Judaism In The First Centuries Of The Christian Area - The Age Of The Tannaim - Volume I

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JUDAISM IN THE FIRST CENTURIES OF THE CHRISTIAN ERA THE AGE OF THE TANNAIM BY GEORGE FOOT MOORE PROFESSOR OF THE HISTORY OF RELIGION IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY VOLUME I CAMBRIDGE HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS 1927 COPYRIGHT, 1927 BY THE PRESIDENT AND FELLOWS OF HARVARD COLLEGE First Impression, May igzj Second Impression, November 1927 PRINTED AT THE HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS CAMBRIDGE, MASS., U. S. A. IN MEMORIAM OBIIT MDCCCCXXIV PREFACE THE aim of these volumes is to represent Judaism in the centuries in which it assumed definitive form as it presents itself in the tradition which it has always regarded as authentic. These primary sources come to us as they were compiled and set in order in the second century of the Christian era, embodying the interpretation of the legislative parts of the Pentateuch and the definition and formulation of the Law, written and unwritten, in the schools, in the century and a half between the reorganiza tion at Jamnia under Johanan ben Zakkai and his associates, after the fall of Jerusalem in the year 70, and the promulgation of the Mishnah of the Patriarch Judah. About the schools of the preceding century, especially about the two great masters, Hillel and Shammai, and the distinctive differences of their disciples, our knowledge comes incidentally through their suc cessors. The whole period, from the time of Herod to that of the Patriarch Judah is the age of the Tannaim, the represen tatives of authoritative tradition. The learned study of the two-fold law is, however, much older, and other sources of various kinds disclose not only the continu ity of development in the direction of the normative Judaism of the second century, but many divergent trends theconflict of parties over fundamental issues, the idiosyncrasies of sects, the rise of apocalyptic with its exorbitant interest in eschatology a knowledge of all of which is necessary to a historical under standing of the Judaism which it is the principal object of this work to describe. In the Introduction I have sketched the external and internal history of the centuries with which we are concerned so far as religion was affected by it, and have given a summary account of the sources on which the presentation is based. The chapters on Revealed Religion are meant to make plain at the outset the viii PREFACE fundamental principle of Judaism and some of the ways in which it was applied. The succeeding parts treat of the Idea of God the Nature of Man, and his relation to God the Observ ances of Religion Morals Piety and the Hereafter. I have avoided imposing on the matter a systematic disposi tion which is foreign to it and to the Jewish thought of the times. The few comprehensive divisions under which it is arranged are not sharply bounded, and the same subject often naturally be longs in more than one of them. In such cases repetition has seemed preferable to cross-references. The nature of the sources makes simple citation insufficient, and large room has therefore been given to quotations from th m or paraphrases of them, thus, so far as possible, letting Judaism speak for itself in its own way. The translations keep as close as may be to the expression of the original, even at some sacrifice of English idiom. A peculiar difficulty arises in the biblical quotations, which rabbinical exegesis, following its own rules or giving rein to the ingenuity of the interpreter, frequently takesin a way quite different from the familiar versions of the Bible or our philological commentators. But when the meaning or the application hinges on the turn given at least for the nonce to the words, the translation must try to convey the peculiar interpretation, however strange it may be. References are given in the footnotes to the sources from which the quotations are taken or on which the statements in the text are based. In many cases these references are a selection from a large array of different age, character, and authority...

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