2'1 History of Interpretation

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2.1 History of Interpretation

• OT/HB Hermeneutics - 2006

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1. History of the History of Exegesis

• 1.1 "The Reformation's understanding of the
  biblical text, the influence of the
  Enlightenment, the rise of the historical-critical
  method, all combined to eliminate the history of
  exegesis from the biblical scholar's repertoire
  except in a very restricted sense. Until recently
  most of the histories of exegesis that have
  appeared in the last hundred years have concerned
  themselves with the history of the critical
  period, that is covering the period of
  approximately the 19th and 20th centuries."
  Cahill, "The History of Exegesis and Our
  Theological Future"

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1. History of the History of Exegesis

• ". . . a history of exegesis is seen in the
  emergence of catenae, first in the Greek-speaking
  East and then in the Latin-speaking West. Early
  medieval biblical commentary is characterized by
  the respectful repetition of the opinions of the
  Fathers, though this does not necessarily
  inhibit the expression of personal insight and
  opinion."
• "Gradually, we see the glossed biblical text
  come into being, resulting in the marvelous
  Glossa ordinaria of the High Middle Ages. In a
  sense this represents the canonization of the
  history of exegesis. . . . "

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1. History of the History of Exegesis

• "A similar manifestation of the status of the
  history of exegesis is Pope Urban IV's
  commissioning of Thomas Aquinas in the middle of
  the 13th century to produce what would come to be
  known as the Catena aurea, a special sort of
  continuous commentary on the text of the Four
  Gospels drawn from the writings of the Latin and
  Greek Fathers."

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1. History of the History of Exegesis

• 1.2 "While interest in the history of exegesis is
  not an entirely new phenomenon, today's degree of
  enthusiasm for the subject is something that
  needs to be accounted for. Some would say that
  the smouldering embers were fanned into flame by
  the winds of dissatisfaction disillusionment
  with the predominance of the historical-critical
  method in biblical studies."
• However Cahill points out that the
  dissatisfaction may be based on something other
  than sound criticism.
• Postmodernism "I recognize it as an influence
  profoundly affecting all intellectual,
  hermeneutical, and even pastoral activity.
  Postmodern theology is an accurate articulation
  of the way the world is. Postmodernism at the
  very least signals a dissatisfaction."

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1. History of the History of Exegesis

• 1.3 Why study the History of Exegesis /
  Interpretation?
• Negatively
• 1. "Knowing the history of exegesis will help us
  to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past."
• 2. "Use the ancient commentators in so far as
  they share our historical-critical methods."
• 3. "Check the older exegetes to see if they have
  seen something that we missed."
• 4. "The history of exegesis is important because
  of 'the superiority of pre-critical exegesis'."
• 5. "Patristic exegesis is better because it is
  more spiritual."

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1. History of the History of Exegesis

• Positively
• 1. ". . . an interest in the history of exegesis
  does not repudiate the historical-critical
  method. It does not and cannot replace that
  method."
• 2. "It is the historical-critical method that can
  control and challenge extreme relativities and
  irrationality, just as it control the
  relativities, often very disconcerting, exposed
  by the history of exegesis. Historical-critical
  analysis will ensure that the virtues of
  postmodernism, including, for example, hard-nosed
  challenging of facile dogmatism, will be
  preserved and its weaknesses, for example the
  tendency to irrationality, curbed."

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1. History of the History of Exegesis

• 3. "An essential element in the proposed program
  is that no period is to be rated better and none
  worse than any other in an a priori manner. The
  history of exegesis allows all to speak though
  without any guarantee of eventual endorsement.
  The particular contribution in a specific area
  may and must be rated on its merits."

