Tannaim (Amoraic Hebrew: תנאים [tannɔʔim] "repeaters", "teachers", singular tanna תנא [tanˈnɔː], borrowed from Aramaic)[1] were the rabbinic sages whose views are recorded in the Mishnah,[2] from approximately 10–220 CE.
The spiritual center of Judaism at that time was Jerusalem, but after the destruction of the city and the Second Temple, Yohanan ben Zakkai and his students founded a new Council of Jamnia.
During this time, the Kohanim (priests) of the Temple became increasingly corrupt and were seen by the Jews as collaborators with the Romans, whose mismanagement of Iudaea province (composed of Samaria, Idumea and Judea proper[4]) led to riots, revolts and general resentment.
After this period, though, the Houses of Hillel and Shammai came to represent two distinct perspectives on Jewish law, and disagreements between the two schools of thought are found throughout the Mishnah.
According to rabbinic tradition, the Tannaim were the last generation in a long sequence of oral teachers that began with Moses.
Early rabbinic Bible exegesis was preserved in tannaitic texts compiled in the second century CE or later, but is likely to contain much earlier material.
It certainly contains some interpretations that can be traced back explicitly to the first century CE because of parallels with motifs found in the writings of Josephus or Philo, such as the legend of the extraordinary beauty of Moses as a child.