The Mishna, etc

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Re: The Mishna, etc

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Simeon (or Shimon) ben Gamliel II (Hebrew: רבן שמעון בן גמליאל השני) was a Tanna of the third generation and president of the Great Sanhedrin. Shimon was a youth in Betar when the Bar Kokhba revolt broke out, but when that fortress was taken by the Romans he managed to escape the massacre (Gittin 58a; Sotah 49b; Bava Kamma 83a; Yer. Ta'anit 24b). On the restoration of the college at Usha, Shimon was elected its president, this dignity being bestowed upon him not only because he was a descendant of the house of Hillel, but in recognition of his personal worth and influence.


Leadership
There were many children in his family, one-half of whom were instructed in the Torah, and the other half in Greek philosophy (Gittin 58a; Sotah 49b; Bava Kamma 83a;). According to the Jewish Encyclopedia, Shimon himself seems to have been trained in Greek philosophy; this probably accounting for his declaring later that the Scriptures might be written only in the original text and in Greek (Meg. 9b; i. 8; Yer. Meg. 71c) ...

It is not known who were his teachers in the Halakah; he transmits sayings of R. Judah bar Ilai (Tosef., Kelim, B. Ḳ. v. 4), of R. Meir (Shab. 15b;[ B. M. 106b; Tosef., Ket. vi. 10; Yer. Ket. vi. 7), and of R. Jose bar Ḥalafta (Tosef., Dem. iii. 12; Tosef., Ṭoh. xi. 16).

During Shimon's patriarchate the Jews were harried by daily persecutions and oppressions. In regard to these Shimon observes: "Our forefathers knew suffering only from a distance, but we have been surrounded by it for so many days, years, and cycles that we are more justified than they in becoming impatient" (Cant. R. iii. 3). "Were we, as of yore, to inscribe upon a memorial scroll our sufferings and our occasional deliverances therefrom, we should not find room for all" (Shab. 13b).

Jewish internal affairs were more firmly organized by Shimon ben Gamaliel, and the patriarchate attained under him a degree of honor previously unknown.

While formerly only two persons, the nasi and the ab bet din, presided over the college, Shimon established the additional office of "ḥakam", with authority equal to that of the others,

As Halakist
In halakic matters Shimon inclined toward lenient interpretation of the laws, and he avoided adding to the difficulties attending their observance. In many instances in which an act, in itself not forbidden by Biblical law, had later been prohibited merely out of fear that it might lead to transgressions, Shimon declared it permissible, saying that "fear should not be admitted as a factor in a decision"


As Haggadist
Several of Shimon's haggadic sayings and decisions also have been preserved.
  • "Great is peace, for Aaron the priest became famous only because he sought peace" ("Pereḳ Ha-shalom"; comp. Mal. 2:6).

    "Justice must be accorded to non-Jews as to Jews; the former should have the option of seeking judgment before either a Jewish or a pagan court" (Sifre, Deut. 16 [ed. Friedmann, p. 68b]).[58]

    Shimon praised the Samaritans for observing more strictly than did the Israelites such commandments of the Torah as they recognized (Ḳid. 76a).

    The Scripture is in many places to be understood figuratively and not literally (Sifre, Deut. 25 [ed. Friedmann, p. 70a])
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simeon_ben_Gamliel_II
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Re: The Mishna, etc

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Judah ha-Nasi (Hebrew: יהודה הנשיא‎, Yehudah HaNasi or Judah the Prince) or Judah I, also known as Rabbi (רבי‎) or Rabbenu HaQadosh (רבנו הקדוש‎, "our Master, the holy one"), was born in 135 CE to President of Sanhedrin Simeon ben Gamliel II. According to the Midrash, he came into the world on the same day that Rabbi Akiva died as a martyr [Midrash Genesis Rabbah 53; Midrash Ecclesiastes Rabbah 1:10.]. The Talmud suggests that this was a result of Divine Providence.

He was a key leader of the Jewish community during the Roman occupation of Judea.
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Re: The Mishna, etc

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From Wikipedia, but re-ordered here -

Hillel the Elder [was said to have been born in Babylon and to have] lived in Jerusalem during the time of King Herod and the Roman emperor Augustus.

A biographical sketch can be constructed; that Hillel went to Jerusalem in the prime of his life and attained a great age. His activity of forty years likely covered the period of 30 BCE to 10 CE (when he is said to have died, aged 120 yrs).

According to the Mishnah Hillel went to Jerusalem with the intention of studying biblical exposition and tradition at the age of 40 in 70 BCE.

