Toledot Yeshu

Toledot Yeshu (Hebrew: ספר תולדות ישו, Sefer Toledot Yeshu) is an early Jewish text taken to be an alternative biography of Jesus of Nazareth. There are passages in the Talmud which seem to express similar views. Multiple versions of the Toledot exist; an English translation by G. R. S. Mead, titled A Jewish Life of Jesus and included in the book Did Jesus Live 100 B.C.?, is quoted here.

The Toledot uses the names "Yeshu" (ישו) and "Yeshu ha-Notzri" (ישו הנוצרי) for Jesus; these names also occur in the Talmud. A Jewish Life of Jesus translates them as Jeschu.

A Jewish Life of Jesus (1903)



 * His mother was Miriam [a daughter] of Israel. … Near the door of her house, just opposite, dwelt a handsome [fellow]; Joseph ben Pandera cast his eye upon her. It was at night, on the eve of the Sabbath, when drunken he crossed over to her door and entered in to her. … She conceived by him.
 * G. R. S. Mead: A Jewish Life of Jesus. In Did Jesus Live 100 B.C.?, p. 258.
 * In the Talmud, the topic of Jesus' illegitimate birth is mentioned in Shabbat 104b:5.


 * And there was in the sanctuary a foundation-stone—and this is its interpretation: God founded it and this is the stone on which Jacob poured oil—and on it were written the letters of the Shem, and whosoever learned it, could do whatsoever he would. … This Jeschu came, learned them, wrote them on parchment, cut into his hip and laid the parchment with the letters therein—so that the cutting of his flesh did not hurt him—then he restored the skin to its place. … He went home, cut open his flesh with his knife, took out the writing, learned the letters, went and gathered together three hundred and ten of the young men of Israel.
 * G. R. S. Mead: A Jewish Life of Jesus. In Did Jesus Live 100 B.C.?, pp. 261–262.


 * He said to them: Behold then these who of me say of me I am a bastard and son of a woman in her separation; they desire power for themselves and seek to exercise lordship in Israel. But see ye, all the prophets prophesied concerning the Messiah of God, and I am the Messiah. Isaiah prophesied concerning me: Behold the virgin shall conceive, bear a son, and he shall be called Emanuel. Moreover, my forefather David prophesied concerning me and spake: The Eternal &lbrack;Y. H. V. H.&rbrack; said to me: Thou art my son; this day have I begotten thee. He begat me without male congress with my mother; yet they call me a bastard!
 * G. R. S. Mead: A Jewish Life of Jesus. In Did Jesus Live 100 B.C.?, pp. 262–263.




 * The people of Galilee made birds out of clay; he uttered the letters of the Shem, and the birds flew away. At the same hour they fell down before him.
 * G. R. S. Mead: A Jewish Life of Jesus. In Did Jesus Live 100 B.C.?, pp. 264–265.
 * The story of Jesus breathing life into birds of clay is also mentioned in verse 5:110 of the Quran, as well as in the Infancy Gospel of Thomas. However, it is not part of the canonical gospels.


 * As soon as the wise men entered and Juda Ischariota with them, they brought forward their pleas against him, until he said to the queen: Of me it hath been said: I will ascend to heaven. Further it is written: If He take me, Sela! He raised his hands like unto the wings of an eagle and flew, and the people were amazed because of him: How is he able to fly twixt heaven and earth!
 * G. R. S. Mead: A Jewish Life of Jesus. In Did Jesus Live 100 B.C.?, p. 266.


 * Ischariota acted cleverly, flew in the air, but neither could overpower the other, so as to make him fall by means of the Shem, because the Shem was equally with both of them. When Juda perceived this he had recourse to a low trick; he befouled Jeschu, so that he was made unclean and fell to the earth, and with him also Juda.
 * G. R. S. Mead: A Jewish Life of Jesus. In Did Jesus Live 100 B.C.?, p. 266.


 * The apostates began to lament and could not deliver him. At the same hour was he put to death. And it was on Friday on the rest-day of Passover and of the Sabbath. When they would hang him on a tree (Holz), it brake, for there was with him the Shem.
 * G. R. S. Mead: A Jewish Life of Jesus. In Did Jesus Live 100 B.C.?, p. 270.


 * Forthwith they went to Jerusalem, told them the good tidings, and all the Israelites followed the owner of the garden, bound cords to his [Jeschu's] feet, and dragged him round in the streets of Jerusalem, till they brought him to the queen and said: There is he who is ascended to heaven!
 * G. R. S. Mead: A Jewish Life of Jesus. In Did Jesus Live 100 B.C.?, p. 273.

Quotes about Toledot Yeshu

 * According to the "Toledot" his disciples sought for his body in the tomb, but being unable to find it they used the incident as proof before Queen Helena that he who had been slain had ascended into heaven. It then appeared that a man—sometimes called "Judas the Gardener" (Judas Iscariot), sometimes, indefinitely, the "master of the garden"—had taken the body out of the grave, used it as a dam to keep the water out of his garden, and had flooded the tomb. Then there was joy again in Israel; the body was taken before the queen at Jerusalem, and the Christians were shamed.
 * Jewish Encyclopedia: "Jesus of Nazareth"


 * During the reign of King Herod, Josef and Miriam were married in Nazareth in Galilee, but Miriam was barren and could not conceive a child from Josef. One Sabbath eve, when the righteous and pious Josef had left his house for the Synagogue service, some wicked man (who remains anonymous) slips into Miriam's bed and has intercourse with her (she doesn't recognize him and thinks he is her husband). After Miriam has given birth to Yeshu, the couple goes to Egypt where Miriam gives birth ("in fornication", as the text explicitly says) to more sons and daughters. Yeshu grows up in Egypt as a gifted child, learning both Torah and the magical art of Egypt. The couple returns with their children to Nazareth, and when the Jewish court there declares him a bastard, Yeshu becomes a heretic and claims that he is the son of God. He performs miracles (among other things, he draws images of birds and makes them fly; he splits a river so that he and his disciples can walk through it on dry land; he feeds a multitude with one loaf of bread; he turns water into wine; etc.).
 * Peter Schäfer: "Agobard's and Amulo's Toledot Yeshu". In Toledot Yeshu Revisited, pp. 36–37.


 * The yoisel had once been a human being and a Jew. But one day he had gone out of his mind, and in that pitiably bewildered state announced that he was the Lord God himself. To prove it, he offered to fly over the populace like an angel. With the help of a page blasphemously torn out of Holy Writ, and placed under his sweating arm, the yoisel did fly over the multitudes of Jews in the crowded streets of Jerusalem. So impressive a spectacle did he create that even the most pious among the Jews were moved in his direction.
 * Samuel Roth: Jews Must Live