The History of the Talmud

Crash Course in Jewish History Part 39: Talmud

In a time of chaos, the rabbis decide that they must do the unprecedented—write down the Oral Law.

At various times during the Hadrian persecutions, the sages were forced into hiding, though they managed to reconvene at Usha in 122 CE, and then in a time of quiet managed to re-establish again at Yavneh in 158 CE.

With so much persecution and unrest, with the Jewish people fleeing the land of Israel, the rabbis knew that they would not be able to keep a central seat of rabbinic power alive for long.

Yet, during these great periods of chaos, some of the finest rabbinic minds made their mark. Among them:

Rabbi Akiva (whom we discussed in Part 38)
Rabbi Akiva’s chief disciple, Rabbi Meir, also the husband of the legendary Bruriah
Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, the author of the Zohar, the central text of the Kabbalah
Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai’s son, Rabbi Eliezer
Rabbi Shimon Ben Gamliel II, the descendant of the House of Hillel and a direct descendant of King David

YEHUDAH HA NASI

Now, another man was to emerge and make his mark—the son of Rabbi Shimon Ben Gamliel II—Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi (in English “Judah, the Prince”).

In a time of chaos, the rabbis decide that they must do the unprecedented—write down the Oral Law.

He is one personality who is absolutely fundamental to understanding this period of time, and one of the greatest personalities of Jewish history.

So great was he that he is now affectionately referred to in Jewish scholarship as only Rebbe.

He had a unique combination of attributes—being both a great Torah scholar and a strong leader—that gave him the power to lead the Jewish people at this chaotic time. He was also a man of tremendous personal wealth, which put him in a position to wheel and deal and do what needed to get done, not just with the Jews in the Land of Israel but with the Roman authorities as well.

Hadrian dies in 139 C.E and with his death came an improvement in the treatment of the Jewish community in Israel. During a period of relative quiet, Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi managed to befriend the Roman emperors who succeeded Hadrian, particularly Marcus Aurelius (161-180 C.E.). Writes historian Rabbi Berel Wein in his Echoes of Glory (p. 224):

“Providentially, in the course of the Parthian war, Marcus Aurelius met Rabbi [Yehudah HaNasi], and they became friends and eventually confidants . Marcus Aurelius consulted with his friend in Judah on matters of state policy as well as on personal questions.(1)

“The years of Marcus Aurelius’ reign, ending in his death in 180, was the high-water mark in the intercourse between Rome and the Jews. The Jews, under the leadership of Rabbi [Yehudah HaNasi], would use this period of blissful respite to prepare themselves for the struggle of darker days surely lurking around the corner.”

At this time—circa 170-200 CE—the Mishna was born.

MISHNA

What is the Mishna?

In past installments we discussed the fact that at Mount Sinai the Jewish people received the Written Torah and the Oral Torah. The Oral Torah was the oral explanation of how the written laws should be executed and followed.

The Oral Torah passed from generation to generation and was never written down(2). Why? Because the Oral Torah was meant to be fluid. The principles stayed the same, but the application of those principles was meant to be adapted to all types of new circumstances.

This worked exceptionally well as long as the central authority—the Sanhedrin—remained intact, and the chain of transmission was not interrupted. (That is, teachers were able to freely pass on their wisdom to the next generation of students.) But in the days since the destruction of the Temple, the Sanhedrin had been repeatedly uprooted and teachers had to go into hiding.

Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi realized that things would not get better any time soon. He saw that the Temple would not be rebuilt in his generation and possibly in many generations to come. He saw the Jews fleeing the land as a result of the constant persecutions and impossible living conditions. He saw that the central authority was weaker than ever and might cease altogether To make sure that the chain of transmission would never be broken, he decided that the time had come to write down the Oral Torah.(3)

This was a mammoth undertaking. Although much of the work may have already been done by previous generations of rabbis, the monumental task of editing, explaining and organizing this vast amount of material was left to Rabbi Yehudah. The end result of this massive undertaking was a definitive, yet cryptic (the basic principles were all there yet a teacher was still required to elucidate the material) version of the entire Oral Law called the Mishna. (Incidentally, the word Mishna means “repetition” because it was studied by repeating; mishna then, by extension, means “learning.”) Maimonides, in his introduction to his Mishneh Torah, explains it as follows:

He gathered together all the traditions, enactments, and interpretations and expositions of every position of the Torah, that either come down from Moses, out teacher, or had been deduced by the courts in successive generations. All this material he redacted in the Mishna, which was diligently taught in public, and thus became universally known among the Jewish people. Copies of it were made and widely disseminated, so that the Oral Law might not be forgotten in Israel

SIX CATEGORIES OF JEWISH LAW The Mishna, which is written in Hebrew, is divided into six basic segments or “orders” and further subdivided into 63 tractates with a total of 525 chapters. These 6 segments dealing with six basic areas of Jewish law:

Zeraim, literally “seeds,” covering all agricultural rules and laws for foods as well as all blessings
Moed, literally, “holiday,” dealing with the rituals of Shabbat and other Jewish holidays
Nashim, literally “women,” examining all the issues between men and women such as marriage, divorce, etc.
Nezikin, literally “damages,” covering civil and criminal law
Kodshim, literally “holy things,” concerning laws of the Temple
Taharot, literally “pure things,” concerning laws of spiritual purity and impurity

Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi finished the Mishna in ca. 190 CE in the town of Tzipori in the Galilee. You can visit the site today which is very interesting from an archeological perspective. At a site called Beit She’arim (where the Sanhedrin had previously been located prior to its move to Tzipori), there is a vast number of burial caves carved into the side of a mountain. Based on evidence found at the site, archaeologists believe that one of these caves contains the grave of Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi, along with many other great scholars of that time.

