booknetsaWebster-secretSocietiesAndSubversiveMovements

traditions woven into a coherent narrative by a thirteenth-century Rabbi, the ideas it contains can be traced
back at least as far as the second century of the Christian era. Origen, who in the middle of the third century
wrote his reply to the attack of Celsus on Christianity, refers to a scandalous story closely resembling the
Toledot Yeshu, which Celsus, who lived towards the end of the second century, had quoted on the authority
of a Jew.(74) It is evident, therefore, that the legend it contains had long been current in Jewish circles, but
the book itself did not come into the hands of Christians until it was translated into Latin by Raymond Martin.
Later on Luther summarized it in German under the name of Schem Hamphorasch; Wagenseil in 1681
and Huldrich in 1705 published Latin translations.(75) It is also to, be found in French in Gustave Brunet's
Evangiles Apocryphes.
However repugnant it is to transcribe any portion of this blasphemous work, its main outline must be
given here in order to trace the subsequent course of the anti-Christian secret tradition in which, as we shall
see, it has been perpetuated up to our own day. Briefly, then, the Toledot Yeshu relates with the most indecent
details that Miriam, a hairdresser of Bethlehem,(76) affianced to a young man named Jochanan, was seduced
by a libertine, Joseph Panther or Pandira, and gave birth to a son whom she named Jehosuah or
Jeschu. According to the Talmudic authors of the Sota and the Sanhedrim, Jeschu was taken during his boyhood
to Egypt, where he was initiated into the secret doctrines of the priests, and on his return to Palestine
gave himself up to the practice of magic.(77) The Toledot Yeshu, however, goes on to say that on reaching
manhood Jeschu learnt the secret of illegitimacy, on account of which he was driven out of the Synagogue
and took refuge for a time in Galilee. Now, there vas in the Temple a stone on which was engraved the Tetragrammaton
or Schem Hamphorasch, that is to say, the Ineffable Name of God; this stone had been found
by King David when the foundations of the Temple were being prepared and was deposited by him in the
Holy of Holies. Jeschu, knowing this, came from Galilee and, penetrating into the Holy of Holies, read the
Ineffable Name, which he transcribed on to a piece of parchment and concealed in an incision under his
skin. By this means he was able to work miracles and to persuade the people that he was the son of God
foretold by Isaiah. With the aid of Judas, the Sages of the Synagogue succeeded in capturing Jeschu, who
was then led before the Great and Little Sanhedrim, by which he was condemned to be stoned to death and
finally hanged.
Such is the story of Christ according to the Jewish Cabalists, which should be compared not only with
the Christian tradition but with that of the Moslems. It is perhaps not sufficiently known that the Koran,
whilst denying the divinity of Christ and also the fact of His crucifixion,(78) nevertheless indignantly denounces
the infamous legends concerning Him perpetuated by the Jews, and confirms in beautiful language
the story of the Annunciation and the doctrine of the Miraculous Conception.(79) " Remember when the angels
said, ' O Mary ! verily hath God chosen thee and purified thee, and chosen thee above the women of the
worlds.'... Remember when the angels said: ' O Mary ! verily God announceth to thee the Word from Him:
His name shall be Messiah, Jesus the son of Mary, illustrious in this world, and in the next, and one of those
who have near access to God.' "
The Mother of Jesus is shown to have been pure and to have " kept her maidenhood " (80); it was the
Jews who spoke against Mary "a grievous calumny." (81) Jesus Himself is described as " strengthened with
the Holy Spirit," and the Jews are reproached for rejecting "the Apostle of God, " (82) to whom was given "
the Evangel with its guidance and light confirmatory of the preceding Law."(83)
Thus during the centuries that saw the birth of Christianity, although other non-Christian forces arrayed
themselves against the new faith, it was left to the Jews to inaugurate a campaign of vilification against the
person of its Founder, whom Moslems this day revere as one of the great teachers of the world.(84)
The Essenes
A subtler device for discrediting Christianity and undermining belief in the divine character of our Lord
has been adopted by modern writers, principally Jewish, who set out to prove that He belonged to the sect of
the Essenes, a community of ascetics holding all goods in common, which had existed in Palestine before
the birth of Christ. Thus the Jewish historian Graetz declares that Jesus simply appropriated to himself the
essential features of Essenism, and that primitive Christianity was " nothing but an offshoot of
Essenism."(85) The Christian Jew Dr. Ginsburg partially endorses this view in a small pamphlet (86) containing
most of the evidence that has been brought forward on the subject, and himself expresses the opinion
that " it will hardly be doubted that our Saviour Himself belonged to this holy brotherhood." (87) So after
representing Christ as a magician in the Toledot Yeshu and the Talmud, Jewish tradition seeks to explain
His miraculous works as those of a mere healer-an idea that we shall find descending right through the
secret societies to this day. Of course if this were true, if the miracles of Christ were simply due to a know-
Nesta H. Webster — Secret Societies and Subversive Movements — Part I
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