Chapter V: Part I: The Jewish Anti‐gospels (4)

In the eleventh century the Jews in the great Rhine cities were massacred by the ferocious hosts of Crusaders under Ernico, Count of Leiningen, and the priests Folkmar and Goteschalk. At the voice of their leaders (A.D. 1096), the furious multitude of red‐crossed pilgrims spread through the cities of the Rhine and the Moselle, massacring pitilessly all the Jews that they met with in their passage. In their despair, a great number preferred being their own destroyers to awaiting certain death at the hands of their enemies. Several shut themselves up in their houses, and perished amidst flames their own hands had kindled; some attached heavy stones to their garments, and precipitated themselves and their treasures into the Rhine or Moselle. Mothers stifled their children at the breast, saying that they preferred sending them to the bosom of Abraham to seeing them torn away to be nurtured in a religion which bred tigers.

Some of the ecclesiastics behaved with Christian humanity. The Bishops of Worms and Spires ran some risk in saving as many as they could of this defenceless people. The Archbishop of Treves, less generous, gave refuge to such only as would consent to receive baptism, and coldly consigned the rest to the knives and halters of the Christian fanatics. The Archbishop of Mainz was more than suspected of participation in the plunder of his Jewish subjects. The Emperor took on himself the protection and redress of the wrongs endured by the Jews, and it was apparently at this time that the Jews were formally taken under feudal protection by the Emperor. They became his men, owing to him special allegiance, and with full right therefore to his protection.

The Toledoth Jeschu of Wagenseil was composed by a German Jew; that is apparent from its mention of the letter of the synagogue of Worms to the Sanhedrim. Had it been written in the eleventh century, it would not have represented the Pope as the refuge of the persecuted Jews, for it was the Emperor who redressed their wrongs.

But it was in the thirteenth century that the Popes stood forth as the special protectors of the Jews. On May 1, 1291, the Jewish bankers throughout France were seized and imprisoned by order of Philip the Fair, and forced to pay enormous mulcts. Some died under torture, most yielded, and then fled the inhospitable realm. Five years after, in one day, all the Jews in France were taken, their property confiscated to the Crown, the race expelled the realm.

In 1320, the Jews of the South of France, notwithstanding persecution and expulsion, were again in numbers and perilous prosperity. On them burst the fury of the Pastoureaux. Five hundred took refuge in the royal castle of Verdun on the Garonne. The royal officers refused to defend them. The shepherds set fire to the lower stories of a lofty tower; the Jews slew each other, having thrown their children to the mercy of their assailants. Everywhere, even in the great cities, Auch, Toulouse, Castel Sarrazen, the Jews were left to be remorselessly massacred and their property pillaged. The Pope himself might have seen the smoke of the fires that consumed them darkening the horizon from the walls of Avignon. But John XXII., cold, arrogant, rapacious, stood by unmoved. He launched his excommunication, not against the murderers of the inoffensive Jews, but against all who presumed to take the Cross without warrant of the Holy See. Even that same year he published violent bulls against the poor persecuted Hebrews, and commanded the Bishops to destroy their Talmud, the source of their detestable blasphemies; but he bade those who should submit to baptism to be protected from pillage and massacre.

The Toledoth Jeschu, therefore, cannot have been written at the beginning of the fourteenth century, when the Jews had such experience of the indifference of a Pope to their wrongs. We are consequently forced to look to the thirteenth century as its date. And the thirteenth century will provide us with instances of persecution of the Jews in Germany, and Popes exerting themselves to protect them.

In 1236, the Jews were the subject of an outburst of popular fury throughout Europe, but especially in Spain, where a fearful carnage took place. In France, the Crusaders of Guienne, Poitou, Anjou and Brittany killed them, without sparing the women and children. Women with child were ripped up. The unfortunate Jews were thrown down, and trodden under the feet of horses. Their houses were ransacked, their books burned, their treasures carried off. Those who refused baptism were tortured or killed. The unhappy people sent to Rome, and implored the Pope to extend his protection to them. Gregory IX. wrote at once to the Archbishop of Bordeaux, the Bishops of Saintes, Angoulême and Poictiers, forbidding constraint to be exercised on the Jews to force them to receive baptism; and a letter to the King entreating him to exert his authority to repress the fury of the Crusaders against the Jews.

