Midrash

Occurrences in Scripture

The Hebrew word midrash appears twice in the Old Testament. 2 Chronicles 13:22 states that the acts of King Abijah are recorded in "the midrash of the prophet Iddo," and 2 Chronicles 24:27 states that the affairs of King Joash are recorded in "the midrash of the book of the kings." The New Korean Revised Version renders both occurrences as "commentary." Because these books have not survived, their nature cannot be determined. The verb darash, from the same root, is used in Ezra 7:10 in the phrase "to seek the law of the LORD."

Background

Darash originally means "to seek, to ask, to inquire." In later Judaism, midrash came to denote both the interpretive activity of probing the biblical text deeply to draw out its meaning and the literature that collects the results. It is divided into two branches according to content:

• Midrash halakhah: interpretation that derives rules of conduct (halakhah) from the legal texts of the Pentateuch. Examples include the Mekhilta on Exodus and the Sifra on Leviticus.
• Midrash aggadah: interpretation of a narrative, moral, or homiletical character. Bereshit Rabbah (Genesis Rabbah), a commentary on Genesis, is a representative example.

These works are generally thought to have been compiled over several centuries of the Common Era. Interpretive rules attributed to Hillel have also been handed down, such as reasoning "from the lighter to the weightier."

Relationship to the New Testament

Scholars identify similarities between the New Testament's use of the Old Testament and the interpretive methods of contemporary Judaism. Frequently cited examples include the "how much more" argument, as in "If ye then, being evil… how much more" (Matthew 7:11), and Paul's argument that turns on the singular form of "seed" (Galatians 3:16). The names "Jannes and Jambres" in 2 Timothy 3:8 do not appear in the Old Testament and are understood to derive from Jewish tradition.

Interpretation and Debate

Some scholars have argued that certain Gospel accounts should be read as midrash, that is, as creative interpretation built on the Old Testament. Evangelical scholars have often opposed this view on the grounds that it undermines the historicity of the Gospels, and in the 1980s a controversy arose within American evangelical scholarship in connection with a commentary on Matthew.

In addition, stories originating in midrash are sometimes passed along as though they were part of the biblical text. The story that Abraham smashed the idols of his father Terah, for example, is not found in Genesis but appears in Genesis Rabbah.

In the Korean Church

In Korean churches the term is also written midrasi. It is used mainly in seminary courses on biblical hermeneutics and in background explanations within sermons when introducing the Jewish interpretive tradition.