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Abht'alyon, also Avtalyon and
Abtalion (Hebrew: אבטליון) was a rabbinic sage in the
early pre-Mishnaic era who lived at the same time as
Sh'maya.
A leader of the Pharisees in the middle of the first
century BC and by tradition vice-president of the
great Sanhedrin of Jerusalem. He was of heathen
descent (Bab. Yoma, 71b; 'Eduy. v.6; iii.81b;
see Weiss, Dor Dor we-Dorshaw, i.1, and Landau, p.
319). Despite this fact, Abtalion, as well as his
colleague, Shemaiah, the president of the Sanhedrin,
was one of the most influential and beloved men of his
time. Once, when the high priest was being escorted
home from the Temple by the people, at the close of a
Day of Atonement, the Talmud (Yoma, 71b) relates that
the crowd deserted him upon the approach of Abtalion
and his colleague and followed them. Abtalion used his
influence with the people in persuading the men of
Jerusalem, in the year 37 BC, to open the gates of
their city to Herod the Great. The king was not
ungrateful and rewarded Abtalion, or, as Josephus
calls him, Pollion, with great honors (Josephus, Ant.
xv.1, § 1). Although there is no doubt that, in this
passage of Josephus, Abtalion is meant by this name
Pollion (the original form of the name is presumably
Ptollion, which explains both the prefixed A in the
Talmud and the omission of the t in Josephus), in
another place (Ant. xv.10, § 4), where this name
recurs, it is doubtful whether Abtalion is intended or
not. Josephus relates there how Herod exacted the oath
of allegiance under penalty of death, and continues:
"He desired also to compel Pollion, the Pharisee, and
Sameas, together with the many who followed them, to
take this oath; they, however, refused to do this, but
nevertheless were not punished as were others who had
refused to take it, and this indeed out of
consideration for Pollion." Since this episode took
place in the eighteenth year of Herod's reign (20 or
19 BC), this Pollion can not have been Abtalion, who
died long before, as we learn from authoritative
Talmudic sources, according to which Hillel, the pupil
and successor of Abtalion, was the leader of the
Pharisees about 30 BC. It is probable, therefore, that
Josephus was misled by the similarity of the names
Shemaiah and Shammai, and so wrote "Pollion and Sameas"
instead of "Hillel and Shammai."
Very little is known concerning the life of Abtalion.
He was a pupil of Judah ben Tabbai and Simeon ben
Shetach, and probably lived for some time in
Alexandria, Egypt, where he and also his teacher Judah
took refuge when Alexander Jannaeus cruelly persecuted
the Pharisees. This gives pertinence to his well-known
maxim (Ab. i.12), "Ye wise men, be careful of your
words, lest ye draw upon yourselves the punishment of
exile and be banished to a place of bad water
(dangerous doctrine), and your disciples, who come
after you, drink thereof and die, and the name of the
Holy One thereby be profaned." He cautions the rabbis
herein against participation in politics (compare the
maxim of his colleague) as well as against emigration
to Egypt, where Greek ideas threatened danger to
Judaism. Abtalion and his colleague Shemaiah are the
first to bear the title darshan (Pes. 70a — meaning
"preacher"), and it was probably by no mere chance
that their pupil Hillel was the first to lay down
hermeneutic rules for the interpretation of the
Midrash; he may have been indebted to his teachers for
the tendency toward haggadic interpretation. These two
scholars are the first whose sayings are recorded in
the Haggadah (Mek., Beshallaḥ, iii.36, ed. Weiss.).
The new method of derush (Biblical interpretation)
introduced by Abtalion and Shemaiah seems to have
evoked opposition among the Pharisees (Pes. 70b.
Compare also Josephus, l.c., Παλλίων ό φαρισαιος,
where a title is probably intended). Abtalion and
Shemaiah are also the first whose halakot (legal
decisions) are handed down to later times. Among them
is the important one that the paschal lamb must be
offered even if Passover falls on a Sabbath (Pes.
66a). Abtalion's academy was not free to every one,
but those who sought entrance paid daily a small
admission fee of one and a half tropaika; that is,
about twelve cents (Yoma, 35b). This was no doubt to
prevent overcrowding by the people, or for some
reasons stated by the Shammaites (Ab. R. N. iii. [iv.]
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