Not long after the death of Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi the period know as the era of the Tannaim came to a close. The term Tanna, is derived from the Aramaic word “to teach” and covered a period of 200 years from ca.10 B.C.E. to 200 C.E. beginning with Rabbi Shimon the son of Hillel the Elder and ending with Rabbi Yossi ben Yehuda.

WRITING THE TALMUD

During the centuries following the completion of the Mishna, the chain of transmission of the Oral law was further weakened by a number of factors: Economic hardship and increased persecution of the Jewish community in Israel caused many Jews, including many rabbis, to flee the country. Many of these rabbis emigrated to Babylon in the Persian Empire. The role of the rabbis of Israel as the sole central authority of the Jewish people was coming to an end. This decentralization of Torah authority and lack of consensus among the rabbis led to further weakening of the transmission process. It became clear to the sages of this period that the Mishna alone was no longer clear enough to fully explain the Oral Law. It was written in shorthand fashion and in places was cryptic. This is because it was very concise, written on the assumption that the person reading it was already well-acquainted with the subject matter.

So they began to have discussions about it and to write down the substance of these discussions.

Since at this time a significant portion of the Jewish population was living in Babylon, which was outside the bounds of the Roman Empire, the rabbis there put together their discussions, the end product of which was calledTalmud Bavli or the Babylonian Talmud. Even before this process had begun in Babylon, in the land of Israel, another set of discussions took place and the end result was Talmud Yerushalmi or the Jerusalem Talmud. (Incidentally, the Jerusalem Talmud was not written in Jerusalem; it was written in Tiberias, the last place where the Sanhedrin sat, but was called the Jerusalem Talmud in deference to the Sanhedrin’s rightful home.)

Due to persecution of the Jewish community in Israel the Jerusalem Talmud, completed in the mid 4th century C.E., was never completed or fully edited. The Jerusalem Talmud is much shorter (it contains only four of the six sections of the Mishna(4)) and is more cryptic and harder to understand than the Babylonian Talmud. The situation of the Jews in Babylon was much more stable and the rabbis in Babylon had considerably more time to edit and explain the subject matter.

Although there are two Talmuds, they are not really separate. The Rabbis of Babylon had access to the Jerusalem Talmud while they were working on their text. But if there is dispute between the two Talmuds, the Babylonian Talmud is followed.(5) Both because Babylonian Talmud is considered more authoritative and the Jerusalem Talmud is more difficult to study, Jewish students pouring over the Talmud in yeshiva are using chiefly the Babylonian Talmud. The Talmud is more than just an application of the details of the Jewish law as expounded in the Mishnah. It’s the encyclopedia of all Jewish existence.

The Talmud also contains a lot of agadata —these are stories that are meant to illustrate important points in the Jewish worldview. These stories contain a wealth of information on a huge range of topics. you name it, it’s in there.

This information was vital to the Jewish people because Jewish law was never applied by reading a sentence in the Torah and executing it to the letter. Take for example, “eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.” It was never Jewish law that if someone blinded you, that you should go and blind him. What is the good of having two blind people? It was always understood on two levels: 1) that justice must be proportional (it’s not a life for an eye) and 2) that it means the value of an eye for the value of the eye, referring to monetary damages. Thus, the Talmud presented the written and oral tradition together.

To read the Talmud is to read a lot of arguments. On every page it seems that the rabbis are arguing. This kind of argument—the purpose of which was to arrive at the kernel of truth—is called pilpul. This word has a negative connotation outside the yeshiva world, as people read these arguments and it seems to the uneducated eye that the rabbis are merely splitting hairs, and that some of the arguments have absolutely no basis in everyday life. But this is not so.

The reason why the rabbis argued about things that may not have any application to everyday life was to try to get to truth in an abstract way - to understand the logic and to extract the principle. These rabbis were interested in knowing what reality is and in doing the right thing. Reality is what Judaism is all about—the ultimate reality being God.

Another important point is that much of the discussion and dispute is focused on relatively minor points while the larger issues are generally not disputed. You don’t see a single argument as to whether or not you eat pork, or whether or not you can light a fire on the Sabbath. These things were a given, they were totally agreed upon. Only small points were subject to discussion. And these rabbis were wise enough to know that a day would come when the principles established by getting to the core kernel of truth would have far reaching implications.

GEMARA

When you look at the page of the Babylonian Talmud today, you will find the Hebrew text of the Mishna is featured in the middle of the page. Interspersed between the Hebrew of the Mishna are explanations in both Hebrew and Aramaic which are called the Gemara.

