mlinssen wrote: ↑Thu Nov 26, 2020 1:07 am
the very anti-Pharisee and anti-Judaic attitude in Thomas is clear; as well as in the canonicals for that matter. although all the anger is redirected to the Pharisees alone: it is
their praying, caring and giving alms that is criticised ...
.
Then what happened in Judaism - with respect to the main Jewish factions and sects - after the fall of the Temple might be relevant.
Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakai is said to have asked Vespasian to be able to go to Yavne*. He and his students are said to have founded a new religious center there. Other places of Judaic learning were founded by his students in Lod and in Bnei Brak. What others did might not be that well documented.
* ben Zaki is also said to have told Vespasian he would be emperor (something Josephus is also said to have prophesied). When Vespasian asked, ben Zaki is said to have replied, "Thus has it been passed down unto us, that the holy house will not be given into the hands of a mere commoner, but rather into the hands of a king, as it says (Isaiah 10:34): 'He shall cut down the forest thickets with an iron [instrument], and Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one'."
After the Destruction of the Second Temple, and the exit of many/ most/ all of the priests from Jerusalem, the "House of Hillel" and the "House of Shammai" -- named after Hillel, a Pharisee (though died ~10-20 c.e.), and Shammai (d. ~30 c.e.), of course -- came to (continued to?) represent two distinct perspectives on Jewish law: indeed, disagreements between the two schools of thought are found throughout the Mishnah b/c discussions of those disagreements were the basis of the Mishnah.
The Mishnaic period, aka the period of the Tannaim (the teachers, rabbinic sages), lasted at least a century. This period is commonly divided up into five periods according to generations. There are approximately 120 known Tannaim: teachers, rabbinic sages. Some Tanna worked as laborers (e.g., charcoal burners, cobblers) in addition to their positions as teachers and legislators.
1 They were also leaders of the people and negotiators with the Roman Empire.
- eg. Rabbi Yehoshua ben Hananiah (d. 131 c.e.), the seventh most frequently mentioned sage in the Mishna, was a tailor who's permanent residence was in Peki'in, a place between Yavne and Lydda.
The [Pharasaic] School of Hillel is said to have dominated and been the basis for Rabbinic Judaism (there are several notable exceptions. The Mishna provides a list of 18 matters in which the halacha was decided in favor of Beit Shammai).
The Gamaliels and Gamliels are descendants of Hillel, with the key redactor of the Mishnah, Yehudah HaNasi (aka Judah the Prince, b.135 c.e.), being a direct descendant of Hillel through them.
So, perhaps the
terminus post quem for Thomas on the basis of it being anti-Pharisee could extend beyond 70 c.e.. say, to the end of the first century. Thmas could be result of someone, at least, annoyed by the dominance of the Pharisees in that early Tannaic/ Mishnaic period( ??)