TEUCH, PROPHECY, etc.
It will IIMS be seen that the ancient- Hebrew literature bridges the transition from the old liebrew religion to Judaism in the proper sense of the term. The line between Hebrew and •ew ish literature is 110I sharply drawn. Much that is included in the Old Testament belongs to Jewish literature; and those portions which are subse quent to the formal acceptance of the Priestly Code (we. 444) may be said to belong to the first period of Jewish literature. This period-is char acterized by what may be called the rabbinic spirit. Guided by Ezra, the intellect of the nation began to exhibit surpassing reverence for the Pen tateuch and the prophets. Expositions and addi tions to the earlier history (midrashim), as well as Greek translations, were executed. To this period also, if to any, mast belong, the uncertain performances of the Great Synagogue (q.v.). The doctors of whom the Gm-cat Synagogue is said to have consisted were called sopherim (`scribes'). and the Aramean became the popular dialect of Palestine.
Eight subsequent periods of Jewish literature may he distinguished. The second period extends from TC. 113 to Am. 135. The Midrash (q.v.), or the inquiry into the meaning of the sacred writings, was divided into Halacha and Hag pada ; the former considered the improvement of the law, with a view to practical results; the latter. the essence of the religions and historical interpretations. At first. both were the oral deliverances of the sopherim, but gradually writ ten memorials made their appearance. The public interpretation of the Scripture in schools and synagogues. the independence of the Sanhe drin. the strife of sects. and the influences of Alexandrian culture. furthered this development. To this period also belong, various Greek versions, but not, as is still erroneously supposed by some, the written targ,ums or Aramaie versions of the Bible (see TARGL'M ), which sprang at a much later period from oral translations of the Penta teuch in the synagogues instituted after the return from the Exile; further, to this period belongs the whole of the Apoerypha (q.v.), and the earliest Christian writings:, whieh are at least the productions of men nurtured in the prineiples of Judaism, and which contain many traces of Judaistic culture, feeling, and faith. It was also characterized by the drawing up of prayers, scrip tural expositions, songs, and collections of pro verbs. Josephus and Philo are names specially
worthy of mention: so also are the doctors of the oral law—Hillel, Shammai, Johanan hen-Zakkai, (amaliel, Eleazar ben-Hyrcan, Joshua ben-Han anya. Ishmael, Akiba, and others of like eminence. Rabbi (master), tatmid 1,:akam (disciple of the wise), were the titles of honor given to those expert in a knowledge of the law. Besides the Maeeabean and Bar Cochba coins, Greek and Latin inscriptions belonging to this period are extant.
The third period reaches from 135 to 475. In struction in the Halaeha and Haggada now be came the principal employment of the flourishing schools in Galilee. Syria. Rome, and, after 219, in Babylonia: the most distinguished men were the masters of the :Vishnu (q.v.) and the Talmud Eleazar ben-Jacob, Jehuda, Jose, _heir, Simeon ben-Yohai. Jehuda the Holy, Nathan. Hiyya, Rab, Samuel, Johanan, Hunna, Rabba, Rava, Papa. Ache. and Abina. Besides expositions. ethical treatises, stories, fables, and history were also composed; the liturgy began to assume larger dimensions. the targum to the Pentateueh and the Prophets was completed, and the calendar fixed by Hillel the Second. 340. After the suppression of the academies in Palestine, those of Mesopotamia—viz. at Sura. Pumbeditha, and Nehardea—beeame the centre of Jewish lite rary activity. On Sabbaths and festal days the people heard, in the schools and places for prayer, instructive and edifying discourses. Of the bibli cal literature of the Greek .Jews we have only fragments, such as those of the versions of Aquila and The fourth period was from 475 to 740. By this time the Jews had adopted the language of the country they happened to dwell in. During the sixth century the Babylonian Talmud was con cluded, the Palestinian Talmud having been re dacted about a hundred years before. Little remains of the labors of Jewish physicians of the seventh century, or of the first geonim, or presi dents of the Babylonian schools, who first appear in 589. On the other hand, from the sixth to the eighth century. the Masora was developed in Pal estine (at Tiberias) : and besides a collection of the earlier haggadas (e.g. Rereshith rabbit). inde pendent commentaries were likewise executed, as the Pesikta, the Pirke of Eliezcr (700), etc. See MIDRASH ; HAGGADA.