The Literature of the Sages: Second Part: Midrash and Targum, Liturgy, Poetry, Mysticism.......

The Literature of the Sages: Second Part: Midrash and Targum, Liturgy, Poetry, Mysticism, Contracts, Inscriptions, Ancient Science and the Languages of Rabbinic Literature
Safrai, Shmuel, Zeev Safrai, Joshua Schwartz and Peter J. Tomson, editors

Assen/Minneapolis: Van Gorcum/Fortress, 2006

Series Information

Compendia Rerum Judaicarum ad Novum Testamentum, 2.3b

Description: The literary creation of the ancient Jewish teachers or sages (also called rabbinic literature) consists of the teachings of thousands of sages, many of them anonymous. For a long period, their teachings existed orally, which implied a great deal of flexibility in arrangement and form. Only gradually, as parts of this amorphous oral tradition became fixed, was the literature written down, a process that began in the third century C.E. and continued into the Middle Ages. Thus the documents of rabbinic literature are the result of a remarkably long and complex process of creation and editing. This long-awaited companion volume to 'The Literature of the Sages, First Part' (1987) gives a careful and succinct analysis both of the content and specific nature of the various documents, and of their textual and literary forms, paying special attention to the continuing discovery and publication of new textual material. Incorporating ground-breaking developments in research, these essays give a comprehensive presentation published here for the first time. This volume is an important reference work for all students of ancient Judaism, as well as for those interested in the origins of Jewish tradition and the Jewish background of Christianity

Subjects: Bible, Mishnah, Talmudic and Rabbinic Literature, Targumic Texts, Other Rabbinic Works, Literature

Review by Jan-Wim Wesselius
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Published 12/1/2007
Citation: Jan-Wim Wesselius, review of Shmuel Safrai, Zeev Safrai, Joshua Schwartz, and Peter J. Tomson, eds., The Literature of the Sages: Second Part: Midrash and Targum, Liturgy, Poetry, Mysticism, Contracts, Inscriptions, Ancient Science and the Languages of Rabbinic Literature, Review of Biblical Literature [http://www.bookreviews.org] (2007).

Review by Marvin A. Sweeney
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Published 6/28/2008
Citation: Marvin A. Sweeney, review of Shmuel Safrai, Zeev Safrai, Joshua Schwartz, and Peter J. Tomson, eds., The Literature of the Sages: Second Part: Midrash and Targum, Liturgy, Poetry, Mysticism, Contracts, Inscriptions, Ancient Science and the Languages of Rabbinic Literature, Review of Biblical Literature [http://www.bookreviews.org] (2008).