After the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai relocated to the city of Yavne/Jamnia and founded a school of Jewish law there, becoming a major source for the later Mishna. His school is often understood as a wellspring of Rabbinic Judaism. The Council of Yavne or Council of Jamnia refers to a hypothetical Proto-Rabbinic council under Yohanan's leadership, that was responsible for defining the canon of the Hebrew Bible. The Destruction of Jerusalem (specifically, the Second Destruction of Jerusalem) was the culmination of the successful campaign of Titus Flavius against Judea after an unsuccessful attack four years prior by Cestius Gallus. ... A stone (2. ... Yohanan ben Zakkai was a Jewish sage of the first century of the common era, and a primary contributor to the core text of rabbinic Judaism, the Mishnah. ... Yavne (Hebrew יבנה, Arabic يبنة Yibnah) is a city in the Center District of Israel in Israel. ... Yavne (Hebrew יבנה, Arabic يبنة Yibnah) is a city in the Center District of Israel in Israel. ... Halakha (Hebrew: הלכה; also transliterated as Halakhah, Halacha, Halakhot and Halachah) is the collective corpus of Jewish religious law, including biblical law (the 613 mitzvot) and later talmudic and rabbinic law as well as customs and traditions. ... The Mishnah (Hebrew משנה, Repetition) is a major source of rabbinic Judaisms religious texts. ... Rabbinic Judaism (or in Hebrew Yahadut Rabanit - יהדות רבנית) is a Jewish denomination characterized by reliance on the written Torah as well as the Oral Law (the Mishnah, Talmuds and subsequent rabbinic decisions) as halakha (Legally Binding, i. ... Rabbi, in Judaism, means teacher, or more literally great one. The word Rabbi is derived from the Hebrew root word רַב, rav, which in biblical Hebrew means great or distinguished (in knowledge). Sephardic and Yemenite Jews pronounce this word רִבִּי ribbÄ«; the modern Israeli pronunciation רַבִּי rabbÄ« is derived from a recent (18th... The biblical canon is a list of books written during the formative periods of the Jewish or Christian faiths. ...

Speculation regarding a "Council of Jamnia"

Heinrich Graetz introduced the notion in 1871; based on Mishnaic and Talmudic sources, he concluded that there had been a Council of Jamnia which had decided the Jewish canon sometime in the late 1st century. This became the prevailing scholarly consensus for much of the 20th century. However, from the 1960s onwards, based on the work of Jack P. Lewis, S.Z. Leiman, and others, this view came increasingly into question. In particular, later scholars noted that none of the sources actually mentioned books that had been withdrawn from a canon, and questioned the whole premise that the discussions were about canonicity at all, asserting that they were actually dealing with other concerns entirely. Heinrich Graetz (October 31, 1817 - September 7, 1891) was the first historian to write a comprehensive history of the Jewish people from a Jewish perspective. ... The Mishnah (Hebrew משנה, Repetition) is a major source of rabbinic Judaisms religious texts. ... The first page of the Vilna Edition of the Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Berachot, folio 2a The Talmud (Hebrew: תלמוד) is a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, customs and history. ... The biblical canon is a list of books written during the formative periods of the Jewish or Christian faiths. ...

Lewis writes in The Anchor Bible Dictionary Vol. III, pp. 634-7 (New York 1992): The Anchor Bible Series is a scholarly and commercial co-venture that has been setting a high standard since 1956, when individual volumes of the series began publication. ...

The concept of the Council of Jamnia is an hypothesis to explain the canonization of the Writings (the third division of the Hebrew Bible) resulting in the closing of the Hebrew canon. ... These ongoing debates suggest the paucity of evidence on which the hypothesis of the Council of Jamnia rests and raise the question whether it has not served its usefulness and should be relegated to the limbo of unestablished hypotheses. It should not be allowed to be considered a consensus established by mere repetition of assertion. Ketuvim is the third and final section of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible). ...

