The Babylonian Talmud and Late Antique Book Culture

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. babylonian_talmud_and_late_antique_book_culture dedication contents acknowledgments abbreviations introduction talmuds_genre_among_imperial_periodlate_antique_genres late_antique_data_management manufacturing_the_talmud making_of_the_talmudic_narrative medical_recipes_and_the_composition_of_the_talmud consolidation_and_further_research_paths talmuds_aramaic_treatise_of_simple_remedies bibliography ancient_source_index general_index Пустая страница Пустая страница "Describes how we should imagine the intellectual and physical formation of the text in the 6th century CE. This is achieved by way of comparison with other more or less contemporary books, thereby describing the work as a product of its own time rather than as its authors aiming at what the Talmud ultimately became: the basis of orthodox Judaism"-- Provided by publisher