Seder Olam Zutta
Encyclopedia
Seder Olam Zutta is an anonymous chronicle from 804 CE, called "Zuṭa" (= "smaller," or "younger") to distinguish it from the older Seder 'Olam Rabbah. This work is based upon, and to a certain extent completes and continues, the older chronicle. It consists of two main parts: the first, comprising about three-fifths of the whole, deals with the chronology of the 50 generations from Adam to Jehoiakim
Jehoiakim
Jehoiakim .On Josiah's death, Jehoiakim's younger brother Jehoahaz was proclaimed king, but after three months pharaoh Necho II deposed him and replaced him with the eldest son, Eliakim, who adopted the name Jehoiakim and became king at the age of twenty-five...

 (who, according to this chronicle, was the father of the Babylonian exilarch
Exilarch
Exilarch refers to the leaders of the Diaspora Jewish community in Babylon following the deportation of King Jeconiah and his court into Babylonian exile after the first fall of Jerusalem in 597 BCE and augmented after the further deportations following the destruction...

), the second deals with 39 generations of exilarchs, beginning with Jehoiachin.

Genealogy of the Exilarchs

It is apparent that the object of this work was to show that the Babylonian exilarchs were direct descendants of David
David
David was the second king of the united Kingdom of Israel according to the Hebrew Bible and, according to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, an ancestor of Jesus Christ through both Saint Joseph and Mary...

. After a short introduction, taken from the Seder 'Olam Rabbah, giving the general chronology from Adam to the destruction of the Second Temple
Second Temple
The Jewish Second Temple was an important shrine which stood on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem between 516 BCE and 70 CE. It replaced the First Temple which was destroyed in 586 BCE, when the Jewish nation was exiled to Babylon...

—a period of 3,828 years—and stating the number of years which elapsed between the most important events, such as between the Flood and the confusion of tongues, etc., the chronology recommences with Adam. The Seder 'Olam Zuṭa is more complete at this point than the larger work, as it gives the duration of the generations between Adam and Abraham
Abraham
Abraham , whose birth name was Abram, is the eponym of the Abrahamic religions, among which are Judaism, Christianity and Islam...

, which is lacking in the Seder 'Olam Rabbah. It gives also the lifetime of each of Jacob
Jacob
Jacob "heel" or "leg-puller"), also later known as Israel , as described in the Hebrew Bible, the Talmud, the New Testament and the Qur'an was the third patriarch of the Hebrew people with whom God made a covenant, and ancestor of the tribes of Israel, which were named after his descendants.In the...

's twelve sons as recorded by tradition. Otherwise it merely enumerates the generations.

From David onward it gives the names of the high priests and prophets who lived in the time of each king. Thus, for instance, David had Abiathar
Abiathar
Abiathar , in the Hebrew Bible, son of Achimelech or Ahijah, High Priest at Nob, the fourth in descent from Eli and the last of Eli's House...

 as high priest, and Nathan
Nathan (Prophet)
Nathan the Prophet was a court prophet who lived in the time of King David and Queen Bathsheba. He came to David to reprimand him over his committing adultery with Bathsheba while she was the wife of Uriah the Hittite whose death the King had also arranged to hide his previous transgression.His...

 and Gad as prophets; Solomon
Solomon
Solomon , according to the Book of Kings and the Book of Chronicles, a King of Israel and according to the Talmud one of the 48 prophets, is identified as the son of David, also called Jedidiah in 2 Samuel 12:25, and is described as the third king of the United Monarchy, and the final king before...

, who ascended the throne at the age of three, had Zadok
Zadok
Zadok was a high priest of the Israelites in Jerusalem after it was conquered by David.Zadok may also refer to:*Rabbi Zadok, tanna of the 1st-century CE*Zadok the Priest, an 18th-century coronation anthem by Handel...

 for high priest, and Jonathan, Iddo, and Ahijah
Ahijah
Ahijah is a name of several Biblical individuals:# Ahijah the Shilonite, the Biblical prophet who divided the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah.# One of the sons of Bela . In AV called "Ahiah."...

 as prophets. In this way it completes the list of the high priests enumerated in et seq. Shallum
Shallum
Shallum was the name of several people of the Old Testament.*Shallum of Israel, the king Israel* King of Judah also known as Jehoahaz* Keeper of the temple vestments in the reign of Josiah...

 (verses 38-39) officiated in the time of Amon
Amon of Judah
Amon was the king of Judah who succeeded his father Manasseh of Judah on the throne according to the Bible. His mother was Meshullemeth, daughter of Haruz of Jotbah. He was married to Jedidah, the daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath....

, and between the former and Azariah
Azariah (high priest)
Azariah was the third High Priest after Zadok. He was one of the "princes" during the reign of Solomon, as mentioned in , where he is called "son of Zadok", although he is elsewhere identified as the son of Ahimaaz . Although his name appears in the list of the Zadokite dynasty there is no direct...

