Baring-Gould Sabine
Lost and Hostile Gospels
V. The Counter-Gospels
In the thirteenth century it became known among the Christians that the Jews were in possession of an anti-evangel. It was kept secret, lest the sight of it should excite tumults, spoliation and massacre. But of the fact of its existence Christians were made aware by the account of converts.
There are, in reality, two such anti-evangels, each called Toldoth Jeschu, not recensions of an earlier text, but independent collections of the stories circulating among the Jews relative to the life of our Lord.
The name of Jesus, which in Hebrew is Joshua or Jehoshua (the Lord will sanctify) is in both contracted into Jeschu by the rejection of an Ain, ישו for ישוע.
The Rabbi Elias, in his Tischbi, under the word Jeschu, says, “Because the Jews will not acknowledge him to be the Saviour, they do not call him Jeschua, but reject the Ain and call him Jeschu.” And the Rabbi Abraham Perizol, in his book Maggers Abraham, c. 59, says, “His name was Jeschua; but as Rabbi Moses, the son of Majemoun of blessed memory, has written it, and as we find it throughout the Talmud, it is written Jeschu. They have carefully left out the Ain, because he was not able to save himself.”
The Talmud in the Tract. Sanhedrim99 says, “It is not lawful to name the name of a false God.” On this account the Jews, rejecting the mission of our Saviour, refused to pronounce his name without mutilating it. By omitting the Ain, the Cabbalists were able to give a significance to the name. In its curtailed form it is composed of the letters Jod, Schin, Vau, which are taken to stand for ימח שמו וזכרונו jimmach schemo vezichrono, “His name and remembrance shall be extinguished.” This is the reason given by the Toledoth Jeschu.
Who were the authors of the books called Toledoth Jeschu, the two counter-Gospels, is not known.
Justin Martyr, who died A.D. 163, speaks of the blasphemous writings of the Jews about Jesus;100 but that they contained traditions of the life of the Saviour can hardly be believed in presence of the silence of Josephus and Justus, and the ignorance of the Jew of Celsus. Origen says in his answer, that “though innumerable lies and calumnies had been forged against the venerable Jesus, none had dared to charge him with any intemperance whatever.”101 He speaks confidently, with full assurance. If he had ever met with such a calumny, he would not have denied its existence, he would have set himself to work to refute it. Had such calumnious writings existed, Origen would have been sure to know of them. We may therefore be quite satisfied that none such existed in his time, the middle of the third century.
The Toledoth Jeschu comes before us with a flourish of trumpets from Voltaire. “Le Toledos Jeschu,” says he, “est le plus ancien écrit Juif, qui nous ait été transmis contre notre religion. C'est une vie de Jesus Christ, toute contraire à nos Saints Evangiles: elle parait être du premier siècle, et même écrite avant les evangiles.”102 A fair specimen of reckless judgment on a matter of importance, without having taken the trouble to examine the grounds on which it was made! Luther knew more of it than did Voltaire, and put it in a very different place: —
“The proud evil spirit carries on all sorts of mockery in this book. First he mocks God, the Creator of heaven and earth, and His Son Jesus Christ, as you may see for yourself, if you believe as a Christian that Christ is the Son of God. Next he mocks us, all Christendom, in that we believe in such a Son of God. Thirdly, he mocks his own fellow Jews, telling them such disgraceful, foolish, senseless affairs, as of brazen dogs and cabbage-stalks and such like, enough to make all dogs bark themselves to death, if they could understand it, at such a pack of idiotic, blustering, raging, nonsensical fools. Is not that a masterpiece of mockery which can thus mock all three at once? The fourth mockery is this, that whoever wrote it has made a fool of himself, as we, thank God, may see any day.”
Luther knew the book, and, translated it, or rather condensed it, in his “Schem Hamphoras.”103
There are two versions of the Toledoth Jeschu, differing widely from one another. The first was published by Wagenseil, of Altdorf, in 1681. The second by Huldrich at Leyden in 1705. Neither can boast of an antiquity greater than, at the outside, the twelfth century. It is difficult to say with certainty which is the earlier of the two. Probably both came into use about the same time; the second certainly in Germany, for it speaks of Worms in the German empire.
