An Initial Guide into the Rabbinic Literature for NT Scholars Who

Would Prefer to Use English Rather than Hebrew or Aramaic

[This guide may be profitably used in conjunction with my “Index of Rabbinic Works” which is cross-referenced with John T. Townsend’s “Rabbinic Sources” in The Study of Judaism. Bibliographical Essays (pp. 37-80) in which references to critical editions, translations, etc. may be found.]

A) If your point of investigation is a NT verse, a good start is Strack and Billerbeck’s Kommentar zum NT.  (In German, but once you get the references, you can check them out in English translation.  Also be aware of the articles in vols. IV and IVb.)  For further work, identify a topic or OT verse which is related to the NT passage.

B) If your point of investigation is a legal topic, start with the appropriate Mishnah or Talmudim tractate.  For any topic, articles in Encyclopedia Judaica (the German is better than the English translation), The Jewish Encyclopedia, or Encyclopedia Talmudica (incomplete) may be a good start.

   Further references to a topic are obtained by consulting the general indices in the Index volume to Babli (=The Babylonian Talmud, Soncino Press), the index (vol. 10) to The Midrash (i.e., Midrash Rabbah), and to the index (vol. 7) of Louis Ginzberg’s The Legends of the Jews.

C) If the point of investigation is a verse from the Hebrew Bible, the most complete listing of references is given in Aaron Hyman’s Sefer Torah Haketuvah Wehamesurah.  (This book is completely in Hebrew, but it will be worth your while to try to figure out its organization and abbreviations.)

   To work more quickly in English, note the Scripture indices for works in translation such as Babli, Yerushalmi (as Neusner makes the tractates available), Tosephta, Midrash Rabbah, Midrash Psalms, Pesikta Rabbati, Tanna debe Eliyahu, Midrash Tanhuma (Recension A in German translation), and others.

   For the Pentateuch (though the English translation is only complete for part-way through Exodus), consult M. Kasher’s Torah Shelemah.  This work is not entirely comprehensive (it omits some of the important, obvious references, and for others, it sometimes unfortunately joins several references under one paragraph), but it does record many midrashic comments which otherwise you probably would not find.  Also consult The Pentateuch with Rashi’s Commentary (Silbermann, 1929) which has both the text and an English translation.

D) For tracing out traditions which may precede, presuppose, or depend upon rabbinic traditions, check:

Targumim and versions: Onkelos, Pseudo-Jonathon, Fragment Targum (most conveniently found paralleled in Miqra’oth Gedoloth - the Pentateuch is available in translation by Etheridge though the translations must be used with caution; look for the new translation of the whole Bible being published by Glazier Press), Neophiti, Cairo Geniza fragments, Jonathon, Samaritan Targum, Samaritan Pentateuch, Greek versions (use Göttingensis ed. and also check Origen’s Hexalpa), Qumran texts.

Philo, Josephus (an index is available for Josephus)

Jubilees, Testament of 12 Patriarchs, Pseudo-Philo, Apochrypha, Pseudepigrapha (check Charlesworth’s 2 vols. OT Pseudepigrapha), NT, NT Apocrypha (2 vols. by Hennecke & Schneemelcher)

Ante-Nicene Fathers (a complete Scripture index for writings up to Origen is available in 3 vols. of Biblia Patristica)

Memar Marqah, Koran

(For a convenient chronological table of Aggadic Midrashim [used with caution!], copy EncJud 11:1511-2; for a table of the Rabbis, EncJud 15:801-2.)

2/4/85 / MGH