Talmudist
(ˈtælmədɪst, tælˈmuːdɪst)
[f. Talmud + -ist.]
1. a. One of the authors of the Talmud. b. One who accepts or believes in the authority of the Talmud. c. One learned in the Talmud; a Talmudic scholar.
| 1569 J. Sandford tr. Agrippa's Van. Artes 6 b, There is a great contention of the Hebrewe tounge and Carracter, betwene the Thalmudistes. c 1645 Howell Lett. (1650) II. 10 The Jews at this day are divided to three sects. The first, which is the greatest, are call'd the Talmudists, in regard that, besides the holy scriptures, they embrace the Talmud. 1742 Biscoe On Acts (1829) 86 The Talmudists frequently speak of the transmigration of the souls of good men. 1882 American III. 186 Dr. Joseph Barclay, Bishop of Jerusalem, an eminent Talmudist. 1882 Century Mag. XXIV. 49 All [orthodox] Jews with whom Americans and Europeans are acquainted are Talmudists. |
2. fig. in Pol. use (see quot. 1957). Cf. prec.
| 1957 R. N. C. Hunt Guide to Communist Jargon xviii. 65 The second edition of the Large Soviet Encyclopædia..defines Talmudist (figuratively) as ‘a pedant, dogmatist, formalist, doctrinaire’. 1965 New Statesman 14 May 772/2 Soviet Russia is described as a ‘filthy shed’... Its inhabitants are ‘slaves’ and its rulers ‘blockheaded talmudists’. |
Hence Talmuˈdistic, Talmuˈdistical adjs. = Talmudical. So ˈtalmudize v. trans., to make Talmudic; to allegorize or mix with fable; hence talmudiˈzation.
| 1593 Nashe Christ's T. (1613) 76 With Th' almudisticall dreames. 1642 Cudworth Disc. Lord's Supper 30 Besides these Talmudisticke Jewes, there is another Sect..that reject all Talmudicall Traditions. 1781 Warton Hist. Eng. Poetry lx. (1840) III. 386 The name Ariel came from the Talmudistic mysteries. 1839 R. Philip Life W. Milne ix. (1840) 246 There are facts in his itinerary although Talmudized. 1860 W. W. Webb in Med. Times 1 Dec. 537/1 Talmudistical commentators on clinical medicine, whose patients seem to be immortal. 1927 V. Burch Jesus Christ & his Revel. 13 If the Talmud depraves the values of Jesus Christ with cynicism, and the Kûran talmudises Him so that he becomes an inferior Jewish prophet, then we are guilty of a double talmudisation of the One we are said to follow. 1931 Times Lit. Suppl. 19 Mar. 228/2 Extraneous influences, historical development, Talmudization, do not trouble him. |