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If I'm not misunderstanding anything, Jews usually follow the Tanakh (more or less the Old Testament) and the Talmud, but definitely not the New Testament, whereas Christians follow the Old and New Testaments but not the Talmud. So, among those who believe in the Old Testament, people usually follow the Talmud if and only if they do not believe in the New Testament.
Why is this? Are the Talmud and the New Testament incompatible, or is the combination simply unfashionable or something?
The Talmud "takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history." (Wikipedia) It was written by ancient Rabbis as discussions and interpretations of the scriptures of the Tanakh (Old Testament).
The New Testament teaches that Scripture must be given by inspiration of God. As the Talmud was not, and does not claim to be, inspired writing, it is not considered authoritative by Christians.
Also, many of the passages of the Talmud are dedicated to interpretations of various provisions of the Law of Moses, which Christians believe were fulfilled in Christ and no longer apply, which makes a great deal of the Talmud not only non-authoritative but also irrelevant, from a Christian perspective.
Jewish Law has it's foundation in the books of the Torah: the first five books of the Bible. Although there are something like 613 commandments (mitzvot) in the Torah, there are many areas of life that are not directly addressed by the written law. And society has changed in ways that aren't explicitly accounted for by the text. For instance, Moses commanded:
Mark that the Lord has given you the sabbath; therefore He gives you two days’ food on the sixth day. Let everyone remain where he is: let no one leave his place on the seventh day.—Exodus 16:29 (NJPS)
Originally, that meant to not leave the camp to go and gather manna. Traditionally it meant not to leave the area of the city as defined by the city walls. (See Jeremiah 17:19-27.) But these days, we don't have well-defined cities. I live near Los Angeles, but unless you pay careful attention to the signs on the side of the road, you can't tell if you are in Burbank, Glendale, Pasadena, Los Angeles or unincorporated Los Angeles county. Am I breaking mitzvot by moving around the metropolis? (The Orthodox Judaism solution is to create an eruv.)
To answer practical questions, such as this, Rabbis began to formulate a system of interpretations based on their understanding of the Mosaic principles. According to tradition, this Oral Torah could be traced back from student to teacher to Moses himself. After the destruction of the Second Temple, Rabbis began to write down the Oral Law, which became the Talmud.
As it happens, during Jesus' time there were (according to Josephus and other historians) three mutually dissenting views on what constituted the Jewish Law:
Sadducees, who rejected not only the rabbinical traditions, but all of the Tanakh outside of the Torah.
Pharisees, who shaped and promoted the Oral Torah in addition to the Tanakh.
Essenes, who seemed to have accepted not only the Tanakh, but a wide range of other texts. They seem not to have accepted the Oral Torah. (If the Qumran community was Essene, we could be more certain about their beliefs.)
Jesus (and the early Christian movement) mostly interacted with the Pharisees and theologically seemed to have the most in common with them. (See Matthew 22:23-33 and parallels, Acts 5:17-42, and Acts 23:1-11.) Some scholars speculate that John the Baptist was an Essene, but otherwise we have no record of Jesus interacting with that sect. As you point out, Christianity accepts the texts that the Pharisees used as their scripture. (The Tanakh was completed and in the process of being canonized, while the Talmud remained strictly oral at the time.)
But Jesus roundly rejected the Oral Torah as misguided:
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!—Matthew 23:23-24 (ESV)
Paul interpreted Jesus' ministry as invalidating other Jewish practices:
But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?”—Galatians 2:11-14 (ESV)
The early church even rejected imposing certain laws written in the Torah, such as the kosher rules and circumcision, on gentile believers. As the church spread to Greek and Roman cities and beyond, its observance of the mitzvot also diminished. There is no evidence that Christianity ever advocated the Oral Torah which eventually became the Talmud.
Mason Wheeler summarized the Christian perspective on the the Talmud well. I will add that the Talmud provides a good deal of useful historical material for anyone trying to understand the origins of Christianity.
Talmud was strongly opposed by Jesus Christ.
During the time of Jesus Christ, Talmud was called Traditions of the Elders.
The Pharisees, the scribes, and all of the Jews who followed the sect of Pharisees nullified the word of God by obeying Traditions of the Elders (Matthew 15, Mark 7). Jesus calls Traditions of the Elders as human traditions (Mark 7:8) and severely criticized the Pharisees and the scribes for setting aside the commands of God in order to observe Traditions of the Elders which nullified the word of God (Mark 7, Matthew 15).
That is why the biggest opponents of Jesus Christ were the Pharisees and the scribes (Matthew 23, Luke 11). We also see Jesus Christ saying this - "Has not Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps the law." (John 7:19). This is also mentioned by Stephen in Acts 7:53.
Traditions of the Elders was also known as Traditions of our Fathers (Galatians 1:14) or Traditions of our forefathers by Josephus in Antiquities of Jews.
