic.”But the author gives no account of how Jeschu learned magic. That[pg 079]we ascertain from the Huldrich text, where we are told that Jeschu spent many years in Egypt, the head-quarters of those who practised magic.Having acquired this knowledge, Jeschu went into Galilee and proclaimed himself to have been the creator of the world, and born of a virgin, according to the prophecy of Isaiah (vii. 14). As a sign of the truth of his mission, he said:“Bring me here a dead man, and I will restore him to life. Then all the people hasted and dug into a grave, but found nothing in it but bones.“Now when they told him that they had found only bones, he said, Bring them hither to me.“So when they had brought them, he placed the bones together, and surrounded them with skin and flesh and muscles, so that the dead man stood up alive on his feet.“And when the people saw this, they wondered greatly; and he said, Do ye marvel at this that I have done? Bring hither a leper, and I will heal him.“So when they had placed a leper before him, he gave him health in like manner, by means of the incommunicable Name. And all the people that saw this fell down before him, prayed to him and said, Truly thou art the Son of God!“But after five days the report of what had been done came to Jerusalem, to the holy city, and all was related that Jeschu had wrought in Galilee. Then all the people rejoiced greatly; but the elders, the pious men, and the company of the wise men, wept bitterly. And the great and the little Sanhedrim mourned, and at length agreed that they would send a deputation to him.“For they thought that, perhaps, with God's help, they might overpower him, and bring him to judgment, and condemn him to death.“Therefore they sent unto him Ananias and Achasias, the noblest men of the little council; and when they had come to him, they bowed themselves before him reverently, in order to[pg 080]deceive him as to their purpose. And he, thinking that they believed in him, received them with smiling countenance, and placed them in his assembly of profligates.“They said unto him, The most pious and illustrious among the citizens of Jerusalem sent us unto thee, to hear if it shall please thee to go to them; for they have heard say that thou art the Son of God.“Then answered Jeschu and said, They have heard aright. I will do all that they desire, but only on condition that both the great and lesser Sanhedrim and all who have despised my origin shall come forth to meet me, and shall honour and receive me as servants of their Lord, when I come to them.“Thereupon the messengers returned to Jerusalem and related all that they had heard.“Then answered the elders and the righteous men, We will do all that he desires. Therefore these men went again to Jeschu, and told him that it should be even as he had said.“And Jeschu said, I will go forthwith on my way! And it came to pass, when he had come as far as Nob,109nigh unto Jerusalem, that he said to his followers, Have ye here a good and comely ass?“They answered him that there was one even at hand. Therefore he said, Bring him hither to me.“And a stately ass was brought unto him, and he sat upon it, and rode into Jerusalem. And as Jeschu entered into the city, all the people went forth to meet him. Then he cried, saying, Of me did the prophet Zacharias testify, Behold thy King cometh unto thee, righteous and a Saviour, poor, and riding on an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass!“Now when they heard this, all wept bitterly and rent their clothes. And the most righteous hastened to the Queen. She was the Queen Helena, wife of King Jannaeus, and she[pg 081]reigned after her husband's death. She was also called Oleina, and had a son, King Mumbasus, otherwise called Hyrcanus, who was slain by his servant Herod.110“And they said to her, He stirreth up the people; therefore is he guilty of the heaviest penalty. Give unto us full power, and we will take him by subtlety.“Then the Queen said, Call him hither before me, and I will hear his accusation. But she thought to save him out of their hands because he was related to her. But when the elders saw her purpose, they said to her, Think not to do this, Lady and Queen! and show him favour and good; for by his witchcraft he deceives the people. And they related to her how he had obtained the incommunicable Name....“Then the Queen answered, In this will I consent unto you; bring him hither that I may hear what he saith, and see with my eyes what he doth; for the whole world speaks of the countless miracles that he has wrought.“And the wise men answered, This will we do as thou hast said. So they sent and summoned Jeschu, and he came and stood before the Queen.”In the sight of Queen Helena, Jeschu then healed a leper and raised a dead man to life.“Then Jeschu said, Of me did Isaiah prophesy: The lame shall leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing.“So the Queen turned to the wise men and said, How say ye that this man is a magician? Have I not seen with my eyes the wonders he has wrought as being the Son of God?“But the wise men answered and said, Let it not come into the heart of the Queen to say so; for of a truth he is a wizard.“Then the Queen said, Away with you, and bring no such accusations again before me![pg 082]“Therefore the wise men went forth with sad hearts, and one turned to another and said, Let us use subtlety, that we may get him into our hands. And one said to another, If it seems right unto you, let one of us learn the Name, as he did, and work miracles, and perchance thus we shall secure him. And this counsel pleased the elders, and they said, He who will learn the Name and secure the Fatherless One shall receive a double reward in the future life.“And thereupon one of the elders stood up, whose name was Judas, and spake unto them, saying, Are ye agreed to take upon you the blame of such an action, if I speak the incommunicable Name? for if so, I will learn it, and it may happen that God in His mercy may bring the Fatherless One into my power.“Then all cried out with one voice, The guilt be on us; but do thou make the effort and succeed.“Thereupon he went into the Holiest Place, and did what Jeschu had done. And after that he went through the city and raised a cry, Where are those who have proclaimed abroad that the Fatherless is the Son of God? Cannot I, who am mere flesh and blood, do all that Jeschu has done?“And when this came to the ears of the Queen, Judas was brought before her, and all the elders assembled and followed him. Then the Queen summoned Jeschu, and said to him, Show us what thou hast done last. And he began to work miracles before all the people.“Thereat Judas spake to the Queen and to all the people, saying, Let nothing that has been wrought by the Fatherless make you wonder, for were he to set his nest between the stars, yet would I pluck him down from thence!“Then said Judas, Moses our teacher said:“If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers;“Namely, of the gods of the people which are round about[pg 083]you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth;“Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him:“But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people.“And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die; because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.“But the Fatherless One answered, Did not Isaias prophesy of me? And my father David, did he not speak of me? The Lord said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Desire of me, and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost part of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt rule them with a rod of iron, and break them in pieces like a potter's vessel. And in like manner he speaks in another place, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies my footstool! And now, behold! I will ascend to my Heavenly Father, and will sit me down at His right hand. Ye shall see it with your eyes, but thou, Judas, shalt not prevail!“And when Jeschu had spoken the incommunicable Name, there came a wind and raised him between heaven and earth. Thereupon Judas spake the same Name, and the wind raised him also between heaven and earth. And they flew, both of them, around in the regions of the air; and all who saw it marvelled.“Judas then spake again the Name, and seized Jeschu, and thought to cast him to the earth. But Jeschu also spake the Name, and sought to cast Judas down, and they strove one with the other.”Finally Judas prevails, and casts Jeschu to the ground, and the elders seize him, his power leaves him, and he[pg 084]is subjected to the tauntings of his captors. Then sentence of death was spoken against him.“But when Jeschu found his power gone, he cried and said, Of me did my father David speak, For thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.“Now when the disciples of Jeschu saw this, and all the multitude of sinners who had followed him, they fought against the elders and wise men of Jerusalem, and gave Jeschu opportunity to escape out of the city.“And he hasted to Jordan; and when he had washed therein his power returned, and with the Name he again wrought his former miracles.“Thereafter he went and took two millstones, and made them swim on the water; and he seated himself thereon, and caught fishes to feed the multitudes that followed him.”Before going any further, it is advisable to make a few remarks on what has been given of this curious story.The Queen Helena is probably the mother of Constantine, who went to Jerusalem in A.D. 326 to see the holy sites, and, according to an early legend, discovered the three crosses on Calvary. There are several incidents in the apocryphal story which bear a resemblance to the incidents in the Toledoth Jeschu.The Empress Helena favours the Christians against the Jews. Where three crosses are found, a person suffering from“a grievous and incurable disease”is applied to the crosses, and recovers on touching the true one. Then the same experiment is tried with a dead body, with the same success.111According to the Apocryphal Acts of St. Cyriacus, a Jew named Judas was brought before the Empress, and ordered to point out where the[pg 085]cross was buried. Judas resisted, but was starved in a well till he revealed the secret. The resemblance between the stories consists in the names of Helena and Judas, and the miracles of healing a leper, and raising a dead man to life.According to the Apocryphal Acts of St. Cyriacus, Judas was the grandson of Zacharias, and nephew of St. Stephen the protomartyr.112It is remarkable that Jeschu should be made to quote two passages in the Psalms as prophecies of himself, both of which are used in this manner in the New Testament: Ps. ii. 7, in Acts xiii. 33, and again Heb. i. 5, and v. 5; and Ps. cx. 1, in St. Matthew xxii. 44, and the corresponding passages in St. Mark and St. Luke; also in Acts ii. 34, in 1 Cor. xv. 25, and Heb. i. 13.The scene of the struggle in the air is taken from the contest of St. Peter with Simon Magus, and reminds one of the contest in the Arabian Nights between the Queen of Beauty and the Jin in the story of the Second Calender.The putting forth from land on a millstone on the occasion of the miraculous draught of fishes is probably a perversion of the incident of Jesus entering into the boat of Peter—the stone—before the miracle was performed, according to St. Luke, v. 1-8. In the Toledoth Jeschu there are two millstones which our Lord sets afloat, and he mounts one, and then the fishes are caught; in St. Luke's Gospel there are two boats.“He saw two ships standing by the lake.... And he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon's, and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people out of the ship. Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught.”[pg 086]It was standing on the swimming-stone, according to the Huldrich version, that Jeschu preached to the people, and declared to them his divine mission.The story goes on. The Sanhedrim, fearing to allow Jeschu to remain at liberty, send Judas after him to Jordan. Judas pronounces a great incantation, which obliges the Angel of Sleep to seal the eyes of Jeschu and his disciples. Then, whilst they sleep, he comes and cuts from the arm of Jeschu a scrap of parchment on which the Name of Jehovah is written, and which was concealed under the flesh. Jeschu awakes, and a spirit appears to him and vexes him sore. Then he feels that his power is gone, and he announces to his disciples that his hour is come when he must be taken by his enemies.The disciples, amongst whom is Judas, who unobserved, has mingled with them, are sorely grieved; but Jeschu encourages them, and bids them believe in him, and they will obtain thrones in heaven. Then he goes with them to the Paschal Feast, in hopes of again being able to penetrate into the Holy of Holies, and reading again the incommunicable Name, and of thus recovering his power. But Judas forewarns the elders, and as Jeschu enters the Temple he is attacked by armed men. The Jewish servants do not know Jeschu from his disciples. Accordingly Judas flings himself down before him, and thus indicates whom they are to take. Some of the disciples offer resistance, but are speedily overcome, and take to flight to the mountains, where they are caught and executed.