I just discovered something else, on this topic of Notzrim vs Mitzrim (see above)! And I'm beginning to regret I didn't see this before I wrote the book ...
As I mentioned, in the early uncensored, handwritten manuscripts of the Talmud (online at
http://jnul.huji.ac.il/dl/talmud/bavly/selectbavly.asp), the name of Yeshu Ha-Notzri (Jesus the Nazarene, or Jesus the Christian) have not been erased or removed (which it later was). And although the available manuscripts (the earliest Firenze, from 1177) write Ha-Notzri, "the Christian", as הנוצרי, in Hebrew that looks very similar to המצרי Ha-Mitzri ("the Egyptian"). There's just a tiny space between the nun and the vav, which, if pulled together, would look like a mem, and turn the word into Ha-Mitzri.
"Notzri" is a strange word, which doesn't appear before the Babylonian Talmud, and it has just been assumed that it is connected to Nazareth. Earlier in this thread, I allowed myself to throw in the suggestion that perhaps, from the beginning, it could have been written Ha-Mitzri. But since the available manuscripts have it as Ha-Notzri, that merely becomes an unsubstantiated speculation.
What I now found, however, adds fuel to the speculation:
There is a very strange sentence in the Talmud tractate Gittin 57a:
"Once when R. Manyumi b. Helkiah and R. Helkiah b. Tobiah and R. Huna b. Hiyya were sitting together they said: If anyone knows anything about Kefar Sekania of Egypt, let him say."
The reason it is strange, is that Kefar Sekania lies nowhere near Egypt. It is a Galilean town! This has prompted some Talmud scholars to suggest that "Egypt" מצרים in this sentence really should be something "with Nazarene associations" (and thus that the mem in reality should be a nun and a vav). But in fact, מצרים doesn't mean only "Egypt". It also means "Egyptians"! And this is also the way the word is interpreted in some translations.
Now why did these scholars suggest it should be something "with Nazarene associations"? The reason they did this, is because Kefar Sekania, in the Talmud, is a town associated with the Christians! In tractate Abodah Zarah 17a (uncensored versions), it is written:
”Once I was walking along the upper market of Sepphoris and found a man, one of the disciples of Yeshu ha-Notzri whosa name was Jacob of Kefar Sekania.”
and in Tosefta Hullin 2.24 it says:
"Once I was strolling on the road of Sepphoris when I met Jacob from Kefar Sekania who told me a heretical teaching in the name of Jesus son of Pantiri and it pleased me."
So, simply put: Could it be, that the word in Gittin 57a is no mistake, and that it really is מצרים (Egyptians)?
If so, the town -- in the Talmud associated with Christians -- is really presented as "Kefar Sekania of the Egyptians".
