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.