The Aramaic word Gemara means “tradition.” In Hebrew, the word Gemara means “completion.” Indeed, the Gemara is a compilation of the various rabbinic discussions on the Mishna, and as such completes the understanding of the Mishna.

The texts of the Mishna and Gemara are then surrounded by other layers of text and commentaries from a later period.

The text of the Mishna is quoting rabbis who lived from about 100 BCE to 200 CE. These rabbi are called the Tanaim, “teachers.” In this group are included such greats as Rabbi Yochanan Ben Zakkai, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, Rabbi Akiva, and of course Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi. (In the Gemara, they usually have the title Rebbe before their first name although there are many exceptions such as the names: Hillel, Shamai, Ben Azai and Ben Zoma.)

The text of the Gemara is quoting the rabbis who lived from about 200 CE to about 500 CE. These rabbis are called, Amoraim, “explainers” or “interpreters.” In this group are included Rav Ashi, Reb Yochanan, etc. (Names of the Babylonian Amoraim usually are preceeded by the title Rav as opposed to the Amoraim of Israel who continued to use the title Rabbi/Rebbe. This is because the authentic institution of smicha - rabbinic ordination—was only done in the Land of Israel.)

The surrounding text of today’s Talmud also quotes Rishonim, literally “the first ones,” rabbinic authorities (from c. 1,000 C.E. until 1,500 C.E.) who predated Rabbi Joseph Caro, the 16th century author of the code of Jewish law known as the Shulchan Aruch. Among the most prominentRishonim are Rashi, his students and descendants who were the chief authors of the Tosaphos, Maimonidies and Nachmanides. We will discuss the contributions of these rabbis in future installments.

Just how important was the work of Rabbi Yehudah Hanasi and those that followed him would become very clear in the next hundred years when the Jewish people face another threat to their religion. This is when the Roman Empire decides to convert its entire population to Christianity.

1)See: Talmud-Avodah Zara 10a-b; Breishit Rabbah 67:6; 75:5
2)See: Midrash, Tanchumah-Ki Tisa 34; Talmud, Gittin 60a;
3) For a detailed explanation of actions of Rebbi Yehuda HaNasi seeMiamonides, Introduction to the Mishnah Torah. See also: Iggerot of R abbi Sheriram Gaon 1:1.
4) The Baylonian Talmud covers tractates: Moed, Nashim, Nezikin andKodshim while the Jerusalem Talmud covers tractates : Moed, Nashim, Nezikin and Zeraim.
5)See: Rif on Talmud, Eruvin 35b

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Seeds of Christianity

During a time of cruel oppression of the Jews, a number of splinter sects sprang up whose members believed that the Apocalypse was at hand.

The century and half that follows the completion of the Mishna corresponds to period in history when the Roman Empire adopts Christianity. The empire’s “conversion” from paganism to Christianity will have a severe impact on the Jews. However, before we tell that story, we must go back in time to the 1st century C.E., when the Temple still stood.

As we might recall that from the time of the invasion of the Romans and particularly following the persecutions of the sages by
King Herod, the Great, the Jewish people were in turmoil. Soon nationalistic feelings would erupt in the Great Revolt (67-70 C.E.) and the Jews would be fighting the Romans as well as each other.

In this atmosphere of tension—when the Jewish people were yearning for a leader who would help them throw off the Roman yoke—the seeds of what would later become Christianity were first sown.

MESSIAH

When Jews yearn for a savior, they are yearning for the Messiah.

It is important to realize that the notion of the Messiah was not invented by Christianity. It is an ancient Jewish idea—one of the “13 principles of faith” within Judaism(1). It is recorded numerous times in the various books of the prophets, including Isaiah, Michah, Zephaniah, and Ezekiel.

(Indeed throughout Jewish history, strong leaders arose and for a time where mistaken for the Messiah. But when the Messiah did not fulfill the prophecies—by bringing world peace etc.—it became clear he was not the Messiah.)

The English word Messiah, comes from the Hebrew word mashach which means “to anoint.”(2) The Mashiach then, is God’s “Anointed One.” This, for example, is how the Book of Samuel relates the anointing of David as king:

Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him [David] in the midst of his brothers, and the spirit of God rested on David from that day on. (1 Samuel 16:13)

Throughout the Bible we see numerous examples where God would designate individuals for kingship by sending a prophet to anoint them with oil. While numerous personalities in the Bible are called “anointed,” there is only one who is called THE anointed-The messiah. The Jewish definition of Messiah is a Jewish leader (without question, a human being), descended from the line of King David (that is, from the tribe of Judah) who will have the Torah knowledge and the leadership ability to bring all the Jewish people back from exile to the Land of Israel. He will rebuild the Temple, bring world peace, and elevate the entire world to the realization of one God.

(For Jewish sources for these points in the order listed above see: Genesis 49:10; -Deuteronomy 17:15; Numbers 24:17; Genesis 49:10; 1 Chronicles 17:11; Psalms 89:29-38; Jeremiah 33:17; 2 Samuel 7:12-16; Isaiah 2:4; ; Isaiah 11:1-12; Isaiah 27:12-13; Isaiah 40:5; Micah 4:1; Micah 4:3; Zephaniah 3:9; Ezekiel 37:24-28.)

