Diogenes the Cynic

The passage is generally believed to be about a different Jesus (or Yeshua) who was hanged (not crucified) for sorcery a century before the Christian era. It should also be noted that the Jewish authorities did not practice crucifixion and the Roman authorities did not crucify people for sorcery, aposty or any other Jewish religious offenses, so this account does not fit the Jesus of myth in any way.

andrewcriddle

We probably have to distinguish several questions.

1/ What dating did the final redactors of the Babylonian Talmud believe about the heretical/apostate Jesus/Yeshua who is mentioned several times ?

Probably contemporary with Alexander Jannaeus roughly 100 BCE.
The main story about Jesus with a clear date for the events is the account in Sanhedrin 107b and Sotah 47a of Jesus as an apostate disciple of Rabbi Jehoshua ben Perachya in the time of Alexander Janneus.

2/ Is the Babylonian Talmud in these passages based upon a historical Jesus disciple of Rabbi Jehoshua around 100 BCE ?

Almost certainly not. The account of Jesus disciple of Rabbi Jehoshua in the Babylonian Talmud appears to be a developed version of a story in the Jerusalem Talmud about an unnamed disciple of Rabbi Jehuda ben Tabbai around the same period (Jerusalem Hagigah 2:2). The Babylonian Talmud story is unilkely to be earlier than 400 CE and given the Aramaic nature of the Gemara for this story it may even be later.

This makes it useless as a basis for historical events around 100 BCE.

3/ Given that the Babylonian Talmud accounts are basically legendary, have they been influenced by the Christian Jesus ?

Probably. The agreements seem too great to be coincidence.

4/ did the final redactors of the Babylonian Talmud regard their Jesus as being ultimately the same as the Christian Jesus ?

It's hard to say. However the author(s) of the Toledoth Yeshua who used this material certainly did regard it as being about the Christian Jesus.

Andrew Criddle

noah

Do you mind telling us where that discussion is happening?

Thanks