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 2nd 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.
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