Can Socratic teaching be traced back to Talmud study?

Factual Questions
1

I’m aware that Socrates is supposed to have taught by asking questions of the learner, as opposed to providing answers. When we talk about pedagogy, we often refer to Socratic questioning and Socratic style when discussing the approach that provokes introspection and deep reflection in the learner, elicited by asking probing and leading questions. My question is to what extent is that approach a parallel of the rabbinic teachings and torah study that went along with talmudic scholarship? Is it possible to say that such study was a precurser or model for Socrates? I’ll hang up and listen for an answer.

2

Well, since Socrates lived in the 5th century BCE and the Talmud was compiled roughly in the 3-4th centuries CE timeframe, then offhand I’d have to say “no,” no matter whether the methods are similar…

Now if they are similar, the reverse (i.e., Talmudic method deriving from the Socratic) could plausibly be true. No idea if they really are similar, and if whether there is a provable connection, though.

3

On review (and after Edit Window);
Cite the first (Socrates):

andcite the second (talmud):

(all bold/underlining/color mine)

4

A problem with Wikipedia references is that they are often incomplete. While the Mishnah was first WRITTEN around 200 CE, many of the opinioins expressed therein are much older, carried along by oral tradition.

However, it’s still not so much older that it could pre-date Socrates (or Plato.) Hellenism was a huge influence on the rabbinic scholars – there are discussions in the Talmud where they reject specific Hellenistic notions as incompatible with monotheism, but there are other aspects of the Hellenism that they endorse. Logical reasoning seems to be one of those aspects of Greek culture that was acceptable and even happily embraced.

Talmudic reasoning is certainly based on “IF you accept premise A, and IF you accept premise B, then logically you must also accept such-and-such. Since such-and-such is obviously false, we must reject either Premiuse A or Premise B.” I’m not sure to what extent that would be considered Socratic.