AMORITES. - Name (Aramaic 'āmōrā', plur. 'āmōrā'ē and in Hebrew form 'ēmōrā'im, "expounder") originally given to the lower Jewish teachers who expounded to the people the teaching of the doctors of the Law; after the closing of the canon of the Mishnah it became the technical designation of the learned rabbis, successors of the tannaim, who, from about 220 to 500, explained the text of the Mishnah, resolving its contradictions or defining new cases, and developed it marginally by collecting other legal traditions which they fixed in writing. From their work resulted the twofold Gemara, which, added to the text of the Mishnah, formed the Talmud; into it they inserted ancient sentences that had remained outside the Mishnah, calling them barajthā ("external things"). The a. had flourishing schools: in Palestine, from 219 until the closure by order of Theodosius II, 425) at Caesarea, Sepphoris, Tiberias; in Babylonia (from 219 to about 500) at Sura, Nehardea, Pumbedita, Mahuza.
About two thousand a. are known, divided into 7 generations, variously listed and dated by historians. The first 5 generations include Palestinian a. (with the title rabhī) and Babylonian a. (title rabh, sometimes mar; v. ABBA II), in almost parallel series; the last 2, only Babylonian a. The last great a. were Rabh Ashi (v.) and Abina (v.). Besides these, famous among the Babylonians are: Abba Areka, three Samuel, Jehudah bar Jehezūf, Rabbā bar Nahmani, Josef ben Hijā, Nahman ben Jāhāq (and 4 other Nahman); among the Palestinians: Uša'āh, three Jehudāh (2nd, 3rd and 4th), Eleazar ben Pedath, Johanan bar Nappahā, Abbahū, Tanhum ben Abba.
Bibliography4 works
Antonino Romeo