You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
The "Mishnah," understood to be the written form of the Jewish Oral Law, was preserved by the rabbis following the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70 CE, and was completed in approximately 200 CE. More than four centuries of Jewish religious thought and activity are found within this text, and it is as important to the development of Judaism as the New Testament is to the development of Christianity. Students of the New Testament will find it especially interesting because its contents reflect the Jewish religious tradition during the time of Jesus and the early Christian Church. The "Mishnah" historical value in understanding the first two centuries of the common era is comparable in...
In this new edition of a best-selling classic, Shaye Cohen offers a thorough analysis of Judaism's development from the early years of the Roman Empire to the formative period of rabbinic Judaism. Cohen's synthesis of religion, literature, and history offers deep insight into the nature of Judaism at this key period, including the relationship between Jews and Gentiles, the function of Jewish religion in the larger community, and the development of normative Judaism and other Jewish sects. In addition, Cohen provides clear explanations concerning the formation of the biblical canon and the roots of rabbinic Judaism. Now completely updated and revised, this book remains the clearest introduction to the era that shaped Judaism and provided the context for early Christianity. The Library of Early Christianity is a series of eight outstanding books exploring the Jewish and Greco-Roman contexts in which the New Testament developed.
In his brilliant introduction on the Mishnah, Jacob Neusner asks: How do you read a book that does not identify its author, tell you where it comes from, or explain why it was written – a book without a preface? And how do you identify a book with neither a beginning nor end, lacking table of contents and title? The answer is you just begin and let the author of the book lead you by paying attention to the information that the author does give, to the signals that the writer sets out. As Neusner goes on to explain, the Mishnah portrays the world in a special way, in a kind of code that makes it a difficult work for the modern reader to understand. Without knowing how to decode the Mishnah,...
The authors of the studies on the Mishnah collected in the present volumes represent the best of contemporary scholarship on that document. In the past thirty years, the Mishnah seen as a document on its own terms has taken its place as a principal focus in the academic study of religion and of Judaism. Many university scholars have participated in the contemporary revolution in the description, analysis, and interpretation of the Mishnah. Nearly all the publishing scholars of the academy (as distinct from the yeshiva or rabbinical seminary) who are now at work are represented in this project, ultimately planned for three volumes. In this and the companion volumes, the editors place on display a broad selection of approaches to the study of the Mishnah in the contemporary academy. What they prove in diverse ways is that the Mishnah defines the critical focus of the study of Judaism. It is a document that rewards study in the academic humanities. Because many viewpoints register here, this is the most representative selection of contemporary Mishnah-study available in any state-of-the-question-collection in a Western language.
Judith Hauptman argues that the Tosefta, a collection dating from approximately the same time period as the Mishnah and authored by the same rabbis, is not later than the Mishnah, as its name suggests, but earlier. The Redactor of the Mishnah drew upon an old Mishnah and its associated supplement, the Tosefta, when composing his work. He reshaped, reorganized and abbreviated these materials in order to make them accord with his own legislative outlook. It is possible to compare the earlier and the later texts and to determine, case by case, the agenda of the Redactor. According to the author's theory it is also possible to trace the evolution of Jewish law, practice, and ideas. When the Mishnah is seen as later than the Tosefta, it becomes clear that the Redactor inserted numerous mnemonic devices into his work to assist in transmission. The synoptic gospels may have undergone a similar kind of editing.
The Mishnah is the foundational document of rabbinic law and, one could say, of rabbinic Judaism itself. It is overwhelmingly technical and focused on matters of practice, custom, and law. The Oxford Annotated Mishnah is the first annotated translation of this work, making the text accessible to all. With explanations of all technical terms and expressions, The Oxford Annotated Mishnah brings together an expert group of translators and annotators to assemble a version of the Mishnah that requires no specialist knowledge.
Translated from the Hebrew with introduction and brief explanatory notes.
This volume offers a systematic and detailed description of early rabbinic hermeneutics as it can be reconstructed from the Mishnah (third century c.e.). Samely clarifies the conditions of a modern appreciation of rabbinic hermeneutics and provides a unified set of concepts for its precise description, based on modern linguistics and philosophy of language. Basic features of rabbinic hermeneutics and its difference from modern historical reading are explained, and a catalogue of recurrent techniques of interpretation is defined.