The sages gathered at Yavneh under Rabban Gamaliel II consolidate the canon and the order of prayer after the Temple's fall; later tradition remembered the gathering as a council, and modern scholarship reads it as a gradual consolidation.
Tagged: Councils Conservative Judaism Jewish Orthodox Judaism Reconstructionist Judaism Reform Judaism Secular Judaism
The Event
- Date
- c. 90 CE (approximate)
- Era
- Rabbinic; Standard periodization of Jewish history
- Location
- Yavneh; today Yavne, Israel
- Traditions
- Judaism
- Streams
- Orthodox Judaism, Conservative Judaism, Reform Judaism, Reconstructionist Judaism, Secular Judaism
- Key figures
- Gamaliel II, Yohanan ben Zakkai
- Key texts
- Mishnah Berakhot
How the Tradition Tells It
The image of Yavneh as a council that fixed the canon is a later construction; the streams read the rabbinic consolidation after 70 CE differently, from providential preservation to historical development.
Primary Sources
- Mishnah
Secondary Sources
- Schiffman, From Text to Tradition: A History of Second Temple and Rabbinic Judaism (Ktav, 1991)
- Cohen, From the Maccabees to the Mishnah (Westminster John Knox, 3rd ed. 2014)
Provenance: HIST-0112; confidence 0.85; accessed 2026-10-27.
Related on This Site
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- David's Reign History Event
- Destruction of the First Temple History Event
- Exodus and Sinai History Event
- Fall of Samaria; the Northern Kingdom Destroyed History Event
- First Temple Dedicated History Event
- Patriarchal Period History Event
- Second Temple Completed History Event