Sepher Toldoth Yeshu Ha’notzri-Historia jeschuae Nazareni [polemic]. Hebrew text with Latin translation, refutation and notes by Johann Jacob Huldrich

A polemical History of Jesus of Nazareth, edited from an anonymous manuscript by the Swiss Christian scholar Johann Jacob Huldrich with his refutation of the statements and passages considered anti-Christian. One of the oldest pieces of Jewish anti-Christian literature, Toldoth Yeshu is a biography of Jesus which is entirely at variance with the Gospels. It has been dated as far back as the First century. The publication of this work was opposed by Jews and non-Jews alike because of those statements and passages considered offensive to Christian sensibilities. However, it was widely distributed in manuscript form. According to Steinschneider, Huldrich used a different manuscript version to that used by Johann Christoph Wagenseil in his Toldoth Yeshu- Tela ignea Satanae published in Altdorf, 1681. See M. Carmilly-Weinberger, Censorship and Freedom of Expression in Jewish History (1977) pp. 184-6 and note 4 on p. 265. Not surprisingly, the publication of this book caused a minor scandal and the Protestant clergy were vehemently opposed to its distribution. The publisher, François Halma was rebuked for publishing a notice on the book in his Boeksaal der gleerde Wereld. He was called before the Assembly of Ministers of the Protestant Church of Amsterdam and made to promise to remove all unsold copies from his shop. See Fuks, Hebrew Typography in the Northern Netherlands (1984) Vol. I pp. 57-8