page_title: History of theology
section_title: In the period of the Talmud
hierarchical_section_title: History of theology / Early Jewish theology / In the period of the Talmud
context_page_description: Greek theologia was used with the meaning "discourse on god" around 380 BC by Plato in The Republic, Book ii, Ch. 18. Aristotle divided theoretical philosophy into mathematike, physike and theologike, with the last corresponding roughly to metaphysics, which, for Aristotle, included discourse on the nature of the divine.
  Drawing on Greek Stoic sources, the Latin writer Varro distinguished three forms of such discourse: mythical, rational and civil.
  Some Latin Christian authors, such as Tertullian and Augustine, followed Varro's threefold usage, though Augustine also used the term more simply to mean 'reasoning or discussion concerning the deity'
  In patristic Greek Christian sources, theologia could refer narrowly to devout and inspired knowledge of, and teaching about, the essential nature of God.
  The Latin author Boethius, writing in the early 6th century, used theologia to denote a subdivision of philosophy as a subject of academic study, dealing with the motionless, incorporeal reality. Boethius' definition influenced medieval Latin usage.
context_section_description: In the centuries after its compilation, discussion and commentary upon the Mishnah flourished in Jewish academies in Israel and in Babylon.  Collections of opinions from these discussions, known as Gemara were eventually edited together and placed with the Mishnah itself, in both Israel (around 350 AD – the Jerusalem Talmud) and Babylon (around 550 AD, with further editing in the two centuries that followed – the Babylonian Talmud).
  Important figures (known as Amoraim) include
  Samuel of Nehardea (Shmuel) (c. 165 – c. 257)
  Resh Lakish (born c. 200)
  Hillel, son of Gamaliel III (3rd century)
  Abba Arika (Rav) (died 247)
  Rabbi Yochanan (died c. 279)
  Abaye (278 – c. 338)
  Abbahu (died c. 320)
  Ashi (352–427)
caption: A page of Talmud
exif: {}