Study Bava Metzia folio 84A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Elijah the prophet encountered him
and said to him: Until when will you inform on the nation of our God to be sentenced to execution? R' Yishmael, son of R' Yosei, said to Elijah: What should I do? It is the king’s edict that I must obey. Elijah said to him: Faced with this choice, your father fled to Asia. You should flee to Laodi
§ With regard to these rabbis, the Talmud adds: When R' Yishmael, son of R' Yosei, and R' Elazar, son of R' Shimon, would meet each other, it was possible for a pair of oxen to enter and fit between them, under their bellies, without touching them, due to their excessive obesity.
A certain Roman noblewoman [matronita] once said to them: Your children are not really your own, as due to your obesity it is impossible that you had sex with your wives. They said to her: Theirs, i.e., our wives’ bellies, are larger than ours. She said to them: All the more so you could not have
The Talmud asks: And why did they respond to her audacious and foolish question? After all, it is written: “Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you also be like him” (Proverbs 26:4). The Talmud answers: They answered her in order not to cast aspersions on the lineage of their children.