According to the first, Jeschu (Jesus) was born in the year of the world 4671 (B.C. 910), in the reign of Alexander Jannaeus (B.C. 106-79)! He was the son of Joseph Pandira and Mary, a widow's daughter, the sister of Jehoshua, who was affianced to Jochanan, disciple of Simeon Ben Schetah; and Jeschu became the pupil of the Rabbi Elchanan. Mary is of the tribe of Juda.
According to the second, Jeschu was born in the reign of Herod the Proselyte, and was the son of Mary, daughter of Calpus, and sister of Simeon, son of Calpus, by Joseph Pandira, who carried her off from her husband, Papus, son of Jehuda. Jeschu was brought up by Joshua, son of Perachia, in the days of the illustrious Rabbi Akiba! Mary is of the tribe of Benjamin.
The anachronisms of both accounts are so gross as to prove that they were drawn up at a very late date, and by Jews singularly ignorant of the chronology of their history.
In the first, Mary is affianced to Jochanan, disciple of Simeon Ben Schetah. Now Schimon or Simeon, son of Scheta, is a well-known character. He is said to have strangled eighty witches in one day, and to have been the companion of Jehudu Ben Tabai. He flourished B.C. 70.
In the second life we hear of Mary being the sister of Simeon Ben Kalpus (Chelptu). He also is a well-known Rabbi, of whom many miracles are related. He lived in the time of the Emperor Antoninus, before whom he stood as a disciple, when an old man (circ. A.D. 160).
In this also the Rabbi Akiba is introduced. Akiba died A.D. 135. Also the Rabbi Jehoshua Ben Levi. Now this Rabbi's date can also be fixed with tolerable accuracy. He was the teacher of the Rabbi Jochanan, who compiled the Jerusalem Talmud. His date is A.D. 220.
We have thus, in the two lives of Jeschu, the following personages introduced as contemporaries:
The second Toledoth Jeschu closes with, “These are the words of Jochanan Ben Zaccai;” but it is not clear whether it is intended that the book should be included in “The words of Jochanan,” or whether the reference is only to a brief sentence preceding this statement, “Therefore have they no part or lot in Israel. The Lord bless his people Israel with peace.” Jochanan Ben Zaccai was a priest and ruler of Israel for forty years, from A.D. 30 or 33 to A.D. 70 or 73. He died at Jamnia, near Jerusalem (Jabne of the Philistines), and was buried at Tiberias.
Nor are these anachronisms the only proofs of the ignorance of the composers of the two anti-evangels. In the first, on the death of King Alexander Jannaeus, the government falls into the hands of his wife Helena, who is represented as being “also called Oleina, and was the mother of King Mumbasius, afterwards called Hyrcanus, who was killed by his servant Herod.”
The wife of Alexander Jannaeus was Alexandra, not Helena; she reigned from B.C. 79 to B.C. 71. She was the mother of Hyrcanus and Aristobulus; but was quite distinct from Oleina, mother of Mumbasius, and Mumbasius was a very different person from Hyrcanus. Oleina was a queen of Adiabene in Assyria.
The first Life refers to the Talmud: “This is the same Mary who dressed and curled women's hair, mentioned several times in the Talmud.”
Both give absurd anecdotes to account for monks wearing shaven crowns; both reasons are different.
In the first Life, the Christian festivals of the Ascension “forty days after Jeschu was stoned,” that of Christmas, and the Circumcision “eight days after,” are spoken of as institutions of the Christian Church.
In the VIIIth Book of the Apostolical Constitutions, the festivals of the Nativity and the Ascension are spoken of,104 consequently they must have been kept holy from a very early age. But it was not so with the feast of the Circumcision.
The 1st of January was a great day among the heathen. In the Homilies of the Fathers down to the eighth century, the 1st of January is called the “Feast of Satan and Hell,” and the faithful are cautioned against observing it. All participation in the festivities of that day was forbidden by the Council “in Trullo,” in A.D. 692, and again in the Council of Rome, A.D. 744.