, who served in the time of Rehoboam
Rehoboam
Rehoboam was initially king of the United Monarchy of Israel but after the ten northern tribes of Israel rebelled in 932/931 BC to form the independent Kingdom of Israel he was king of the Kingdom of Judah, or southern kingdom. He was a son of Solomon and a grandson of David...

, there were 12 high priests. But in I Chron. (l.c.) only five high priests are enumerated, whose names are not found at all among those given by the Seder 'Olam Zuṭa. The author of the work divided these 50 generations into five series, each of 10 generations, the last of each series being, respectively, Noah
Noah
Noah was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the tenth and last of the antediluvian Patriarchs. The biblical story of Noah is contained in chapters 6–9 of the book of Genesis, where he saves his family and representatives of all animals from the flood by constructing an ark...

, Abraham
Abraham
Abraham , whose birth name was Abram, is the eponym of the Abrahamic religions, among which are Judaism, Christianity and Islam...

, Boaz
Boaz
Boaz is a major figure in The Book of Ruth in the Bible. The term is found 24 times in the Scriptures, being two in Greek ....

, Ahaziah
Ahaziah of Judah
Ahaziah of Judah was king of Judah, and the son of Jehoram and Athaliah, the daughter of king Ahab of Israel. He is also called Jehoahaz ....

, and Jehoiakim
Jehoiakim
Jehoiakim .On Josiah's death, Jehoiakim's younger brother Jehoahaz was proclaimed king, but after three months pharaoh Necho II deposed him and replaced him with the eldest son, Eliakim, who adopted the name Jehoiakim and became king at the age of twenty-five...

.

The Descendants of Jehoiachin

The second part of the work begins with the statement that Jehoiachin, who reigned only three months and ten days, was carried into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar
Nebuchadnezzar
Nebuchadnezzar was the name of several kings of Babylonia.* Nebuchadnezzar I, who ruled the Babylonian Empire in the 12th century BC* Nebuchadnezzar II , the Babylonian ruler mentioned in the biblical Book of Daniel...

 (comp. ; ). He was afterward given high rank by Evil-merodach, thus becoming the first prince of the Captivity. Correcting the somewhat confused genealogical account of , the Seder 'Olam Zuṭa declares that Jehoiachin had four sons, the eldest of whom was Shealtiel
Shealtiel
Shealtiel or Greek-derived variant Salathiel was the son of Jeconiah, king of Judah. The Gospels also list Shealtiel as the son of Jeconiah, while lists him as the son of an otherwise unknown man named Neri...

, who succeeded his father.

It is worthwhile noting that, according to this chronicle, Darius conquered Babylon
Babylon
Babylon was an Akkadian city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which are found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad...

 after it had been supreme for 70 years, beginning with the reign of Nebuchadnezzar
Nebuchadnezzar
Nebuchadnezzar was the name of several kings of Babylonia.* Nebuchadnezzar I, who ruled the Babylonian Empire in the 12th century BC* Nebuchadnezzar II , the Babylonian ruler mentioned in the biblical Book of Daniel...

, and 52 years after the destruction of the First Temple. Zerubbabel
Zerubbabel
Zerubbabel was a governor of the Persian Province of Judah and the grandson of Jehoiachin, penultimate king of Judah. Zerubbabel led the first group of Jews, numbering 42,360, who returned from the Babylonian Captivity in the first year of Cyrus, King of Persia . The date is generally thought to...

, Shealtiel's son, who departed for Jerusalem in the first year of the reign of Cyrus
Cyrus the Great
Cyrus II of Persia , commonly known as Cyrus the Great, also known as Cyrus the Elder, was the founder of the Achaemenid Empire. Under his rule, the empire embraced all the previous civilized states of the ancient Near East, expanded vastly and eventually conquered most of Southwest Asia and much...

, returned to Babylon after the Temple and the walls of Jerusalem had been rebuilt by Ezra
Ezra
Ezra , also called Ezra the Scribe and Ezra the Priest in the Book of Ezra. According to the Hebrew Bible he returned from the Babylonian exile and reintroduced the Torah in Jerusalem...

, and succeeded his father in the exilarchate.

Then the chronicle enumerates the successive exilarchs, the account being in part taken from et seq., but differing greatly from the text of the latter. In fact, the first, 13th, 16th, 18th, and 19th exilarchs (the last one being Shaphat
Shaphat
Shaphat of Abel-meholah: a character in the Bible, father of Elisha and son of Adlai.And Jehu the son of Nimshi shalt thou anoint to be king over Israel: and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abelmeholah shalt thou anoint to be prophet in thy room.And it shall come to pass, that him that escapeth the...

