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In response to another question, I was told that the Talmud was considered canonical by Orthodox Jews. I have heard it called authoritative, but never canonical before. The cursory sources I checked did not include the Talmud as a part of the canon, though they clearly recognized it as authoritative as well.

So, is the Talmud part of the canon?

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AdamRedwine
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  • See this: http://judaism.stackexchange.com/a/17782/1569 – b a Aug 09 '12 at 22:04
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    This is not an answerable question. Whether something is canonical depends on your definition of canonical. Wiktionary has six adjective definitions (besides those from the fields of music and math); W3NID online and OED online each have four. (Likewise, canon has varying definitions.) Closing. – msh210 Aug 09 '12 at 22:32
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    @msh210 I strongly disagree. If someone cannot answer this question, that is very sad. It's answerable because Judaism (and the Talmud itself) has a clear definition of what canonical means. The Talmud is most definitely not part of our scriptural canon. It is, however, (colloquially) canonical in the sense that we are not empowered to overrule it, and it, itself, has defined parameters as to what is considered talmudical. – Seth J Aug 09 '12 at 23:36
  • @SethJ Is Gemara not Scriptural? – Double AA Aug 09 '12 at 23:42
  • I see I must concede @msh210's point. However, I still object to this on the grounds that it's a distinction in English usage, not a distinction in the Gemara. – Seth J Aug 10 '12 at 00:12

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I meant canonical as in authoritative/indisputable as a matter of law; not that it is part of the Biblical canon. That is why I wrote "places canonical value" and not something like "considers part of the canon." See this blog post for further elaboration.

Dov F
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See definition 2 of canon:

2. A group of literary works that are generally accepted as representing a field.

"the durable canon of American short fiction" — William Styron

Or 3c from here:

[Middle English, from Late Latin, from Latin, standard]

3b. a sanctioned or accepted group or body of related works <the canon of great literature>

Charles Koppelman
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