Homiletical Midrash on the Book of Genesis, known in Hebrew as Be-Réshit Rabbah (see also Midrash Aggadah). Traditionally ascribed to Hoshaya Rabbah ("the great"), a Palestinian Amora, it was probably written somewhat later than his time. This Midrash expounds Genesis homiletically, chapter by chapter and verse by verse, in a text divided into 101 sections. These sections are determined either by the Masoretic tradition or by the Triennial Cycle of Torah readings once followed in Erets Israel. With few exceptions, each homily is introduced by a proem (petiḥta), most of these having their origin in verses from the Hagiographa (chiefly Psalms and Proverbs) and given in the name of Palestinian amoraim. The language employed in this Midrash is generally Hebrew, but some portions closely resemble that of the Jerusalem Talmud---Gal-ilean Aramaic with a strong admixture of Greek and Latin. This dialect is mainly used for relating stories and parables.
According to modern scholars, Genesis Rabbah, while closely paralleling the Jerusalem Talmud in its language and other features, did not draw directly on the latter but rather on an ancient source common to both. Like the Jerusalem Talmud, it was redacted in Erets Israel some time in the fifth century CE. The anonymous editor utilized early Greek and Aramaic translations of the Pentateuch. In the case of the former, he referred to the translation of Aquila; in the latter case, he relied on the Targum of Pseudo-Jonathan, but not on Onkelos. Although this editor does cite the Mishnah, he was probably unacquainted with the Tosefta, since it goes unquoted. Nor are there any citations from the Midrash Halakhah or from Avot De-Rabbi Natan, whereas the apocryphal Book of Ecclesiasticus (Ben Sira) is quoted four times. An unusual feature of Genesis Rabbah is its relative abundance of legends that have parallels in the Apocrypha And Pseudepigrapha, Philo, and Josephus. Together with Leviticus Rabbah and Lamentations Rabbah, it is the earliest amoraic Midrash extant.
