The sages were the creators of the Oral Torah. This literature, still unwritten in Jesus’ day, is of great value in understanding Jesus’ sayings. It is also a rich treasure of spiritual wisdom.

“Rabbinic literature” refers to the various collections of Oral Torah. As the name implies, the Oral Torah was transmitted orally and, in the time of Jesus, was still unwritten. It was only after Jewish life in the land of Israel had been nearly extinguished that the weakened community felt the necessity of recording this literature in writing.

The first attempt to commit the Oral Torah to writing is called the Mishnah. This work was compiled by Rabbi Yehudah ha-Nasi around 200 A.D.^[1] The Mishnah records the sayings of sages who lived and taught during the previous several hundred years and, except for isolated words or sentences, it is written entirely in Hebrew.

Sayings of the Fathers

The best-known of the Mishnah’s sixty-three tractates is titled “Avot” (Fathers) or “Pirke Avot” (Chapters of the Fathers), but often referred to in English as the “Sayings of the Fathers” or “Ethics of the Fathers.”^[2] Avot is a collection of the cherished sayings of more than sixty illustrious sages, beginning with sayings of the earliest known sages (third century

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