Pope Gelasius (A.D. 496) forbade all observance of the day, according to Baronius105, in the hope of rooting out every remembrance of the pagan ceremonies which were connected with it. In ancient Sacramentaries is a mass on this day, “de prohibendo ab idolis.” Nevertheless, traces of the celebration of the Circumcision of Christ occur in the fourth century; for Zeno, Bishop of Verona (d. A.D. 380), preached a sermon on it. In the ancient Mozarabic Kalendar, in the Martyrology wrongly attributed to St. Jerome, and in the Gelasian Sacramentary, the Circumcision is indicated on January 1. But though noted in the Kalendars, the day was, for the reason of its being observed as a heathen festival, not treated by the Church as a festival till very late. Litanies and penitential offices were appointed for it.
The notice in the Toledoth Jeschu, therefore, points to a time when the feast was observed with outward demonstration of joy, and the sanction of the Church accorded to other festivities.
The Toledoth Jeschu adopts the fable of the Sanhedrim and King having sent out an account of the trial of Jesus to the synagogues throughout the world to obtain from them an expression of opinion. The synagogue of Worms remonstrated against the execution of Christ. “The people of Girmajesa (Germany) and all the neighbouring country round Girmajesa which is now called Wormajesa (Worms), and which lies in the realm of the Emperor, and the little council in the town of Wormajesa, answered the King (Herod) and said, Let Jesus go, and slay him not! Let him live till he falls and perishes of his own accord.”
The synagogues of several cities in the Middle Ages did in fact, produce apocryphal letters which they pretended had been written by their forefathers remonstrating with the Jewish Sanhedrim at Jerusalem, and requesting that Jesus might be spared. An epistle was produced by the Jews of Ulm in A.D. 1348, another by the Jews of Ratisbon about the same date, from the council at Jerusalem to their synagogues.106 The Jews of Toledo pretended to possess similar letters in the reign of Alfonso the Valiant, A.D. 1072. These letters probably served to protect them from feeling the full stress of persecution which oppressed the Jews elsewhere.
The most astonishing ignorance of Gospel accounts of Christ and the apostles is observable in both anti-evangels. Matthias and Matthew are the same, so are John the Baptist and John the Apostle, whilst Thaddaeus is said to be “also called Paul,” and Simon Peter is confounded with Simon Magus.107
These are instances of the confusion of times and persons into which these counter-Gospels have fallen, and they are sufficient to establish their late and worthless character.
The two anti-Gospels are clearly not two editions of an earlier text. The only common foundation on which both were constructed was the mention of Jeschu, son of Panthera, in the Talmud. Add to this such distorted versions of Gospel stories as circulated among the Jews in the Middle Ages, and we have the constituents of both counter-Gospels. Both exhibit a profound ignorance of the sacred text, but a certain acquaintance with prominent incidents in the narrative of the Evangelists, not derived directly from the Gospels, but, as I believe, from miracle-plays and pictorial and sculptured representations such as would meet the eye of a mediaeval Jew at every turn.
We have not to cast about far for a reason which shall account for the production of these anti-evangels.
The persecution to which the Jews were subjected in the Middle Ages from the bigotry of the rabble or the cupidity of princes, fanned their dislike for Christianity into a flame of intense mortal abhorrence of the Founder of that religion whose votaries were their deadliest foes. The Toledoth Jeschu is the utterance of this deep-seated hatred, – the voice of an oppressed people execrating him who had sprung from the holy race, and whose blood was weighing on their heads.
And it is not improbable that the Gospel record of the patient, loving life of Jesus may have exerted an influence on the young who ventured, with the daring curiosity of youth, to explore those peaceful pages. What answer had the Rabbis to make to those of their own religion who were questioning and wavering? They had no counter-record to oppose to the Gospels, no tradition wherewith to contest the history written by the Evangelists. The notices in the Talmud were scanty, incomplete. It was open to dispute whether these notices really related to Christ Jesus.
Under such circumstances, a book which professed to give a true account of Jesus was certain to be hailed and accepted without too close a scrutiny as to its authenticity; much as in the twelfth century Joseph Ben Gorion's “Jewish War” was assumed to be authentic.
The Toledoth Jeschu or “Birth of Jesus” boldly identified the Jesus of the Gospels with the Jeschu of the Talmud, and attempted to harmonize the Rabbinic and the Christian stories.
There is a certain likeness between the two counter-Gospels, but this arises solely from each author being actuated by the same motives as the other, and from both deriving from common sources, – the Talmud and Jewish misrepresentations of Gospel events.
But if there be a likeness, there is sufficient dissimilarity to make it evident that the two authors wrote independently, and had no common written text to amplify and adorn.
