Seder Olam Zutta - Time of Redaction

Time of Redaction

As to the determination of the time of its redaction, there have existed many differences of opinion among authorities. Zunz observed that the sentence quoted by R. Baruch and Moses of Coucy with regard to the year 804 C.E. (see above) might be the author's colophon—omitted by the copyist—showing the time of composition. Zunz's opinion has since apparently been confirmed by a manuscript of the Seder 'Olam Zuṭa (Parma, De Rossi MSS., No. 541, 10, published by S. Schechter in Monatsschrift, xxxix. 23 et seq.) which lacks the introduction spoken of above, but has at the end the following sentence: "From Adam to this day, which is the eleventh day of Kislew of the Sabbatical year, 4,564 years have elapsed": this gives the year 804 C.E. However, a closer examination of the text seems to show that the enumeration of the eight exilarchs following Mar-Zutra III was added by two later hands—that of six by one, and that of two, Phinehas and Hazub, by another—and that the chronicle was composed in the first quarter of the 6th century.

For the editions and Latin translations of the Seder 'Olam Zuṭa, see Seder Olam Rabbah. It must be added that Abraham Zacuto inserted in his Yuḥasin the greater part of this chronicle, his text being more nearly correct than that of any other edition or manuscript. Zacuto's text was republished by A. Neubauer in his Mediæval Jewish Chronicles (ii. 67 et seq.), where the text of the Mantua edition also is given. The second part, dealing with the exilarchs, has been edited by Lazarus in Brüll's Jahrb. (x. 157 et seq.).