Rabbi Joshua

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MrMacSon
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Rabbi Joshua

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Joshua ben Hananiah (Hebrew: יהושע בן חנניה d. 131 C.E.), also known as Rabbi Joshua was a leading rabbinical sage of the first half-century following the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem as a result of the First Jewish Revolt, 66-70 C.E.

A disciple of Johanan ben Zakkai, he was an opponent of asceticism who represented the more liberal school of Hillel against the strict legalism of the house of Shammai, especially in disputes with Johanan's other leading pupil, Eliezer ben Hyrcanus. Rabbi Joshua also worked in concert with Gamaliel II, the president of the emerging rabbinical academy at Jamnia, to promote Hillel's views, but he ran afoul of Gamaliel on issues of authority. He went on to become president of the rabbinical council after Gamaliel's death. A rich tradition has developed concerning Rabbi Joshua's interactions with Emperor Hadrian, although the historicity of some of these conversations is dubious.

Joshua's character was that of a peacemaker who respected and forgave even his strongest opponents. His influence is thought to have prevented the Jews from a second violent rebellion against Rome. After his death, however, his own most prominent disciple, Rabbi Akiba, became a supporter of the messianic revolt led by Simon Bar Kochba against Rome, which led to tragic results.

Together with Johanan ben Zakkai, Gamaliel II, and Akiba, Joshua ben Hananiah was one of the key founders of the rabbinic Judaism, which has been at the center of Jewish life and civilization for the last two millennia. He is one of the most quoted sages of the Mishnah, the Talmud, and other classical Jewish literature.

... Tradition places him at the head of Johanan's disciples along with Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus. These two are frequently mentioned as upholders of opposite views, with Joshua representing the house of Hillel and Eliezer representing that of Shammai. Eliezer and Joshua cooperated together, however, to rescue their teacher Johanan from the besieged city of Jerusalem in the closing days of the Jewish Revolt, reportedly smuggling him out of the city in a coffin.

An opponent of asceticism

After the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem Joshua opposed the exaggerated asceticism with which many wished to show their grief, such as going without meat and wine because the sacred altar, on which they had sacrificed animals and poured libations of wine, had been destroyed. He argued that to carry this policy to its logical conclusion, they ought to eat no figs or grapes either, since no more first-fruits were offered, and that they ought even to refrain from bread, since the loaves of the feast of first-fruits could no longer be sacrificed (Tosef., Sotah, end; B. B. 60b).

... In regard to the severe regulations which had been adopted by the school of Shammai shortly before the destruction of the Temple, he said: "On that day they overstepped the boundary."

Joshua saw the greatest danger to the community in the sickly offshoots of supposed piety. Classes of people he condemned as "enemies of general prosperity" included:
  • Foolishly pious men
  • Sly sinners who appear pious
  • Women who show an over-pious bearing
  • Hypocrites who pretend to be saints (Sotah iii. 4, 21b; Yer. Sotah 21b)

When Johanan ben Zakkai asked his pupils concerning the best standard of conduct, Joshua answered that one should seek association with a good companion and avoid a bad one. He recommended temperance and the love of humankind as the best assurance of individual happiness. On the other hand, holding grudges, lustful passion, and hatred of humankind brings only loss and ultimately death (Ab. ii. 11).

Various anecdotes illustrate the opposition between Joshua, who represented the teachings of Hillel, and his colleague Eliezer, who represented the teachings of Shammai, much in the same way as the opposition between Hillel and Shammai is depicted elsewhere (Gen. R. lxx; Eccl. R. i. 8; Kid. 31a).


... After the death of Johanan ben Zakkai (c. 90 C.E.), Rabbi Joshua was a supporter of the efforts of Gamaliel II, the president of the academy, to promote the views of Hillel's followers over those of Shammai's and bring to an end the discord which had so long existed between the schools. Nevertheless, he and Gamaliel clashed severely on questions of authority ... [after one clash] Gamaliel was now obliged to share his office with Eleazar ben Azariah (not to be confused with Eliezer ben Hyrcanus), who had earlier been appointed his successor (Ber. 28a).

n order to plead the case of the Palestinian Jews at Rome, the co-presidents, Gamaliel and Eleazar, went as their primary representatives, with rabbis Joshua and Akiba accompanying them. This journey of the "elders" to Rome furnished material for many narratives and legends. In one of these, the Romans called on Rabbi Joshua to give proofs from the Bible of the resurrection of the dead and of the foreknowledge of God (Sanh. 90b). In another, Joshua came to the aid of Gamaliel when the latter was unable to answer the question of a philosopher (Gen. R. xx.). In one anecdote, Joshua's astronomical knowledge enabled him to calculate that a comet would appear in the course of a sea voyage in which he and Gamaliel were involved (Hor. 10a).

