The Talmud (תַּלְמוּד) is the Jewish religious text that contains interpretation, commentary and exposition of the Torah, compiled by the rabbis and scholars. It has two main parts: the Mishnah (מִשְׁנָה), the codified collection of Jewish oral law, and the Gemara (גְּמָרָא), the detailed discussion and explanation of the Mishnah. Its content falls under two heads: Halakhah (הֲלָכָה), the laws and rules of the Jewish religion, and Aggadah (אַגָּדָה), the stories, legends and religious history of the Jews.
Although the Bible uses some of the Jewish books in its Old Testament collection, the Talmud is excluded and is not recognized by Christian authority as a valid source for Christian doctrine. Yet if we study the text of the Talmud, held by adherents of Judaism today to be the Oral Torah, we find many stories that Paul took and altered to strengthen his teaching. Stories in the Talmud with no basis in the Old Testament were turned by Paul into false proofs and are now part of the New Testament.
Paul often presents his doctrine as coming directly from “a revelation of Jesus Christ” or “revelation,” while many of his arguments and terms are adaptations and paraphrases from the store of Jewish oral tradition. Of his gospel he writes: “I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ”.1
The statement plainly contradicts the literary trail, which shows that the sources of his writing came from the existing teaching of the rabbis and never from heaven. Here are examples from the Talmud that Paul copied.
Jannes and Jambres #
The second letter to Timothy, written in Paul’s name and received by the church as his, names the two sorcerers who opposed Mūsā (ʿalayhi al-salām, peace be upon him) as Jannes and Jambres, and compares them to his enemies:
8ὃν τρόπον δὲ Ἰάννης καὶ Ἰαμβρῆς ἀντέστησαν Μωϋσεῖ, οὕτως καὶ οὗτοι ἀνθίστανται τῇ ἀληθείᾳ, ἄνθρωποι κατεφθαρμένοι τὸν νοῦν, ἀδόκιμοι περὶ τὴν πίστιν. 9ἀλλʼ οὐ προκόψουσιν ἐπὶ πλεῖον, ἡ γὰρ ἄνοια αὐτῶν ἔκδηλος ἔσται πᾶσιν, ὡς καὶ ἡ ἐκείνων ἐγένετο.
8Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. 9But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men.2
Neither name appears anywhere in the text of the Old Testament. The Midrash Rabbah, the rabbinic commentary on Exodus, names the two sorcerers “Yochani” and “Mamre”:
Amrū Yōḥānī ūMamrē lə-Mōshe: “teven atah makhnīs lə-ʿOfrayīm?” Amar lāhem: “Lə-mātā yarqā, yarqā shəqōl.”3
Yochani and Mamre asked Moses: “Are you bringing straw to Ephraim?” He answered them: “Consider carefully, weigh it, then decide.”
The names of the two Egyptian sorcerers also appear in the Midrash Tanchuma,4 in its commentary on Exodus 32:
Forty thousand people gathered to leave Egypt together with the Children of Israel, and among them were two Egyptians named Jannes and Jambres, who had worked sorcery for Pharaoh.5
So the names of the two sorcerers plainly come from interpretation in the Talmud, which indirectly led Paul to place them in his letter.
Because of the angels #
When Paul says in 1 Corinthians that a woman must wear a “sign of authority” on her head (cover her head) because of the angels:
10διὰ τοῦτο ὀφείλει ἡ γυνὴ ἐξουσίαν ἔχειν ἐπὶ τῆς κεφαλῆς διὰ τοὺς ἀγγέλους.
10That is why a wife ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels.6
he is plainly influenced by the tradition of shaḥavat (שכבת) as interpreted in the Talmud, since it refers to the rabbinic interpretation of Genesis 6:2:
Bənêi ʾElohim. Bənêi ha-sārîm və-ha-shōftîm. Dāvār ʾāḥēr: bənêi ha-ʾElohim, hēm ha-sārîm ha-hōlkhîm bishlīḥūtō shel Māqōm, ʾaf hēm hāyū mitʿārvîm bāhem; kol ʾelohîm sheba-miqrā ləshōn mārūt, və-zeh yōkhîaḥ: və-atah tihyeh lō ʾelohîm; rəʾēh, nətattîkhā ʾelohîm.7
THE SONS OF GOD. The sons of the princes and the judges. Another interpretation of “the sons of God”: they were the angels who came into the world as messengers of God, and they mingled with the women of humankind. Wherever the word “elohim” appears in the text, it denotes authority, as in the verses: “and thou shalt be to him instead of elohim” [Exodus 4:16] and “see, I have made thee elohim” [Exodus 7:1].
Paul plainly believed the rabbinic interpretation that the angels mingled with the women of humankind, to the point of plagiarizing the text of this Targum into his letter. As set down in the book of Judith, it plainly describes the fall of the angels through their lust for the women of the earth.8
Ishmael and Isaac #
In Galatians the verse reads:
29ἀλλʼ ὥσπερ τότε ὁ κατὰ σάρκα γεννηθεὶς ἐδίωκε τὸν κατὰ πνεῦμα, οὕτως καὶ νῦν.
29But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now.9
The statement relates to the Haggadic tradition in which Ismāʿīl is said to have mocked, and beyond that humiliated, shamed and abused Isḥāq when they were small. We find it in Sanhedrin 89b:
Rabbi Levi amar: aḥar dəvārāv shel Yishmāʿēl lə-Yitsḥāq. Amar lō Yishmāʿēl lə-Yitsḥāq: “Anī gādōl mimmə-khā bə-mitsvōt, she-atah maltā ben shəmōnat yāmîm, va-anī ben shəlōsh ʿesreh shānāh.” Amar lō: “U-və-ēver eḥād atah məgāreh bī? Im ōmer lī ha-Qādōsh, bārūkh Hū, zəvaḥ atsməkhā ləfānay, anī zōvēaḥ.” Miyād: və-hā-Elohim nissāh et Avrāhām.10
Rabbi Levi said: These are the words of Ishmael to Isaac. Ishmael said to Isaac: “I am greater than you in the commandments, for you were circumcised at eight days old, and I was circumcised at thirteen years.” He [Isaac] said to him: “Do you taunt me over one limb? If the Holy One, blessed be He, were to say to me, ‘Sacrifice yourself before Me,’ I would sacrifice myself.” At once: “And God did tempt Abraham.”
- Galatians 1:12; the claim is examined under Was Paul an apostle? A self-appointed one. ↩
- 2 Timothy 3:8–9 (SBLGNT; ESV). ↩
- English–Hebrew translation, Shemot Rabbah (Midrash Rabbah on Exodus), 7:12. ↩
- Parshat Ki Tisa 19:19. ↩
- Samuel A. Berman (trans.), Midrash Tanhuma-Yelammedenu, commentary on Exodus 32 (KTAV Publishing, 1996), p. 598. Rendered here from the Malay edition of the book. ↩
- 1 Corinthians 11:10 (SBLGNT; ESV). ↩
- See Rashi’s commentary on Bereshit (Genesis), on 6:2. ↩
- 2 Peter 2:4; Judith 6. ↩
- Galatians 4:29 (SBLGNT; ESV). ↩
- See the Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 89b. ↩
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. ESV Text Edition: 2025. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
