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Re: orion List Moderator
On Mon, 28 Jul 1997, Albert Baumgarten wrote:
> I agree completely with what Marty Jaffee wrote about the history of Oral
> Torah and the way the term should be used. I write to make a
> terminological proposal for the Second Temple period, when we do risk
> muddying the waters unnecessarily by dragging in a Rabbinic term.
I am delighted by the support of the author of "the Pharisaic Paradosis"
and heartily endorse his proposal for discussing the diverse
"supplementary traditions", written and otherwise, by which Second Temple
Jews transmitted the meanings of their Scriptures. MJaffee
> Perhaps we should say that all Second Temple groups had supplements. This
> is entirely neutral, identifying with the terminology of no particular
> group. Each supplement had its own content, as each had its own way of
> connecting itself to the written Torah, the common source of authority.
> Some would have appealed to a new revelation as their supplement, others
> to what we might call a pseudepigraphic work, while a third group would
> have been loyal to their own traditions, handed down among them for
> generations.
> By adopting the terminology I propose I think we can be clearer, and also
> compare groups more effectively, as we can then see the different ways in
> which each was trying to solve the same question.
> Al Baumgarten
>
>