The literature of the sages. / Part 2, : Midrash and Targum, liturgy, poetry, mysticism, contracts, inscriptions, ancient science and the languages of rabbinic literature / / edited by Shmuel Safrai ... [and others].

• Superior document: Compendia rerum iudaicarum ad Novum Testamentum Section 2, The literature of the Jewish people in the period of the Second Temple and the Talmud ; 3, 2
• Author: Stichting Compendia Rerum Iudaicarum ad Novum Testamentum (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
• TeilnehmendeR: Safrai, Shemuel, 1919-2003.; Stichting Compendia Rerum Iudaicarum ad Novum Testamentum (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
• Place / Publishing House: Assen : : Royal Van Gorcum ;, Philadelphia : : Fortress Press,, 2006.
• Year of Publication: 2006
• Language: English
• Series: Compendia Rerum Iudaicarum ad Novum Testamentum 2/3/2.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (791 pages)
• Notes: Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

This long-awaited companion volume to The Literature of the Sages , First Part (Fortress Press, 1987) brings to completion Section II of the renowned Compendia series. The Literature of the Sages, Second Part, explores the literary creation of thousands of ancient Jewish teachers, the often- anonymous Sages of late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Essays by premier scholars provide a careful and succinct analysis of the content and character of various documents, their textual and literary forms, with particular attention to the ongoing discovery and publication of new textual material. Incorporating groundbreaking developments in research, these essays give a comprehensive presentation published here for the first time. This volume will prove an important reference work for all students of ancient Judaism, the origins of Jewish tradition, and the Jewish background of Christianity. 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. 'The Literature of the Sages, Second Part' 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.

Table of Contents

Preliminary material / Shmuel Safrai , Zeev Safrai , Peter J. Tomson and Joshua Schwartz -- The Halakhic Midrashim / Menahem I. Kahana -- Aggadic Midrash / Marc Hirshman -- The Works of Aggadic Midrash and the Esther Midrashim / Myron B. Lerner -- Seder Olam / Chaim Milikowsky -- The Targums as Part of Rabbinic Literature / Zeev Safrai -- Prayers and Berakhot / Joseph Tabory -- The Passover Haggada / Joseph Tabory -- Megillat Taanit - The Scroll of Fasting / Vered Noam -- Piyyut / Ezra Fleischer -- 'Syriac for Dirges, Hebrew for Speech' - Ancient Jewish Poetry in Aramaic and Hebrew / Joseph Yahalom -- Mystical Texts / Michael D. Swartz -- Contracts: Rabbinic Literature and Ancient Jewish Documents / Mordechai A. Friedman -- Jewish Inscriptions and Their Use / Jonathan J. Price and Haggai Misgav -- Medical Interest in Ancient Rabbinic Literature / Samuel S. Kottek -- Geography and Cosmography in Talmudic Literature / Zeev Safrai -- Biology in Rabbinic Literature: Fact and Folklore / Abraham Ofir Shemesh -- The Sages and the Occult / Yuval Harari -- Mishnaic Hebrew: An Introductory Survey / Moshe Bar-Asher -- The Aramaic of the Talmudic Period / Yohanan Breuer -- Rabbinic Knowledge of Greek / Daniel Sperber -- Abbreviations / Shmuel Safrai , Zeev Safrai , Peter J. Tomson and Joshua Schwartz -- Cumulative Bibliography / Shmuel Safrai , Zeev Safrai , Peter J. Tomson and Joshua Schwartz -- Indices / Shmuel Safrai , Zeev Safrai , Peter J. Tomson and Joshua Schwartz.