The Use of Numbers as an Editing Device in Rabbinic Literature

Abstract

In the first part of this paper (Review of Rabbinic Literature 19:2, pp. 202–244) we followed the use of numbers from the Bible and Ancient Near Eastern literatures through the book of Ben-Sira and ultimately into Rabbinic literature. We showed that the Rabbis were familiar with the Biblical use of numbers as a rhetoric device and used numbers in similar ways. In this conclusion of our paper we will show how the Rabbis used numbers as an editing device in the Mishnah, Tosefta and Babylonian Talmud. This use of the rhetorical device in question is only rarely attested in the Hebrew Bible.