A later editor, intending to compile a halakhic midrash to Exodus, took Ishmael's work on the book, beginning with ch. 12, since the first eleven chapters contained no references to the "halakhah". He even omitted passages from the portion which he took, but (by way of compensation) incorporated much material from the other halakhic midrashim, Sifra, the Mekhilta of Rabbi Shimon, and the Sifre to Deuteronomy. Since the last two works were from a different source, he generally designated them by the introductory phrase, "davar aḥer" = "another explanation," placing them after the sections taken from Ishmael's midrash. But the redactor based his work on the midrash of Ishmael's school, and the sentences of Ishmael and his pupils constitute the larger part of his Mekhilta. Similarly, most of the anonymous maxims in the work were derived from the same source, so that it also was known as the "Mekhilta of Rabbi Ishmael." The redactor must have been a pupil of Judah ha-Nasi, since the latter is frequently mentioned.