Mishnah

The Mishnah is the first major written collection of Jewish oral law. For centuries, Jewish teachers passed down rules and explanations about how to follow the Torah by word of mouth, from teacher to student. Around the year 200 CE, a rabbi named Judah ha-Nasi (also called Rabbi Judah the Prince) decided to organize all of these teachings into one written book. The result was the Mishnah, a six-part collection that covers nearly every area of Jewish life, from prayer and farming to marriage and temple worship.

The word 'Mishnah' comes from the Hebrew root meaning 'to repeat' or 'to study.' This fits perfectly because the oral teachings were memorized through repetition. The Mishnah is not a story book or a collection of poems. It reads more like a legal code, with short statements, debates between rabbis, and rulings on how to apply biblical commands in everyday situations.

For Bible readers, the Mishnah is important because it gives us a window into how Jewish people understood and practiced the Torah in the centuries right after Jesus and the apostles. Many of the debates Jesus had with the Pharisees in the Gospels, such as arguments about the Sabbath, ritual purity, and tithing, are the same kinds of debates recorded in the Mishnah. Understanding the Mishnah helps us understand the world of the New Testament.

The Mishnah became the foundation for later Jewish law. The Talmud, which was written a few centuries later, is basically a giant commentary on the Mishnah. Today, Jewish scholars still study the Mishnah as a core part of their religious education. It remains one of the most important texts in all of Judaism, second only to the Torah itself.