Fire, responsibility, and redemption theology and composition in a talmudic sugya

The Babylonian Talmud's redaction is mainly the work of the anonymous (stam) redactors who used a variety of received materials. The analytical project of sorting out the received components from the composite product of the stam-redaction initially had a historical focus. But it has also come to be employed for hermeneutical purposes, associated with a broader movement toward the literary study and interpretation of rabbinic texts. his requires combining historical analysis with a literary interpretation, positing an implicit redactor. Here I illustrate this combined, analytical-hermeneutical approach as applied to the sugya of Baba Qamma 60a-b. Study of the sugya's redaction shows how a rather straightforward sequence comprising two elements has attained literary complexity and theological depth through the insertion of a third, seemingly unconnected unit. Such analysis requires us first to recover, from the text before us, the textual elements with which the redactor worked in constructing the sugya. This oten involves conjecture; but, regarding a central element of this sugya, independent corroboration is provided by a close parallel in the Mekhilta. Tracing the redactor's creative work in forging these elements into a tripartite whole reveals a unique vision of divine responsibility.