The Sentencing of Jesus (Gzar-dina de-Yeshu)

Overview & Synopsis

This monograph offers a rich and insightful study of The Sentencing of Jesus, an ancient Jewish polemical narrative describing the trial and execution of Jesus, which is the earliest of all the Toledot Yeshu texts. The volume includes a substantial historical introduction, carefully edited synopses of the Aramaic, Judaeo-Arabic and Hebrew versions, detailed philological and exegetical notes on the text and its transmission history, and an English translation. In his comments, Bohak explores recurring themes in Late Antique literature—such as the apologetic and polemical uses of authentic or forged protocols of trials and executions, envisioning an enemy hanged on an unexpected tree, the humiliation of dragging a corpse through the streets for all to see, and the use of magical handbooks and of spells to heal or harm—shedding new light on the cultural and literary resonances of these motifs. Detailed linguistic analyses trace translations and mistranslations across Aramaic, Hebrew, and Judaeo-Arabic traditions. By reconstructing an ancient polemical text that has previously been known only in a fragmentary manner, and by situating it both within its Late Antique context and in the context of previous scholarship, this book makes a significant contribution to the study of Judaism, and of Jewish-Christian relations, in Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages.