286 A History of Judaism
Mishnah and Tosefta do not pay much attention to these groups at all,
let alone describe their views and practices as part of a polemic in the
fashion of the Christian heresiologists who were their contemporaries.
Ignoring the existence of those deemed deviant may be seen as in itself a
distinctive form of opposition, and a corollary of the rabbinic quasi-
solipsism already noted. On the other hand, the tannaim made extensive
use of a new term, min, ‘heretic’, which (so far as is known) they invented.
This term (derived from min, ‘kind’ or ‘species’) became so much part of
their worldview that they also invented the noun minut to designate
‘heresy’ as an abstract noun. To the rabbis these minim belonged to a
single category in that they were all erring Jews, even though the nature
of their alleged errors differed greatly, from denying the world to come
(as Sadducees were known to do) to healing in the name of Jesus b.
Pantera (presumably a reference to Jewish Christians):
R. Eleazar b. Dama was bitten by a snake. And Jacob of Kefar Sama came
to heal him in the name of Jesus son of Pantera. And R. Ishmael did not
allow him [to accept the healing]. They said to him, ‘You are not permitted
[to accept healing from him], Ben Dama.’ He said to him, ‘I shall bring you
proof that he may heal me.’ But he did not have time to bring the [prom-
ised] proof before he dropped dead. Said R. Ishmael, ‘Happy are you, Ben
Dama, for you have expired in peace, but you did not break down the
hedge erected by the sages. For whoever breaks down the hedge erected by
sages eventually suffers punishment, as it is said, “He who breaks down a
hedge is bitten by a snake.” ’
According to talmudic traditions, at some time in the decades after
70 ce these heretics were seen by some rabbis as sufficiently threatening
for them to introduce into their daily prayers a nineteenth blessing, to
be added to the eighteen inherited from Second Temple times (see Chap-
ter 4), through which God is blessed for cursing the minim : ‘Our rabbis
taught, “Simeon ha Pakuli arranged the eighteen benedictions in order
before Rabban Gamaliel in Yavneh. Said Rabban Gamaliel to the Sages,
‘Can any one among you frame a benediction relating to the Minim ?’
Samuel the Lesser arose and composed it.” ’ Whether this blessing was
aimed at any specific heretics is unknown. A complaint in Justin Mar-
tyr’s Dialogue with the Jew Trypho, composed in the middle of the
second century ce, may suggest that some Jewish Christians believed it
to be directed at them: ‘For you have murdered the Just One, and his
prophets before him; now to the utmost of your power you dishonour
and curse in your synagogues all those who believe in Christ.’ But it is