In 1240, the Jews were expelled from Brittany by the Duke John, at the request of the Bishops of Brittany.

In 1246, the persecution reached its height in Germany. Bishops and nobles vied with each other in despoiling and harassing the unfortunate Hebrews. They were charged with killing Christian children and devouring their hearts at their Passover. Whenever a dead body was found, the Jews were accused of the murder. Hosts were dabbled in blood, and thrown down at their doors, and the ignorant mob rose against such profanation of the sacred mysteries. They were stripped of their goods, thrown into prison, starved, racked, condemned to the stake or to the gallows. From the German towns miserable trains of yellow‐girdled and capped exiles issued, seeking some more hospitable homes. If they left behind them their wealth, they carried with them their industry.

A deputation of German Rabbis visited the Pope, Innocent IV., at Lyons, and laid the complaints of the Jews before him. Innocent at once took up their cause. He wrote to all the bishops of Germany, on July 5th, 1247, ordering them to favour the Jews, and insist on the redress of the wrongs to which they had been subjected, whether at the hands of ecclesiastics or nobles. A similar letter was then forwarded by him to all the bishops of France.

At this period it was in vain for the Jews to appeal to the Emperor. Frederick II. was excommunicated, and Germany in revolt, fanned by the Pope, against him. A new Emperor had been proposed at a meeting at Budweis to the electors of Austria, Bohemia and Bavaria, but the proposition had been rejected. Henry of Thuringia, however, set up by Innocent, and supported by the ecclesiastical princes of Germany, had been crowned at Hochem. A crusade was preached against the Emperor Frederick; Henry of Thuringia was defeated and died. The indefatigable Innocent, clinging to the cherished policy of the Papal See to ruin the unity of Germany by stirring up intestine strife, found another candidate in William of Holland. He was crowned at Aix‐la‐Chapelle, October 3, 1247. From this time till his death, four years after, the cause of Frederick declined. Frederick was mostly engaged in wars in Italy, and had not leisure, if he had the power, to attend to and right the wrongs of his Jewish vassals.

It was at this period that I think we may conclude the Toledoth Jeschu of Wagenseil was written.

Another consideration tends to confirm this view. The Wagenseil Toledoth Jeschu speaks of Elias rising up after the death of Simon Cephas, and denouncing him as having led the Christians away.

Was there any Elias at the close of the thirteenth century who did thus preach against the Pope? There was. Elias of Cortona, second General of the Franciscan Order, the leader of a strong reactionary party opposed to the Spirituals or Caesarians, those who maintained the rule in all its rigour, had been deposed, then carried back into the Generalship by a recoil of the party wave, then appealed against to the Pope, deposed once more, and finally excommunicated. Elias joined the Emperor Frederick, the deadly foe of Innocent IV., and, sheltered under his wing, denounced the venality, the avarice, the extortion of the Papacy. As a close attendant on the German Emperor, his adviser, as one who encouraged him in his opposition to a Pope who protected the Jews, the German Jews must have heard of him. But the stone of excommunication firing at him struck him down, and he died in 1253, making a death‐bed reconciliation with Rome.

But though it is thus possible to give an historical explanation of the curious circumstance that the Toledoth Jeschu ranges the Pope among the friends of Judaism and the enemies of Christianity, and provide for the identification of Elias with the fallen General of the Minorites,—the story points perhaps to a dim recollection of Simon Peter being at the head of the Judaizing Church at Jerusalem and Rome, which made common cause with the Jews, and of Paul, here designated Elias, in opposition to him.

VII. The Second Toledoth Jeschu.

We will now analyze and give extracts from the second anti‐evangel of the Jews, the TOLEDOTH JESCHU OF HULDRICH.(121)

It begins thus: “In the reign of King Herod the Proselyte, there lived a man named Papus Ben Jehuda. To him was betrothed Mirjam, daughter of Kalphus; and her brother’s name was Simeon. He was a Rabbi, the son of Kalphus. This Mirjam, before her betrothal, was a hair‐dresser to women.... She was surpassing beautiful in form. She was of the tribe of Benjamin.”

On account of her extraordinary beauty, she was kept locked up in a house; but she escaped through a window, and fled from Jerusalem to Bethlehem with Joseph Pandira, of Nazareth.

