The Talmud purports to be the written version of the oral Torah that Pharisaic and later Orthodox Judaism believed was received by Moses on Mount Sinai when he received the Ten Commandments and the written law.

All agree that the present written form of the Talmud was compiled after the time of Jesus. But the “proto-Talmudic” tradition was “transmitted orally for centuries.” It seems that Jesus was familiar with many oral ideas, later written down. This oral tradition is analogous to apostolic oral tradition, referred to in the New Testament.

For example, Jesus preached in the Sermon on the Mount, “You have heard that it was said to the men of old, ‘You shall not kill; whoever kills shall be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment...” (Matthew 5:22, RSV). In other words, his point was that sin starts in the heart and the intent, before we commit an act, and that the intent is as blameworthy as the act that flows from it. Murder starts in anger, which then can become malice, up to and including murder, if it’s unchecked.

Is this an entirely new ethical insight of Jesus? No. Many Jews would have been familiar with the oral tradition later written in the Talmud, in Bava Mezia 58b: “He who publicly shames his neighbor is as though he shed blood.”

Likewise, Jesus said shortly after the above, “Everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28). Again, arguably he drew from the continually developing oral Torah. A sentiment similar to this is found in Leviticus Rabba: “Adultery can be committed with the eyes.”

Jesus’ teaching, “Do not resist one who is evil ... if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also” (Matthew 5:39) is often thought to be a radically innovative — if not altogether new and unique — moral teaching. But this idea was present in Jewish oral tradition (eventually written down) as well. A person struck in this way is urged to forgive even if the offender didn’t ask forgiveness (Tosefta Baba Kanima 9:29) and people were commanded to cheerfully submit to suffering (Yoma 23a).

Likewise, his similar maxim, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44) was alluded to in the Talmud: Yoma 23a, Gitin 36b and Shabat 88b.

This reliance on what was originally Jewish oral tradition, later written down outside of the Old Testament, may have been used by Jesus when discussing the true nature of prayer: “In praying do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard for their many words” (Matthew 6:7). Berachot 55a states: “If one draws out his prayer and expects therefore its fulfillment, he will in the end suffer vexation of heart...”

Jesus famously observed about anxiety and worry about basic needs and the future:

Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink. ...  Is not life more than food? ... Do not be anxious about tomorrow… (Matthew 6:25, 34)

Sotah 48b may have drawn from a similar oral tradition when it stated: “Rabbi Eliezer the Great declares: Whoever has a piece of bread in his basket and says, ‘What shall I eat tomorrow?’ belongs only to them who are little in faith.”

Jesus declared, “Thou hast hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes” (Matthew 11:25). The Talmud stated, in Bava Batra 12b: “Rabbi Johanan said: Since the Temple was destroyed, prophecy has been taken from prophets and given to fools and children.” Jesus engaged in controversies over whether it was lawful to heal on the Sabbath:

And behold, there was a man with a withered hand. And they asked him, ‘Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath?’ so that they might accuse him. He said to them, ‘What man of you, if he has one sheep and it falls into a pit on the sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out? Of how much more value is a man than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the sabbath.’ (Matthew 12:10-12)

Originally oral Jewish traditions cited Hosea 6:6 and taught that helping people was of greater importance than observing rituals and customs (Sukkah 49b, Deuteronomy Rabbah on 16:18, etc.). Jesus’ saying, “As you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me” (Matthew 25:45), possibly followed oral tradition expressed later in Tosefta Sh’vuot 3: “One who betrays his fellow, it is as if he has betrayed God.”

Lastly, Jesus said, “The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath” (Mark 2:27), possibly reflecting a tradition later expressed in writing as, “Rabbi Jonathan ben Joseph said: For it is holy unto you; i.e., it [the Sabbath] is committed to your hands, not you to its hands” (Mekilta 103b, and Yoma 85b).