Editing Talmud (section)

=== Medieval era ===
The text of the Talmud has been subject to some level of critical scrutiny throughout its history. Rabbinic tradition holds that the people cited in both Talmuds did not have a hand in its writings; rather, their teachings were edited into a rough form around 450 CE (Talmud Yerushalmi) and 550 CE (Talmud Bavli.) The text of the Bavli especially was not firmly fixed at that time.

Gaonic responsa literature addresses this issue. Teshuvot Geonim Kadmonim, section 78, deals with mistaken biblical readings in the Talmud.  This Gaonic responsum states:
{{blockquote|... But you must examine carefully in every case when you feel uncertainty [as to the credibility of the text] – what is its source? Whether a scribal error? Or the superficiality of a second rate student who was not well versed?....after the manner of many mistakes found among those superficial second-rate students, and certainly among those rural memorizers who were not familiar with the biblical text. And since they erred in the first place... [they compounded the error.]|Teshuvot Geonim Kadmonim, Ed. Cassel, Berlin 1858, Photographic reprint Tel Aviv 1964, 23b.}}

In the early medieval era, Rashi already concluded that some statements in the extant text of the Talmud were insertions from later editors. On Shevuot 3b Rashi writes "A mistaken student wrote this in the margin of the Talmud, and copyists [subsequently] put it into the Gemara."{{efn|As Yonah Fraenkel shows in his book ''Darko Shel Rashi be-Ferusho la-Talmud ha-Bavli'', one of Rashi's major accomplishments was textual emendation. Rabbenu Tam, Rashi's grandson and one of the central figures in the Tosafist academies, polemicizes against textual emendation in his less studied work ''Sefer ha-Yashar''. However, the Tosafists, too, emended the Talmudic text (See e.g. ''Baba Kamma'' 83b ''s.v.'' ''af haka'ah ha'amurah'' or ''Gittin'' 32a ''s.v. mevutelet'') as did many other medieval commentators (see e.g. R. Shlomo ben Aderet, ''Hiddushei ha-Rashb"a al ha-Sha"s'' to ''Baba Kamma'' 83b, or Rabbenu Nissim's commentary to Alfasi on ''Gittin'' 32a).}}