The Life of Jesus (Toledot Yeshu)

In [the time of] the Second Temple, in the days of Tiberianus Caesar, and in the days of Herod the Second, King of Israel, who did evil, as is demonstrated in Yosippon:¹ In those days, there was a man from the seed of David. His name was Yosef ben Pandera, and he had a wife named Miriam. And that man feared God and was a student of Rabbi Shim‘on ben Shetah. The neighbor of the [above-]mentioned Yosef was a wicked man. His name was Yohanan—an ambusher, a sinner, and an adulterer. That woman, Miriam, was beautiful, and Yohanan the wicked cast his eyes upon that woman, to sleep with her. And so he was always chasing after her, [but] modestly, so that she would not sense the matter.

And thus was the case in the month of Nisan, at the departure of Passover.² On Saturday night at midnight, the [above-]mentioned Yosef arose and went to the house of study. And this wicked man hid himself near the doorway. After the departure of the [above-] mentioned Yosef, the wicked one immediately entered the house and found Miriam. She was lying down and separate from her husband, since she was menstruating; and he went up upon her and lay with her. She was screaming in the dark, and she thought in her heart that he was her husband. And she said, “My lord, my lord, did you not know that I am menstruating, and [that] I am impure? Depart from me (Jeremiah 32:40); do not commit this disgrace (2 Samuel 13:12), and do not anger God.” Finally, the wicked man lay with her, and she became pregnant from him, and he went on his way. He returned again and wanted to repeat the sin. And Miriam said to him, “Wicked man, are you not embarrassed before God, may He be blessed, and before His Holy Scripture? Is it not enough for you that you came unto me once, and again you return a second time?” And the poor woman thought that she was speaking with her husband, Yosef. The wicked man went on his way, and the woman screamed and beat great blows on her face, and she sat and cried.

At dawn, Yosef returned to his house and found his wife crying and lamenting and beating on her face. And her husband said to her, “What is going on with you? And who did that wicked thing to you?” She answered and said to him, “Please, woe unto us, and woe unto my mother who bore me, and woe unto you, since you committed that serious sin, when you knew that I was menstruating, and you came unto me twice on that night, without fear of God, like one of the completely wicked [and] ignorant men. How will it be for you on the Day of Judgment? It has never been your custom to do that. What is this madness that came over you at that night, to come unto me twice?”

Her husband Yosef answered and said to her, “I did not come unto you, not once and not twice. But perhaps you saw some kind of dream, and you thought that it was me. Be silent, and do not speak any more on this matter.” And he thought and understood the matter that happened to her, that that wicked neighbor did the thing. [ . . . ]

A rumor went around the city, [saying] that Miriam, the wife of Yosef, was pregnant. And so, on December 25, Miriam gave birth to a son and called his name Yehoshua‘, after his uncle, the brother of his mother. And he was circumcised on the eighth day. She always thought that he was the son of her husband Yosef. And the wicked one, Yohanan, revealed the matter, and he said to the whole world, “This boy is my son. Such-and-such happened to me, and so I made him with Miriam under the prohibition concerning a married woman and a menstruating one.” The people were gossiping concerning this matter, and she did not know a thing. And when the boy grew up, she sent him to learn Scripture, and the wicked one was a bastard and a clever one, and he learned in one day what another did not learn in one year. And therefore our rabbis, may their memories be blessed, said, “Most bastards are clever,” and all the more so this one, who is a bastard and the son of a menstruating woman. Yosef was there [in] Babylonia, three months’ journey from Jerusalem, and he never asked about her and did not tell anyone about his situation. And he stayed there all of his days. [ . . . ]

He [Yeshu] was immediately arrested, and his three hundred and ten disciples could not save him. When he realized that he would be killed, he began and said, “Is it not about me that David prophesized, saying, For your sake we are killed (Psalms 44:23), and [is it not] about you that Isaiah said, Your hands are filled with blood (Isaiah 1:15), and also about you the prophet said before the Holy One, may He be blessed, They killed your prophets with a sword (1 Kings 19:10).” Then the villains started crying but they could not save him. At that hour, he was killed, and it was the sixth day of the week, Pesach eve and Sabbath eve, when they brought [him] to be hanged on a tree, and [every tree] broke because he possessed the Ineffable Name. When the fools saw that the trees were breaking under his body, they thought that it was happening because of his righteousness. So it was until [they] brought a cabbage stalk for him. For while he was alive, knowing the custom of Israel that he would be hanged, and foreseeing his death and execution and that in the end they would hang him on a tree, he then caused by means of the Ineffable Name that no tree would accept him. But to the cabbage stalk he did not say the Ineffable Name, because it is not a tree but [a kind of] weed. And so [Yeshu] ascended [there]. The cabbage in Jerusalem, more than one hundred pounds, [grows] until this day!

Source: Leipzig BH 17 1–18, 2r–2v + Strasbourg BnU 3974, 173r.