Fernand Prat, S.J. (8 November 1857 – 4 July 1938) was a French Jesuit biblical scholar, exegete, and theologian, one of the most authoritative Catholic New Testament scholars of the early twentieth century. He was a long-serving professor at the Institut Catholique de Paris and at the Jesuit scholasticate of Fourvière, Lyon. His two principal works — Jésus-Christ: Sa vie, sa doctrine, son oeuvre (1933; English trans. 1950) and La Théologie de saint Paul (1908–1912; English trans. 1926–1927) — received the Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur of the Church and were translated into multiple languages, establishing him as a standard reference in Catholic seminary education worldwide for several decades. Both works are explicitly pre-Nostra Aetate (1965) in their theological frame.
The passages reproduced below are drawn exclusively from the verified English translations of these two works, as available through the Internet Archive. They bear on the following themes: the Talmud as a historically tendentious and anti-Christian compilation, the ancient Jewish campaign of defamation against Christ, the Pharisaic character of post-Temple Judaism, the Mosaic Law as a providential but now-abrogated preparation for the Gospel, and the supersession of ethnic Israel by the mystery of universal redemption in Christ. All passages are verbatim from the English translations identified in the Sources section. No word has been altered.
I. The Talmud: A Conspiracy of Silence Against Christ
Jesus Christ: His Life, His Teaching, and His Work, Vol. I
(Bruce Publishing Company, Milwaukee, 1950; trans. John J. Heenan, S.J.; Introduction, p. 7)
“In the enormous compilation known as the Talmud there is very little space devoted to our Saviour. The Mishnah, drawn up toward the end of the second century; the Tosephia, which in the following century completed this codification of Jewish law; and the first three Midrashim, which possibly go back to the same period, all barely mention Jesus. It seems a conspiracy of silence.”
“And yet we know from St. Justin and Origen that the Jews of the time carried on a skillful campaign of defamation against him.”
II. The Ancient Jewish Campaign of Defamation Against Christ
Jesus Christ: His Life, His Teaching, and His Work, Vol. I
(Bruce Publishing Company, Milwaukee, 1950; trans. John J. Heenan, S.J.; Introduction, pp. 7–8)
“They did not contest his miracles, which were too well known to be denied; but they attributed them to magic, as their fathers had given the credit for them to the prince of devils. They did not deny the fact of the empty tomb; instead they claimed that the Apostles, or Judas, or the gardener had spirited away the corpse. To disqualify Jesus as Messias, they centered their attack chiefly upon his descent from the line of David. They said his mother was a beggar girl, repudiated by her husband after her conviction as an adulteress. In her distress she was forced to flee to Egypt with her illegitimate son; there he learned the art of prodigies, in which the Egyptians excelled; and on his return, in the pride of his power to work miracles, he sought to pass himself off as God. Things like this were being said everywhere in the Jewish world, but were put down in writing only in the Talmud of Jerusalem, composed toward the end of the fourth century, and in the Babylonian Talmud, which appeared two centuries later.”
“It is better not to mention a scurrilous pamphlet, entitled Toledoth Jeshu, published after the time of Charlemagne. It is universally agreed today that this pamphlet is an ‘out-and-out lampoon; certain passages in it are disgusting.'”
“The Babylonian Talmud actually says that Jesus, the son of a hair-dresser and a soldier named Pandira, seduced the world by his marvels, was excommunicated for the crime of heresy and condemned to death at Lydda. Witnesses for the defense were sought for forty days, but when none appeared he was executed on the eve of the Passover and hung on a gibbet. Accounts like these furnish polemical material, but are worthless as history.”
One Jewish scholar, cited approvingly by Prat (Samuel Krauss, Jewish Encyclopedia, 1904, VII, p. 170):
“‘Many of the legends have a theological origin. For polemical purposes, it was necessary for the Jews to insist on the illegitimacy of Jesus as against the Davidic descent claimed for him by the Christian Church. Magic was imputed to him to nullify the value of the miracles recorded in the Gospels; and the legends about his shameful lot, both before and after his death, are perhaps directed against the accounts of his Resurrection and Ascension.'”
III. The Talmud: Its Historical and Critical Worthlessness
Jesus Christ: His Life, His Teaching, and His Work, Vol. I
(Bruce Publishing Company, Milwaukee, 1950; trans. John J. Heenan, S.J.; Introduction, pp. 8–10)
“It is difficult to imagine a work more completely devoid of a critical sense than the heterogeneous ensemble called the Talmud. It is said that one can find pearls in this mire: this may possibly be true, but one would have to rake over much mud to discover them. Places, dates, and persons are outrageously confused and falsified.”
Prat offers examples of the Talmud‘s characteristic hyperbole:
“Sepphoris, a city near Nazareth, is supposed to have had a hundred and eighty thousand public squares. At Bether (the modern Bettir), the last refuge of the insurrectionist Jews, the blood of those massacred by the Romans formed torrents which went rushing down to the sea, fifteen leagues away, and reddened the water as far as six kilometers from the coast. The trumpets in the Temple were heard in Jericho, and the incense burned on the Altar of Incense in the interior of the sanctuary made the goats on the mountains of Moab sneeze.”