Albert C. Sundberg, Jr. writes in "The Old Testament of the Early Church" Revisited 1997:

Are there alternatives to Jamnia (or later Usha)? As we have seen, it was at Jamnia that the tradition says the Hillelites gained the ascendancy over the house of Shammai. It was the school at Jamnia that became a substitute for the Sanhedrin of Jerusalem. It was at Jamnia that the third section of the Hebrew canon was first named. It was the Jamnia decisions that, while not "official," came to be generally accepted in post-destruction Judaism. It may be that we have followed too quickly after Lewis in his attack upon Jamnia in order to foster his belief in a Hebrew canon from pre-Christian times. But that case, as we have seen, is confounded by numerous difficulties. With the time of canonization of the Hebrew tripartite canon now probably fixed between 70 and 135 C.E., and as a triumph of the Hillelite Pharisee in post-destruction Judaism, what alternatives are there to Jamnia as the venue? Hillel (הלל) was a famous Jewish religious leader who lived in Jerusalem during the time of King Herod; he is one of the most important figures in Jewish history, associated with the Mishnah and the Talmud. ... Shammai (50 BCE–30 CE) was a Jewish scholar of the 1st century, and an important figure in Judaisms core work of rabbinic literature, the Mishnah. ... For the tractate in the Mishnah, see Sanhedrin (tractate). ... Ketuvim is the third and final section of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible). ... The Pharisees (from the Hebrew perushim, from parash, meaning to separate) were, depending on the time, a political party, a social movement, and a school of thought among Jews that flourished during the Second Temple Era (536 BCE–70 CE). ...

The Jewish Encyclopedia on the period of Jamnia

The Jewish Encyclopedia article on ACADEMIES IN PALESTINE states: The Jewish Encyclopedia was an encyclopedia originally published between 1901 and 1906 by Funk and Wagnalls. ...

The destruction of Jerusalem put as abrupt an end to the disputes of the schools as it did to the contests between political parties [ Sadducees, Pharisees, Essenes, Zealots ]. It was then that a disciple of Hillel, the venerable Johanan ben Zakkai, founded a new home for Jewish Law in Jabneh (Jamnia), and thus evoked a new intellectual life from the ruins of a fallen political existence. The college at Jabneh, which at once constituted itself the successor of the Great Sanhedrin of Jerusalem by putting into practise the ordinances of that body as far as was necessary and practicable, attracted all those who had escaped the national catastrophe and who had become prominent by their character and their learning. Moreover, it reared a new generation of similarly gifted men, whose task it became to overcome the evil results of still another dire catastrophe — the unfortunate Bar Kokba war with its melancholy ending. During the interval between these two disasters (56-117), or, more accurately, until the War of Quietus under Trajan, the school at Jabneh was the recognized tribunal that gathered the traditions of the past and confirmed them; that ruled and regulated existing conditions; and that sowed the seeds for future development. Next to its founder, it owed its splendor and its undisputed supremacy especially to the energetic Gamaliel, a great-grandson of Hillel, called Gamaliel II., or Gamaliel of Jabneh, in order to distinguish him from his grandfather, Gamaliel I. To him flocked the pupils of Johanan ben Zakkai and other masters and students of the Law and of Biblical interpretation. Though some of them taught and labored in other places — Eliezer ben Hyrcanus in Lydda; Joshua ben Hananiah in Beḳiin; Ishmael ben Elisha in Kefar Aziz, Akiba in Bene Beraḳ; Hananiah (Ḥanina) ben Teradyon in Siknin — Jabneh remained the center; and in "the vineyard" of Jabneh, as they called their place of meeting, they used to assemble for joint action.

In the fertile ground of the Jabneh Academy the roots of the literature of tradition — Midrash and Mishnah, Talmud and Aggadah — were nourished and strengthened. There, too, the way was paved for a systematic treatment of Halakah and exegesis. In Jabneh were held the decisive debates upon the canonicity of certain Biblical books; there the prayer-liturgy received its permanent form; and there, probably, was edited the Targum on the Pentateuch, which became the foundation for the later Targum called after Onkelos. It was Jabneh that inspired and sanctioned the new Greek version of the Bible — that of Akylas (Aquila). The events that preceded and followed the great civil revolution under Bar Kokba (from the year 117 to about 140) resulted in the decay and death of the school at Jabneh. According to tradition (R. H. 31b), the Sanhedrin was removed from Jabneh to Usha, from Usha back to Jabneh, and a second time from Jabneh to Usha. This final settlement in Usha indicates the ultimate spiritual supremacy of Galilee over Judea, the latter having become depopulated by the war of Hadrian. Usha remained for a long time the seat of the academy; its importance being due to the pupils of Akiba, one of whom, Judah ben Ilai, had his home in Usha. Here was undertaken the great work of the restoration of Palestinian Judaism after its disintegration under Hadrian. The study of the Law flourished anew; and Simon, a son of Gamaliel, was invested with the rank that had been his father's in Jabneh. With him the rank of patriarch became hereditary in the house of Hillel, and the seat of the academy was made identical with that of the patriarch.