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From Biblical to Late Jewish Antiquity

• Inner-Biblical Jewish Interpretative Influences

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1. Before Scripture

• 1.1 "There was not always a Bible.... Thus the
  time of the Bible was a time when the Bible was
  not yet there. It is ironic that we use the term
  biblical studies to designate our work on this
  period. Biblical faith, the faith of the men of
  the Bible, was not in its own nature a scriptural
  religion." Barr, Holy Scripture Canon,
  Authority, Criticism, 1

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1. Before Scripture

• 1.2 "Within the Bible itself religion was not a
  scriptural religion in the sense that it later,
  and especially after the Reformation, became
  normal to supposed."
• "The actual relations between faith, creative
  originality, and the formation of traditions
  (eventually to become scripture) were different.
  In the Bible faith was not controlled by
  scripture rather, scripture derived from faith.
  Thus the attitudes of passive acceptance of
  scriptural control, which Protestantism often
  inculcated into its people, were substantially
  different in quality from the attitudes which the
  men of the Bible themselves maintained."
• "In this respect the traditional view of the
  Bible contained serious inner contradictions in
  particular, it encouraged the reader to read into
  the words of scripture meanings that were not
  there at all."

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2. Inner-Biblical Exegesis

• 2.1 Michael Fishbane has argued that the first
  steps toward exegesis begins in the Scriptures
  themselves
• 1. "The Hebrew Bible (HB) is thus a thick texture
  of traditions received and produced over many
  generations. In the process, a complex dynamic
  between tradition (traditum) and transmission
  (traditio) developed since every act of
  traditio selected, revised, and reconstituted the
  overall traditum. To be sure, the contrast
  between authoritative traditum and ongoing
  traditio is most clear at the close of ancient
  Israelite literature."

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2. Inner-Biblical Exegesis

• 2. ". . . the canonical corpus contains a vast
  range of annotations, adaptations, and comments
  on earlier traditions. We call this
  'Inner-Biblical Exegesis'."
• 3. Scribes ". . . the scribal traditio
  transmitted each traditum to new groups and
  times. It was in the context of this copying that
  clarifications (of words and terms) and other
  considerations (bearing on the theological tone
  or legal consistency) were often introduced. The
  class primarily responsible for such matters were
  the scribes a title attested over centuries for
  different groups."
• 4. Fishbane's genre divisions Legal, Aggadic
  Mantological

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3. Collected Works - Canon

• 3.1 The Era of Pluriformity
• The period 250 BCE 100 CE was an era when the
  Scriptures were pluriform.
• The "proto-Masoretic," "proto-Samaritan
  Pentateuch," Old Greek with its Hebrew Vorlage,
  the Greek translational emendations, Targumic
  beginnings, rewritten Bibles, possibly sectarian
  versions (?)
• Some OT scholars have argued that the "all/every"
  scripture of 2 Timothy 3.16 referred to the
  pluriform state of the Scriptures.

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3. Collected Works - Canon

• 3.2 Was a Canon developing?
• "Use of the Greek term "canon" comes from New
  Testament studies. It is typical of a Christian
  view of the Bible and in addition belongs to a
  very late period in the history of the formation
  of the NT canon, the 4th cent. CE." Julio
  Trebolle Barrera, The Jewish Bible and the
  Christian Bible An Introduction to the History
  of the Bible
• Jewish scholar, Sid Z. Leiman argues that the
  whole Bible must have been complete by 150 BCE.
• Roger Beckwith argues that it was during the
  Maccabean period, i.e., 164 BCE.
• Sundberg Barton Only the Torah closed, while
  Barton argues that the Prophets, etc. were open
  in the NT period.

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3. Collected Works - Canon

• 3.3 Different Approaches to the so-called Canon
• Qumran Community
• Pharisees
• Sadducees Samaritans
• Septuagint with what F. F. Bruce called the
  Septuagint Plus
• What was the role of the Rewritten Bibles?

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3. Collected Works - Canon

• 3.4 What does this Canon Development Mean?
• The early Christians view the OT as Holy
  Scripture into the second century. However
  problems such as a new Jewish translation to
  rival the Septuagint Marcion and Gnostic
  rejection the OT, forced a renewed thought.
• ". . . a Christian problematic of the Old and New
  Testament, each isolated from the other, simply
  does not exist. From the outset Christian faith
  puts the question - which engages us to this
  moment - as to how the two Testaments belong
  together."