Based on traditions taken from the oral law, the great medieval scholar Maimonides gives us a concise definition of the messiah:

The King Messiah will arise and restore the kingship of David to its former state and original sovereignty. He will rebuild the sanctuary and gather the dispersed of Israel. All the ancient laws will be re-instituted in his days….Do not think that the King Messiah will have to perform signs and wonders, bring anything new into being, revive the dead , or do similar things. It is not so….
If there arise a king from the House of David who meditates in Torah, occupies himself with the commandments…observes the precepts prescribed in the Written and Oral Law, prevails upon Israel to walk in the way of Torah…fights the battles of the Lord, it may be assumed that he is the messiah. If he does these things and succeeds, rebuilds the sanctuary on its site, and gathers the dispersed of Israel, he is beyond all doubt the Messiah. He will prepare the whole world to serve the Lord together. (3)

The Prophet Isaiah, whose prophecy on this subject is perhaps the best known, describes the Jewish Messianic Vision with these words:

In the days to come, the Mount of God’s House shall stand firm above the mountains and tower above the hills. And all the nations shall stream to it. And the many peoples shall go and say: “Come, let us go up to the Mount of God, to the House of the God of Jacob—that He may instruct us in His ways, that we may walk in His paths.” (Isaiah 2:3)
And they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation. Neither shall they learn war anymore… (Isaiah 2:4)

[At that time] the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard lie down with the kid, the calf and the beast of prey shall feed together with a little child to herd them. (Isaiah 11:6)

Since the notion of a person who will redeem the Jewish people is a fundamental, philosophical part of the Jewish worldview, it is not surprising that the expectation of that redemption always appears at times of crisis.

Indeed, the sages say that the Messiah will be born on the 9th of Av, the worst date in the Jewish calendar when the worst disasters (destruction of the First and Second Temples as well as the fall of Beitar in 135 C.E.) befell the Jewish people.

The Book of Ezekiel, for example, talks of a final showdown—the War of Gog and Magog—a terrible war when all the nations turn against the Jews.(4) According to one possible scenario, this is when the Messiah is expected to come and bring final redemption.

This is why, when times are very bad, the Jewish people are prone to think that the final showdown is now. It’s always darkest before the dawn-It looks like things couldn’t get worse. If so, the Messiah must be right around the corner.

DARK TIME The Roman occupation was such a dark time in Jewish history. Some of the most brilliant of the rabbinical sages had been murdered by Herod. Corruption had crept into the Temple hierarchy. Jews had split into three major groups:

the wealthy Sadducees (many of them were Cohanim—the priestly families), who denied the authority of the Oral Law, pledging allegiance to Rome;
the fanatically religious and nationalistic Zealots ready to battle Rome to the death in a suicidal war; and
the mainstream Pharisee majority, still loyal to Torah and Oral Law, caught in between.

Out of this chaotic time—marked by virulent anti-Semitism and cruel oppression of the Jews—were born a number of splinter sects, whose members believed that the Apocalypse was at hand. Finding a receptive ear among the disfranchised, these sects preached that the ultimate battle of good versus evil would soon be fought, followed by the Messianic redemption of humanity.

The Dead Sea Sect—which became famous in modern times after the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in Qumran, and which may or may not have been associated with the Essenes—was one such sect, but there were many others.

The teachings of these sects did not catch on in any significant way among the Jews. In the same way that the Jews usually rejected foreign religions, they also rejected attempts to tamper with the inner workings of Judaism.

Nevertheless, at this tumultuous time, the Jews were more susceptible than ever before. The countryside was alive with charismatic healers and preachers, and people flocked to them hoping to hear prophecy that the years of strife and suffering were at an end.

The one who would become most legendary, was Joshua, or Jesus, who later in history came to be called Christ, which is Greek for Messiah.

It is outside of this book to describe the beginnings of early Christianity under Jesus. Currently, there exist approximately 2,700 books in print on the subject, many of them written in recent years discussing the issue of the historical Jesus vs. the legendary Jesus, and debating what he said or did not say and what can be said of him with any certainty.

(For those interested, one good source is a highly readable book by the award-winning British biographer A. N. Wilson, Jesus: A Life, which thoroughly analyzes all the data and throws in a fair amount of fascinating speculation as well.)

Historically speaking, very little is known. The authors of the Gospel, beginning with Mark c. 60 C.E., all lived after the accepted date of Jesus’ death (c.34 C.E.) There are several references in the Talmud to various personalities of whom the rabbis disapproved and some have speculated that one or more of these references are to Jesus. The closest possibility is Yeshu HaNotzri(5), but there are several problems with this idea: First, there are at least two characters in the Talmud with the name Yeshu HaNotzri. Second, according to Jewish chronology, these two individuals lived about 300 years apart and neither lived at the time of Jesus. The first Yeshu lived at the time that Joshua Ben Perachyah led the Sanhedrin (circa 150 BCE) and, therefore, predated Jesus according to Christian chronology by at least 150 years. The second Yeshu lived sometime during the second century C.E. about 100 years after the death of Jesus. Finally, the limited narrative we do find in the Talmud(6) about Yeshu does not match anything from the Gospel.

