Christian Midrash

Sandy Eisenberg Sasso wrote a remarkable book called God’s Echo: Exploring Scripture with Midrash. She contrasts how Judaism views the Hebrew Scriptures which Christians call the Old Testament through rabbinic lens and Christians reads the Hebrew Bible through the lens of the New Testament. What is profound in her studies is she references the early Christian readings of scripture as a kind of “Christian Midrash” where the read scripture through the lens of Christ whereas Jews read it through the lens of the Talmud and rabbinic commentaries.

If we take a closer look at the Jewish Hebrew Bible, what is referred to by the Jews as TaNaKh which is an acronym for Torah (the law of Moses, Nevi’im (prophets), and Kethuvi’im (writings, especially the Psalms). This reflects the three-fold division of what Christians call the Old Testament.

          The earliest Christians followed a four-fold sense of scripture rooted in the Jewish heritage of Judaism. There are multiple layers to scripture and here is the four senses of Jewish interpretation.

P’shat  =  the literal or plain sense of the text

Ramez = The analogical and types
D’REsh = the moral and inter-textual reading
Sod = the mystical, spiritual, or allegorical meaning of the biblical texts

The Jewish tradition recognized in biblical wisdom literature a parallel to the three sections of the temple for worship.

Job = the outer temple court

Ecclesiastes = the inner temple court
Song of Solomon = the Holy-of-Holies

The Jewish rabbinic reading of scripture was certainly the same approach that Jesus and the early Jewish writers of Scripture were very familiar with. They saw parallels, patterns, types, and analogies in places that would bewilder many literalist western minds.

          There was the literal or plain sense of scripture but that was only the first rung of the ladder. If one wanted to go higher, they would use Midrash that would extrapolate meanings beyond the literal sense of scripture. One use of Midrash is by linking scriptural passages with different themes together because they contain the same word in the text.

          Pesher interpretations understood older history in the light of later historical events.. The writer may not even intended these present moment interpretations but Jewish belief was it was intended by God even if not by the original author. Lastly, allegorical interpretations viewed the scriptural texts through the vehicle of symbolism and metaphors.

          As we look later in how Jesus and the New Testament quoted and utilized the scriptures, a closer examination will reveal how they used and applied the Old Testament in many non-literal ways. Jesus would draw meanings from the Hebrew Bible that was neither apparent much less concerned about the original meaning of the biblical text.  If a person reads the whole Bible in a one dimensional literal way, one will find many problems, paradoxes, and perils.