Liz Frankel, age 13, of Concord, N.H., for her question:

HOW OLD IS THE TALMUD?

The Talmud is a book that contains Jewish civil and religious laws as well as ethical lore. It is made up of 63 books, usually printed in  18 folio volumes. After Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans in A.D. 70, the Phatisees and other pious Jews put the oral laws into writing.

A rabbi named Judah Hanasi compiled the laws in about A.D. 200. They became part of the Talmud that is called the Mishna, meaning instruction.

Comments by scholars on the Mishna are in that part of the Talmud called the Gemara.

The Gemara is made up of the Palestinian and the Babylonian. The Babylonian Gemara, which was put together in A.D. 500, is the more accepted of the two.

The Mishna and the Gemara are written in Hebrew and Aramaic, respectively.

The Talmud forms the religious and literary background of the New Testament. It is used today by students for reference in areas concerning Jewish manners, customs and beliefs.