Introduction to the Reviews of The Oxford Annotated Mishnah

THE OXFORD ANNOTATED MISHNAH: A NEW TRANSLATION OF THE MISHNAH WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTESEdited by Shaye J. D. Cohen, Robert Goldenberg, and Hayim Lapin. 3 Volumes. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022, 2023Pp. xvi + 2585; list of figures. Hardcover, $680.00; Paperback, $85.00. The importance and influence of the Mishnah cannot be overstated. Composed around 200 CE, it is a compilation of the teachings of the Rabbis in the post-70 CE era about primarily the meaning and application of Jewish law and ritual. The Mishnah is divided into six “orders,” which are then divided into “tractates” (sixty-three in total). The orders provide the overarching theme of each section, and the individual tractates address some aspect of this theme. The Mishnah became an object of rabbinic study, as evidenced by the Talmudim. For non-experts and scholars of other fields, the Mishnah can be nearly unmanageable. It focuses on laws and rituals that are quite foreign to the modern era and makes assumptions about the reader's knowledge of the Mosaic Torah and temple practices. As Cohen and Lapin (1.5) note in their Introduction, entering into the world of the Mishnah is like “stepping into a conversation already in progress.” Some tractates seem to begin mid-conversation as they not only assume the reader is familiar with the underlying Torah prescriptions but also the complex discussions of the rabbis. Additionally, the dating of the Mishnah has caused problems as scholarship has shifted perspectives on how the teachings in the Mishnah relate to ideas and practices in the pre-70 CE period. Finally, the Mishnah has often been misused by scholars, particularly NT scholars, who have treated the Mishnah as evidence of Jewish legalism and works righteousness.1 Such complexity—with the Mishnah itself and with scholarship—has resulted in the misuse or neglect of the Mishnah.2 Under the editorship of Shaye J.D. Cohen, Robert Goldenbert, and Hayim Lapin and with some 50 contributors, The Oxford Annotated Mishnah aims “to make the Mishnah accessible to the Hebrew-less reader” (1.6) by providing a new translation, textual notes, and brief commentary. A short introduction by Cohen and Lapin introduces readers to the Mishnah and this work. Each tractate begins with a brief introduction that gives an overview, comments on the structure and organization, notes relationships to Scripture, highlights the main ideas, and provides a short bibliography of texts that have assisted the commentator. The commentary proper, as the book title indicates, does not aim for comprehensiveness. Rather, it explains key words and phrases, draws connections with Scripture, and provides cross-references to other parts of the Mishnah. The Oxford Annotated Mishnah is by any account a remarkable achievement. It places in people's hands not only an important historical text but also facilitates the reading and studying of the text. What follows are two reviews of The Oxford Annotated Mishnah. Dr. Michail Kitsos is a Rabbinic scholar who explores Jewish-Christian relations in late antiquity. Dr. Paul T. Sloan is a NT scholar working on the relationship of Jesus' teaching on the Torah to wider Jewish views. The influence of the Mishnah spans the course of time as it connects the ancient with the modern: as a text concerned primarily, although not exclusively, with the Mosaic Torah, it links the origins of Israelite life with the time of the Rabbis and as a Jewish text of the early centuries of the Common Era, it bridges the gap between the ancient world and our own. The Oxford Annotated Mishnah is a remarkable testimony to the importance of this Jewish work

Biblical Studies and Interpretation · Classics · History · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies · Philosophy

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