M.M.NINAN INTRODUCTION TO BIBLICAL HERMENEUTICS M.M.NINAN SAN JOSE, CA 95126 INTRODUCTION TO BIBLICAL HERMENEUTICS M.M.NINAN I INTRODUCTION - BIBLICAL HERMENEUTICS 1 II THE JEWISH TRADITIONS IN HERMENEUTICS 4 TARGUM THE SEVEN RULES OF HILLEL THE THIRTEEN RULES OF RABBI ISHMAEL THE THIRTY-TWO RULES OF ELIEZER B. JOSE HA-GE-LILI 42 RULES OF ZOHAR. III PARDES 35 IV CHRISTIAN BIBLICAL HERMENEUTICS 42 PRINCIPLE #1: THE ELECTION PRINCIPLE PRINCIPLE #2: THE LITERARY INTERPRETATION PRINCIPLE BIBLICAL LITERALISM LETTERISM PRINCIPLE #3: LEXICAL-SYNTACTICAL PRINCIPLE PRINCIPLE #4: CONSIDERATION OF GENRE PRINCIPLE #5: THE CONTEXTUAL PRINCIPLE THEOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES OF CONTEXTUALIZATION A. THE COVENANTAL PRINCIPLE: B. DISPENSATION PRINCIPLE OR THE CHRONOMETRICAL PRINCIPLE: C. THE ETHNIC DIVISION PRINCIPLE: D. THE BREACH PRINCIPLE: E. THE MORAL PRINCIPLE F. THE FIVE "W" AND "H" PRINCIPLE #6: MENTION PRINCIPLES: PRINCIPLE #7: THE CHRISTO-CENTRIC PRINCIPLE PRINCIPLE #8: FIGURES OF SPEECH GROUP OF PRINCIPLES: THE NUMERICAL PRINCIPLE (NUMEROLOGY) THE SYMBOLIC PRINCIPLE (SYMBOLOGY) V ALLEGORICAL INTERPRETATION 92 PARABLES, ALLEGORY AND TYPOLOGY HYPERLITERISTS GEMETRIA BIBLE CODES VI PROGRESSIVE REVELATION ACCOMODATIVE REVELATION 132 PRINCIPLES OF BIBLICAL HERMENETICS ; M. M. NINAN I INTRODUCTION BIBLICAL HERMENEUTICS In Greek mythology, Hermes is messenger who brings the word from Zeus (God) to the people. From this we get the word Hermeneutics as the science of interpreting holy scripture. An interpreter brought to mortals the message from God. 1 PRINCIPLES OF BIBLICAL HERMENETICS ; M. M. NINAN GOD HAS SPOKEN. WHAT DID HE SAY? Biblical hermeneutics is the study of the principles of interpretation concerning the books of the Bible. It is part of the broader field of hermeneutics which involves the study of principles for the text and includes all forms of communication: verbal and nonverbal. The words written in a Torah scroll are written without any vowel markings. Thus it can be pronounced and read in different ways depending on the vowels that are assigned by the reader. This means that any word in the Torah has potentially made to mean several things. It is the tradition, the oral transmission that determines the Torah and its meanings. It is this tradition that is giving the validity of hermeneutics. Thus, all the Christian and Jewish translations of the Torah rely on this tradition for their translations. Without this tradition it would be impossible to make a translation of the Torah. Without this tradition it would be impossible to know what God is telling us through His words as recorded in the Torah. Without it the Torah, can be read and made to mean almost anything 2 PRINCIPLES OF BIBLICAL HERMENETICS ; M. M. NINAN As an example. Genesis2:1 reads: “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished.” It can also be read as: “Thus the heavens and the earth were destroyed.” While Jewish and Christian Biblical hermeneutics have some overlap and dialogue, they have distinctly separate interpretative traditions. Old Testment Canon is based on the direct revelation of God to the children of Israel in the Mount of Sinai. Later He spoke through Prophets and in action through the history of Israel. Each later messages are to tally with the direct revelation witnessed by large witnesses. But in the New Testament Jesus, the Incarnation of God himself, the Word which became Flesh and dwelt among us has spoken to us in more clearer ways within the culture of the Jewish tradition. For three years and more Jesus gave the message and often its iterpretation to large witnesses in four circles. The crowd, the 72, the 12 and the 3 also indicating various levels of revelation of himself. The close three Jesus revealed in full at the time of Transfiguration and to the twleve in the course of his ministry explained all. In the New Testament the final authority is the Jesus and the Apostolic tradition in hermeneutics. 3 PRINCIPLES OF BIBLICAL HERMENETICS ; M. M. NINAN II THE JEWISH TRADITIONS IN HERMENEUTICS The Hebrew Bible was codified by the rabbis at the Great Assembly and, in its Latin translation, was first printed as volume 1 of the Gutenberg Bible in 1455. The complete Tanakh in Hebrew, with commentaries by Rashi, Radak, Ramban, and Ralbag was printed in 1517 by Daniel Bomberg and edited by Felix Pratensis under the name Mikraot Gedolot. The Hebrew Bible was handed down in manuscript form along with a method of checking the accuracy of the transcription known as mesorah. Many codices containing the masoretic text were gathered by Jacob ben Hayyim ibn Adonijah and were used to publish an accurate text. It was published by Daniel Bomberg in 1525. Later editions were edited with the help of Eliyahu ben Asher ha-Levi Ashkenazi Levita. Various editions of Mikraot Gedolot are still in print. 