ABSTRACT
Hugo Mantel, Studies in the History of the Sanhedrin examines a number of problems pertinent to the rabbinic traditions about the Pharisees. In this chapter, the authors suggest that the modern historiographical tradition had formulated arguable questions, and that its fundamental grasp of the evidence was sound. In Rabbinic Traditions about the Pharisees before 70 this writer has analyzed those traditions from various critical perspectives and suggested what use may be made of them by critical historians. The study of Talmudic and related literature for historical purposes stands conceptually and methodologically a century and a half behind biblical studies. A further, even more serious impediment to the development of the historical study of Talmudic literature was the need for apologetics. Characteristic of Talmudic scholarship is the search, first, for underlying principles to make sense of discrete, apparently unrelated cases, second, for distinctions to overcome contradictions between apparently contradictory texts, and third, for hiddushim, or new interpretations of particular texts.
