Christian and Rabbinical teaching. Similarly the application of Hos. ii. 23, not to the scattered tribes of Israel, but to the Gentiles, is common to the Mishna and to Romans ix. 25 seq. (Sanday and Headlam, Comment. ad loc.) The Apostle Paul, once a disciple of the famous Rabbi Gamaliel, uses in 1 Cor. x. 4 (“the spiritual rock that followed them”) a familiar Jewish Haggada which, however, he reinterprets, even as, when he identifies the “rock” with Christ, he diverges from the Alexandrian Philo who had identified it with Wisdom or the Word of God. Moreover, not only are passages thus taken out of their context, but they are combined, especially when they contain the same words or phrases, or appear to have the same or similar thoughts or aims. The Talmud, with a reference to Prov. xxxi. 14 (“she bringeth her food from afar”), says “the words of the Torah are poor (or deficient) in one place but rich in another.” Hence in the Mid. Siphrē on Numbers xv. 39, “ye shall not seek after . . . your own eyes” is explained to refer to adultery, after the words of Samson “she is pleasing in my eyes” (Judg. xiv. 3); and on Deut. vi. 5 it charges man to love the Lord “with all thy soul . . . even if he should take away thy soul,” the teaching being based upon Ps. xliv. 22.[1] Similarly, in the New Testament, after the same method, Mal. iii. 1 and Is. xl. 3 (linked by the phrase “to prepare the way”) are combined in Mark i. 2 seq.; Abraham's faith (Gen. xv. 6) and temptation (xxii. 1) are associated in James ii. 21-23, as also in contemporary Jewish thought; and by other combined quotations Paul enunciates the universality of sin (Rom. iii. 10 sqq.) and the doctrine that Christians are God's temple (2 Cor. vi. 16 sqq.). Proceeding upon such lines as these, the Jews wove together their Midrashic homilies or sermons where, though we may find much that seems commonplace, there are illuminating parables and proverbs, metaphors and similes, the whole affording admirable examples of the contemporary thought and culture, both of the writers and—what is often overlooked—the level of their hearers or readers. Like many less ancient discourses, the Midrashim are apt to suffer when read in cold print, and they are sometimes judged from a standpoint which would be prejudicial to the Old Testament itself. But they are to be judged as Oriental literature and if they contain jarring extravagances and puerilities, one may recall that even in modern Palestine it was found that the natives understood Robinson Crusoe as a religious book more readily than the Pilgrim's Progress (J. Robertson, Early Rel. of Israel, 1892, p. 66). In making allowance for the defects (without which they would probably not have appealed to the age) it must be remembered that some of the Rabbis themselves recognized that the Midrashic Haggada was not always estimable.
An interesting example of combined quotation is illustrated in Matt. xii. 4-8, where the teaching of Jesus on the law of the Sabbath rests upon 1 Sam. xxi. 1-6, Num. xxviii. 9 seq. and Hos. vi. 6. Apropos of this law the Rabbinical arguments are worth noticing. Apparently the severe rules laid down in Jubilees l. 8-12 (see R. H. Charles, ad loc.) were exceptional. It was allowed that the Sabbath need not be too rigorously kept, and this was justified by Exod. xxxi. 13, where the singular use of the restrictive particle ak (EV “verily”) supported the teaching that other Sabbaths need not be observed. Also, from the words “holy unto you” (v. 14) it was taught that “the Sabbath is given to you to desecrate in case of need, but thou art not given to the Sabbath.” Hence the Sabbath might be broken when life was in danger. Moreover, it was argued that a battle need not be stopped from religious considerations, e.g. the Sabbath. This was justified by Deut. xx. 20 “until it fall” (Talm. Shabb. 19a). Also, the Passover Lamb could be sacrificed on the Sabbath, and justification for this was found in Num. ix. 2 “in its season” (Pesah. 66a). See further on this subject, and on the evasions of the Sabbath law, S. Shechter, Studies in Judaism, pp. 297 sqq.; ibid. in C. G. Montefiore, Hibbert Lectures (for 1892), Appendix; ibid. Hastings’ Dict. Bib. v. 63, and also S. R. Driver, Hastings' Dict. iv. 320 seq. With the above interpretations, cf. A. H. McNeile on Matt. xii. 5, John vii. 23: “the à priori element in them perhaps suggests that [these verses] were due to later reflexion on the part of Christians who had realized the inadequacy of the law” (Swete's Camb. Bibl. Essays, 1909, p. 226). For other examples illustrating Rabbinical methods of exegesis in the New Testament, see McNeile, pp. 221, sqq. (“Our Lord's use of the Old Testament”); Briggs, op. cit. pp. 436, sqq., and Thackeray, op. cit. (ch. vii. “use of the Old Testament,” ch, viii. “St Paul the Haggadist”). The latter observes (p. 203): “the arguments by which Paul tried to convince his opponents of the true meaning of the Old Testament as pointing forward to Christ, are those which they would themselves have employed for another purpose; and to some extent we need not doubt that they were selected for that very reason. They were the arguments which were best calculated to appeal to them.” Quite in accordance with Rabbinical custom is the system of question and answer (Rom. x. 5, seq., 16 seq.), and the argument in the sequence: statement, objection and reply, appears already in the book of Malachi (q.v.).