As has been already said, Papus Ben Jehuda was a contemporary of Rabbi Akiba, and died about A.D. 140. In the Wagenseil Toledoth Jeschu, Mirjam is betrothed to a Jochanan. In the latter, Mary lives at Bethlehem; in the Toledoth of Huldrich, she resides at Jerusalem.

Many years after, the place of the retreat of Mirjam and Joseph Pandira having been made known to Herod, he sent to Bethlehem orders for their arrest, and for the massacre of the children; but Joseph, who had been forewarned by a kinsman in the court of Herod, fled in time with his wife and children into Egypt.

After many years a famine broke out in Egypt, and Joseph and Mirjam, with their son Jeschu and his brethren, returned to Canaan and settled at Nazareth.

“And Jeschu grew up, and went to Jerusalem to acquire knowledge,
in the school of Joshua, the son of Perachia (B.C. 90); and he
made there great advance, so that he learned the mystery of the
chariot and the holy Name.(122)

“One day it fell out that Jeschu was playing ball with the sons of
the priests, near the chamber Gasith, on the hill of the Temple.
Then by accident the ball fell into the Fish‐valley. And Jeschu
was very grieved, and in his anger he plucked the hat from off his
head, and cast it on the ground and burst into lamentations.
Thereupon the boys warned him to put his hat on again, for it was
not comely to be with uncovered head. Jeschu answered, Verily,
Moses gave you not this law; it is but an addition of the lawyers,
and therefore need not be observed.

“Now there sat there, Rabbi Eliezer and Joshua Ben Levi (A.D.
220), and the Rabbi Akiba (A.D. 135) hard by, in the school, and
they heard the words that Jeschu had spoken.

“Then said the Rabbi Eliezer, That boy is certainly a Mamser. But
Rabbi Joshua, son of Levi, said, He is a Ben‐hannidda. And the
Rabbi Akiba said also, He is a Ben‐hannidda.(123) Therefore the
Rabbi Akiba went forth out of the school, and asked Jeschu in what
city he was born. Jeschu answered, I am of Nazareth; my father’s
name is Mezaria,(124) and my mother’s name is Karchat.

“Then the Rabbis Akiba, Eliezer and Joshua went into the school of
the Rabbi Joshua, son of Perachia, and seized Jeschu by the hair
and cut it off in a circle, and washed his head with the water
Boleth, so that the hair might not grow again.”

Ashamed at this humiliation, according to the Toledoth Jeschu of Huldrich, the boy returned to Nazareth, where he wounded his mother’s breast.

Probably the author of this counter‐Gospel saw one of those common artistic representations of the Mater Dolorosa with a sword piercing her soul, and invented the story of Jesus wounding his mother’s breast to account for it.

When Jeschu was grown up, there assembled about him many disciples, whose names were Simon and Matthias, Elikus, Mardochai and Thoda, whose names Jeschu changed.

“He called Simon Peter, after the word Petrus, which in Hebrew
signifies the First. And Matthias he called Matthew; and Elikus he
called Luke, because he sent him forth among the heathen; and
Mardochai he named Mark, because he said, Vain men come to me; and
Thoda he named Pahul (Paul), because he bore witness of him.

“Another worthless fellow also joined them, named Jochanan, and he
changed his name to Jahannus on account of the miracles Jeschu
wrought through him by means of the incommunicable Name. This
Jahannus advised that all the men who were together should have
their heads washed with the water Boleth, that the hair might not
grow on them, and all the world might know that they were
Nazarenes.

“But the affair was known to the elders and to the King. Then he
sent his messengers to take Jeschu and his disciples, and to bring
them to Jerusalem. But out of fear of the people, they gave timely
warning to Jeschu that the King sought to take and kill him and
his companions. Therefore they fled into the desert of Ai
(Capernaum?). And when the servants of the King came and found
them not, with the exception of Jahannus they took him and led him
before the King. And the King ordered that Jahannus should be
executed with the sword. The servants of the King therefore went
at his command and slew Jahannus, and hung up his head at the gate
of Jerusalem.(125)

“About this time Jeschu assembled the inhabitants of Jerusalem
about him, and wrought many miracles. He laid a millstone on the
sea, and sailed about on it, and cried, I am God, the Son of God,
born of my mother by the power of the Holy Ghost, and I sprang
from her virginal brow.

“And he wrought many miracles, so that all the inhabitants of Ai
believed in him, and his miracles he wrought by means of the
incommunicable Name.

