Babylonian Talmud: A Translation and Commentary - Hardcover

Neusner PhD, Professor Of Religion Jacob

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1598565265 ISBN 13: 9781598565263

Publisher: Hendrickson Publishers Inc, 2011

Synopsis

The Hebrew Scriptures contain many hundreds of laws both religious and civil. They concern the Temple (in Exodus), the priesthood (in Leviticus), the Temple offerings and other rites (in Numbers), and the social order of Israel (in Deuteronomy). These may rightly be called the written law (Torah). The oral law is the extension of these precepts to cover all of life and its contingencies. The oral law (or Mishnah) was written down by rabbinic sages about 200 C.E. With the Talmud, Jewish sages systematized the laws in Scripture together with those of the oral tradition. While the Mishnah records rules governing the conduct of the holy life of Israel, the Talmud concerns itself with the details of the Mishnah. Israel’s oral law found its definitive expression in the Talmud. The Talmud of Babylonia (a.k.a., the Bavli, or Babylonian Talmud), is a sustained commentary on the written and oral law of Israel. Compiled between 500–600 C.E., it offers a magnificent record of how Jewish scholars preserved a humane and enduring civilization. Representing the primary document of rabbinic Judaism, it throws considerable light on the New Testament as well.

This monumental American translation was completed a decade ago—but was extraordinarily expensive and difficult to find—and features translations by Jacob Neusner, Tzvee Zahavy, Alan Avery-Peck, B. Barry Levy, Peter Haas, and Martin S. Jaffee, with commentary and new introductions by Jacob Neusner.

About this title

About the Author

Jacob Neusner is Research Professor of Religion and Theology, Bard College, and Senior Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Theology at Bard College. He has published more than eight hundred books and innumerable articles, and he is editor of The Dictionary of Judaism in the Biblical Period and the three-volume Encyclopaedia of Judaism. He has also served as President of the American Academy of Religion, and was appointed as Member of the National Council on the Humanities and the National Council on the Arts.

Edition details

• Publisher: Hendrickson Publishers Inc
• Publication date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1598565265
• ISBN 13: 9781598565263
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 6530