Ibn Ezra mentionsR. Nathanas the author of the Baraita.[2]Zunzshowed, by referring to a number of passages in the Talmud, that thetannaR. Nathan, in bothhalakhahandaggadah,was accustomed to group things arithmetically, and to arrange his sayings accordingly. On this basis, Zunz conjectured that "this lost work of R. Nathan contained a large portion of hisMishnah,and was arranged in rubrics from one to forty-nine; so that each rubric, under the introductory formula "Middah," mentioned halakhic, aggadic, and, in general, scientific subjects which belonged in that particular place in regard to number ".[3]
From the few fragments of this Baraita preserved by the above-mentioned authors, only one fact pertaining to its character can be ascertained, viz., that it containedaggadic[4]as well ashalakhicmatter, especially halakhic topic which involve exact measurement; for instance, the measurement of theTabernacleand its furnishings.[5]If from these short fragments an opinion could be formed concerning the composition of the Baraita, Zunz's assumption would be justified that it contained aggadah and halakhah numerically arranged. Another assumption of his, however, that it represents the "Mishnat R. Nathan" mentioned elsewhere, is highly improbable;R. Nathan's Mishnah was in all likelihood only a version ofAkiva's Mishnah differing from the authoritative Mishnah. Against Zunz's opinion, compareEliakim Milsahagi.[6]
Steinschneiderbelieved that he had put an end to all conjecture concerning the Baraita through a happy find. In the introduction to an edition ofMishnat ha-Middot,[7]he maintains that this mathematical work, edited by him, is identical with the Baraita under consideration. Were this the case, the Baraita would be a product of the 9th or, at earliest the 8th century, and its birthplace would have to beBabylonia.For, although the scientific terminology of this, the oldest, mathematical work of theJewsshows its origin to have been in a time previous toArabicinfluences on Jewish scholarship, yet expressions like חץ = Arabic סהם ( "arrow" ) forsinus versus,or משיחה = Arabic מסאחה for measure, area, show that the work could not have been written before the contact of the Jews with the Arabs.
But Steinschneider's assumption can hardly be supported.Mishnat ha-Middothas nothing in common with the Baraita cited by the old scholars under that name: for the citations leave no doubt that the Baraita, even in its mathematical parts, was founded on theBible;whereas theMishnat ha-Middotis a purely secular work, and, possibly, it drew upon the same source as didMohammed b. Musa,the oldest Arabic mathematician. The argument that theMishnat ha-Middothas not been preserved in its entirety, and that in its original form there were references to the Bible for special points, is of no weight, since it is absolutely incomprehensible thataggadicorhalakhicmatter should fit into the frame of the work as it now is.
The same reason demolishes the hypothesis of the German translator of theMishnat ha-Middot,[8]who assumes that there was aMishnahwith theGemaraon it, and that citations of the old scholars refer to the Gemara, whereas the printed text represents the Mishnah (compare thetannaR. Nathan,andBaraita on the Erection of the Tabernacle).
^Mishnat ha-Middot, die Erste Geometrische Schrift in Hebräischer Sprache(Berlin, 1864)
^Abhandlung zur Geschichte d. Mathematik,in Supplement toZeitschrift für Mathematik und Physik,1880; H. Schapira,Mishnat ha-Midoth... ins Deutsche Uebersetzt
Abraham b. Solomon of Wilna, in the introduction to his edition of Aggadat Bereshit;
idem, Rab Pe'olim, pp. 86 et seq.;
S. Buber,Yeri'ot Shelomoh, pp. 22, 23, Warsaw, 1896;
Grünhut,in Israelitische Monatsschrift (scientific supplement to Jüdische Presse), vii. 30–31, 1898;
idem, Sefer ha-Liḳḳutim, ii. 3 et seq. (Grünhut believes that he found more citations from the present Baraita inYalḳuḳ;the proofs for his assumption are not convincing, at least not for all the passages in Yalḳuṭ, the source of which he considers to be the Baraita);
Zunz, Schapira, and Steinschneider, as cited above;
A. Geiger,in Wissenschaftliche, Zeitschrift für Jüdische Theologie, vi. 25–30;
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain:Singer, Isidore;et al., eds. (1901–1906)."Baraita of the Forty-nine Rules".The Jewish Encyclopedia.New York: Funk & Wagnalls.