Does the Talmud hold any significance in Christianity and why?

Answer 1

No. The Talmud is based through Jewish exegetical techniques and interpretations of Mishnaic verses, following the nature of the Written Torah Law. There are several reasons why, therefore, it has no significance in Christianity.

1) No Christians: The Talmud was compiled in 200-300 C.E., well into Early Christianity; but no Christians were involved in its writing or were interested in being involved. As a result, it is not a Christian text (as opposed to the Nicene Creed, for example, which is a Christian text written about a century later).

2) New Covenant: The entire point, from the Christian perspective, of Jesus' revelation was to create a New Covenant and liberate the people from most of the Torah-law. Orthopraxis (the requirement for proper action over proper belief) was seen as incorrect and the reason why the Jews were no longer in God's grace. Therefore a document examining the nuances of the Old Covenant is unappealing to Christianity.

3) Jewish Oral Law: The Talmud is the discussion and application of the Mishnah, which is the Jewish Oral Law. Unlike the written Bible, Christianity did not inherit the Oral Law from Judaism. Therefore the discussions in the Talmud would be about issues outside of Christianity and the written Bible.

4) Jewish Philosophy: Since Jewish philosophy was based on legal adherence, understanding the law and its jurisprudential makeup was necessary to a proper life. The Muslims had a similar perspective and have had similar philosophies and a similar jurisprudential history to Judaism. Christianity has a philosophy of Orthodoxos (proper belief being more important than proper action) and therefore developed an entirely different set of codes for which the Talmud would be inadequate.