Announcements:
1. Synoptic Gospels’ SLR
2. Synoptic Gospels’ Final
Exam –no later than
August 14th…
3. BCA Summer Bash:
August 16th from 9:30a
through 1pm at
Hawthorne Park
BIB 121 Hermeneutics
SECTIONS 2.1 –2.3
Jewish Interpreters, the Apostles, and Church
Fathers (200 BC–AD 600)
Nehemiah 8:1–9:
The group of exiles Ezra led back to Jerusalem from
Babylon in 457 BC spoke Aramaic, the language of
Babylon. Therefore, when Ezra had the Scriptures, written
in Hebrew, read aloud to the people, they could not
understand well (although the languages are closely
related). The Levites had to interpret and explain the
Scriptures. This is said to have been the beginning of the
Targum, a translation and interpretation of the Old
Testament by Jewish rabbis.
Methods of Scriptural Interpretation That
Influenced New Testament Writers
Rabbinic Judaism (Jerusalem and Judea) (457 –330 bc)
Focuses on obeying the Scriptures, especially the Torah, Moses’
five books –Targum: a translation & interp of OT by Rabbis
Hellenistic Judaism (Alexandria, Egypt)
Focuses on interpreting the Scriptures through allegory;
reconciling Greek philosophy with Old Testament teaching
Historical-Grammatical Method (Antioch in Syria)
Focuses on each verse as having one meaning based on its
words, grammar, and history
Visual 5
2 Types of Teaching:
Halakah: dictated religious laws for every part of life, including rituals,
family life, personal life, and relationships with the government and non-
Jews.
Haggadah: used stories and proverbs of the Old Testament to explain
Scripture and edify readers.
Mishnah (“to repeat”): Teachings (commentaries) written/taught by
their rabbis. Two contemporary Rabbis were Hillel and Shammai. Hillel was
moderate and Shammai was strict –literalist. Hillel wrote the following
Rules for Interpreting Scriptures
Talmud –commentaries on the Mishnah
Midrash: “to search” – often to stretch the word to fit particular situations
Understanding
the Teaching
of Rabbinic
Judaism
(created by Rabbi
Hillel)
Here are six rules the Jewish rabbis used to interpret
Scripture.
Who was Plato and what influence
did he have on Hellenistic Judaism?
Plato taught that objects on
earth were copies of eternal
things and that ideas were
more real than either physical
or spiritual things.
Under the influence of Platonic
tradition, the school in
Alexandria used the method of
allegory to interpret Scripture.
This Greek school of interpretation
was in Egypt, where Greek influence
was strong. In Egypt, Greek
replaced Hebrew as the language
of the Jews. Some Jewish scholars
translated the Hebrew Scriptures into
Greek, so that Grecian Jews could
read them. This Greek version of the
Old Testament is called the
Septuagint –the seventy—because
it was the work of seventy scholars
during Ptolemy II Philadelphus of
Egypt (285-246 BC)