For People Who Think There Was No Historical Jesus

[EGross]

Now, there is a censored section of the Talmud (well a couple of words that make all of the difference), where Rabbi Eliezer is recalling to Rabbi Akiva a time where he (Rabbi Eliezer) had sinned by enjoying a conversation with a min, who was mocking the High Priest in the Temple for being a Pharisee, while this person was a Jew who had converted to Christianity. (The joke was the chutzpah of the one mocking the other).

Now, in the pre-censored form, the term min had replaced talmid Yeshu, meaning a student of importance who was not just a person who accepted Jesus as his master, but was a teacher of his teachings, a representative of his. This was, based on the context, prior to 70CE. Now there has been debate as to who this person could have been. But being that the story has no real date, nor is the person actually named, it just makes for a lot of conjecture. One thought was a traveling preacher who was trying to get followers and was leading the movement. Another was the man who would have created the cult (who we refer to as Paul, which is an odd name. While it sounds like "Saul" there is no real connection between the two). There are other conjectures as well. But if you look up Rabbi Eliezer on Wikipedia, you see that the lack ofscholarship causes Christians to believe that Rabbi Eliezer was a secret Christian, while ignoring that he openly disputed and denounced them in other places.

So was there a real Paul? Was his name "Paul", or was that the Greek name he took or was born with.

Oh, one more fun Jewish tradition: Paul was really a Greek, a convert, who converted to marry a Jewish woman he was in love with from afar. After converting, he asked for her hand, but she said that since she was the daughter of a Kohen, she was not allowed to marry a convert. And so he got pissed, cursed the Jews, and went on his evil rampaging quest.

It's probably a polemic, but it's a fun one!