Quotation forms in the Babylonian Talmud: Authentically Amoraic, or a Later Editorial construct?
According to modern scholarly consensus, the Babylonian Talmud's technical terminology is Saboraic in origin. The literature on this subject, however, bases itself on a handful of cases involving a few selected terms. This paper examines one group of technical terms: quotation-forms, introducto...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Print Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
College
1988
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| In: |
Hebrew Union College annual / Jewish Institute of Religion
Year: 1988, Volume: 59, Pages: 167-187 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Talmud
/ Introduction
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| RelBib Classification: | BH Judaism |
| Further subjects: | B
Citation
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| Parallel Edition: | Electronic
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| Summary: | According to modern scholarly consensus, the Babylonian Talmud's technical terminology is Saboraic in origin. The literature on this subject, however, bases itself on a handful of cases involving a few selected terms. This paper examines one group of technical terms: quotation-forms, introductory phrases whose function is to identify the author of a statement and its tradent. It concludes that quotation-forms were incorporated into the sugya during the Amoraic period, in contrast to the scholarly consensus. It determines that all Amoraim quote according to fixed patterns, but that several of these patterns are only partial, applying with total consistency to some Amoraim but not at all to others. The theory which attributes quotation forms to later editors cannot explain why later editors altered their sources selectively, imposing stylistic uniformity among all Amoraim when certain formal criteria were satisfied, but failing to do so in the presence of other formal criteria, and failing to do so likewise when formal criteria were absent altogether. According to the theory that quotation forms derive from the Amoraic period, however, such partial consistency is easily explicable, with some patterns followed consistently throughout the entire Amoraic period existing alongside other patterns which evolved from one generation to the next, and existing as well alongside patterns which were followed consistently by certain Amoraim living at certain time periods, but not at all by others. |
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| ISSN: | 0360-9049 |
| Contains: | In: Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Hebrew Union College annual / Jewish Institute of Religion
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