Combatants Roman Empire Jews of Iudaea Province Commanders Vespasian, Titus Simon Bar-Giora, Yohanan mi-Gush Halav (John of Gischala), Eleazar ben Simon Strength 70,000? 13,000? Casualties Unknown 600,000–1,300,000 (mass civilian casualties) The first Jewish-Roman War (66–73 CE), sometimes called The Great... Hillel (הלל) was a famous Jewish religious leader who lived in Jerusalem during the time of King Herod; he is one of the most important figures in Jewish history, associated with the Mishnah and the Talmud. ... The sect of the Sadducees (or Zadokites and other variants) - which may have originated as a political party - was founded in the 2nd century BC and ceased to exist sometime == after the 1st century AD. Their rivals, the Pharisees, are said to have originated in the same time period, but... The word Pharisees comes from the Hebrew perushim, from parash, meaning to separate, from a root related to the Aramaic wordas upharsin (and divided) in the writing on the wall in Daniel 5:25. ... The Essenes (es-eenz) were followers of a religious way of living in Judaism that flourished from the 2nd century BC to the 1st century AD. Many scholars today argue that there were a number of separate but related groups that had in common mystic, eschatological, messianic, and ascetic beliefs... Zealotry denotes zeal in excess, referring to cases where activism and ambition in relation to an ideology have become excessive to the point of being harmful to others, oneself, and ones own cause. ... Hillel (הלל) was a famous Jewish religious leader who lived in Jerusalem during the time of King Herod; he is one of the most important figures in Jewish history, associated with the Mishnah and the Talmud. ... Yohanan ben Zakkai was a Jewish sage of the first century of the common era, and a primary contributor to the core text of rabbinic Judaism, the Mishnah. ... Halakha (הלכה or Halakhah, Halacha, Halachah) is the collective corpus of Jewish rabbinic law, custom and tradition. ... For the tractate in the Mishnah, see Sanhedrin (tractate). ... Combatants Roman Empire Jews of Iudaea Commanders Hadrian Simon Bar Kokhba Strength  ?  ? Casualties Unknown 580,000 Jews (mass civilian casualties), 50 fortified towns and 985 villages razed (per Cassius Dio). ... The Kitos War (115—117) is the name given to the second of the Jewish-Roman wars. ... This article is about the Roman Emperor. ... Rabbi Gamliel II, also known as Gamliel of Yavne, and often simply Rabban Gamliel was the first person to lead the sanhedrin as nasi. ... Gamaliel I was a grandson of Hillel, and like him designated Ha-Zaqen (the Elder), by which is apparently indicated that he was numbered among the Sanhedrin, the high council of Jerusalem. ... Torah () is a Hebrew word meaning teaching, instruction, or law. It is the central and most important document of Judaism revered by Jews through the ages. ... Akiba ben Joseph (or Rabbi Akiva, Rebbi Akiva, c. ... Midrash (Hebrew: מדרש; plural midrashim) is a Hebrew word referring to a method of exegesis of a Biblical text. ... The Mishnah (Hebrew משנה, repetition) is a major source of rabbinic Judaisms religious texts. ... The first page of the Vilna Edition of the Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Berachot, folio 2a The Talmud (Hebrew: תלמוד) is a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, customs and history. ... Aggadah ( Aramaic אגדה: tales, lore; pl. ... Halakha (הלכה or Halakhah, Halacha, Halachah) is the collective corpus of Jewish rabbinic law, custom and tradition. ... Exegesis (from the Greek to lead out) involves an extensive and critical interpretation of a text, especially of a holy scripture, such as of the Old and New Testaments of the Bible, the Talmud, the Midrash, the Quran, etc. ... The biblical canon is a list of books written during the formative periods of the Jewish or Christian faiths. ... A targum (plural: targumim) is an Aramaic translation of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) written or compiled in the Land of Israel or in Babylonia from the Second Temple period until the early Middle Ages (late first millennium). ... Look up Pentateuch in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Onkelos is the name of a famous convert to Judaism in Talmudic times (c. ... Aquila of Sinope was A native of Pontus, celebrated for a very literal and accurate translation of the Old Testament into Greek. ... Usha was a city in the Western part of Galilee. ... Galilee (Arabic al-jaleel الجليل, Hebrew hagalil הגליל), meaning circuit, is a large area overlapping with much of the North District of Israel. ... Map of the southern Levant, c. ... Publius Aelius Traianus Hadrianus (January 24, 76 – July 10, 138), known as Hadrian in English, was Roman emperor from 117 – 138, and a member of the gens Aelia. ... Akiba ben Joseph (or Rabbi Akiva, Rebbi Akiva, c. ... Rabbi Judah ben Ilai was a Talmudic scholar and a Tana, or writer of the Mishna, who lived in the second century. ...

