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CHAPTER 1

1 The book of the toledot of Yeshua the mashiaḥ, son of David, son of Avraham.

Toledot (i.e., generations; genealogies)—Even the Greek says this.¹ Apparently, this would be a miracle, since Yeshua had neither wife nor children. Perhaps this means “his disciples,” for even the disciples are called “children,” as it is written: And the children of the prophets came (2 Kings 2:3). The meaning of this passage is “disciples.”² However, this is not possible, for Mattai explains where Yeshua came from, not what came from him (i.e., progeny).³

Therefore, noble reader, see chapter 15, where I correctly asserted that the book of Mattai was written in Hebrew and that toledot (genealogies) was the word that was written there. Toledot (whose root comes from the verb laledet, “to give birth”) is a common noun used concerning the offspring of a person, or concerning events that have happened to him, as in: You do not know what the day will give birth to (Proverbs 27:1).⁴ Even the word “book” (sefer) is a common noun, which sometimes employs the plain meaning, and sometimes the meaning should be understood as “a story of events.”⁵ Therefore, Mattai recounts what happened to Yeshua, who came from the line of David. Thus, similarly we find, And these are the generations [toledot] of Jacob (Genesis 37:2), yet it does not count the generations, but rather the events that happened to him with Joseph.

Avraham—Perhaps one would wonder why the genealogy given in Luke (3:23 and on) extends all the way back to Adam, while Mattai’s begins from Abraham. By doing this, Mattai is implying that just as Abraham was the first to instill monotheism in the hearts of people who did not know YHWH, teaching them to cast away their idols and worship YHWH alone, so, too, was Yeshua the first one to instill this in the hearts of those who participated in idolatry, even in the hearts of those Jews who lacked knowledge and did not know YHWH. He instilled in their hearts the oneness of God—may his name be blessed—in order that each man would abandon his idols and worship YHWH alone, the one and only God.⁶

2 Avraham fathered Yiṣḥak, and Yiṣḥak fathered Ya’akov, and Ya’akov fathered Yehudah and his brothers,

3 and Yehudah fathered Pereṣ and Zeraḥ by Tamar, and Pereṣ fathered Chetzron, and Chetzron fathered Ram,

4 and Ram fathered Amminadav, and Amminadav fathered Naḥshon, and Naḥshon fathered Salmon,

5 and Salmon fathered Boaz by Raḥav, and Boaz fathered ‘Oved by Rut, and ‘Oved fathered Yishai.7

From Raḥav—I do not know his source for this, for it is neither in the Torah nor the Talmud. However, in BT Megillah 14b, it is said that eight prophets came from Rahab, who became a proselyte, and then Joshua married her. It could be that Salmon married a woman from Rahab’s family and she gave birth to Boaz.

6 And Yishai fathered David the king, and King David fathered Shlomoh by the wife of Uriah,

By the wife of Uriah—“From she who was the wife of Uriah,” for Uriah was already dead when Solomon was born. Nevertheless, the name of Uriah is mentioned, just as we find, And his second son, Chileab, son of Abigail, the wife of Nabal the Carmelite (2 Samuel 3:3), for at the same time that Chileab was born, Nabal died. However, it is clear from what is written (1 Samuel 25) that prior to this, Abigail was the wife of Nabal.

Why is it that in every generation, the name of the mother is not mentioned except for these four: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Abigail? Here is the meaning: Isaiah said: My thoughts are not your thoughts and your ways are not my ways, declares YHWH (Isaiah 55:8). When we examine the action of Judah and Tamar, according to our natural, weak opinion, it stands to reason that they would have illegitimate children, for she was his daughter-in-law. And do not say, “This was before the giving of the Torah.” Did not Judah himself say, Bring her out and let her be burned (Genesis 38:24)? Even here, which was before the giving of the Torah, they thought of prostitution as a great abomination.⁸

Nevertheless, all the kings of Israel are descended from her, and God forbid that we should question the conduct of YHWH. Concerning Judah saying, She is more righteous than I (Genesis 38:26), the Talmud says: “A voice came from heaven and said, ‘These secret things issued from me’” (BT Makkot 23b), which is to say, it is not for you to question the ways of YHWH, for these things are bound and secret, belonging only to him.