“Then Jeschu ordered the law to be done away with, for it is said
in the Psalm, It is time for thee, Lord, to lay too thine hand,
for they have destroyed thy law. Now, said he, is the right time
come to tear up the law, for the thousandth generation has come
since David said, He hath promised to keep his word to a thousand
generations (Ps. cviii. 8).

“Therefore they arose and desecrated the Sabbath.

“When now the elders and wise men heard of what was done, they
came to the King and consulted him and his council. Then answered
Judas, son of Zachar,(126) I am the first of the King’s princes; I
will go myself and see if it be true what is said, that this man
blasphemeth.

“Therefore Judas went and put on other clothes like the men of Ai,
and spake to Jeschu and said, I also will learn your doctrine.
Then Jeschu had his head shaved in a ring and washed with the
water Boleth.

“After that they went into the wilderness, for they feared the
King lest he should take them if they tarried at Ai. And they lost
their way; and in the wilderness they lighted on a shepherd who
lay on the ground. Then Jeschu asked him the right way, and how
far it was to shelter. The shepherd answered, The way lies
straight before you; and he pointed it out with his foot.

“They went a little further, and they found a shepherd maiden, and
Jeschu asked her which way they must go. Then the maiden led them
to a stone which served as a sign‐post. And Peter said to Jeschu,
Bless this maiden who has led us hither! And he blessed her, and
wished for her that she might become the wife of the shepherd they
had met on the road.

“Then said Peter, Wherefore didst thou so bless the maiden? He
answered, The man is slow, but she is lively. If he were left
without her activity, it would fare ill with him. For I am a God
of mercy, and make marriages as is best for man.”

This is a German story. There are many such of Jesus and St. Peter to be found in all collections of German household tales. They go together on a journey, and various adventures befal them, and the Lord orders things very differently from what Peter expects. To this follows another story, familiar to English school‐boys. The apostles come with their Master to an inn, and ask for food. The innkeeper has a goose, and it is decided that he shall have the goose who dreams the best dream that night. When all are asleep, Judas gets up, plucks, roasts and eats the goose. Next morning they tell their dreams. Judas says, “Mine was the best of all, for I dreamt that in the night I ate the goose; and, lo! the goose is gone this morning. I think the dream must have been a reality.” Among English school‐boys, the story is told of an Englishman, and Scotchman, and an Irishman. The latter, of course, takes the place of Judas.

Some equally ridiculous stories follow, inserted for the purpose of making our blessed Lord and his apostles contemptible, but not taken, like the two just mentioned, from German folk‐lore.

“After that Judas went to Jerusalem, but Jeschu and Peter tarried
awaiting him (at Laish), for they trusted him. Now when Judas was
come to Jerusalem, he related to the King and the elders the words
and deeds of Jeschu, and how, through the power of the
incommunicable Name, he had wrought such wonders that the people
of Ai believed in him, and how that he had taken to wife the
daughter of Karkamus, chief ruler of Ai.

“Then the King and the elders asked counsel of Judas how they
might take Jeschu and his disciples. Judas answered, Persuade
Jagar Ben Purah, their host, to mix the water of forgetfulness
with their wine. We will come to Jerusalem for the Feast of
Tabernacles; and then do ye take him and his disciples. For Jager
Purah is the brother of the Gerathite Karkamus; but I will
persuade Jeschu that Jager Purah is the brother of Karkamus of Ai,
and he will believe my words, and they will all come up to the
Feast of Tabernacles. Now when they shall have drunk of that wine,
then will Jeschu forget the incommunicable Name, and so will be
unable to deliver himself out of your hands, so that ye can
capture him and hold him fast.

“Then answered the King and the elders, Thy counsel is good; go in
peace, and we will appoint a fast. Therefore Judas went his way on
the third of the month Tisri (October), and the great assembly in
Jerusalem fasted a great fast, and prayed God to deliver Jeschu
and his followers into their hands. And they undertook for
themselves and for their successors a fast to be hold annually on
the third of the month Tisri, for ever.

“When Judas had returned to Jeschu, he related to him, I have been
attentive to hear what is spoken in Jerusalem, and none so much as
wag their tongues against thee. Yea! when the King took Jahannus
to slay him, his disciples came in force and rescued him. And
Jahannus said to me, Go say to Jesus, our Lord, that he come with
his disciples, and we will protect him; and see! the host, Jager
Purah, is brother of Karkamus, ruler of Ai, and an uncle of thy
betrothed.

