Scripture interpretation

[votivesoul]

Originally Posted by Esaias

Literal and figurative (ie "finding the applicable principle") is one thing, peshat and midrash (especially midrash) can be quite another thing. Once people start looking at "rabbinical methods of interpretation", they are usually restricted to a very particular source of information as to "how that works". There's a ton of midrash that is so clearly far out in left field they are batting home runs to gehenna.

I am reminded of Augustine's work on Christian Education and Rhetoric, for aspiring teachers and preachers. In a nutshell, his point was "you don't need the laws of oratory, or to study oratory, to be an effective teacher or minister. Just study Christ, the apostles, and prophets, they had all the rhetorical skill - and lessons to be drawn from their examples - that any Christian educator could ever need, even though they had no formal education in the principles of classical oratory." Which by the way is one of the first lessons in oratory - learning by imitation, something everybody does in every field anyway.

Judaic peshat and midrash isn't Christian peshat and midrash. If there are equivalent or better English terms, that's fine. We can say literal and figurative, for example, but I don't think those terms quite capture the essence.

In any case, Jesus grew up and ministered under a certain 1st century Judean milieu, which included certain rabbinical approaches which he inherited and made use of, which He passed onto His Apostles and Prophets, who then made use of them.

So, call the schema something else if the Hebrew terms are unpalatable for whatever reason. Me using them isn't suggesting that the overuse and misuse and abuse over the centuries is suggesting that anyone look to "rabbinical methods of interpretation".

Rather, I am suggesting that one should look at Christ as a Rabbi and view His methods of interpretation from that light. Then look at the methods of interpretation used by the Apostles and Prophets, all of whom used the same methods. Then realize, if Christ used such methods, and His Apostles and Prophets used such methods, so should we.