Scholarship on Literary text: T-S NS 246.24

Folio 1r, left side (first section)

1. And he said to him “You fool! Thus it said about you, ‘He who sacrifices

2. todah honors me’.” And he decreed upon him, and he was executed.

3. Pelitus the governor answered and said to R. Yehoshuʿa ben Peraḥiah:

4. “These five disciples of Yeshu the heretic who is misleading the world have been executed,

5. and Yoḥanan the Dyer, Yeshu’s teacher, and Yeshu (himself) deserve

6. to be executed.” R. Yehoshuʿa answered and said to Pelatus: “If

7. our master wishes, we shall send and inform Tiberinus Caesar and whatever

8. [he shall command] us, we shall act accordingly.” They sent to him: “There are [s]even

9. [men] here, [who] misled the world and did so and so”—everything

10. they had been doing. When King Caesar heard about this, 

11. he ordered that both of them be sent to him. And they were sent, and with them

12. Pelitus the governor and Marinus the great elder and R. Yeho[sh]uʿa

13. ben Peraḥiah and R. Yehoshuʿa (!) the gardener, to Tiberias

14. the great town. And everyone came before Tiberinus

15. Caesar. And when Yoḥanan the D[ye]r and Yeshu [came] before

16. Caesar, he said [to them ...

17. ... ... ] The two answered and said: “We are the sons

18. of the [...] God, and the books that were found in our hands are not

19. ours.”

Folio 1v, right side (second section) 

1. King Caesar said to them: “And to whom do these books belong?”

2. They said to him: “We came down from Heaven with them.” “And what is in them?”

3. They said: “Medicine, and every man who needs treatment—

4. we treat him with them, and we revive and kill with them, and we do

5. with them everything we want. And also

6. a barren woman who has never given birth—we c[an gr]ant her

7. children without [a man]. And also, a man whose

8. mind is sick we [whisper?...] in his ear in [ ... ] he will stand

9. his feet. And also, if we want we make plants

10. and grass grow and make rain fall down and do everything in

11. the world.” When Caesar heard their words, 

12. he said to them: “We do not want you to make the

13. dead live or to kill the living, nor to make

14. grass or plants grow nor make rain fall, and no

15. [thing] in the world. But thus we will test you [...]

16. and she is my only daughter, a virgin, [who saw] no [ ... ] man

17. nor knew him. Are you able to give her

18. a son [ ... ... ... ]?”

Folio 1v, left side (third section)

1. [ ... ... ] “Do not let his corpse remain overnight on the cross.” They crucified him after 

2. they stoned him with stones until he died. And they did not want

3. to bring him down from the cross. R. Yehoshuʿa ben Peraḥiah said to them:

4. “Because of Yeshu the heretic we shall change what is written

5. in the Torah, ‘Do not let his c[orpse] remain overnight on the cross, but

6. bury him on that day’?” He (i.e., Yehoshuʿa) brought [him down from the cr]oss

7. and buried him in a trough for [wat]er in the garden of Yehudah the

8. orchard-man. When it was morning, those 

9. people whom Jesus had misled came and did not find him on the cross;

10. they clung to the Jews and said to them: “The truth that Yeshu

11. our master said to us, that the Jews believe a lie. If you had indeed

12. crucified him, his body—where is it? In truth, he ascended to

13. Heaven.” Then Pelitus summoned Yehudah the orchard-man,

14. and said to him: “The body of Yeshu—what did you (sg.) do with it?”

15. Yehudah answered and said: “My master, Yeshu the wicked knew what is written

16. in the Torah, ‘Do not let his corpse remain overnight on the cross, but

17. bury it on that day’, and he misled these people and said:

18. ‘If you come in the morning and do not see me on the cross, know

19. that I ascended [to Heaven ... ]’.”