Talmudic polemics against Jesus predate anti-Muhammad polemics

Evidence

Jewish polemics against Jesus prefigure Christian (and Jewish) polemics against Muhammad. Scattered references in the Talmud refer to Jesus: “Jesus the Nazarene practiced magic and led Israel astray.” Elsewhere the Talmud gives its readers the spectacle of Jesus tormented in hell, condemned to wallow for eternity in a boiling pile of dung for having mocked the words of the Sages and Prophets. Another passage in the Talmud affirms that Jesus, as a sorcerer and as a seducer of Israel, was justly condemned 16 • Foundations (Seventh-Eighth Centuries) and executed; after all, did not the Torah enjoin us to kill whomever should bid us to worship other gods, even if that person was a brother, daughter, son, wife, or friend? — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 151

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the author’s own thesis that anti-Islam polemic borrows established anti-Jewish rhetorical tropes; also a bridge to how stereotypes travel between target groups.