“But the elders of Jerusalem led Jeschu in chains into the city, and bound him to a marble pillar, and scourged him, and said, Where are now all the miracles thou hast wrought? And they plaited a crown of thorns and set it on his head. Then the Fatherless was in anguish through thirst, and he[pg 087]cried, saying, Give me water to drink! So they gave him acid vinegar; and after he had drunk thereof he cried, Of me did my father David prophesy, They gave me gall to eat, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.113But they answered, If thou wert God, why didst thou not know it was vinegar before tasting of it? Now thou art at the brink of the grave, and changest not. But Jeschu wept and said, My God, my God! why hast thou forsaken me? And the elders said, If thou be God, save thyself from our hands. But Jeschu answered, saying, My blood is shed for the redemption of the world, for Isaiah prophesied of me, He was wounded for our transgression and bruised for our iniquities; our chastisement lies upon him that we may have peace, and by his wounds we are healed.114Then they led Jeschu forth before the greater and the lesser Sanhedrim, and he was sentenced to be stoned, and then to be hung on a tree. And it was the eve of the Passover and of the Sabbath. And they led him forth to the place where the punishment of stoning was wont to be executed, and they stoned him there till he was dead. And after that, the wise men hung him on the tree; but no tree would bear him; each brake and yielded. And when even was come the wise men said, We may not, on account of the Fatherless, break the letter of the law (which forbids that one who is hung should remain all night on the tree). Though he may have set at naught the law, yet will not we. Therefore they buried the Fatherless in the place where he was stoned. And when, midnight was come, the disciples came and seated themselves on the grave, and wept and lamented him. Now when Judas saw this, he took the body away and buried it in his garden under a brook. He diverted the water of the brook elsewhere; but when the body was laid in its bed, he brought its waters back again into their former channel.“Now on the morrow, when the disciples had assembled and had seated themselves weeping, Judas came to them and said, Why weep you? Seek him who was buried. And[pg 088]they dug and sought, and found him not, and all the company cried, He is not in the grave; he is risen and ascended into heaven, for, when he was yet alive, he said, He would raise him up, Selah!”When the Queen heard that the elders had slain Jeschu and had buried him, and that he was risen again, she ordered them within three days to produce the body or forfeit their lives. In sore alarm, the elders seek the body, but cannot find it. They therefore proclaim a fast.“Now there was amongst them an elder whose name was Tanchuma; and he went forth in sore distress, and wandered in the fields, and he saw Judas sitting in his garden eating. Then Tanchuma drew near to him, and said to him, What doest thou, Judas, that thou eatest meat, when all the Jews fast and are in grievous distress?“Then Judas was astonished, and asked the occasion of the fast. And the Rabbi Tanchuma answered him, Jeschu the Fatherless is the occasion, for he was hung up and buried on the spot where he was stoned; but now is he taken away, and we know not where he is gone. And his worthless disciples cry out that he is ascended into heaven. Now the Queen has condemned us Israelites to death unless we find him.“Judas asked, And if the Fatherless One were found, would it be the salvation of Israel? The Rabbi Tanchuma answered that it would be even so.“Then spake Judas, Come, and I will show you the man whom ye seek; for it was I who took the Fatherless from his grave. For I feared lest his disciples should steal him away, and I have hidden him in my garden and led a water-brook over the place.“Then the Rabbi Tanchuma hasted to the elders of Israel, and told them all. And they came together, and drew him forth, attached to the tail of a horse, and brought him before[pg 089]the Queen, and said, See! this is the man who, they say, has ascended into heaven!“Now when the Queen saw this, she was filled with shame, and answered not a word.“Now it fell out, that in dragging the body to the place, the hair was torn off the head; and this is the reason why monks shave their heads. It is done in remembrance of what befel Jeschu.“And after this, in consequence thereof, there grew to be strife between the Nazarenes and the Jews, so that they parted asunder; and when a Nazarene saw a Jew he slew him. And from day to day the distress grew greater, during thirty years. And the Nazarenes assembled in thousands and tens of thousands, and hindered the Israelites from going up to the festivals at Jerusalem. And then there was great distress, such as when the golden calf was set up, so that they knew not what to do.“And the belief of the opposition grew more and more, and spread on all sides. Also twelve godless runagates separated and traversed the twelve realms, and everywhere in the assemblies of the people uttered false prophecies.“Also many Israelites adhered to them, and these were men of high renown, and they strengthened the faith in Jeschu. And because they gave themselves out to be messengers of him who was hung, a great number followed them from among the Israelites.“Now when the wise men saw the desperate condition of affairs, one said to another, Woe is unto us! for we have deserved it through our sins. And they sat in great distress, and wept, and looked up to heaven and prayed.“And when they had ended their prayer, there rose up a very aged man of the elders, by name Simon Cephas, who understood prophecy, and he said to the others, Hearken to me, my brethren! and if ye will consent unto my advice, I will separate these wicked ones from the company of the Israelites, that they may have neither part nor lot with Israel. But the sin do ye take upon you.[pg 090]“Then answered they all and said, The sin be on us; declare unto us thy counsel, and fulfil thy purpose.“Therefore Simon, son of Cephas, went into the Holiest Place and wrote the incommunicable Name, and cut into his flesh and hid the parchment therein. And when he came forth out of the Temple he took forth the writing, and when he had learned the Name he betook himself to the chief city of the Nazarenes,115and he cried there with a loud voice, Let all who believe in Jeschu come unto me, for I am sent by him to you!“Then there came to him multitudes as the sand on the sea-shore, and they said to him, Show us a sign that thou art sent! And he said, What sign? They answered him, Even the signs that Jeschu wrought when he was alive.”Accordingly he heals a leper and restores a dead man to life. And when the people saw this, they submitted to him, as one sent to them by Jeschu.Then said Simon Cephas to them, Yea, verily, Jeschu did send me to you, and now swear unto me that ye will obey me in all things that I command you.“And they swore to him, We will do all things that thou commandest.“Then Simon Cephas said, Ye know that he who hung on the tree was an enemy to the Israelites and the Law, because of the prophecy of Isaiah, Your new moons and festivals my soul hateth.116And that he had no pleasure in the Israelites, according to the saying of Hosea, Ye are not my people.117Now, although it is in his power to blot them in the twinkling of an eye from off the face of the earth, yet will he not root them out, but will keep them ever in the midst of you as a witness to his stoning and hanging on the tree. He endured these pains and the punishment of death, to redeem your souls from hell. And now he warns and commands you[pg 091]to do no harm to any Jew. Yea, even should a Jew say to a Nazarene, Go with me a mile, he shall go with him twain; or should a Nazarene be smitten by a Jew on one cheek, let him turn to him the other also, that the Jews may enjoy in this world their good things, for in the world to come they must suffer their punishment in hell. If ye do these things, then shall ye merit to sit with them (i.e.the apostles) on their thrones.118“And this also doth he require of you, that ye do not celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread, but that ye keep holy the day on which he died. And in place of the Feast of Pentecost, that ye keep the fortieth day after his stoning, on which he went up into heaven. And in place of the Feast of Tabernacles, that ye keep the day of his Nativity, and eight days after that ye shall celebrate his Circumcision.”The Christians promised to do as Cephas commanded them, but they desired him to reside in the midst of them in their great city.To this he consented.“I will dwell with you,”said he,“if ye will promise to permit me to abstain from all food, and to eat only the bread of poverty and drink the water of affliction. Ye must also build me a tower in the midst of the city, wherein I may spend the rest of my days.”This was done. The tower was built and called“Peter,”and in this Cephas dwelt till his death six years after.“In truth, he served the God of our fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and composed many beautiful hymns, which he dispersed among the Jews, that they might serve as a perpetual memorial of him; and he divided all his hymns among the Rabbis of Israel.”On his death he was buried in the tower.After his death, a man named Elias assumed the place of messenger of Jeschu, and he declared that Simon[pg 092]Cephas had deceived the Christians, and that he, Elias, was an apostle of Jeschu, rather than Cephas, and that the Christians should follow him. The Christians asked for a sign.Elias said“What sign do ye ask?”Then a stone fell from the tower Peter, and smote him that he died.“Thus,”concludes this first version of the Toledoth Jeschu,“may all Thine enemies perish, O Lord; but may those that love Thee be as the sun when it shineth in its strength!”Thus ends this wonderful composition, which carries its own condemnation with it.The two captures and sentences of Jeschu are apparently two forms of Jewish legend concerning Christ's death, which the anonymous writer has clumsily combined.The scene in Gethsemane is laid on the other side of Jordan. It is manifestly imitated from the Gospels, but not directly, probably from some mediaeval sculptured representation of the Agony in the Garden, common outside every large church.119In place of an angel appearing to comfort Christ, an evil spirit vexes him. The kiss of Judas is transformed into a genuflexion or prostration before him, and takes place, not in the Garden but in the Temple. The resistance of the disciples is mentioned. Jeschu is bound to a marble pillar and scourged. Of this the Gospels say nothing; but the pillar is an invariable feature in artistic representations of the scourging. Two of the sayings on the Cross are correctly given. In agreement with the account in the[pg 093]Talmud, Jeschu is stoned, and then, to identify the son of Panthera with the son of Mary, is hung on a tree. The tree breaks, and he falls to the ground. The visitor to Oberammergau Passion Play will remember the scene of Judas hanging himself, and the tree snapping. The Toledoth Jeschu does not say that Jeschu was crucified, but that he was hung. The suicide of Judas was identified with the death of Jesus. If the author of the anti-evangel saw the scene of the breaking bough in a miracle-play, he would perhaps naturally transfer it to Christ.The women seated late at night by the sepulchre, or coming early with spices, a feature in miracle-plays of the Passion, are transformed into the disciples weeping above the grave. The angel who addresses them, in the Toledoth Jeschu, becomes Judas.In miracle-plays, Claudia Procula, the wife of Pilate, assumes a prominence she does not occupy in the Gospels; she may have originated the idea in the mind of the author of Wagenseil's Toledoth, of the Queen Helena. That he confounded the Queen of King Jannaeus with the mother of Constantine is not wonderful. The latter was the only historical princess who showed sympathy with the Christians at Jerusalem, and of whose existence the anonymous author was aware, probably through the popular mediaeval romance of Helena,“La belle Helène.”He therefore fell without a struggle into the gross anachronism of making the Empress Helena the wife of Jannaeus, and contemporary with Christ.In the Toledoth Jeschu of Wagenseil, Simon Peter is represented as a Jew ruling the Christians in favour of the Jews. The Papacy must have been fully organized when this anti-evangel was written, and the Jews must have felt the protection accorded them by the Popes[pg 094]against their persecutors. St. Gregory