Jacob Neusner

How the Talmud Works (Brill Reference Library of Judaism) Jacob Neusner

The Bavli, or Talmud of Babylonia, the foundation-document of Judaism, its law, theology, and exegesis of Scripture, sets forth an orderly world, resting on reason and tested by rationality. The document in its coherent intellectual programme of inquiry and in its modes of formal cogency embodies that same passion for order, proportion, and rationality that, animates its concrete discussions. This work covers the problem of the Bavil's intellectual cogency and formal coherence. It provides in exemplary detail the evidence that sustains that characterization of the writing.