Shmuel bar Nachmani
Also known as Master aggadist of Tiberias
230 CE–320 CE · Amoraim · Tiberias
A leading aggadist among the Amoraim of the Land of Israel (late 3rd–early 4th century CE), active in Tiberias. He transmitted many teachings in the name of Rabbi Yonatan and is among the most frequently cited authorities in the Midrash.
Life journeyclick any stop, or use ←/→Trace on the orchard map →
TiberiasLand of Israel
What they did here
A central figure of the Tiberias academy and one of the most-quoted aggadists of the Land of Israel.
Tiberias in this era
Tiberias in the Amoraic era was a city caught between empires—first under late Roman (Byzantine) rule, then Persian dominion following the sixth-century conquest—yet it flourished as one of the great academies of Jewish learning in the Land of Israel. The community, substantial and culturally vital, engaged in the intense intellectual work of the Amoraic sages who debated and refined the teachings of their predecessors, their discussions eventually crystallizing into the Jerusalem Talmud. Hot springs rose from the earth near the city's shores, and the lakeside setting made Tiberias a crossroads where merchants and pilgrims mingled; the marketplace hummed with Aramaic and Greek. Scholars gathered in academies to interpret scripture and Mishnah, wrestling with questions of law and meaning that would echo through Jewish tradition for centuries. The city's Jewish population enjoyed relative autonomy under both rulers, stewarding a tradition of legal reasoning and midrashic creativity that rivaled even the great Babylonian academies, and here figures like R. Chiyya HaGadol and their contemporaries shaped the contours of rabbinic thought.
About Tiberias
Galilee center; home of Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk and his Hasidic disciples after aliyah.
In Tiberias at the same time
Anonymous (Sefer Yetzirah), Anonymous Merkavah mystics, R. Yochanan, Reish Lakish, R. Eleazar, Yose bar Chanina
In the same place & time
Sages whose lives overlapped with Shmuel bar Nachmani’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.
The world in their lifetime
Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Shmuel bar Nachmani’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
Works
No works attributed in the corpus yet.