Joseph is correct. According to what I learned, the first Jews who made cholent did it specifically against the Karaites who took the written Torah literally, and would not accept the Oral Law. When they read that we should not burn fire on Shabbos in all our dwelling places, they took it to mean that there can be no light burning, nor any hot food. So they sat in the dark and ate cold food. Because we follow both the Torah she-bicsav and the Torah she-b’al peh, the rabbonim felt they had to show that the Talmud explains exactly HOW we may keep cooked food hot, and that we don’t sit in the dark, and that the Talmud must be accepted as our halacha along with the Chumash.
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