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Mishnah Yoma

Mishnah

About this book
Chapter 7

The High Priest came to read the Torah. If he wished to read the Torah while still dressed in the fine linen garments, i.e., the priestly vestments he wore during the previous service, he may read wearing them; and if not he is permitted to read in a white robe of his own, which is not a priestly vestment. The synagogue attendant takes a Torah scroll and gives it to the head of the synagogue that stood on the Temple Mount; and the head of the synagogue gives it to the deputy High Priest, and the Deputy gives it to the High Priest, and the High Priest stands and receives the scroll from his hands. And he reads from the scroll the Torah portion⁠ beginning with the verse: “After the death” (Leviticus 16:1) and the portion beginning with the verse: “But on the tenth” (Leviticus 23:26), and furls the Torah scroll and places it on his bosom and says: More than what I have read before you is written here. The Torah portion beginning with the verse: “And on the tenth,” from the book of Numbers (29:7), he then reads by heart. And he recites after the reading the following eight blessings: Concerning the Torah: Who has given us the Torah of truth; and concerning the Temple service: Find favor in Your people Israel and accept the service in Your most holy House... for You alone do we serve with reverence; and concerning thanksgiving: We give thanks to You; and concerning pardon of iniquity: Pardon our iniquities on this Yom Kippur; and concerning the Temple in and of itself, which concludes: Blessed…Who chose the Temple; and concerning the Jewish People in and of itself, which concludes: Blessed…Who chose Israel; and concerning Jerusalem in and of itself, which concludes: Blessed…Who chose Jerusalem; and concerning the priests in and of themselves, which concludes: Blessed…Who chose the priests; and concerning the rest of the prayer, which concludes: Blessed…Who listens to prayer. The Mishna comments: One who sees the High Priest reading the Torah does not see the bull and goat that are burned; and one who sees the bull and goat that are burned does not see the High Priest reading the Torah. The Mishna explains: And this is not due to the fact that one is not permitted to see both, but because there was a distant path between them, and the performance of both of them is undertaken simultaneously. If the High Priest read the Torah in sacred white fine linen garments, he then sanctified his hands and feet as he did each time before removing the priestly vestments. He then removed the linen garments, descended to the ritual bath, and immersed. Afterward he ascended and dried himself with a towel, and they brought him the golden garments of the High Priesthood, and he dressed in them and sanctified his hands and feet. The mishna addresses those offerings whose sacrifice has still not been mentioned. The verses in Leviticus, chapter 16, detail the special offerings of the atonement service of Yom Kippur. Of those offerings, the ram of the High Priest and the ram of the people have still not been addressed. In addition to this, the additional offerings of Yom Kippur detailed in Numbers, chapter 29, have not yet been discussed. These include seven one-year-old lambs and a bull to be brought as a burnt-offering and a goat to be brought as a sin-offering. The mishna continues: He emerged and offered his ram and the ram of the people and the seven unblemished year-old lambs mandated to be offered that day. This is the statement of Rabbi Eliezer. Rabbi Akiva says: Those offerings were not sacrificed at this point; rather, they were sacrificed with the daily morning offering; and the bull of the Yom Kippur burnt-offering; and the goat whose services are performed outside of the Sanctuary, i.e., in the Temple courtyard, were sacrificed with the daily afternoon offering. After sacrificing these offerings, he sanctified his hands and feet and removed the golden garments, and he descended into the ritual bath and immersed and ascended and dried himself. They brought him the white garments again, and he dressed in them and sanctified his hands and feet. Afterward he entered the Holy of Holies to take out the incense spoon and the coal pan, which he had brought there earlier. He again sanctified his hands and feet and removed the white garments and descended to the ritual bath and immersed and ascended and dried himself with a towel. They brought him the golden garments, and he dressed in them and sanctified his hands and feet and entered the Sanctuary to burn the afternoon incense and to remove the ashes from the lamps, which signified the end of the day’s service. And he sanctified his hands and feet and removed the golden garments, and he descended to the ritual bath and immersed and ascended and dried himself. They then brought him his own clothing and he dressed, since the service was complete and Yom Kippur was over; and the people escort him to his house in deference to him. And the High Priest would make a feast for his loved ones and his friends when he emerged in peace from the Sanctuary. Throughout the year the High Priest serves in eight garments, and the common priest serves in four: In a tunic and trousers and a mitre and a belt. The High Priest adds another four garments beyond those worn by the common priest: A breastplate, and an ephod, and a robe, and a frontplate. When dressed in these eight garments, the High Priest may be consulted for the decision of the Urim VeTummim. And he may be consulted for the decision of the Urim VeTummim only on behalf of the king, or on behalf of the president of the court, or on behalf of one whom the community needs. Individual inquiries are not posed to the Urim VeTummim.

