A Timeline of Jewish Texts

How did the different genres of Jewish texts develop chronologically?

By Jeffrey Spitzer

This timeline does not try to record every major document, but rather, it focuses on a single representative document for a particular century. Occasionally, authors are listed rather than a single work. Documents which have not been preserved or seen as authoritative by later Jews, are marked with an asterisk (*).

	Bible	Talmud	Law Codes	Liturgy	Thought and Ethics	Mysticism	History
Biblical Precedents			Deuteronomy	Psalms	Proverbs	Ezekiel ch. 1	Samuel, Kings
300 BCE					*Ben Sira
200 BCE	Septuagint--Greek Translation		*Jubilees			*Book of Enoch	*Demetrius the Chronographer
100 BCE			*Qumran Manual of Discipline		*Aristobulos of Paneas		*1-2 Maccabees
1				*Qumran Angelic Liturgy
100	*Philo's Allegorical Interpretation			Shemoneh Esreh			*Josephus Antiquities
200				Discussion of intention in prayer			Seder Olam Rabbah
300	Mekhilta on Exodus	Mishnah			Pirkei Avot (part of Mishnah)
400	Genesis Rabba	Tosefta			Avot d'Rabbi Natan
500		Talmud Yerushalmi				Talmudic Pardes Stories
600	Midrash Tanhuma	Babylonian Talmud		Piyyut of Yannai		Sefer Yetzirah
700	Vowels in copies of Biblical texts	Saboraic Glosses to the Talmud	She'iltot of Ahai of Shabha	Piyyut of Eleazar haKallir
800		Tractate Soferim	Halakhot Pesukot			Shiur Komah	Seder Olam Zutta
900	*Karaite Benjamin Nahawendi		Halakhot Gedolot	Seder Rav Amram Gaon
1000	Sa'adia's Arabic Summary	Gershom b. Yehudah of Mainz		Sa'adia's Siddur	Sa'adia's Emunot v'Deot	Sefer Hakhmoni on S. Yetzirah	Iggeret of Sherira Gaon
1100	Rashi's Commentary	Rashi's Commentary	Alfasi's Sefer Halakhot	Mahzor Vitry	Bahya's Hovot haLevavot		Chronicle of Ahimaaz
1200	Abraham Ibn Ezra	Rabbenu Tam and Tosafists	Maimonides Mishneh Torah	Piyyut of Kalonymous Family	Yehudah HaLevy's Kuzari	Sefer haBahir	Ibn Daud's Sefer haKabbalah
1300	Ramban	Tosafot and Hiddushim of Maharam	Asher b. Yehiel-Piskei haRosh	Rokeach Commentary	Sefer Hasidim	Zohar
1400	Ralbag	Rabbenu Nissim	Yaakov b. Asher's Arba'ah Turim	Sefer Abudarham
1500	Abarbanel	Bartenura Mishnah Commentary	Moellin's Sefer haMaharil		Yosef Albo's Sefer ha'Ikkarim	Cordovero's Tomer Devorah	Zacuto's Sefer haYuhasin
1600	Mikra'ot Gedolot printed	MaHaRShal's Yam shel Shlomo	Karo and Isserles's Shulhan Arukh	Alkabetz writes L'kha Dodi			Azaria de Rossi's Meor Einayim
1700	M. Alshekh's Torat Moshe published	Samuel Edels "Maharsha"	Joel Sirkes' Bayit Hadash on the Tur		Spinoza's Tractatus	Horowitz's Shnei Luchot haBrit	Conforte's Koreh haDorot
1800	Me'am Loez	Vilna Gaon's Text emmendations	Danzig's Hayyei Adam	Emden's Siddur Beit Yaakov	Sh. Zalman of Lyady's Tanya	M.H.Luzzato's Pitchei Hokhmah	Amelander's She'erit Yisrael
1900	Commentary of S.D. Luzzatto	Hiddushim of Akiva Eiger	Epstein's Arukh haShulchan	Baer's Avodat Yisrael	Kagan's Hafetz Hayyim		Graetz's History of the Jews
2000	Nehama Leibowitz' Studies	Lieberman's Tosefta Kifshutah	Feinstein's Igrot Moshe	Additions for Israel's Independence	Kaplan's Judaism as Civilization		Baron's Soc. & Religious History
	Bible	Talmud	Law Codes	Liturgy	Thought and Ethics	Mysticism	History

Jeffrey Spitzer is Chair of the Department of Talmud and Rabbinics at Gann Academy, The New Jewish High School, Waltham, Mass., and a member of the Institute's Tichon Fellows Program.