Samuel The Little
Samuel The Little
( ), a contemporary of Gamaliel 2, is known in Jewish history as the author of the prayer against the Minim, or Jewish Christians. In the Talmud treatise Berakoth, fol. 28b, we read: ; i.e. Simon Pakuli arranged the eighteen benedictions before rabban Gamaliel, in Jabne, in their present order. Rabban Gamaliel said to the sages, Is there none who knows to prepare a benediction against the Zaddukim or Sadducees?’ Then arose Samuel the Little and prepared it. This , or, as it is generally called, , the benediction against the Minim, or Jewish Christians, is the twelfth of the so-called Sh’mone Esre, or Eighteen Benedictions [ comp. the art. SYNAGOGUE], and originally read , i.e. let there be no hope for the Minim and calumniators. That this prayer was directed against Jewish Christians is testified by Epiphanius (Ep. adversus Hoeres. 29, 9; ed. Petav. p. 124), who states: ] , , , , . With regard to these words of Epiphanius, Grtz remarks that Epiphanius, being by birth a Jew, is a competent witness that this formula was directed against the Jewish Christians. It will be seen that the remark of Dr. Ginsburg, in Kitto’s Cyclop. s.v. Synagogue (p. 906, note), is not justified either by the statement of Epiphanius or that of the Jewish historian Grtz. See Grtz, Gesch. d. Juden, 4, 434; Derenbourg, Histoire de la Palestine, p. 344-346; Schrer, Lehrbuch der neutestamentlichen Zeitgeschichte, p. 502. (B.P.)