Rahab was a prostitute,⁹ and after she became a proselyte, eight prophets issued from her. Ruth was a Moabite, and the Torah warns: No Ammonite or Moabite shall enter the congregation of YHWH; none of their descendants, even to the tenth generation, shall ever enter the congregation of YHWH (Deuteronomy 23:4). Nevertheless, we say: “The Holy One, blessed be he, said to Abraham: ‘I have two good blessings with which to bless you by: Ruth the Moabite and Naamah the Ammonite’” (BT Yevamot 63a). And regarding the wife of Uriah, is it not explicitly said that David would be punished for the offense he committed (2 Samuel 12:10)?¹⁰ Nevertheless, when Solomon was born, it is written (ibid., 12:24): YHWH loved him.

In all these matters, we can see that our intellect is limited in understanding the ways of YHWH. The writer of this book knew that it would come into the hands of men who would investigate to find out who Yeshua’s father and mother were, one person saying one thing, another person saying something else. Therefore he mentions four women from whom, according to our limited intellect, should have birthed illegitimate children; yet the opposite is true. All the kings of Israel came from them. And so even now, do not investigate who his father or mother is; rather only let his teaching and guidance concerning the Master of Truth be impressed upon you, and accept truth from anyone who speaks it.¹¹

7 and Shlomoh fathered Raḥav‘am, and Raḥav‘am fathered Aviyah, and Aviyah fathered Asa,

8 and Asa fathered Yehoshafaṭ, and Yehoshafaṭ fathered Yoram, and Yoram fathered Uzziyahu,

Yehoshafaṭ… Yoram …Uzziyahu—this appears in 1 Chronicles 3:10–11. However, according to verses 11–12, this is the order of the generations: Yoram, Ahaziah, Joash, Amaziah, and Azariah. We find that three generations are omitted here, and “Uzziah” is written here instead of “Azariah.”

9 and Uzziyahu fathered Yotam, and Yotam fathered Aḥaz, and Aḥaz fathered Yeḥizkiyahu,

10 and Yeḥizkiyahu fathered Menasheh, and Menasheh fathered Amon, and Amon fathered Yoshiyahu.

11 And Yoshiyahu fathered Yehonyahu and his brothers at the time of the exile of Bavel.

Yehonyahu—according to 1 Chronicles 3:14, Josiah fathered Jehoiakim, and Jehoiakim fathered Jeconiah. We can see that yet another generation is omitted here.

12 After the exile to Bavel, Yehonyahu fathered She’altiel, and She’altiel fathered Zerubbavel,

She’altiel… Zerubbavel—according to 1 Chronicles 3:19, Zerubbavel was the son of Pedaiah, and Pedaiah was the son of She’altiel. We can see that yet another generation is omitted.

13 and Zerubbavel fathered Avihud, and Avihud fathered Elyakim, and Elyakim fathered Azzur,

Avihud—we do not find in scripture that Abihud was the son of Zerubbavel. Even all of the ten generations from Avihud to Joseph, the husband of Miriam, are not found anywhere in scripture.

14 and Azzur fathered Sadok, and Sadok fathered Yakhin, and Yakhin fathered Elihud,

15 and Elihud fathered Elazar, and Elazar fathered Mattan, and Mattan fathered Ya’akov,

16 and Ya’akov fathered Yosef, the husband of Miriam, from whom was born Yeshua, who is called mashiaḥ.

17 Thus, all of the generations from Avraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the exile of Bavel were fourteen generations, and from the exile of Bavel to the mashiaḥ were fourteen generations.

18 And this was the manner of the birth of Yeshua the mashiaḥ: Miriam his mother was betrothed to Yosef, but before he came to her she was found pregnant from the Holy Spirit.

From Avraham—from Abraham to David is fourteen generations. The total is forty-two generations. However, in reality you only find forty-one generations. From the words of the author, it seems that he counts Jeconiah twice because Jeconiah is not specifically mentioned when he says: from Avraham to David, from David to the exile in Bavel, and from the exile in Bavel to the mashiaḥ; [instead of saying: “from David to Jeconiah, and from Jeconiah,” etc.]…. As I argued in verse 8, and in verses 11 and 12, five generations are omitted and not included in the three series of the fourteen generations. In my commentary on Luke 3:24, I explain this more clearly.

