Study Bava Kamma folio 70B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Ḥalafta, he said to him the following in the course of their discussion of the halakhot of possession.
If one has been in possession of real estate for 3 years, this serves as proof of his claim that he is the legal owner. One who is able to prove uninterrupted possession for the necessary period is not required to produce documentary evidence of his legal title to the property. R' Yoḥanan ben Nuri o
R' Ḥalafta said to R' Yoḥanan ben Nuri, or vice versa: This is considered to establish presumptive ownership by the one who ate the produce. The other Sage said to him: I too say that this is so, but R' Akiva disputes this matter, as R' Akiva would say: The Torah requires that witnesses must testif
The Talmud rejects this assertion. Abaye said: You can even say that the Mishnah is in accordance with the opinion of R' Akiva. Doesn’t R' Akiva concede that in a case where two witnesses say: So-and-so betrothed a certain woman, and two other witnesses say: Someone else subsequently had sex with
The reason for this is that even though the witnesses testifying about the sex require the witnesses who testify about the betrothal, i.e., the testimony of the second set of witnesses is meaningless without the testimony of the first witnesses, nevertheless, since the witnesses testifying about th