Automated Extraction of 3000 Talmudic Names
Compare with Josh Waxman's article on this topic, as cited in my previous piece. Waxman's regex significantly differs from mine, according to his description. In addition, he does not provide the regex, nor does he share the list of names extracted using his method.
Compare also my "Index of Online Entries on Personalities in the Mishnah, Talmud, Late Antique Midrash, and Josephus" on my Academia.edu page.
Around 3000 names were found.
Input file
The input file was the bolded text in Steinzaltz translation of the Talmud, from Sefaria. (See my previous piece on how to retrieve this.)
I further cleaned it, removing all quotations of Biblical verses (so as not to match Biblical names), with this regex to match words in quotation marks, replacing them with blank (as far as I can tell, Steinzaltz only uses those quotation marks for quotes of Bible verses):
r'“(.*?)”'
Final output file
The full file, with many manual corrections made, can be found at my Academia.edu page.
The regex used
Around 90% of the Talmudic names were extracted from the Steinsaltz translation using pattern matching (regex). (The rest were found via a variety of manual means.) The regex pattern used are is as follows:1
Pattern # 1: Matches capitalized names with an honorific, optionally with a patronymic (e.g., Rabbi X ben/bar Y):
pattern1 = r'(?:the son of Rav|the son of Rabbi|bar Rabbi|ben Rabbi|son of Rabbi|son of Rav|the son of|son of|the grandson of Rav|the grandson of Rabbi|grandson of Rabbi|grandson of Rav|the brother of Rav|the brother of Rabbi|brother of Rabbi|brother of Rav|the father of Rav|the father of Rabbi|father of Rabbi|father of Rav|bar Mar|Bar Mar|Mar bar Rav|Mar Bar Rav|ben Imma|the house of Bar|the house of|the house|Rabbi|Rav|Avin|Ravin|Mar|Rabban|Imma|Abba|Ben|Bar|ben|bar|King|Queen|the wife of Rabbi|the wife of Rav|The wife of Rabbi|The wife of Rav|the son of the daughter of|son of the daughter of|the son of the daughter of Rav|son of the daughter of Rav|the son of the daughter of Rabbi|son of the daughter of Rabbi|The daughter of|the daughter of) [A-ZḤ][a-z’ḥ,]+(?: (?:bar Rav|the son of Rav|the son of Rabbi|bar Rabbi|ben Rabbi|son of Rabbi|son of Rav|the son of|son of|the grandson of Rav|the grandson of Rabbi|grandson of Rabbi|grandson of Rav|the brother of Rav|the brother of Rabbi|brother of Rabbi|brother of Rav|the father of Rav|the father of Rabbi|father of Rabbi|father of Rav|bar Mar|Bar Mar|ben Imma|bar Abba|the son of the son of Rabbi|the son of the son of Rav|son of the son of Rabbi|son of the son of Rav|of the village of|of the city of|of the|of Nehar|from Bei|from Nehar|from the|of|from|Ish|ben|bar|Ben|Bar|the) [A-ZḤ][a-z’ḥ]*[A-ZḤ]?[a-z’ḥ]*)?(?: (?:of Nehar|of the village of|of the city of|of the|of|from|the) [A-Z][a-z]+)?'
Then, pattern # 2: Matches capitalized names with a patronymic (e.g., X ben/bar Y):
pattern2 = r'[A-ZḤ][a-z’ḥ,]+ (?:bar Rav|the son of Rav|the son of Rabbi|bar Rabbi|ben Rabbi|son of Rabbi|son of Rav|the son of|son of|the grandson of Rav|the grandson of Rabbi|grandson of Rabbi|grandson of Rav|the brother of Rav|the brother of Rabbi|brother of Rabbi|brother of Rav|the father of Rav|the father of Rabbi|The father of Rav|The father of Rabbi|father of Rabbi|father of Rav|the wife of Rabbi|the wife of Rav|The wife of Rabbi|The wife of Rav|The daughter of Rabbi|The daughter of Rav|the daughter of Rabbi|the daughter of Rav|The daughter of|the daughter of|bar Mar|Bar Mar|ben Imma|bar Abba|ben|bar|Ben|Bar) [A-ZḤ][a-z’ḥ]*[A-ZḤ]?[a-z’ḥ]*(?: (?:of Nehar|of the village of|of the city of|of the|of|from|the) [A-Z][a-z]+)?'