Before he came to her (or, before they became one)—it used to be the custom for the groom to become engaged to the virgin and consecrate her to himself in accordance with the faith of Moses and Israel. She would then be his wife in every way. Until the time of the marriage, he remains in his own house, or his father’s house, and she is in her father’s house. After this, he marries her and becomes one with her. This is the meaning of “before he came to her,” that is, before the wedding.¹²

From the Holy Spirit—among our Christian brothers, there are two schools of thought. One group believes in accordance with their writings, namely, that Yeshua was born without the strength of a man, for they say, “Is anything too wondrous for YHWH?” Those who do not believe this are thought of as children with no faith in them. Those who belong to the second group quote King Solomon and say, There is nothing new under the sun. Therefore, the second group says: “We cherish the words of Yeshua and cling to his teaching; however, when it is written that she was found pregnant from the Holy Spirit, there is a hidden meaning.” They say: “Those who believe in the plain meaning of things not only demonstrate their foolishness, but blaspheme the living God!” I, the commentator, am not worthy to decide between these two opinions.¹³

19 Now Yosef, her husband, was a righteous man and did not want to subject her to disgrace. So he said, “I will send her away privately.”14

20 He was thinking this way, but then an angel of YHWH appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Yosef son of David! Do not be afraid to take Miriam, your wife, for what has been formed within her is from the Holy Spirit.

Is from the Holy Spirit—Since my Jewish and Christian brothers are both mistaken on what the Holy Spirit is, I will explain it to them. It is written in Tanna Devei Eliyahu (chapter 9): “I bear witness before the heavens and the earth that Israel and the nations of the earth, man and woman, manservant and maidservant—the Holy Spirit rests upon all of them in accordance with their actions.”

If every man adjusts his actions, speech, and thoughts for the better, he will draw the Holy Spirit of God to himself, in that God will help him to do good as is his desire. And further still, in accordance with his good deeds, he will be able to know the hidden and unknown things, and he will be able to know the future, and this is the meaning of the Holy Spirit. This is what was being said in the passage above from Tanna Devei Eliyahu. We will speak more about this concept later.

21 She is giving birth to a son, and you are to name him Yeshua, because he will save his people from their sins.

He will save, etc.—this means that he will teach the people how to serve YHWH so that they may not sin, and if they do sin, he will teach them how to return in repentance to YHWH and how to return in such a way that they may be saved from their sins. From this section, there is clear evidence that Mattai was written in Hebrew. Take a look, most honored reader: And an angel of YHWH said to her: “Behold you are with child and you shall give birth to a son and you shall call his name Yishma’el, for YHWH has heard your suffering” (Genesis 17:11). Because he has heard is the reason you shall call him Ishmael, for the name Ishmael means “God has heard.”

It is the same with Isaac: And Abraham called his son Isaac. This name gets its meaning from Sarah’s laughter (Genesis 21:3, 18:12–15). It is the same with Jacob: And his hand was gripped to the ankle [ekev] of Esau, so he called his name Jacob (Genesis 25:26). Even here, the name has the same meaning as the action taking place. And you will see many instances of this where the child is named according to what happens during the time of his birth. If Mattai was written in the Hebrew language, then the angel would have said: “And you shall call his name Yeshua, for he will save [yoshia] etc.,” for then in the Hebrew language the name matches the context; but if it was written in Greek, then the name does not match.

22 All this happened in order to fulfill the word of YHWH that he spoke through the prophet, saying,

23 “Look! The ‘almah is pregnant and giving birth to a son, and they will name him Immanuel,” which is interpreted, “God is with us.”

The ‘almah [young woman] is pregnant—this verse is from Isaiah 7:14. Concerning this, there is a great divide between our Jewish and Christian brothers. The Christians have placed this prophecy in Isaiah as the chief foundation of their faith in saying that it prophesied about Yeshua, that he would be born without the strength of a man, citing and the young woman (virgin) will conceive … and this young woman (virgin) is Miriam, who became pregnant without the strength of a man. And our Jewish brothers reject this principle, and the flame of this dispute blazes all the way up to the heavens, and there is not enough water that could extinguish it. With all due respect to our Jewish and Christian brothers who are mistaken in their understanding of these matters of the New Testament, and in order to calm the argument, I must clarify this matter for them.

