Читать книгу A History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ - Emil Schürer - Страница 23

On the basis of the Mishna the juristic discussion was carried on with unwearied energy and zeal in the schools of Palestine, especially in that of Tiberias, during the third and fourth centuries. By means of the codification of the new material that was in this way gathered together, there sprang up in the fourth century after Christ the so-called Jerusalem, or more correctly, Palestinian, Talmud. In it the text of the Mishna is taken statement after statement in regular succession, and is explained by a casuistical system of distinctions that becomes ever more and more subtle and over-refined. For the purpose of explanation not only are the opinions of the “Amoreans,” the scholars of the post-Mishna age, drawn upon, but very frequently dogmatic utterances of the Mishna age. Such propositions as are borrowed from earlier times which have not been incorporated in the Mishna, are called Baraytha, בָּרָֽיְתָא “extranea,” scil. traditio. They are quoted in the Talmud in Hebrew, whereas for the rest the language of the Talmud is Aramaic.—The date of the composition of the Palestinian Talmud may be determined from the fact that, although indeed the Emperors Diocletian and Julian are mentioned, no Jewish authorities are referred to who can be assigned to a later period than the middle of the fourth century.—Besides the Halacha, which forms its principal contents, we also meet in it with rich Haggadic material.—Whether the Palestinian Talmud ever went over the whole range of the Mishna is still a disputed point. Only its first four Seders, together with the tract Nidda, have been preserved to us, and the tracts Eduyoth and Aboth are wanting.