Religious authority in the mishnah: Social science perspectives on the emerging role of scholars

The systematic social constructions of societies include an analysis of authority/power within the community to identify the basics of social control, social organization, equilibrium, and continuity. This chapter focuses on politics and religious authority presented in the Mishnah, outlines some key social science questions posed in part by Max Weber and Emile Durkheim, and applies them to the explication of Mishnaic texts. The Mishnah directly dealt with what the Rabbis thought should be the source of religious authority in a changed social/political context. Underlying the Mishnaic conception of religious authority is a fundamental question: How did the orally transmitted Mishnah, when organized in written form around the end of the second century and beginning of the third century, respond to the absence of a central religious sanctuary and confront the social challenges of an altered political and administrative control system? Replacing priests and prophets, the role of religious authority shifted to the Rabbis/scholars, the authors of the emergent written text. They became the preservers and interpreters of Judaism. In turn, religious authority as portrayed in the Mishnah had to confront several critical issues: the emergence of disputes and disagreements in the absence of a central authority; the multiple paths to political legitimacy; the generational transmission of authority. These issues are reviewed with attention to evidence in the multiple volumes of the Mishnah.