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4. Early Jewish Exegesis

• 4.1 Qumran
• 1. In everyday life the Qumran community showed
  signs of strict Torah observance and a commitment
  to Scriptural study.
• 2. Their primary means of exegesis was the
  Pesher
• 2.1 Timothy Lim has identified 15 text that are
  considered "continuous pesher," "thematic
  pesherim," and other technical works that may be
  considered "pesher."

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4. Early Jewish Exegesis

• 2.2 "A type of biblical interpretation found in
  the Qumran scrolls in which selected biblical
  texts are applied to the contemporary sectarian
  setting by means of various literary devices, the
  word pesher (pl. pesharim) may refer either to
  the employment of the technique itself or to a
  genre comprised of a series of such
  interpretations." Berrin

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4. Early Jewish Exegesis

• 4.2 Philo of Alexandria
• 1. Aristobulus as a predecessor of Philo
  (180-145 BCE)
• Although the literal meaning is primary,
  Aristobulus saw it necessary to use metaphorical
  interpretation at times and argued that the text
  could have multiple meanings.
• 2. Philo (10 BCE 45 CE)
• Philo cites the Torah as primary, although his
  Scripture includes the prophets hagiographa.
• Since he uses the Greek Bible, Sirach and the
  Wisdom of Solomon are quoted.

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4.2.1 Philo, On the Migration of Abraham

• There are some who, because they consider the
  literal laws to be symbols of things that pertain
  to the intellect, are extremely attentive to the
  latter but flippantly make light of the former. I
  for one would blame those who treat the literal
  meaning so lightly. For it is necessary to take
  care with both both a more accurate
  investigation of the unseen meanings and to be
  beyond reproach in the way you preserve the
  visible aspects of the text.
• But instead such individuals act as if they live
  privately in a desert alone or like they have
  become disembodied souls. they do not recognize
  city or village or house or human company at all.
  They overlook what seems important to most people
  and search out the naked truth itself for its own
  sake.
• The sacred word teaches them to concentrate on
  good reputation and not to abandon anything from
  the customs that were set down by divinely
  inspired men greater than those of our time.
  Certainly the seventh day is a teaching about the
  power of the one who was not created and about
  the passivity of that which is created. But we
  should not abandon those things that have been
  put into force as laws for the seventh day.

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4. Early Jewish Exegesis

• 4.2.2 Summary of Philo's Hermeneutics
• "In this crucial passage, Philo as it were
  summarizes his attitude as an exegete. The
  symbolical, though higher and more important,
  practically never invalidates the literal.
  (Exceptionally, Philo discards the literal
  meaning altogether or allows it only a limited
  role). Philo combines literal and symbolical
  methods of exegesis, stressing symbolism against
  literalists and the literal sense against
  over-spiritualization." Borgen

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4. Early Jewish Exegesis

• ". . . Philo's use of "literal" and allegorical
  interpretations represents an extreme exploration
  of what we called the 'symbolic link'. The basic
  rule is things which have something in common
  are ipso facto a reference to each other. Thus
  the whole cosmos becomes a universe of
  cross-references. For modern readers wanting to
  understand Philo it is crucial to free themselves
  from the monopoly of causal thinking which has
  become undisputed since the great successes of
  experimental science. But in ancient thought -
  and in poetry of all times-things may be
  interconnected by a relationship of meaning
  without acting on each other." Siegert

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Allegorical Exegesis

• "The chief goal of allegory is to extract the
  profound spiritual sense hidden in the wording of
  a literary production inspired by the Logos, and
  to lay it open to man's understanding.
  Hellenistic Judaism, just as Judaism in the
  Palestinian motherland, set out from the
  inspiration of its Holy Scriptures, and, as the
  example of Philo of Alexandria indicates, made
  expert use of the allegorical method. From that
  point, the allegorization of texts makes its way
  to the New Testament, as shown by Galatians
  4.21-31 and for example, Hebrews 3.6. It is not
  surprising, therefore, that allegory was at once
  taken up in the church and to a degree actually
  gained the mastery." Stuhlmacher

