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CHAPTERS ON
JEWISH LITERATURE
CHAPTER I
The “Vineyard” at Jamnia
Schools at Jamnia, Lydda, Usha, and Sepphoris.—The Tannaim compile the Mishnah.—Jochanan, Akiba, Meir, Judah.—Aquila.
The story of Jewish literature, after the destruction of the Temple at Jerusalem in the year 70 of the Christian era, centres round the city of Jamnia. Jamnia, or Jabneh, lay near the sea, beautifully situated on the slopes of a gentle hill in the low-lands, about twenty-eight miles from the capital. When Vespasian was advancing to the siege of Jerusalem, he occupied Jammia, and thither the Jewish Synhedrion, or Great Council, transferred itself when Jerusalem fell. A college existed
