12. Who is the Target of Toledot Yeshu?

In ‘Who is the Target of Toledot Yeshu?’, Daniel Stökl ben Ezra begins with the observation that the ideological opponents of this polymorphic work are not merely Christians but (in the words of John Gager) ‘the dangerous ones in-between’, Christianizing Jews and Judaizing Christians. The rabbinic authors of Toledot Yeshu, which Stökl Ben Ezra dates to the fifth century, were particularly concerned about Christianizing Jews. Drawing from selected cases in the legal composition Sefer ha-Ma‘asim, he argues that unforced conversion to Christianity was a social reality in Late Antiquity.