Seder Olam Rabbah - Authorship

Authorship

Assuming that this "Seder Olam" is the same as the "Seder Olam" mentioned in the Talmud, Jewish authorities generally ascribe its authorship to the well-known Talmudist Jose b. Halafta, on the strength of R. Johanan's statement, "The tanna of the 'Seder 'Olam' was R. Jose" (Yeb. 82b; Niddah 46b). Johanan's comment is supported by the fact that Jose was known as one who occupied himself with Jewish chronology; further, many sayings of R. Jose's quoted in the Talmud are paralleled in the Seder Olam.

Objecting, however, that the Seder Olam often conflicts with opinions of Jose's expressed in the Talmud, that Jose is referred to in it in the third person ("R. Jose said"), and finally that mention is made in it of Talmudists that lived later than Jose, Ratner (Mabo leha-Seder 'Olam Rabbah, Wilna, 1894) concludes that Jose was not its author; he thinks that Jose was only the principal authority of the Seder 'Olam, and that Johanan's statement, mentioned above, is similar to another statement made by him—"Any anonymous opinion in the Mishnah belongs to R. Meïr" (Sanh. 86a), although the redactor of the Mishnah was Judah I. Ratner further supposes that R. Johanan himself compiled the work, following generally the opinion of R. Jose. He endeavors to prove this view by showing that many utterances of R. Johanan are taken from the Seder Olam.

Ratner's objections, however, are answered by other scholars, who think that in the Seder 'Olam Jose preserved the generally accepted opinions, even when they were contrary to his own, as is clearly indicated in Niddah (l.c.). Besides, this work, like all the works of the ancient Talmudists, underwent many alternations at the hands of the copyists. Very often, too, finding that the utterance of a later rabbi agreed with the Seder 'Olam, the copyists inserted the name of that rabbi. A careful examination shows that certain additions are later than the latest midrashim, and it may be that Abraham ibn Yarḥi (l.c.), Isaac Lattes (Sha'are Ẓiyyon, p. 25), and Menahem Meïri (introduction to Abot, p. 14), who seem to place the redaction of the Seder 'Olam at the time when the Massektot (tractates) Derek Ereẓ Rabbah, the Derek Ereẓ Zuṭa, the Soferim, and other later treatises were composed, may have referred to the work in its present form.

Besides directly quoting the Seder 'Olam, the Talmud often alludes to it under "tanya" (= "we learned") "tana" (= "he learned"), "tanu rabbanan" (= "our teachers learned"), "amar mar" (= "the teacher said"): often the sentences following these phrases are found in the Seder 'Olam. In addition, many of its passages have been taken into the Mishnah without any allusion to their source. The Seder 'Olam is not mentioned in the Jerusalem Talmud, although several passages in the latter are based on it. Finally, many of the sayings of the Seder 'Olam have been taken into the Mekilta, the Sifra, and the Sifre.