the Great wrote letters, in 591 and 598, in behalf of the Jews who were maltreated in Italy and Sicily. Alexander II., in 1068, wrote a letter to the Bishops of Gaul exhorting them to protect the Jews against the violence of the Crusaders, who massacred them on their way to the East. He gave as his reason for their protection the very one put into Simon Cephas' mouth in the Toledoth Jeschu, that God had preserved them and scattered them in all countries as witnesses to the truth of the Gospel. In the cruel confiscation of their goods, and expulsion from France by Philip Augustus, and the simultaneous persecution they underwent in England, Innocent III. took their side, and insisted, in 1199, on their being protected from violence. Gregory IX. defended them when maltreated in Spain and in France by the Crusaders in 1236, on their appeal to him for protection. In 1246, the Jews of Germany appealed to the Pope, Innocent IV., against the ecclesiastical and secular princes who pillaged them on false charges. Innocent wrote, in 1247, ordering those who had wronged them to indemnify them for their losses.In 1417, the Jews of Constance came to meet Martin V., as their protector, on his coronation, with hymns and torches, and presented him with the Pentateuch, which he had the discourtesy to refuse, saying that they might have the Law, but they did not understand it.The claim made in the Toledoth Jeschu that the Papacy was a government in the interest of the Jews against the violence of the Christians, points to the thirteenth century as the date of the composition of this book, a century when the Jews suffered more from Christian brutality than at any other period, when their exasperation against everything Christian was wrought to its highest pitch, and when they found the[pg 095]Chair of Peter their only protection against extermination by the disciples of Christ.Some dim reference may be made to the anti-pope of Jewish blood, Peter Leonis, who took the name of Anacletus II., and who survives in modern Jewish legend as the Pope Elchanan. Anacletus II. (A.D. 1130-1138) maintained his authority in Rome against Innocent II., and from his refuge in the tower of St. Angelo, defied the Emperor Lothair, who had marched to Rome to install Innocent. Anacletus was accused of showing favour to the Jews, whose blood he inherited—his father was a Jewish usurer. When Christians shrank from robbing the churches of their silver and golden ornaments, required by Anacletus to pay his mercenaries and bribe the venal Romans, he is said to have entrusted the odious task to the Jews.Jewish legend has converted the Jewish anti-pope into the son of the Rabbi Simeon Ben Isaac, of Mainz, who died A.D. 1096. According to the story, the child Elchanan was stolen from his father and mother by a Christian nurse, was taken charge of by monks, grew up to be ordained priest, and finally was elected Pope.As a child he had been wont to play chess with his father, and had learned from him a favourite move whereby to check-mate his adversary.The Jews of Germany suffered from oppression, and appointed the Rabbi Simeon to bear their complaints to the Pope. The old Jew went to Rome and was introduced to the presence of the Holy Father. Elchanan recognized him at once, and sent forth all his attendants, then proposed a game of chess with the Rabbi. When the Pope played the favourite move of the old Jew, Simeon Ben Isaac sprang up, smote his brow, and cried out,“I thought none knew this move save I and my long-lost child.”“I am that child,”answered the[pg 096]Pope, and he flung himself into the arms of the aged Jew.120That the Wagenseil Toledoth Jeschu was written in the eleventh, twelfth or thirteenth century appears probable from the fact stated, that it was in these centuries that the Jews were more subjected to persecution, spoliation and massacre than in any other; and the Toledoth Jeschu is the cry of rage of a tortured people,—a curse hurled at the Founder of that religion which oppressed them.In the eleventh century the Jews in the great Rhine cities were massacred by the ferocious hosts of Crusaders under Ernico, Count of Leiningen, and the priests Folkmar and Goteschalk. At the voice of their leaders (A.D. 1096), the furious multitude of red-crossed pilgrims spread through the cities of the Rhine and the Moselle, massacring pitilessly all the Jews that they met with in their passage. In their despair, a great number preferred being their own destroyers to awaiting certain death at the hands of their enemies. Several shut themselves up in their houses, and perished amidst flames their own hands had kindled; some attached heavy stones to their garments, and precipitated themselves and their treasures into the Rhine or Moselle. Mothers stifled their children at the breast, saying that they preferred sending them to the bosom of Abraham to seeing them torn away to be nurtured in a religion which bred tigers.Some of the ecclesiastics behaved with Christian humanity. The Bishops of Worms and Spires ran some risk in saving as many as they could of this defenceless people. The Archbishop of Treves, less generous, gave refuge to such only as would consent to receive baptism, and coldly consigned the rest to the knives and halters[pg 097]of the Christian fanatics. The Archbishop of Mainz was more than suspected of participation in the plunder of his Jewish subjects. The Emperor took on himself the protection and redress of the wrongs endured by the Jews, and it was apparently at this time that the Jews were formally taken under feudal protection by the Emperor. They became his men, owing to him special allegiance, and with full right therefore to his protection.The Toledoth Jeschu of Wagenseil was composed by a German Jew; that is apparent from its mention of the letter of the synagogue of Worms to the Sanhedrim. Had it been written in the eleventh century, it would not have represented the Pope as the refuge of the persecuted Jews, for it was the Emperor who redressed their wrongs.But it was in the thirteenth century that the Popes stood forth as the special protectors of the Jews. On May 1, 1291, the Jewish bankers throughout France were seized and imprisoned by order of Philip the Fair, and forced to pay enormous mulcts. Some died under torture, most yielded, and then fled the inhospitable realm. Five years after, in one day, all the Jews in France were taken, their property confiscated to the Crown, the race expelled the realm.In 1320, the Jews of the South of France, notwithstanding persecution and expulsion, were again in numbers and perilous prosperity. On them burst the fury of the Pastoureaux. Five hundred took refuge in the royal castle of Verdun on the Garonne. The royal officers refused to defend them. The shepherds set fire to the lower stories of a lofty tower; the Jews slew each other, having thrown their children to the mercy of their assailants. Everywhere, even in the great cities, Auch, Toulouse, Castel Sarrazen, the Jews were left to[pg 098]be remorselessly massacred and their property pillaged. The Pope himself might have seen the smoke of the fires that consumed them darkening the horizon from the walls of Avignon. But John XXII., cold, arrogant, rapacious, stood by unmoved. He launched his excommunication, not against the murderers of the inoffensive Jews, but against all who presumed to take the Cross without warrant of the Holy See. Even that same year he published violent bulls against the poor persecuted Hebrews, and commanded the Bishops to destroy their Talmud, the source of their detestable blasphemies; but he bade those who should submit to baptism to be protected from pillage and massacre.The Toledoth Jeschu, therefore, cannot have been written at the beginning of the fourteenth century, when the Jews had such experience of the indifference of a Pope to their wrongs. We are consequently forced to look to the thirteenth century as its date. And the thirteenth century will provide us with instances of persecution of the Jews in Germany, and Popes exerting themselves to protect them.In 1236, the Jews were the subject of an outburst of popular fury throughout Europe, but especially in Spain, where a fearful carnage took place. In France, the Crusaders of Guienne, Poitou, Anjou and Brittany killed them, without sparing the women and children. Women with child were ripped up. The unfortunate Jews were thrown down, and trodden under the feet of horses. Their houses were ransacked, their books burned, their treasures carried off. Those who refused baptism were tortured or killed. The unhappy people sent to Rome, and implored the Pope to extend his protection to them. Gregory IX. wrote at once to the Archbishop of Bordeaux, the Bishops of Saintes, Angoulême and Poictiers, forbidding constraint to be exercised on the Jews to[pg 099]force them to receive baptism; and a letter to the King entreating him to exert his authority to repress the fury of the Crusaders against the Jews.In 1240, the Jews were expelled from Brittany by the Duke John, at the request of the Bishops of Brittany.In 1246, the persecution reached its height in Germany. Bishops and nobles vied with each other in despoiling and harassing the unfortunate Hebrews. They were charged with killing Christian children and devouring their hearts at their Passover. Whenever a dead body was found, the Jews were accused of the murder. Hosts were dabbled in blood, and thrown down at their doors, and the ignorant mob rose against such profanation of the sacred mysteries. They were stripped of their goods, thrown into prison, starved, racked, condemned to the stake or to the gallows. From the German towns miserable trains of yellow-girdled and capped exiles issued, seeking some more hospitable homes. If they left behind them their wealth, they carried with them their industry.A deputation of German Rabbis visited the Pope, Innocent IV., at Lyons, and laid the complaints of the Jews before him. Innocent at once took up their cause. He wrote to all the bishops of Germany, on July 5th, 1247, ordering them to favour the Jews, and insist on the redress of the wrongs to which they had been subjected, whether at the hands of ecclesiastics or nobles. A similar letter was then forwarded by him to all the bishops of France.At this period it was in vain for the Jews to appeal to the Emperor. Frederick II. was excommunicated, and Germany in revolt, fanned by the Pope, against him. A new Emperor had been proposed at a meeting at Budweis to the electors of Austria, Bohemia and Bavaria, but the proposition had been rejected. Henry of Thuringia,[pg 100]however, set up by Innocent, and supported by the ecclesiastical princes of Germany, had been crowned at Hochem. A crusade was preached against the Emperor Frederick; Henry of Thuringia was defeated and died. The indefatigable Innocent, clinging to the cherished policy of the Papal See to ruin the unity of Germany by stirring up intestine strife, found another candidate in William of Holland. He was crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle, October 3, 1247. From this time till his death, four years after, the cause of Frederick declined. Frederick was mostly engaged in wars in Italy, and had not leisure, if he had the power, to attend to and right the wrongs of his Jewish vassals.It was at this period that I think we may conclude the Toledoth Jeschu of Wagenseil was written.Another consideration tends to confirm this view. The Wagenseil Toledoth Jeschu speaks of Elias rising up after the death of Simon Cephas, and denouncing him as having led the Christians away.Was there any Elias at the close of the thirteenth century who did thus preach against the Pope? There was. Elias of Cortona, second General of the Franciscan Order, the leader of a strong reactionary party opposed to the Spirituals or Caesarians, those who maintained the rule in all its rigour, had been deposed, then carried back into the Generalship by a recoil of the party wave, then appealed against to the Pope, deposed once more, and finally excommunicated. Elias joined the Emperor Frederick, the deadly foe of Innocent IV., and, sheltered under his wing, denounced the venality, the avarice, the extortion of the Papacy. As a close attendant on the German Emperor, his adviser, as one who encouraged him in his opposition to a Pope who protected the Jews, the German Jews must have heard of him. But the stone of excommunication firing at him struck him[pg 101]down, and he died in 1253, making a death-bed reconciliation with Rome.But though it is thus possible to give an historical explanation of the curious circumstance that the Toledoth Jeschu ranges the Pope among the friends of Judaism and the enemies of Christianity, and provide for the identification of Elias with the fallen General of the Minorites,—the story points perhaps to a dim recollection of Simon Peter being at the head of the Judaizing Church at Jerusalem and Rome, which made common cause with the Jews, and of Paul, here designated Elias, in opposition to him.