Texts in conversation

Compare Luke 4:16 and Mishnah Yoma 7

New Testament · Rabbinic

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Summary

Luke describes Jesus in the synagogue at Nazareth, reading from Isaiah after the reading of the Torah. This detail matches what later Rabbinic sources like the Mishnah describe as the custom of reading from the Prophets after the Torah.

Passages

Luke 4:16

New Testament
14 Then Jesus, in the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and news about him spread throughout the surrounding countryside. 15 He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by all. 16 Now Jesus came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, 18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and the regaining of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
75–85 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Luke

Mishnah Yoma 7

Rabbinic · Mishnah
The High Priest came to read the Torah. If he wished to read the Torah while still dressed in the fine linen garments, i.e., the priestly vestments he wore during the previous service, he may read wearing them; and if not he is permitted to read in a white robe of his own, which is not a priestly vestment. The synagogue attendant takes a Torah scroll and gives it to the head of the synagogue that stood on the Temple Mount; and the head of the synagogue gives it to the deputy High Priest, and the Deputy gives it to the High Priest, and the High Priest stands and receives the scroll from his hands. And he reads from the scroll the Torah portion beginning with the verse: “After the death” (Leviticus 16:1) and the portion beginning with the verse: “But on the tenth” (Leviticus 23:26), and furls the Torah scroll and places it on his bosom and says: More than what I have read before you is written here. The Torah portion beginning with the verse: “And on the tenth,” from the book of Numbers (29:7), he then reads by heart. And he recites after the reading the following eight blessings: Concerning the Torah: Who has given us the Torah of truth; and concerning the Temple service: Find favor in Your people Israel and accept the service in Your most holy House... for You alone do we serve with reverence; and concerning thanksgiving: We give thanks to You; and concerning pardon of iniquity: Pardon our iniquities on this Yom Kippur; and concerning the Temple in and of itself, which concludes: Blessed…Who chose the Temple; and concerning the Jewish People in and of itself, which concludes: Blessed…Who chose Israel; and concerning Jerusalem in and of itself, which concludes: Blessed…Who chose Jerusalem; and concerning the priests in and of themselves, which concludes: Blessed…Who chose the priests; and concerning the rest of the prayer, which concludes: Blessed…Who listens to prayer.
190–230 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Mishnah Yoma

References

"... For this study we want to investigate another primitive testimony preserved in the Third Gospel. Luke's story of Jesus in Nazareth (Luke 4:16-30) is the oldest account of the Jewish custom to follow the public reading of the Torah in the synagogue with a reading from the Prophets (the Haftarah). Apart from Luke's report (see Acts 13:14-15), the earliest Jewish reference to this practice is the third-century-CE compilation of oral traditions in the Mishna. The verbal presentation in Luke's account belies a haphazard report. Already the seventeenth-century Dutch scholar, Hugo Grotius, recognized the parallels between Jesus' actions (Luke 4:16) and the synagogue caretaker in Tosefta Sukkah 'The caretaker of the synagogue stood to read in the Torah' (Tosefta Sukkah 2:11). In recent years, Safrai has advanced the notion that the description that Jesus stood to read meant that he read first from the Torah ... The Evangelist assumed that his readers would have first-hand knowledge of Jewish customs. He thus felt no need to detail what was already understood - that Jesus stood to read first from the Torah, and only then to read from the prophet Isaiah. In addition, Safrai observed that Luke's account - in which Jesus alone is reported to read publicly - accords with other ancient witnesses (e.g. Mishnah Sotah 7.7-8; Mishna Yoma 7.1; Josephus, Antiquities 4.209; Philo, Prob. 81-82) ..."
R. Steven Notley, “Jesus' Jewish Hermeneutical Method in the Nazareth Synagogue,” in Early Christian Literature and Intertextuality, ed. Craig A. Evans and H. Daniel Zacharias, LNTS 392 (London: T&T Clark, 2009), 2:46–48.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Luke 4:16 and Mishnah Yoma 7

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