5. The Jewish Midrashim.—The earlier stages in the growth of the extant Rabbinical Midrashim cannot be traced with any certainty. Although there are several allusions to early written works, other references manifest an objection to the writing down of Haggada and Halaka. Perhaps it was felt that to preserve uniformity of teaching in the schools it was undesirable to popularize the extant collections, or perhaps the references must be reconsidered in the light of those significant changes after the fall of Jerusalem which have been mentioned above (§ 3).[2] However this may be, the independent Hălākōth (where the oral decisions are interpreted or discussed on the basis of the Old Testament) were gradually collected and arranged according to their subject in the Mishnah and Tōsephtā (Talmud, § 1), while in the halakic Midrashim (where the decisions are given in connection with the biblical passage from which they were derived) they follow the sequence of the text of the Old Testament. The Haggada was likewise collected according to the textual sequence of the Old Testament. But the sermons or discourses of the homiletic Midrashim are classified according to the reading of the Pentateuch in the Synagogue, either the three year cycle, or else according to the sections of the Pentateuch and Prophetical books assigned to special and ordinary Sabbaths and festival days. Hence the latter are sometimes styled Pesiqta (“section”). The homiletic Midrashim are characterized by (a) a proem, an introduction based upon some biblical text (not from the lesson itself), which led up to (b) the exposition of the lesson, the first verse of which is more fully discussed than the rest. They conclude (c) with Messianic or consolatory passages on the future glory of Israel. A feature of some Midrashim (e.g. nos. 4, 5d, e, and 7 below) is the halakic exordium which precedes the proems.[3]
Among the more important Midrashim are: i.—Měkilta (Aram. “measure,” i.e. “rule”) best known as the name of a now imperfect halakic Midrash on Exod. xii.-xxiii. 19 (also xxxi. 12-17 and xxxv. 1-3). It represents the school of R. (Rabbi) Ishmael, is a useful source for old Haggadah (especially on the narrative portions of Exodus), and is interesting for its variant readings of the Canonical Massoretic text.[4] Edited by Blasius Ugolinus, Thes. Antiq. Sacr. xiv. (Venice, 1744, with a poor Latin translation), more recently by J. H. Weiss (Vienna, 1865) and M. Friedmann (ibid. 1870), Germ. trans. by J. Winter and A. Wünsche (Leipzig, 1909). See further J. Z. Lauterbach, Jew. Ency. viii. 444 seq.
ii. Siphrā (Aram. “the book”) or Tōrath Kōhănīm (“the law of the priests”), a commentary on Leviticus, mainly halakic, the text being a source for various maxims. (On Lev. xix. 17 seq., neighbourly love and abstinence from vengeance constitute, according to R. Aqiba, the great principle of the Torah.) It is useful for the interpretation of the Mishnah treatises Qŏdāshīm and Ṭĕhārōth. Latin trans. in Ugolinus, vol. xiv.; recent editions by I. H. Weiss (Vienna, 1862), and with the commentary of Shimshon (Samson) of Siens (Warsaw, 1866); see Jew. Ency. xi. 330 sqq.
iii. Siphré (Aram. “the books”), an old composite collection of Halaka on Numbers, after R. Ishmael's school; and on Deut. after that of R. Aqiqa, although the haggadic portions belong to the former. Latin in Ugol. xv.; recent edition, with good introduction by Friedmann (Vienna, 1864); see Jew. Ency. xi. 332 seq.
The above works, although of 5th century or later date in their present form, contain much older material, which was perhaps first redacted in the earlier part, of the 2nd century, A.D. They are of
- ↑ Cited by S. Schechter, Hastings, Dict. Bible, v. 64.
- ↑ See, on this point, Jew. Ency. viii. 549 seq., 552, 576; Schechter, op. cit. p. 62; Strack, op. cit. pp. 10 sqq.
- ↑ See more fully Jew. Ency. viii. 553. Cf. for the structure, the hopeful concluding notes in the prophecies (e.g. Amos) and the discourse after the reading of the lesson from the prophets in Luke iv. 17 sqq., Acts xiii. 15 sqq.
- ↑ See I. Abrahams in Swete's Cambridge Bibl. Essays (1909), pp. 174 seq.