We will take first theWagenseiledition of theToledoth Jeschu,108and give an outline of the story, only suppressing the most offensive particulars, and commenting on the narrative as we proceed. Wagenseil's Toledoth Jeschu begins as follows:

“In the year of the world 4671, in the days of King Jannaeus, a great misfortune befel Israel. There arose at that time a scape-grace, a wastrel and worthless fellow, of the fallen race of Judah, named Joseph Pandira. He was a well-built man, strong and handsome, but he spent his time in robbery and violence. His dwelling was at Bethlehem, in Juda. And there lived near him a widow with her daughter, whose name was Mirjam; and this is the same Mirjam who dressed and curled women's hair, who is mentioned several times in the Talmud.”

It is remarkable that the author begins with the very phrase found in Josephus. He calls the appearance of our Lord“a great misfortune which befel Israel.”Josephus, after the passage which has been intruded into his text relative to the miracles and death of Christ, says,“About this time another great misfortune set the Jews in commotion;”from which it appears as if Josephus regarded the preaching of Christ as a great misfortune. That he made no such reference has been already shown.

The author also places the birth of Jesus, in accordance with the Talmud, in the reign of Alexander Jannaeus, who reigned from B.C. 106 to B.C. 79. He reckons from the creation of the world, and gives the year as 4671 (B.C. 910). This manner of reckoning was only introduced among the Jews in the fourth century after Christ, and did not become common till the twelfth century.

The Wagenseil Toledoth goes on to say that the widow engaged Mirjam to an amiable, God-fearing youth, named Jochanan (John), a disciple of the Rabbi Simeon, son of Shetach (fl. B.C. 70); but he went away to Babylon, and she became the mother of Jeschu by Joseph Pandira. The child was named Joshua, after his uncle, and was given to the Rabbi Elchanan to be instructed in the Law.

One day Jeschu, when a boy, passed before the Rabbi Simeon Ben Shetach and other members of the Sanhedrim without uncovering his head and bowing his knee. The elders were indignant. Three hundred trumpets were blown, and Jeschu was excommunicated and cast out of the Temple. Then he went away to Galilee, and spent there several years.

“Now at this time the unutterable Name of God was engraved in the Temple on the corner-stone. For when King David dug the foundations, he found there a stone in the ground on which the Name of God was engraved, and he took it and placed it in the Holy of Holies.“But as the wise men feared lest some inquisitive youth should learn this Name, and be able thereby to destroy the world, which God avert! they made, by magic, two brazen lions, which they set before the entrance to the Holy of Holies, one on the right, the other on the left.“Now if any one were to go within, and learn the holy Name, then the lions would begin to roar as he came out, so that, out of alarm and bewilderment, he would lose his presence of mind and forget the Name.[pg 078]“And Jeschu left Upper Galilee, and came secretly to Jerusalem, and went into the Temple and learned there the holy writing; and after he had written the incommunicable Name on parchment, he uttered it, with intent that he might feel no pain, and then he cut into his flesh, and hid the parchment with its inscription therein. Then he uttered the Name once more, and made so that his flesh healed up again.“And when he went out at the door, the lions roared, and he forgot the Name. Therefore he hasted outside the town, cut into his flesh, took the writing out, and when he had sufficiently studied the signs he retained the Name in his memory.”

“But as the wise men feared lest some inquisitive youth should learn this Name, and be able thereby to destroy the world, which God avert! they made, by magic, two brazen lions, which they set before the entrance to the Holy of Holies, one on the right, the other on the left.

“Now if any one were to go within, and learn the holy Name, then the lions would begin to roar as he came out, so that, out of alarm and bewilderment, he would lose his presence of mind and forget the Name.

“And Jeschu left Upper Galilee, and came secretly to Jerusalem, and went into the Temple and learned there the holy writing; and after he had written the incommunicable Name on parchment, he uttered it, with intent that he might feel no pain, and then he cut into his flesh, and hid the parchment with its inscription therein. Then he uttered the Name once more, and made so that his flesh healed up again.

“And when he went out at the door, the lions roared, and he forgot the Name. Therefore he hasted outside the town, cut into his flesh, took the writing out, and when he had sufficiently studied the signs he retained the Name in his memory.”

It is scarcely necessary here to point out the amazing ignorance of the author of the Toledoth Jeschu in making David the builder of the Temple, and in placing the images of lions at the entrance to the Holy of Holies. The story is introduced because Jeschu, son of Stada, in the Talmud is said to have made marks on his skin. But the author knew his Talmud very imperfectly. The Babylonian Gemara says,“Did not the son of Stada mark the magical arts on his skin, and bring them with him out of Egypt?”The story in the Talmud which accounted for the power of Jeschu to work miracles was quite different from that in the Toledoth Jeschu. In the Talmud he has power by bringing out of Egypt, secretly cut on his skin, the magic arts there privately taught; in the Toledoth he acquires his power by learning the incommunicable Name and hiding it under his flesh.

However, the author says,“He could not have penetrated into the Holy of Holies without the aid of magic; for how would the holy priests and followers of Aaron have suffered him to enter there? This must certainly have been done by the aid of magic.”But the author gives no account of how Jeschu learned magic. That[pg 079]we ascertain from the Huldrich text, where we are told that Jeschu spent many years in Egypt, the head-quarters of those who practised magic.

Having acquired this knowledge, Jeschu went into Galilee and proclaimed himself to have been the creator of the world, and born of a virgin, according to the prophecy of Isaiah (vii. 14). As a sign of the truth of his mission, he said:

“Bring me here a dead man, and I will restore him to life. Then all the people hasted and dug into a grave, but found nothing in it but bones.“Now when they told him that they had found only bones, he said, Bring them hither to me.“So when they had brought them, he placed the bones together, and surrounded them with skin and flesh and muscles, so that the dead man stood up alive on his feet.“And when the people saw this, they wondered greatly; and he said, Do ye marvel at this that I have done? Bring hither a leper, and I will heal him.“So when they had placed a leper before him, he gave him health in like manner, by means of the incommunicable Name. And all the people that saw this fell down before him, prayed to him and said, Truly thou art the Son of God!“But after five days the report of what had been done came to Jerusalem, to the holy city, and all was related that Jeschu had wrought in Galilee. Then all the people rejoiced greatly; but the elders, the pious men, and the company of the wise men, wept bitterly. And the great and the little Sanhedrim mourned, and at length agreed that they would send a deputation to him.“For they thought that, perhaps, with God's help, they might overpower him, and bring him to judgment, and condemn him to death.“Therefore they sent unto him Ananias and Achasias, the noblest men of the little council; and when they had come to him, they bowed themselves before him reverently, in order to[pg 080]deceive him as to their purpose. And he, thinking that they believed in him, received them with smiling countenance, and placed them in his assembly of profligates.“They said unto him, The most pious and illustrious among the citizens of Jerusalem sent us unto thee, to hear if it shall please thee to go to them; for they have heard say that thou art the Son of God.“Then answered Jeschu and said, They have heard aright. I will do all that they desire, but only on condition that both the great and lesser Sanhedrim and all who have despised my origin shall come forth to meet me, and shall honour and receive me as servants of their Lord, when I come to them.“Thereupon the messengers returned to Jerusalem and related all that they had heard.“Then answered the elders and the righteous men, We will do all that he desires. Therefore these men went again to Jeschu, and told him that it should be even as he had said.“And Jeschu said, I will go forthwith on my way! And it came to pass, when he had come as far as Nob,109nigh unto Jerusalem, that he said to his followers, Have ye here a good and comely ass?“They answered him that there was one even at hand. Therefore he said, Bring him hither to me.“And a stately ass was brought unto him, and he sat upon it, and rode into Jerusalem. And as Jeschu entered into the city, all the people went forth to meet him. Then he cried, saying, Of me did the prophet Zacharias testify, Behold thy King cometh unto thee, righteous and a Saviour, poor, and riding on an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass!“Now when they heard this, all wept bitterly and rent their clothes. And the most righteous hastened to the Queen. She was the Queen Helena, wife of King Jannaeus, and she[pg 081]reigned after her husband's death. She was also called Oleina, and had a son, King Mumbasus, otherwise called Hyrcanus, who was slain by his servant Herod.110“And they said to her, He stirreth up the people; therefore is he guilty of the heaviest penalty. Give unto us full power, and we will take him by subtlety.“Then the Queen said, Call him hither before me, and I will hear his accusation. But she thought to save him out of their hands because he was related to her. But when the elders saw her purpose, they said to her, Think not to do this, Lady and Queen! and show him favour and good; for by his witchcraft he deceives the people. And they related to her how he had obtained the incommunicable Name....“Then the Queen answered, In this will I consent unto you; bring him hither that I may hear what he saith, and see with my eyes what he doth; for the whole world speaks of the countless miracles that he has wrought.“And the wise men answered, This will we do as thou hast said. So they sent and summoned Jeschu, and he came and stood before the Queen.”

