DEVELOPMENT OF ABOT (13)

(13) On the subject-matter of this section, consult Hoffmann, Die erste Mischna, pp. 26-37; idem, Mischnaiot Seder Nesikin, Introd., pp. XX-XXI; Brull, Enstehung und ursprunglicher Inhalt des Traktates Abot; Loeb, La Chaine, etc.; Ginzburg, Spruche der Vater, erstes Capitel historisch beleuchtet (Liepzig, 1889); Strack, Die Spruche der Vater, Introd., pp. 7-8; idem, Einleitung, p. 52, and Rawicz, Commentar des Maimonides, p. 105, n. 3.

It is apparent from the literary construction of Abot that it has been edited several times, and that, in its earliest form, the Abot collection was much smaller than we have it to-day. Originally, probably shortly after the time of Hillel, it may have been merely a sort of appendix to the Tractate Sanhedrin, with typical sayings of each of the heads of the Sanhedrin. These dicta are contained in what is designated as section A. Later, presumably by Rabbi Akiba, there were added to this original kernel of Abot the sayings of Rabbi Jochanan ben Zakkai and his most illustrious pupils, which comprise section C. This resulted in the grouping together of the sayings of ten generations of traditional authorities, as follows: (1) the men of the Great Synagogue, (2) Simon, the Just, (3) Antigonus of Soko, (4) Jose ben Joezer and Jose ben Jochanan, (5) Joshua ben Perachiah and Nittai, the Arbelite, (6) Judah ben Tabbai and Simeon ben Shatach, (7) Shemaiah and Abtalion, (8) Hillel and Shammai, (9) Jochanan ben Zakkai, and (10) the latter's disciples. By association of idea with this number ten, there were added to this collection numerical sayings of ten, and, then, others of seven and four, found in chapter V, 1-9 and 10-13.

Into this enlarged kernel of pithy sayings of the oldest authorities, which may be characterized as the Abot of Rabbi Akiba, later Tannaim—Rabbi Meir, Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi, and others—interpolated additional sayings of the afore-mentioned Rabbis, and also typical utterances of their disciples, and of other well-known teachers. This accounts for the presence in Abot of the body of maxims of the six generations of the school of Hillel, designated above as section B 1, and which was very properly introduce after the aphorisms of Hillel and of his contemporary, Shammai. The thread of tradition being interrupted by this interpolation, it was again taken up by the introduction of another body of Hillel's sayings (B 2), thus providing for a natural transition from Hillel to Jochanan ben Zakkai. Proof of the fact that section B is an addition is that in the Abot de-Rabbi Natan—which, as has been said above, is based on an older version of Abot (14)—the sayings of Jochanan ben Zakkai follow immediately upon those of Shammai. The sayings of Judah ha-Nasi, the redactor of the Mishnah, and of Rabbi Gamaliel, his son, were undoubtedly added after the time of Judah.

(14) See supra, p. 13, n. 9.