Hafar1014
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- Sep 1, 2010
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Jews were the first religion to end animal sacrificesItās total fact, that you cannot refute. The Talmud came along in the 4th and 5th century AD.
The religion was radically changed and resembles almost nothing of ancient Judaism.
Do you sacrifice animals for the forgiveness of sins? Yes or no?
Talmud
is approximately 1,500 to 1,800 years old, depending on which version and component you are measuring. It is not a single book but a compilation of two distinct layers of text: the Mishnah (the core) and the Gemara (the commentary).
Key Stages of Composition
- The Mishnah (c. 200 CE): The oldest written layer of the Talmud, redacted by Rabbi Judah the Prince about 1,800 years ago.
- The Jerusalem Talmud (c. 400 CE): The first full version of the Talmud, completed in the Land of Israel approximately 1,600 years ago.
- The Babylonian Talmud (c. 500ā650 CE): The more widely studied version, finalized in Babylon between the 5th and 7th centuries. This puts it at roughly 1,400 to 1,500 years old.
Historical Context
While the written text dates to the early centuries of the Common Era, Jewish tradition maintains that the "Oral Torah" contained within the Talmud was passed down for thousands of years before being recorded, stretching back to the time of Moses (c. 1200 BCE). Modern scholarship generally dates the emergence of these distinct oral traditions to the second century BCE.
The oldest complete physical manuscript of the Babylonian Talmud still in existence todayāthe Munich Talmudāwas hand-copied in 1342 CE.
Would you like to explore the differences in content between the Jerusalem and Babylonian versions?