06.08. Biblical and Religious Writings

Biblical and Religious Writings The Scriptures Proper The Old Testament was written primarily in Hebrew. Some of Ezra and Daniel have Aramaic portions.

There was a Greek translation of the Old Testament started about 270 BC (LXX). This translation was performed in Alexandra. The translation of the first five books is quite good. The other books vary in the quality of the translation.

Alfred Edersheim has a chapter on the origins of traditionalism, its character and literature. it seems necessary similarly to trace the growth of the ‘traditions of the Elders, ‘so as to understand what, alas! so effectually, opposed the new doctrine of the Kingdom. The first place must here be assigned to those legal determinations, which traditionalism declared absolutely binding on all, not only of equal, but even greater obligation than Scripture itself.^xxi

Accordingly, so important was tradition, that the greatest merit a Rabbi could claim was the strictest adherence to the traditions, which he had received from his teacher. Nor might one Sanhedrin annul, or set aside, the decrees of its predecessors. To such length did they go in this worship of the letter, that the great Hillel was actually wont to mispronounce a word, because his teacher before him had done so.^xxii

Targums

Primarily the Targum, then, was intended as a translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into the vernacular Aramaean. Of course, such translations might be either literal, or else more or less paraphrastic. Every Targum would also naturally represent the special views of the translator, and be interesting as affording an insight into the ideas prevalent at the time, and the manner in which Scripture was understood. But some Targumim are much more paraphrastic than others, and indeed become a kind of commentary, showing us the popular theology of the time.^xxiii The origin of this practice is debatable. Some scholars trace it back to Ezra’s reading of the Torah to the postexilic community in Jerusalem, which the Levites simultaneously translated into Aramaic (Neh 8:1-8). There is, however, no evidence in the Second Temple literature that Aramaic translations accompanied the reading of the Torah and the Prophets during synagogue worship^xxiv

Mishnah But Palestine owed, if possible, a still greater debt to Babylonia. The new circumstances in which the Jews were placed on their return seemed to render necessary an adaptation of the Mosaic Law, if not new legislation. Besides, piety and zeal now attached themselves to the outward observance and study of the letter of the Law. This is the origin of the Mishnah, or Second Law, which was intended to explain and supplement the first. This constituted the only Jewish dogmatics, in the real sense, in the study of which the sage, Rabbi , scholar, scribe, and Darshan, were engaged.^xxv

According to one tradition, the Mishnah goes back to Mount SINAI, where God supposedly gave to MOSES oral instruction in addition to the tablets of the law, and that instruction was passed on by word of mouth through the generations ^xxvi

Midrashim From the Hebrew root drš, “to investigate, seek, search out, examine” (cf. Lev 10:16; Isa 34:16; 1Ch 28:8), midrash refers to a form and method of scriptural interpretation, and to compilations of rabbinic exegesis. In its broadest sense, the term is often used to refer to an interpretation of any text, sacred or secular, ancient or contemporary.^xxvii

Collections of rabbinic midrash interpret large portions of the Old Testament (especially the Pentateuch), often in the form of commentaries or literary sermons. These commentaries interpret laws, answer difficult questions arising from the biblical text, address apparent contradictions, and “fill in the blanks” where more information seems necessary.^xxviii

Rabbinic midrash must be seen as an essential element in the rabbinic worldview. For the rabbis, the Torah was their link between this world and God. A rabbi was a rabbi because he alone knew the totality of revelation, and the written and oral versions of the Torah, and it was his task, as a rabbi, to study and to actualize the Torah’s content. For the rabbis, midrash was, above all, a religious, God-centered, activity.^xxix Its primary purpose is not to determine the plain meaning of the text, called peshat (“simple”), but to seek knowledge that can be gained through logical inferences, analogies, combinations of different passages, and the like. According to Ithamar Gruenwald, the goal of midrash “is not the mere act of understanding texts, but the creation of the meaning that is attached to them.^xxx From the outset, Jewish theology divided into two branches: the Halakhah and the Haggadah. The former (from halakh, to go) was, so to speak, the Rule of the Spiritual Road, and, when fixed, had even greater authority than the Scriptures of the Old Testament, since it explained and applied them. On the other hand, the Haggadah³⁴ (from nagad, to tell) was only the personal saying of the teacher, more or less valuable according to his learning and popularity, or the authorities which he could quote in his support. Unlike the Halakhah, the Haggadah had no absolute authority, either as to doctrine, practice, or exegesis. But all the greater would be its popular influence,³⁵ and all the more dangerous the doctrinal license which it allowed. In fact, strange as it may sound, almost all the doctrinal teaching of the Synagogue is to be derived from the Haggadah—and this also is characteristic of Jewish traditionalism.^xxxi These writings are what Jesus was referring to.

“Leaving the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.” And He was also saying to them, “You are good at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition. (Mark 7:8-9 LSB)… thus invalidating the word of God by your tradition which you have handed down; and you do many things such as that.” (Mark 7:13 LSB)