In this collection of essays, Jacob Neusner and other scholars of Judaic studies explore how and when the Babylonian Talmud took shape. Neusner and his colleagues use a source-critical approach to their inquiry by describing the ideas of historians who have completed the most research on the formation of the Babylonian Talmud, thereby summarizing the knowledge on which they base their study. They then similarly analyze the ideas of literary critics who have done research on the Babylonian Talmud. Finally, Neusner and the other contributors compare the existing research with their own findings.