In the Midrash compilation Sifre (Deut. 357), the periods of Hillel's life are made parallel to those in the life of Moses. Both lived 120 years1 (Deut. 34:7), and at the age of forty Hillel went to the Land of Israel; forty years he spent in study; and the last third of his life he was the spiritual head of the Jewish people.

1 Peter Kirby notes, in an essay about Hegesippus and Eusebius's accounts of H, that Eusebius states
"..Symeon, at 120 years of agex, and being a cousin of Jesus, can be assumed to have known Jesus. The implication of the source being paraphrased here is that the crucifixion of Symeon ends the apostolic generation (at the latest extremity of Trajan’s reign, 115-117 AD). This is a contrast to the prevailing contemporary assumption that “the beloved disciple” of John’s Gospel was the last of that troop. After Symeon dies, so the source says, trouble began because none of the apostles were still living."

nb. "The “sacred college of apostles” and “generation … deemed worthy to hear the inspired wisdom” are parallel phrases."

http://peterkirby.com/chasing-hegesippus.html
  • x Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, 3.32.5-6: 'He writes as follows: “They came, therefore, and took the lead of every church as witnesses and as relatives of the Lord. And profound peace being established in every church, they remained until the reign of the Emperor Trajan, and until the above-mentioned Symeon, son of Clopas, an uncle of the Lord, was informed against by the heretics, and was himself in like manner accused for the same cause before the governor Atticus. And after being tortured for many days he suffered martyrdom, and all, including even the proconsul, marvelled that, at the age of one hundred and twenty years, he could endure so much. And orders were given that he should be crucified”.'

    E.H. 3.32.7-8. In addition to these things the same man, while recounting the events of that period, records that the Church up to that time had remained a pure and uncorrupted virgin, since, if there were any that attempted to corrupt the sound norm of the preaching of salvation, they lay until then concealed in obscure darkness. But when the sacred college of apostles had suffered death in various forms, and the generation of those that had been deemed worthy to hear the inspired wisdom with their own ears had passed away, then the league of godless error took its rise as a result of the folly of heretical teachers, who, because none of the apostles was still living, attempted henceforth, with a bold face, to proclaim, in opposition to the preaching of the truth, the ‘knowledge which is falsely so-called.’

Previously, Peter K noted -
The “relatives of the Lord,” as also attested by Julius Africanus, play a leadership role in the period after 70 AD and, according to this source, up to approximately 115 AD. They are leaders and witnesses whose presence was felt until the end of Trajan’s reign. The picture here is that of Symeon leading the churches up to the end of Trajan’s reign, with several leaders under him in many locations whose primary qualification is that they are descended from Judas, one of the “so-called brothers of the Saviour.” I’m glossing this outside the quote only because it’s very easy to read this account, quite startling in fact when we consider how marginal the family of Jesus is in the New Testament Gospels, and then forget about it and go on to other things in the literature of early Christianity.

Peter also noted -
..the last account of Hegesippus from Eusebius, which shows that Hegesippus knew a 'Gospel of the Hebrews', that Hegesippus drew on unwritten traditions of the Jews, and that Hegesippus records that some heretics composed false books in his own time.
  • Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, 4.22.7-8. And he wrote of many other matters, which we have in part already mentioned, introducing the accounts in their appropriate places. And from the Syriac Gospel according to the Hebrews he quotes some passages in the Hebrew tongue, showing that he was a convert from the Hebrews, and he mentions other matters as taken from the unwritten tradition of the Jews. And not only he, but also Irenæus and the whole company of the ancients, called the Proverbs of Solomon All-virtuous Wisdom. And when speaking of the books called Apocrypha, he records that some of them were composed in his day by certain heretics. But let us now pass on to another.
That seems to fit what the contemporaneous Jewish tanna'im were doing ...
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Re: The Mishna, etc

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.
Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai, aka Rabbaz; d. 90 AD, supposedly born 30 BC (ie. another who is supposed to have lived 120 yrs)

Yochanan ben Zakkai was the youngest and most distinguished disciple of Rabbi Hillel. He has been called the "father of wisdom and the father of generations (of scholars)" because he ensured the continuation of Jewish scholarship after Jerusalem fell to Rome in 70 C.E.

