Avodah Zarah, Daf Tet, Part 6

 

Introduction

This short story has to do with a document that seems to have the wrong date.

 

ההוא שטרא דהוה כתיב ביה שית שנין יתירתא.

סבור רבנן קמיה דרב’ למימר האי שטר מאוחר הוא. ניעכביה עד דמטיא זמניה ולא טריף

 

There was a document which was dated six years ahead. The rabbis who were sitting before Rava thought that it should be pronounced a post-dated document. Let us delay it until it s time arrives and not seize property based on it.

 

If this document is post-dated, meaning the date of execution seems to be later than when the loan actually occurred, the power of the creditor to seize the debtor s property is lessened. He will only be able to seize property that was in the possession of the debtor from the time written in the document.

 

אמר רב נחמן האי ספרא דוקנא כתביה והנך שית שנין דמלכו בעילם דאנן לא חשבינן להו הוא קחשיב ליה.

ובזמניה כתביה דתניא ר’ יוסי אומר שש שנים מלכו בעילם ואח"כ פשטה מלכותן בכל העולם כולו:

 

R. Nahman said: This document must have been written by a scribe who was very particular and took into account the six years in which they (the Greeks) ruled in Elam which we do not reckon. The dating is correct, for we have learned: Rabbi Yose said, Six years the Greeks reigned in Elam and after that their dominion extended universally.

 

The dating of documents begins with the Seleucid (Greek) rule over Babylonia (312 B.C.E). However, according to R. Nahman, there are some scribes who begin this count 6 years earlier, when the Seleucids began their rule over Elam, a land close to Babylonia. Thus this document may be precise, and should not be considered a post-dated document.