It is written: And it was in the days of Ahaz … king of Judah, Retzin king of Aram, and Pekach son of Remaliah king of Israel rose up against Jerusalem to make war with her (Isaiah 7:1), and in verse 4 (ibid.): And say to him: Be firm and be calm, do not fear, and do not lose heart on account of these two smoldering stubs of firebrands. And in verse 10, it is written: And YHWH continued speaking to Ahaz. Our Christian brothers interpret, “behold the young woman [virgin] will conceive” about Miriam, and “she will bear a son” about Yeshua. The verse there speaks about her pregnancy, that it shall be a sign.

Our Jewish brothers contest in this manner: a) you say that Isaiah prophesied concerning Miriam, but did not Miriam live over six hundred years after Ahaz and Isaiah, and did Isaiah say “will give birth” instead of “has given birth”? And b) didn’t Isaiah say, “Therefore YHWH will give you a sign, behold the young woman is with child and about bear a son”? If the young woman conceiving refers to Miriam, what kind of sign would it have been to Ahaz, since this happened six hundred years after his death? Thus, our Jewish brothers interpret behold the young woman is pregnant as concerning the wife of Isaiah the prophet, as it is written, I will be intimate with the prophetess (Isaiah 8:3). And he called her “young woman” (‘almah), as in how a man has his way with a young woman [‘almah] (Proverbs 30:19).

And [she] will call him—which is to say, his mother will name him.

Immanuel—meaning that he will be a complete tzaddik, as the scripture attests (Isaiah 9:5): For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and authority shall be upon his shoulders; and he shall be called Pelei Yo’eṣ (Wonderful Counselor), El Gibbor (Mighty God), Avi-Ad (Everlasting Father), Sar Shalom (Prince of Peace)…. Therefore, Isaiah answered and said to Ahaz that this would be a sign for him, that before the lad knows to reject evil and choose good, the land of the two kings whom you dread shall be abandoned (Isaiah 7:16), and indeed this was the sign during the days of Ahaz.

Honored reader, I have brought these two opinions before you, this one saying this and the other saying that, and meanwhile the flame of the controversy has not subsided. However, with all due respect to my Jewish and Christian brothers, they have both interpreted this verse of ours incorrectly. See now, dear reader, that from verse 20, beginning with He was thinking until verse 24, beginning with Yosef woke up, everything Yosef saw was in a dream, as it is written, And an angel of YHWH appeared to him in a dream. And the angel explained: “She will give birth to a son and you shall call his name Yeshua, for he will save his people from their sins”; and the angel again said to him in the dream: “In order to fulfill the word of YHWH that he spoke through the prophet.” This means that just as the prophecy of Isaiah was fulfilled to Ahaz when he told him that his wife would “conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel,” so, too, the child that will be born of Miriam shall be called Yeshua, for he will save his people from their sins.¹⁵

Therefore, the prophecy is not cited here because she became pregnant but because of the name they gave him. This is why the name El Immanu (i.e., Immanuel, God is with us) is repeated. This is only about the name, not the pregnancy. Look further on in chapter 7, concerning the prophecy of Jeremiah, and you will see that it is the same there. Now the difficulty that our Jewish brothers have with the New Testament is gone, and in these words there is the power to quiet the baseless hatred in the heart of everyone who understands.

24 Yosef woke up from his sleep and did what the angel of YHWH had commanded. He brought Miriam into his house,

25 but he did not know her until after she had given birth to a son [her firstborn]. And they named him Yeshua.

Her firstborn—this means that she had other children after the birth of Yeshua, which is made clear in Mattai 13:55 and Markos 6:3: “Is he not the son of the craftsman? Is not his mother’s name Miriam, and his brothers Ya’akov and Yosei and Shimon and Yehudah?” However, Professor Biesenthal, in his commentary on Luke 2:7, put forth this opinion and decided that she did not have any other children. He has his evidence, but there is nothing compelling about it. However, for our purposes, it does not matter whether she had other children; but this we know for certain: that after the birth of Yeshua, Yosef lived with Miriam as everyone who is married does, for this is what the writing says: “He did not know her until after she had given birth to a son, her firstborn.” This means that after she gave birth, he knew her.

1 The Greek reads geneseos.

2 Interestingly, in the entire Tanakh, the phrase “children of the prophets” appears only with regard to Elisha in 2 Kings 2:4 and 6. See Rashi on 2 Kings 4:1, “All instances of ‘children of the prophets’ in the Torah mean disciples [talmidei] of the prophets.”.

