fixed, and the fluctuations in the MSS. of the Old Testament (which, like the numerous variations in the Septuagint, complicated exact exegesis) gave way to what was virtually a single text. Moreover, the important body of apocalyptical and pseudepigraphical literature, with all its links between Christianity and Judaism, fell into disfavour on both sides. This literature is especially valuable because it illustrates contemporary Halaka and Haggada, and it illuminates the circle of thought with which Jesus and his followers were familiar; it thus fills the gap between the Old Testament and the authoritative Rabbinical Midrashim which, though often in a form several centuries later, not rarely preserve older material.[1]
A few miscellaneous examples of related Midrashic details may be cited:—
i. The book of Jubilees (a haggadic and halakic Midrash on Genesis, about 2nd century B.C.), contains the story of the war between Amorite Kings and Jacob (ch. xxxiv.). This is known to the probably contemporary Testament of Judah and to much later Midrashim (Mid. Wayyisāʽū, Yalqūt Shimeonī, also the apocryphal “book of Jashar”), and is evidently connected with the cryptic allusion to the capture of Shechem in Gen. xlviii. 22 (R.V. marg.). Unless we suppose that the latter was suddenly expanded into the stories which thenceforth persisted, it may be inferred that an old extra-canonical tradition (for which a case can be made) continued to survive the compilation of Genesis (q.v.) and ultimately assumed the various exaggerated forms now extant. Naturally the probability of such a tradition—the merest hint of which happens to be preserved in Gen. loc. cit.—does not prejudice the problem of its origin or accuracy; in Jub. the story is useless for Jacob’s history, and is probably influenced by a recollection of more recent events in the Maccabaean age.
ii. A curious account of war between Egypt and Canaan after Joseph’s death recurs in Jub. xli., Test. of Simeon, viii., and Benjamin vii., and is connected with details (burial of Jacob’s sons at Hebron) recorded by Josephus (Ant. ii. 8). Josephus in turn has another story wherein Moses leads the Egyptians against Ethiopia (Ant. ii. 10, for parallels see Moore, Ency. Bib. col. 2089 seq.), and this is found in the late chronicles of Jerahmeel and the Book of Jashar (cf. also Mid. Dibrē ha-yāmīm shel-Mōsheh; see Jew. Ency. viii. 573 seq.). The former may be linked with Gen. l. 9 (where the concourse of chariots and horsemen would invite speculation), and the latter with the Cushite wife of Moses; but although one may grant that the canonical sources do not by any means preserve all the older current traditions, the contents of the latter cannot be recovered from the later persisting Midrashim.[2]
iii. The allusion in Jude v. 9 to the contention of the archangel Michael for the body of Moses belongs to a group of traditions which have been collected by R. H. Charles (Assumption of Moses, pp. 105 seq.), and it appears that the incident was familiar to Clement of Alexandria, Origen and other early writers. Moreover, Jude v. 16 agrees very closely with the Latin version of the Testament of Moses, which has other parallels in Matt. xxiv. 29; Acts vii. 36, 38 seq. (ibid. pp. lxii. seq.). Here may be added Jannes and Jambres, who withstood Moses (2 Tim. iii. 8); these or related names were known to the elder Pliny (xxx. i. 11), Apuleius (first half of 2nd century), Origen (who refers to a book of Jannes and Mambres), and various earlier and later Jewish sources; see I. Abrahams, Ency. Bib. col. 2327 seq.; H. St J. Thackeray, Relation of St Paul to contemporary Jewish thought (London, 1900), pp. 215 sqq.
iv. Jewish traditions of Abraham in Ur of the Chaldees recur in the Targums, Midrashic works, and earlier in the book of Jubilees (ch. xii., ed. Charles, p. 91; cf. also Judith v. 6 seq.). The legends of his escape from a fiery furnace may have a philological basis (ūr interpreted as “fire”), but the allusion to the redemption of Abraham in Isa. xxix 22 seems to indicate that older tradition was fuller than the present records in Genesis, and supplies another example of the link connecting the Old Testament with Rabbinical thought.
v. Not to multiply examples further, it may suffice to refer to (a) the apparent belief that the serpent tempted Eve to unchastity (2 Cor. xi. 2 seq., see Thackeray pp. 50 seq.); (b) the descent of the angels upon earth (Gen. vi. 1 seq.; Jude 6, 14 seq., see Charles, Jub. p. 33 seq., Clermont-Ganneau, Quart. Statements of the Pal. Explor. Fund, 1903, pp. 233 seq. and the Midr. Abkir. see Jew. Ency. viii. 572); (c) the relationship between the Midrashic developments of the story of Esther in Josephus, the Greek and Old Latin Versions, the Targums and later Jewish sources (see L. B. Paton, Comm. on Esther, pp. 20, 100 and passim); and finally (d) the numerous minor miscellaneous parallels noticed in recent annotated editions of the pseudepigraphical literature (especially those of R. H. Charles). (See further Talmud, § 5.)
