[1] Sarfatti and Langermann have advanced Steinschneider's claim of Arabic influence on the work's terminology, and date the text to the early ninth century.
[4] Solomon Gandz conjectured that the text was compiled no later than 150 CE (possibly by Rabbi Nehemiah) and intended to be a part of the Mishnah, but was excluded from its final canonical edition because the work was regarded as too secular.
[4] After the discovery by Otto Neugebauer of a genizah-fragment in the Bodleian Library containing Chapter VI, Solomon Gandz published a complete version of the Mishnat ha-Middot in 1932, accompanied by a thorough philological analysis.
[7] Although primarily a practical work, the Mishnat ha-Middot attempts to define terms and explain both geometric application and theory.
In Chapters III–V, the Mishnat ha-Middot explains again in detail the measurement of the four types of plane figures, with reference to numerical examples.