I was told by someone who I consider to be very reliable that the word טבע, which means nature, does not have a source in Biblical or Talmudic literature, and it is a word that first emerges in Rabbinic literature in the Rishonim, possibly borrowed from another language.
Today I saw a passage in Niddah 20b:
אמר רבי זירא טבעא דבבל גרמא לי דלא חזאי דמא
Said Rebbi Zeira: "Tiva" of Bavel caused me to not inspect [menstrual] blood.
None of the Rishonim that I saw on that Gemara explain what טבעא דבבל means, but I saw that M. Jastrow explains it as a reference to a Babylonian coin, which Rebbi Zeira was unable to recognize. (Let's not discuss what exactly the Gemara means according to this.)
However, Artscroll interprets this to be a reference to the natural sciences, and their translation reads "natural [sciences] caused me ..." Artscroll seems to understand טבעא here to be the same as טבע, nature. However, I don't think this word is ever used to mean that in Talmudic literature, and Jastrow has no mention of טבע ever being connected to nature.
Does Artscroll have any source here? Does טבע ever appear in Talmudic literature, such that it could mean "nature" in this context?
Answer
Hagahos Yavetz there says he thinks it means nature, and it is from here that the 'chachmei teva' took the expression. He says there is no other instance of this word in this usage.
In Tel Torah the coin explanation is given. He couldn't tell the difference between all the coins in Bavel because they were all similar, kol shekein (how much more so) he couldn't differentiate blood. And in Hagaos Yeshanos it actually says matbea diBavel.
All this information courtesy of She'arim Mitzuyanim Bihalacha.
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