A Literary Study of the Fathers According to Rabbi Nathan
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Scholastic Rabbinism A Literary Study of the Fathers according to Rabbi Nathan ANTHONY J. SALDARINI Scholastic Rabbinism BROWN UNIVERSITY BROWN JUDAIC STUDIES Edited by Jacob Neusner Wendell S. Dietrich, Ernest S. Frerichs, Alan Zuckerman Board of Editors David Altshuler, George Washington University David R. Blumenthal, Emory University Baruch M. Bokser, University of California, Berkeley Joel Gereboff, Arizona State University David Goldenberg, Dropsie University Robert Goldenberg, State University of New York, Stony Brook David Goodblatt, Haifa University William Scott Green, University of Rochester Peter Haas, Vanderbilt University Martin Jaffee, University of Virginia Shamai Kanter, Temple Beth El, Rochester, New York Jack L. Lightstone, Concordia University Irving Mandelbaum, University of Texas Alan Mintz, University of Maryland Alan J. Peck, Tulane University Gary G. Porton, University of Illinois Marc L. Raphael, Ohio State University Richard S. Sarason, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Tzvee Zahavy, University of Minnesota Editorial Committee: Roger Brooks Louis Newman Number 14 SCHOLASTIC RABBINISM A Literary Study of the Fathers According to Rabbi Nathan by Anthony J. Saldarini SCHOLASTIC RABBINISM A Literary Study of the Fathers According to Rabbi Nathan by Anthony J. Saldarini Scholars Press SCHOLASTIC RABBINISM A Literary Study of the Fathers According to Rabbi Nathan by Anthony J. Saldarini Copyright © 2020 by Brown University Library of Congress Control Number: 2019953407 Open access edition funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities/ Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Humanities Open Book Program. The text of this book is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommer- cial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by-nc-nd/4.0/. To use this book, or parts of this book, in any way not covered by the license, please contact Brown Judaic Studies, Brown University, Box 1826, Providence, RI 02912. In Memory of my Father Roger Louis Saldarini 1902-1980 Publication of this book is made possible with the support of The Max Richter Foundation, in honor of Professor David R. Blumenthal. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Preface ix Chapter One. INTRODUCTION................................... 1 Chapter Two. THE CHAPTERS OF THE FATHERS.................... 9 Chapter Three. THE LITERARY STRUCTURE OF THE FATHERS ACCORDING TO RABBI NATHAN •..•...•.•.••..•.•.•......•.•. 25 Chapter Four. THE THEMATIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHAIN OF TRADITION........................................... 35 Chapter Five. THE NATURE OF THE CHAIN OF TRADITION .•.••.•... 67 Chapter Six. THE SCHOOL OF RABBAN JOHANAN ben ZAKKAI AND HIS DISCIPLES: A NEW WAY OF LIFE .•.•.•••••••••••••• 79 Chapter Seven. THE SAYINGS OF THE EARLY SAGES ...•.•.••.....• 93 Chapter Eight. THE ENUMERATION SAYINGS ..•.....••••••••.•.•.• 109 Chapter Nine. LITERARY CONCLUSIONS •.•.•••••••.••••.••••.•... 121 Chapter Ten. HISTORICAL CONCLUSIONS .....••.•.•••••••••••••• 135 Footnotes.. .. .• . •• . •. • .. • .• . • •. .. • . • .. •. • • • .• • • • . •. • .• 14 3 Bibliography. • •• • • • •• •• .• • • . • • . • •• . .• . .• . • .• .• • • •• • • • •• •. 15 5 vii PUBLISHERS’ PREFACE Brown Judaic Studies has been publishing scholarly books in all areas of Judaic studies for forty years. Our books, many of which contain groundbreaking scholarship, were typically printed in small runs and are not easily accessible outside of major research librar- ies. We are delighted that with the support of a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities/Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Humanities Open Book Program, we are now able to make available, in digital, open-access, format, fifty titles from our backlist. In Scholastic Rabbinism: A Literary Study of the Fathers Accord- ing to Rabbi Nathan (1982), the late Anthony J. Saldarini compares the two rabbinic texts, Ethics of the Fathers (Pirke Avot) and the two textual versions of The Fathers According to Rabbi Nathan (Avot d’Rabbi Nathan), arguing that both had a common origin in oral stories that were selected and shaped by later scholastic editors. Saldarini suggests that The Fathers According to Rabbi Nathan took shape in the second to third centuries, CE, a relatively early date for many scholars who have worked on this text. This edition incorporates typographical and some factual correc- tions of the original text. Michael L. Satlow Managing Editor October, 2019 PREFACE The aim, scope and method used in this study will be explained in the first, introductory chapter. Before beginning that dis cussion we shall clarify some abbreviations, peculiarities of the texts being studied and methods