(These patterns don’t find mononyms, and don’t find many surnames. On all these, and for full lists of examples, see my paper “Abba”.)
Some interesting names found
This work allowed me to find some interesting and unusual names.2 Here are some examples:
Sabbeta ben Alas (Sanhedrin 64a)
A scatological story relating to idol worship is told about an otherwise-unknown person named Sabbeta ben Alas,3 in Sanhedrin 64a (section # 13):
ת"ר:
מעשה בסבטא בן אלס, שהשכיר חמורו לנכרית אחת
כיון שהגיעה לפעור, אמרה לו: המתן עד שאכנס ואצא
לאחר שיצאה, אמר לה: אף את המתיני עד שאכנס ואצא
אמרה לו: ולא יהודי אתה?
אמר לה: ומאי איכפת ליך?
נכנס, פער בפניו, וקינח בחוטמו
והיו משרתי ע"ז מקלסין לו, ואומרים: מעולם לא היה אדם שעבדו לזו בכך
The Sages taught:
There was an incident involving a Jew named Sabbeta ben Alas, who rented out his donkey and his services to a certain gentile woman.
He was driving his donkey, and when she arrived at Peor, she said to him: Wait here until I go in and come out.
After she came out, he said to her: You too wait for me until I go in and come out.
She said to him: Aren’t you Jewish? Why, then, are you worshipping idols?
He said to her: And what do you care?
He entered and defecated before the idol, and wiped himself with its nostril, as he wanted to demean the idol as much as possible.
But he was unsuccessful, as the priests of Peor were praising him and saying: No person has ever worshipped it before with this excellent form of worship. Although he intended to demean Ba’al-Peor, he actually worshipped it.
Shabbetai bar Marinus (Beitzah 32b)
ואמר רב נתן בר אבא אמר רב: עתירי בבל, יורדי גיהנם הם.
כי הא דשבתאי בר מרינוס אקלע לבבל,
בעא מנייהו עסקא — ולא יהבו ליה.
מזוני מיזן — נמי לא זינוהו.
אמר: הני מערב רב קא אתו, דכתיב: ״ונתן לך רחמים ורחמך״, כל המרחם על הבריות — בידוע שהוא מזרעו של אברהם אבינו, וכל מי שאינו מרחם על הבריות — בידוע שאינו מזרעו של אברהם אבינו.
Rav Natan bar Abba said that Rav said: The wealthy Jews of Babylonia will descend to Gehenna because they do not have compassion on others.
This is illustrated by incidents such as this: Shabbetai bar Marinus came to Babylonia.
He requested their participation in a business venture, to lend him money and receive half the profits in return, and they did not give it to him.
Furthermore, when he asked them to sustain him with food, they likewise refused to sustain him.
He said: These wealthy people are not descendants of our forefathers, but they came from the mixed multitude, as it is written: “And show you compassion, and have compassion upon you, and multiply you, as He has sworn to your fathers” (Deuteronomy 13:18), from which it is derived: Anyone who has compassion for God’s creatures, it is known that he is of the descendants of Abraham, our father, and anyone who does not have compassion for God’s creatures, it is known that he is not of the descendants of Abraham, our father. Since these wealthy Babylonians do not have compassion on people, clearly they are not descended from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
“Marinus” is a Latin name. Clearly he had come from the Roman world, to the Persian-ruled Babylonia.4
R’ Yonatan ben Asmai (Moed Katan 9a-b)
In a future post, I’ll discuss a talmudic story about an otherwise unknown student of R’ Shimon ben Yochai, named R’ Yonatan ben Asmai.
