Abot deRabbi Nathan Reference library
Catherine Hezser
The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity
...extra-canonical tractates of the Babylonian Talmud , that is, it appears in the printed editions of the Talmud but is not an original part of it. It is based on the Mishnah tractate Abot and contains traditions which comment on, embellish, and supplement the earlier text. The tradents and editors were mostly interested in internal rabbinic matters, such as the transmission of Torah learning, relationships between teachers and students, and proper rabbinic etiquette. The document is written in Mishnaic Hebrew and transmitted in two major versions (A is longer...
Talmud Reference library
Catherine Hezser
The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity
...process until the time of the first manuscripts in the Middle Ages. Others (Milikowsky) continue to distinguish between the editors, who composed the document, and the scribes who wrote the manuscripts. The development of the Talmud was a complex process which involved many tradents (transmitters), editors, and scribes, and lasted many centuries. One can reckon with many stages of collection and editing and successive changes to the text once it existed in written form. Since no copyright existed in Antiquity, scribes were free to change the text in...
Talmudim Reference library
Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls
...with those who misinterpret the Torah and those who defile the sacrifices becomes not only understandable, but almost inescapable. Thus, in this case, the Babylonian Talmud transmits a tannaitic statement whose significance was (in all likelihood) not recognized by the Talmudic tradents, but that furnishes a missing piece of the Talmudic puzzle. Rabbinic sources, then, set a certain legal and ritual context for the sectarian writings of Qumran and related literature—and this is true even when the two systems do not intersect. For example, rabbinic law defines...
Manichaeans Reference library
Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls
...of earlier Syriac versions. The central Asian finds are rendered in a variety of Middle Iranian languages, as well as Old Turkic, and lexical clues once again point to a prior eastern Aramaic stratum. Given Mani's Mesopotamian roots, as well as the explicit statement of later tradent, that Mani composed the bulk of his writings “in Syriac,” this is, on its surface, an unremarkable state of affairs, yet scholars have been surprisingly unappreciative of the implications of the Semitic linguistic background for Mani's conceptual development. Unfortunately, most...
Ezekiel, Book of Reference library
Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls
...Pseudo-Ezekiel.] Biblical Text The biblical book that bears the name of Ezekiel son of Buzi , priest and prophet contains a diverse collection of oracles and visions believed to have been received by Ezekiel himself as well as elements that have been incorporated by later tradents and editors, some of whom may have belonged to his immediate circle of associates (that is, members of his prophetic guild). Most of the book's contents are dated to roughly the sixth century bce . Following a brief introduction ( 1.1–3 ), the book consists of a large block of...
