Situates the Babylonian Talmud, or Bavli, in its cultural context by reading several rich rabbinic stories against the background of Greek, Syriac, Arabic, Persian, and Mesopotamian literature of late antiquity and the early Middle Ages, much of it Christian in origin.
"Honigman presents a sophisticated, encompassing, and ultimately persuasive reconstruction of the political, economic, cultural and literary forces at work that resulted in the production of these two puzzling books."
