The Mishnah in Contemporary Perspective

by Avery-Peck, Alan J.; Neusner, Jacob

• ISBN13: 9789004125155
• ISBN10: 9004125159
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-05-01
• Publisher: Brill Academic Pub

Summary

The authors of the studies on the Mishnah collected in the present volumes represent the best of contemporary scholarship on that document. In the past thirty years, the Mishnah seen as a document on its own terms has taken its place as a principal focus in the academic study of religion and of Judaism. Many university scholars have participated in the contemporary revolution in the description, analysis, and interpretation of the Mishnah. Nearly all the publishing scholars of the academy (as distinct from the yeshiva or rabbinical seminary) who are now at work are represented in this project, ultimately planned for three volumes. In this and the companion volumes, the editors place on display a broad selection of approaches to the study of the Mishnah in the contemporary academy. What they prove in diverse ways is that the Mishnah defines the critical focus of the study of Judaism. It is a document that rewards study in the academic humanities.Because many viewpoints register here, this is the most representative selection of contemporary Mishnah-study available in any state-of-the-question-collection in a Western language.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Introduction
The Mishnah Viewed Whole	3	(38)
Jacob Neusner
PART ONE THE MISHNAH IN HISTORICAL AND RELIGIOUS CONTEXT
The Division of Agriculture and Second Century Judaism: The Holiness of the Devastated Land	41	(50)
Alan J. Avery-Peck
The Mishnah In Rabbinic Context: Tosefta and Sifra	91	(30)
Jacob Neusner
The Mishnah in Roman and Christian Contexts	121	(28)
Jacob Neusner
Appendix: Roman Legal Codification in the Second Century	149	(18)
Stephen A. Stertz
PART TWO THE MISHNAH IN LITERARY AND AESTHETIC CONTEXT
The Mishnah and Ancient Book Production	167	(26)
Catherine Hezser
The Mishnah in the Later Midrashim	193	(42)
Rivka Ulmer
An Aesthetic Usage of Scriptures in the Ancient Rabbinic Legal Codes	235	(20)
Herbert W. Basser
PART THREE THE MISHNAH IN SOCIAL CONTEXT
Master and Parent: Comparative Aspects of a Dual Loyalty (Mishnah Baba Meziah 2:11 and Mark 3:31-35)	255	(12)
Gerald J. Blidstein
General Index	267