Manual Work needed
Manual corrections needed, as automation is not feasible for:
Removing any final commas (,), remove possesive (‘s), then consolidate
Consolidating names duplicated due to variations of spelling in the Talmud itself (whether it was like that originally, or it was corrupted in transmission over the 1000+ years from the Talmud to the Romm edition), as well as inconsistent transliteration of Hebrew.5 On the issue of variations in name, see my paper “Abba”. I didn’t check and manually fix dupes. I hope to tackle this very important task programatically, using something like the Python
fuzzywuzzylibary, with python-Levenshtein for matching
Also keep in mind that no simple pattern matching will be able to find mononyms; meaning, names that don't have either an honorific or a patronym. For example: Ulla, Shmuel, etc. See, on this, my previous piece on finding names with regex. And see a list of talmudic mononyms in my paper “Abba".
In verbose style:
import re
pattern1 = re.compile(r"""
(?:the\ son\ of\ Rav|
the\ son\ of\ Rabbi|
bar\ Rabbi|
ben\ Rabbi|
son\ of\ Rabbi|
son\ of\ Rav|
the\ son\ of|
son\ of|
the\ grandson\ of\ Rav|
the\ grandson\ of\ Rabbi|
grandson\ of\ Rabbi|
grandson\ of\ Rav|
the\ brother\ of\ Rav|
the\ brother\ of\ Rabbi|
brother\ of\ Rabbi|
brother\ of\ Rav|
the\ father\ of\ Rav|
the\ father\ of\ Rabbi|
father\ of\ Rabbi|
father\ of\ Rav|
bar\ Mar|
Bar\ Mar|
Mar\ bar\ Rav|
Mar\ Bar\ Rav|
ben\ Imma|
the\ house\ of\ Bar|
the\ house\ of|
the\ house|
Rabbi|
Rav|
Avin|
Ravin|
Mar|
Rabban|
Imma|
Abba|
Ben|
Bar|
ben|
bar|
King|
Queen|
the\ wife\ of\ Rabbi|
the\ wife\ of\ Rav|
The\ wife\ of\ Rabbi|
The\ wife\ of\ Rav|
the\ son\ of\ the\ daughter\ of|
son\ of\ the\ daughter\ of|
the\ son\ of\ the\ daughter\ of\ Rav|
son\ of\ the\ daughter\ of\ Rav|
the\ son\ of\ the\ daughter\ of\ Rabbi|
son\ of\ the\ daughter\ of\ Rabbi|
The\ daughter\ of|
the\ daughter\ of)
\ [A-ZḤ][a-z’ḥ,]+
(?:\ (?:bar\ Rav|
the\ son\ of\ Rav|
the\ son\ of\ Rabbi|
bar\ Rabbi|
ben\ Rabbi|
son\ of\ Rabbi|
son\ of\ Rav|
the\ son\ of|
son\ of|
the\ grandson\ of\ Rav|
the\ grandson\ of\ Rabbi|
grandson\ of\ Rabbi|
grandson\ of\ Rav|
the\ brother\ of\ Rav|
the\ brother\ of\ Rabbi|
brother\ of\ Rabbi|
brother\ of\ Rav|
the\ father\ of\ Rav|
the\ father\ of\ Rabbi|
father\ of\ Rabbi|
father\ of\ Rav|
bar\ Mar|
Bar\ Mar|
ben\ Imma|
bar\ Abba|
the\ son\ of\ the\ son\ of\ Rabbi|
the\ son\ of\ the\ son\ of\ Rav|
son\ of\ the\ son\ of\ Rabbi|
son\ of\ the\ son\ of\ Rav|
of\ the\ village\ of|
of\ the\ city\ of|
of\ the|
of\ Nehar|
from\ Bei|
from\ Nehar|
from\ the|
of|
from|
Ish|
ben|
bar|
Ben|
Bar|
the)\ [A-ZḤ][a-z’ḥ,]+)?