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4. Early Jewish Exegesis

• 4.3 Josephus
• 4.3.1 The Nature of the Bible Josephus Used
• "The nature of his Vorlage is a huge and still
  unsettled problem some thing that he used
  primarily Greek texts throughout others find
  more evidence of a Semitic source in the early
  books, and so surmise that he only later opted
  for the Greek - perhaps through the weariness of
  translation." Mason Kraft
• É. Nodet has argued that Josephus utilized a
  Hebrew source that could have been similar to the
  Vorlage of the LXX, along with a Greek text,
  which we may consider as part of the pluriform
  witnesses, for his work on the Pentateuch and
  that it could have been one that came from the
  Jerusalem Temple.
• Josephus may, in some instances, have consulted
  a Hebrew text or Aramaic targum, but the evidence
  for such Semitic sources, and particularly for
  the use of targum, is slender at best." Attridge

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4. Early Jewish Exegesis

• 4.3.2 Rewritten Scriptures
• 1. "Many of the non-scriptural details in
  Josephus's paraphrase are paralleled in various
  re-writings of Scripture from the Second Temple
  period, such as Jubilees and the Liber
  antiquitatum biblicarum erroneously attributed to
  Philo. Josephus may have used such materials or
  may have relied on oral traditions familiar from
  his youth in Jerusalem or form diaspora
  exegetical traditions. It is clear in any case
  that he was not a slave to any particular
  exegetical tradition, but used a variety of
  sources with a good deal of flexibility."
  Attridge

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4. Early Jewish Exegesis

• 2. "Josephus elaborates his sources in various
  ways. He condenses and systematizes non-narrative
  material, such as the legal sections of the
  Pentateuch (3224-86, 419-301), promising a
  fuller treatment of such matters in a planned,
  but never published, work 'On Customs and Causes'
  (3223, 4198, cf. 125, 20268). Similarly,
  prophetic books generally receive very summary
  treatment. Narrative material, suitable as it is
  for Josephus' historical aims, receives more of
  his attention, and he expands it in several
  regular ways." Attridge

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5. Samaritans their Interpretation

• 5.1 "The antagonism between Samaritans and Jews
  is reflected in Scriptural exegesis. The tenth
  commandment of the Samaritan Pentateuch (SP),
  which counts the Masoretic commandments as nine
  and adds a composition of Deut 1129-30 and
  272-7 to Exod 2017 (and to Deut 518), is an
  injunction to worship on Mt. Gerizim. In Deut
  1129-30, it is charged that when the Hebrew
  enter the Promised Land, they should set a
  blessing for keeping the law upon Mt. Gerizim and
  a curse for disobeying it on Mt. Ebal. Deut 27
  describes the rite in more detail. According to
  the MT text, the blessing shall be pronounced on
  Mt. Gerizim (2712), but stones inscribed with
  the Law and an altar are to be erected on Mt.
  Ebal (274-5). In the SP, however, Mt. Gerizim is
  the place for th altar and the stones." Fossum

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5. Samaritans their Interpretation

• 5.2 "The canon of the Samaritans is the
  Pentateuch alone. For the Jews around the turn of
  our era, the Prophets and the Writings certainly
  did not have the same claim to authority as the
  Torah, so the rejection of the Prophets and the
  Writings on the part of the Samaritans does not
  have to be regarded as being bound up with the
  schism. Like the Samaritans, the Jewish group of
  the Sadducees accepted the Pentateuch only. On
  the other hand, the rejection of the Prophets
  found in the addition to Exod 2018 (SP, v.21 a)
  is clearly anti-Jewish. Here the Samaritans add
  Deut 528b-31 and 1818-22. The latter passage,
  which contains the prophecy of the advent of a
  Prophet like Moses and a warning against false
  prophets, splits the former." Fossum

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6. Hillel's Middoth

• 6.1 "Hillel is attributed with seven rules for
  scriptural interpretation, so-called middoth. In
  the beginning of the second century CE, Rabbi
  Ishmael increased the number to thirteen. Later
  we hear about no less than thirty-two middoth."
  Fossum
• 1. Rule of "light and heavy," is simply an
  application of the ordinary argument "from less
  to greater."
• 2. Rule of "equivalence," infers a relation
  between two subjects from the occurrence of
  identical expressions.

