Justinian's Novella 146: the state undertakes to say how the Torah is read
The emperor permitted Scripture to be read in Greek and forbade the deuterosis—the oral teaching, that is, the Mishnah.
On 8 February 553 Justinian issued a novella "On the Jews", prompted by a dispute in one community where some wished to read the Torah in Greek and others only in Hebrew. The emperor decided for Greek, calling the Septuagint divinely inspired, and permitted reading "in whatever language the hearer understands".
But the same novella carries a prohibition: "what they call deuterosis we forbid entirely, for it is not among the sacred books, nor was it handed down from above by the prophets, but is an invention of men who speak only from the earth." Deuterosis is Greek for "repetition", that is the Mishnah: for the first time a state forbade not a rite but the Oral Torah itself.
How far it was enforced is disputed. There is no direct evidence of academies being broken up, and among the piyyutim of the period scholars find workarounds: what could not be said plainly was carried into liturgical verse, which the ban did not cover. Some hold that the reading of piyyutim on festival days today is a trace of exactly this.
The precedent matters more. From Justinian onwards Christian Europe held that the ruler may judge the lawfulness of Jewish books. Seven hundred years later that would lead to the burning of the Talmud in Paris.
Sources
Documents of the period
- Novella 146, «On the Hebrews», 8 February 553 — Greek permitted, the deuterosis — the Mishnah — forbidden
Basis: documents and evidence.