One would expect—if Jesus was at all influential in his time - that the great Jewish historian Josephus (c. 38 - c. 100 C.E.) would have devoted considerable space to him. In all of Josephus’s writings there is but one mention of Jesus (Josephus, Antiquities, 18:3:3.) and this single reference is considered by virtually all scholars to have been an insertion into the original text-added later by Christian monks who copied such texts for church libraries.(7)

The best we can say with certainty is that the Christian world does agree that Jesus was a Jew who was familiar with the Torah, observed the “Law of Moses” and taught many of its precepts, though he also departed from some of them.

One of the most famous of his teachings consists of two Torah quotations that were staples of Judaism and echoes the emphasis of the rabbinic teachings of his era. Asked to name the greatest commandment, Jesus, as cited in the Gospel of Matthew (22:37-40), replies:

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it. Love your neighbor as yourself. All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments.”

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” is a quotation from Deuteronomy 6:5. “Love your neighbor as yourself” is from Leviticus 19:18. These teachings predated Jesus by some 1,300 years.

As already mentioned, the Gospel, which are said to record what were the teachings of Jesus were written in Greek many years after his death (which, incidentally, Christian sources give as c.34 CE or some 35 years before the destruction of the Temple.)

JEWISH FOLLOWERS OF JESUS

Who were the Jewish followers of Jesus?

The members of the Jesus sect were clearly religious Jews who believed that Jesus was the Messiah. They could not have believed that Jesus was “god” and remained Jewish, as such a belief would have been complete idolatry in Jewish eyes and would have appeared closer to the Greco-Roman pagan beliefs where gods took on human form and had relations with humans.

(Indeed, the concept of “son of God” appears later in Christian theology, though the gospels make much use of the term “son of Man” which is taken from the writings of the prophets and is sometimes used to refer to the prophet himself.)

At any rate, the Jesus sect, like numerous other sects in the Land of Israel, would certainly have died out even if its members had survived the revolts against Rome in the first and second centuries. (The Pharisees(8) survived in part due to the vision of their leader, Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai as we saw in chapter ?)

So where did all the Christians comes from? Indeed, where did Christianity come from?

For the answer, we must look at another colorful personality who appeared on the scene after the death of Jesus, and who is given the credit by virtually every historian of Christianity for spreading the message of Jesus worldwide, if not fashioning Christianity for the consumption of the pagan world.

He was a Jew—originally known as Saul—who became famous in Christianity as “Saint Paul.”

1)The Thirteen Principles are based on the teachings of Maimonides (1135-1204) and encompass the basic philosophy of Judaism. Point number twelve states: .” I believe with complete faith in the coming of the Messiah, and even though he may delay, nevertheless I anticipate every day that he will come.”
2) A description of the anointing oil is found in the Book of Exodus (30:22-30): God spoke to Moses saying: ” Now, take for your self choice spices:...pure myrrh, fragrant cinnamon,...fragrant cane;...cassia…and a hin of olive oil Of it you shall make oil of sacred anointment. With it you shall anoint the tent of Meeting (Tabernacle) and the Ark of the Covenant…You shall anoint Aaron and his sons and sanctify them to minister to me.”
3) Maimonides Mishna Torah; Laws of Kings, Chap. 12.
4) See: Ezekiel 38: 1-16; Zechariah 12:1-3.
5) Although Yeshu sounds like Yeshu and Notzri is the modern Hebrew word for Christian, the connecting Yeshu to Jesus is very problematic especially since some authorities consider the name Yeshu to be nickname and not the name of a real person. (References to the name Yeshu can be found in: Talmud, Brachot 17b; Sanhedrin 43a & 103a; Rashi in Brachot 12b; Rashi in Rosh HaShanah 17a; Rashi in Yoma 40b)
6) It is important to mention that these references (see: Talmud, Sanhedrin43a & 67a; Sotah 47a) are not found in most modern editions of the Talmud. In medieval Europe and during the Renaissance, the Talmud was subject to censorship and on several occasions it was publicly burned. When the printing press was invented (1453) the Christian printers, who printed the Talmud, printed only the censored versions. Anything perceived as anti-Christian/anti-Gentile was left out. Today, even though no such censorship exists, these passages have, in most editions, not been re-inserted back into the text of the Talmud. There is a small book entitled Chesronot HaShas (“That Which is Missing from the Talmud) which contains all the missing parts of the Talmud.
7) The most likely author of this reference is Eusebius, the 4th century Bishop of Caesaria. The reason for such an insertion into the text is obvious. The lack of any mention in Josephus (who misses nothing) was very problematic for Christianity. Eusebius inserted a short reference to Jesus in the text of Josephus’s Antiquities to cover up this glaring absence.
8) Pharisidic Judaism survived and eventually evolved into the Orthodox Judaism of today.

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From Paul to Constantine

At first, Christianity was the most successful where people had been attracted to Judaism but were unwilling to take on all its precepts.

The Jesus sect in Jerusalem remained small and was simply not spreading among the Jews. Indeed, it had become offensive in Jewish eyes and the Jesus followers were considered heretics(1).