“Bring me here a dead man, and I will restore him to life. Then all the people hasted and dug into a grave, but found nothing in it but bones.

“Now when they told him that they had found only bones, he said, Bring them hither to me.

“So when they had brought them, he placed the bones together, and surrounded them with skin and flesh and muscles, so that the dead man stood up alive on his feet.

“And when the people saw this, they wondered greatly; and he said, Do ye marvel at this that I have done? Bring hither a leper, and I will heal him.

“So when they had placed a leper before him, he gave him health in like manner, by means of the incommunicable Name. And all the people that saw this fell down before him, prayed to him and said, Truly thou art the Son of God!

“But after five days the report of what had been done came to Jerusalem, to the holy city, and all was related that Jeschu had wrought in Galilee. Then all the people rejoiced greatly; but the elders, the pious men, and the company of the wise men, wept bitterly. And the great and the little Sanhedrim mourned, and at length agreed that they would send a deputation to him.

“For they thought that, perhaps, with God's help, they might overpower him, and bring him to judgment, and condemn him to death.

“Therefore they sent unto him Ananias and Achasias, the noblest men of the little council; and when they had come to him, they bowed themselves before him reverently, in order to[pg 080]deceive him as to their purpose. And he, thinking that they believed in him, received them with smiling countenance, and placed them in his assembly of profligates.

“They said unto him, The most pious and illustrious among the citizens of Jerusalem sent us unto thee, to hear if it shall please thee to go to them; for they have heard say that thou art the Son of God.

“Then answered Jeschu and said, They have heard aright. I will do all that they desire, but only on condition that both the great and lesser Sanhedrim and all who have despised my origin shall come forth to meet me, and shall honour and receive me as servants of their Lord, when I come to them.

“Thereupon the messengers returned to Jerusalem and related all that they had heard.

“Then answered the elders and the righteous men, We will do all that he desires. Therefore these men went again to Jeschu, and told him that it should be even as he had said.

“And Jeschu said, I will go forthwith on my way! And it came to pass, when he had come as far as Nob,109nigh unto Jerusalem, that he said to his followers, Have ye here a good and comely ass?

“They answered him that there was one even at hand. Therefore he said, Bring him hither to me.

“And a stately ass was brought unto him, and he sat upon it, and rode into Jerusalem. And as Jeschu entered into the city, all the people went forth to meet him. Then he cried, saying, Of me did the prophet Zacharias testify, Behold thy King cometh unto thee, righteous and a Saviour, poor, and riding on an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass!

“Now when they heard this, all wept bitterly and rent their clothes. And the most righteous hastened to the Queen. She was the Queen Helena, wife of King Jannaeus, and she[pg 081]reigned after her husband's death. She was also called Oleina, and had a son, King Mumbasus, otherwise called Hyrcanus, who was slain by his servant Herod.110

“And they said to her, He stirreth up the people; therefore is he guilty of the heaviest penalty. Give unto us full power, and we will take him by subtlety.

“Then the Queen said, Call him hither before me, and I will hear his accusation. But she thought to save him out of their hands because he was related to her. But when the elders saw her purpose, they said to her, Think not to do this, Lady and Queen! and show him favour and good; for by his witchcraft he deceives the people. And they related to her how he had obtained the incommunicable Name....

“Then the Queen answered, In this will I consent unto you; bring him hither that I may hear what he saith, and see with my eyes what he doth; for the whole world speaks of the countless miracles that he has wrought.

“And the wise men answered, This will we do as thou hast said. So they sent and summoned Jeschu, and he came and stood before the Queen.”

In the sight of Queen Helena, Jeschu then healed a leper and raised a dead man to life.

“Then Jeschu said, Of me did Isaiah prophesy: The lame shall leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing.“So the Queen turned to the wise men and said, How say ye that this man is a magician? Have I not seen with my eyes the wonders he has wrought as being the Son of God?“But the wise men answered and said, Let it not come into the heart of the Queen to say so; for of a truth he is a wizard.“Then the Queen said, Away with you, and bring no such accusations again before me![pg 082]“Therefore the wise men went forth with sad hearts, and one turned to another and said, Let us use subtlety, that we may get him into our hands. And one said to another, If it seems right unto you, let one of us learn the Name, as he did, and work miracles, and perchance thus we shall secure him. And this counsel pleased the elders, and they said, He who will learn the Name and secure the Fatherless One shall receive a double reward in the future life.“And thereupon one of the elders stood up, whose name was Judas, and spake unto them, saying, Are ye agreed to take upon you the blame of such an action, if I speak the incommunicable Name? for if so, I will learn it, and it may happen that God in His mercy may bring the Fatherless One into my power.“Then all cried out with one voice, The guilt be on us; but do thou make the effort and succeed.“Thereupon he went into the Holiest Place, and did what Jeschu had done. And after that he went through the city and raised a cry, Where are those who have proclaimed abroad that the Fatherless is the Son of God? Cannot I, who am mere flesh and blood, do all that Jeschu has done?“And when this came to the ears of the Queen, Judas was brought before her, and all the elders assembled and followed him. Then the Queen summoned Jeschu, and said to him, Show us what thou hast done last. And he began to work miracles before all the people.“Thereat Judas spake to the Queen and to all the people, saying, Let nothing that has been wrought by the Fatherless make you wonder, for were he to set his nest between the stars, yet would I pluck him down from thence!“Then said Judas, Moses our teacher said:“If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers;“Namely, of the gods of the people which are round about[pg 083]you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth;“Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him:“But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people.“And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die; because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.“But the Fatherless One answered, Did not Isaias prophesy of me? And my father David, did he not speak of me? The Lord said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Desire of me, and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost part of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt rule them with a rod of iron, and break them in pieces like a potter's vessel. And in like manner he speaks in another place, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies my footstool! And now, behold! I will ascend to my Heavenly Father, and will sit me down at His right hand. Ye shall see it with your eyes, but thou, Judas, shalt not prevail!“And when Jeschu had spoken the incommunicable Name, there came a wind and raised him between heaven and earth. Thereupon Judas spake the same Name, and the wind raised him also between heaven and earth. And they flew, both of them, around in the regions of the air; and all who saw it marvelled.“Judas then spake again the Name, and seized Jeschu, and thought to cast him to the earth. But Jeschu also spake the Name, and sought to cast Judas down, and they strove one with the other.”

“Then Jeschu said, Of me did Isaiah prophesy: The lame shall leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing.

“So the Queen turned to the wise men and said, How say ye that this man is a magician? Have I not seen with my eyes the wonders he has wrought as being the Son of God?

“But the wise men answered and said, Let it not come into the heart of the Queen to say so; for of a truth he is a wizard.

“Then the Queen said, Away with you, and bring no such accusations again before me!

“Therefore the wise men went forth with sad hearts, and one turned to another and said, Let us use subtlety, that we may get him into our hands. And one said to another, If it seems right unto you, let one of us learn the Name, as he did, and work miracles, and perchance thus we shall secure him. And this counsel pleased the elders, and they said, He who will learn the Name and secure the Fatherless One shall receive a double reward in the future life.

“And thereupon one of the elders stood up, whose name was Judas, and spake unto them, saying, Are ye agreed to take upon you the blame of such an action, if I speak the incommunicable Name? for if so, I will learn it, and it may happen that God in His mercy may bring the Fatherless One into my power.

“Then all cried out with one voice, The guilt be on us; but do thou make the effort and succeed.

“Thereupon he went into the Holiest Place, and did what Jeschu had done. And after that he went through the city and raised a cry, Where are those who have proclaimed abroad that the Fatherless is the Son of God? Cannot I, who am mere flesh and blood, do all that Jeschu has done?

“And when this came to the ears of the Queen, Judas was brought before her, and all the elders assembled and followed him. Then the Queen summoned Jeschu, and said to him, Show us what thou hast done last. And he began to work miracles before all the people.

“Thereat Judas spake to the Queen and to all the people, saying, Let nothing that has been wrought by the Fatherless make you wonder, for were he to set his nest between the stars, yet would I pluck him down from thence!

“Then said Judas, Moses our teacher said:

“If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers;

“Namely, of the gods of the people which are round about[pg 083]you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth;

“Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him:

“But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people.

“And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die; because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.

“But the Fatherless One answered, Did not Isaias prophesy of me? And my father David, did he not speak of me? The Lord said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Desire of me, and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost part of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt rule them with a rod of iron, and break them in pieces like a potter's vessel. And in like manner he speaks in another place, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies my footstool! And now, behold! I will ascend to my Heavenly Father, and will sit me down at His right hand. Ye shall see it with your eyes, but thou, Judas, shalt not prevail!

“And when Jeschu had spoken the incommunicable Name, there came a wind and raised him between heaven and earth. Thereupon Judas spake the same Name, and the wind raised him also between heaven and earth. And they flew, both of them, around in the regions of the air; and all who saw it marvelled.

“Judas then spake again the Name, and seized Jeschu, and thought to cast him to the earth. But Jeschu also spake the Name, and sought to cast Judas down, and they strove one with the other.”

Finally Judas prevails, and casts Jeschu to the ground, and the elders seize him, his power leaves him, and he[pg 084]is subjected to the tauntings of his captors. Then sentence of death was spoken against him.

“But when Jeschu found his power gone, he cried and said, Of me did my father David speak, For thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.“Now when the disciples of Jeschu saw this, and all the multitude of sinners who had followed him, they fought against the elders and wise men of Jerusalem, and gave Jeschu opportunity to escape out of the city.“And he hasted to Jordan; and when he had washed therein his power returned, and with the Name he again wrought his former miracles.“Thereafter he went and took two millstones, and made them swim on the water; and he seated himself thereon, and caught fishes to feed the multitudes that followed him.”

