Mishnah: Encyclopedia II - Mishnah - Relation between the Hebrew Bible and the Mishnah

Mishnah - Relation between the Hebrew Bible and the Mishnah

Rabbinical Judaism holds that the Five Books of Moses called the (Written) Torah have always been transmitted in parallel with an oral tradition. Two guides to laws were given to Moses at Mount Sinai. The first, known as Torah she-bi-khtav, or the "Written Law" is composed of only the Five Books of Moses -- Genesis through Deuteronomy. These five books are the Hebrew Bible.

When the writings of the Nevi'im [נביאים] meaning: "Prophets" and Ketuvim [כתובים] meaning "Writings", the wisdom and creative literature, are added to the Torah [the Five Books of Moses] the expanded volume is called the Tanakh. It is this "complete" version of Hebrew literature that Christianity knows as "The Old Testament." The Tanakh comprises the Hebrew Bible as we know it today.

The second law given to Moses at Sinai, known as Torah she-be'al-peh, is the exposition of the Written Law as relayed by the scholarly and other religious leaders of each generation. This Oral Law is, in some sense, the more authoritative of the two. The traditions of the Oral Law are considered as the basis for the interpretation, and often for the reading, of the Written Law.

By 200 CE, the time of Rabbi Judah Ha-Nasi, much of the Oral Law was edited together into the Mishnah; see below. Over the next four centuries this material underwent analysis and debate, known as Gemara ("completion"), in both of the world's major Jewish communities (in the land of Israel and Babylon). These eventually came to be edited together into compilations known as the Talmud. Jewish law and custom thus is not based on a literal reading of the Torah, or the rest of the Tanakh, but on the combined oral and written traditions.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Relation between the Hebrew Bible and the Mishnah", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki