The Toledot Yeshu as Midrash

This chapter describes the narrative of the Toledot yeshu, which retells the story of Jesus and the rise of Christianity. Lively and memorable in its fabulous elements, the Toledot yeshu offers alternatives to Christian claims about the birth, way of life, and miracles of Jesus, his resurrection, and the subsequent apostolic preaching. It analyzes how the Toledot yeshu circulated in Hebrew, Aramaic, and other languages of the medieval and later Jewish community. The Toledot yeshu is sometimes aligned with New Testament apocrypha, as a hostile counterpart of the Acts of Pilate or the Narration of Joseph of Arimathaea. This chapter also mentions J. D. Eisenstein who published treasuries of both Midrash and controversy, and presented texts from the Toledot yeshu in both.