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Ḥanina B. Iddi

The 1901 Jewish Encyclopedia

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Babylonian scholar of the third century. He was skilled in both Halakah and Haggadah; Adda B. Ahabah appears to have beenhis teacher in the former (Pes. 75a; 'Ab. Zarah 40a); in the latter he seems to have been a pupil of Tanḥum b. Ḥiyya. From Tanḥum, Ḥanina received the following illustration of the relative positions of the prophet and the elder (teacher, sage): "A king delegated two commissioners; with respect to one he wrote, 'Unless he exhibits to you my signature and my seal, credit him not'; with reference to the other he wrote, 'Even if he shows you neither my signature nor my seal, credit him.' So it is said regarding the prophet: '. . . and giveth thee a sign or a wonder' [Deuteronomy 13:2 (A.V. 1)]: while of the sages it is said: 'According to the sentence of the law which they shall teach thee, and according to the judgment which they shall tell thee, thou shalt do'" (Deuteronomy 17:11; Yer. Ber. 1:3b; Yer. Sanh. 11:30b; Yer. 'Ab. Zarah 2:41c; Cant. R. 1:2). In the Book of Isaiah (the future: "will say"), instead of the usual ("saith"), is used eight times (1:11,18; 33:10; 1, 25; 41:21, twice; 66:9). This peculiarity, according to Ḥanina, contains an allusion to the corresponding number of prophets that were to appear after the destruction of the (first) Temple: Joel, Amos, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, Ezekiel, and Jeremiah (Pesiḳ. 16:128b; see Buber ad loc.). An elder namesake of Ḥanina was a tanna, contemporary of AḤai b. Josiah, with whom he discussed a halakic midrash (Mek., Mishpaṭim,; comp. Sifra, Ḳedoshim, 9:6,14).