“But when Jeschu found his power gone, he cried and said, Of me did my father David speak, For thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.

“Now when the disciples of Jeschu saw this, and all the multitude of sinners who had followed him, they fought against the elders and wise men of Jerusalem, and gave Jeschu opportunity to escape out of the city.

“And he hasted to Jordan; and when he had washed therein his power returned, and with the Name he again wrought his former miracles.

“Thereafter he went and took two millstones, and made them swim on the water; and he seated himself thereon, and caught fishes to feed the multitudes that followed him.”

Before going any further, it is advisable to make a few remarks on what has been given of this curious story.

The Queen Helena is probably the mother of Constantine, who went to Jerusalem in A.D. 326 to see the holy sites, and, according to an early legend, discovered the three crosses on Calvary. There are several incidents in the apocryphal story which bear a resemblance to the incidents in the Toledoth Jeschu.

The Empress Helena favours the Christians against the Jews. Where three crosses are found, a person suffering from“a grievous and incurable disease”is applied to the crosses, and recovers on touching the true one. Then the same experiment is tried with a dead body, with the same success.111According to the Apocryphal Acts of St. Cyriacus, a Jew named Judas was brought before the Empress, and ordered to point out where the[pg 085]cross was buried. Judas resisted, but was starved in a well till he revealed the secret. The resemblance between the stories consists in the names of Helena and Judas, and the miracles of healing a leper, and raising a dead man to life.

According to the Apocryphal Acts of St. Cyriacus, Judas was the grandson of Zacharias, and nephew of St. Stephen the protomartyr.112

It is remarkable that Jeschu should be made to quote two passages in the Psalms as prophecies of himself, both of which are used in this manner in the New Testament: Ps. ii. 7, in Acts xiii. 33, and again Heb. i. 5, and v. 5; and Ps. cx. 1, in St. Matthew xxii. 44, and the corresponding passages in St. Mark and St. Luke; also in Acts ii. 34, in 1 Cor. xv. 25, and Heb. i. 13.

The scene of the struggle in the air is taken from the contest of St. Peter with Simon Magus, and reminds one of the contest in the Arabian Nights between the Queen of Beauty and the Jin in the story of the Second Calender.

The putting forth from land on a millstone on the occasion of the miraculous draught of fishes is probably a perversion of the incident of Jesus entering into the boat of Peter—the stone—before the miracle was performed, according to St. Luke, v. 1-8. In the Toledoth Jeschu there are two millstones which our Lord sets afloat, and he mounts one, and then the fishes are caught; in St. Luke's Gospel there are two boats.

“He saw two ships standing by the lake.... And he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon's, and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people out of the ship. Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught.”

It was standing on the swimming-stone, according to the Huldrich version, that Jeschu preached to the people, and declared to them his divine mission.

The story goes on. The Sanhedrim, fearing to allow Jeschu to remain at liberty, send Judas after him to Jordan. Judas pronounces a great incantation, which obliges the Angel of Sleep to seal the eyes of Jeschu and his disciples. Then, whilst they sleep, he comes and cuts from the arm of Jeschu a scrap of parchment on which the Name of Jehovah is written, and which was concealed under the flesh. Jeschu awakes, and a spirit appears to him and vexes him sore. Then he feels that his power is gone, and he announces to his disciples that his hour is come when he must be taken by his enemies.

The disciples, amongst whom is Judas, who unobserved, has mingled with them, are sorely grieved; but Jeschu encourages them, and bids them believe in him, and they will obtain thrones in heaven. Then he goes with them to the Paschal Feast, in hopes of again being able to penetrate into the Holy of Holies, and reading again the incommunicable Name, and of thus recovering his power. But Judas forewarns the elders, and as Jeschu enters the Temple he is attacked by armed men. The Jewish servants do not know Jeschu from his disciples. Accordingly Judas flings himself down before him, and thus indicates whom they are to take. Some of the disciples offer resistance, but are speedily overcome, and take to flight to the mountains, where they are caught and executed.

“But the elders of Jerusalem led Jeschu in chains into the city, and bound him to a marble pillar, and scourged him, and said, Where are now all the miracles thou hast wrought? And they plaited a crown of thorns and set it on his head. Then the Fatherless was in anguish through thirst, and he[pg 087]cried, saying, Give me water to drink! So they gave him acid vinegar; and after he had drunk thereof he cried, Of me did my father David prophesy, They gave me gall to eat, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.113But they answered, If thou wert God, why didst thou not know it was vinegar before tasting of it? Now thou art at the brink of the grave, and changest not. But Jeschu wept and said, My God, my God! why hast thou forsaken me? And the elders said, If thou be God, save thyself from our hands. But Jeschu answered, saying, My blood is shed for the redemption of the world, for Isaiah prophesied of me, He was wounded for our transgression and bruised for our iniquities; our chastisement lies upon him that we may have peace, and by his wounds we are healed.114Then they led Jeschu forth before the greater and the lesser Sanhedrim, and he was sentenced to be stoned, and then to be hung on a tree. And it was the eve of the Passover and of the Sabbath. And they led him forth to the place where the punishment of stoning was wont to be executed, and they stoned him there till he was dead. And after that, the wise men hung him on the tree; but no tree would bear him; each brake and yielded. And when even was come the wise men said, We may not, on account of the Fatherless, break the letter of the law (which forbids that one who is hung should remain all night on the tree). Though he may have set at naught the law, yet will not we. Therefore they buried the Fatherless in the place where he was stoned. And when, midnight was come, the disciples came and seated themselves on the grave, and wept and lamented him. Now when Judas saw this, he took the body away and buried it in his garden under a brook. He diverted the water of the brook elsewhere; but when the body was laid in its bed, he brought its waters back again into their former channel.“Now on the morrow, when the disciples had assembled and had seated themselves weeping, Judas came to them and said, Why weep you? Seek him who was buried. And[pg 088]they dug and sought, and found him not, and all the company cried, He is not in the grave; he is risen and ascended into heaven, for, when he was yet alive, he said, He would raise him up, Selah!”

“Now on the morrow, when the disciples had assembled and had seated themselves weeping, Judas came to them and said, Why weep you? Seek him who was buried. And[pg 088]they dug and sought, and found him not, and all the company cried, He is not in the grave; he is risen and ascended into heaven, for, when he was yet alive, he said, He would raise him up, Selah!”

When the Queen heard that the elders had slain Jeschu and had buried him, and that he was risen again, she ordered them within three days to produce the body or forfeit their lives. In sore alarm, the elders seek the body, but cannot find it. They therefore proclaim a fast.

“Now there was amongst them an elder whose name was Tanchuma; and he went forth in sore distress, and wandered in the fields, and he saw Judas sitting in his garden eating. Then Tanchuma drew near to him, and said to him, What doest thou, Judas, that thou eatest meat, when all the Jews fast and are in grievous distress?“Then Judas was astonished, and asked the occasion of the fast. And the Rabbi Tanchuma answered him, Jeschu the Fatherless is the occasion, for he was hung up and buried on the spot where he was stoned; but now is he taken away, and we know not where he is gone. And his worthless disciples cry out that he is ascended into heaven. Now the Queen has condemned us Israelites to death unless we find him.“Judas asked, And if the Fatherless One were found, would it be the salvation of Israel? The Rabbi Tanchuma answered that it would be even so.“Then spake Judas, Come, and I will show you the man whom ye seek; for it was I who took the Fatherless from his grave. For I feared lest his disciples should steal him away, and I have hidden him in my garden and led a water-brook over the place.“Then the Rabbi Tanchuma hasted to the elders of Israel, and told them all. And they came together, and drew him forth, attached to the tail of a horse, and brought him before[pg 089]the Queen, and said, See! this is the man who, they say, has ascended into heaven!“Now when the Queen saw this, she was filled with shame, and answered not a word.“Now it fell out, that in dragging the body to the place, the hair was torn off the head; and this is the reason why monks shave their heads. It is done in remembrance of what befel Jeschu.“And after this, in consequence thereof, there grew to be strife between the Nazarenes and the Jews, so that they parted asunder; and when a Nazarene saw a Jew he slew him. And from day to day the distress grew greater, during thirty years. And the Nazarenes assembled in thousands and tens of thousands, and hindered the Israelites from going up to the festivals at Jerusalem. And then there was great distress, such as when the golden calf was set up, so that they knew not what to do.“And the belief of the opposition grew more and more, and spread on all sides. Also twelve godless runagates separated and traversed the twelve realms, and everywhere in the assemblies of the people uttered false prophecies.“Also many Israelites adhered to them, and these were men of high renown, and they strengthened the faith in Jeschu. And because they gave themselves out to be messengers of him who was hung, a great number followed them from among the Israelites.“Now when the wise men saw the desperate condition of affairs, one said to another, Woe is unto us! for we have deserved it through our sins. And they sat in great distress, and wept, and looked up to heaven and prayed.“And when they had ended their prayer, there rose up a very aged man of the elders, by name Simon Cephas, who understood prophecy, and he said to the others, Hearken to me, my brethren! and if ye will consent unto my advice, I will separate these wicked ones from the company of the Israelites, that they may have neither part nor lot with Israel. But the sin do ye take upon you.[pg 090]“Then answered they all and said, The sin be on us; declare unto us thy counsel, and fulfil thy purpose.“Therefore Simon, son of Cephas, went into the Holiest Place and wrote the incommunicable Name, and cut into his flesh and hid the parchment therein. And when he came forth out of the Temple he took forth the writing, and when he had learned the Name he betook himself to the chief city of the Nazarenes,115and he cried there with a loud voice, Let all who believe in Jeschu come unto me, for I am sent by him to you!“Then there came to him multitudes as the sand on the sea-shore, and they said to him, Show us a sign that thou art sent! And he said, What sign? They answered him, Even the signs that Jeschu wrought when he was alive.”

“Then Judas was astonished, and asked the occasion of the fast. And the Rabbi Tanchuma answered him, Jeschu the Fatherless is the occasion, for he was hung up and buried on the spot where he was stoned; but now is he taken away, and we know not where he is gone. And his worthless disciples cry out that he is ascended into heaven. Now the Queen has condemned us Israelites to death unless we find him.

