text · B0053
Seder Olam Zuta סדר עולם זוטא
The little chronicle with one big claim: that the exilarchs of Bavel sit in an unbroken Davidic line from Yehoyachin. It is a chain-of-transmission document — royal descent rather than Torah reception — and this atlas already leans on it warily: it is the source cited, and deliberately not fully trusted, for the exilarchate's early roster (Reshut HaGolah).
I. Who
- Hebrew
- סדר עולם זוטא
- Also known as
- Seder Olam Zutta
- Era
- geonim
II. When
- Traditional
- anonymous chronicle; its exilarch line closes in the early savoraic era, the received form is geonic
- Civil (computed)
- 4260–4570 AM · 500–810 CE
- Academic
- received form conventionally dated c. 803–early 9th c. CE; the core exilarch list possibly 6th c.
- Duration
- ≈310 years
- Precision
- disputed
IV. What
- Language
- Hebrew (with Aramaic)
- Redaction
- Anonymous. Called "Zuta" (the lesser) against Seder Olam Rabbah (Seder Olam Rabbah), whose chronology it compresses and then continues past the churban along a single royal thread. The received form is geonic-era; the exilarch list at its core ends in the early 6th century, which is the main ground for seeing an older stratum beneath the 9th-century book.
- Structure
- Two parts: a compressed chronology of the fifty generations from Adam to the kings of Yehudah, drawn from Seder Olam's count; then the generations of the exilarchs of Bavel from Yehoyachin's line — the chronicle's real subject — ending with the house of Mar Zutra.
V. How do we know
| Claim | Evidence | Confidence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| The work extends Seder Olam Rabbah (Seder Olam Rabbah) past the churban: its first part compresses the generations from Adam through the kings of Yehudah, and its second runs the exilarch generations from Yehoyachin in Bavel — the earliest systematic genealogy of the exilarchate, built to establish the house's Davidic descent. | tradition | ★★★☆☆ |
|
| This atlas already cites the work at its point of use: the exilarchate's full roster rests on Seder Olam Zuta and kindred late lists, whose early names and years are contested, so the atlas enters only individually attested exilarchs — the honest-roster rule recorded on the Reshut HaGolah entity (Reshut HaGolah) and echoed at Mar Ukva (Mar Ukva).
Cross-reference claim: Reshut HaGolah's roster claim and Mar Ukva's rosters note both cite this work; this entity is the shelf-copy those citations now point to. The Sefaria library does not carry the text (checked by title lookup), so the references are to the scholarly editions.
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reconstruction | ★★☆☆☆ | |
| Dating is layered: the received form is conventionally placed in the early 9th century, while the exilarch list ends with the house of Mar Zutra — whose scion the chronicle has go up to Eretz Yisrael in the early 6th century — suggesting a savoraic-era core continued and reworked in geonic times. | reconstruction | ★★★☆☆ |
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