Palestine Exploration Fund - Quarterly Statement for 1894/History

by Palestine Exploration Fund

 

XVI.—History.

Talmudic history is notoriously inexact, and makes many confusions between historic personages. The Mishnah is not concerned with history, and the most important information is contained in the "Sentences of the Fathers," a tract which contains many sayings interesting to students of the Gospels. In this tract the succession of famous teachers is given (Pirki Aboth, i, ii) from Simon the Just, about 300 B.C., to Eleazar bar Azariah, who died in Galilee about 140 A.D. The succession of doctors of the law is thus approximately dated by generations. Simon the Just 300 B.C., Antigonus of Socho 270 B.C., Jose of Zeredah and Jose of Jerusalem 240 B.C., Joshua and Nitai of Arbela 190 B.C., Judah and Simon 150 B.C., Shemaiah and Abtalion 100 B.C., Hillel and Shamai 50 B.C.,^[1] Gamaliel 20 B.C., Simon his son born about the commencement of the Christian era, Judah (Rabban) about 40 A.D., Gamaliel his son was living about 90 A.D., Akiba died 135 A.D., and Eleazar bar Azariah about 140 A.D..^[2] Rabbi Tarphon^[3] lived about the same time as the last, and the latest of these doctors was Rabbi Judah, who compiled the Mishnah at Tiberias about 150-190 A.D. Fourteen generations of doctors of the Law formed the successive precepts on which the Mishnah is based.

The earliest recollections of historic personages include Monobasus, Izates, and Helena of the Royal family of Adiabene (Yoma, iii, 10; Nezir, iii, 6), converted to Judaism in the first century A.D.^[4] After whom Vespasian and Titus are noticed in connection with the great Polemos or War of 70 A.D. (Sotah, viii, 14), Hadrian's mixture of wine and clay as a ration for troops is noticed (Abodah Zara, ii, 4) and the fall of Bether (Taanith, iv, T). There is also a well-known passage concerning King Agrippa reading the Law in the temple (Sotah, vii, 8), when the Jews hailed him as a "brother." There are no allusions to events later than the reign of Hadrian, which is an indication of the date of the close of the Mishnah.

In conclusion of this sketch of the Jews under Roman rule in Palestine as related by themselves, and on their monuments, I have only to add that I shall be grateful for any corrections, especially such as Jewish scholars may, with their customary courtesy, think worth noting. Further comparisons with existing customs would also be of value. The "corner of the field" is still left unreaped in Palestine, and many peasant customs have come down from the Jewish period. There is, apparently, no reason why the life of the Jews in the nineteenth century should not much resemble that of their forefathers in their native land.

1. Hillel is supposed to have died about 5 A.D., Gamaliel was his grandson. Gamaliel's son, Simeon, perished in Jerusalem in 70 A.D. Johanan ben Zacai survived the catastrophe, and gathered the Sanhedrin at Jamnia. Gamaliel II appears to have been in Rome during the reign of Domitian. Rabbi Akiba was killed at Bether. Rabbi Judah is by some regarded as having been born 140 to 150 A.D., and to have died 210 to 220 A.D.
2. His tomb on Carmel may perhaps be recognised in that which I discovered, bearing his name and his father's name, in 1873. M. C. Ganneau has found the tomb of a son of Rabbi Tarphon at Jaffa.
3. He is thought to be the Trypho who argued against Justin Martyr in Palestine about 150 A.D.
4. 20 Antiq., ii, 1 seq. Adiabene was on the Upper Tigris. Monobasus was the husband and Izates the son of Helena. She was buried at Jerusalem in the tomb now called "Tombs of the Kings." The conversion occurred about 45 A.D., She is said to have been a Nazerite (Nezir, iii, 6).