“Judas asked, And if the Fatherless One were found, would it be the salvation of Israel? The Rabbi Tanchuma answered that it would be even so.

“Then spake Judas, Come, and I will show you the man whom ye seek; for it was I who took the Fatherless from his grave. For I feared lest his disciples should steal him away, and I have hidden him in my garden and led a water-brook over the place.

“Then the Rabbi Tanchuma hasted to the elders of Israel, and told them all. And they came together, and drew him forth, attached to the tail of a horse, and brought him before[pg 089]the Queen, and said, See! this is the man who, they say, has ascended into heaven!

“Now when the Queen saw this, she was filled with shame, and answered not a word.

“Now it fell out, that in dragging the body to the place, the hair was torn off the head; and this is the reason why monks shave their heads. It is done in remembrance of what befel Jeschu.

“And after this, in consequence thereof, there grew to be strife between the Nazarenes and the Jews, so that they parted asunder; and when a Nazarene saw a Jew he slew him. And from day to day the distress grew greater, during thirty years. And the Nazarenes assembled in thousands and tens of thousands, and hindered the Israelites from going up to the festivals at Jerusalem. And then there was great distress, such as when the golden calf was set up, so that they knew not what to do.

“And the belief of the opposition grew more and more, and spread on all sides. Also twelve godless runagates separated and traversed the twelve realms, and everywhere in the assemblies of the people uttered false prophecies.

“Also many Israelites adhered to them, and these were men of high renown, and they strengthened the faith in Jeschu. And because they gave themselves out to be messengers of him who was hung, a great number followed them from among the Israelites.

“Now when the wise men saw the desperate condition of affairs, one said to another, Woe is unto us! for we have deserved it through our sins. And they sat in great distress, and wept, and looked up to heaven and prayed.

“And when they had ended their prayer, there rose up a very aged man of the elders, by name Simon Cephas, who understood prophecy, and he said to the others, Hearken to me, my brethren! and if ye will consent unto my advice, I will separate these wicked ones from the company of the Israelites, that they may have neither part nor lot with Israel. But the sin do ye take upon you.

“Then answered they all and said, The sin be on us; declare unto us thy counsel, and fulfil thy purpose.

“Therefore Simon, son of Cephas, went into the Holiest Place and wrote the incommunicable Name, and cut into his flesh and hid the parchment therein. And when he came forth out of the Temple he took forth the writing, and when he had learned the Name he betook himself to the chief city of the Nazarenes,115and he cried there with a loud voice, Let all who believe in Jeschu come unto me, for I am sent by him to you!

“Then there came to him multitudes as the sand on the sea-shore, and they said to him, Show us a sign that thou art sent! And he said, What sign? They answered him, Even the signs that Jeschu wrought when he was alive.”

Accordingly he heals a leper and restores a dead man to life. And when the people saw this, they submitted to him, as one sent to them by Jeschu.

Then said Simon Cephas to them, Yea, verily, Jeschu did send me to you, and now swear unto me that ye will obey me in all things that I command you.“And they swore to him, We will do all things that thou commandest.“Then Simon Cephas said, Ye know that he who hung on the tree was an enemy to the Israelites and the Law, because of the prophecy of Isaiah, Your new moons and festivals my soul hateth.116And that he had no pleasure in the Israelites, according to the saying of Hosea, Ye are not my people.117Now, although it is in his power to blot them in the twinkling of an eye from off the face of the earth, yet will he not root them out, but will keep them ever in the midst of you as a witness to his stoning and hanging on the tree. He endured these pains and the punishment of death, to redeem your souls from hell. And now he warns and commands you[pg 091]to do no harm to any Jew. Yea, even should a Jew say to a Nazarene, Go with me a mile, he shall go with him twain; or should a Nazarene be smitten by a Jew on one cheek, let him turn to him the other also, that the Jews may enjoy in this world their good things, for in the world to come they must suffer their punishment in hell. If ye do these things, then shall ye merit to sit with them (i.e.the apostles) on their thrones.118“And this also doth he require of you, that ye do not celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread, but that ye keep holy the day on which he died. And in place of the Feast of Pentecost, that ye keep the fortieth day after his stoning, on which he went up into heaven. And in place of the Feast of Tabernacles, that ye keep the day of his Nativity, and eight days after that ye shall celebrate his Circumcision.”

Then said Simon Cephas to them, Yea, verily, Jeschu did send me to you, and now swear unto me that ye will obey me in all things that I command you.

“And they swore to him, We will do all things that thou commandest.

“Then Simon Cephas said, Ye know that he who hung on the tree was an enemy to the Israelites and the Law, because of the prophecy of Isaiah, Your new moons and festivals my soul hateth.116And that he had no pleasure in the Israelites, according to the saying of Hosea, Ye are not my people.117Now, although it is in his power to blot them in the twinkling of an eye from off the face of the earth, yet will he not root them out, but will keep them ever in the midst of you as a witness to his stoning and hanging on the tree. He endured these pains and the punishment of death, to redeem your souls from hell. And now he warns and commands you[pg 091]to do no harm to any Jew. Yea, even should a Jew say to a Nazarene, Go with me a mile, he shall go with him twain; or should a Nazarene be smitten by a Jew on one cheek, let him turn to him the other also, that the Jews may enjoy in this world their good things, for in the world to come they must suffer their punishment in hell. If ye do these things, then shall ye merit to sit with them (i.e.the apostles) on their thrones.118

“And this also doth he require of you, that ye do not celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread, but that ye keep holy the day on which he died. And in place of the Feast of Pentecost, that ye keep the fortieth day after his stoning, on which he went up into heaven. And in place of the Feast of Tabernacles, that ye keep the day of his Nativity, and eight days after that ye shall celebrate his Circumcision.”

The Christians promised to do as Cephas commanded them, but they desired him to reside in the midst of them in their great city.

To this he consented.“I will dwell with you,”said he,“if ye will promise to permit me to abstain from all food, and to eat only the bread of poverty and drink the water of affliction. Ye must also build me a tower in the midst of the city, wherein I may spend the rest of my days.”

This was done. The tower was built and called“Peter,”and in this Cephas dwelt till his death six years after.“In truth, he served the God of our fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and composed many beautiful hymns, which he dispersed among the Jews, that they might serve as a perpetual memorial of him; and he divided all his hymns among the Rabbis of Israel.”

On his death he was buried in the tower.

After his death, a man named Elias assumed the place of messenger of Jeschu, and he declared that Simon[pg 092]Cephas had deceived the Christians, and that he, Elias, was an apostle of Jeschu, rather than Cephas, and that the Christians should follow him. The Christians asked for a sign.

Elias said“What sign do ye ask?”Then a stone fell from the tower Peter, and smote him that he died.“Thus,”concludes this first version of the Toledoth Jeschu,“may all Thine enemies perish, O Lord; but may those that love Thee be as the sun when it shineth in its strength!”

Thus ends this wonderful composition, which carries its own condemnation with it.

The two captures and sentences of Jeschu are apparently two forms of Jewish legend concerning Christ's death, which the anonymous writer has clumsily combined.

The scene in Gethsemane is laid on the other side of Jordan. It is manifestly imitated from the Gospels, but not directly, probably from some mediaeval sculptured representation of the Agony in the Garden, common outside every large church.119In place of an angel appearing to comfort Christ, an evil spirit vexes him. The kiss of Judas is transformed into a genuflexion or prostration before him, and takes place, not in the Garden but in the Temple. The resistance of the disciples is mentioned. Jeschu is bound to a marble pillar and scourged. Of this the Gospels say nothing; but the pillar is an invariable feature in artistic representations of the scourging. Two of the sayings on the Cross are correctly given. In agreement with the account in the[pg 093]Talmud, Jeschu is stoned, and then, to identify the son of Panthera with the son of Mary, is hung on a tree. The tree breaks, and he falls to the ground. The visitor to Oberammergau Passion Play will remember the scene of Judas hanging himself, and the tree snapping. The Toledoth Jeschu does not say that Jeschu was crucified, but that he was hung. The suicide of Judas was identified with the death of Jesus. If the author of the anti-evangel saw the scene of the breaking bough in a miracle-play, he would perhaps naturally transfer it to Christ.

The women seated late at night by the sepulchre, or coming early with spices, a feature in miracle-plays of the Passion, are transformed into the disciples weeping above the grave. The angel who addresses them, in the Toledoth Jeschu, becomes Judas.

In miracle-plays, Claudia Procula, the wife of Pilate, assumes a prominence she does not occupy in the Gospels; she may have originated the idea in the mind of the author of Wagenseil's Toledoth, of the Queen Helena. That he confounded the Queen of King Jannaeus with the mother of Constantine is not wonderful. The latter was the only historical princess who showed sympathy with the Christians at Jerusalem, and of whose existence the anonymous author was aware, probably through the popular mediaeval romance of Helena,“La belle Helène.”He therefore fell without a struggle into the gross anachronism of making the Empress Helena the wife of Jannaeus, and contemporary with Christ.

In the Toledoth Jeschu of Wagenseil, Simon Peter is represented as a Jew ruling the Christians in favour of the Jews. The Papacy must have been fully organized when this anti-evangel was written, and the Jews must have felt the protection accorded them by the Popes[pg 094]against their persecutors. St. Gregory the Great wrote letters, in 591 and 598, in behalf of the Jews who were maltreated in Italy and Sicily. Alexander II., in 1068, wrote a letter to the Bishops of Gaul exhorting them to protect the Jews against the violence of the Crusaders, who massacred them on their way to the East. He gave as his reason for their protection the very one put into Simon Cephas' mouth in the Toledoth Jeschu, that God had preserved them and scattered them in all countries as witnesses to the truth of the Gospel. In the cruel confiscation of their goods, and expulsion from France by Philip Augustus, and the simultaneous persecution they underwent in England, Innocent III. took their side, and insisted, in 1199, on their being protected from violence. Gregory IX. defended them when maltreated in Spain and in France by the Crusaders in 1236, on their appeal to him for protection. In 1246, the Jews of Germany appealed to the Pope, Innocent IV., against the ecclesiastical and secular princes who pillaged them on false charges. Innocent wrote, in 1247, ordering those who had wronged them to indemnify them for their losses.

