Discipleship Training Class 22 Evolution of Biblical Hermeneutics (part 3) Objectives: As a Discipleship student, at the end of this class you will be able to: - Explain the six principles of hermeneutics derived from the Palestinian Jewish period - Teach others about the Alexandrian Jews and how they were influenced by the Greeks n our last lesson we left off dealing with the Palestinian Jews, as we are looking at the evolution of hermeneutics and how it has evolved down to where we are today with modern I hermeneutics. The Palestinian Jews, as we were looking at Jewish hermeneutics, were a group that was established (we believe) by Ezra, who was the Father of hermeneutics. In the Mishna, which was an interpretation of the Mosaic Law, there were two kinds of interpretations. We looked at this briefly. One is Halakah. The other is Haggadah. The Halakah is a collective body of Jewish religious law, including Takanots and Ma‘asims. This would include the laws that were created by the Pharisees that overrode biblical law, including the 613. Those who have done any research on the origin of the 613 will find that the 613 was something that was pretty much created. There are not 613 laws. If you were to count the laws, there are variations. There are those that are duplicated and said in a different way, so that number there has significance in the Gemara. We are not going to look at that today, but if you were to do an origin on the search of the 613, you will find these things that I am talking about. Later, Talmudic and rabbinic law, as well as customs and traditions made up the Halakah. This refers to legal exegesis, which is the Mishna. It was only used in its treatment of the Pentateuch. It is used primarily in dealing with the code of the law. Its aim was to deduce from the law, rules on subjects not specifically dealt with in the law. Through this kind of interpretation, much was read into the Law of Moses that was not really there. In other words, things were put there that were not in the original. Because of tradition it was done over and over and over again. They have done it this way for so long, it is believed that this is how you do it. For instance, how do you celebrate the Sabbath? There are no guidelines as to how you welcome the Sabbath. What you have is tradition. Those traditions have been done in such a way over an extensive period of time to where if you were to ask a Messianic Jew, ―How do you welcome the Sabbath?‖ they would tell you ―this‖ is how you do it. You do this. You do this and you do this. So that has been done in such a way over a period of time where it is believed that this is how you welcome the Sabbath. This is what is taught. © 2013-2017 Arthur Bailey Ministries www.ArthurBaileyMinistries.com All Rights Reserved 171 If it is taught, then it must be in the Bible. Because it is taught, it is assumed that it is there. No one really looks for it and those who look for it come to find out that it is not there. It also led to authority interpretation by the Pharisees. These traditions began to be done for a while. If you remember, even with Yeshua they said, ―Your disciples eat without washing their hands.‖ There was no command on how hands were to be washed. But according to Halakah, the command was given that you are to wash your hands in a prescribed way. It was not that they did not wash their hands. They did not wash their hands according to how it was supposed to be done from Pharisaic law. There was the Haggadah. This refers to homiletic exegesis which in the Mishna was used through its treatment of the entire Old Testament. It was used primarily in dealing with non-legal portions of the scripture such as history, prophecy and poetry. Its aim was to stir the Jews to Godly living. Now you have this interpretation that is actually given based upon tradition. This was done by using such homiletic devices as wise sayings, parables, allegories, legends, proverbs and mystical interpretations of the Old Testament events. A person would take an event. Then they would establish a date. The next thing you know, you have all of these dates when these particular events were supposed to have occurred. When you begin to research some of this stuff, you will find that it is tradition. If this happened on the ninth of Av and this happened on the ninth of Av and this happened on the ninth of Av and this and this, someone begins to repeat this over and over and over again. You will find that there is something about the ninth of Av. Now it becomes mystical. This particular date becomes mystical. This is something that throughout history has occurred. You will find that this happens in many of the scriptures. A person will make a connection between this and that. The next thing you know, it becomes something revelatory upon which someone wants to spend an entire DVD set teaching. This type of interpretation could be described as devotional and sermonic, with a constant emphasis on the practical. Because this kind of interpretation utilized much non-biblical material which became authoritative, it weakened the authority of the scriptures. It also opened the door to the authoritative use of more legends, secret meanings and allegorical expositions. Now you have people looking for signs. Unfortunately this is not just found deep in Judaism. It is also in Pentecostalism and in Charismatic and Christian circles. As the Mishna was codified, the commentary on that commentary became known as the Gemara. We covered the Gemara and also the Talmud in Class 21. We learned that the Babylonian Talmud is surprisingly more prominent than the Jerusalem Talmud. Just by name, that seems like something is wrong with that. The Palestinian Jews accepted the Bible as the inspired and infallible word of God, but this belief degenerated into bibliolatry (Bible idolatry). With a superstitious reverence for the word of God, they viewed the very letters of the law as sacred and even counted them. Since the Haggadic methods of interpretation spread throughout the world of Judaism, it is worthwhile noting some of the Haggadic principles. © 2013-2017 Arthur Bailey Ministries www.ArthurBaileyMinistries.com All Rights Reserved 172 You will find that in every form of interpretation there are principles which you apply in the interpretative process to keep yourself on track. Here are four of the 32 rules of interpretation as collected by Eliezer Ben-Jose. They are examples of Haggadic hermeneutics: Rule 1. The use of one of three different particles21 indicated that there were hidden meanings in the text that were not evident to the ―literal‖ reader. This rule is illustrated by Genesis 21:1, where it says, “YeHoVaH visited Sarah.” If you look at some of these interpretations from different Rabbis, you will find that from a Hebrew perspective they break the word ―Sarah‖ down into different portions. In one, Sarah is herself; meaning something personal or not. The untranslated particle, which is normally used to identify and emphasize the object of a verb, is supposed to show that the Lord also visited other women besides Sarah. From this particular verse, YeHoVaH visited Sarah. One translation would walk away saying, ―Well, according to the Hebrew, according to this form of interpretation, if you break down the letters, the word and the numbers associated with it; based on this particular verse, it is proven that YeHoVaH visited Sarah. But YeHoVaH also visited other women besides Sarah. Note there is no scriptural basis for this principle. It obviously leads to random exegesis and fanciful interpretations. Rule 2. A subject will shed light on others while it explains itself. Thus we see in: (Jeremiah 46:22) “The voice thereof shall go like a serpent,” This is a statement which serves (besides describing the loud cry of Egypt) to indicate that the serpent sent up a great cry when the Lord pronounced his curse against it in Eden. According to this particular method, when he pronounced a curse, the serpent cried aloud. We certainly don‘t see that. We certainly don‘t hear that. We don‘t read that, but that interpretation inserts that particular belief. What I think was a pretty good movie was done back in the ‘60s. You may remember an actor named Robbie Benson. The Chosen was a book by Chaim Potok. Anyway, The Chosen was about secular Jews. You have deeply religious Jews. Their way of interpreting (as you look at how they were interpreting the times) is that it was a strange mix that were engaged. You will see the same thing in modern Judaism. This principle detracts from any balanced emphasis of the plain meaning of scripture. We don‘t understand. Let me share with you that many people today are convinced that they don‘t understand the Bible. How did they come to that conclusion? They conclude this because of all of these principles. It is like, ―Wow, you have to know this, and you have to know that. How can anybody understand it? You tell us what the word says.‖ 21 In Hebrew, the particle is a minor part of speech; usually a few letters long that are added to words to show their relationship to other words.