"What I would now explain is this, that the Pharisees have delivered to the people a great many observances by succession from their fathers, which are not written in the laws of Moses; and for that reason it is that the Sadducees reject them, and say that we are to esteem those observances to be obligatory which are in the written word, but are not to observe what are derived from the tradition of our forefathers." (Antiquities of Jews Book XIII.X.VI).
This is also agreed by Jewish society.
Rabbi Michael Rodkinson - "The Talmud, then, is the written form of that which, in the time of Jesus, was called the Traditions of the Elders, and to which he makes frequent allusions" (Source - The History of the Talmud, Vol. II, page 70, Chapter IX).
So like Mason Wheeler pointed out above, the scripture must be God-breathed and should be useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, (2 Timothy 3:16)
The TALMUD is in no way compatible with the Christian Faith. Jesus Christ sternly rebuked the "traditions" of the PHARISEES that would later be transcribed into the Babylonian Talmud. Jesus Stated in John chapter 8 in facing the PHARISEES "your TRADITIONS" (TALMUD) make the Father's law of none effect.
In a quick clarification of the answer above, that fell short in completing what JESUS said, allow me to continue to be "Specific"
A Warning Against Hypocrisy
23 Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: 2 “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. 3 So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. 4 They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.
5 “Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries[a] wide and the tassels on their garments long; 6 they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; 7 they love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by others.
8 “But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers. 9 And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. 10 Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one Instructor, the Messiah. 11 The greatest among you will be your servant. 12 For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.
What JESUS was saying was much similar to render unto Caesar what is his. What He clearly meant was to not break the law of order without cause, but as you read on He clearly made it known that there was trouble brewing in what He would soon confront directly when He had fully attempted to warn them to heed Him, which they chose not to do.
Also the Babylonian Talmud or Oral Traditions would later include Jesus Christ in the most derogatory manner claiming He was in hell boiling in hot excrement, as well his mother the blessed Virgin it says was the whore of carpenters. This would be the anti-thesis of everything Christian and is in fact in large part a cause of discord toward JEWISH people, many of which have little to no idea that this content even exists. The Talmud is the compilation of many different Rabbinical TALMUDIC Rabbis opinions and does not in any way represent world Jewry and their collective position on Jesus Christ, many of which if you ask will tell you that He was either a Prophet, or just a radical Rabbi. It has been the cause of what many consider anti-Semitism which I would tend to partially disagree as the term anti-Semitism indicates a baseless discrimination or mistreatment, not the opposition to philosophy, or doctrine or details of Rabbis positions. The Talmud also claims that all non-JEWS are called Goyim, and it absolutely does state that they exist to serve JEWS and are no better than beasts. While some may claim that the Talmud is the cause of some anti-Semitism, as a matter of fact, the content within it can absolutely be considered the exact opposite....in fact it can be considered absolutely anti-Christian. The equivalent to someone claiming that they are being victimized by someone for them calling them say a Racist while the one claiming to be the victim ATTACKS others for their race. To say the Talmud causes a time-Semitism is on par with saying Diabetes causes sugar to grow. I embrace all people, JEWS MUSLIMS, other CHRISTIANS, no matter. If one is truly a Christian, they will treat even those they consider to be an enemy as they would wish to be treated. So to discriminate against, to cause harm to, or in any other way to cause harm to anyone is a violation of the faith if not strictly employed as self defense, or the defense of ones family, friends or property as the result of a crime. Any such violation would be breaking God's law. So remember this when considering reading the Talmud and realize that the content is not embraced by all JEWS, and many JEWS I know reject the content they find to be distasteful or violent, such as the last and final point that makes it incompatible with the Christian Faith which is that the Talmud says that the worship of JESUS is idolatry and as such is a crime punishable by death by decapitation. It also states that JEWS should seek wherever they settle to establish TALMUDIC Courts of Justice to enforce these laws, which we should well pay attention to as there are TALMUDIC Courts established in the United States. They are only supposed to be authoritative in the JEWISH community, but what makes this extremely dangerous in my opinion, is that under the Equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment, the now decades long existence of these courts make and set a precedent for the establishment of Sharia Law to be implemented within MUSLIM communities. I do not advocate hate, nor discrimination or mistreatment toward any group or people, but doctrines that are inconsistent with the Supreme Law of the United States such as the implementation of foreign politically charged laws, should not be subjected upon the people of the United States. What people do within their churches and in their homes when it comes to the practicing of their faith as their conscience dictates, as long as it does not cause psychological, emotional, or physical/bodily harm against another in violation of their Constitutionally defined unalienable rights, I have no say about.
NO....the Talmud is NOT compatible with CHRISTIANITY. I hope this satisfies your inquiry.
