Chapter 2

predecessors of Judah, the first two having lived before the destruction of the second Temple. Chapter IV is made up of the dicta of a number of Rabbis who were contemporaries of Judah. These two chapters were, no doubt, inserted by Judah, the redactor of the _Mishnah_ as we virtually have it to-day. Evidence that Chapter IV is an addition to the original _Abot_ is that it has a number of aphorisms which are repetitions of some found in Chapters I and II. The greater part of Chapter V, as stated above, was a portion of the _Abot_ of Rabbi Akiba.