VI. The First Toledoth Jeschu
We will take first the Wagenseil edition of the Toledoth Jeschu,108 and give an outline of the story, only suppressing the most offensive particulars, and commenting on the narrative as we proceed. Wagenseil's Toledoth Jeschu begins as follows:
“In the year of the world 4671, in the days of King Jannaeus, a great misfortune befel Israel. There arose at that time a scape-grace, a wastrel and worthless fellow, of the fallen race of Judah, named Joseph Pandira. He was a well-built man, strong and handsome, but he spent his time in robbery and violence. His dwelling was at Bethlehem, in Juda. And there lived near him a widow with her daughter, whose name was Mirjam; and this is the same Mirjam who dressed and curled women's hair, who is mentioned several times in the Talmud.”
It is remarkable that the author begins with the very phrase found in Josephus. He calls the appearance of our Lord “a great misfortune which befel Israel.” Josephus, after the passage which has been intruded into his text relative to the miracles and death of Christ, says, “About this time another great misfortune set the Jews in commotion;” from which it appears as if Josephus regarded the preaching of Christ as a great misfortune. That he made no such reference has been already shown.
The author also places the birth of Jesus, in accordance with the Talmud, in the reign of Alexander Jannaeus, who reigned from B.C. 106 to B.C. 79. He reckons from the creation of the world, and gives the year as 4671 (B.C. 910). This manner of reckoning was only introduced among the Jews in the fourth century after Christ, and did not become common till the twelfth century.
The Wagenseil Toledoth goes on to say that the widow engaged Mirjam to an amiable, God-fearing youth, named Jochanan (John), a disciple of the Rabbi Simeon, son of Shetach (fl. B.C. 70); but he went away to Babylon, and she became the mother of Jeschu by Joseph Pandira. The child was named Joshua, after his uncle, and was given to the Rabbi Elchanan to be instructed in the Law.
One day Jeschu, when a boy, passed before the Rabbi Simeon Ben Shetach and other members of the Sanhedrim without uncovering his head and bowing his knee. The elders were indignant. Three hundred trumpets were blown, and Jeschu was excommunicated and cast out of the Temple. Then he went away to Galilee, and spent there several years.
“Now at this time the unutterable Name of God was engraved in the Temple on the corner-stone. For when King David dug the foundations, he found there a stone in the ground on which the Name of God was engraved, and he took it and placed it in the Holy of Holies.
“But as the wise men feared lest some inquisitive youth should learn this Name, and be able thereby to destroy the world, which God avert! they made, by magic, two brazen lions, which they set before the entrance to the Holy of Holies, one on the right, the other on the left.
“Now if any one were to go within, and learn the holy Name, then the lions would begin to roar as he came out, so that, out of alarm and bewilderment, he would lose his presence of mind and forget the Name.
“And Jeschu left Upper Galilee, and came secretly to Jerusalem, and went into the Temple and learned there the holy writing; and after he had written the incommunicable Name on parchment, he uttered it, with intent that he might feel no pain, and then he cut into his flesh, and hid the parchment with its inscription therein. Then he uttered the Name once more, and made so that his flesh healed up again.
“And when he went out at the door, the lions roared, and he forgot the Name. Therefore he hasted outside the town, cut into his flesh, took the writing out, and when he had sufficiently studied the signs he retained the Name in his memory.”
It is scarcely necessary here to point out the amazing ignorance of the author of the Toledoth Jeschu in making David the builder of the Temple, and in placing the images of lions at the entrance to the Holy of Holies. The story is introduced because Jeschu, son of Stada, in the Talmud is said to have made marks on his skin. But the author knew his Talmud very imperfectly. The Babylonian Gemara says, “Did not the son of Stada mark the magical arts on his skin, and bring them with him out of Egypt?” The story in the Talmud which accounted for the power of Jeschu to work miracles was quite different from that in the Toledoth Jeschu. In the Talmud he has power by bringing out of Egypt, secretly cut on his skin, the magic arts there privately taught; in the Toledoth he acquires his power by learning the incommunicable Name and hiding it under his flesh.
