Theos-Talk Archives (September 1997 Message tl00437)

In message <34295093.594E@sprynet.com>, Bart Lidofsky
<bartl@sprynet.com> writes
>       The misunderstanding is possibly because the 5 Books of Moses do not
>stand alone. At least according to Jewish tradition, there was an oral
>law handed down along with the written law. Now, it is obvious that
>there were changes in both over the centuries, almost certainly more so
>with the oral law, which was finally transcribed during the time of the
>Babylonian Empire into the books known as the Talmud.

That's the orthodox version.  Others claim [like the Jewish and other
kabbalists] that the Jewish establishment wanted to control the oral
tradition by ensuring that its own interpretation was the correct one.

I expect you know, but for those who don't, there are two Talmuds, the
Babylonian, which goes on and on and on and on, and the Palestinian,
which is shorter. Prof. Jacob Nesusner has undertaken the massive task
of tranlslating the Babylonion (considered definitive) but there is
little to find re the Palestinian talmud, which exists in bothe Hebrew
and Aramaic rescensions.  I only ever saw a copy of the latter, and that
in a University library.

Alan