sons of Apamonaeus [Asamonaci] were the authors of the fourth." So, too, Augustine, writing shortly before the date of the Jerusalem Talmud, says : " liesides the Script- ures of the law and the prophets, the Jews have certain traditions belonging to them, not written, but retained in memory, and handed down from one to another, named ctvTipojaeig" (c. A dr. Leij. et Ptoph. ii, 1); and again, " Deliramento Judieorum ad cas traditionis quas Ctvripioffttr vocant pertinentia." In the ^Middle Ages the gross ignorance of the clergy left this important field unstudied. With the Keformatiun,the ilishna be- came again an open book to the Christian clergy ; and in modern days many of their number, especially in Germany, Holland, and England, have carefully cov- ered this department of Biblical knowledge. Terhaps exception will be taken to this term by some, but let it be remembered that the iVIishna, "as the original text of the Talmud, and as a faithful picture of Jewish the- ology and ecclesiology in the ajiostolic and post-apos- tolic ages, should be known to even,- Christian student — at least in its general outlines — and a nearer acquaint- ance with its contents is indispensably required for suc- cessful investigation of the Hebrew element in primi- tive Christianitj-, as found in the New Testament, and in the New Testament alone" (Kulo, Karaites, p. 57-58). As to the estimate of this compiled tradition by the orthodox Hebrew, let us refer to a Jewish historian, who, in his eulogy of the Mishna, pronounced it "a work, the possession of which by the Hebrew nation compensates them for the loss of their ancestral coun- try; a book which constitutes a kind of homestead for the Jewish mind, an intellectual and moral fatherland of a people who, in their long discipline of suffering, are exiles and aliens in all the nations of the earth."
The dogmatic and moral teachings of the Tannain are well sketched by Jost in his Geschichte des Juden- thums u. seiner Sekten, vol. ii. The sketches in Jlilman's History of the Jews, ii, 461 sq., are instructive on some points, though they do not always distinguish between the teaching of the Tannain and of later rabbins. See also Chiarini, Ac Talmude; GcigeT,J}as Judenthum; Griitz, Gesch. d. Juden, vol. iv (transl. N. Y. 1874) ; IJule, Kara- ites, ch. vi; Etheridge, Introd. to Ifebr. Lit. p. 114 sq. ; the excellent articles on the Ttdmud by Dr. Deutsch in the Quartei-ly Heriew, Oct. 1867, reprinted in the Kclec- lir l;<ri,ii\ LsCiT: christian Remembrancer, 1868, Oct.; . I //,</■. l:iljrn;il lu jiiisitory, 2d series, ii, 201 sq,; Kitto, J,„n-Hid <<fs<i,-nd l.it.\\, 42 sq. ; Edinburgh Rev. 1873, Juh", art. ii ; Fiirst, Bibliotheca Judaica, ii, 40 stp (J. H.W.) Mishneh. See Huldait,
Mishor, the ("VJ'^Sin; Sept, Mj(to/|0, also TrtJii/^; Yulg. jAaniiies and campestria ; A.T, " the plain"). This word is applied in Scripture to any plain or level tract of land, as in 1 Kings xx,23,and 2 Chron. xxvi. 10; but in a number of pa.ssages it is used with the article as the proper name of the plateau of ]Moab; and when thus employed it is generally (irx'cized in the Sept. (Deut. iii, 10 • Josh, xiii, 9, 16, 17, 21 ; .ler. xlviii, 8. 21), Stan- ley brings out the meaning of this word: "The smooth downs (of Moab) received a special name (^lishor), ex- pressive of their contrast with the rough and rocky soil of the west" (Sin. and Pah p. 317): and jirobably, it might Ik; added, in contrast with the wooded heights and picturesque vales of (iilead. The wonl comes from the root "1^3'', to be level ox just, and is sometimes em- ployed in a moral sense (Psa. xlv, 6; cxliii, 10). Stan- ley supposes that tlie whole of the tqiland downs cast of the Jordan are called Mishor. and tliat this fact lixes the true site of the l)attlc of Ajdiek (1 Kings xx. 23 sq.). It seems doubtful, however, whether the word ISIishor, in the description of that battle, will bear the meaning thus assigned to it. It appears to be simply put in op- position to harim, '• hills." " Their gods are gods of the hill.<!, therefore they were stronger than we, but let us fight against them in the jdain" {mishor}. In 2 Chron,
- MISHPAT
339
MISREPRESENTATION"
xxvi, 10, mishor also means " a plain" west of the Jor- dan. As a proper name, or a special appellative, it was given only to the great plateau of Moab, even as distin- guished from that of Bashan (Deut. iii, 10). This pla- teau commences at the summit of that range of hills, or rather lofty bdnks, which bounds the Jordan valley, and extends in a smooth, gently undulating surface far out into the desert of Arabia, Medeba was one of its chief cities, and hence it is twice called " the Mishor of Me- deba" (Josh, xiii, 9, 16). It formed the special subject of the awful curse pronounced by Jeremiah — " Judg- ment is come upon the land of the Mishor'' (xlviii, 21). It was chiefly celebrated for its pastures; but it also contained a number of large and strong cities, the ruins of which still dot its surface (Porter, Damascus, ii, 183). — Kitto. See Moab ; Topographical Terms.
Mishpat. See Ex-mishpat.
Mishra. See jMishraite.