About This Text
Composed: Talmudic Israel/Babylon, c.200 – c.500 CE
Seder Olam Rabbah (“The Great Order of the World”) is a second-century chronicle that details the dates of biblical events from creation to Alexander the Great's conquest of the ancient Near East (333 BCE). It adds no stories beyond what is in the biblical text and instead fills in gaps and addresses questions that arise in the biblical text, like Isaac's age at the Binding of Isaac (Genesis 22) and the number of years that Joshua led the Israelites. It is referred to often, by direct quotation or allusion, in the Talmud, early midrashim, and early biblical commentaries like that of Rashi.