Prat cites as corroborating judgment the verdict of the historian Farrar:
“‘Anything more utterly unhistorical than the Talmud cannot be conceived.'”
(Note: This is Prat’s quotation of F. W. Farrar, Life of Christ, Excursus XII.)
“Not all is in this style; but there is more than enough to justify the severe verdict of a very learned Jew: ‘The numerous juridical and theological discussions, mixed up with all sorts of digressions, leave scant room for historical information. There is no information about the Jews of the Diaspora, and a great deal of ignorance and fantasy in the information about Palestine. . . . In no case are the data certain.'”
(Note: Prat here cites J. Juster, Les Juifs dans l’empire romain, 1914, Vol. I, p. 23.)
IV. The Pharisaic Character of Post-Temple Judaism
Jesus Christ: His Life, His Teaching, and His Work, Vol. I
(Bruce Publishing Company, Milwaukee, 1950; trans. John J. Heenan, S.J.; Introduction, p. 10)
“The Talmud is exclusively the work of the Pharisaic party, and treats the rest of the people as almost nonexistent; it omits whole periods when the Pharisees were not in the ascendant. The whole of history is seen from the point of view of Pharisaism. The Sanhedrin as it existed at the end of the second century is used as a description of the Sanhedrin as it existed in ancient times; in consequence, the High Priest not only does not preside over it, but has no role whatever in it. It would be hard to conceive anything more daring than this distortion of one of the best attested facts of history.”
“The Talmud is the tradition of a school — a very wooden school — which after the catastrophe of the year 70 emigrated successively to Jamnia, Sepphoris, and Tiberias, bearing its narrow and particularist spirit with it everywhere. The Tannaim and Amoraim of the second and third centuries codified an artificial legislation, partly theoretical and impractical, which they supposed to have been in force always. It is surprising to see otherwise estimable historians of Jesus placing blind faith in these lucubrations.”
“If we had only the Talmud, it would be very difficult to reconstruct Palestinian society at the time of Christ.”
V. The Capital Question Facing Every Jew: Is Jesus the Messias?
Jesus Christ: His Life, His Teaching, and His Work, Vol. I
(Bruce Publishing Company, Milwaukee, 1950; trans. John J. Heenan, S.J.; Introduction, p. 15)
“For every Jew faced with the Gospel, the capital question was: Is or is not Jesus of Nazareth the Messias? It is universally agreed that the Evangelist [St. Matthew] intends to show forth the firm foundation of the affirmative answer by proving that Jesus is the Messias promised by the prophets, the son of David, the hope and salvation of Israel.”
VI. Supersessionism: Israel‘s Particular Calling Opened to All Nations
The Theology of Saint Paul, Vol. II
(Newman Bookshop, Westminster, Md., 1926; trans. John L. Stoddard from the 10th French edition; pp. 6–9)
Prat expounds St. Paul’s teaching on the central mystery of Christianity — that the blessings formerly regarded as the exclusive inheritance of Israel are now poured out equally on all nations through Christ:
“The principal idea of the passage is evidently the description of the three phases of the Mystery: formerly hidden in the depths of the divine counsels, but to-day disclosed providentially, and even made known to the whole world. This revelation of it is addressed, above all, to the Gentiles, whom it especially concerns; it has for its object to bring them to the faith by presenting to them the brilliant prospect of the blessings of the Gospel, which are destined for them as well as for others.”
“No more exceptions, favours, privileges: henceforth Christ belongs to all, and in the same measure. This is what Paul feels himself called upon to preach incessantly, this is what makes him brave persecutions, this is what consoles him for his sufferings: it is the proclamation of the great mystery, the Gospel of the uncircumcision.”
“The Gentiles are co-heirs — that is to say, heirs of grace and glory with the same right and in the same measure as the Jews, to whom the patrimony of heavenly favours had until then seemed to be reserved; they are ‘members of the same body,’ the mystical body of Christ, and consequently between them and the Jews there are neither privileges, differences, nor inequalities.”
“The mystery itself, without being expressly defined in this place, is described by its manifold characteristics which the Epistles of the captivity relate minutely. Hinted at by the prophets, but having remained uncomprehended, it is now illumined by a new light and proclaimed to the Gentiles, whom it is to bring to the faith.”
“Formerly Christ, the Messiah, seemed to belong to the Jews alone, and the Gentiles were without hope. Now Christ is in the midst of them, he is theirs; he is their hope; he promises and guarantees them celestial glory.”