4 PRINCIPLES OF BIBLICAL HERMENETICS ; M. M. NINAN Translations "All translations are commentaries". Many nations and many languages have translations of the Bible. According to the Bible study wiki there are at least 90 English translations and thousands of translations into other languages. Every translator will have to interpret the meaning of each word into the language into which he is converting within the culture. In this sense it is not only a translation but also a commentary. Social, cultural and personal decisions and implication would necessarily come in this choices. Thus they are in themselves biblical Hermeneutics in real time application TARGUM A Targum is a translation of the Bible into Aramaic language . Aramaic was the day-to-day language of Israel in the Second Temple period (539 BC – 70 AD), the language that Jesus Christ probably used the most, the language of large sections of the biblical books of Daniel and Ezra, and is the main language of the Talmud. "At first the oral Targum was a simple paraphrase in Aramaic, but eventually it became more elaborate and incorporated explanatory details inserted here and there into the translation of the Hebrew text. To make the rendering more authoritative as an interpretation, it was finally reduced to writing. Two officially sanctioned Targums, produced first in Palestine and later revised in Babylonia, are the Targum of Onkelos on the Pentateuch and the Targum of Jonathan on the Prophets, both of which were in use in the third century of the Christian era." The Jewish Targums, Bruce M. Metzger Targum While the word "targum" means translation in general, it usuall y refers to the Aramaic translations of the Hebrew Bible. After the Babylonian exile, most Jews spoke Aramaic as their first language, so translation became necessary to understand the Biblical readings. Many of the Targum contained interpretations or explanatory notes in addition to the literal translation. This body of work includes: • Targum Onkelos, also known as the Babylonian Targum • Targum Yerushalmi, also known as Targum Pseudo-Jonathan (Torah only) • Targum Jonathan (Torah, prophets and some parts of the hagiographa) • Targum Neophyti • Targum Sheni (on the scroll of Esther) • Targum to Job 5 PRINCIPLES OF BIBLICAL HERMENETICS ; M. M. NINAN However, Jewish Aramaic was different from the other forms both in lettering and grammar. Parts of the Dead Sea Scrolls are in Jewish Aramaic showing the unique Jewish lettering, related to the unique Hebrew script. The classic Targumim are Targum Onkelos on the Chumash (the five books of Torah), Targum Jonathan on Neviim (the Prophets), and a fragmentary Targum Yerushalmi. There is no standard Aramaic translation of Kesuvim (the Hagiographa). The normal practice was that after each verse was read from the written scroll, an official known as the "Turgeman" or "Meturgeman" would then recite orally an Aramaic rendering of the previous verse. Targum Onkelos Onkelos is the most often consulted literal translation of the Bible. with a few exceptions. Figurative language, is usually not translated literally but is explained (e.g., Gen. 49:25; Ex. 15:3, 8, 10; 29:35). Geographical names are often replaced by those current at a later time (e.g., Gen. 10:10; Deut. 3:17). According to the Talmud, the Torah and its translation into Aramaic were given to Moses on Mount Sinai, because Egyptian slaves spoke Aramaic. After the Babylonian exile, the Targum was completely forgotten. Onkelos, a Roman convert to Judaism, was able to reconstruct the original Aramaic. Saadiah Gaon disagrees and says the Aramaic of Onkelos was never a spoken language. He believed that Onkelos's Aramaic was an artificial construct, i.e. it was a combination of Eastern and Western dialects of Aramaic. Targum Onkelos is the Babylonian Targum to the Torah. The work has been identified with Aquila of Sinope. Some believe that the name “Onkelos” originally referred to Aquilla but was applied to the Aramaic translation instead of the Greek translation. The author avoids any type of personification or identification. Since Talmudic times, the Yemenite communities recited the Targum Onkelos alternately with the Hebrew verses of the Torah in the synagogue. Interlinear text of Hebrew Numbers 6.3–10 with Aramaic Targum Onkelos from the British Library 6 PRINCIPLES OF BIBLICAL HERMENETICS ; M. M. NINAN The Targum Yonathan Jonathan ben Uzziel was the greatest pupil of Hillel the Elder. Targum Jonathan ben Uzziel found in the Chumash was not written by Jonathan ben Uzziel according to scholars, who refer to it instead as Pseudo-Jonathan. He is said to be the authority of the Babylonian "Megillah", 3a, to have formulated it orally, in accordance with the instructions of Haggai, Zachariah, and Malachi . According to the Encyclopaedia Judaica internal evidence shows that it was written sometime between the 7th and 14th centuries ce. For example, Ishmael's wife's name is translated into Aramaic as Fatima (who was Mohammed's daughter) and therefore Targum Pseudo-Jonathan must have been written after Mohammed's birth.