According to the traditional view the canon of the Old Testament closed with the work of Ezra. He was followed by the .55pherim, "scribes" (or the men of the great Synagogue), to the Maccabaean age, and these again by the "Pairs" (zugoth, Gr.
the reputed heads of the Sanhedrin, down to the Herodian age (150-30 B.c.). The last culminate in Hillel (q.v.) and Shammai, the founders of two great rival schools, and to this famous pair the work of collecting hdldkoth ("legal decisions") has been ascribed. The ensuing period of the Tannei'im, "teachers" (about A.D. 10-220) is that of the growth of the Mishnah. (On the various teachers, especially the Haggadists, see W. Bacher, Agada der Babylon. Amorder, pub. Strassburg, 1879; A. d. Tannaiten, pub. 1884, new edition begun in 1903 ; A. d. Pal. Amorder, pub. 1892.) Among the best known representatives of the schools are Rabban (a title given to Hillel's descendants) Gamaliel, the Phil Hellene and teacher of the apostle Paul (Acts xxii. 3) and his son Simeon ( Josephus, Life, § 38 seq., Wars, iv. 3, 9), and Rabban Johanan b. Zakkai, founder of the seat of learning at Jamnia (Jabneh). A little later (about A.D. 90-130) are the famous Gamaliel
Eliezer b. Hyrqanos (at Lydda), and Ishmael b. Elisha, the last of whom founded the school at Usha and is renowned for his development of the rules of exegesis framed by Hillel. With Rabbi Aqiba (q.v.) and the synods of Jamnia (about A.D. 90 and 118) a definite epoch in Judaism begins. At Jamnia, under the presidency of Gamaliel II. and Eleazar b. Azariah, a collection of traditional halakoth was formed in the tractate
(larger than and not to be identified with IV., 7). Here, likewise, was discussed the canonicity of the Song of Songs and of Ecclesiastes, and it is probable that here Aqiba and his colleagues fixed the official text of the canonical books. Aqiba had an important share in the early development of the Mishnah (Strack, pp. 19, 89) ; and, in the collecting of material, he was followed notably by the school of Ishmael (about A.D. 130-160), which has left its mark upon the early halakic Midrashim. The more interesting names include R. Meir, a well-known haggadist, R. Simeon b. Yohai, R. Jose b. Halaphta and R. Jehudah b. mai. But, as collections of decisions were made by prominent teachers from time to time, confusion was caused by their differences as regards both contents and teaching (Sotah, 22a; Shabb. 138b). Consequently, towards the close of the second century a thoroughly comprehensive effort was made to reduce the halakoth to order.
Judah, grandson of Gamaliel II., known as the Prince or Patriarch (nazi'), as Rabbenis ("our teacher"), or simply as "Rabbi" par excellence, was the editor. He gathered together the material, using Meir's collection as a basis, and although he did not write the Mishnah as it now is, he brought it into essen tially its present shape. His methods were not free from arbitrari ness ; he would attribute to "the wise" the opinion of a single authority which he regarded as correct ; he would ignore conflict ing opinions or those of scholars which they themselves had after wards retracted, and he did not scruple to cite his own decisions.
The period of the 'Amörerim, "speakers, interpreters" (about A.D. 22a--500), witnessed the growth of the Gemara, when the
now "canonical" Mishnah formed the basis for further ampli fication and for the collecting of old and new material which bore upon it. In Palestine learning flourished at Caesarea, Sepphoris, Tiberias and Usha ; Babylonia had famous schools at Nehardea (from the 2nd century A.D.), Sura, Pumbeditha and elsewhere. Of their teachers (who were called Rabbi and Rab respectively) several hundreds are known. R. tjiyya was redactor of the Siphra on Leviticus; to him and to R. Hoshaiah the compilation of the Tosephtii is also ascribed. Abba Arika or Rab, the nephew of the first mentioned, founded the school of Sura (A.D. 219). Rab and Shemuel (Samuel) "the astronomer" (died A.D. 254) were pupils of "Rabbi" (i.e., Judah, above), and were famed for their knowledge of law; so numerous were their points of difference that the Talmud will emphasize certain decisions by the statement that the two were agreed. The Gemara is much indebted to this pair and to Johanan b. Napp5,ha (199-279). The latter, founder of the great school of Tiberias, has indeed been venerated, on the authority of Maimonides, as the editor of the Palestinian Talmud; but the presence of later material and of later names, e.g., Mani b. Jona and Jose b. Abin (Abun), refute this view. The Baby lonian Rabbah b. Nahmani (died c. 33o) had a dialectical ability which won him the title "uprooter of mountains." His contro versies with R. Joseph b. Ijiyya (known for his learning as "Sinai"), and those between their disciples Abaye and Raba are responsible for many of the minute discussions in the Babylonian Gemara. Meanwhile the persecutions of Constantine and Con stantius brought about the decay of the Palestinian schools, and, probably in the 5th century, their recension of the Talmud was essentially complete. In Babylonia, however, learning still flour ished, and with Rab Ashi (352-427) the arranging of the present framework of the Gemara may have been taken in hand. Under Rabba Tosepha'a (died 47o) and Rabina, i.e., Rab Abina (died 499), heads of the academy of Sura, the Babylonian recension became practically complete.
Finally, the Sab5rd'e, "explainers, opiners" (about
made some additions of their own in the way of explanations and new decisions.
of the Mishnah and Gemara is called "the Talmud of the Land of Israel," or "T. of the West"; a popular but misleading name is "the Jerusalem Talmud." It is an extremely uneven compilation. "What was reduced to writing does not give us a work carried out of ter a preconcerted plan, but rather represents a series of jottings answering to the needs of the various individual writers, and largely intended to strengthen the memory" (Schechter). Political troubles and the unhappy condition of the Jews probably furnish the explanation ; hence also the abundance of Palestinian haggadic literature in the Mid rashim, whose "words of blessing and consolation" appealed more to their feelings than did the legal writings. The Pal. Talmud did not attain the eminence of the sister recension, and survives in a very incomplete form, although it was perhaps once fuller.
It now extends only to Orders with the omission of IV.
7 and 9, and with the addition of part of VI. 7.