...The decisions for the Sabbath, peace-offerings, and trespasses,
are as mountains hanging on a hair; because the verse is small but
the decisions are many. Jurisprudence, and the Temple service,
cleanness and uncleanness, and illegal connections, have their
own foundations; they, they are the body of the law.--Feast Offerings, I, 8
(p. 170).
This is one of the first substantial abridged translations of the Talmud,
published in the latter half of the nineteenth century.
Barclay, a sympathetic Christian, states in the Preface
that he studied the Talmud with learned Rabbis during a ten-year's
residence in the Holy land.
The task of translating the Talmud, which takes up more shelf space than
the Britannica, would be daunting, and is probably beyond what
one person is capable of in a lifetime.
So early solo translators such as Barclay had to prioritize.
While Rodkinson translated the entirety of the
Festivals and Jurisprudence sections of the Talmud, including the commentary,
Barclay took a more representative approach.
He translated the Mishna (primary text)
of seventeen tracts across the entire span of the Talmud,
as well as a commentary on the Tabernacle.
This includes a number of tracts not in the Rodkinson translation, specifically,
Blessings, Sabbatical Year, Daily Sacrifice, Measurements, Leprosy, and Hands.
Others, particularly Fathers and Sanhedrin
are also available in multiple translations at sacred-texts.
The final feature of this book is
a detailed plan of the Temple complex with
extensive architectural notes.
Barclay does a straightforward translation of each text, and keeps his
personal opinions to a few footnotes.
This is a meaningful and significant modern Talmud translation, and has
been cited many times in other works, although seldom seen.
PRODUCTION NOTES: I obtained a used ex-libris
copy of this long out-of-print book,
but the paper had become so brittle that it literally was
falling apart as I scanned it.
I only debind books as a last resort, but there was no other way in this case.
I had to carefully remove each page from the binding,
using a ruler and a box cutter, and place it onto the scanner by hand.
This added a substantial amount of time to the project.
--J.B. Hare, April 8, 2008.
