There is no early or late in the Torah – what does that mean?

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asked 9 months ago

Hello Rabbi, the Mishnah is known in the Tannaim and also in the Torah commentators regarding the chronology of the verses, whether they were written in chronological order or not, which is called “there is no early or late in the Torah.” Can you expand on this rule for me, and especially on the meaning behind the controversy? I searched the site and did not find your reference to this.

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מיכי Staff answered 9 months ago

I don’t think I wrote about it. Only in the context of general and particular sermons, where the Gemara notes that one can only demand that there be an earlier and a later method, otherwise you don’t know whether it is a general and a later or a later and general. There I explained that the question is whether general and particular sermons are based on the order of writing (then it doesn’t matter whether there is or isn’t an earlier and a later) or on the order of saying and events, then it depends on whether there is or isn’t an earlier and a later. But this is an argument about general and particular sermons and not on the principle of earlier and later in the Torah.

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יצחק replied 9 months ago

Thank you. Apart from the implication on the doctrine of the whole and the particular, what is the meaning or what stands behind the rule “There is no sooner or later” since each side makes excuses or draws conclusions from the difficulties in interpreting the Torah?

מיכי Staff replied 9 months ago

That each side draws conclusions according to its own method is clear. The dispute is about the basic view of the Torah: Is the description according to the order of events or is there editing based on other considerations (contexts and inferences, etc.). This is a question of the way the Bible is written, what explanation are you looking for? Why write this way or that? Either things are described as they happened, and that doesn't need an explanation, or they were edited based on other considerations (to teach different things).

שבתאי replied 9 months ago

Interesting topic
I invite you to write a post on the subject, if possible, about what is apologetics and what is an excuse for there being no early or late in the Torah.
You can also write the arguments in reverse chronological order in the post.

יצחק replied 9 months ago

Yes, what are the considerations of those who believe that the Bible is not written in chronological order? I know the excuses in some places in a specific way, but about the very form of non-chronological writing, what does it assume, why does it accept it? Is this a philosophical or interpretive dispute that occurred because of the many difficulties that existed in the Bible? Also, if there is no earlier and later in the Torah, it supposedly eliminates any possibility of learning about history in the sense of the sequence of events. I understand that this does not interfere with the fact that there is no earlier and later and mainly focuses the message of the Bible on the meaning of things.