From Tablet to Talmud: Canonised Knowledge in Late Antiquity
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Markham J. Geller
Abstract
The article explores whether key features of Babylonian textual standardisation may have may have influenced basic patterns of text and commentary in the Babylonian Talmud. The paper takes the view that canonicity is a complex process involving different levels of standardising texts. On the whole, canonicity preserved major texts (like Gilgamesh, the Bible, the Hippocratic Corpus), but others considered as non-canonical (or ‘outside’) could still be used for explanatory purposes. The structure of the Babylonian Talmud (Mishnah, Gemara, Tosephta-based Beraitôt) serves as a useful model for comparison with earlier cuneiform compendia.
Funding source: H2020 European Research Council
Award Identifier / Grant number: ERC-2012-AdG. 323596–BabMed
AbbreviationsBAK = H. Hunger, Babylonian-assyrian Kolophone (1968)SAA = State Archives of Assyria
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© 2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Scholars, Priests, and Temples: Babylonian and Egyptian Science in Context. Introduction
- Part I. Priests, scholars, and their communities
- Charming Snakes (and Kings), from Egypt to Persia
- The Descendants of the Sîn-lēqi-unnīnī during the Late Achaemenid and Early Hellenistic Periods – A Family of Priests, Scribes and Scholars and Their Archival and Learned Texts
- Priestly Scholars in Late Egypt: The Theoretical Side
- Stellar Scientists: The Egyptian Temple Astrologers
- Part II. Developments in scholarship
- Berossus and the Creation Story
- From Tablet to Talmud: Canonised Knowledge in Late Antiquity
- The Religious Sciences in Ancient Egypt
- Egyptian Scholars, Priests and Temples between Autonomy and State Authority
- Weather Prediction in Babylonia
- The Continued Relevance of MUL.APIN in Late Babylonian Astronomy
- Writing History Under Empire: The Babylonian Chronicle Reconsidered
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Scholars, Priests, and Temples: Babylonian and Egyptian Science in Context. Introduction
- Part I. Priests, scholars, and their communities
- Charming Snakes (and Kings), from Egypt to Persia
- The Descendants of the Sîn-lēqi-unnīnī during the Late Achaemenid and Early Hellenistic Periods – A Family of Priests, Scribes and Scholars and Their Archival and Learned Texts
- Priestly Scholars in Late Egypt: The Theoretical Side
- Stellar Scientists: The Egyptian Temple Astrologers
- Part II. Developments in scholarship
- Berossus and the Creation Story
- From Tablet to Talmud: Canonised Knowledge in Late Antiquity
- The Religious Sciences in Ancient Egypt
- Egyptian Scholars, Priests and Temples between Autonomy and State Authority
- Weather Prediction in Babylonia
- The Continued Relevance of MUL.APIN in Late Babylonian Astronomy
- Writing History Under Empire: The Babylonian Chronicle Reconsidered
