The (Greek text) in Tannaitic Literature: The Puzzle and a Proposed Solution

Tannaitic literature, early rabbinic literature from the first two centuries CE, includes a category of status called (Greek text) (nǝtînîm; sg. (Greek text), nātîn). The same term appears in Ezra-Nehemiah, relating to a group of temple laborers. However, the connection between the nǝtînîm of Ezra-Nehemiah and those in Tannaitic literature is tenuous. While the nǝtînîm in Ezra-Nehemiah are presented as an integral part of the community of returnees, in Tannaitic literature, nǝtînîm are considered to have an inferior status and a severe marital prohibition. They are never mentioned in Tannaitic descriptions of the temple and are always appended to (Greek text) (mamzērîm), Jews of severely blemished pedigree. Since nǝtînîm are absent from preexilic biblical works and almost never appear in other works from the Second Temple period, it is unclear how and why the nǝtînîm resurface in Tannaitic literature, and what their relationship is to the nǝtînîm of Ezra-Nehemiah. In this article, I propose that the term assumed a new meaning in Tannaitic literature as a Hebraized form of the Greek word νόθοι. While the exact details of the process cannot be fully reconstructed, this suggestion can solve the main difficulties surrounding the nǝtînîm in Tannaitic literature and reveal the complex ways in which biblical terms and pericopes were read and utilized in antiquity.