Jesus of Nazareth’s Trial in Sanhedrin 43a

The Munich Talmud manuscript of at b.San.43a preserves passages censored out of printed editions, including the controversial trial of “Yeshu Notzeri”. Chronological analysis of the layers in this tradition suggests that the oldest words are: “On the eve of Passover they hung Jesus of Nazareth for sorcery and leading Israel astray”. This paper argues that other words were added to this tradition in order to overcome three difficulties: a trial date during a festival; the unbiblical method of execution; and the charge of "sorcery " which implies that Jesus ’ miracles were genuine because illusions were not punishable by death. The origin of Censorship Tyndale House (where I work) recently acquired one of the 400 facsimiles of the Munich Talmud in a hotly contested New York auction. This is the earliest full manuscript Talmud, penned in approximately 1342. Very few manuscripts of the Talmud survived the ravages of time and persecutions, and they are particularly important because they contain material censored out of the printed editions, most of which concerned Jesus. Daniel Bomberg, a Christian printer in Venice in the early 1500’s, spent most of hi