Curiously, however, modern scholarship has largely proceeded as though the Talmud lies beyond the reach of historical inquiry. Even as contextual approaches to the Talmud – especially attention to its religious and cultural milieux – have attracted a growing community of scholars and incorporated an expanding range of comparanda, the historical study of the Talmud continues to be treated as a topic of interest rather than as an essential methodological orientation. It occupies a position not unlike that of studies of rabbinic conceptions of the afterlife or angelology: a legitimate subject of inquiry, yet not a foundational point of departure. Historical analysis is thus rarely regarded as indispensable to Talmudic study in the way that philology is; instead, it remains a specialized line of investigation within the broader field. ...I noted the first three essays in this series here and links.The historical study of the Bavli can therefore no longer be treated as a secondary pursuit. Like any other literary work, the Talmud must also be read within its political, social, and cultural ambit. Such an approach corrects for latent – and ultimately unsubstantiated – historical assumptions that continue to shape many aspects of the field. At the same time, it offers new lines of approach to familiar questions and opens novel avenues of inquiry. I will conclude by sketching four such directions:
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