After Gamaliel's death, the presidency of the rabbinical council fell to Joshua, since Eleazar ben Azariah had apparently already died, and Eliezer ben Hyrcanus was under a ban of excommunication due to his irascible opposition to the will of the majority and his sewing the seeds of disunity. Later, Joshua, hearing of Eliezer's mortal illness, went to his deathbed despite the ban against him, and sought to console him: "O master, thou art of more value to Israel than God's gift of the rain," he declared, "since the rain gives life in this world only, whereas thou givest life both in this world and in the world to come" (Mek., Yitro, Bachodesh, 10; Sifre, Deut. 32). After Eliezer's death, Joshua rescinded the excommunication against his old colleague and opponent. Later, when other scholars contested some of Eliezer's legal rulings, Joshua said to them: "One should not oppose a lion after he is dead" (Gittin 83a; Yer. Git. 50a).

Under Hadrian

In the beginning of Hadrian's rule, Joshua, as council president, acted as the leader of the Jewish people and a proponent of peace. When permission to rebuild the Temple of Jerusalem was refused, he turned the people away from thoughts of revolt against Rome by a speech in which he skillfully made use of Aesop's fable of the lion and the crane (Gen. R. lxiv., end). About the same time, Joshua—ever the Hillelite—used his eloquence to prevent the whole area of the Temple from being pronounced unclean because one human bone had been found in it (Tosef., 'Eduy. iii. 13; Zeb. 113a). Joshua lived to witness Hadrian's visit to Palestine, and in 130 C.E., he followed the emperor to Alexandria.

The conversations between Joshua and Hadrian, as they have been preserved in the Talmud and the Midrash, have been greatly exaggerated by tradition, but they nevertheless present a fair picture of the intercourse between the witty Jewish scholar and the active, inquisitive emperor. In Palestinian sources, Joshua answers various questions of the emperor about how God created the world (Gen. R. x.), the nature of the angels (ib. lxxviii., beginning; Lam. R. iii. 21), the resurrection of the body (Gen. R. xxviii.; Eccl. R. xii. 5), and with regard to the Ten Commandments (Pesiḳ. R. 21).

In the Babylonian Talmud three conversations are related, in which Joshua silences the emperor's mockery of the Jewish conception of God by proving to him God's incomparable greatness and majesty (Ḥul. 59b, 60a). Joshua also rebukes the emperor's daughter when she makes a mocking comment about the God of the Jews (ibid. 60a). In another place, she is made to repent for having made fun of Joshua's appearance (Ta'an. on Ned. 50b). In a dispute with a Jewish Christian, Joshua dramatically maintained that God's protective hand was still stretched over Israel (Hagigah 5b). Some of the questions addressed to Joshua by the Athenian wise men, found in a long story in the Babylonian Talmud (Bek. 8b et seq.), contain polemical expressions against Christianity.
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Not long after Joshua's death his peace-making spirit gave way to the men of violent action. The messianic leader Simon Bar Kochba raised a revolt against Rome that was enthusiastically greeted by Joshua's most influential pupil, Rabbi Akiba. The rebellion ended tragically with more than 100,000 Jewish lives lost and the Jews banned from Jerusalem. That such a rebellion had not been undertaken earlier is thought by many to be due to Rabbi Joshua's influence.

The work of rabbis Johanan ben Zakkai, Gamaliel II, Joshua ben Hananiah, and Akiba set the tone of rabbinic Judaism for the next two millennia. Facing a crisis in which the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem had destroyed the physical and spiritual center of Jewish religious life, they adopted the flexible and broad-minded principles of Hillel and rejected the narrow legalism of Shammai

http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/ent ... n_Hananiah

See diagram "Rabbis of the Mishnah" at the bottom

Joshua ben Hananiah (Hebrew: יהושע בן חנניה‬ d. 131 CE) was a leading tanna of the first half-century following the destruction of the Temple. He was of Levitical descent (Ma'as. Sh. v. 9), and served in the sanctuary as a member of the class of singers (Arakhin 11b). His mother intended him for a life of study, and, as an older contemporary, Dosa ben Harkinas, relates (Jerusalem Talmud Yevamot 3a), she carried the child in his cradle into the synagogue, so that his ears might become accustomed to the sounds of the words of the Torah. It was probably with reference to his pious mother that Johanan ben Zakai thus expressed himself concerning Joshua ben Hananiah: "Hail to thee who gave him birth" (Pirkei Avot ii. 8). According to another tradition (Avot of Rabbi Natan xiv.) Johanan ben Zakai praised him in the words from Ecclesiastes iv. 12: "And a threefold cord is not quickly broken." Perhaps he meant that in Joshua the three branches of traditional learning, Midrash, Halakah, and Aggadah, were united in a firm whole; or possibly he used the passage in the sense in which it was employed later (Ecclesiastes Rabbah iv. 14; Bava Batra 59a), to show that Joshua belonged to a family of scholars even to the third generation. He is the seventh most frequently mentioned sage in the Mishnah.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_ben_Hananiah

