Migrating Tales

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"A fascinating book, a real tour de force. In Kalmin's hands, the stories of the Babylonian Talmud become evidence of the Bavli's cultural connections with Greeks, Romans, Christians, and others. If anyone tries to tell you how insular ancient rabbinic literature was, tell them to read this book."—Shaye J. D. Cohen, Littauer Professor of Hebrew Literature and Philosophy at Harvard University "Kalmin's work represents an outstanding contribution towards identifying the various contexts and influences that shaped the Babylonian Talmud. He offers new and informative readings of rabbinic material and, while carefully applying cutting-edge systems of philological, literary, and textual criticism, he does not overlook the historical contexts that also played a major role in the process. This study poses a stimulating challenge to preconceived ideas of how rabbinic narratives originated and were subsequently refashioned."—Dr. Isaiah M. Gafni, Sol Rosenbloom Professor of Jewish History at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem "Migrating Tales puts well-selected stories from the Talmud under a microscope, focusing on very specific details to expose these stories' surprising origins in non-Jewish or non-Babylonian literature. Kalmin's overall emphasis is on the penetration of elements from the west, from the Roman Empire, into a document composed in the east, in the Persian Empire. This book is committed to a set of questions about how to determine provenance and context when dealing with such a complicated, composite document as the Talmud. An important and nuanced statement on how to read Talmudic stories in their late ancient context, one from which serious students and scholars of the Talmud and late ancient literature have a great deal to learn."—Moulie Vidas, Assistant Professor of Religion and the Program in Judaic Studies at Princeton University