text · B0054
Tanna DeVei Eliyahu תנא דבי אליהו
The midrash that speaks in one voice — a sustained ethical sermon the tradition hears from Eliyahu HaNavi himself. The Bavli tells how Eliyahu taught it to Rav Anan in two seders, Rabbah and Zuta; when the received book was actually compiled is the aggadic shelf's sharpest dating dispute, running from the amoraim to the 10th century.
I. Who
- Hebrew
- תנא דבי אליהו
- Also known as
- Seder Eliyahu, Seder Eliyahu Rabbah, Seder Eliyahu Zuta
- Era
- amoraim
II. When
- Traditional
- the Seder Eliyahu that Eliyahu taught to Rav Anan in the Bavli's account — c. 4000–4060 AM
- Civil (computed)
- 4000–4060 AM · 240–300 CE
- Academic
- compilation of the received text dated anywhere from an amoraic core to the 10th c.; Zunz placed the final form in the 10th
- Duration
- ≈60 years
- Precision
- disputed
IV. What
- Language
- Hebrew
- Redaction
- By tradition, the Seder Eliyahu that Eliyahu taught to the amora Rav Anan (Rav Anan) — Ketubot 106a names both of its parts. Whether the received book is that work is the classic dating machloket: Tosafot and the rishonim identify the two, while academic views date the compilation as late as the 10th century. The era and AM span above follow the traditional attribution, as with the Targumim; the compilation debate lives in the claims. No author edge is drawn — tradition names the teacher, not a writer.
- Structure
- Two parts, named in the Bavli itself: Seder Eliyahu Rabbah (thirty-one chapters) and Seder Eliyahu Zuta (fifteen, with appended material in the printed editions) — continuous ethical homily in a single elevated voice, opening from the gates of Eden with derech eretz.
V. How do we know
| Claim | Evidence | Confidence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Bavli's account: Eliyahu came regularly to Rav Anan and taught him Seder Eliyahu — "דהוה מתני ליה סדר דאליהו" — withdrew after the affair of the litigant, and returned when Rav Anan fasted, teaching from within a box until he had brought out his seder: "and this is why we say Seder Eliyahu Rabbah, Seder Eliyahu Zuta." Rav Anan is tracked in this atlas as Rav Anan.
Passage verified verbatim. Confidence is for what the Gemara recounts and names; whether the received book is that Seder Eliyahu is the next claim's dispute.
|
rabbinic | ★★★★☆ | |
| The identification and dating are a machloket stated honestly: Tosafot and the rishonim identify the received midrash with the Gemara's Seder Eliyahu, giving an amoraic-era work; Zunz, from internal chronological computations, dated the compilation to the 10th century; Friedmann's critical edition defended the older identification, and scholarly datings still range across the whole span. | tradition reconstruction | ★★★☆☆ |
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| The received text opens at the gates of Eden and reads the sword guarding "the way" as conduct itself: "'to guard the way' — this is derech eretz... teaching that derech eretz preceded the tree of life" — the program of the whole work, ethics as the road to Torah, carried in a uniform homiletic voice across both parts. | rabbinic | ★★★★☆ |