institution · I0003
Anshei Knesset HaGedolah אנשי כנסת הגדולה
The assembly of 120 sages — including the last prophets — that led the return from Bavel and the early Second Temple period. Tradition credits them with fixing the liturgy, canonizing books of Tanakh, and framing the transition from prophecy to the age of the sages. Rambam identifies them as the court of Ezra (Ezra) and names among them Chaggai (Chaggai), Zechariah (Zechariah (the prophet)), Malachi (Malachi), Nechemiah (Nechemiah), Mordechai (Mordechai), and Zerubavel (Zerubavel); the last of them was Shimon HaTzaddik (Shimon HaTzaddik). Their motto: "Be deliberate in judgment, raise up many students, and make a fence for the Torah."
I. Who
- Hebrew
- אנשי כנסת הגדולה
- Also known as
- Men of the Great Assembly, The Great Assembly
- Era
- second-temple
- Received the mesorah from
- Nevi'im (the Prophets)
- Transmitted the mesorah to
- Shimon HaTzaddik
II. When
- Traditional
- c. 3408–3490 AM (early Second Temple period)
- Duration
- ≈82 years
- Precision
- approximate
V. How do we know
| Claim | Evidence | Confidence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Men of the Great Assembly received the Torah from the Prophets; they said three things — be deliberate in judgment, raise up many students, and make a fence for the Torah. | rabbinic | ★★★★★ | |
| Instituted blessings, prayers, kedushot and havdalot for Israel — the core of the fixed liturgy. | rabbinic | ★★★★☆ | |
| "The court of Ezra — they are the ones called the Men of the Great Assembly: Chaggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, Daniel, Chananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, Nechemiah ben Chachaliah, Mordechai, and Zerubavel, and many sages with them, completing 120 elders. The last of them was Shimon HaTzaddik."
Confidence is for the roster as stated by the Rambam. |
rabbinic | ★★★★★ | |
| Modern scholarship debates the Great Assembly's institutional character and continuity; some see a schematic retrojection of later rabbinic self-understanding onto the Persian period.
Recorded as the scholarly discussion; the atlas presents the traditional account and the academic question side by side.
|
reconstruction | ★★★☆☆ |
Referenced by: Torah SheBaal Peh, Canonization of the Tanakh