What is your position concerning the Talmud?
The two Talmuds, the Babylonian Talmud and the smaller Jerusalem Talmud, both compose several centuries of Rabbinic gemara or commentary on the Mishnah. The Mishnah was composed by approximately 200 C.E. and makes up what is considered to be the Oral Torah. According to Jewish tradition, two Torahs were given to Moses on Mount Sinai: the Written Torah (the Pentateuch or Chumash), as well as the Oral Torah or explanations on how to perform the Written Torah’s commandments. In Orthodox Judaism today, both the Written Torah and Oral Torah generally hold equal status. In Conservative and Reform Judaism, they comprise the basis of Jewish custom and tradition.
The overall Messianic position on the Talmud varies from congregation to congregation, as well as across different Messianic associations. There are some who believe that what is considered to comprise the Oral Torah, should be given a somewhat equal footing with the Written Torah. Others want nothing to do with the Oral Torah, even concluding that it is possibly a fabrication of sorts. More often than not, though, there are those who fall somewhere in between, recognizing the primacy of the Written Torah, yet considering bodies of Jewish literature such as the Mishnah and Talmud to have valuable history, commentary, and philosophy. While important to consult, it should also be stressed that examiners look at such traditions skeptically and critically. While there can indeed be some things spiritually edifying in the Mishnah and Talmud, Believers in Israel’s Messiah must employ proper discernment, casting aside those things which clearly are not good (Philippians 4:8).
A ministry like Outreach Israel and Messianic Apologetics would not elevate literature such as the Mishnah or Talmud over the Written Torah or Pentateuch (what is contained in Genesis-Deuteronomy) or Holy Scriptures as a whole (Genesis-Revelation), but do think it would be a mistake to totally cast it aside. The Mishnah and Talmud are valid to use as secondary resources in exegesis, as they are by Jewish and Christian scholars. At the same time, the Mishnah and Talmud are also broad-sweeping collections of literature, so one should expect (particularly with the Talmud) there to be some internal inconsistencies and differences of opinion among Rabbis.
Likewise to be noted, while we would consider the Mishnah and Talmud to be useful secondary resources for Biblical research, these are not the only secondary resources for Messianics to consider—which may also include Ancient Near Eastern and classical Greco-Roman works, the Apocrypha, Pseudepigrapha, Dead Sea Scrolls, and early Christian writings, among other bodies of material.[1]
NOTES
[1] For a further discussion, consult the author’s article “The Role of History in Messianic Biblical Interpretation” (appearing in Introduction to Things Messianic).
