Editing Talmud (section)

=== Modern estimates ===
A wide range of dates have been proposed for the Babylonian Talmud by historians.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The New Testament and rabbinic literature |date=2010 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-17588-4 |series=Supplements to the journal for the study of Judaism |location=Leiden |pages=82}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Amsler |first=Monika |title=The Babylonian Talmud and late antique book culture |date=2023 |publisher=Cambridge university press |isbn=978-1-009-29733-2 |location=Cambridge |pages=122–123}}</ref> The text was most likely completed, however, in the 6th century, or prior to the [[early Muslim conquests]] in the mid-7th century at the latest,{{Sfn|Schiffman|2024|p=138}} on the basis that the Talmud lacks loanwords or syntax deriving from [[Arabic]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Amsler |first=Monika |title=The Babylonian Talmud and late antique book culture |date=2023 |publisher=Cambridge university press |isbn=978-1-009-29733-2 |location=Cambridge |pages=123}}</ref> 

Recently, it has been extensively argued that Talmud is an expression and product of [[Sasanian Empire|Sasanian]] culture,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kiel |first=Yishai |title=Sexuality in the Babylonian Talmud: Christian and Sasanian contexts in late antiquity |date=2016 |publisher=Cambridge university press |isbn=978-1-107-15551-0 |location=New York (N.Y.) |pages=9}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Secunda |first=Shai |title=The Iranian Talmud: reading the Bavli in its Sasanian context |date=2014 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |isbn=978-0-8122-4570-7 |edition= |series=Divinations: rereading late ancient religion |location=Philadelphia}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Secunda |first=Shai |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/on1127664734 |title=The Talmud's red fence: menstrual impurity and difference in Babylonian Judaism and its Sasanian context |date=2020 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-885682-5 |edition= |location=Oxford, United Kingdom ; New York, NY |oclc=on1127664734}}</ref> as well as other [[Greek language|Greek]]-[[Roman Empire|Roman]], [[Middle Persian]], and [[Syriac language|Syriac]] sources up to the same period of time.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Goldstone |first=Matthew |date=2019 |title=The Babylonian Talmud in its cultural context |url=https://compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/rec3.12317 |journal=Religion Compass |language=en |volume=13 |issue=6 |doi=10.1111/rec3.12317 |issn=1749-8171}}</ref> The contents of the text likely trace to this time regardless of the date of the final redaction/compilation.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Secunda |first=Shai |date=2016 |title="This, but Also That": Historical, Methodological, and Theoretical Reflections on Irano-Talmudica |url=https://www.academia.edu/37709046 |journal=Jewish Quarterly Review |language=en |volume=106 |issue=2 |pages=236 |doi=10.1353/jqr.2016.0013 |issn=1553-0604}}</ref> 

Additional external evidence for a [[Terminus ad quem|latest possible date]] for the composition of the Babylonian Talmud are uses of it by external sources such as ''[[Pirqoi ben Baboi#Work|Letter of Baboi]]'' ({{Circa|813}})<ref>{{Cite book |last=Amsler |first=Monika |title=The Babylonian Talmud and late antique book culture |date=2023 |publisher=Cambridge university press |isbn=978-1-009-29733-2 |location=Cambridge |pages=128}} On the precise date of Pirkoi's letter cf. I. Gafni, 'How Babylonia Became Zion: Shifting Identities in Late Antiquity', in: L.I. Levine and D.R. Schwartz (eds), ''Jewish Identities in Antiquity: Studies in Memory of Menahem Stern'' (Tübingen, 2009), p. 333 n. 2.</ref> and chronicles like the ''Seder Tannaim veAmoraim'' (9th century) and the ''[[Iggeret of Rabbi Sherira Gaon]]'' (987).<ref name=":1" /> As for a [[Terminus post quem|lower boundary on the dating]] of the Babylonian Talmud, it must post-date the early 5th century given its reliance on the [[Jerusalem Talmud]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Amsler |first=Monika |title=The Babylonian Talmud and late antique book culture |date=2023 |publisher=Cambridge university press |isbn=978-1-009-29733-2 |location=Cambridge |pages=127–131}}</ref>