According to tradition, ben Zakkai was a pacifist in Jerusalem in 68 C.E. when the city was under siege by General Vespasian. Jerusalem was controlled by the Zealots, people who would rather die than surrender to Rome (these are the same people who controlled Masada). Ben Zakkai urged surrender, but the Zealots would not hear of it, so ben Zakkai faked his own death and had his disciples smuggle him out of Jerusalem in a coffin. They carried the coffin to Vespasian's tent, where ben Zakkai emerged from the coffin. He told Vespasian that he had had a vision (some would say, a shrewd political insight) that Vespasian would soon be emperor, and he asked Vespasian to set aside a place in Yavneh (near modern Rehovot) where he could start a small school and study Torah in peace. Vespasian promised that if the prophesy came true, he would grant ben Zakkai's request. Vespasian became Emperor within a year, and kept his word, allowing the school to be established after the war was over. The school ben Zakkai established at Yavneh became the center of Jewish learning for centuries and replaced Jerusalem as the seat of the Sanhedrin.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/yochanan-ben-zakkai


‘Master’ Yochanan’s two outstanding disciples, Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Joshua, succeeded him in the leadership of the Pharisaic party and, together with him, belong to the early teachers known as the Tannaim, who developed what later came to be known as Rabbinic Judaism.

As with other early Rabbinic figures it is difficult to disentangle fact from pious legend when trying to reconstruct Yochanan’s history. For instance, when it is said of him, Hillel, and Akiva that each lived for 120 years, it is as clear as can be that this is simply a device for calling attention to the significance of the teacher for later Judaism. Each lived for the lifespan of Moses, the first great leader and lawgiver ...

Yochanan requested Vespasian to spare the city of Yavneh as a home for scholars and to preserve 'the House of the Nasi' by affording protection to the young Gamaliel, later to become the Nasi, Rabban Gamaliel II.

https://www.myjewishlearning.com/articl ... en-zakkai/


The unedited full-text of the 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia is comprehensive -

According to the theory formulated in the Mishnah (Ab. ii. 8), that traditions were handed down through an unbroken chain of scholars, Johanan, in receiving the teachings of Hillel and Shammai, formed the last link in that chain. But it is rather as a pupil of Hillel than of Shammai that he is known (Suk. 28a). Before his death Hillel is said to have prophetically designated Johanan, his youngest pupil, as "the father of wisdom" and "the father of coming generations" (Yer. Ned. v., end, 39b). Like that of Hillel, Johanan's life was divided into periods of forty years each. In the first of these he followed a mercantile pursuit; in the second he studied; and in the third he taught (R. H. 30b). Another version has it (Sifre, Deut. 357) that in the last forty years of his life he was a leader of Israel. If the last statement be accepted as approximately correct, and it is assumed that Johanan lived at the latest one decade after the destruction of Jerusalem, his public activity as the recognized leader of the pharisaic scribes must have begun between the years 30 and 40 of the common era.

etc

http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/artic ... n-b-zakkai
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Re: The Mishna, etc

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.
Were there competing early Rabbinic schools before Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi ?? -
  • ben Zakkai, d. 90 AD (+/- Hillel (and Shammai)); and then Hillel's great-grandson Gamaliel II, and ben Zakkai's 'two outstanding disciples' Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Joshua), etc;

    Akiva ben Yosef (aka Rabbi Akiva, and, in the Talmud, Rosh la-Hakhamim, "Chief of the Sages"; d. 135 AD/CE) and his school's 'disciples' such as Aquila "Ponticus" of Sinope (and Rabbi Meir, Judah bar Ilai, Simeon bar Yochai, Jose ben Halafta, Eleazar ben Shammai, and Rabbi Nehemiah; and tens of thousands more)
Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi (b. 135 AD/CE) was a son of Rabbi Simeon ben Gamliel II (who, in turn, was a great-great grandchild of Hillel).
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Baraita (Aramaic: ברייתא "external" or "outside"; pl. Barayata or Baraitot; also Baraitha, Beraita; Ashkenazi: Beraisa) designates a tradition in the Jewish oral law not incorporated in the Mishnah. "Baraita" thus refers to teachings "outside" of the six orders of the Mishnah. Originally, "Baraita" probably referred to teachings from schools outside the main Mishnaic-era academies – although in later collections, individual Baraitot are often authored by sages of the Mishna (Tanna'im).

According to Maimonides (Introduction to Mishna Torah), the baraitot were compiled by Rabbi Hoshaya and Bar Kappara, although no compilation was passed down to us as the Tosefta was.

... these works are the basic "proof-text" cross-referenced by the Talmudic sages in their analysis and interpretation of the Mishna; See Gemara. Here, a teaching from the Baraita is usually introduced by the Aramaic word "Tanya" ("It was orally taught") or by "Tanu Rabanan" ("Our Rabbis have orally taught"), whereas "Tnan" ("We have orally taught") introduces quotations from the Mishnah. Anonymous Baraitot are often attributed to particular Tanna'im by the Talmud. In the Jerusalem Talmud, references to Baraitot are less common.

