Midrash

Occurrences in Scripture

The word midrash occurs twice in the Old Testament. 2 Chronicles 13:22 states that the acts of Abijah, king of Judah, "are written in the story of the prophet Iddo." Second Chronicles 24:27 states that the affairs of King Joash "are written in the story of the book of the kings." In both passages the word rendered "story" in the King James Version, and "commentary" in the New Korean Revised Version, is midrash. Neither record survives, and their exact nature remains unclear.

Etymology and Background

The root darash means "to seek, to inquire, to investigate." This verb is used in Ezra 7:10, where Ezra "had prepared his heart to seek the law of the LORD, and to do it." The term later came to denote the method by which Jewish rabbis (teachers of the Law) probed and interpreted the biblical text, and it also became the name for the literature that gathers such interpretations. Midrash developed out of teaching and preaching in the synagogue. Its compilation into written works is generally dated from late antiquity into the medieval period.

Types and Representative Works

• Halakhic midrash: Interpretation that derives rules for conduct (halakhah) from the legal provisions of the Law. Representative works include the Mekhilta on Exodus, the Sifra on Leviticus, and the Sifre on Numbers and Deuteronomy.
• Aggadic midrash: Interpretation that fills gaps in the text and expands its meaning through narratives, moral lessons, and parables. A representative work is Genesis Rabbah on Genesis. The works treating the Pentateuch and the Five Scrolls (Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther) are collectively known as Midrash Rabbah.

Relationship to the New Testament

The New Testament writers stood within the interpretive traditions of the Judaism of their day. For this reason, scholars compare the way the New Testament quotes and interprets the Old Testament with midrash. Frequently cited examples include the following:

• Galatians 4:21–31: Paul interprets the account of Hagar and Sarah as representing two covenants.
• 1 Corinthians 10:4: Paul speaks of "that spiritual Rock that followed them" in the wilderness. Some interpreters connect this with a Jewish tradition that a water-giving rock accompanied Israel on its journeys.
• 2 Timothy 3:8: The names "Jannes and Jambres" do not appear in the Old Testament. They are known as the names Jewish tradition gave to the Egyptian magicians who opposed Moses.

Interpretation and Points of Debate

Midrash is not the biblical text but later interpretation of it. It is therefore necessary to distinguish the text of Scripture from stories that originated in midrash and later became widely known. For example, the story that Terah made and sold idols and that the young Abraham smashed his father's idols is known as a tradition recorded in Genesis Rabbah. Scripture itself, in Joshua 24:2, says only that Terah and his household "served other gods."

Opinions differ on how far the concept of midrash should be applied to the interpretation of the New Testament. Some scholars explain portions of the Gospel narratives in terms of midrashic form. Evangelicals, who emphasize the historicity of the biblical record, caution that such explanations can lead readers to regard biblical events as invented stories. In the 1980s a controversy arose in American evangelical scholarship over a commentary that treated parts of the Gospel of Matthew as midrash. Nevertheless, the observation that Paul's interpretation of the Old Testament resembles the interpretive methods of the Judaism of his day is widely accepted regardless of theological position.