Jewish Holy Books

Jewish Holy Books What is in the "Jewish Bible"? Talmud: Mishnah and Gemara Christianity and the Talmud What is in the "Jewish Bible"? The Jewish bible goes by many names, including "The Hebrew Scriptures," "The Hebrew Bible," and "The Old Testament" (a term employed by Christians, but not accepted by Jews). Jews call it TANAKH, which is a Hebrew acronym for the three sections it contains: Torah (the Pentateuch or first five books of the Old Testament), Nevi'im (Prophets), and Ketuvim (Writings). The Tanakh contains the 39 books found in the Christian Bible and called the "Old Testament." For a graphic chart showing the contents and order of the Hebrew Scriptures, click here.   Talmud: Mishnah and Gemara In some ways the Jewish Talmud is considered even more important to the present Jewish faith than the Hebrew Scriptures.

Jewish tradition holds that Moses received two Torahs on Mount Sinai. One was a written Torah (contained in the Five Books of Moses known as the Pentateuch). The second was an oral Torah, which according to Jewish tradition was passed from Moses to religious leaders (such as rabbis) from century to century. At the end of the second century of the Common Era (AD) this oral tradition was codified and written down. It was called the Mishnah (Hebrew for "instruction").

A discussion of the Mishnah took place in the academies of Babylonia between the years 200 and 600 CE. The edited and redacted transcript of those discussions and dissertations on the Mishnah is called the Gemara (Aramaic for "completion"). Together, Mishnah and Gemara comprise the Talmud (the written record of what Jews believe is Moses' oral Torah, its meaning, and application).1 About the Mishnah As Israel encountered the cultures of the west, primarily Hellenism and the Roman Empire, and as the population grew and became increasingly urbanized, new situations arose which the agriculturally-oriented Torah did not address. New legislation, and even more, new approaches to applying the Torah to contemporary life, were needed, and the Pharisees responded with the traditions that eventually were incorporated in the Mishnah, a work that is both legalistic (codifying the practice current at the end of the second century, CE) as well as descriptive (preserving descriptions of how Jewish life and ritual were lived in the Second Temple Period).

According to Jewish tradition, these laws and traditions, learned and transmitted independently of the biblical text, were passed on for many generations. In the generation of Judah HaNasi (Judah the Prince), however, the number of knowledgeable Jews seems to have dropped precipitously (no doubt due to the devastating losses suffered during the Revolt of 69/70 CE and the Bar Kochba Rebellion of 135 CE) inspiring Judah HaNasi to break with the long-held oral tradition and commit the teachings in his possession to writing. The Mishnah, as it has come down to us, was written and closed by Judah HaNasi, the leading scholar and religious authority of his generation, around the year 200 CE., thus making it possible to transmit Jewish learning despite a dearth of rabbis and sages in his generation. The Mishnah is divided into six sections (called sedarim).

These six sections are further subdivided into 63 tractates. The Mishnah addresses the full spectrum of issues of Jewish life at the time. It is organized by the general rubrics of Jewish life, making it possible for one to "look up" laws on specific issues. The six orders of the Mishnah: ORDER CONTENTS Zera'im (Seeds) Contains the agricultural rules of ancient Palestine, especially the rules concerning produce which was brought to the Temple in Jerusalem as an offering as well as the laws and traditions pertaining to blessings which are recited over produce and on other occasions, and prayer (which came to be the substitute for sacrifices in the service of God). Mo'ed (Holy Days) Contains laws of Passover, Purim, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot and Shabbath ('The Sabbath').

Nezikin (Damages) Jewish civil and criminal law. Nashim (Women) Contains laws and discusses issues pertaining to women, specifically laws of marriage and divorce. Kodashim (Holy Things) Contains the laws of sacrifices and ritual slaughter. Taharot (Purities) Contains the laws of purity and impurity. About the Gemara The Mishnah was carried to Babylonia, where Jewish life and scholarship flourished following the Roman destruction of Palestine.

For the next thousand years, the Mishnah formed the basis of spirited debates and discussions in the academies there, primarily those of Sura and Pumpedita. The edited and redacted transcript of those discussions and dissertations on the Mishnah is called the Gemara. (The one exception to this is the tractate Avot, which contains no Gemara.) The Gemara is about twenty volumes in length. In its printed form, it is combined with many commentaries wrapped around the central core of text, with even more commentaries in the back of each of its twenty volumes.

The Mishnah is written in a terse and simple style of Hebrew. Most of the Gemara is written in Aramaic, though it contains passages in Hebrew, as well. The Gemara is often divided into two styles: Halakhah and Aggadah. Halakhah is legalistic material and Aggadah is legend. They are interwoven into a seamless whole.

The Talmud serves as the core of rabbinic tradition. Performing mitzvot (commandments) is important to living a full Jewish life. But the Talmud's approach to Jewish legal issues makes clear that study is important as well. In more than one place, issues so esoteric as to be entirely inapplicable are discussed in detail and at great length and it is pointed out that the purpose of the study is for its own sake, and that study brings its own reward. Christianity and the Talmud is a Messianic Jew - that is, he believes that Jesus is the Messiah the Jewish people have been waiting for.

In an article he writes about his view of the Talmud as a Messianic Jew: "Recently I was speaking to a well educated, ultra-orthodox rabbi about the Messiahship of Jesus. He didn't want to hear my opinions (and I can't blame him for that!). He didn't care about what anybody else had to say. He just wanted to go back to the original sources. 'Let's go back to the Talmud," he said.

"That's where we can find the truth.' "I think my answer surprised him. 'Why should I go back to the Talmud,' I said, 'when I can go all the way back to the New Testament?' To my surprise, he didn't argue. "You see, many Jewish people today are told that Judaism alone is the real religion of the Bible, and that 'Christianity' is a much later, predominantly gentile religion. And yet statements such as these, intimidating as they may sound, are simply not true.

"Here are the facts: traditional Judaism as we know it today is absolutely not the religion of Moses and the prophets. It is the religion of the rabbis who lived and taught in some cases over 1500 years later. Instead of being the religion of Temple and sacrifice as prescribed by the Torah, it is the religion of no Temple and no sacrifice, in spite of the Torah. It may shock you to know this, but some of Judaism's most sacred books did not even exist before the late Middle Ages. Christopher Columbus had already discovered America before the Code of Jewish Law used by Orthodox Jews today had ever been compiled! "As for Messianic Judaism, the Judaism that believes in Yeshua the Messiah, the facts are as follows the sole authority for faith and practice is the Bible, consisting of the Old and New Covenants.

Rather than the New Covenant being a late gentile book, all its authors, except one, were Jews - Jews who lived in the days before the second Temple was destroyed in 70 C.E." 1 In truth, there are two Talmuds: one was written in Babylonia and the other in Palestine. The former is known as the Talmud Bavli, and the latter is known as the Talmud Yerushalmi. However, when people speak of "the Talmud," they are usually referring to the Babylonian Talmud, Talmud Bavli.

2 Dr. Michael L. Brown is founder and president of ICN Ministries, devoted to taking the message of repentance and revival to Israel, the Church, and the Nations.