The style of the Baraita is basically indistinguishable from that of the Mishna, but some come closer to Mishnaic idiom than others. For example, the second chapter of Kallah Rabbathi, a beraita compilation, is often appended to Pirkei Avoth, as both are similar in style and content.

For a more detailed explanation of the origins of the Baraita (in relation to the rest of the Mishna) see http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/t01/t0106.htm
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[wiki]Tanna'im[/wiki] (Hebrew: תנאים‎ [tanaˈʔim], singular Hebrew: תנא‎ [taˈna], Tanna "repeaters", "teachers"[1]) were the Rabbinic sages whose views are recorded in the Mishnah, from approximately 10-220 CE. The period of the Tannaim, also referred to as the Mishnaic period, lasted about 210 years. It came after the period of the Zugot ("pairs"), and was immediately followed by the period of the Amoraim ("interpreters").[2]

The root tanna (אתנא‎) is the Talmudic Aramaic equivalent for the Hebrew root shanah (שנה‎), which also is the root-word of Mishnah. The verb shanah (שנה‎) literally means "to repeat [what one was taught]" and is used to mean "to learn".

The Mishnaic period is commonly divided up into five periods according to generations. There are approximately 120 known Tannaim.

The Tannaim lived in several areas of the Land of Israel. The spiritual center of Judaism at that time was Jerusalem, but after the destruction of the city and the Second Temple, Rabbi Johanan ben Zakai and his students founded a new religious center in Yavne. Other places of Judaic learning were founded by his students in Lod and in Bnei Brak.

Some Tannaim worked as laborers (e.g., charcoal burners, cobblers) in addition to their positions as teachers and legislators. They were also leaders of the people and negotiators with the Roman Empire.

History
The Tannaim operated under the occupation of the Roman Empire. During this time, the Kohanim (priests) of the Temple became increasingly corrupt and were seen by the Jewish people as collaborators with the Romans, whose mismanagement of Iudaea province (composed of Samaria, Idumea and Judea proper[3]) led to riots, revolts and general resentment.

Until the days of Hillel and Shammai (d. ~30 CE) (the last generation of the Zugot), there were few disagreements among Rabbinic scholars. After this period, though, the "House of Hillel" and the "House of Shammai" came to represent two distinct perspectives on Jewish law, and disagreements between the two schools of thought are found throughout the Mishnah, see also Hillel and Shammai.
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After Menahem the Essene had resigned the office of vice-president (Av Beit Din) of the Sanhedrin, Shammai was elected to it, Hillel being at the time president. After Hillel died, circa 20 CE, Shammai took his place as president but no vice-president from the minority was elected so that the school of Shammai attained complete ascendancy, during which Shammai passed "18 ordinances" in conformity with his ideas.

The Talmud states that when he passed one of the ordinances, contrary to the opinion of Hillel, the day "was as grievous to Israel as the day when the [golden] calf was made" (Shabbat, 17a). The exact content of the ordinances is not known, but they seem to have been designed to strengthen Jewish identity by insisting on stringent separation between Jews and gentiles, an approach that was regarded as divisive and misanthropic by Shammai's opponents.

Hillel's grandson Gamaliel succeeded Shammai as president of the Sanhedrin in the year 30, but the Sanhedrin would remain dominated by the house of Shammai until around 70 (see Council of Jamnia).

Rabbinical Judaism follows Hillel. The legality of the rulings of the house of Shammai is said to have been nullified by a "voice from heaven" (Yerushalmi Berakhot, 1:4), but, given the great difference in their ages (Hillel being 60 years older than Shammai), it is more likely that the nascent Pharisaic Sanhedrin was more familiar with and had more respect for the work of Hillel.

... Once, when a gentile came to [Shammai] and asked to be converted to Judaism (or Noahide monotheism, as H. Falk argues) upon the condition of extreme brevity ("on one foot") which Shammai held to be impossible. He drove the brazen applicant away; whereas Hillel rebuked him gently by saying, "What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. This is the whole Torah. The rest is the explanation. Go and learn." The gentile subsequently converted (Shabbat, 31a).
Wikipedia says Shammai was succeed by Caiaphas --
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Caiaphas was the son-in-law of Annas / Ananus, in turn the son of Seth.

Josephus is considered the most reliable extra-biblical literary source for Caiaphas.[2]

Josephus states that the proconsul Vitellius deposed the father-in-law, Annas. (Antiquitates Judaicae 18.95-97).[3] Josephus' account is based on an older source in which incumbents of the high priesthood were listed chronologically.[4]
  • 4 Josephus' source is mentioned in Antiquitates J 20.224-51 and Against Apion 1.36; see Bond, Caiaphas, p. 163, n. 2.

