TANNAITI (“repeaters” or “teachers”). - Jewish doctors, prior to the 3rd century, whose teaching is preserved in the official collection of rabbinic teaching called Mišnāh (v.).
This title was also conferred upon a particular class of scholars, specializing in reciting from memory the ancient talmudic sayings to which the doctors appealed in discussion; but these t. had no doctrinal importance. The total number of t. is estimated at 270. They are divided into 5 or 6 generations. Outstanding in the first are Šammaj and Hillēl (v.), Rabbān Gamaliele the Elder, Jōhānān ben Zakkaj. Among those belonging to the second: Gamaliele II, Jēhōšūa' ben Hānanjāh. Of the third: Tarphōn, Ismaele, 'Aqibā', Jōsē the Galilean. Of the fourth: Mē'ir, Simeone ben Johaj, Giuda ben Ilaj, Jōsē ben Hālaphtā', Jōhānān the Sandalaiō, Abbā' Sā'ūl. Of the fourth: Simmaco, Giuda the Saint or the Prince (the one who laid the foundations for the redaction of the Mišnāh). The sixth includes doctors no longer mentioned in the Mišnāh, among them Gamaliele III, Hijjā', Abba Areka (v.) or Rab.