It is well known that the Qur’an draws from the Mishnah in its discussion of value of human life and the severity of killing a person, based on the story of Cain and Abel (Q 5:32; m. Sanhedrin 4:12). Earlier in the same surah (5:18), the Qur’an alludes to a different Mishnah (Avot 3:14), and a third allusion is found in Q 9:30-31 (drawing on Avot 4:12). These three examples, in two of the latest Medinan sections of the Qur’an, provide important evidence for the Jewish traditions encountered in seventh-century Arabia. The Qur’anic data therefore provides a useful reference point for investigation the form and distribution of the Mishnah in this crucial period of “rabbinization” throughout the Middle East.
MS Erfurt 12 (now MS Berlin 1220) is one of the two major extant manuscripts of the Tosefta. When describing the manuscript, Leiberman adopted the assessment of M. Lutzki which placed the writing of the manuscript in 12th century Ashkenaz. However, while studying the margin notes of the manuscript, I discovered new evidence that points to an earlier Italian origin of the manuscript. This lecture will present the results of a collaborative project with Prof. Dr. Ira Rabin in which we utilized ink analysis techniques to determine which margin notes were written by the original scribe and which were written by a second, later hand. These results will allow us to track the history of the manuscript from its origins in 11th century Italy to its journey to Erfurt and finally to its current locale in Berlin.