The attitude of the rabbis was that these people, Jews though they may be, are pursuing an ideology that is off the Jewish path and their skewed beliefs are going to pollute the Jewish people. This is a splinter sect that has no place in Judaism, therefore, we’ve got to drive them out.

One of those who took the driving-out part seriously was a Jew named Saul, originating from Tarsus (a city in Asia Minor, today’s Turkey).

But, as he later wrote in his “epistles” or “letters,” after participating in persecutions of the Jesus sect, Saul had a sudden change of heart. He wrote that Jesus appeared to him in a vision and dissuaded him from persecuting his followers.

Following this mystical encounter, Saul disappeared from the scene to re-emerge some 13 years later (circa 47-60 CE) as Paul, a missionary to the gentiles.

When he re-emerged on the world scene, Paul introduced some revolutionary ideas, which at first caused some furor among the more seasoned Jesus followers. During a dramatic meeting with the Jesus sect in Jerusalem, his viewpoint won: the new religion would separate from Judaism.

Paul went off on a series of missionizing journeys in which he was highly successful in attracting converts to the new religion—Christianity.

Paul preached monotheism to be sure, but with one radical innovation. The way of salvation for Gentiles was now much simpler: belief in Jesus replaced observance of the commandments.

Through Paul’s efforts, and the zeal of his early disciples, Christianity experienced a meteoric rise in popularity. Its initial successes were all in places where the non-Jewish inhabitants had had significant exposure to Jewish ideas.

ROMAN ATTRACTION TO JUDAISM

We had previously talked about the tension in the Greco-Roman world that pitted Hellenism against Judaism. But we neglected to mention that there were Romans who were very much attracted to Judaism.

This was especially true in the 1st century CE when, under Nero, the decay of Rome began and thoughtful, intelligent people saw the empire turning into a cesspool of decadence, violence, and overall immorality. Such people were looking for stability, for a universal moral view of the world, and they were casting their eye on some more exotic forms of worship than the official state religion.

Their search brought to Rome many alien religious cults—in particular the worship of Mithra, the Persian god of light and wisdom, who became identified with Helios, the Greek sun god, as well as Sol, the Roman sun god. This cult came to be so popular that the Romans named a day of the week - “Sunday” - in honor of Mithra, and celebrated the sun god’s birthday in late December in conjunction with the Winter Solstice.

Loyalty to the state gods was further weakened by the Roman policy of stealing the gods of conquered peoples. The “captured gods” were then “owned” by Rome and incorporated into the official pantheon. As the empire grew, the number of gods multiplied wildly. According to the Roman writer Varro, at one point, Rome had in excess of 30,000 gods and 157 holidays a year(2) . Who could keep them straight, or, for that matter, take them seriously?

Another important factor was the constant threat of internal rebellion and external invasion with which they lived. The feeling that merciless fate and a cruel death lurked around the corner made one anxious and fearful. (Perhaps all those hours of watching minor criminals butchered at the Coliseum created a subconscious of “there but for the grace of one of the 30,000 gods go I.”)

The atmosphere of impending doom was only heightened by all of the murderous intrigue in politics, by the general corruption, and by the apparent state of moral decline. People gorged themselves on delicacies, then vomited so they could consume even more food. Meanwhile, at the public baths, endless sex orgies with slaves and prostitutes were the way to spend the night.

Historian Michael Grant, in The World of Rome (p. 129), sums it up as follows:

“The Roman age was a time of not only uncontrolled blood lust but pessimism and nerve-failure regarding the powers of man to work his own future. The existence and propaganda of the imperial government claiming support of the old gods did not remove the deep-seated feeling that every man was adrift, and everything hazardous. So the presiding deity of nerve-failure was Fortune. ‘Throughout the whole world,’ says Pliny the Elder, ‘at every place and hour, by every voice, Fortune alone is invoked and her name spoken ... We are so much at the mercy of chance that chance is our god.’”

In such an atmosphere, the Jewish view that one is not lost at sea in a random and hostile universe, but is looked after by a one, omnipotent and loving God, who orders and runs the world, was likely to get a receptive hearing.

The Jewish people were also a unique and sizeable minority dispersed throughout the major cities of the empire. Not only was their idea of one God unique, they also possessed a unique sense of community, had a highly developed social welfare infrastructure, as well as a uniquely high level of literacy. In the words of historian Michael Grant:

“Numerically…they [the Jews] were fewer in those days than they are now-perhaps eight million…But no less then seven million of these eight million were in the Roman empire, where they constituted between six and nine percent of the population - in the eastern provinces, the percentage was perhaps as high as twenty. Comprising, as they did, such a high proportion of the total number of inhabitants, they could scarcely fail to exercise an influence upon events; given their highly distinctive beliefs and customs, so divergent from the Greco-Roman way of life which surrounded them, it was predictable that their relationship with their neighbors would become both dramatic and explosive.”(3)

However, conversion to Judaism has always been a major undertaking, one which has historically required the prospective convert to demonstrate his or her sincere desire to follow the Torah’s teachings.

