The Babylonian Talmud and Late Antique Book Culture

A new theory of the Talmud's formation based on comparison with late antique intellectual and material standards of book production.

Monika Amsler (Author)

9781009297332, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 6 April 2023

243 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.4 cm, 0.6 kg

'This is an important, provocative, and challenging book. Amsler asks us to set aside what we think we know about the creation of the Babylonian Talmud and to begin again. From information collection, to filing and indexing, to the construction of arguments, Amsler situates the Talmud within the world of book production in the Roman world, and in particular within the production of large compendia in late antiquity, and in the techniques for arrangement and juxtaposition that were essential to literate, rhetorical education.' Hayim Lapin, Professor of History and Robert H. Smith Professor of Jewish Studies, University of Maryland

In this book, Monika Amsler explores the historical contexts in which the Babylonian Talmud was formed in an effort to determine whether it was the result of oral transmission. Scholars have posited that the rulings and stories we find in the Talmud were passed on from one generation to the next, each generation adding their opinions and interpretations of a given subject. Yet, such an oral formation process is unheard of in late antiquity. Moreover, the model exoticizes the Talmud and disregards the intellectual world of Sassanid Persia. Rather than taking the Talmud's discursive structure as a sign for orality, Amsler interrogates the intellectual and material prerequisites of composers of such complex works, and their education and methods of large-scale data management. She also traces and highlights the marks that their working methods inevitably left in the text. Detailing how intellectual innovation was generated, Amsler's book also sheds new light on the content of the Talmud. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Introduction
1. Chapter One
2. Chapter Two
3. Chapter Three
4. Chapter Four
5. Chapter Five.

Subject Areas: Sacred texts [HRLC], Judaism [HRJ], History of religion [HRAX], Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA]