And All of Rav's Students (article preview)

Sanhedrin 57a discusses the Seven Noachide Laws. While most of the Torah, and Talmud, discusses laws pertaining to Jews, there are certain basic moral assumptions that apply to all of humanity. On the daf, a specific group of second-generation Babylonian Amoraim – “Rav Huna, Rav Yehuda, and all of Rav’s students” assert that not only is murder a capital offense, but all the Noachide laws are as well. Other Amoraim, such as third-generation Rav Sheshet and Rav Yosef, argue that only a subset of three or four of these laws are capital offenses.

What do we know about this specific group? Well, we know Rav Huna as eventual head of Sura academy and Rav Yehuda as eventual head of Pumbedita academy. We know that both Rav Huna and Rav Yehuda were first-generation Rav’s students. I don’t think that this is an enumeration of separate entities who’s position happened to coincide and so are listed together. Rather, we are talking about a group in a very defined era.