Late rabbinic baraita preserving polemical traditions regarding the execution of 'Yeshu ha-Notzri'
A controversial baraita in Tractate Sanhedrin of the Babylonian Talmud recording that 'Yeshu' was hanged on the eve of Passover for practicing sorcery and enticing Israel to apostasy, with a herald proclaiming his sentence for 40 days.
Rigorous 4-part empirical analysis separating ancient text from bias and consensus
Sanhedrin 43a reads: 'On the eve of the Passover Yeshu was hanged. For forty days before the execution took place, a herald went forth and cried, He is going forth to be stoned because he has practiced sorcery and enticed Israel to apostasy... But nothing was brought forward in his defense and he was hanged on the eve of the Passover!'
Corroborates the Gospel timing of Jesus's execution on the eve of Passover (`JHN.19:14`), the charge that Jesus performed miracles through dark/demonic powers (`MAT.12:24`), and Jewish leadership involvement in his death.
Scholars (Schafer, Klausner, Meier) categorize this as a late, polemical counter-narrative responding to Christian Gospel claims rather than an independent historical record; hence assigned Epistemic Tier 5 (0.30). Censored in medieval European Talmud prints.
Intensely polemical rabbinic self-justification defending the Sanhedrin's legal conduct and reinterpreting Christian claims of miracles as illicit sorcery.