Aquila of Sinope (2nd century CE) was a native of Pontus, celebrated for a very literal and

accurate translation of the Old Testament into Greek.

Only fragments of this translation have survived in what remains of fragmentary documents taken
from the 1st and 2nd Book of Kings, and from the Psalms, found in the old Cairo Geniza in Fostat
(Egypt), while excerpts taken from the Hexapla written in the glosses of certain manuscripts of the
Septuagint were collected earlier and published by Frederick Field in his momentous work,
Origenis Hexaplorum qu Supersunt, Oxford, 1875.[1] So, too, Aquila's Aramaic Targum
(translation) of the Pentateuch has been preserved by Jews unto this very day, and is appended
to most printed Hebrew texts of the Five Books of Moses. Epiphanius (De Ponderibus et
Mensuris, chap. xiii-xvi.; ed. Migne, ii. 259-264) preserves a tradition that he was a kinsman of the
Emperor Hadrian, who employed him in rebuilding Jerusalem (as Aelia Capitolina), and that
Aquila was converted to Christianity but, on being reproved for practicing astrology, 'apostatized'
to Judaism.[2] He is said also to have been a disciple of Rabbi Akiva (d. ca. 132 CE).
In Jewish writings he is referred to as ( Aquilas), although he is also known by its Hebrew
corruption, Onkelos. Aquila's version is said to have been used in place of the Septuagint in
Greek-speaking synagogues. The Christians generally disliked it, alleging that it rendered the
Messianic passages incorrectly, but Jerome and Origen speak in its praise. Origen incorporated it
in his Hexapla.
It was thought that this was the only copy extant, but in 1897 fragments of two codices were
brought to the Cambridge University Library. These have been published: the fragments AqBurkitt
containing 1 Kings xx. 7-17; 2 Kings xxiii. 12-27 by F. C. Burkitt in 1897,those containing parts of
Psalms xc.-ciii. (signed as AqTaylor) by C. Taylor in 1899. See F. C. Burkitt's article in the Jewish
Encyclopaedia.
Midrash Rabba or Midrash Rabbah can refer to part of or the collective whole of aggadic
midrashim on the books of the Tanach, generally having the term "Rabbah" ( ), meaning
"great," as part of their name. These midrashim are as follows:
Genesis Rabbah
Exodus Rabbah
Leviticus Rabbah
Numbers Rabbah
Deuteronomy Rabbah
Canticles Rabbah
Ruth Rabbah
Esther Rabbah
Lamentations Rabbah
Ecclesiastes Rabbah
The designation "Rabbah" was first applied to the midrash to Genesis, and then applied to the
midrashim to the other books of the Pentateuch, as Wayik ra Rabbah, Shemot Rabbah, etc.,
which were copied, with Bereshit Rabbah, even in (later) manuscripts. This collection eventually
came to be called "Midrash Rabbot" (i.e., "Midrash of the Rabbot"), to which the midrashim most
in use during divine serviceto Canticles, Book of Ruth, Book of Esther, Lamentations, and
Ecclesiasteswere subsequently added.
Thus the Venice edition of 1545, in which the midrashim to the Pentateuch and to the Five Rolls
were for the first time printed together, has on the title-page of the first part the words "Midrash
Rabbot 'al H amishshah Humshe Torah" (Midrash Rabbah to the Five Books of the Torah), and on
that of the second part "Midrash H amesh Megillot Rabbeta" (Midrash Rabbah of the Five
Megillot). The editio princeps of the midrashim to the Pentateuch (Constantinople, 1512) begins

with the words "Be-shem El athil Bereshit Rabba" (In the name of God I shall begin Bereshit
Rabbah), and the title of the editio princeps of the midrashim to the Five Rolls (Pesaro, 1519)
reads "Midrash H amesh Megillot" (Midrash of the Five Megillot). Still more inexact and misleading
is the term "Midrash Rabbah to the Five Books of the Pentateuch and the Five Rolls," as found on
the title-page of the two parts in the much-used Wilna edition. After Zunz, it is not necessary to
point out that the Midrash Rabbah consists of 10 entirely different midrashim.
Solomon Schechter (Hebrew: 7 ; December 1847 19 November 1915) was
a Moldavian-born Romanian rabbi, academic scholar, and educator, most famous for his roles as
founder and President of the United Synagogue of America, President of the Jewish Theological
Seminary of America, and architect of the American Conservative Jewish movement.
Contents [hide]
1 Early life
2 Academic career
3 American Jewish community
4 Religious and cultural beliefs
5 Legacy
6 Bibliography
7 References
8 Further reading
9 External links
Early life[edit]
Born in Focani, Moldavia (now Romania) to a Jewish Romanian family adhering to the Chabad
Hasidic branch, he attended yeshivas in Eastern Europe. Schechter received his early education
from his father who was a shochet ("ritual slaughterer"). Reportedly, he learned to read Hebrew
by age 3, and by 5 mastered Chumash. He went to a yeshiva in Piatra Neam at age 10 and at
age thirteen studied with one of the major Talmudic scholars, Rabbi Joseph Saul Nathanson of
Lemberg.[1] In his 20s, he went to the Rabbinical College in Vienna, where he studied under the
more modern Talmudic scholar Meir Friedmann, before moving on in 1879 to undertake further
studies at the Berlin Hochschule fr die Wissenschaft des Judentums and at the University of
Berlin. Three years later he was invited to the UK, to be tutor of rabbinics under Claude
Montefiore in London.
Academic career[edit]
In 1890, after the death of Solomon Marcus Schiller-Szinessy, he was appointed to the faculty at
Cambridge University, serving as a lecturer in Talmudics and reader in Rabbinics.[2] To this day,
the students of the Cambridge University Jewish Society hold an annual Solomon Schechter
Memorial Lecture.
His greatest academic fame came from his excavation in 1896 of the papers of the Cairo Geniza,
an extraordinary collection of over 100,000 pages of rare Hebrew religious manuscripts and
medieval Jewish texts that were preserved at an Egyptian synagogue. The find revolutionized the
study of Medieval Judaism.
Jacob Saphir was the first Jewish researcher to recognize the significance of the Cairo Geniza,
as well as the first to publicize the existence of the Midrash ha-Gadol. Schechter was alerted to
the existence of the Geniza's papers in May 1896 by two Scottish sisters, Mrs. Lewis and Mrs.
Gibson, who showed him some leaves from the Geniza that contained the Hebrew text of Sirach,
which had for centuries only been known in Greek and Latin translation.[3] Letters, written at
Schechter's prompting, by Agnes Smith to The Athenaeum and The Academy quickly revealed
the existence of another nine leaves of the same manuscript in the possession of Archibald
Sayce at Oxford University.[4] Schechter quickly found support for another expedition to the Cairo
Geniza, and arrived there in December 1896 with an introduction from the Chief Rabbi, Hermann
Adler, to the Chief Rabbi of Cairo, Aaron Raphael Ben Shim'on.[5] He carefully selected for the

Cambridge University Library a trove three times the size of any other collection: this is now part
of the Taylor-Schechter Collection. The find was instrumental in Schechter resolving a dispute
with David Margoliouth as to the likely Hebrew language origins of Sirach.[6]
Charles Taylor took a great interest in Solomon Schechter's work in Cairo, and the genizah
fragments presented to the University of Cambridge are known as the Taylor-Schechter
Collection.[7] He was joint editor with Schechter of The Wisdom of Ben Sira, 1899. He published
separately Cairo Genizah Palimpsests, 1900.
He became a Professor of Hebrew at University College London in 1899 and remained until 1902
when he moved to America and was replaced by Israel Abrahams.