Church censorship TB Sanhedrin 43

You might not find the following sugiya on daf TB Sanhedrin 43 in all editions of the Talmud because of church censorship. The Koren edition has this sugiya, but the Art Scroll edition doesn’t.

“The mishna teaches that a crier goes out before the condemned man (as a last ditch attempt to find witnesses who will exonerate the condemned man. He says: ‘So-and-so, son of so-and-so, is going out to be stoned because he committed such and such a transgression. And so-and-so and so-and-so are his witnesses. Anyone who knows of a reason to acquit him should come forward and teach it on his behalf.’ Sefaria.org translation-gg). This indicates that it is only before him, i.e., while he is being led to his execution, that yes, the crier goes out, but from the outset, before the accused is convicted, he does not go out. The Gemara raises a difficulty: But isn’t it taught in a baraita: On Passover Eve they hung the corpse of Jesus the Nazarene after they killed him by way of stoning. And a crier went out before him for forty days, publicly proclaiming: Jesus the Nazarene is going out to be stoned because he practiced sorcery, incited people to idol worship, and led the Jewish people astray. Anyone who knows of a reason to acquit him should come forward and teach it on his behalf. And the court did not find a reason to acquit him, and so they stoned him and hung his corpse on Passover eve.” (Sefaria.org translation)

“The first Christian censorship of the Talmud occurred in the year 521.^[13] More extensive censorship began during the Middle Ages, notably under the directive of Pope Gregory IX.^[14][15] Catholic authorities accused the Talmud of blasphemous references to Jesus and Mary.

“Some editions of the Talmud, particularly those from the 13th century onward, are missing these references, removed either by Christian censors,^[16] by Jews themselves out of fear of reprisals, or possibly lost through negligence or accident.^[17] However, most editions of the Talmud published since the early 20th century have seen the restoration of most of these references.^{[citation needed]}” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_in_the_Talmud)

Obviously there is disagreement between scholars how much of these texts convey historical truth. “In the modern era, there has been a variance of views among scholars of the possible references to Jesus in the Talmud, depending partly on presuppositions as to the extent to which the ancient rabbis were preoccupied with Jesus and Christianity.^[7] This range of views among modern scholars on the subject has been described as a range from "minimalists" who see few passages with reference to Jesus, to "maximalists" who see many passages having reference to Jesus.^[8] These terms "minimalist" and "maximalist" are not unique to discussion of the Talmud text; they are also used in discussion of academic debate on other aspects of Jewish vs. Christian and Christian vs. Jewish contact and polemic in the early centuries of Christianity, such as the Adversus Iudaeos genre.^[9] "Minimalists" include Jacob Zallel Lauterbach (1951) ("who recognize[d] only relatively few passages that actually have Jesus in mind"),^[8] while "maximalists" include R. Travers Herford (1903) (who concluded that most of the references related to Jesus, but were non-historical oral traditions which circulated among Jews),^[10][11] and Peter Schäfer (2007) (who concluded that the passages were parodies of parallel stories about Jesus in the New Testament incorporated into the Talmud in the 3rd and 4th centuries that illustrate the inter-sect rivalry between Judaism and nascent Christianity).^{[12][page needed]}” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_in_the_Talmud)

The placement of the next sugiya only makes sense in the unabridged Gemara. It emphasizes the reward for the person who does not succumb to his evil inclination like he who must not be named. “§ Apropos the last verse cited in this baraita, Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi says: With regard to anyone who slaughters his evil inclination after it has tempted him to sin, if he repents and confesses his sin, the verse ascribes him credit as though he had honored the Holy One, Blessed be He, in two worlds, this world and the World-to-Come, as it is written: “Whoever slaughters a thanks-offering [toda] honors Me [yekhabdaneni]” (Psalms 50:23), which can also be read as: Whoever slaughters his evil inclination and confesses [mitvadeh] honors Me, and the two instances of the letter nun in the word yekhabdaneni (יְכַבְּדָנְנִי)allude to the two worlds.” (Sefaria.org translation)