Hello there, can you please tell me when this was written? I am looking into the min spoken of towards the end, but they appear to worship one god. Does this refer to trinitarian Christians? First century Christians did not believe in the trinity.
Many thanks
Norman Hewston , England UK
Great to hear from you. Very nice question!
Usually we assume that the Gemara was finalized closed roughly 1500 years ago.
Unless some examples escaped my attention, the references to Minim I find in this Gemara (1-6) seem to indicate that there was a belief in some other divine power in addition to the one true G-d.
The expection might be #4. But I am not sure if that is the passage you meant. If so, I can add that some commentaries (7) speak about a mistaken ideology of celestial semi-worship that existed way back in the times of the grandson of Adam. And others connect this with our Gemara (8).
As a general point, some categorize as Min even those who believe in one G-d (9), if they make another mistake such as thinking G-d is physical or that G-d should be worshiped via a celestial intermediary, or some say if he sins to anger G-d (10).
Best wishes,
Yishai Rasowsky
(1) https://www.sefaria.org.il/Sanhedrin.38b.21?lang=he&with=Rashi&lang2=he
(2) https://www.sefaria.org.il/Sanhedrin.38b.19?lang=he&with=Rashi&lang2=he
(3) https://www.sefaria.org.il/Sanhedrin.38b.14?lang=he&with=all&lang2=he
(4) https://www.sefaria.org.il/Sanhedrin.38b.11?lang=he&with=all&lang2=he
(5) https://www.sefaria.org.il/Sanhedrin.38a.13?lang=he&with=all&lang2=he
(6) https://www.sefaria.org.il/Sanhedrin.38a.8?lang=he&with=all&lang2=he
(8) https://www.sefaria.org.il/Sanhedrin.38b.11?lang=he&p2=Chidushei_Agadot_on_Sanhedrin.38b.7&lang2=he
(9) https://www.sefaria.org.il/Mishneh_Torah%2C_Repentance.3.7?lang=he&with=all&lang2=he
(10) https://www.sefaria.org.il/Avodah_Zarah.26b.4?vhe=Wikisource_Talmud_Bavli&lang=he