Forget about Galen? Talmudic Medicine in Context

Part of the Centre for Jewish Studies 2020-21 Evening Lecture Series

Speaker: Prof. Mark Geller, University College London and Paris Institute of Advanced Studies

The lecture will investigate to what extent rabbis of the Babylonian Talmud were familiar with the medicine of their era, as a reflection of larger questions regarding the extent of penetration of Hellenistic science into Babylonia. Medicine serves as a useful barometer for the level of general scientific knowledge. Talmudic medicine can be used as a test to determine whether Babylonian rabbis were influenced by the medical writings of authorities such as Hippocrates or Galen, as is often assumed to be the case, or whether Talmudic medicine reflects other inspirations.

Mark Geller is Jewish Chronicle Professor of Jewish Studies at University College London since 1976. He is an expert on Semitic languages, including Aramaic, Akkadian, Sumerian, Ugaritic, and Arabic, and on the Babylonian Talmud. In 2005-6 he received a grant from the Wellcome Trust to work on ancient Babylonian medicine and is now working on a book on Ancient Jewish Medicine.

Register for the lecture on Eventbrite.

Contact email: ch12@soas.ac.uk