There Is Only One Other: The Fabrication of Antoninus in a Multilayered Talmudic Dialogue

The article examines a mechanism used by the redactors of the Bavli to condense various “others” into a single Other. Its claim is that this mechanism allowed the Bavli redactors to produce the voice of the talmudic Self, thereby contributing to the construction of the artificial “one-voiceness” associated with the Bavli. This is demonstrated through a close analysis of a dialogue between Rabbi and Antoninus in Bavli Sanhedrin 91a–b, which is based in part on earlier materials found in Palestinian compilations from the tannaitic and amoraic periods. The article shows that, whereas in the first part of the text the redactors attribute to Antoninus the role of a dualist thinker, in the last two parts they ascribe him the role of a Hellenistic philosopher. Thus, the figure of Antoninus stands for two types of “others” with which the rabbinic class had to contend – the first type embedded in the reality of the Babylonian redactors, and the second grounded most likely in the reality of Roman Palestine. Both the philosopher and the dualist thinker challenge rabbinic thought, and even though the challenges are different in nature, the Babylonian redaction, whose possible dating ranges from the fourth to the seventh century, unites these two types under the same historical figure of Antoninus.