ABSTRACT
The oral Torah was seen to constitute a single, continuous tradition, and its history would produce "Pharisaic-rabbinic" as readily as "Biblical-talmudic" Judaism. Mishnaic literature obviously will miss the distinction between Pharisees and scribes, both of whom are regarded as HKMYM, sages. The Pharisee was a layman pretending to be priest and making his private home into a model of the Temple. In respect to festival law, Ben Hyrcanus Eliezer has important new rulings on the rite of the Day of Atonement—appropriate for his agendum for the Temple, which concentrates on the conduct of the cult. Civil and criminal law is virtually ignored by both the Houses and Eliezer. Eliezer's laws omit reference even to the legal theory behind a nascent political authority. Entirely new legal themes involve releasing vows, rules of testimony, the law of the Nazirite who has become unclean, and the general principle about liability for various similar sinful acts.
