Midrashic hermeneutical resources

Ancient and pre-modern sources who make use of midrashic hermeneutical methodologies

• The "midrashic" label used on this page originates from the work of Chazal, the Jewish sages responsible for the Mishnah, Midrash, and Talmud, particularly regarding the derash layer of the PaRDeS hermeneutic suite
• Patristic:
  • The hymns of Ephrem the Syrian often interweave symbols from different parts of Scripture in insightful ways.
  • Allegory is one of Augustine's fourfold senses of Scripture, with his usage thereof having long been controversial. His allegorical interpretation of the Parable of the Good Samaritan is a classically questionable example that has put a bad taste in the mouth of later exegetes toward such methodolgy
• Rishonim
  • Sometimes Rashi. Rabbi David Fohrman has a theory that Rashi alternates between two entirely different approaches in his commentary, and it is important to know which you are dealing with. When his contemporary readers would need help with the peshat layer of the text, e.g. meanings of archaic Hebrew words, he supplies that. But with texts that are already easy to understand on your own he goes deeper, introducing you to the world of midrash by alluding to the stories, pointing to the gunpowder and trigger, etc.
  • Rabbeinu Bachya is one of the more frequent users of midrashic materials (as per ChatGPT)
  • Ramban frequently interacts with the actual Midrash texts, but more from an analytical perspective
• Puritan "flavoring." Although the Puritans don't generally tend to engage in full on midrashic-style interpretation, they do nevertheless frequently make micro-usage of it in colorful illustrations that add spice and memorability to their writings, for example:
  • "The tree of the cross being cast into the waters of affliction hath rendered them wholesome and medicinal."
• Relatively recent precursors:
  • Hermann L. Strack and Paul Billerbeck’s Commentary on the New Testament from the Talmud and Midrash from the 1920s precedes our classification of the modern figural-midrashic renaissance.
  • "It is difficult to give a precise date for the inception of the literary approach to biblical study. Many 20th century scholars incorporated elements of this method in their work, including Martin Buber, Franz Rosensweig, Benno Jacob, Umberto Cassuto, and Nehama Leibowitz. More recently though, scholars such as Adele Berlin, Michael Fishbane, Meir Sternberg, and Robert Alter can be credited as the first to fully embody the literary approach as defined above. With Alter being the most well-known of the group, let’s examine his approach.
    In his seminal work, The Art of Biblical Narrative, Alter [1981] argues that the literary structure and unity of the Torah indicate a deliberate authorial intent..."

Modern sources who make use of midrashic hermeneutical methodologies

The modern figural-midrashic renaissance page may contain examples or quotes from sources not catalogued here.

• Orthodox Jewish:
  • Rabbi David Fohrman and team at https://alephbeta.org. The animated videos provide a well-suited introduction to the methodology for both Biblical scholar and school-aged child alike. The podcasts (e.g. A Book Like No Other) and seminar courses (in some cases available only to patron members) are as deep and profound as anything you will find in the academic literature. He also has excellent books available.
  • Yonatan Grossman (teaching in Hebrew), a professor of Bible at Bar Ilan University and Herzog College
• Messianic:
  • The First Fruits of Zion article Answering Anti-Missionaries addresses some issues pertaining to Midrashic methods of exegesis
  • Otto Gershon resources include The Otto Zone video series
  • See Seth Postell in the tools section below
• Protestant Evangelical and/or Reformed:
  • James B. Jordan and theological heirs:
    • Jordan's Through New Eyes provides a good entry-level introduction to seeing both the world and Scripture through new eyes
    • Peter Leithart and crew: https://theopolisinstitute.com
    • Mike Bull contributes several interesting/unique perspectives, including his emphasis on the "fractal" nature of the Bible
    • Alastair Roberts resources include a chapter-by-chapter audio Biblical commentary. He is co-author of one of two distinct books published separately in 2018 both entitled "Echoes of Exodus" (something is indeed "in the air"!). For further back-history research he also has a video on Who Are James Jordan's Influences?
  • Greg Beale:
    • His (NIGTC) Commentary on Revelation provides an encyclopedia of literary and theological connections between John's Apocalypse and Tanakh, as well as with other Judaic sources including Midrash, Talmud, Targums, etc.
    • "The Temple and the Church's Mission" explores the symbolism of Israel's Temple/Tabernacle and how that applies to the mission (not the architecture!) of the church
  • Meredith Kline's "Kingdom Prologue" (especially if packaged together with Beale's "Temple and ... Mission") is, in some ways, a more densely-packed, seminary-level version of Jordan's Through New Eyes (and indeed is cited in Jordan's Bibliography)
  • "Forward and Reverse Gematria are Very Different Beasts" proposes to resolve the 666 gematria/isopsephy problem of Revelation 13:18 using a combination of intertextuality and gematria
  • Matt Harmon's The Servant of the Lord and His Servant People: Tracing a Biblical Theme Through the Canon makes use of the "vertical context" and related hermeneutical choices for the Bible's use of the Bible
  • BibleProject™ makes use of some midrashic tools (often implicitly), e.g. when talking about intertextual "hyperlinks"
  • Bob Wern @thedustyfeet has numerous derivative supercommentary videos following on AlephBeta and BibleProject resources
  • The Reformed Biblical theology movement in the 20th century, especially with its emphasis on typology, may be seen as a first stage of the Christian side of this figural-literary interpretive renaissance. Geerhardus Vos is often considered the father of the modern resurgence in seeing Christ as the hermeneutical key and exegetical center of the entire Bible. Edmund Clowney was an influential figure, at least in academic circles, for promoting Christocentric hermeneutics, while books by Graeme Goldsworthy and John R. Cross made some inroads with a broader lay audience.
• Islamic
  • Nouman Ali Khan; For a short sample see his Connection between Surah Al Fatihah & Surah An-Nas. His book Divine Speech: Exploring Quran as Literature provides a lay-accessible presentation of several literary features of the Quran, summarizing recent scholarship from Neal Robinson, Raymond Farrin, etc.
• Cross-pollination
  • (Catholic) Bishop Robert Barron and (Eastern Orthodox) Jonathan Pageau discuss Recognizing Patterns and symbolism in Scripture.
  • (EO) Pageau and (Protestant) Roberts also engaged in a Rediscovery of Symbolism cross-stream chat.

