Читать книгу A History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ - Emil Schürer - Страница 24

The Mishna is said to have been brought to Babylon by Abba Areka, usually called Rab, a scholar of R. Judah. In the schools of that place, too, it came to be used as the basis for continuous juristic discussion. The boundless accumulation of material here also led gradually to its codification. This was in all probability undertaken in the fifth century after Christ, but was not brought to a conclusion before the sixth century.—In the Babylonian Talmud as well as in the Palestinian, the statements of older scholars were frequently given in the Hebrew language. The Talmud itself was written in the Aramaic dialect of Babylon.—The Haggada is here represented still more literally than in the Palestinian Talmud.—The Babylonian Talmud, too, is incomplete. There are wanting: The whole of the first Seder with the exception of Berachoth; Shekalim out of the second; Eduyoth and Aboth from the fourth; Middoth and Kinnim and the half of Tamid from the fifth; and the whole of the sixth with the exception of Nidda. See Zunz, p. 54. It therefore embraces only 36½ tracts, while in the Palestinian Talmud 39 tracts are dealt with. Nevertheless, the Babylonian Talmud is at least four times the size of the Palestinian, has been much more diligently studied in Europe since the Middle Ages, and stands in much higher repute than the other.

The literature of the Mishna and both Talmuds, their editions, translations, and commentaries, are carefully enumerated by Wolf, Bibliotheca Hebraica, ii. pp. 700–724, 882–913; iv. 321–327, 437–445.—Winer, Handbuch der theolog. Literatur, i. pp. 523–525.—Fürst, Bibliotheca Judaica, ii. 40–49, 94–97, confines himself to the Mishna and Palestinian Talmud.—Neubauer, Catalogue of the Hebrew Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Oxford 1886, nos. 393–407.—Schiller-Szinessy, Catalogue of the Hebrew Manuscripts preserved in the University Library, Cambridge, vol. ii. pp. 1–12.—Zedner, Catalogue of Hebrew Books in the Library of the British Museum, 1867, pp. 545–555, 739–751.—Raph. Rabbinovicz has written in Hebrew a critical review of all the complete and separate editions of the Babylonian Talmud since A.D. 1484, Munich 1877.—Strack in Herzog, Real-Encyclopaedie) xviii. 342 ff., 357–368.—We specify only the following:—