This took him, with the assistance of 10 secretaries, no less than 30 years; and many years were spent by him in the revision of the work. The final close of the work, however, is greatly due to Rab Abina II., head of the Sora Academy (473-499). He was the last of the Amoraim expounders, who used merely oral tradition. After them came the Sa boraim, the reflecting, examining, criti cal, the real completers of the Babylon ian Talmud, and by many in ancient and modern times declared to have first re duced "Mishna" and "Talmud" to writing.
The "Babylonian Talmud," as now ex tant, comprises the "Gemara" to almost the whole of the 2d, 3d, and 4th Sedarim (portions), further to the first treatise of the first, and to the first of the last order. The rest, if it ever existed, seems now lost. The whole work is about four times as large as the Jerusalem one, and its 36 treatises, with the commentaries generally added to them in our editions (Rachi and Tosafoth), fill 2,947 folio leaves. The language of the Talmud is, as we said, Aramaic (western and east ern), closely approaching to Syriac. The additional matter—quotations and fragments from older Midrash and Gem ara collections, Haggada, etc.—is princi pally written in Hebrew.
The masters of the "Mishna" (Tan naim) and of the "Gemara" (Amoriam) were followed by the Saboraim. The code of the oral law had come to a close with the second named; and not its devel opment, but rather its proper study, elu cidation, and carrying into practice was the task of the generations of the learned that followed.
The Saboraim no longer dared to con tradict, but only opined on the meaning and practicability of certain enactments, and undertook the task of inculcating and popularizing the teachings laid down by their sires; apart from bestowing proper care upon the purity of the text, and adding some indispensable glosses.
The best commentaries of the "Mishna" are by Maimonides and Bartenora; of the "Babylonian Talmud" by Rashi and the Tosafists of France and Germany. An abstract of the Talmud for practical legal purposes by Maimonides is called "Mishne Thorah." The "Mishna" was first printed at Naples, 1492; the "Tal mud of Jerusalem" at Venice, by D. Born berg, 1523. The "Babylonian Talmud" was first published at Venice by him in 1520. It is generally printed in 12 fo lios, the text on the single pages being kept uniform with the previous editions to facilitate the references. No transla tion of the "Gemara" has ever been car ried further than a few single treatises. The complete "Mishna" on the other hand has been translated repeatedly into Latin, German, Spanish, etc., by Suren hus, Rabe, Jost, and others. We must refrain here from attempting a general characterization of the Talmud, a work Completely sui generic, which is assured ly one of the most important records of humanity.