VII. The Mosaic Law: A Providential Preparation Now Abrogated
The Theology of Saint Paul, Vol. II
(Newman Bookshop, Westminster, Md., 1926; trans. John L. Stoddard; Table of Contents, p. x; cf. pp. 99–107, 223–228)
Prat organizes his Pauline theology around Paul’s view of the three epochs of humanity: the pre-Mosaic stage, the era of the Law, and the era of Christ. The chapter heading for this section, as given in the Table of Contents, reads:
“III — PROVIDENTIAL PREPARATIONS: 1. The First Stage of Humanity. 2. The Era of Promise. 3. The Régime of the Law. 4. The Elements of the World. 5. The Fulness of the Times.”
(Note: The chapter headings are Prat’s own; the text of pp. 99–107 details the Law as a “pedagogue” or “guardian” for Israel, leading to Christ and then superseded by him, following Gal. 3:24–25 and Paul’s broader argument in Romans and Galatians.)
The corresponding section of the Table of Contents on the Passion and its effects on Israel‘s enemies reads:
“II — THE DEFEAT OF THE ENEMIES: 1. Sin, the Flesh, and Death. 2. The Mosaic Law.”
(Table of Contents, p. x, referring to pp. 221–228; this section treats the Mosaic Law as one of the “enemies” defeated by the Redemption, following Paul’s argument in Colossians 2 and Galatians 4.)
VIII. Paul’s Gospel Versus the Judaizers: The Abrogation of the Circumcision
The Theology of Saint Paul, Vol. II
(Newman Bookshop, Westminster, Md., 1926; trans. John L. Stoddard; pp. 3–4)
“There are not two Gospels, two messages of salvation. The true, the only Gospel is that which Paul teaches in accord with all the other apostles. Anathema to anyone who preaches another! But, continues the Apostle, it is not another Gospel: ‘it is only the attempt of a few persons to spread discord among you and to pervert the Gospel of Christ.'”
Prat notes the tension between Paul and the Jewish-Christian party that sought to impose the Mosaic Law on Gentile converts:
“The preaching of the latter did not fail at first to excite some astonishment in a section of the Christian community. If these did not dispute his right to preach to the Gentiles, they were at least surprised that he exempted them from the observance of the Mosaic Law. The matter was deemed sufficiently serious to be referred to the apostles and the mother-church at Jerusalem.”
“Paul declared that he had received, as his share of the work, the Gospel of the uncircumcision, as Peter had received that of the circumcision.”
Sources
All passages are drawn from the following primary editions, both accessible via the Internet Archive. No word has been altered.
Primary Works:
- Prat, Fernand, S.J. Jesus Christ: His Life, His Teaching, and His Work. Translated from the sixteenth French edition (Jésus-Christ: Sa vie, sa doctrine, son oeuvre, Paris: Beauchesne, 1933) by John J. Heenan, S.J. 2 vols. Milwaukee: The Bruce Publishing Company, 1950 (Fourth Printing, 1957). Nihil obstat: John A. Schulien, S.T.D. Imprimatur: ✠ Moses E. Kiley, Archbishop of Milwaukee, 28 July 1950. Full text of the combined single-volume edition (1950) available at Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/jesus_christ_his_life_his_teaching_and_his_work_1950-ferdinand_prat
- Prat, Fernand, S.J. The Theology of Saint Paul. Translated from the tenth French edition (La Théologie de saint Paul, Paris: Beauchesne, 1908–1912) by John L. Stoddard. 2 vols. Westminster, Md.: Newman Bookshop, 1926–1927. Nihil obstat: T. McLaughlin, S.T.D. Imprimatur: Edm. Can. Surmont, Vicar General, Westminster, 17 March 1927. Volume II available at Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/theologyofstpaul02prat_0
On Prat’s Scholarship and Reception:
- Harrington, Wilfrid J., O.P. “Fernand Prat.” In A New Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture, ed. Reginald C. Fuller et al. London: Nelson, 1969. Notes Prat’s standing as one of the foremost Catholic Pauline scholars of the early twentieth century.
- Lagrange, M.-J., O.P. Historical Criticism and the Old Testament. London: Catholic Truth Society, 1905. Prat’s work belongs to the same school of Jesuit and Dominican critical exegesis that sought to engage modern historical method within orthodox Catholic parameters.
On the Talmudic Sources Cited by Prat:
- Krauss, Samuel. Das Leben Jesu nach jüdischen Quellen. Berlin, 1904. [The primary Talmudic scholarship Prat relies on for his account of the defamation tradition.]
- Laible, H. Jesus Christus im Talmud. Berlin, 1891. German ed. with Talmudic texts in appendix by G. Dalman.
- Herford, R. Travers. Christianity in Talmud and Midrash. London, 1904. [Summarized in Dict. of Christ and the Gospels, 1909, II, pp. 877–882.]
- Klausner, Joseph. Jesus of Nazareth. London, 1923, pp. 18–54. [Cited by Prat as the best Jewish scholarly treatment of the Talmudic sources on Jesus.]
(All four of the above appear in Prat’s footnotes in the Introduction to Jesus Christ, p. 8, fn. 8.)