Nevertheless, Roman historical records show us that Judaism did catch on, especially in major cultural centers such as Rome and Alexandria. The best-known exporter of hybrid Jewish ideology was Philo Judeas, who lived and taught between 20 BCE to 50 CE. Strongly influenced by Hellenism, he sought to fuse Greek philosophy with Judaism and to export this mixture to the world. Philo was a prolific writer with a considerable following.

Among those who converted at this time was Onkelos, a nephew of one of the Roman emperors, possibly Nero, who subsequently translated the Hebrew Bible into Aramaic. Josephus(4) describes Nero’s wife, Poppea, as being very supportive and interested in Judaism and there is much speculation amongst historians as to other important Romans who were sympathetic to Judaism and may even have converted.

It cannot be denied that the message and lifestyle of Judaism was very attractive to many Romans. Historian Howard Sachar, in his History of Israel, p. 111, suggests an explanation for why this was so:

“The conditions were highly favorable. The old paganism ... was decaying, and sensitive minds were repelled by it. The clear-cut monotheism and the rational practices of the Hebrews, expounded with charm by the Hellenized Jewish writers, made a deep impression. There were great numbers of converts, if not officially to Judaism, at least to Jewish practices and ideals.”

So great was the impact of Judaism on the empire that the Roman writer Seneca complained: “This abominable nation has succeeded in spreading its customs throughout all lands: the conquered have given their laws to the conquerors.”

This is not to imply that, just because some citizens of the empire converted and many more openly sympathized with the Jews, that the religion of Moses was taking Rome by storm. The reason why was not simple: Jewish laws, restrictions and rituals seemed difficult to follow. While certain commandments such as Sabbath rest and dietary laws were very popular and relatively easy to observe, other rituals of Judaism were seen as too extreme and too difficult—for example circumcision and sexual abstinence during a part of each month.

Additionally, many saw Judaism as a national religion of a specific people—that is, being Jewish meant not only ascribing to a religious faith, but also adopting a different national identity. Naturally, if you were born in Rome, you surely did not want to appear to be giving up your Roman citizenship. It didn’t help matters that Judea was one of the most rebellious and troublesome provinces in the empire, and Jews in general were often viewed with suspicion and hostility. This no doubt caused many Romans to think twice about joining Jewish ranks.

This is where Paul stepped in.

PAUL’S REVOLUTION

Paul’s shrewdness was to retain the parts of Judaism that appealed to the Roman World and the close connection to the Bible, while dropping the “objectionable” components.

Paul preached that belief in Jesus replaced the laws of the Torah—that is, all the commandments that the Romans who were attracted to Judaism found so cumbersome. By converting to Christianity, a Roman was able to subscribe to the Jewish view of one loving God, as well as to the Torah’s moral vision of peace, justice, and love of one’s neighbor. A Roman could subscribe to these ideas without having to become “different” in the way Jews were “different.”

Thus Paul removed the barriers and opened the floodgates.

Writes John G. Gager in Kingdom and Community: The Social World of Early Christianity (p. 140):

“...Christianity preserved all the advantages of its Jewish heritage but without the only two factors that might otherwise have inhibited its growth: the obligation of the ritual law and the close connection between religion and national identity. By proclaiming that the Christ was ‘the end of the law’ and by presenting itself to the world as ‘the new spiritual Israel,’ Hellenistic Christianity was able to reap the political and social fruits that had been sown by three centuries of Hellenistic Judaism.”

Needless to say, observant Jews objected to Paul, a Jew whom they saw as the worst kind of heretic. Indeed, because of Jewish complaints against him, Paul was arrested by the Roman authorities, held for a time under house arrest, and finally executed in or around 67 CE (the year of the start of the Great Revolt against Rome in Israel.)

Christian tradition has it that Paul and the chief apostle of Jesus, Peter, were buried on Vatican Hill, the current seat of the Roman Catholic Church.

After the death of Paul, Christianity continued to evolve and grow. Many controversies arose as the new religion struggled to develop its core theology.

As this is a book about Jewish History and not a treatise on Christianity, we are not going to get involved in the discussing the development of the Christian dogmas of the Trinity, virgin birth, resurrection, etc., nor of the various “heresies” which flourished in early Christian Church. For those interested in the subject, the premier work is by Christian historian Paul Johnson, titled History of Christianity.

Suffice it to say that it took some 300 years for the early Christian Church to get down its core dogma, which turned out to be a synthesis of Jewish ideas, Greek ideas and other pagan ideas. With the growth of Christianity came stiff resistance from official Rome—the new religion was catching on too well and threatening the state religion and therefore stability of the state. Christianity was outlawed in Rome and those who were caught practicing it were regularly crucified or fed to the lions in the Coliseum.

These persecutions which came in waves (depending on the tolerance level of the Roman Emperor in power) actually served to make Christianity stronger. In this regard, the Christians were following the precedent-setting behavior of the Jews in the days of the Greek Empire. (Back then, no one died for their religion—no one, except the Jews. )

And then, suddenly, in 312 CE, a remarkable thing happened which dramatically changed Christian fortune and led, within a dozen years, to the elevation of Christianity to the state religion of the Roman Empire. The remarkable thing was the conversion of Constantine, who would become the Emperor of Rome.

