A Christian eschatological pattern in two steps.

[Ben C. Smith]

Millerites and the Seventh Day Adventists, including David Koresh, as well as Jehovah's Witnesses in general, rationalized away numerous conflicts caused by unrealized prophesy.

One article I read by a Jehovah's Witness stated that the "last generation," which to the sect originally meant those alive in 1914, also included those who had come to faith while members of that generation alive in 1914 were still living. In other words, they had reinterpreted "generation" to extend into what we would normally think of as part of the next generation. Sounded a bit like cheating to me....

[DCHindley]

I cannot say if it bears any relevance, but the situation described by Ellen White of forgetfulness of precise "hour" after exiting a vision is similar to the Talmud and Toledot explanation of how Jesus was initially unable to remember how to pronounce the ineffable name, which he overheard either in Egypt or from a hiding place in the temple.

As soon as Jesus tried to leave his hiding place in the temple where he overheard the ineffable name uttered by the HP on the day of atonement, the clamor of ferocious barking dogs intentionally tied nearby caused him to forget the correct pronunciation of the name.

But reading up on the Mysteries of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite and the book of Pseudo-Hierotheus, connecting with God mystically is described as a very tenuous affair and insights quickly vanish.

Oh, is there a version with dogs barking? I have read a version with brass lions roaring, which made me wonder about the prohibition against images of "living things" in Jewish law....

I think Mead called them "Brazen Dogs." Mead translated the form of this legend in Samuel Krauss’ rendition of the Strassburg MS. of the Toledot in Das Leben Jesu nach jüdischen Quellen (1902), where previous scholarship had used versions found in the manuscripts used in the versions of Wagenseil and Huldreich.

Aren't dogs considered unclean in Judaism, so a strange thing to have in the temple, but unclean to eat may have no relevance to having them around as guards or noisemakers.

I think the most recent English translations are found in Michael Meerson and Peter Schäfer, Toledot Yeshu: The life story of Jesus. Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism ; 159. Tubingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2014" which contains English translations of several versions of the Toldoth Yeschu and lists all of the known manuscripts (as of 2014). This info is from the English Wikipedia page on the topic "Toledot Yeshu."

Edit to add Mead's translation:

3. Now the rule of all Israel was in the hand of a woman who was called Helene. And there was in the sanctuary a foundation-stone and this is its interpretation: God founded it and this is the stone on [262] which Jacob poured oil and on it were written the letters of the Shem,* and whosoever learned it, could do whatsoever he would. But as the wise feared that the disciples of Israel might learn them and therewith destroy the world, they took measures that no one should do so.

Brazen dogs were bound to two iron pillars at the entrance of the place of burnt offerings,** and whosoever entered in and learned these letters as soon as he went forth again, the dogs bayed at him; if he then looked at them, the letters vanished from his memory. This Jeschu came, learned them, wrote them on parchment, cut into his hip and laid the parchment with the letters therein so that the cutting of his flesh did not hurt him then he restored the skin to its place. When he went forth the brazen dogs bayed at him, and the letters vanished from his memory. He went home, cut open his flesh with his knife, took out the writing, learned the letters, went and gathered together three hundred and ten of the young men of Israel.

* K[rauss]: “Des erklärten Gottesnamens.” But Shem ha-mephoresch would perhaps be better rendered by the “ineffable name,” that is, the name which ought not to be pronounced, the name of which only the consonants Y.H.V.H. are given, which are not pronouncible, but only indicate the pronunciation as known to the initiated. I use Shem throughout for the longer form Shem ha-mephoresch.

** Or rather, the door by which the burnt offerings were brought

[DCHindley]

Millerites and the Seventh Day Adventists, including David Koresh, as well as Jehovah's Witnesses in general, rationalized away numerous conflicts caused by unrealized prophesy.

One article I read by a Jehovah's Witness stated that the "last generation," which to the sect originally meant those alive in 1914, also included those who had come to faith while members of that generation alive in 1914 were still living. In other words, they had reinterpreted "generation" to extend into what we would normally think of as part of the next generation. Sounded a bit like cheating to me....

Well, there are good, as well as bad, rationalizations out there.

[Ben C. Smith]

I think the most recent English translations are found in Michael Meerson and Peter Schäfer, Toledot Yeshu: The life story of Jesus. Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism ; 159. Tubingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2014" which contains English translations of several versions of the Toldoth Yeschu and lists all of the known manuscripts (as of 2014). This info is from the English Wikipedia page on the topic "Toledot Yeshu."

Ah, okay. I do not have access currently to that volume, but there is what appears to be a companion of sorts to it, full of essays, on pages 297-298 of which is a story from a Spanish manuscript which is a weird version of the Toledot Yeshu, and which includes this bit:

A few years later, when the boy was four or five, he was playing with other boys one day with a hoop before the doors of the Temple. At the entrance of the Temple, there were two lions who were put there so that, if someone wanted to enter the Temple, they would be too afraid of the lions to read the Shem ha-Meforash.

There is also a version floating around with lions. I know literally nothing about the manuscripts for the Toledot Yeshu.