160 A History of Judaism
day and many other varieties flourished alongside the Pharisees, Sad-
duces and Essenes. Josephus might have responded that none of these
other varieties was of much importance because none of them attracted
large numbers of adherents in his time. If so, he was to be proved wrong
in the case of two branches of first- century Judaism which were to have
a huge impact on the religious developments of the next 2,000 years.
The rabbinic sages constituted only a small fringe movement in Judaea
in the first century ce but they laid the foundations of mainstream Juda-
ism down to the present. The Christian movement inspired by Jesus,
which began as just one more variety of Judaism, started by the end of
the first century ce to evolve outside Judaism altogether.
Sages
‘Sage’ (hakham ) or ‘pupil of a sage’ (talmid hakham ) was the name by
which members of the rabbinic movement in the first century ce referred
to themselves. What distinguished them from other Jews was their con-
fident belief that they were part of a select group of learned scholars
who had preserved an unbroken chain of transmission of oral teach-
ings. These teachings had been passed on from teacher to pupil since the
time of Moses up to the present, as expressed succinctly in tractate Avot
in the Mishnah:
Moses received the Law from Sinai and committed it to Joshua, and
Joshua to the elders, and the elders to the Prophets; and the Prophets com-
mitted it to the men of the Great Synagogue. They said three things: Be
deliberate in judgement, raise up many disciples, and make a fence around
the Law. Simeon the Just was of the remnants of the Great Synagogue.
Antigonus of Soko received [the Law] from Simeon the Just ... Jose b.
Joezer of Zeredah and Jose b. Johanan of Jerusalem received [the Law]
from them ... Joshua b. Perahyah and Nittai the Arbelite received [the
Law] from them. Judah b. Tabbai and Simeon b. Shetah received [the Law]
from them ... Hillel and Shammai received [the Law] from them. Hillel
said: Be of the disciples of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace, loving
mankind and bringing them nigh to the Law ... Rabban Gamaliel said:
Provide thyself with a teacher.Whether there had really been such an oral tradition dating back many
centuries before the first century ce cannot now be known – the
Mishnah, dating to the early third century ce, provides the earliest