, the father of Anan
Anan
Anan may mean:Places:* Anan, Haute-Garonne, a commune in the Haute-Garonne département, in France* Anan, Nagano, a town located in Shimoina District, Nagano, Japan* Anan, Tokushima , a city in Tokushima, JapanPeople* Che Anan, king of Champa...

), whose lives extended over a period of more than 600 years, are mentioned in I Chron. (l.c.) not as immediate successors, but as related individuals, and in contemporaneous groups. Sometimes, too, the father in I Chronicles is the son in the Seder 'Olam Zuṭa.

With the deaths of Haggai
Haggai
Haggai was a Hebrew prophet during the building of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, and one of the twelve minor prophets in the Hebrew Bible and the author of the Book of Haggai. His name means "my holiday"...

, Zechariah, and Malachi
Malachi
Malachi, Malachias or Mal'achi was a Jewish prophet in the Hebrew Bible. He had two brothers, Nathaniel and Josiah. Malachi was the writer of the Book of Malachi, the last book of the Neviim section in the Jewish Tanakh...

—more exactly, in the 52nd year of the Persian domination, or year 3442 of the creation—prophecy ceased and the period of the wise men ("ḥakamim") began. From Hananiah
Hananiah
Hananiah may refer to:*Hananiah, son of Zerubbabel, exilarch*Hananiah of the Book of Daniel*Hananiah , 4th century BC, governor of Samaria under the Achaemenid Empire...

 (Zerubbabel
Zerubbabel
Zerubbabel was a governor of the Persian Province of Judah and the grandson of Jehoiachin, penultimate king of Judah. Zerubbabel led the first group of Jews, numbering 42,360, who returned from the Babylonian Captivity in the first year of Cyrus, King of Persia . The date is generally thought to...

's grandson) onward every exilarch is indicated as having been guided by wise men. The names of the kings that reigned over Judea
Judea
Judea or Judæa was the name of the mountainous southern part of the historic Land of Israel from the 8th century BCE to the 2nd century CE, when Roman Judea was renamed Syria Palaestina following the Jewish Bar Kokhba revolt.-Etymology:The...

 from Alexander the Great to Roman Palaestina during the destruction of the Second Temple
Second Temple
The Jewish Second Temple was an important shrine which stood on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem between 516 BCE and 70 CE. It replaced the First Temple which was destroyed in 586 BCE, when the Jewish nation was exiled to Babylon...

 are given. Like the Seder 'Olam Rabbah, this chronicle gives the reigns of the Maccabees
Maccabees
The Maccabees were a Jewish rebel army who took control of Judea, which had been a client state of the Seleucid Empire. They founded the Hasmonean dynasty, which ruled from 164 BCE to 63 BCE, reasserting the Jewish religion, expanding the boundaries of the Land of Israel and reducing the influence...

 and the Herods
Herodian Dynasty
The Herodian Dynasty was a Jewish dynasty of Idumean descent, client Kings of Roman Judaea Province between 37 BCE and 92 CE.- Origin :During the time of the Hasmonean ruler John Hyrcanus 134-104 BCE, Israel conquered Edom and forced the Edomites to convert to Judaism.The Edomites were integrated...

 as covering 103 years each. It may be stated that the Herodian dynasty consisted, according to the Seder 'Olam Zuṭa, of three kings only—Herod
Herod the Great
Herod , also known as Herod the Great , was a Roman client king of Judea. His epithet of "the Great" is widely disputed as he is described as "a madman who murdered his own family and a great many rabbis." He is also known for his colossal building projects in Jerusalem and elsewhere, including his...

, Agrippa
Agrippa I
Agrippa I also known as Herod Agrippa or simply Herod , King of the Jews, was the grandson of Herod the Great, and son of Aristobulus IV and Berenice. His original name was Marcus Julius Agrippa, so named in honour of Roman statesman Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, and he is the king named Herod in the...

, and Monobaz
Monobaz II
Monobaz II or Monobaz bar Monobaz was the son of Helena of Adiabene and Monobaz I. Like his younger brother Izates bar Monobaz and his mother, Monobaz became a convert to Judaism. He ruled as king of Adiabene after the death of his brother Izates around 55 CE...

; at the end of Monobaz's reign and during the time of the 11th exilarch, Shechaniah, the son of Shemaiah, the Romans
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

 destroyed the Temple. Further, from Nahum
Nahum
Nahum was a minor prophet whose prophecy is recorded in the Hebrew Bible. His book comes in chronological order between Micah and Habakkuk in the Bible. He wrote about the end of the Assyrian Empire, and its capital city, Nineveh, in a vivid poetic style....

, the 17th exilarch, the names are given of the wise men, probably the chiefs of the academy, who assisted the exilarchs. With Rab Huna, 29th exilarch, the direct male line of descent from David
David
David was the second king of the united Kingdom of Israel according to the Hebrew Bible and, according to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, an ancestor of Jesus Christ through both Saint Joseph and Mary...

 terminated. The exilarchs following are stated to have been descendants of Rab Huna through his daughter, the wife of R. Hananiah, the head of the yeshibah, whose marriage is related at length.

