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BIBLE STUDY – TALMUD, MISHNA, GEMARA AND MIDRASH

ORAL LAW

THE TALMUD

The word Talmud means “to study,” “to learn.” The Talmud is a body of literature in Hebrew and Aramaic, covering meanings and interpretations of legal portions of the Old Testament, as well as wise sayings from many rabbinical sources. It spans a time period from shortly after Ezra, about 400 B.C., until approximately the A.D. 500s.

ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE ORAL LAW

Traditional Jews believe that a second Law was given to Moses in addition to the first or written Word; this second one was given orally, and handed down from generation to generation in Oral form. The Talmud itself makes this claim for an early origin, and Pirke Aboth 1:1 state that it is attributed to Moses. Other scholars do not agree on this origin of the Oral Law and insist that it had its beginning and development after Ezra. For example, before the Israelite exile to Babylon, there is no mention by the prophets concerning a lapse from the Oral Law. Yet the messages of the prophets are full of warnings to not abandon the written revelation given to Moses, thereby indicating the absence of a body of Oral tradition prior to the Babylonian exile. In the period following Ezra {“a scribe skilled in the Law of Moses,” Ezra 7:6}, teacher succeeded teacher in synagogues and schools, and their understanding of the Old Testament was treasured and memorized. Across the centuries, many memorizing devices were employed to learn and remember the growing mass of opinions and interpretation. But eventually not even the best memory could retain all the available materials. It was finally necessary to compile a summary of all the essential teachings of preceding generations, and also to make a way for future generations to have access to the immense treasure of thought, religious feeling, and wisdom for guidance and inspiration. The compilation is known as the Talmud, the basic repository of the Oral Law. Jewish people regard it as second to the Scriptures. The Talmud is a piece of literature recognized as the ultimate national and religious creation, and it continues to have a deep influence upon the development of the Jewish worldview.

REASONS FOR AN ORAL LAW

With the end of prophets after the return from exile in Babylon, and with the continual growth of the complexity of life in Israel and its relationships to the outer world, there arose a need to explain more of the Laws of the Torah. The Oral Law at first, was intended to be helpful so that people could obey the written Word of YHVH. The Oral Law contained in the Talmud has two functions:

First, it provides an interpretation of the written Law -- explaining what it means. According to the rabbis, this is necessary since the Oral Law makes it possible to actually live out the written Law. Without the former, it would be impossible to observe the latter. A good example is the concept of not working on the Shabbat, as Commanded by the biblical Shabbat Law. Everyone knew that work was not to be done on the Shabbat. The rabbis contend however, that it took the Oral Law to define what was meant by “work.”

The second aspect of the Oral Law is that it modifies and seeks to adapt the written Law to fit new conditions and circumstances. The Oral Law is supposed to make the written Law a usable, up-to-date document from generation to generation. Without this Oral Law, the written Law would become out of date. Therefore, the Oral Law is necessary for knowing what not to do as well as for stressing what is good Jewish devotion and loyalty.

It is true that every generation must face new social, political, and economic conditions, which make necessary a different application of the Word of YHVH. But the Word of YHVH itself cannot be changed in order to accommodate personal desires or interpret new problems in different ages. Something of this problem is clear in the first century A.D., when Yeshua challenged the Jewish leaders for having set aside the Word of YHVH for their own traditions {Mark 7:9-13}.

WHAT LED UP TO THE TALMUD

One of the earliest ways of teaching Oral Law was a running commentary, or Midrash {“to expound”}, of the biblical text. If the teaching handled the legal portions {the Law} of the Old Testament, then it was referred to as Midrash Halakah {this focused on the way one walks or lives}. When treating nonlegal, ethical, or devotional portions of the Old Testament, then the opinions and understanding were called Midrash Haggadah {“narration”}. In 444 B.C. when the wall of Jerusalem was completed, Ezra and his trained associates were using the method of Midrash when they “explained the Law to the people while the people remained in their place. They read from the book, from the Law of YHVH, translating to give the sense so that they understood the reading” {Nehemiah 8:7-8}. This kind of Oral Midrash is the method followed by generations of teachers after Ezra, when the religious leaders were known as Sopherim {“bookmen” or “scribes”}, until about 200 B.C. Sometimes referred to as the “Great Synagogue,” these scholars provided teaching to “hedge” and protect the revealed moral and ceremonial Word so that Israel would never stray into idolatry or ignorance again. The Sopherim were succeeded by the Hasidim {“pious ones”}, who tried to maintain a high level of religious devotion. In turn, the Hasidim were succeeded by the Pharisees {“separated ones”} at about 128 B.C. Each of these groups contributed to the Midrash method. This material continued to increase and was passed on orally. Succeeding generations learned these materials through continuous repetition. Therefore, the new method was called Mishnah {“repetition”}, and the teachers of the Mishnah were known as Tannaim {“those who handed down orally”}. Both Midrash and Mishnah existed side by side in following generations. There came a time however, when it was necessary to organize and codify the Oral Law covered by Mishnah, since this became cumbersome to learn as a body of material. Eventually, this material was put into writing; it came to be known as Gemara {“completion”}. The combination of Gemara and Mishnah make up the Talmud.

MISHNAH

These are written interpretations of the meaning of the Law. According to Jewish tradition, they were given when Moses received the Law from YHVH on Mount Sinai, and they were to be passed down in Oral form. This “Oral tradition” was the “Law” to which Yeshua referred for example, in Matthew 15:1-9. By about AD 200, under Rabbi Judah’s leadership, the transcribing work begun earlier by Rabbi Akiba around A.D. 120 was completed, and the oral tradition was finally written down. This written material is called the Mishnah. The word is taken from a verb that reflects the way the material had been repeated orally from teacher to disciple for many generations. The Mishnah is divided into six “orders”; each order is divided into sections called “tractates,” which in turn are divided into chapters. The orders give explanations for specific areas of legal concerns as follows:

1 -- Seeds is concerned with agricultural Laws, and is introduced with a tractate dealing with daily prayers.
2 -- Festivals deal with feasts, fast days, and Shabbat regulations.
3 -- Women records marriage and family Laws.
4 -- Injuries deal with civil / criminal Law and ethical standards.
5 -- Holy Things concerns the ritual Laws and the activities of the priesthood.
6 -- Purifications elaborate the Laws of ritual purity.

The Mishnah, which is essentially a commentary on the Old Testament Law, forms the basis for the Gemara and the Talmud.

GEMARA

The Gemara is a summary and commentary on the important points of the Mishnah {Jewish Oral Tradition}. The Gemara and Mishnah together form the Talmud {Jewish Law}. Many Jews consider the Talmud as the authority for their faith. In Aramaic, Gemara means “acquired learning.” That meaning reflects the teaching method of the rabbis. They passed on the Gemara by committing it to memory rather than writing it down. The word’s Hebrew root means “to complete.” Since the Gemara takes the form of a running commentary on the Mishnah, it serves to add to it and complete it. Pages of the Talmud are arranged with the Mishnah in the middle and the Gemara in blocks of print on the side. The Gemara does not necessarily quote the same sources twice when dealing with similar passages from the Mishnah on the same problem. It also doesn’t always contain commentary on the Mishnah. The Gemara also includes folklore, astronomy, astrology, medicine, parables for preaching, and examples from great rabbis’ lives.

MIDRASH

This transliteration into English of a Hebrew word occurs twice in 2 Chronicles. 2 Chronicles 13:22 refers to the literary source used for recording the reign of King Abijah of Judah (913-910 BC) as the “midrash” of the prophet Iddo. 2 Chronicles 24:27 mentions, in connection with the reign of King Joash of Judah (835-796 BC), the “midrash” of the book of the kings. Although these are the only times that midrash is mentioned in Chronicles, they do fall into a pattern of references to outside literary sources. For instance, Chronicles often cites The Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah or something similar (2 Chronicles 16:11). It is probable that the title in 2 Chronicles 24:27 incorporating the term “midrash” is just a variation of a main source title. Again, Chronicles often alludes to various prophetic sources; the otherwise unknown prophet Iddo features also in a work called The Visions of Iddo the Seer in connection with the reign of Jeroboam I of Israel (930-909 BC; 2 Chronicles 9:29), and also The Record of Shemaiah the Prophet, with reference to King Rehoboam of Judah (930-913 BC; 2 Chronicles 12:15). Here too, it is probable that a single prophetic work is labelled with different names. But what did the term “midrash” mean precisely, to the author of Chronicles? The ancient Greek version translated it simply as “book, writing,” and it is likely that it meant nothing more than that. The underlying Hebrew verb means to inquire or study, and accordingly the noun could signify “a result of research, a study.” Alternatively, it may mean “commentary” in the sense of a presentation of history from a certain perspective. Apart from these instances in Chronicles, the other usage of importance for the Old Testament is its meaning as a procedure or product of interpretation of the biblical text, which was eventually incorporated into the Jewish commentaries called Midrashim. In the literature of Qumran, midrash appears in the general sense of “interpretation of the Law.” But in later rabbinic literature it became a technical term for a collection of traditional teachings of the rabbis arranged in order of chapter and verse of biblical books. The overall aim of these studies was to apply the ancient text to contemporary circumstances in a variety of ways.

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