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Érudit est un consortium interuniversitaire sans but lucratif composé de l'Université de Montréal, l'Université Laval et l'Université du Québec à Montréal. Il a pour mission la promotion et la valorisation de la recherche. Érudit offre des services d'édition numérique de documents scientifiques depuis 1998. Pour communiquer avec les responsables d'Érudit : erudit@umontreal.ca Article Dan Jaffé Laval théologique et philosophique, vol. 68, n° 3, 2012, p. 577-592. Pour citer cet article, utiliser l'information suivante : URI: http://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1015256ar DOI: 10.7202/1015256ar Note : les règles d'écriture des références bibliographiques peuvent varier selon les différents domaines du savoir. Ce document est protégé par la loi sur le droit d'auteur. L'utilisation des services d'Érudit (y compris la reproduction) est assujettie à sa politique d'utilisation que vous pouvez consulter à l'URI http://www.erudit.org/apropos/utilisation.html Document téléchargé le 17 mai 2013 08:54 "The Virgin Birth of Jesus in the Talmudic Context: A Philological and Historical Analysis" Laval théologique et philosophique, 68, 3 (octobre 2012) : 577-592 577 THE VIRGIN BIRTH OF JESUS IN THE TALMUDIC CONTEXT A PHILOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL ANALYSIS* Dan Jaffé Faculty of Jewish Studies Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel RÉSUMÉ : Cet article se propose d’étudier les conceptions talmudiques relatives à la croyance chrétienne en la conception et en la naissance virginale de Jésus. L’approche consiste princi- palement en une étude philologique et historique du cognomen ben Pantera affilié à Jésus dans de nombreux textes talmudiques principalement tannaïtiques. On propose de voir dans le nom ben Pantera une raillerie à l’encontre de la croyance chrétienne en la conception et en la nais- sance virginale de Jésus. L’accusation d’union illégitime énoncée et véhiculée en monde juif ainsi qu’en monde païen se retrouve dans la littérature talmudique. Le christianisme y est sou- vent assimilé à la séduction exercée par la prostitution. Ainsi, c’est à un même univers con- ceptuel qu’il convient de se référer dans l’étude de cette question : la relation dialectique entre l’attirance exercée par le christianisme et celle exercée par la prostituée, dans le processus historique de séparation entre juifs et chrétiens. ABSTRACT : This article proposes a philological and historic analysis of the Talmudic name Ben Pantera. It is suggested that this ancient expression has to be understood as corresponding to a period in which the Jews wished to think of Christianity, choosing the person of Jesus as an emblematic figure of this reality. The expression Ben Pantera expresses mockery and even scorn towards Jesus. It must be placed back in a period in which, on account of the doctrinal controversies between Jews and Christians, the two religions had consummated a Parting of the Ways and acknowledged each other as rivals. Thus, Ben Pantera appears to be the oldest mention of Jesus in the Talmudic literature. ______________________ eshu(a) ben Pantera” is one of the names used in Talmudic literature to des- ignate Jesus of Nazareth. This cryptic name, mainly used in Palestinian texts, has been the object of much research. No solution, however, is regarded as de- finitive as yet.1 * The author wishes to thank the two anonymous readers of his article for their suggestions and their im- portant comments. 1. One finds various forms of this cryptogram, such as : pantera ; pandira ; pandera ; pantira ; panteri. All of these names designate Jesus of Nazareth in Talmudic literature. They are, however, different in the way they are transliterated, especially because of slight differences in spelling, for example the addition of a yod before the last syllable. “Y DAN JAFFÉ 578 To what historical reality does this term bear witness ? Does it illustrate a tacit Jewish polemic against Jesus and Christianity ? Or does it bear witness to nomencla- ture peculiar to Talmudic literature, whose obscure origin has been lost ? After surveying earlier research and providing perspective on the difficulties that this name bears with it, the present study offers a new effort at interpretation. I. THE STATE OF RESEARCH In a rather old but still important study, H. Laible suggested that the term Παν- θήρα Panterarefers to a Roman soldier, Mary’s lover and the true father of Jesus.2 Hence Jesus would be the product of an illicit union, making him an illegitimate child. In a long study of the Jews in patristic literature, Samuel Krauss analyzed a pas- sage in Sifre on Deut. 32:20, which suggests the following interpretation : I