4. Midrashic Exposition.—The Talmud poetically describes Midrash as a hammer which wakes to shining light the sparks which slumber in the rock; and the simile is a happy one when one considers the exegetical implements, the workmen and their workmanship. For the expository or interpretative Midrash was bound up with rules and methods which often appear crude and arbitrary, they are nevertheless those of the age and they helped to build up lasting monuments.[3] It was believed that the Written Word had an infinite fulness; according to the Midr. Bemidbar Rabbak every word of the Law had seventy different aspects, and Philo of Alexandria held that there are no superfluous words in Scripture. Consequently an exaggerated emphasis is often laid upon single words; as, for example, in the school of Rabbi ʽAqība, where even individual letters were forced to reveal their meaning. Thus, since the Hebrew eth, which marks the accusative, is also the preposition “with,” Deut. x. 20 (“thou shalt fear [eth-] Yahweh thy God”) was interpreted to include the veneration of the doctors of the law along with Yahweh.[4] Many examples of literal interpretation can of course be found, but arbitrary cases of the kind just noticed are due either to an obviously far-fetched interpretation or to the endeavour to find some authoritative support for teaching which it was desired to inculcate. Thus faulty proof rather than faulty inference is illustrated when the word “in-number” (Ex. xii. 4) was used to confirm the Halaka that the man who killed the Passover Lamb must know how many people were about to share it (Jew. Ency. viii. 570)., Often the biblical text cannot be said to supply more than a hint or a suggestion, and the particular application in Halaka or Haggada must be taken on its merits, and the teaching does not necessarily fall because the exegesis is illegitimate. To take another specimen: the Mekilta on Ex. xx. 25 infers from the unusual form of the word “it,” that the prohibition of iron applies only to it, i.e. the altar, and not to stones used in building the temple. This Halaka is followed by a haggadic explanation of the prohibition: “iron abridges life while the altar prolongs it; iron causes destruction and misery, while the altar produces reconciliation between God and man; and therefore the use of iron cannot be allowed in making the altar.”[5] Such were the sparks that could be hammered out of the rock, and it is instructive to observe similar exegetical methods in the New Testament. Emphasis upon a single word is illustrated by Gal. iii. 16, where the argument rests upon the word “seed” (and not the plural “seeds”) in the proof-text, and the same word in Rabbinical writings is used to support other arguments.[6] By identical kinds of exegesis Lev. xix. 14 (not to put a stumbling block before the blind) is the ground for cautioning a father against striking an adult child, and Deut. xxv. 4 (the law of the muzzled ox) is used to show that God’s labourer is worthy of his hire.[7] Again, since through Eve sin entered into the world, woman must be subordinate to man (1 Tim. ii. 11–14), or, she who has thus extinguished “the light of the world” should atone by lighting the festal candles on the sabbath (Talm. Shabb. 5b). By the allegorical method Isa. lxi. is interpreted as applying to Jesus (Luke iv. 16–22), and frequently passages which originally had another application have a Messianic reference in
- ↑ On the history of his intermediate stage see E. Schürer, Hist. of Jew. People (Edinburgh, 1886), Germ. Gesch. Jüd. Volkes; M. Friedländer, Relig. Bewegungen innerhalb des Judentums im Zeitalter Jesu (Berlin, 1905); W. Fairweather, Background of the Gospels (Edinburgh 1908). See also Apocalyptic Lit. and Apocryphal Lit.
- ↑ Note also the allusion to the wisdom of Moses in Acts vii. 22, upon which contemporary writings are pretty well informed.
- ↑ For the Rabbinical “rules” and examples of their working see F. Weber, Jüd. Theologie (Leipzig, 1897), pp. 109–125; C. A. Briggs, Study of Holy Scripture (Edinburgh, 1899), ch. xviii.; Jew. Ency. xii. 30–33; S. Schechter, Hastings’s Dict. Bible, v. 59, 63; and H. L. Strack, Einleitung in den Talmud (Leipzig, 1908), pp. 119–131.
- ↑ So Aquila, the disciple of ʽAqiba, translates the accusative particle by σύν; see W. R. Smith, Old Test. in the Jew. Church, p. 63.
- ↑ Oesterley and Box, Religion and Worship of the Synagogue (London, 1907), p. 80; pp. 44–97 deal with Midrashic and other Jewish literature.
- ↑ Mish. Sanhed. iv. 5, see A. Geiger, Zeit. f. morgenländ. Gesellschaft, 1858, pp. 307 sqq., S. R. Driver, Expositor, ix. (1889), p. 18 seq.
- ↑ The Talmud Mō’ed Qaṭan, 7a, and New Testament (1 Cor. ix. 9, 1 Tim. v. 18) respectively.