“Now when Jeschu heard the words of Judas, he believed them; for
the inhabitants of Jerusalem and their neighbours fasted
incessantly during the six days between the feast of the New Year
and the Day of Atonement,—yea, even on the Sabbath Day did some of
them fast. And when those men who were not in the secret asked
wherefore they fasted at this unusual time, when it was not
customary to fast save on the Day of Atonement, the elders
answered them, This is done because the King of the Gentiles has
sent and threatened us with war.

“But Jeschu and his disciples dressed themselves in the costume of
the men of Ai, that they might not be recognized in Jerusalem; and
in the fast, on the Day of Atonement, Jeschu came with his
disciples to Jerusalem, and entered into the house of Purah, and
said, Of me it is written, Who is this that cometh from Edom, with
dyed garments from Bozrah? I that speak in righteousness, mighty
to save. I have trodden the wine‐press alone, and of the people
there was none with me.(127) For now am I come from Edom to the
house of Purah, and of thee, Purah, was it written, Jegar
Sahadutha!(128) For thou shalt be to us a hill of witness and
assured protection. But I have come here to Jerusalem to abolish
the festivals and the holy seasons and the appointed holy days.
And he that believeth in me shall have his portion in eternal
life. I will give forth a new law in Jerusalem, for of me was it
written, Out of Zion shall the law go forth, and the word of the
Lord from Jerusalem.(129) And their sins and unrighteousness will
I atone for with my blood. But after I am dead I will arise to
life again; for it is written, I kill and make alive; I bring down
to hell, and raise up therefrom again.(130)

“But Judas betook himself secretly to the King, and told him how
that Jeschu and his disciples were in the house of Purah.
Therefore the King sent young priests into the house of Purah, who
said unto Jeschu, We are ignorant men, and believe in thee and thy
word; but do this, we pray thee, work a miracle before our eyes.

“Then Jeschu wrought before them wonders by means of the
incommunicable Name.

“And on the great Day of Atonement he and his disciples ate and
drank, and fasted not; and they drank of the wine wherewith was
mingled the Water of Forgetfulness, and then betook themselves to
rest.

“And when midnight was now come, behold! servants of the King
surrounded the house, and to them Purah opened the door. And the
servants broke into the room where Jeschu and his disciples were,
and they cast them into chains.

“Then Jeschu directed his mind to the incommunicable Name; but he
could not recall it, for all had vanished from his recollection.

“And the servants of the King led Jeschu and his disciples to the
prison of the blasphemers. And in the morning they told the King
that Jeschu and his disciples were taken and cast into prison.
Then he ordered that they should be detained till the Feast of
Tabernacles.

“And on that feast all the people of the Lord came together to the
feast, as Moses had commanded them. Then the King ordered that
Jeschu’s disciples should be stoned outside the city; and all the
Israelites looked on, and heaped stones on the disciples. And all
Israel broke forth into hymns of praise to the God of Israel, that
these men of Belial had thus fallen into their hands.

“But Jeschu was kept still in prison, for the King would not slay
him till the men of Ai had seen that his words were naught, and
what sort of a prophet he was proved to be.

“Also he wrote letters throughout the land to the councils of the
synagogues to learn from them after what manner Jeschu should be
put to death, and summoning all to assemble at Jerusalem on the
next feast of the Passover to execute Jeschu, as it is written,
Whosoever blasphemeth the name of the Lord, he shall surely be put
to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him.(131)

“But the people of Girmajesa (Germany) and all that country round,
what is at this day called Wormajesa (Worms) in the land of the
Emperor, and the little council in the town of Wormajesa, answered
the King in this wise, Let Jesus go, and slay him not! Let him
live till he die and perish.

“But when the feast of the Passover drew nigh, it was heralded
through all the land of Judaea, that any one who had aught to say
in favour, and for the exculpation, of Jeschu, should declare it
before the King. But all the people with one consent declared that
Jeschu must die.(132)

“Therefore, on the eve of the Passover, Jeschu was brought out of
the prison, and they cried before him, So may all thine enemies
perish, O Lord! And they hanged him on a tree outside of
Jerusalem, as the King and elders of Jerusalem had commanded.

