Throughout the past two centuries, the corpus of rabbinic writings, called either tannaitic midrashim or halakhic midrashim, has served as a pivotal foundation upon which scholars have based their historical reconstructions of the development of rabbinic Judaism. The reasons for this dependence are manifold. Predated in redaction by only the Mishnah, these documents contain a wealth of traditions attributed to the founders of rabbinic Judaism who flourished during its nascency. Moreover, these texts differ significantly in rhetorical style, logic, scope, and concern not only from those rabbinic documents which precede them (Mishnah), follow them (Palestinian/Babylonian Talmuds and amoraic midrashim), or are, perhaps, contemporaneous with them (Tosefta), but also among themselves as a corpus of writings. Finally, these documents are the earliest collections of rabbinic biblical exegesis (“Midrash”) and, were it not for a small number of examples of exegesis preserved in the Mishnah and Tosefta, they would also represent the earliest examples of rabbinic biblical interpretation known today. For reasons such as these, the tannaitic midrashim have figured prominently in research conducted over the past century on the historical development of Rabbinic Judaism.