.. The Emperor once promised that the Jews would have permission to rebuild the Beth Hamikdosh. The Jews greatly rejoiced but their happiness was short lived. The Samaritans, for long the enemies of the Jews, persuaded the emperor that if the Jews were permitted to rebuild their temple, they would then seek ways and means of entirely throwing off the Roman yoke. The Emperor withdrew his promise. The disappointment of the Jews was so great that some Jews actually had intentions of inciting a rebellion against Rome. The Sages, however, knew that the time was not yet ripe for the rebuilding of the Beth Hamikdosh, and an open rebellion against mighty Rome would have catastrophic results. They called upon Rabbi Joshua ben Hannanya to calm the stormy feelings of the Jews. Rabbi Joshua comforted them with a wise parable ...

http://www.chabad.org/library/article_c ... nnanya.htm
John2
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Re: Rabbi Joshua

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He kind of reminds me of Paul. Both were Pharisees who opposed asceticism and revolting against Rome.
Joshua saw the greatest danger to the community in the sickly offshoots of supposed piety. Classes of people he condemned as "enemies of general prosperity" included:

•Foolishly pious men

•Sly sinners who appear pious

•Hypocrites who pretend to be saints (Sotah iii. 4, 21b; Yer. Sotah 21b) ...

Not long after Joshua's death his peace-making spirit gave way to the men of violent action. The messianic leader Simon Bar Kochba raised a revolt against Rome that was enthusiastically greeted by Joshua's most influential pupil, Rabbi Akiba. The rebellion ended tragically with more than 100,000 Jewish lives lost and the Jews banned from Jerusalem. That such a rebellion had not been undertaken earlier is thought by many to be due to Rabbi Joshua's influence.

Rom. 13:1-7:
Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended. For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience.

This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing. Give to everyone what you owe them: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.
Rom. 14:1-23:
Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters. One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them ...

Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister. I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person it is unclean. If your brother or sister is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy someone for whom Christ died. Therefore do not let what you know is good be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval.

Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a person to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother or sister to fall.

So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves. But whoever has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.
1 Cor. 8:7-8:
Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat sacrificial food they think of it as having been sacrificed to a god, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled. But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.
2 Cor. 11:5-23
I do not think I am in the least inferior to those “super-apostles" ... And I will keep on doing what I am doing in order to cut the ground from under those who want an opportunity to be considered equal with us in the things they boast about. For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve ...

Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they Abraham’s descendants? So am I. Are they servants of Christ? (I am out of my mind to talk like this.) I am more.
Gal. 2:6-13
As for those who were held in high esteem—whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not show favoritism—they added nothing to my message ... When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.
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MrMacSon
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Re: Rabbi Joshua

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John2 wrote: Wed Jan 24, 2018 11:11 am He kind of reminds me of Paul. Both were Pharisees who opposed asceticism and revolting against Rome.
Cheers, John2. Many of those passages - Rom. 13:1-7, Rom. 14:1-23, 1 Cor. 8:7-8, 2 Cor. 11:5-23, Gal. 2:6-13 - could just as readily be seen to be Jewish tannaic contemplations
Last edited by MrMacSon on Fri Feb 12, 2021 11:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.
John2
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Re: Rabbi Joshua

Post by John2 »

Absolutely. Remember, Paul not only says that he had been a Pharisee in Php. 3:5, he says in Gal. 1:14 that, "I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers."

Paul was a Tanna, I suppose you could say -a renegade Tanna, somewhat like Eliezer ben Hyrcanus.
Eliezer was charged for being a heretic ... That he should be suspected of apostasy grieved him sorely, and though some of his pupils tried to comfort him, he remained for some time inconsolable. At last he remembered that once, while at Sepphoris, he had met a Christian who communicated to him a singular halakhah in the name of Ben Pandera, (Jesus) that he had approved of the halakhah and had really enjoyed hearing it, and, he added, "Thereby I transgressed the injunction, 'Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house,' " which the Rabbis apply to sectarianism as well as to heresy. The suspicion of apostasy and the summons before the dreaded tribunal came, therefore, as just punishment.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliezer_ben_Hurcanus
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MrMacSon
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Re: Rabbi Joshua

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"
Barry S. Crawford, Merrill P. Miller (2017) Redescribing the Gospel of Mark SBL Press -


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MrMacSon
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Re: Rabbi Joshua

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Craig S. Keener The Historical Jesus of the Gospels Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 3 Nov. 2009, p.307 (I think) -

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Kunigunde Kreuzerin
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Re: Rabbi Joshua

Post by Kunigunde Kreuzerin »

MrMacSon wrote: Wed Jan 24, 2018 4:23 am
Rabbi Joshua also worked in concert with Gamaliel II, the president of the emerging rabbinical academy at Jamnia, to promote Hillel's views, but he ran afoul of Gamaliel on issues of authority.
There are some nice stories about disagreements between Rabbi Joshua and Rabban Gamaliel II. The people were on Joshua's side.
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