Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Note on the 1979 reprint
- Note on transliteration
- Note on bibliographical references
- List of abbreviations
- INTRODUCTION: THE BACKGROUND OF THE TARGUMS
- 1 Translation and Interpretation
- 2 Pre-Rabbinic Literature
- 3 Non-Rabbinic Literature
- 4 Classical Rabbinic Literature
- PS. JONATHAN ON SELECTED CHAPTERS OF GENESIS
- Appendices
- Bibliography
- Indexes
3 - Non-Rabbinic Literature
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 June 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Note on the 1979 reprint
- Note on transliteration
- Note on bibliographical references
- List of abbreviations
- INTRODUCTION: THE BACKGROUND OF THE TARGUMS
- 1 Translation and Interpretation
- 2 Pre-Rabbinic Literature
- 3 Non-Rabbinic Literature
- 4 Classical Rabbinic Literature
- PS. JONATHAN ON SELECTED CHAPTERS OF GENESIS
- Appendices
- Bibliography
- Indexes
Summary
It would be a mistake to assume that after the fall of Jerusalem the rabbinic interpretation of Judaism immediately or even rapidly excluded all others. There is evidence that the rabbis of Yavneh tried, not only in their own immediate circle but also beyond it, to ensure that there would be no disintegration of Judaism after the catastrophe. But it does not follow that they were able to impose their views on all Jews throughout the world, and it is clear that other interpretations of Judaism continued. E. R. Goodenough has argued vigorously and at length that many Jews lived completely outside the orbit of Pharisaic/ Rabbinic Judaism, not only in the diaspora but also in Palestine itself. Thus he commented on the work of G. F. Moore:
Moore says: ‘About the relations of the Palestinian schools to the Greek-speaking part of the Jewish world comparatively little is known’, and with this, if we might change the ‘comparatively little’ to ‘nothing important whatever’, we could heartily agree. Moore goes on to point out that there is no way to ascertain the relation of earlier Alexandrian halacha to contemporary Palestinian teaching, and concludes that ‘on the whole … it seems probable that Alexandrian scholars of his (Philo's) day did not feel themselves bound by the authority of their Palestinian colleagues’. He should have admitted that the combined effort of many scholars has unearthed no evidence that the situation was different in Rome or Ephesus, or that Greek-speaking Jews were ‘bound’ by rabbinic traditions for centuries to come.
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- Information
- The Targums and Rabbinic LiteratureAn Introduction to Jewish Interpretations of Scripture, pp. 36 - 39Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1969