Late first century developments attributed to Jamnia

Today, there is no scholarly consensus as to when the Jewish canon was set. Nevertheless, the outcomes attributed to the Council of Jamnia did occur whether gradually or in a definitive, authoritative council. Several concerns of the remaining Jewish communities in Israel would have been the loss of the national language, the growing problem of conversions to Christianity, based in part on Christian promises of life after death. What emerged from this era was two fold: The afterlife (or life after death) is a generic term referring to a continuation of existence, typically spiritual, experiential, or ghost-like, beyond this world, or after death. ...

1. A rejection of the Septuagint or Koine Greek Old Testament widely then in use among the Hellenized diaspora along with its additional books not part of the Hebrew language Masoretic Text.
2. The inclusion of a curse on the Minim which probably included Jewish Christians (Birkat ha-Minim). According to the Jewish Encyclopedia article on Min: "In passages referring to the Christian period, "minim" usually indicates the Judæo-Christians, the Gnostics, and the Nazarenes, who often conversed with the Rabbis on the unity of God, creation, resurrection, and similar subjects (comp. Sanh. 39b). In some passages, indeed, it is used even for "Christian"; but it is possible that in such cases it is a substitution for the word "Noẓeri," which was the usual term for 'Christian'... On the invitation of Gamaliel II., Samuel ha-Ḳaṭan composed a prayer against the minim which was inserted in the "Eighteen Benedictions"; it is called "Birkat ha-Minim" and forms the twelfth benediction; but instead of the original "Noẓerim" ... the present text has "wela-malshinim" (="and to the informers"). The cause of this change in the text was probably, the accusation brought by the Church Fathers against the Jews of cursing all the Christians under the name of the Nazarenes."

