Rabbi Yehuda Hanasi

And he was eloquent and above all men in the holy tongue, to the point that the sages – peace be upon them – would learn the meaning of that which was garbled from the letters of Scripture (the meaning of unclear words) from the words of his slaves and servants, and this is made famous in the Talmud (Rosh HaShanah 26a). And he had the wealth and assets and broad means, about which it is said (Bava Metzia 85a), "The stable overseer of Rabbi was wealthier than Shavur Malka (the king of Persia)." And so, he made men of wisdom – and those that sought it – comfortable, and he spread Torah in Israel. And he gathered the laws and the words of the sages and the received disagreements [dating] from the time of Moshe, our teacher, until his [own] days.

And he himself was [part of the transmission], as he received [the tradition] from Shimon, his father. And Shimon [received it] from Gamliel, his father; and he from Shimon; and he from Hillel; and he from Shemaya and Avtalyon, his teachers; and they from Yehudah ben Tabai and Shimon ben Shetach; and they from Yehoshua ben Prachiah and Natai of Arbel; and they from Yose ben Yoezer of Tsereidah and Yose ben Yochanan; and they from Antigonos of Sokho; and he from Shimon the Righteous; and he from Ezra – who was from the remnants of the Great Assembly; and Ezra, from Baruch ben Neriah, his teacher; and Baruch from Yirmiyah. And so [too] Yirmiyah received [it] from those before him of the prophets, without a doubt – one prophet from another – [back] until the elders that received [it] from Yehoshua bin Nun, and he from the mouth of Moshe.

And when he gathered all of the thoughts and statements, he began to compose the Mishnah, which includes the explanation of all of the commandments that are written in the Torah. Some of the them are traditions received from the mouth of Moshe – peace be upon him. And some of them are teachings that they extrapolated by way of reason, about which no disagreement happened; and [still] some are teachings wherein disagreements occurred between two reasonings. And he wrote those with their disagreements – x says like this and y says like that. And if there was [only] one who argued on the many, he would write them [as] the words of the one and the words of the many. And this thing was done for useful matters, and they are mentioned in the mishnah (Mishnah Eduyot 1), and I will mention them.