How old is the Talmud?

Answer 1

According to tradition, the Torah was given by God to Moses (Exodus 24:12) in 1312 BCE. Moses taught it to the people (Exodus ch.34), putting it in writing before his death (Deuteronomy 31:24) in 1272 BCE.

The Torah (Five Books of Moses):
(בראשית / Bereshit) - Genesis
(שמות / Shemot) - Exodus
(ויקרא / Vayikra) - Leviticus
(במדבר / Bamidbar) - Numbers
(דברים / Devarim) - Deuteronomy

Nevi'im (נביאים) (the Prophets): The Jews see the books of the Prophets as the story of their past and the connection between God and Israel. Jewish tradition (Talmud, Bava Batra 14b) states that the prophetic books were written by the authors whose names they bear: Joshua, Samuel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, etc. Judges is credited to Samuel, Kings was written by Jeremiah. The Prophets is comprised of a total of 8 books according to the Jewish count. The prophetic books were written in the time of the prophets, from the 1200s BCE (Joshua) to the 300s BCE (Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi).

Ketuvim (כתובים) (the Writings) includes the remaining History Books: Daniel, Lamentations, and others. Jewish tradition (Talmud, Bava Batra 14b) states that the Writings were written by the authors whose names they bear: Daniel, Ezra and Nehemiah. Ruth was written by Samuel; Lamentations was written by Jeremiah; Psalms was set in writing by King David; Chronicles was written by Ezra; Proverbs, Song of Songs and Kohellet (Ecclesiastes) were written by King Solomon; and Esther was written by Mordecai and Esther. The Writings were written between 900 BCE (Ruth) to the 300s BCE (Esther, Daniel, Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah).
Concerning Job, the Talmud states more than one opinion as to when it was written.
Tradition places the sealing of the Tanakh's canon around 340 BCE. God informed the last of the prophets that prophecy would soon cease; and a special synod called the Men of the Great assembly sealed the Tanakh's canon, shortly after the Second Temple was built.

Hebrew Bible Canon: Our tradition is that from the time of the First Destruction, God's presence was no longer felt as clearly as before (see Deuteronomy 31:17-18). In addition, exile is not conducive to prophecy (Mechilta, parshat Bo). At that time, the last of the prophets realized that prophecy would soon cease; and that the dispersal of the Jewish people, plus the almost continuous tribulations from the First Destruction onwards, made it imperative to seal the canon of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible). The Sages of the time, including the last living prophets, convened a special synod for a couple of decades, which was called the Men of the Great Assembly (Mishna, Avot ch.1). This group, who functioned some 2400 years ago, composed the blessings and the basic prayers of the siddur (prayerbook) and the early portions of the Passover Haggadah, made many of the Rabbinical decrees, and (most importantly) sealed the canon of the Tanakh. It was they, for example, who set the twelve Minor Prophets as (halakhically) a single book, and who set the books of the Tanakh in their traditional order (see Talmud, Bava Batra 14b). It was the Men of the Great Assembly whom Esther had to approach when she felt that the Divinely inspired Scroll of Esther should be included in the canon (see Talmud, Megilla 7a).
Since the sealing of the Tanakh, no Jewish sage has ever claimed prophecy.

Answer 2

The Jewish Bible is called the Tanakh, which contains the Torah and prophetic books such as Joshua and Isaiah.

The Torah states that it was given by God (Exodus 24:12) and written by Moses (Deuteronomy 31:24). That was 3300 years ago.

Jewish tradition (Talmud, Bava Batra 14b) states that the prophetic books were written, during the era of prophecy (3300 to 2300 years ago) by the authors whose names they bear: Joshua, Samuel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, Hosea, Joel, Amos, etc.

Judges and Ruth were written by Samuel.

Kings and Lamentations were written by Jeremiah.

Psalms was set in writing by King David.

Chronicles was written by Ezra.

Proverbs, Song of Songs and Kohellet (Ecclesiastes) were written by King Solomon.

Esther was written by Mordecai and Esther.

Concerning Job, the Talmud states more than one opinion as to who wrote it.

Answer 3

Each book is as old as the prophet for whom it is named. With the exception of the Torah and Joshua, which were written earlier, all of the prophetic books were written during the First Temple period, or shortly before that (Samuel, Ruth, Judges, Psalms), or soon after the First Destruction (Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah). The First Temple period was about 28 centuries ago and lasted a few hundred years.

Answer 4

Jewish tradition states that the basic laws of the Oral Torah were given by God to Moses together with the written Torah. These orally-transmitted traditions were put in writing 1500 years ago. (See: Jewish history timeline)Some facts:

• The Talmud serves to clarify the brief verses of the Torah and Tanakh (Hebrew Bible).
  
• The Talmud, after the Torah, is considered the primary text of Jewish learning.
  
• The Talmud contains, in addition to Torah-matters, some mathematics, geometry and trigonometry, medicine, astronomy, and advice on a large range of problems and situations.
  
• The Talmud includes information on the lives and personalities of the Sages, from Abraham down to the writing of the Talmud.
• The Talmud contains the Mishna (relatively brief paragraphs of law, in Hebrew) and Gemara (explanations of the Mishna, in Aramaic and Hebrew).
  
• The Talmud has thousands of published commentaries.
  
• The Talmud contains 63 tractates (volumes) in 2711 leaves (double pages). New printed editions maintain the same pagination as earlier ones.
  
• The Talmud has been banned, censored and burned many times by enemies of the Jews.
  

Some of its books are:
A tractate (volume) about the daily blessings (Berakhot)
A tractate about Shabbat
A tractate about Passover (Pesachim)
A tractate about Rosh Hashanah
A tractate about Yom Kippur (Yoma)
A tractate about Purim (Megillah)
A tractate about marriage (Ketubot)
A tractate about vows (Nedarim)
A tractate about divorce (Gittin)
Three tractates containing laws of torts, damages, property etc. (the three Bavot)
A tractate about Jewish courts (Sanhedrin)
A tractate about the prohibition of idolatry (Avodah Zarah)
A tractate about the offerings (Zevachim)
A tractate about the laws of keeping kosher (Chullin).

Answer 5

The Tanakh's canon was closed about 2350 years ago. The individual books in it are from before then.

Answer 6

About 3500 or so years old.

Answer 7

god knows.

Answer 8

The traditional answer is that the entire Torah was given to Moses on Mt. Siani. The Jewish tradition holds that this happened in the year 2448, which is 1313 BCE. This year is 5781 on the Jewish calendar or 2021 CE on the secular calendar. 5781 minus 2448 is 3333, so that is the age that tradition ascribes to the Torah. Even some medieval Jewish scholars suspected that the end of Deuteronomy was newer -- they suggested it was written by Joshua, and some noted other passages suggesting more recent authorship. Many modern scholars suspect that the entire book of Deuteronomy was composed later, probably in the time of King Josiah (640-609 BCE). The oldest archaeological evidence we have of the Torah text is about the same age, a pair of silver scrolls, probably used as amulets, holding the text now known as Numbers 6: 24-26. However the Torah came to be, it was completed by the time the scribe Ezra (480-440 BCE) instituted regular public readings of the Torah. This means that the Torah is not younger than 2440 years old.