The Siyyuma as a Scholastic Practice in the Light of Syriac Christianity

In Talmudic passages which date from the end of the Talmudic period and in Geonic literature, the term siyyuma denotes a specific scholastic practice in which traditions were arranged for memorization and promulgation.

This term has analogs both in early sources and later layers. In those which date from Amoraic disciple circles, an analogous term was used to indicate the process by which different reports of statements could be combined to achieve a more authoritative version of a tradition. Later, the anonymous voice of the Talmud uses the term tistayem to repair "broken" disputes between contemporary amoraim in which the names of the tradents and their positions are known but in which the connection between the two has been severed.

Perhaps most importantly, parallels to these terms are found in the roughly contemporaneous literatures of Syriac speaking Christians which provide avenues for comparisons between these scholastic cultures which shared scripture, language and similar modes of study as worship.

The project of comparing the terminology of literary corpora which emanated from Jewish and Christian institutions provides a frame of reference for asking and answering broad questions about what it may have meant to promulgate religious ideas in literature within the Sassanian context in particularly scholastic centers.

This paper demonstrates the ways in which increasing sophistication in usage of these terms mirrors increasing academization during the Talmudic period. As such, evidence is marshalled in support of a more gradual model of the redaction of the Talmud.