Tools and resources to facilitate learning and using such hermeneutical methods

• https://mg.alhatorah.org/TanakhLab is a useful for intertextual studies
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talmudical_hermeneutics
• Fohrman's "The Seven Habits of Highly Intuitive Readers of the Bible" Course
• Fohrman's "Midrash Methodology" Course
• Beale's "Handbook on the New Testament use of the Old Testament" provides interpretive principles with some sample case studies
• Gary Schnittjer and Mark Harmon's How to Study the Bible’s Use of the Bible presents seven hermeneutical choices for the Bible's use of the Bible. Schnittjer's Torah Story and Old Testament Use of Old Testament explore issues of inner-Biblical exegesis and allusions
• André Houssney has a three part series on Biblical symbolism melding the benefits of Eastern and Western interpretive perspectives
• Rabbi/Mathematician Elie Feder's Gematria Refigured rescues this ancient tool from many of the naive or abusive uses it has been put through which have tended to give it a reputation in the eyes of many thoughtful and careful exegetes. His work greatly helps set gematria science back on a more firm foundation by providing both persuasive examples and by drawing general interpretive principles from those examples.
• Seth D. Postell, The Art of Narrative Analogy: Identifying and Interpreting Parallel Passages in the Bible
• AI is capable of contributing helpful insights to prompts that guide it towards a novel synthesis of known/established ideas. (Indeed, it is surprisingly better at that sort of task than at some mundane tasks such as its infamous foul up at counting the number of "r"s in the word "strawberry.") With just a little bit of direction it can "see" connections that you suggest, even if those particular associations have not been presented in any existing literature. So its potential as a chavruta partner for midrashic exegetical research should not be underestimated. Here is one example provided by a student in an AlephBeta class: https://chatgpt.com/share/67c0116d-1aa4-8005-9f64-c0431105e27c.
• If you are asking yourself, "Is anyone seeing the same amazing things in the Bible that I am?" check out the midrashic hermeneutical discussion communities page for leads on other like-minded people to talk to!

Additional potential leads (yet to be confirmed for relevance and categorized by Bible Wiki editors...)

• Eugene Borowitz - Talmud's Theological Wordgame
• Max Kadushan - Rabbinic Thinking and Organic Thinking
• Sources Rabbi David Fohrman has mentioned:
  • Robert Alter, The Art of Biblical Poetry
  • Michlelet Herzog and Herzog College
  • "The work that we're doing here at Aleph Beta in Tanach, there's other people across the globe that are doing similar kinds of work. Some focus in the Gush in Machon Herzog are, but not just in the Gush. I just had a chareidi fellow over here in Jerusalem giving talks to Chevron and to Ponevezh and he stumbled upon this himself. It's in the air. People are going to find it because the age is right for it."
  • Rabbi Menachem Leibtag
• David Daube worked on rabbinic law and NT parallels in the mid-20th century
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillel_Bakis
• Richard Hays has two "echoes" books and "Reading the Bible Intertextually"
• Brent Strawn mentions Ross Wagner and says that "David Lincicum has a great new book coming out" (regarding intertextual activations). He also speaks about taking a course from Ulrich Mauser in which the main thesis was that any symbol you find in Revelation is not de novo but originates in the Old Testament or Jewish intertestamental literature.
• BEMA podcast
• ScholarGPT suggestions on academic resources:
  • Jewish literary approach: Meir Sternberg, Adele Berlin, Yair Zakovitch, Shimon Bar-Efrat.
  • Inner-biblical exegesis: Michael Fishbane, Benjamin Sommer.
  • Christian figural reading: Hans Boersma, Matthew Levering, C. Kavin Rowe, Ephraim Radner, Kevin Vanhoozer.
  • Reception history: Ulrich Luz, Christopher Rowland, Frances Young.
  • Islamic parallels: Tarif Khalidi on Qurʾānic biblical intertextuality; Mustansir Mir on Qurʾānic narrative patterns.