when text truly changed: Mishnah and Talmud

is a general term which means “bringing good news” of any type (as we have seen from the text), and even though there is more than one representation of a wonder-worker/itinerant philosopher protagonist in Greek.

The Mishnah and the Talmud, however, are different matters.  The form and content of the Mishnah and the Talmud have no parallel.

The Mishnah was developed in the 2^nd century CE.  We do not know who the author was.  We can make a guess at why the text developed in the way that it did:  when TaNaKh was translated into Greek, non-Judeans had access to books that seemed familiar to them.  Non-Judeans read those texts and decided to follow the “philosophy” they found.  They also decided to keep watch for those things they believed to be oracles that they had read of in the books that were attributed to “prophetoi.”  The result of this was the development of a belief system that claimed its origins in Judean writing and tradition, but which had little in common with it.

It is common to describe the Mishnah as a collection of stories and poetry.  It is that and more.  The organization of it is such that in order to learn, it is necessary to study with someone who has learned from someone who has studied. 

It is possible to sit down and read the Mishnah.  If you were to do so, however, you would not learn much about how the text works, what its reference points are, what the significance any part has to any other part.  Its organization is non-linear.

When people speak of  “the” Talmud, they may not be aware of the fact that there are two Talmuds:  the Babylonian Talmud (Bavli) and the Jerusalem Talmud (Yerushalmi).  When scholars speak of “the Talmud,” they are speaking of Bavli, unless otherwise noted.  It is arguable that the name derives from the fact that the Babylonian Talmud is the text of and by Judeans of the diaspora and that the name was taken to commemorate the Babylonian exile. 

The Talmud is, essentially, the Mishnah plus commentary on the Mishnah. That is an oversimplification.  It is commentary on the Mishnah.  It is commentary on the commentary.  It is commentary on the commentary on the commentary.  It is a two millennia-long conversation that continues as the text is studied by each generation.

The Mishnah and the Talmud were developed in the unusual organizational form they have as means of protecting a culture from the sort of imitation or adaptation that it experienced when its other books were translated and made accessible to outsiders.