Joshua ben Perachyah

Joshua ben Perahiah or Joshua ben Perachya ( he, יהושע בן פרחיה, Yehoshua Ben Perachia) was Nasi of the Sanhedrin in the latter half of the 2nd century BCE.

With Nittai of Arbela, second of five pairs of scholars

He and his colleague Nittai of Arbela were the second of the five pairs (Zugot) of scholars who received and transmitted Jewish tradition.

At the time of the persecution of the Pharisees by John Hyrcanus (c. 134-104 BCE), Joshua was deposed — a disgrace to which his words in Menachot 109b apparently allude. However in Sanhedrin 107b and Sotah 47a it was during the persecutions of Pharisees 88-76 BCE by Alexander Jannaeus, not John Hyrcanus whose persecution he fled. He fled to Alexandria, Egypt, but was recalled to Jerusalem when the persecutions ceased and the Pharisees again triumphed over the Sadducees.

Teachings and advice

The following ethical maxim found in the Ethics of the Fathers shows his gentle judgment of his fellow men and his eagerness to spread knowledge among the people:

Only a single halakhah of Joshua's has been preserved: he objected to the import of wheat from Alexandria as impure because, with no rain falling on it, it was watered by still water in conflict with .

In other traditions he was known in Jewish magical papyri as an exorcist, and his name was used in incantations inscribed on magical bowls.

Yeshu

In another tradition he is also the teacher of Yeshu (in uncensored manuscripts of the Talmud), where he and Yeshu flee to Egypt. In other manuscripts his student is Judah ben Tabbai. The account as it appears in the Talmud is as follows:

Dunn (1992) considers this to be a story of Jesus from the late Amoraic period, which contains old polemical elements that were already current in New Testament times. His story is parallel to that of Elisha and Gehazi. However: Gustaf Dalman, Joachim Jeremias (1935, 1960), and others do not consider the Yeshu mentioned as Joshua's pupil to be Jesus.
*Roger T. Beckwith, ''Calendar and Chronology, Jewish and Christian'', Brill Academic Publishers, 2005, p. 294. "... the rest of the baraita, which states he was first stoned, and that his execution was delayed for forty days while a herald went out inviting anyone to say a word in his favour, suggest that it may refer to a different Yeshu altogether." footnote citing Jeremias 1966.
*Mark Allan Powell, ''Jesus as a Figure in History: How Modern Historians View the Man from Galilee'', Westminster John Knox, 1998
p. 34
"Scholars debate whether there may be obscure references to Jesus in some of the collections of ancient Jewish writings, such as the Talmud, the Tosefta, the targums, and the midrashim... 'On the eve of Passover, they hanged Yeshu Jesus?and the herald went before him 40 days... (Sanhedrin 43a)."
* Amy-Jill Levine, ''The Historical Jesus in Context'', Princeton University Press, 2008, p. 20. "Similarly controversial is the Babylonian Talmud's account of Jesus' death (to the extant that some Rabbinic experts do not think the reference is to the Jesus of the New Testament!)".
* John P. Meier, ''A Marginal Jew'', p. 98. "…I think we can agree with Johann_Maier_.html" ;"title="Johann Maier (talmudic scholar)">Johann Maier ">Johann Maier (talmudic scholar)">Johann Maier on one basic point: in the earliest rabbinic sources, there is no clear or even probable reference to Jesus of Nazareth."

References

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Joshua Ben Perachyah
2nd-century BC clergy
2nd-century BCE rabbis
Pirkei Avot rabbis
Talmud rabbis of the Land of Israel
Zugot
Sanhedrin