Part 1 (2/2)

(7) Taylor, _loc. cit._

PURPOSE

The original aim of _Abot_ was to show the divine source and authority of the traditional law revealed to Moses on Mt. Sinai, and to demonstrate its continuity from Moses through Joshua, the elders, and the men of the Great Synagogue, down to those Rabbis who lived during the period between 200 B.C.E. to 200 C.E. Loeb maintains that _Abot_ was originally a composition of the Pharisaic Rabbis who wished to indicate that the traditions held and expounded by them, and which the Sadducees repudiated, were divine and, in time and sequence, uninterruptedly authoritative (8). This line of continuous tradition is plainly seen in the first two chapters. A second and probably later purpose was to present a body of practical maxims and aphorisms for the daily guidance of the people.

(8) _La Chaine_, etc. The Sadducees belonged to the priestly and aristocratic families. They made light of the oral traditions, did not believe in the future life, and were indifferent to the independence of the Jewish nation. The Pharisees, on the other hand, were const.i.tuted largely from the common people; they were believers in, and strict observers of, the traditional laws, and were ardent nationalists. The bitter attack of Jesus on them, which has resulted in making the word ”Pharisee” synonymous with ”hypocrite” and ”self-righteous person,” was, to say the least, unjust, as Herford has so lucidly pointed out in his sympathetic study of the Pharisees. Herford, though not a Jew, has taken up the cudgels most ably in defence of this sect, with remarkable insight into the life and literature of the ancient Jews. He demonstrates conclusively that though there were hypocrites among the Pharisees, as among all cla.s.ses and creeds, yet the average Pharisee was a man of the most elevated religious ideals, who misunderstood Jesus, but who, in turn was misunderstood by him. Huxley, in his _Evolution of Theology_, says, ”of all the strange ironies in history, perhaps the strangest is that 'Pharisee' is current as a term of reproach among the theological descendants of that sect of Nazarenes who, without the martyr spirit of those primitive Puritans, would never have come into existence.”

Such great teachers and men of sterling quality and golden utterance as Antigonus of Soko (I, 3), Hillel (I, 12-14; II, 5-8), Jochanan ben Zakkai (II, 9-19), Gamaliel, whose pupil was Paul, the apostle (I, 16), and Judah, the Prince (II, 1), whose sayings grace the pages of _Abot_, were, as Loeb points out, of the Pharisaic school or party. There is naturally a large literature on the Pharisees. Herford's _Pharisaism_ deserves careful perusal. See, also, Josephus (ed.

Whiston-Margoliouth), _Antiq._, XIII, 10.6, XVIII, 1, 2-4; Schurer, _History of the Jews_, etc., II, ii, p. 14 _et seq._; _Jewish Encyclopedia_ and literature mentioned there; Geiger, _Judaism and Its History_, p. 102 _et seq._, and Friedlander, G., _The Jewish Sources of the Sermon on the Mount_, p. 34 _et seq._

DESCRIPTION

The _Sayings of the Jewish Fathers_ is the oldest collection of ethical dicta of the Rabbis of the _Mishnah_ (9). It is a Rabbinic anthology. It has been happily styled ”a compendium of practical ethics” (10), and, as Mielziner has said, ”these Rabbinical sentences, if properly arranged, present an almost complete code of human duties”

(11). The _Abot_ is, then, a sort of moral code.

(9) There was another, and apparently older, recension of _Pirke Abot_ on which is based the _Abot de-Rabbi Natan_, an _hagadic_ or homiletical exposition of _Abot_. Two recensions of _Abot de-Rabbi Natan_ exist, and have been edited by Schechter. On this work, see Hoffman, _Die erste Mischna_, p.

26 _et seq._, Mielziner, article _Abot de-Rabbi Natan_, in _Jewish Encyclopedia_, Strack, _Einleitung_, p. 69 _et seq., and Pollak, _Rabbi Nathans System_, etc., _Introduction_, pp.

7-9. An English translation is found in Rodkinson's edition of the _Talmud_, vol. V, p. 1 _et seq._

(10) Taylor, _loc. cit._ Lazarus, _Ethics of Judaism_, II.

113, calls it ”a compendium of ethics.”

(11) In _Jewish Encyclopedia_, art. _Abot_.

CONTENTS

Even a superficial reading of _Abot_ will bring home to one the fact that it is made up of various strata. In fact, it falls naturally into the following strands or divisions:

A. Chapter I, 1-15: Chronologically arranged sayings of the oldest authorities, from the men of the Great Synagogue to Hillel and Shammai.

B. (1) Chapters I, 16-II, 4: Sayings of the men of the school of Hillel to Rabban Gamaliel (about 230 C.E.), the son of Judah ha-Nasi

(2) Chapter II, 5-8: Additional sayings of Hillel.

C. (1) Chapter II, 9-19: The sayings of Jochanan ben Zakkai, the pupil of Hillel, and of his disciples.

(2) Chapter II, 20-21: The sayings of Rabbi Tarfon, a younger contemporary of Jochanan ben Zakkai.

D. Chapter III: the maxims of seventeen _Tannaim_ (authorities mentioned in the _Mishnah_) to the time of and including Rabbi Akiba. These are not arranged in strictly chronological order.

E. Chapter IV: The sayings of twenty-five _Tannaim_ after the time of Rabbi Akiba, who were contemporaries of Rabbi Meir and of Rabbi Judah Ha-Nasi. These are not chronologically arranged.

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