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Closely associated with the Mishnah is the Tosefta (English translation Neusner 2002), which it closely resembles in outward form: its six orders are those of the Mishnah, and of the Mishnah’s 63 tractates it lacks only four. The texts of the Mishnah and Tosefta overlap in many places; but the Tosefta presents much extra information not present in the Mishnah, and has traditionally been understood as a supplement (Tosefta, indeed, means “addition”) to the latter. On this view, the Tosefta would have been completed a little later than the Mishnah, say in the early decades of the third century CE; but there is compelling evidence to suggest that at least some parts of the Mishnah may be dependent on the Tosefta. The relationship between the two texts is thus complex, and is certainly a subject of continuing debate in modern research (Cohen 2000); it may be noted, however, that the Tosefta itself never cites as authorities Rabbis who lived later than the early third century CE, so that its final date of redaction is unlikely to lie outside the third century. With rather more in the way of narrative information than the Mishnah, the Tosefta is often investigated as a source for historical information about Palestine in the Roman period up to the third century. While it must always be borne in mind that this text, like the Mishnah, is addressed to teachers and students in Rabbinic society in order to promote, inform, and sustain the continuing aspirations of the Rabbis, judicious, critical analysis of both the Mishnah and the Tosefta can inform the modern reader about Rabbinic attitudes to the Roman authorities and their culture. It also allows us to appreciate Jewish responses to a world imbued with Greco-Roman ideas and aspirations very different from those entertained by many Jews, and to observe how those responses may involve apparent acceptance of Greco-Roman notions “for the sake of peace,” but with an underlying reticence betokening a deeply questioning stance.

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