JUDAH BEN DOSOTHEOS

JUDAH BEN DOSOTHEOS (Dostai; first century C.E.), tanna. In Simeon b. Shetaḥ\>\> 's name he transmitted the legal rule that a sentence passed by a Palestinian court over a person who later escaped abroad is not set aside for a new hearing, but in the case of a person who escaped to Palestine the sentence is set aside (Mak. 7a). In some versions, however, the reading here is Dosotheos b. Judah. The former reading is almost certainly a scribal (or printer's) error and, in all likelihood, no such first century C.E. tanna ever existed. On the other hand, the halakhic dictum that an "eye for an eye" (Ex. 21:24) refers only to pecuniary compensation, which is rendered in the name of Dosotheos b. Judah (BK 83b), is quoted in some manuscripts in the name of Judah b. Dosotheos. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Hyman, Toledot, 559. (Stephen G. Wald (2nd ed.)