Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Babylonian Talmud Online

Sorry for the really long delay between posts. The stress level of this quarter has ramped up big time lately, so I may not be able to post much over the next few weeks either.

However, I did want to share something interesting that I encountered recently. I am part of a men's small group at my church and we have been talking about the book of Hebrews. Last week we discussed chapter 7, in which the author of Hebrews seems to view the mysterious figure of Melkizedek as a type of Christ. After the study was over, several of us were curious about what other information is out there about Melkizedek in the extra-canonical materials. Since I am the token biblical studies nerd of the group, naturally I volunteered to do this research.

I quickly determined that I was going to need to access the Babylonian Talmud, since in Nedarim 32b Melkizedek is discussed. However, two things hindered me: 1) the closest library to me does not always have all of the b. Talmud on hand (the reserve copy is not yet complete and the complete copy, which is not the standard edition, can be checked out) and 2) I am lazy. So I started poking around online and hit a gold mine! I found pdf files of the Soncino edition of the b. Talmud online!

So in the spirit of my wife who always tells me that "sharing means caring," here is a link to this treasure trove!

1 comment:

Adam Heilbrun said...

Fake. Or at least commercial crap. They make you jump through all sorts of hoops (advertising) which may, or may not get you to the files you are trying to download. I wasn't willing to play their game to find out.