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Bible Dictionary

Talmud
(i.e. doctrine, from the hebrew word "to learn") is a largecollection of writings, containing a full account of the civiland religious laws of the Jews. It was a fundamental principleof the Pharisees, common to them with all orthodox modern Jews,that by the side of the written law, regarded as a summary ofthe principles and general laws of the Hebrew people, there wasan oral law, to complete and to explain the written law. It wasan article of faith that in the Pentateuch there was noprecept, and no regulation, ceremonial, doctrinal or legal, ofwhich God had not given to Moses all explanations necessary fortheir application, with the order to transmit them by word ofmouth. The classical subject is the following in the Mishna onthis wing: "Moses received the (oral) law from Sinai, anddelivered it to Joshua, and Joshua to the elders, and theelders to the prophets and the prophets to the men of the GreatSynagogue." This oral law, with the numerous commentaries uponit, forms the Talmud. It consists of two parts, the Mishna andGemara.

The MISHNA, or "second law," which contains a compendium ofthe whole ritual law, was reduced to writing in its presentform by Rabbi Jehuda the Holy, a Jew of great wealth andinfluence, who flourished in the second century of theChristian era. Viewed as a whole, the precepts in the Mishnatreated men like children, formalizing and defining theminutest particulars of ritual observances. The expressionsof "bondage," or "weak and beggarly elements," and of"burdens too heavy for men to bear," faithfully represent theimpression produced by their multiplicity. The Mishna is veryconcisely written, and requires notes.

This circumstance led to the commentaries called GEMARA (i.e.supplement, completion), which form the second part of theTalmud, and which are very commonly meant when the word"Talmud" is used by itself. There are two Gemaras; one ofJerusalem, in which there is said to be no passage which canbe proved to be later than the first half of the fourthcentury; and the other of Babylon, completed about 500 A.D.The latter is the more important and by far the longer.