“And all Israel looked on and praised and glorified God.

“Now when even was come, Judas took down the body of Jeschu from
the tree and laid it in his garden in a conduit.

“But when the people of Ai heard that Jeschu had been hung, they
became enemies to Israel. And the people of Ai attacked the
Israelites, and slew of them two thousand men. And the Israelites
could not go to the feasts because of the men of Ai. Therefore the
King proclaimed war against Ai; but he could not overcome it, for
mightily grew the multitude of those who believed in Jeschu, even
under the eyes of the King in Jerusalem.

“And some of these went to Ai, and declared that on the third day
after Jeschu had been hung, fire had fallen from heaven, which had
surrounded Jeschu, and he had arisen alive, and gone up into
heaven.(133)

“And the people of Ai believed what was said, and swore to avenge
on the children of Israel the crime they had committed in hanging
Jeschu. Now when Judas saw that the people of Ai threatened great
things, he wrote a letter unto them, saying, There is no peace to
the ungodly, saith the Lord; therefore do the people take counsel
together, and the Gentiles imagine a vain thing. Come to Jerusalem
and see your false prophet! For, lo! he is dead and buried in a
conduit.

“Now when they heard this, the men of Ai went to Jerusalem and saw
Jeschu lying where had been said. But, nevertheless, when they
returned to Ai, they said that all Judas had written was false.
For, lo! said they, when we came to Jerusalem we found that all
believed in Jeschu, and had risen and had expelled the King out of
the city because he believed not; and many of the elders have they
slain. Then the men of Ai believed these words of the messengers,
and they proclaimed war against Israel.

“Now when the King and the elders saw that the men of Ai were
about to encamp against them, and that the numbers of these
worthless men grow—they were the brethren and kinsmen of
Jeschu—they took counsel what they should do in such sore straits
as they were in.

“And Judas said, Lo! Jeschu has an uncle Simon, son of Kalpus, who
is now alive, and he is an honourable old man. Give him the
incommunicable Name, and let him work wonders in Ai, and tell the
people that he does them in the name of Jesus. And they will
believe Simon, because he is the uncle of Jeschu. But Simon must
make them believe that Jeschu committed to him all power to teach
them not to ill‐treat the Israelites, and he has reserved them for
his own vengeance.

“This counsel pleased the King and the elders, and they went to
Simon and told him the matter.

“Then went Simon, when he had learned the Name, and drew nigh to
Ai, and he raised a cloud and thunder and lightning. And he seated
himself on the cloud, and as the thunder rolled he cried, Ye men
of Ai, gather yourselves together at the tower of Ai, and there
will I give you commandments from Jeschu.

“But when the people of Ai heard this voice, they were sore
afraid, and they assembled on all sides about the tower. And lo!
Simon was borne thither on the cloud; and he stepped upon the
tower. And the men of Ai fell on their faces before him.(134) Then
Simon said, I am Simon Ben Kalpus, uncle of Jeschu. Jeschu came
and sent me unto you to teach you his law, for Jesus is the Son of
God. And lo! I will give you the law of Jesus, which is a new
commandment.

“Then he wrought before them signs and wonders, and he said to the
people of Ai, Swear to me to obey all that I tell you. And they
swore to him. Then said Simon, Go to your own homes. And all the
people of Ai returned to their dwellings.

“Now Simon sat on the tower, and wrote the commandments even as
the King and elders had decided. And he changed the Alphabet, and
gave the letters new names, as secretly to protest that all he
taught written in those letters was lies. And this was the
Alphabet he wrote: A, Be, Ce, De, E, Ef, Cha, I, Ka, El, Em, En,
O, Pe, Ku, Er, Es, Te, U, Ix, Ejed, Zet.

“And this is the interpretation: My father is Esau, who was a
huntsman, and was weary; and lo! his sons believed in Jesus, who
lives, as God.

“And Simon composed for the deception of the people of Ai lying
books, and he called them ‘Avonkelajon’ (Evangelium), which, being
interpreted, is the End of Ungodliness. But they thought he said,
‘Eben gillajon,’ which means Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. He also
wrote books in the names of the disciples of Jeschu, and
especially in that of Johannes, and said that Jeschu had given him
these.

“But with special purpose he composed the Book of Johannes (the
Apocalypse), for the men of Ai thought it contained mysteries,
whereas it contained pure invention. For instance, he wrote in the
Book of Johannes that Johannes saw a beast with seven heads and
seven horns and seven crowns, and the name of the beast was
blasphemy, and the number of the beast 666. Now the seven heads
mean the seven letters which compose in Hebrew the words, ‘Jeschu
of Nazareth.’ And in like manner the number 666 is that which is
the sum of the letters composing this name. In like way did Simon
compose all the books to deceive the people, as the King and the
elders had bidden him.

“And on the sixth day of the third month Simon sat on the cloud,
and the people of Ai were gathered together before him to the
tower, and he gave them the book Avonkelajon, and said to them,
When ye have children born to you, ye must sprinkle them with
water, in token that Jeschu was washed with the water Boleth, and
ye must observe all the commandments that are written in the book
Avonkelajon. And ye must wage no war against the people of Israel,
for Jeschu has reserved them to avenge himself on them himself.

“Now when the people of Ai heard these words, they answered that
they would keep them. And Simon returned on his cloud to
Jerusalem. And all the people thought he had gone up in a cloud to
heaven to bring destruction on the Israelites.(135)

“Not long after this, King Herod died, and was succeeded by his
son in the kingdom of Israel. But when he had obtained the throne,
he heard that the people of Ai had made images in honour of Jesus
and Mary, and he wrote letters to Ai and ordered their
destruction; otherwise he would make war against them.

“Then the people of Ai sent asking help of the Emperor against the
King of Israel. But the Emperor would not assist them and war
against Israel. Therefore, when the people of Ai saw that there
was no help, they burned the images and bound themselves before
the sons of Israel.

“And about this time Mirjam, the mother of Jeschu, died. Then the
King ordered that she should be buried at the foot of the tree on
which Jeschu had hung; and there he also had the brothers and
sisters of Jeschu hung up. And they were hung, and a memorial
stone was set up on the spot.

“But the worthless men, their kinsmen, came and destroyed the
memorial stone, and set up another in its stead, on which they
wrote the words, ‘Lo! this is a ladder set upon the earth, whose
head reaches to heaven, and the angels of God ascend and descend
upon it, and the mother rejoices here in her children, Allelujah!’

“Now when the King heard this, he destroyed the memorial they had
erected, and killed a hundred of the kindred of Jeschu.

“Then went Simon, son of Kalpus, to the King and said, Suffer me,
and I will draw away these people from Jerusalem. And the King
said, Be it so; go, and the Lord be with thee! Therefore Simon
went secretly to these worthless men, and said to them, Let us go
together to Ai, and there shall ye see wonders which I will work.
And some went to Ai, but others seated themselves beside Simon on
his cloud, and left Jerusalem with him. And on the way Simon cast
down those who sat on the cloud with him upon the earth, so that
they died.(136)

“And when Simon returned to Jerusalem, he told the King what he
had done, and the King rejoiced greatly. And Simon left not the
court of the King till his death. And when he died, all the Jews
observed the day as a fast, and it was the 9th of the month Teboth
(January).

“But those who had gone to Ai at the word of Simon believed that
Simon and those with him had gone up together into heaven on the
cloud.

“And when men saw what Simon had taught the people of Ai in the
name of Jesus, they followed them also, and they took them the
daughters of Ai to wife, and sent letters into the furthest
islands with the book Avonkelajon, and undertook for themselves,
and for their descendants, to hold to all the words of the book
Avonkelajon.

“Therefore they abolished the Law, and chose the first day of the
week as the Sabbath, for that was the birthday of Jesus, and they
ordained many other customs and bad feasts. Therefore have they no
part and lot in Israel. They are accursed in this world, and
accursed in the world to come. But the Lord bless his people
Israel with peace.

“These are the words of the Rabbi Jochanan, son of Saccai, in
Jerusalem.”

That this second version of the “Life of Jeschu” is later than the first one, I think there can be little doubt. It is more full of absurdities than the first, it adopts German household tales, and exhibits an ignorance of history even more astounding than in the first Life. The preachers of the “Evangelium” marry wives, and there is a burning of images of St. Mary and our Lord. These are _perhaps_ indications of its having been composed after the Reformation.

Luther did not know anything of the Life published later by Huldrich. The only Toledoth Jeschu he was acquainted with was that afterwards published by Wagenseil.