Page - 37 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 05/01

A POLEMICAL NARRATIVE AND ITS FUNCTIONS It seems Toledot Yeshu did have an important role among early modern Jews. I have explored elsewhere the normative dimension of the narrative.37 Even if outrageous to some, it was identified by others as an ancestral tradition shed- ding a different but doubtless more trustworthy light on the historical events that led to the birth of Christianity. The careful datings provided at the begin- ning of a number of versions, contesting those found in the Gospels, certainly witness to the historical preoccupations of the scribes who copied them. As noted by David Biale, counter-history is also a way to reclaim history, to argue that we possess the true narrative.38 Even if they upturn the official story, coun- ter-histories are no less true than the narratives they subvert; and the question is not so much whether the story is true but rather to whom it is true. And also: when, where and why? Truth is a matter of perspective, if not a matter of pow- er. Counter-histories reflect the struggle between competing social groups, entangled in asymmetrical relations of power and thus possessing unequal au- thority to speak the truth and decide what counts as true and what does not. The wide dissemination of Toledot Yeshu and the constant process of embellish- ment, adaptation and interpretation that accompanied the reception and trans- mission of the narrative in the early modern period bear witness to the Jews’ enduring need to have an answer to the Christian narrative of history – and to the place and role ascribed to Jews in that narrative – and to reinstate what they perceived as historical truth. Ultimately, in relating how Christianity came into being, the narrative is say- ing something about what Jews are and what Christians are and what their respective places should be. Such a reading of history, providing a subversive account of Jesus’ conception, miracles and resurrection, could only be viewed as polemical by its Christian readers. Yet this is only one side of the story, for Toledot Yeshu is as much a narrative about Jesus and the origins of Christianity as it is a story about adultery, magic, heresy, norm and anomaly. Beyond its po- lemical aspects, the story is also, if not primarily, a story that speaks to Jews as much as it answers Christians. And while Toledot Yeshu contributed to shaping Jewish perceptions of Christianity and allowed Jews to make sense of Christian- ity’s founding narrative, it also provided Jews with a way to vent the pressure exerted by the dominant religion – inter alia through mockery and laughter. It must be noted that however polemical, the story was also meant to enter- tain.39 Thus, while in certain contexts the work was copied together with what 37 Barbu 2018b; see also Latteri 2015. 38 Biale 1999, 134–135. 39 So Cuffel 2015. Some Remarks on Toledot Yeshu | 37www.jrfm.eu 2019, 5/1