each of the heads of the _Sanhedrin_. These dicta are contained in
what is designated as section A. Later, presumably by Rabbi Akiba,
there were added to this original kernel of _Abot_ the sayings of
Rabbi Jochanan ben Zakkai and his most illustrious pupils, which
comprise section C. This resulted in the grouping together of the
sayings of ten generations of traditional authorities, as follows:
(1) the men of the Great Synagogue, (2) Simon, the Just, (3) Antigonus
of Soko, (4) Jose ben Joezer and Jose ben Jochanan, (5) Joshua ben
Perachiah and Nittai, the Arbelite, (6) Judah ben Tabbai and Simeon
ben Shatach, (7) Shemaiah and Abtalion, (8) Hillel and Shammai, (9)
Jochanan ben Zakkai, and (10) the latter's disciples. By association
of idea with this number ten, there were added to this collection
numerical sayings of ten, and, then, others of seven and four, found
in chapter V, 1-9 and 10-13.

Into this enlarged kernel of pithy sayings of the oldest authorities,
which may be characterized as the _Abot of Rabbi Akiba_, later
_Tannaim_--Rabbi Meir, Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi, and others--interpolated
additional sayings of the afore-mentioned Rabbis, and also typical
utterances of their disciples, and of other well-known teachers. This
accounts for the presence in _Abot_ of the body of maxims of the six
generations of the school of Hillel, designated above as section B 1,
and which was very properly introduce after the aphorisms of Hillel
and of his contemporary, Shammai. The thread of tradition being
interrupted by this interpolation, it was again taken up by the
introduction of another body of Hillel's sayings (B 2), thus providing
for a natural transition from Hillel to Jochanan ben Zakkai. Proof of
the fact that section B is an addition is that in the _Abot de-Rabbi
Natan_--which, as has been said above, is based on an older version of
_Abot_ (14)--the sayings of Jochanan ben Zakkai follow immediately