Traditions of the Rabbis from the Era of the New Testament, Volume I: Prayer and Agriculture

by David Instone-Brewer

Foreword by Birger Gerhardsson

Traditions of the Rabbis from the Era of the New Testament (TRENT) is a major new six-volume work of scholarship that provides an exhaustive collection of early rabbinic traditions and commentary on their relevance to the New Testament.

Focusing on 63 rabbinic traditions central to ancient Jewish life, David Instone-Brewer's massive study provides significant insights into Jewish thought and practice prior to the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 C.E. For each rabbinic tradition considered, the supporting Hebrew source text is provided side by side with an English translation. Instone-Brewer also presents evidence that exists for accurately dating these rabbinic sources -- a critical task recently advanced by modern dating techniques. He goes on to thoroughly discuss the meaning and importance of each rabbinic tradition for Second Temple Judaism, also analyzing any echoes or direct appearances of the tradition in the New Testament writings.

In this first TRENT volume, Instone-Brewer examines texts relating to prayer and agriculture. The first section includes texts dealing with when and how to recite the Shema, the Eighteen Benedictions, and other blessings and prayers. The second section contains texts on a wide variety of considerations related to agriculture, such as the "leftovers" to which the poor were entitled, tithing, "mixed" foods and other products, Sabbath Year activities, offerings, and so on.

Sure to be a standard reference work for students of both Judaism and Christianity, TRENT provides for the first time a ready resource on rabbinic traditions originating in the New Testament era.

Features of TRENT :

482 pages, Hardcover

First published August 15, 2004

Reviews

[James Dickey · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great reference for helping to understanding some forms and practices of Judaism in the late 2nd Temple period.

[Ted · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the first half of the book far more interesting than the 2nd. Partly that is because it was a new topic for me and I was learning a good deal about the Traditions of the Rabbis. Also I found the issues dealing with prayer to be far more interesting than issues dealing with agriculture. The idea of keeping God's law perfectly ends up becoming men parsing each word of scripture ever more finely as they define and rule on every possible question which might come up no matter how obscure or seemingly impossible. For me at least I would quickly lose joy in keeping Torah as any way you keep it gets caught up in yet another dispute about it. And one realizes that to some extent the meaning of any of the laws of Torah are found in how the Rabbis parse the words and inevitably the various schools of rabbis disagree. The Torah is thus sacred and full of meaning but even the learned rabbis don't agree on what the meaning is though they do accept the sacredness of the text.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit pricey, but i wish i could have the entire collection of these books. Very interesting if you are interested in Jewish/Christian culture & dialogue.