for more speculation along these lines see peter shafer, jesus in the talmud, princeton university press, 2006.
Imagine what Dan Brown could do with this!
The life of Paul - particularly his origins as a 'Pharisee' who studied under Rabban Gamliel and his 'transformation' on the road to Damascus - invite this type of theorizing.Only if you believe him. As far as I know most people don't. He doesn't seem very knowledgeable about Torah, and his boast of having been "a pharisee among pharisees" was made to people who wouldn't know the difference.
He also made the odd claim to have been from Shevet Binyamin, though at that time most people had no idea of their shevet. This might indicate that his true origins were the exact opposite of his claims: he was an am ha'aretz from a family of iffy gerim, one of those the gemara refers to who were converted by "bet din shel hedyotot" without any preparation or vetting. Thus he gives himself a yichus that he's too ignorant to know is implausible.
I think that asarah b'tevet predates the geonim. the first reference is the bavli Rosh Hashana 18b, in the discussion of which fasts correspond to Zechariah's list(Chap 9). [ I happened upon it in a quest to find when Yom Nicanor morphed into Ta'anit Ester- still looking btw.]
the 10th does. the 8th and 9th don't.
according to Ari Enkin's piece posted over at hirhurim, the 9th of tevet was Jesus' birthday. Might that have something to do with it?
Interestingly enough isn't there a "tradition" that Nishmat Kol Chai was composed by St. Peter before he became an apostate. Might this not indeed be the "shimon" in question, who really was not a mumar in the end?
the tradition about nishmat is that it was composed by paul who was only a 'fake' apostate.
do you know a source for this? I haven't been able to find one
i heard it on a berel wein tape, actually.
If there is any source in the Talmud about Shimon Hakalponi/St. Paul, it's not this Gemara. It would be Berachos 28b-29a, where the otherwise unknown Shimon Hapekuli davened Tefillah, whereupon Rav Shimon ben Gamliel immedaitely asked for the creation of birkas haminim. Nachman Brull, as quoted by Dr. L., speculates this Shimon Hapekuli is none other than Shimon Hakalponi.
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