I research the Judeo-Arabic versions of the parody on the life of Jesus known as Toledot Yeshu. This polemical work was created at some point during Late Antiquity in Aramaic, and included a brief “Jewish retelling” of the Gospel account of Jesus’ last days. The narrative underwent fascinating development in Judeo-Arabic, likely around the ninth or tenth century, when it was significantly expanded to include a parodical birth story, and account of Jesus’ childhood, as well as final episodes relating to the spread of Christianity. The narrative circulated extensively among the Jewish communities of the Near East and North Africa, in Judeo-Arabic as well as in Hebrew, and achieved widespread circulation in Europe as well, in Hebrew and Yiddish.
I am currently focusing on the Yemenite versions of Toledot Yeshu, which, surprisingly, were transmitted solely in Hebrew! My current research is funded by the Israel Science Foundation (“Parodies on the Life of Jesus in Yemen: Towards the Origins and Development of the Toledot Yeshu Literature,” Israel Science Foundation 2063/22, 2022-2026).
My recent book on the Judeo-Arabic Helene versions of Toledot Yeshu can be found here.
Some of the articles I’ve written on this narrative can be found here.
Lectures I’ve given on this topic can be found here.
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An early Judeo-Arabic fragment of Toledot Yeshu, describing the chase and capture of Yeshu in the Galilee |
An early Judeo-Arabic fragment of Toledot Yeshu, describing the scene where his mother |