3 The interchange of “children” or “generations” and disciples appears in Rashi’s comment to Numbers 3: 1. These are the generations of Aaron and Moses on the day God spoke to Moses at Mount Sinai. Rashi notes that the Torah mentions only Nadab and Abihu, who are the progeny of Aaron, and does not address the progeny of Moses. Rashi comments: “The verse mentions only the sons of Aaron. They are called ‘the generations of Moses’ because Moses taught them Torah. This verse teaches us that anyone who teaches his friend [ḥavero] Torah, it is as if he had given birth to him.”

4 See also Genesis 2:4, These are the generations of heaven and earth, where this also alludes to birth. In terms of birth literally, see Genesis 25:19 and Ruth 4:18, And these are the generations of Pereṣ, Pereṣ gave birth to Ḥezron, etc. Since this refers to the messianic lineage, it may have influenced Mattai’s use of the term.

5 This could be referring to the famous passage at the beginning of Sefer Yeṣirah 1:1, “in three books, sefer, sofer, ve-sippur.”

6 On the midrashic rendering of Abraham as the first one who abandons idols for the one God and its implications regarding the history of Israelite religion, see Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, “Laws of Idolatry,” 1:3. Portraying Jesus as Abraham may be, for Soloveitchik, a surreptitious attack on the ostensible “idolization” of Jesus in some forms of Christianity after the Council of Nicaea. Jesus was, in Soloveitchik’s reading, an iconoclast in the spiritual line of Abraham, even though he is from the biological line of David. The link between Abraham and Jesus is something that we see more explicitly in the epistles of Paul.

7 If that is the case, then the Davidic line includes proselytes on both sides: Boaz being the progeny of Rahab, of Canaanite origin; and Ruth, of Moabite origin. Moreover, some ancient sources suggest that Tamar was a proselyte as well (see The Jewish Annotated New Testament, Matthew 1:3, p. 3), while others say that Tamar was from the family of Shem. See Genesis Rabbah 85:10.

8 Judah thought that Tamar committed merely prostitution, but according to the Torah (which was given later), there is another restriction: If a man lies with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall surely die (Leviticus 20:12). It is clear in this narrative that Judah did not know at the time of this occurrence that it was Tamar, his daughter-in-law. Moreover, it seems that Soloveitchik gets this wrong. Even if prostitution was an abomination before the Torah, the penalty would not be death by burning. Rashi suggests that she was from a priestly family and thus her sexual promiscuity (zenut) was punishable by death (of course, this assumes that the laws of the Torah were operative even before Sinai). Naḥmanides disagrees by stating that even if she was of priestly lineage, the penalty for her zenut in this case would still not be death. Rather, Naḥmanides suggests that Judah was a royal guardian in the land, and, in this case, Tamar’s zenut was not judged like all the others. Rather, he judged her ex cathedra and convicted her of desecrating his father’s name. It was not a case of judgment according to the law. He then cites cases in certain areas of Spain in his time when a woman convicted of cheating on her husband would be handed over to her husband, who would punish her as he wished.

9 Joshua 6:25 and Ruth Rabbah 1:1.

10 Therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house because you spurned me by taking the wife of Uriah the Hittite and making her your wife.

11 This last line, “and accept truth from anyone who speaks it,” is taken from Maimonides’ Eight Chapters, a commentary to the Mishnah and introduction to Pirkei Avot: “Hear the truth from whoever tells it.” It appears that Soloveitchik is trying to deflect all Jewish criticisms of Jesus’ genealogy by suggesting that the Jewish tradition often creates genealogies that counter its own laws and standards. The critique, or praise, of Jesus should be limited to his message and not be an investigation of the messenger. As Maimonides suggests in his Eight Chapters, the messenger is not relevant.

12 As explained at great length in BT Ketubot, chap. 1: during the period between the engagement and the wedding—usually lasting up to a year—the couple has the status of semi-marriage, such that if the woman were with another man during that time, she is considered an adulteress, according to halakhah. To solve this problem, nowadays the betrothal and the marriage both happen simultaneously under the wedding canopy. “Engagements” today do not have halakhic import and are considered more gestures of intent. The Talmud explains that the reason for the time of separation in rabbinic times is to give the groom time to build a house and the bride’s family time to raise the money for the wedding and her wedding gown. Soloveitchik may be interpreting that the phrase “before he came to her” could mean that Joseph had sexual relations with Miriam between betrothal and marriage. Even if this were so, it would not constitute a major transgression in rabbinic law, and a child from that union would have no legal stigma in the community.