However, the author says, “He could not have penetrated into the Holy of Holies without the aid of magic; for how would the holy priests and followers of Aaron have suffered him to enter there? This must certainly have been done by the aid of magic.” But the author gives no account of how Jeschu learned magic. That we ascertain from the Huldrich text, where we are told that Jeschu spent many years in Egypt, the head-quarters of those who practised magic.
Having acquired this knowledge, Jeschu went into Galilee and proclaimed himself to have been the creator of the world, and born of a virgin, according to the prophecy of Isaiah (vii. 14). As a sign of the truth of his mission, he said:
“Bring me here a dead man, and I will restore him to life. Then all the people hasted and dug into a grave, but found nothing in it but bones.
“Now when they told him that they had found only bones, he said, Bring them hither to me.
“So when they had brought them, he placed the bones together, and surrounded them with skin and flesh and muscles, so that the dead man stood up alive on his feet.
“And when the people saw this, they wondered greatly; and he said, Do ye marvel at this that I have done? Bring hither a leper, and I will heal him.
“So when they had placed a leper before him, he gave him health in like manner, by means of the incommunicable Name. And all the people that saw this fell down before him, prayed to him and said, Truly thou art the Son of God!
“But after five days the report of what had been done came to Jerusalem, to the holy city, and all was related that Jeschu had wrought in Galilee. Then all the people rejoiced greatly; but the elders, the pious men, and the company of the wise men, wept bitterly. And the great and the little Sanhedrim mourned, and at length agreed that they would send a deputation to him.
“For they thought that, perhaps, with God's help, they might overpower him, and bring him to judgment, and condemn him to death.
“Therefore they sent unto him Ananias and Achasias, the noblest men of the little council; and when they had come to him, they bowed themselves before him reverently, in order to deceive him as to their purpose. And he, thinking that they believed in him, received them with smiling countenance, and placed them in his assembly of profligates.
“They said unto him, The most pious and illustrious among the citizens of Jerusalem sent us unto thee, to hear if it shall please thee to go to them; for they have heard say that thou art the Son of God.
“Then answered Jeschu and said, They have heard aright. I will do all that they desire, but only on condition that both the great and lesser Sanhedrim and all who have despised my origin shall come forth to meet me, and shall honour and receive me as servants of their Lord, when I come to them.
“Thereupon the messengers returned to Jerusalem and related all that they had heard.
“Then answered the elders and the righteous men, We will do all that he desires. Therefore these men went again to Jeschu, and told him that it should be even as he had said.
“And Jeschu said, I will go forthwith on my way! And it came to pass, when he had come as far as Nob,109 nigh unto Jerusalem, that he said to his followers, Have ye here a good and comely ass?
“They answered him that there was one even at hand. Therefore he said, Bring him hither to me.
“And a stately ass was brought unto him, and he sat upon it, and rode into Jerusalem. And as Jeschu entered into the city, all the people went forth to meet him. Then he cried, saying, Of me did the prophet Zacharias testify, Behold thy King cometh unto thee, righteous and a Saviour, poor, and riding on an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass!
“Now when they heard this, all wept bitterly and rent their clothes. And the most righteous hastened to the Queen. She was the Queen Helena, wife of King Jannaeus, and she reigned after her husband's death. She was also called Oleina, and had a son, King Mumbasus, otherwise called Hyrcanus, who was slain by his servant Herod.110
“And they said to her, He stirreth up the people; therefore is he guilty of the heaviest penalty. Give unto us full power, and we will take him by subtlety.
“Then the Queen said, Call him hither before me, and I will hear his accusation. But she thought to save him out of their hands because he was related to her. But when the elders saw her purpose, they said to her, Think not to do this, Lady and Queen! and show him favour and good; for by his witchcraft he deceives the people. And they related to her how he had obtained the incommunicable Name…
“Then the Queen answered, In this will I consent unto you; bring him hither that I may hear what he saith, and see with my eyes what he doth; for the whole world speaks of the countless miracles that he has wrought.
“And the wise men answered, This will we do as thou hast said. So they sent and summoned Jeschu, and he came and stood before the Queen.”
In the sight of Queen Helena, Jeschu then healed a leper and raised a dead man to life.
“Then Jeschu said, Of me did Isaiah prophesy: The lame shall leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing.
“So the Queen turned to the wise men and said, How say ye that this man is a magician? Have I not seen with my eyes the wonders he has wrought as being the Son of God?
