From the
period of the exile, a numerous and coherent body of Jews had
continued to subsist there; the Parthians and Sassanidae granted
them self-government; at their head was a native prince (Resh
Galutha,--can be clearly traced from 2nd century A.D. onwards)
who, when the Palestinian patriarchate came to an end, was left
without a rival. This remarkable relic of a Jewish commonwealth
continued to exist until the time of the Abassides. /2/
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2. See Noeldeke, Tabari; 68, 118, and Kremer, Culturgeschichte des
Orients unter den Chalifen, i. 188, ii. 176.
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Even as early as the beginning of the 3rd century A.D. certain
rabbins, at their head Abba Areka (Rab), had migrated from Palestine
and founded a settlement for learning in the law in Babylonia.
The schools there (at Pumbeditha, Sora, Nahardea) prospered greatly,
vied with those of Palestine, and continued to exist after the
cessation of the latter, when the patriarchate became extinct; thus
they had the last word in the settlement of doctrine.
Alongside of the settlement of tradition went another task, that
of fixing the letters of the consonantal text of the Bible (by the
Massora), its vowel pronunciation (by the punctuation), and its
translation into the Aramaic vernacular (Targum).
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