The Toldoth Yeshu Narratives
The Toldoth Yeshu are not part of rabbinic literature and are considered neither canonical nor normative. There is no one authoritative Toldoth Yeshu story; rather, various medieval versions existed that differ in attitudes towards the central characters and in story details. It is considered unlikely that any one person wrote it, and each version seems to be from a different set of storytellers. In these manuscripts, the name "Yeshu" is used as designation of the central character. The stories typically understand the name "Yeshu" to be the acronym Y'mach Sh'mo V'Zichrono, but justify its usage by claiming that it is wordplay on his real name, Yehoshua (i.e. Joshua, a Hebrew equivalent of "Jesus"). The era of the story is set in the Hasmonean era reflecting the setting of the account of Yeshu the student of Yehoshuah ben Perachiah in the Talmud. Due to the Gospel parallels, the story of Toldoth Yeshu narratives is typically viewed as a derogatory account of the life of Jesus resulting from Jewish reaction to persecution by Christians.
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