Sociologically, these developments achieved two important ends, namely, the preservation of the Hebrew language at least for religious use (even among the diaspora) and the final separation and distinction between the Jewish and Christian communities. (Through nearly the end of the first century, Christians of Jewish descent continued to pray in synagogues.) But see also John Chrysostom#The Homilies against the Judaizers. The Septuagint: A page from Codex vaticanus, the basis of Sir Launcelot Lee Brentons English translation. ... Koine redirects here. ... Note: Judaism commonly uses the term Tanakh. ... Hellenisation (or Hellenization) is a term used to describe a cultural change in which something non-Greek becomes Greek (Hellenic). ... The term: diaspora (in Greek, διασπορά – a scattering or sowing of seeds) is used (without capitalization) to refer to any people or ethnic population forced or induced to leave their traditional ethnic homelands; being dispersed throughout other parts of the world, and the ensuing developments in their dispersal and culture. ... Hebrew redirects here. ... The Masoretic Text (MT) is the Hebrew text of the Tanakh approved for general use in Judaism. ... Jewish Christians (sometimes called also Hebrew Christians or Christian Jews, but see below for differences) is a term which can have two meanings, a historical one and a contemporary one. ... The Jewish Encyclopedia was an encyclopedia originally published between 1901 and 1906 by Funk and Wagnalls. ... Gnosticism is a blanket term for various religions and sects most prominent in the first few centuries A.D. General characteristics The word gnosticism comes from the Greek word for knowledge, gnosis (γνῶσις), referring to the idea that there is special, hidden mysticism (esoteric knowledge... -1... A Rabbi (Classical Hebrew רִבִּי ribbī; modern Ashkenazi and Israeli רַבִּי rabbī) is a religious Jewish scholar who is an expert in Jewish law. ... Shema Yisrael (שמע ישראל) are the first two words of a section of the Hebrew Bible that is used as a centerpiece of all morning and evening Jewish prayer services and closely echoes the monotheistic message of Judaism. ... Creation (theology) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... // Main article: Jewish eschatology Orthodox Judaism holds that belief in the Resurrection of the Dead is one of the cardinal principles of the Jewish faith. ... Gamaliel II was the son of Simon ben Gamaliel, one of Jerusalems foremost men in the war against the Romans (vide Josephus, Bellum Jud. ... The Amidah (Standing), also called the Shemoneh Esreh (The Eighteen), is the central prayer in the Jewish liturgy that observant Jews recite each morning, afternoon, and evening. ... The (Early) Church Fathers or Fathers of the Church are the early and influential theologians and writers in the Christian Church, particularly those of the first five centuries of Christian history. ... Hebrew redirects here. ... The term: diaspora (in Greek, διασπορά – a scattering or sowing of seeds) is used (without capitalization) to refer to any people or ethnic population forced or induced to leave their traditional ethnic homelands; being dispersed throughout other parts of the world, and the ensuing developments in their dispersal and culture. ... A synagogue (from Greek synagoge place of assembly literally meeting, assembly,) is a Jewish house of prayer and study. ... John Chrysostom (349 - 407, Greek Ιωάννης ο Χρυσόστομος ) was a Christian bishop from the 4th and 5th centuries in Syria and Constantinople. ...

Some of the books not admitted into the Hebrew canon, such as Wisdom and 2 Maccabees, gave the only textual support for the common first century Jewish belief in the after-life. The martyrs' prayers for the dead and the living praying and offering sacrifices for the dead motivated Martin Luther to reject these books as apocryphal because they supported Catholic doctrine and practice. Wisdom or the Wisdom of Solomon is one of the deuterocanonical books of the Bible. ... 2 Maccabees is a deuterocanonical book of the Bible which focuses on the Jews revolt against Antiochus and concludes with the defeat of the Syrian general Nicanor in 161 BC by Judas Maccabeus, the hero of the work. ... Martin Luther (November 10, 1483 – February 18, 1546) was a German monk,[1] priest, professor, theologian, and church reformer. ... In Judeo-Christian theologies, apocrypha refers to religious Sacred text that have questionable authenticity or are otherwise disputed. ...

References

• This article incorporates text from the 1901–1906 Jewish Encyclopedia, a publication now in the public domain.

The Jewish Encyclopedia was an encyclopedia originally published between 1901 and 1906 by Funk and Wagnalls. ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ...

External links

• Robert C. Newman, 'The Council of Jamnia and the Old Testament Canon' (1983), an in-depth discussion of the subject on the site of the Interdisciplinary Biblical Research Institute.
• Steve Rudd, 'The Old Testament Canon: The council of Jamnia: 90 AD', a challenge of the interpretation of Jamnia current with some contemporary Catholic scholars.
• Bob Stanley, 'The Deuterocanonicals' (2002), an interpretation of "The Council of Jamnia" presented on the website of The Catholic Treasure Chest.
• Jamina or ( Jabneh ) @ JewishEncyclopedia.com
• Jewish Encyclopedia: Academy of Jabneh
• Jewish Encyclopedia: Birkat ha-Minim
• Jewish Encyclopedia: Min
• "The Old Testament of the Early Church" Revisited, Albert C. Sundberg, Jr., 1997