of reference. The following abbreviations will be used for the texts which are the main object of study: PA - Pirke Abot, The Chapters of the Fathers. ARN - Abot de Rabbi Nathan, The Fathers According to Rabbi Nathan. ARNA - Abot de Rabbi Nathan, Version A. ARNB - Abot de Rabbi Nathan, Version B. PA will ordinarily refer to the Tractate Abot as found in the Mishna. Since ARNA and ARNB, which comment on PA, have each a different version of the text, PA will sometime refer to the version of the text found in one or another version of ARN. This usage will be explicitly noted. When all versions agree, PA refers to the whole tradition. Since Abot de Rabbi Nathan comes in two versions, the abbreviation ARN will refer to both versions together when they have common characteristics. It will be a shorthand for refering to two documents which should most properly be referred to separately. PA will be referred to in the text by chapter and mishna number. Each version of ARN will be referred to within the text by chapter number, thus eliminating numerous footnotes and page references to both text and translation. References to the rest of Rabbinic literature will be according to standard practice. The following abbreviations will be used: m. - Mishna followed by the name of the tractate. t. - Tosefta followed by the name of the tractate. b. - Babylonian Talmud followed by the name of the tractate. p. - Palestinian Talmud followed by the name of the tractate. The text generally used for the Mishna is that by H. Albeck and H. Yalon. The text of both versions of ARN is by S. Schechter and referred to as Schechter, ARN. The standard texts of the Talmuds and Midrashim have been consulted. The translations of PA and ARNA are by J. Goldin. The former is found in Goldin's book The Living Talmud; the latter is referred to in the notes as Goldin, ARNA. Both translations have been modified occasionally to eliminate the older English second person (thee, etc.) and to ix reflect differences of interpretation. The translation of ARNB is by the author and referred to as Saldarini, ARNB. Danby's translation of the Mishna and the Soncino translation of the Talmud have been consulted. The transliteration of names into English varies greatly in the secondary literature. What seems to be the most common form of familiar names has been retained. Hebrew and Aramaic words have been precisely transliterated either with or without vowels as required by context. Inconsistencies in transliteration found in the bibliography reflect the different transliteration systems found on the English title pages of Hebrew books. The notes refer to secondary literature by author and abbreviated title. Full references are found in the bibliography. Standard abbrevi- ations for periodicals, Biblical books, etc. have been used. This study often speaks of the author(s) and editor(s) of PA and ARN. In the following chapters we argue that PA and the versions of ARN resulted from a long process of transmission whose exact stages and forms cannot be recovered with precision. The organization of each document and their coherent themes show that at crucial stages each of the three documents was formed by people who may properly be called authors. Numerous other smaller changes and revisions argue that the long process of transmission was aided by the work of less influential figures who may be called editors. Except for Judah the Prince's work on the Mishna we know nothing about who might have produced these traditions and texts except what we can infer from the content of the works themselves. The vagueness of the texts produces the vagueness of the references to author(s) and editor(s) in this study. I thank Boston College which granted me a Sabbatical semester in Fall, 1980 during which I completed the research on PA and ARN which has occupied me the last few years. I also thank Professor Jacob Neusner of Brown University for accepting this study into the Brown Judaic Series. Anthony J. Saldarini Boston College Easter/Passover, 1981/5741 CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION Pirke Abot, the Chapters of the Fathers, has been read for edification and education by pious Jews in synagogue, school and home since antiquity. It has also introduced many Christians to Judaism, especially since its sayings have been presented as a compendium of Jewish ethics, ideals and wisdom. But Pirke Abot (henceforth PA) is primarily a tractate of the Mishna, even though it is unique among Mishna tractates in that it does not speak of law (halaka) governing some specific sphere of life. PA with its chain of authorities stretching from Moses to Judah the Prince's son, Gamaliel III, along with its stories about Johanan ben Zakkai and his disciples and its sayings by sages who lived in the time of the destruction of the Temple, anchors the whole Rabbinic tradition in antiquity and legitimizes its