will see what their end shall be — I will inform them of their fate — for they are a very forward generation — neither “a generation which is inverted” nor “a generation which shall be overturned” is written here, but a very forward generation — they are fickle, they are perfidious.3 According to Krauss, the Hebrew word pornim is a corrupt form of the Greek, πόρνοι, which accounts for the idea of perversion implied by this interpretation. Sim- ilarly, the Greek words πορνεῖον and πόρνη can also be related to Hebrew forms, being transliterations of the Greek. Moreover, in this passage of Sifre, the variant reading of pornim produces parda- nim, which means a vagabond, but which remains difficult to translate. According to Krauss, a phonetic phenomenon took place in this variant, with the insertion of a da- leth between the resh and the nun, which he regards as a process familiar to philolo- gists. Hence, pardanim would be the equivalent of πόρνοι, whereas the feminine form πόρνη, would have been transformed into pardanit. In his final analysis, this philologist concluded that pandera was connected to pardanit, differentiated only by the position of the second letters, nun and resh — a change that he regards as recurrent in Talmudic terminology derived from Greek. Thus pandera would be the equivalent of πόρνη, modified by phonetic influences. Thus, according to the final element, yeshua ben pandera would be interpreted to mean “the son of a prostitute,” summing up the Jewish attitude toward Jesus.4 2. Cf. H. LAIBLE, Jesus Christus im Talmud, Leipzig, Hinrichs (coll. “Schriften des Institutum Judaicum in Berlin”, 10), 19002, p. 19-25. 3. Cf. Sifre 320 (ed. L. Finkelstein, p. 366), translation according to R. Hammer, Sifre. A Tannaitic Commen- tary on the Book of Deuteronomy, New Haven, London, Yale University Press, 1986, p. 329. See S. KRAUSS, “The Jews in the Works of the Church Fathers”, Jewish Quarterly Review, 5 (1893), p. 143- 144 (= J.B. AGUS, Judaism and Christianity. Selected Accounts 1892-1962, New York, Arno, 1973, p. 143-144). 4. Note that the Jews might well have made use of the resonance of the two terms mentioned by Origen, εξ παρθένου and εξ πορνείας in their mockery of Jesus. We will return to this question. THE VIRGIN BIRTH OF JESUS IN THE TALMUDIC CONTEXT 579 It must be emphasized that this philological deduction is difficult to accept, be- cause, aside from its dependence upon conjectures without any true foundation, it considers only the word pandera with a daleth as the third letter, and not pantera with a teth.5 A. Deissmann demonstrated that Ben Pantera was a very common Roman name, widely used in the Roman armies, which explains the number of Latin inscriptions from the High Empire in which it is found. According to Deissmann, the tradition re- garding Jesus’ illegitimate birth was very old among the Jews, and was founded pre- cisely on the idea of relations between a Roman soldier named Pantera and Mary, Je- sus’ mother.6 We should also note that epitaphs have been found mentioning the family name of Pantera.7 L. Patterson suggested that in fact Pantera was not a military name but rather a first name common in the Roman army. The Jewish use of the word would probably have come into being because of the similarity in sound to the Greek term Παρθένος, meaning virgin. These circumstances would then have given rise to the legend that Jesus’ mother committed adultery with a Roman soldier.8 S. Kaminski surmised that the name yeshua ben pantera was a corrupt form of yeshua ben sira. This conjecture is close to the thesis that juxtaposes pantera with “panther,” claiming a connection between that name and the Greek word θηρός, meaning “savage beast.” This would be an expression of violent opposition to the veneration of Jesus and his divine nature.9 One is constrained to acknowledge that these rather arbitrary linguistic connec- tions cannot explain why the name yeshua ben pantera would derive from the name yeshua ben sira. R. Eisler conjectured that the origin of the name Πανθήρα, deriving from Greek sources, and of pandera, deriving from Jewish sources, refers to the figure of the 5. Cf. L. PATTERSON, “Origin of the name Panthera,” Journal of Theological Studies, 19 (1917), p. 79, who emphasizes that only one letter is in the same place between pantera and πόρνος so that S. Krauss’ con- jecture is highly unlikely, an opinion with which we must concur. 6. Cf. A. DEISSMANN, “Der Name Panthera,” in C. BEZOLD, ed., Orientalische Studien T. Nöldecke gewid- met, Giessen, Töpelmann, 1906, p. 871-875 ; A. DEISSMANN, Light from the Ancient East, New York, uploads/Litterature/ dan-jaffe-the-virgin-birth-of-jesus-in-the-talmudic-context-a-philological-and-historical-analysis.pdf