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pndyr) PN Personal name : Panthera: a derisive term for the father of Jesus in Jewish sources, used at least from the late 2nd century. He is assumed to have been a Roman soldier, among whom the name is known from historical sources, but similarity of this word, i.e., "panther," to Greek parthenos "virgin" and/or the name of Pandarus, the Trojan soldier said to have procured Cressida for Troilus (a tradition albeit only known from much later sources and the source of English "pander") cannot be excluded. בר פנדירא thus refers to Jesus himself. See most recently Dan Jaffé, "The Virgin Birth of Jesus in the Talmudic Context," Laval théologique et philosophique 68/3 (2012): 577-92