CONSTANTINE

On the eve of a battle with his rival for the throne of Rome, Constantine reported that he had a dream of Jesus followed by a vision of a cross superimposed on the sun.

Constantine was prone to visions, having a couple years earlier claimed seeing the sun god Sol in a grove of Apollo in Gaul. The juxtaposition of the two—cross and sun—was an omen for victory and, when Constantine won the battle, he gave the credit to his new-found god and converted to Christianity.

Oxford scholar David L. Edwards, Provost of London’s Southwark Cathedral and author of Christianity: The First Two Thousand Years, openly doubts the sincerity of Constantine’s conversion as do other Christian scholars.

But such are the quirks of history. Soon Constantine was emperor and he chose to establish his capital in the east, in Byzantium, which was renamed Constantinople.

Eventually, the empire would split into two - the Western empire would collapse in the 5th century, but the Eastern empire would survive another thousand years.) Thus, Christianity became the official state religion of the new order - the Byzantine Empire.

Constantine had initiated a unique way of seeing Christianity - by a merging of pagan and Christian symbols (sun and cross). Over the next few hundred years much more such synthesis followed.

Though Christians like to see Christianity as “the religion of love” and Judaism as “the religion of law,” looking at Constantine’s record, a Jew might well ask: “What’s love got to do with it?”

Writes Johnson in History of Christianity (p. 68:

“He [Constantine] had no respect for human life, and as emperor he executed his eldest son, his own second wife, his favorite sister’s husband and ‘many others’ on doubtful charges ... He was much criticized for condemning prisoners of war to mortal combat with wild beasts at Trier and Comar and for wholesale massacres in north Africa.”

It didn’t help that there was soon unleashed a bitter struggle for wealth and power that was bound to come with being the only act in town.

With the aim of eradicating paganism, Christian mobs scoured the land of the empire smashing idols and burning temples. Writes Johnson (p. 76):

“...it [the Church] transformed itself from a suffering and victimized body, begging toleration, into a coercive one, demanding monopoly…”

Cynics have charged that once it became a state power, the Christian Church turned the cross into a sword, and its ability to convert the Western world had less to do with its message than its methods. By the late 4th century CE the official government efforts at intimidation through laws and decrees - aided by mob terrorism - succeeded in imposing Christianity on the majority of the empire.

With the disappearance of paganism, Judaism began to stick out like a sore thumb. As always, it was strange and separate, and it wouldn’t compromise. The stubborn Jews, as they had done with every other religion that had assaulted their belief system previously, were obstinately refusing to bow to the new order.

This presented a special problem, as William Nicholls explains in Christian Antisemitism: A History of Hate (p. 90):

“...the very presence of the Jewish people in the world, continuing to believe in the faithfulness of God to the original covenant ... puts a great question against Christian belief in a new covenant made through Christ. The presence of this question, often buried deep in the Christian mind, could not fail to cause profound and gnawing anxiety. Anxiety usually leads to hostility.”

Within a short time, Jews living in the Empire had lost most of their civil rights. (For example, for a Jew to marry a Christian was an offense punishable by death.) The Jewish Supreme Court, the Sanhedrin, was forbidden to meet, and sermons against the Jews, often inciting violence, were routinely preached. The idea of presenting Jews as the killers of Jesus originated at this time, though it was not popularized until several hundred years later.

By the early 7th century when the Byzantine might began to wobble - facing attacks from the Persians who swallowed up chunks of the territory and even took Jerusalem - the Jews living in the empire were in a very precarious position. Anti-Jewish legislation, heavy taxes and outbreaks of violence and forced conversions, all had taken their toll on the population. Hoping to find a respite from the Christians, some fled back home to safety. But when the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius reclaimed Jerusalem in 629 CE, the poor Jews who found themselves there were brutally massacred.

Praying for relief, these Jews no doubt could never have dreamed that relief would come in the form of a “mixed blessing” from a most unexpected place - from Saudi Arabia. There in Mecca—a place that had long been the center of pagan worship at the famed Black Stone of Kaaba—an unusual man named Mohammed was preaching an unusual message.

1) The negative attitude of the rabbis toward these splinter sects (including Judeo-Christianity) is reflected in a section of the Talmud that discusses the additional blessing added into the eighteen blessings of the Amidah- the silent prayers recited three times daily by observant Jews:

These eighteen [benedictions] are [really] nineteen. Rabbi Levi said: the blessing against the heretics (minim) was innovated at Yavne….
Our Rabbis taught: Shimon ha-Pakoli arranged the Eighteen Benedictions in order before Rabban Gamliel at Yavneh. (Ca. 80 C.E.).. Rabban Gamliel said to the Sages: “Is there nobody who knows how to create a blessing against the heretics?” Shmuel ha-Katan arose and created it.
Babylonian Talmud, Brachot 28b

2) Montanelli, Indro, Romans Without Laurels, New York: Pantheon Books, 1959, p.128.
3) Grant, Michael, The Jews in the Roman World, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1973, p. xi.
4) Josephus, Antiquities 20, 195.

#41 of 70 in the Aish.com Jewish History Series
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Monday, November 23, 2015