In 1417, the Jews of Constance came to meet Martin V., as their protector, on his coronation, with hymns and torches, and presented him with the Pentateuch, which he had the discourtesy to refuse, saying that they might have the Law, but they did not understand it.

The claim made in the Toledoth Jeschu that the Papacy was a government in the interest of the Jews against the violence of the Christians, points to the thirteenth century as the date of the composition of this book, a century when the Jews suffered more from Christian brutality than at any other period, when their exasperation against everything Christian was wrought to its highest pitch, and when they found the[pg 095]Chair of Peter their only protection against extermination by the disciples of Christ.

Some dim reference may be made to the anti-pope of Jewish blood, Peter Leonis, who took the name of Anacletus II., and who survives in modern Jewish legend as the Pope Elchanan. Anacletus II. (A.D. 1130-1138) maintained his authority in Rome against Innocent II., and from his refuge in the tower of St. Angelo, defied the Emperor Lothair, who had marched to Rome to install Innocent. Anacletus was accused of showing favour to the Jews, whose blood he inherited—his father was a Jewish usurer. When Christians shrank from robbing the churches of their silver and golden ornaments, required by Anacletus to pay his mercenaries and bribe the venal Romans, he is said to have entrusted the odious task to the Jews.

Jewish legend has converted the Jewish anti-pope into the son of the Rabbi Simeon Ben Isaac, of Mainz, who died A.D. 1096. According to the story, the child Elchanan was stolen from his father and mother by a Christian nurse, was taken charge of by monks, grew up to be ordained priest, and finally was elected Pope.

As a child he had been wont to play chess with his father, and had learned from him a favourite move whereby to check-mate his adversary.

The Jews of Germany suffered from oppression, and appointed the Rabbi Simeon to bear their complaints to the Pope. The old Jew went to Rome and was introduced to the presence of the Holy Father. Elchanan recognized him at once, and sent forth all his attendants, then proposed a game of chess with the Rabbi. When the Pope played the favourite move of the old Jew, Simeon Ben Isaac sprang up, smote his brow, and cried out,“I thought none knew this move save I and my long-lost child.”“I am that child,”answered the[pg 096]Pope, and he flung himself into the arms of the aged Jew.120

That the Wagenseil Toledoth Jeschu was written in the eleventh, twelfth or thirteenth century appears probable from the fact stated, that it was in these centuries that the Jews were more subjected to persecution, spoliation and massacre than in any other; and the Toledoth Jeschu is the cry of rage of a tortured people,—a curse hurled at the Founder of that religion which oppressed them.

In the eleventh century the Jews in the great Rhine cities were massacred by the ferocious hosts of Crusaders under Ernico, Count of Leiningen, and the priests Folkmar and Goteschalk. At the voice of their leaders (A.D. 1096), the furious multitude of red-crossed pilgrims spread through the cities of the Rhine and the Moselle, massacring pitilessly all the Jews that they met with in their passage. In their despair, a great number preferred being their own destroyers to awaiting certain death at the hands of their enemies. Several shut themselves up in their houses, and perished amidst flames their own hands had kindled; some attached heavy stones to their garments, and precipitated themselves and their treasures into the Rhine or Moselle. Mothers stifled their children at the breast, saying that they preferred sending them to the bosom of Abraham to seeing them torn away to be nurtured in a religion which bred tigers.

Some of the ecclesiastics behaved with Christian humanity. The Bishops of Worms and Spires ran some risk in saving as many as they could of this defenceless people. The Archbishop of Treves, less generous, gave refuge to such only as would consent to receive baptism, and coldly consigned the rest to the knives and halters[pg 097]of the Christian fanatics. The Archbishop of Mainz was more than suspected of participation in the plunder of his Jewish subjects. The Emperor took on himself the protection and redress of the wrongs endured by the Jews, and it was apparently at this time that the Jews were formally taken under feudal protection by the Emperor. They became his men, owing to him special allegiance, and with full right therefore to his protection.

The Toledoth Jeschu of Wagenseil was composed by a German Jew; that is apparent from its mention of the letter of the synagogue of Worms to the Sanhedrim. Had it been written in the eleventh century, it would not have represented the Pope as the refuge of the persecuted Jews, for it was the Emperor who redressed their wrongs.

But it was in the thirteenth century that the Popes stood forth as the special protectors of the Jews. On May 1, 1291, the Jewish bankers throughout France were seized and imprisoned by order of Philip the Fair, and forced to pay enormous mulcts. Some died under torture, most yielded, and then fled the inhospitable realm. Five years after, in one day, all the Jews in France were taken, their property confiscated to the Crown, the race expelled the realm.

In 1320, the Jews of the South of France, notwithstanding persecution and expulsion, were again in numbers and perilous prosperity. On them burst the fury of the Pastoureaux. Five hundred took refuge in the royal castle of Verdun on the Garonne. The royal officers refused to defend them. The shepherds set fire to the lower stories of a lofty tower; the Jews slew each other, having thrown their children to the mercy of their assailants. Everywhere, even in the great cities, Auch, Toulouse, Castel Sarrazen, the Jews were left to[pg 098]be remorselessly massacred and their property pillaged. The Pope himself might have seen the smoke of the fires that consumed them darkening the horizon from the walls of Avignon. But John XXII., cold, arrogant, rapacious, stood by unmoved. He launched his excommunication, not against the murderers of the inoffensive Jews, but against all who presumed to take the Cross without warrant of the Holy See. Even that same year he published violent bulls against the poor persecuted Hebrews, and commanded the Bishops to destroy their Talmud, the source of their detestable blasphemies; but he bade those who should submit to baptism to be protected from pillage and massacre.

The Toledoth Jeschu, therefore, cannot have been written at the beginning of the fourteenth century, when the Jews had such experience of the indifference of a Pope to their wrongs. We are consequently forced to look to the thirteenth century as its date. And the thirteenth century will provide us with instances of persecution of the Jews in Germany, and Popes exerting themselves to protect them.

In 1236, the Jews were the subject of an outburst of popular fury throughout Europe, but especially in Spain, where a fearful carnage took place. In France, the Crusaders of Guienne, Poitou, Anjou and Brittany killed them, without sparing the women and children. Women with child were ripped up. The unfortunate Jews were thrown down, and trodden under the feet of horses. Their houses were ransacked, their books burned, their treasures carried off. Those who refused baptism were tortured or killed. The unhappy people sent to Rome, and implored the Pope to extend his protection to them. Gregory IX. wrote at once to the Archbishop of Bordeaux, the Bishops of Saintes, Angoulême and Poictiers, forbidding constraint to be exercised on the Jews to[pg 099]force them to receive baptism; and a letter to the King entreating him to exert his authority to repress the fury of the Crusaders against the Jews.

In 1240, the Jews were expelled from Brittany by the Duke John, at the request of the Bishops of Brittany.

In 1246, the persecution reached its height in Germany. Bishops and nobles vied with each other in despoiling and harassing the unfortunate Hebrews. They were charged with killing Christian children and devouring their hearts at their Passover. Whenever a dead body was found, the Jews were accused of the murder. Hosts were dabbled in blood, and thrown down at their doors, and the ignorant mob rose against such profanation of the sacred mysteries. They were stripped of their goods, thrown into prison, starved, racked, condemned to the stake or to the gallows. From the German towns miserable trains of yellow-girdled and capped exiles issued, seeking some more hospitable homes. If they left behind them their wealth, they carried with them their industry.

A deputation of German Rabbis visited the Pope, Innocent IV., at Lyons, and laid the complaints of the Jews before him. Innocent at once took up their cause. He wrote to all the bishops of Germany, on July 5th, 1247, ordering them to favour the Jews, and insist on the redress of the wrongs to which they had been subjected, whether at the hands of ecclesiastics or nobles. A similar letter was then forwarded by him to all the bishops of France.

At this period it was in vain for the Jews to appeal to the Emperor. Frederick II. was excommunicated, and Germany in revolt, fanned by the Pope, against him. A new Emperor had been proposed at a meeting at Budweis to the electors of Austria, Bohemia and Bavaria, but the proposition had been rejected. Henry of Thuringia,[pg 100]however, set up by Innocent, and supported by the ecclesiastical princes of Germany, had been crowned at Hochem. A crusade was preached against the Emperor Frederick; Henry of Thuringia was defeated and died. The indefatigable Innocent, clinging to the cherished policy of the Papal See to ruin the unity of Germany by stirring up intestine strife, found another candidate in William of Holland. He was crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle, October 3, 1247. From this time till his death, four years after, the cause of Frederick declined. Frederick was mostly engaged in wars in Italy, and had not leisure, if he had the power, to attend to and right the wrongs of his Jewish vassals.

It was at this period that I think we may conclude the Toledoth Jeschu of Wagenseil was written.

Another consideration tends to confirm this view. The Wagenseil Toledoth Jeschu speaks of Elias rising up after the death of Simon Cephas, and denouncing him as having led the Christians away.

Was there any Elias at the close of the thirteenth century who did thus preach against the Pope? There was. Elias of Cortona, second General of the Franciscan Order, the leader of a strong reactionary party opposed to the Spirituals or Caesarians, those who maintained the rule in all its rigour, had been deposed, then carried back into the Generalship by a recoil of the party wave, then appealed against to the Pope, deposed once more, and finally excommunicated. Elias joined the Emperor Frederick, the deadly foe of Innocent IV., and, sheltered under his wing, denounced the venality, the avarice, the extortion of the Papacy. As a close attendant on the German Emperor, his adviser, as one who encouraged him in his opposition to a Pope who protected the Jews, the German Jews must have heard of him. But the stone of excommunication firing at him struck him[pg 101]down, and he died in 1253, making a death-bed reconciliation with Rome.

But though it is thus possible to give an historical explanation of the curious circumstance that the Toledoth Jeschu ranges the Pope among the friends of Judaism and the enemies of Christianity, and provide for the identification of Elias with the fallen General of the Minorites,—the story points perhaps to a dim recollection of Simon Peter being at the head of the Judaizing Church at Jerusalem and Rome, which made common cause with the Jews, and of Paul, here designated Elias, in opposition to him.

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