13 The debate about the virgin birth is a central part of medieval Chriatin polemics against Christianity and not really an inner-Christian debate. It is, in some way, rooted in the Greek rendition of the Hebrew term ‘almah (“maiden”) in Isaiah 7:14 and six other times: Genesis 24:43, Exodus 2:8, Psalm 68:26, Proverbs 30:19, and Song of Songs 1:3 and 6:8. The Greek (Septuagint) translation parthenos can be rendered as “virgin.” Another less-known source can be found in Targum Jonathan to Genesis 38:26, the verse where Judah acknowledges that Tamar’s child is his. This is connected, as we saw earlier, to the Davidic messianic lineage. The verse reads: “And Yehudah recognized them and said, “[Tamar] is more right than I [Judah].” The Hebrew term is sidkah mimeni (she is more right than I). Targum Jonathan reads it differently: “She is more right from me.” The Targum writes: “Judah recognized them and said, ‘she is right.’ ‘From me’—a divine voice [barat qala] fell from heaven [and said]—‘from me’ [da’min kadamei].” While this does not exactly make a case for virgin birth, it certainly is suggestive with regard to where the term “from me” (mimeni) comes from. Cf. BT Soṭah 10b for a similar reading.

14 “Send her away” implies divorce. See M Nedarim 11:12. As to the two thoughts among Christians regarding the virgin birth, Soloveitchik is likely referring to the nineteenth-century quest that sought to find the historical Jesus as opposed to the divine Christ. While he did not begin this search, David Friedrich Strauss’s The Life of Jesus (1835–1836) was an influential study that, among other things, openly denied the myth of the virgin birth and sought to situate Jesus very much in his Jewish context. The classic collection of these studies can be found in Albert Schweitzer, The Quest for the Historical Jesus (New York: Macmillan, 1961). This trajectory has continued among both Christian and Jewish scholars to the present. For examples of Jews who wrote on the Jewish Jesus in English, see Joseph Klausner, Jesus of Nazareth: His Life, Times, and Teaching, trans. H. Danby (New York: Macmillan, 1925); Morris Goldstein, Jesus in the Jewish Tradition (New York: Macmillan, 1950); Samuel Sandmel, We Jews and Jesus (New York: Oxford University Press, 1965); Geza Vermes, Jesus in His Jewish Context (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2003); David Flusser and R. Steven Nolty, The Sage from Galilee: Rediscovering Jesus’ Genius (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2007); Shalom Ben-Chorin, Brother Jesus: The Nazarene Through Jewish Eyes, trans. J. S. Klein and M. Reinhart (Atlanta: University of Georgia Press, 2012); S. Heschel, Abraham Geiger and the Jewish Jesus; Amy-Jill Levine, The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus (New York: HarperOne, 2007); Paula Fredriksen, Jesus of Nazareth: King of the Jews (New York: Vintage, 2000); Schäfer, Jesus in the Talmud; and Daniel Boyarin, The Jewish Gospels: The Story of the Jewish Christ (New York: New Press, 2012).

15 The use of a dream to ameliorate an event that seems to counter reason is a tactic that Soloveitchik imports from Maimonides’ reading of the three angels who approach Abraham’s tent to tell him of the impending pregnancy of Sarah (Genesis 18:1–15). Maimonides is dealing with the problems of Abraham seeing angels in a wakened state and thus suggests that the entire story is a dream that Abraham had (seeing angels in a dream is not a problem for Maimonides). Soloveitchik uses this dream interpretation to steer away from the Christian idea of virgin birth and from the Jewish critique of virgin birth. See Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed I:43, on angels that are disembodied creatures; and II:42, for the story of the angels and Abraham as a dream. In Jesus in the Talmud, 20–22, Schäfer argues that the Jewish story of Jesus’ birth in BT Sanhedrin 104b (he uses the Munich 95 manuscript written in Paris in 1342) is an intentional counternarrative to the Gospel story in order to subvert any claim of Davidic lineage to Jesus as well as invalidate his miraculous birth. This Talmudic rendition made its way to the anonymous medieval Toledot Yeshu and subsequently became standard fare in traditional Jewish circles until the nineteenth century.