Aspects of Rabbinic Theology_, Chapter VIII; Strack,
_Einleitung_, pp. 9-10, and Herford, _Pharisaism_, chapter on
"the Theory of Torah," p. 57 _et seq._

(5) _I.e._, from God. Compare the expression [halacha l'moshe
misinai], "the law to Moses from Sinai (God)," _Peah_, II, 6,
_Eduyot_, VIII, 7, etc.

(6) The elders were the wise men who were the members of the
supreme national tribunal. See Joshua XXIV, 31.

(7) The Great Synagogue, whose establishment, after the return
from Babylonian captivity, tradition attributes to Ezra the
Scribe, consisted of 120 men, who comprised the highest
judicial tribunal, and who occupied a position in the early
days of the Temple similar to that of the later _Sanhedrin_.
The historical foundation of this tradition is Nehemiah
VIII-X, in which is recounted the solemn acceptance of the Law
by a great assembly of the people. The men of the Great
Synagogue appear here in _Abot_ as the depositaries of the
tradition of the _Torah_, coming in the chain between the last
prophets and the earliest scribes. From this chapter and
other Rabbinical sources, we gather that the men of the Great
Synagogue constituted a sort of college of teachers, one of
the last survivors being Simon, the Just (Chapter I, 2).
Their work was to interpret, teach, and develop the _Torah_,
and to them were ascribed all kinds of legal enactments. They
instituted the _Shemoneh Esrah_ (the Eighteen Benedictions)
and other prayers, and cast the entire ritual into definite
shape. They admitted _Proverbs_, the _Song of Songs_, and