THE HISTORY OF THE TALMUD

The chart below traces the history of the Talmud.

You read the chart up from the bottom of the page upwards beginning with the Torah, Haggadah, and the Hallakah.

   AD 400                  THE TALMUD                  AD 550

    PALESTINIAN TALMUD                     BABYLONIAN TALMUD

Amoraim
“Speakers” or Teachers
Interpret Mishna  AD 220 – AD 550
They Included:
Haggadah – Non legal material
Midrash Exegesis
Narrative Sayings
Tosephta – Smaller additions of Hallakah
Messianic, Eschatological, Anti-Christian
Baraita – Some Hallakah
Influenced by Roman Law

MISHNA
AD 220
6 Orders/Sedarim/Zeraim
63 Tractates on laws

Tannaim
Rabbis/Teachers
AD 70 – AD 200
Taught by Repetition, Memorization
Heirs of the Pharisees
Produced Mishna Hallakah
Rabbi Johanan ben Zakkai AD 70
Rabbi Akiba AD 135
Rabbi Judah haNasi (“Prince”) AD 200
(Family of Hillel, Grandson of Gamaliel)

Sopherim
Scribes
ca 141 BC – AD 70
Worked in Pairs – “Zugoth”
Hillel and Shammai (the 5^th and last pair)
Interpreted Torah, Haggadah, and Hallakah

     Torah Law – Tanak          Haggadah – Interp. Law         Hallakah – Community law

Click here to go to the Chart on Components of the Jewish Legal System