Difference between revisions of "Mishna"

<p> or MISNA, משנה , signifies <em> repetition, </em> and is properly the code of the [[Jewish]] civil law. The [[Mishna]] contains the text; and the Gemara, which is the second part of the Talmud, contains the commentaries: so that the [[Gemara]] is, as it were, a glossary on the Mishna. The Mishna consists of various traditions of the Jews, and of explanations of several passages of Scripture. These traditions, serving as an explication of the written law, and supplementary to it, are said to have been delivered to [[Moses]] during the time of his abode upon the mount; which he afterward communicated to Aaron, Eleazar, and his servant Joshua. By these they were transmitted to the seventy elders; by them to the prophets, who communicated them to the men of the great sanhedrim, from whom the wise men of [[Jerusalem]] and [[Babylon]] received them. According to Dr. Prideaux, they passed from Jeremiah to Baruch, from him to Ezra, and from Ezra to the men of the great synagogue, the last of whom was [[Simon]] the Just, who delivered them to [[Antigonus]] of Socho. From him they came down in regular succession to Simeon, who took our [[Saviour]] in his arms; to Gamaliel, at whose feet St. [[Paul]] was brought up; and last of all to rabbi [[Judah]] the holy, who committed them to writing in the Mishna. Dr. Prideaux, rejecting this Jewish fiction, observes, that after the death of Simon the Just, about B.C. 299, arose the Tannaim or Mishnical doctors, who by their comments and conclusions, added to the number of those traditions which had been received and allowed by Ezra and the men of the great synagogue. Hence toward the middle of the second century after Christ, under the reign of the [[Roman]] [[Emperor]] [[Antoninus]] Pius, it was found necessary to commit these traditions to writing. This was requisite, because the traditions had been so much increased that they could no longer be preserved by the memory of man; and also because their country had suffered considerably in the reign of the Emperor Adrian, and many of their schools being dissolved, and their learned men cut off, the usual method of preserving their traditions had failed. Lest, therefore, the traditions should be forgotten and lost, it was resolved that they should be collected and committed to writing. [[Rabbi]] Judah, who was at that time rector of the school at [[Tiberias]] in Galilee, and president of the sanhedrim at that place, undertook the work. He compiled it in six books, each consisting of several tracts, which altogether form the number of sixty-three. Dr. Prideaux computes, that the Mishna was composed about A.D. 150. Dr. Lightfoot, however, says, that rabbi Judah compiled the Mishna about A.D. 190, in the latter end of the reign of Commodus; or, as some compute, A.D. 220. Dr. Lardner is of opinion, that this work could not have been finished before A.D. 190, or later. Thus the book called the Mishna was formed; a book which was received by the [[Jews]] with great veneration, and which has been always held in high esteem among them. Their opinion of it is, that all the particulars which it contains were dictated by [[God]] himself to Moses upon Mount Sinai, as well as the written word itself; and, consequently, that it must be of the same divine authority, and ought to be as religiously observed. See CABBALA , See GEMARA , See JEWS . </p>