(?:\ (?:bar\ Rav|
the\ son\ of\ Rav|
the\ son\ of\ Rabbi|
bar\ Rabbi|
ben\ Rabbi|
son\ of\ Rabbi|
son\ of\ Rav|
the\ son\ of|
son\ of|
the\ grandson\ of\ Rav|
the\ grandson\ of\ Rabbi|
grandson\ of\ Rabbi|
grandson\ of\ Rav|
the\ brother\ of\ Rav|
the\ brother\ of\ Rabbi|
brother\ of\ Rabbi|
brother\ of\ Rav|
the\ father\ of\ Rav|
the\ father\ of\ Rabbi|
father\ of\ Rabbi|
father\ of\ Rav|
bar\ Mar|
Bar\ Mar|
ben\ Imma|
bar\ Abba|
the\ son\ of\ the\ son\ of\ Rabbi|
the\ son\ of\ the\ son\ of\ Rav|
son\ of\ the\ son\ of\ Rabbi|
son\ of\ the\ son\ of\ Rav|
of\ the\ village\ of|
of\ the\ city\ of|
of\ the|
of\ Nehar|
from\ Bei|
from\ Nehar|
from\ the|
of|
from|
Ish|
ben|
bar|
Ben|
Bar|
the)\ [A-ZḤ][a-z’ḥ,]+)?
(?:\ (?:of\ Nehar|
of\ the\ village\ of|
of\ the\ city\ of|
of\ the|
of|
from|
the)\ [A-ZḤ][a-z’ḥ,]+)?
""", re.VERBOSE)
# Pattern 2
pattern2 = re.compile(r"""
[A-ZḤ][a-z’ḥ,]+
\ (?:bar\ Rav|
the\ son\ of\ Rav|
the\ son\ of\ Rabbi|
bar\ Rabbi|
ben\ Rabbi|
son\ of\ Rabbi|
son\ of\ Rav|
the\ son\ of|
son\ of|
the\ grandson\ of\ Rav|
the\ grandson\ of\ Rabbi|
grandson\ of\ Rabbi|
grandson\ of\ Rav|
the\ brother\ of\ Rav|
the\ brother\ of\ Rabbi|
brother\ of\ Rabbi|
brother\ of\ Rav|
the\ father\ of\ Rav|
the\ father\ of\ Rabbi|
The\ father\ of\ Rav|
The\ father\ of\ Rabbi|
father\ of\ Rabbi|
father\ of\ Rav|
the\ wife\ of\ Rabbi|
the\ wife\ of\ Rav|
The\ wife\ of\ Rabbi|
The\ wife\ of\ Rav|
The\ daughter\ of\ Rabbi|
The\ daughter\ of\ Rav|
the\ daughter\ of\ Rabbi|
the\ daughter\ of\ Rav|
The\ daughter\ of|
the\ daughter\ of|
bar\ Mar|
Bar\ Mar|
ben\ Imma|
bar\ Abba|
ben|
bar|
Ben|
Bar)
\ [A-ZḤ][a-z’ḥ,]+
(?:\ (?:of\ Nehar|
of\ the\ village\ of|
of\ the\ city\ of|
of\ the|
of|
from|
the)\ [A-ZḤ][a-z’ḥ,]+)?
""", re.VERBOSE)
For additional examples of names of non-rabbis in the Talmud, see my paper Abba, available on my Academia.edu page.
It is likely that Sabbeta is a variant of the Semitic name Shabbetai. The name Shabbetai is uncommon, but not unheard of (the story in the next section is about someone named Shabbetai). That name is related to the word Shabbat, and the Semitic name for Saturn. The name already appears in late Biblical works. See, at length, the Hebrew Wikipedia entry, “שבתי (שם פרטי)“.
This point is made by Dr. Sara Ronis, “Beitzah 32: The wealthy Jews of Babylonia will descend to Gehenna”, at myjewishlearning.com.
As well as due to sometimes names appearing with Rav/Rabbi, ben/bar, etc.
Looks interesting.
Great stuff. I wonder if "go in and come out" is a euphemism itself.
You say "Inability to identify names without a patronymic marker" is an impediment. Because without it there's too much redundancy for identification?