A) TALMUD.

B) THE TANAKH.

C) THE TARGUM.

 

 

A) TALMUD

 

 

The Talmud, known also as the Babylonian Talmud (Talmud Bavli), because it was compiled in the Fifth century by Rav Ashi and Ravina II.  It is the “Oral” speaking of the Torah passed on from generation to generation.  It contains basic Rabbinic Judaism, which is Jewish Religious Law and Jewish Theology.

 

The Talmud has two components, the “Mishnah” (B.C. 200), which is the first major written collection of the Jewish oral traditions (“Oral Torah”), and the “Gemara” (B.C. 500), which is a collection of Rabbinical analyses and commentaries on the Mishnah.

 

Thus, the term “Talmud” may refer to either the Gemara alone, or the Mishnah and Gemara together.  It basically contains the teachings and opinions of thousands of rabbis dating from between B.C. 500 to the Fifth century A.D.  The Talmud is the basis for all codes of Jewish Law and is widely quoted in rabbinic literature.  It thus became an expounded explanation of the Torah.

 

 

B) THE TANAKH

 

 

The Tanakh (also spelled as Tanach), also known in Hebrew as the “Miqra,” is the canonical collection of the Hebrew Scriptures, which comprises the “Torah,” the first five Books of Moses, the “Nevi’im,” known literally as the “spokespersons,” which is the Book of the Prophets lying between the “Torah” and the last part of the Tanakh, which is the Ketuvim (the “writings” or the “Hagiographa”), which are the poetic, wisdom, and historical Books.

 

 

Different branches of Judaism and Samaritanism have maintained different versions of this canon.  Portions of the “Septuagint,” Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures (B.C. 300) are used, along with the “Syriac Peshitta,” which is the standard version of the Bible for churches maintaining the Syriac traditions; the “Samaritan Pentateuch,” which is the Jewish “Torah” in Samaritan script, but differs extensively from the Hebrew “Torah.”  Also included most recently is the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Masoretic Text.

 

 

C) THE TARGUM

 

 

The Targum is the “Spoken Translation” of the Hebrew Bible; also known as the Tanakh.  It is basically the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) spoken in the language that the person is residing in.  Such as in the first century B.C., Aramaic was the common language and Hebrew was usually used for only schooling and worship.  The Targum when latter written down, is the authoritative translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Aramaic.

 

Only the Yemenite Jews continue to use the Targum liturgically.  The Targum largely reflects the “Midrashic” interpretation of the Tanakh.  The Midrash is the Jewish Biblical Exegesis, the interpretation of the Talmud.

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