After having stated that Mar Zuṭra II, the 13th exilarch, was executed in the year 478 C.E., and that his posthumous son Mar-Zutra III betook himself, in the year 4280 of the Creation (= 520 C.E.), to Palaestina Prima, where he became chief of the Sanhedrin
Sanhedrin
The Sanhedrin was an assembly of twenty-three judges appointed in every city in the Biblical Land of Israel.The Great Sanhedrin was the supreme court of ancient Israel made of 71 members...

, the chronicle mentions eight succeeding exilarchs, the last one being Rab Ḥaẓub, son of Rab Phinehas. Apart from certain misstatements, this part contains many authenticated facts, and is therefore considered by modern scholars as a document of historical value. It may be seen that the lives of 31 exilarchs covered a period of more than 900 years, averaging three exilarchs to a century. This might help to determine the time at which the Seder 'Olam Zuṭa was written, for the 39th exilarch, according to this estimate, would have lived at the end of the 8th century. The additions of the copyists, however, render this task difficult.

In a fragment of a chronicle published by A. Neubauer (M. J. C. i. 197) there is a sentence, regarding the reign of John Hyrcanus
John Hyrcanus
John Hyrcanus was a Hasmonean leader of the 2nd century BC.-Name:...

, which is found in the Seder 'Olam Zuṭa but is referred to the "Seder 'Olam de-Rabbanan." Lazarus (Brüll's Jahrb. x. 8) supposes that after "de-Rabbanan" the word "Sabura'e" should be inserted, as a chronicle under the title "Seder 'Olam de-Rabbanan Sabura'e" is mentioned by Baruch b. Isaac of Worms (Sefer ha-Terumah, Hilkot Abodah Zarah, § 135) and by Moses of Coucy (Sefer Miẓwot Gadol, ii. 866), in connection with the statement that the year 4564 (= 804 C.E.) was a Sabbatical year. This induced many modern scholars, as H. Grätz, Steinschneider, and Zunz
Zunz
Zunz, Zuntz is a Yiddish surname: , Belgian pharmacologist* Leopold Zunz , German Reform rabbi* Gerhard Jack Zunz , British civil engineer- Zuntz :* Nathan Zuntz , German physiologist...

, to identify the "Seder 'Olam Zuṭa" with the "Seder 'Olam de Rabbanan Sabura'e."

Time of redaction

As to the determination of the time of its redaction, there have existed many differences of opinion among authorities. Zunz
Zunz
Zunz, Zuntz is a Yiddish surname: , Belgian pharmacologist* Leopold Zunz , German Reform rabbi* Gerhard Jack Zunz , British civil engineer- Zuntz :* Nathan Zuntz , German physiologist...

 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
Hazub
Rab Hazub was the last prince of the Davidic Dynasty mentioned in the Seder Olam Zutta. He was the son of Rab Phinehas. He was overthrown by Fatimid caliph Al-Muizz Lideenillah, who captured Jerusalem in 969....

, 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
Seder Olam Rabbah
Seder Olam Rabbah is a 2nd century CE Hebrew language chronology detailing the dates of biblical events from the Creation to Alexander the Great's conquest of Persia...

. It must be added that Abraham Zacuto
Abraham Zacuto
Abraham Zacuto was a Sephardi Jewish astronomer, astrologer, mathematician and historian who served as Royal Astronomer in the 15th century to King John II of Portugal. The crater Zagut on the Moon is named after him....

 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.).

Jewish Encyclopedia bibliography

In addition to the sources mentioned in the article:
  • Heinrich Graetz
    Heinrich Graetz
    Heinrich Graetz was amongst the first historians to write a comprehensive history of the Jewish people from a Jewish perspective....

    , Geschichte der Juden 3d ed., vol. v., note 1
  • Moritz Steinschneider
    Moritz Steinschneider
    Moritz Steinschneider was a Bohemian bibliographer and Orientalist. He received his early instruction in Hebrew from his father, Jacob Steinschneider , who was not only an expert Talmudist, but was also well versed in secular science...

    , Catalogus Librorum Hebræorum in Bibliotheca Bodleiana. Berlin, 1852-60. cols. 1435-1436
  • Winter and Wünsche, Die Jüdische Litteratur, iii. 304 et seq.
  • Leopold Zunz
    Leopold Zunz
    Leopold Zunz was a German Reform rabbi and writer, the founder of what has been termed "Jewish Studies" or "Judaic Studies" , the critical investigation of Jewish literature, hymnology and ritual...

    , Gottesdienstliche Vorträge der Juden, pp. 135 et seq.

External links

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