Saving Christian Books from Fire

[With regard to] the blank folios¹ and the [Torah] scrolls of [the] heretics, one does not rescue them from the fire. R. Yosi says: During the week, one cuts the names [of God contained] therein and buries them, and burns the rest. R. Tarfon said: I will bury my sons [if I fail to do the following], that if [these books] come into my possession I will burn them and the names [contained] therein. As even [if] a person is pursuing him [with the intent] to kill him, and a snake is hurrying to bite him, one enters a house of idolatry and does not enter the houses of these [heretics. The reason is] that these [heretics] are aware [of the greatness of the Creator manifest in the Torah and its mitzvot], and [nevertheless, they] deny [God]; whereas these [idolators] are not aware, and [that is the reason that they] deny [God]. And with regard to the [heretics], the verse says: And behind the door and the doorpost you place your memory (Isaiah 57:8). [Although they remember the word of God, they treat it contemptuously, as if casting it behind the door.]

R. Ishmael said: [The fact that the names of God in the scrolls of heretics may be burned can be derived through an] a fortiori [inference]: Just as to make peace between a husband and his wife, [the] Torah says: My name that was written in sanctity shall be erased in the water [in the framework of the ordeal of the sotah²]; these, [the heretics,] who impose jealousy, and hatred, and conflict between the Jewish people and their Father in heaven, all the more so [it is proper to erase God’s names because of them]. And with regard to [heretics], David said: For I hate those who hate You, God, and I fight those who rise against You. I hate them with the utmost hatred, they have become enemies to me (Psalm 139:21–22). And just as they, [the scrolls of heretics,] are not rescued from the fire, neither are they rescued from a rockslide, nor from water, nor from [any other] matter that destroys them.

Joseph bar Ḥanin raised a dilemma before R. Abbahu: [With regard to] these books of the house of Abidan,³ [does] one rescue them from the fire or [does] one not rescue [them? R. Abbahu said] yes and no, and [the matter was] uncertain to him. Rav would not go to the house of Abidan, and all the more so [he would not go] to the house of Nitzrefei.⁴ Samuel, to the house of Nitzrefei he did not go, [but] to the house of Abidan he did go. [The gentile scholars] said to Rava, “Why did you not come to the house of Abidan?” [He] said to them, “There is a certain palm tree on the road, and [that makes the path] difficult for me.” [They said to him,] “We will uproot it.” [He said to them,] “[Nevertheless, the resulting pit in] its place [will be] difficult for me.” Mar bar Joseph said, “I am [one] of them, and I do not fear them.” [Still,] one time he went [and] they sought to endanger his [life].

R. Meir would call [the Christian writing, the Evangelion, the] wicked folio [‘aven gilyon]; R. Yoḥanan [called it the] sinful folio [‘avon gilyon].