Caiaphas and Annas' five sons served as high priest after Annas. The terms of Annas, Caiaphas, and the five brothers are:
  • Ananus (or Annas) the son of Seth (6–15)
  1. Eleazar the son of Ananus (16–17)
  2. Caiaphas - properly called Joseph son of Caiaphas (18–36), who had married the daughter of Annas (John 18:13)
  3. Jonathan the son of Ananus (36–37 and 44)
  4. Theophilus ben Ananus (37–41)
  5. Matthias ben Ananus (43)
  6. Ananus ben Ananus (63)
According to Josephus, Caiaphas was appointed high priest (in AD 18) by Valerius Gratus, the Roman prefect who preceded Pontius Pilate.[1]

The Babylonian Talmud (Yevamot 15B) gives the family name as Kuppai, while the Jerusalem Talmud (Yevamot 1:6) mentions Nekifi. The Mishnah, Parah 3:5, refers to him as hakKof "the Monkey", a play on his name for opposing Mishnat Ha-Hasidim.[18]

There are various mentions in the NT

Annas and Caiaphas may have sympathized with the Sadducees, a religious movement in Judaea that found most of its members among the wealthy Jewish elite. The comparatively long eighteen-year tenure of Caiaphas suggests he had a good working relationship with the Roman authorities.[11]

In the Gospel of John 11, the high priests call a gathering of the Sanhedrin in reaction to the raising of Lazarus.[12]

In the parable related in the Gospel of Luke 16:28-30, the likely reaction of the "five brothers" to the possibility of the return of the beggar Lazarus has given rise to the suggestion by Claude-Joseph Drioux and others that the "rich man" is itself an attack on Caiaphas, his father-in-law, and his five brothers-in-law.[13]

In John 18, Jesus is brought before Annas, whose palace was closer.[14] Annas questioned him regarding his disciples and teaching and sent him on to Caiaphas.

Caiaphas considers, with "the Chief Priests and Pharisees", what to do about Jesus, whose influence was spreading. They worry that if they "let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation." Caiaphas makes a political calculation, suggesting that it would be better for "one man" (Jesus) to die than for "the whole nation" to be destroyed. In this Caiaphas is stating a rabbinic quotation (Gen. R. 94:9).[15]

Afterward, Jesus is taken to Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea. Pilate tells the priests to judge Jesus themselves, to which they respond they lack authority to do so. Pilate questions Jesus, after which he states, "I find no basis for a charge against him." Pilate then offers the gathered crowd the choice of one prisoner to release — said to be a Passover tradition — and they choose a criminal named Barabbas instead of Jesus.

Matthew: trial of Jesus In the Gospel of Matthew 26:57-67, Caiaphas and others of the Sanhedrin are depicted interrogating Jesus. They are looking for false evidence with which to frame Jesus, but are unable to find any. Jesus remains silent throughout the proceedings until Caiaphas demands that Jesus say whether he is the Christ. Jesus replies "I am: and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power, and coming on the clouds of heaven." Mk 14:62 Caiaphas and the other men charge him with blasphemy and order him beaten.

Note that the mention of "high-priest" Caiaphas implies that he was president of the Sanhedrin. This idea would be a 'Christian reference' because, according to the Hebrew sources, the Sanhedrin was led by the high priest Hillel until 30 AD, and then by his grandson Gamaliel the Elder from 30 to 44 or 50 of 'our era' (Acts 5: 34-39 and 22: 3).


Political implications
... The Romans would not perform execution over violations of Halakha, and therefore the charge of blasphemy would not have mattered to Pilate. Caiaphas' legal position, therefore, was to establish that Jesus was guilty not only of blasphemy, but also of proclaiming himself the Messiah, which was understood as the return of the Davidic kingship. This would have been an act of sedition and prompted Roman execution.[citation needed]

Acts: Peter and John refuse to be silenced
Later, in Acts 4, Peter and John went before Annas and Caiaphas after having healed a crippled man. Caiaphas and Annas questioned the apostles' authority to perform such a miracle. When Peter, full of the Holy Spirit, answered that Jesus of Nazareth was the source of their power, Caiaphas and the other priests realized that the two men had no formal education yet spoke eloquently about the man they called their saviour. Caiaphas sent the apostles away, and agreed with the other priests that the word of the miracle had already been spread too much to attempt to refute, and instead the priests would need to warn the apostles not to spread the name of Jesus. However, when they gave Peter and John this command, the two refused, saying "Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God's sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard."[16]
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