“But the wise men answered and said, Let it not come into the heart of the Queen to say so; for of a truth he is a wizard.
“Then the Queen said, Away with you, and bring no such accusations again before me!
“Therefore the wise men went forth with sad hearts, and one turned to another and said, Let us use subtlety, that we may get him into our hands. And one said to another, If it seems right unto you, let one of us learn the Name, as he did, and work miracles, and perchance thus we shall secure him. And this counsel pleased the elders, and they said, He who will learn the Name and secure the Fatherless One shall receive a double reward in the future life.
“And thereupon one of the elders stood up, whose name was Judas, and spake unto them, saying, Are ye agreed to take upon you the blame of such an action, if I speak the incommunicable Name? for if so, I will learn it, and it may happen that God in His mercy may bring the Fatherless One into my power.
“Then all cried out with one voice, The guilt be on us; but do thou make the effort and succeed.
“Thereupon he went into the Holiest Place, and did what Jeschu had done. And after that he went through the city and raised a cry, Where are those who have proclaimed abroad that the Fatherless is the Son of God? Cannot I, who am mere flesh and blood, do all that Jeschu has done?
“And when this came to the ears of the Queen, Judas was brought before her, and all the elders assembled and followed him. Then the Queen summoned Jeschu, and said to him, Show us what thou hast done last. And he began to work miracles before all the people.
“Thereat Judas spake to the Queen and to all the people, saying, Let nothing that has been wrought by the Fatherless make you wonder, for were he to set his nest between the stars, yet would I pluck him down from thence!
“Then said Judas, Moses our teacher said:
“If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers;
“Namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth;
“Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him:
“But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people.
“And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die; because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.
“But the Fatherless One answered, Did not Isaias prophesy of me? And my father David, did he not speak of me? The Lord said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Desire of me, and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost part of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt rule them with a rod of iron, and break them in pieces like a potter's vessel. And in like manner he speaks in another place, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies my footstool! And now, behold! I will ascend to my Heavenly Father, and will sit me down at His right hand. Ye shall see it with your eyes, but thou, Judas, shalt not prevail!
“And when Jeschu had spoken the incommunicable Name, there came a wind and raised him between heaven and earth. Thereupon Judas spake the same Name, and the wind raised him also between heaven and earth. And they flew, both of them, around in the regions of the air; and all who saw it marvelled.
“Judas then spake again the Name, and seized Jeschu, and thought to cast him to the earth. But Jeschu also spake the Name, and sought to cast Judas down, and they strove one with the other.”
Finally Judas prevails, and casts Jeschu to the ground, and the elders seize him, his power leaves him, and he is subjected to the tauntings of his captors. Then sentence of death was spoken against him.
“But when Jeschu found his power gone, he cried and said, Of me did my father David speak, For thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.
“Now when the disciples of Jeschu saw this, and all the multitude of sinners who had followed him, they fought against the elders and wise men of Jerusalem, and gave Jeschu opportunity to escape out of the city.
“And he hasted to Jordan; and when he had washed therein his power returned, and with the Name he again wrought his former miracles.
“Thereafter he went and took two millstones, and made them swim on the water; and he seated himself thereon, and caught fishes to feed the multitudes that followed him.”
Before going any further, it is advisable to make a few remarks on what has been given of this curious story.
The Queen Helena is probably the mother of Constantine, who went to Jerusalem in A.D. 326 to see the holy sites, and, according to an early legend, discovered the three crosses on Calvary. There are several incidents in the apocryphal story which bear a resemblance to the incidents in the Toledoth Jeschu.
The Empress Helena favours the Christians against the Jews. Where three crosses are found, a person suffering from “a grievous and incurable disease” is applied to the crosses, and recovers on touching the true one. Then the same experiment is tried with a dead body, with the same success.111 According to the Apocryphal Acts of St. Cyriacus, a Jew named Judas was brought before the Empress, and ordered to point out where the cross was buried. Judas resisted, but was starved in a well till he revealed the secret. The resemblance between the stories consists in the names of Helena and Judas, and the miracles of healing a leper, and raising a dead man to life.
According to the Apocryphal Acts of St. Cyriacus, Judas was the grandson of Zacharias, and nephew of St. Stephen the protomartyr.112
