The Tosefta

The importance of the Tosefta for literary, historical, and religious

scholarship has long been known, and this two-volume set makes it

accessible to many more readers. The work is a vital supplement to the

early rabbinic oral tradition first set to writing in the Mishnah at the

end of the second century of the Common Era. Dating to about 220 CE

and also set in the Tannaic period, the Tosefta has the same six orders

and essentially the same tractates as the Mishnah, often agreeing with

it, but sometimes differing significantly in its understanding of the oral

tradition.

This English translation of the Mishnaic Hebrew (with some Aramaic)

is not merely a paraphrase, but aims at a literal rendition into English of

the formulary patterns and syntactical traits of the original text. It contains

complete references to the passages in the Tosefta that cite verbatim

the corresponding unit in the Mishnah, which is printed in italics. The

Tosefta is crucial to the study of formative rabbinic Judaism and early

Christianity.

Jacob Neusner is Distinguished Service Professor of the History and Theology

of Judaism at Bard College and is Senior Fellow, Institute of Advanced Theology,

Princeton. He has published more than one thousand books including

translations of the Mishnah and both the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds,

and is the author of innumerable articles. He has served as President of the

American Academy of Religion and as a member of both the National Council

of the Humanities and the National Council of Arts. "