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6. Hillel's Middoth

• 3. Rule of "extension from the special to the
  general."
• 4. The fourth rule was the explanation of two
  passages by a third.
• 5. The fifth rule was inference from general to
  special cases.
• 6. The sixth was explanation from the analogy of
  other passages.
• 7. The seventh was the application of inferences
  which were self-evident. See Farrar

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7. Mishnah

• 7.1 Pre-History
• 1. No Rabbis before the destruction of the Second
  Temple, leaders of renown are known as Pharisees.
  
• 2. The Rabbis are not considered "scribes."
• 3. The Rabbis replaced the Jewish leadership in
  the wake of a post-Bar Kokhba vacuum.
• 4. The Rabbinic movement may be considered
  basically non-apocalyptic over against early
  Christianity and the Bar Kokhba debacle.
• 5. Rabbinic hermeneutics seems to have been
  influence by Hellenism in their analytical
  methodologies. See David Daube, HUCA 22

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7. Mishnah

• 7.2 Quotations of Scripture
• ". . . the simple fact is that the Mishnah
  quotes Scripture relatively rarely. To be
  precise, I count a total of approximately 265
  quotations of Scripture in the Mishnah (excluding
  references to liturgical recitation of Scripture
  and (excluding tractate ?Aboth). There are 517
  chapters in the entire Mishnah (again, excluding
  ?Aboth), meaning that Scripture is quoted only
  slightly more than once every two chapters."
  Kraemer
• The Mishnah tends to quote Scripture to support
  an argument and not as the subject of exposition.
• "The rabbis in the Mishnah (as later) do not
  insist upon literal or simple readings of
  Scripture, and their interpretations are
  sometimes quite inventive. . . . The Hillelites
  are less bound by the literal meaning of the
  words, whereas the Shammaites seem to require a
  more literal application of what the words say."

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7. Mishnah

• "Perhaps the most overarching principle
  informing rabbinic readings of Scripture, already
  in evidence at this stage, is the assumption
  that, divinely inspired as they are, all of
  Scripture's words, and even individual scriptural
  features, are meaningful." Kraemer

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Midrash as Interpretative Method

• "The term Midrash (plural, Midrashim) is used by
  modern scholars in a bewildering variety of ways.
  In the following pages, we use. . . . the term
  only in its traditional senses, to refer either
  to (1) a rabbinic interpretation, virtually
  always of a scriptural word, phrase, or verse,
  which searches, or ferrets out, a meaning which
  is not immediately obvious upon first encounter
  with the text (2) a compilation of such
  interpretations (3) the totality of all rabbinic
  compilations of such interpretations and (4) the
  act of interpreting Scripture in the manner
  described above. We rely on the context to
  establish clearly which meaning we intend."
  Kalmin
• It is debatable whether Midrash is present in the
  Mishnah.
• The Midrashic literature co-mingles with a
  proof-texting methodology.

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8. The Talmud

• 8.1 "The voluminous body of talmudic literature -
  the Oral Law - is essentially a compilation of
  hermeneutic, interpretative, and analytic
  exegesis of the Bible - the Written Law.
  According to rabbinic tradition, Moses not only
  received the Oral Law on Mount Sinai, but also
  the definitive explanation of the meaning buried
  in the Torah's compact and cryptic literary
  style." Zimel

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8. The Talmud

• 8.2 "The Mishnah, Sifra, Yerushalmi, and Bavli
  repeat themselves endlessly, because, they say
  the same thing (respectively) about many things.
  It is that same thing - that is, the
  hermeneutics - that in the Mishnah sets forth one
  set of categories, in Sifra, an account of the
  right modes of taxic conceptualization, in the
  Yerushalmi, an altogether different set of
  categories, and in the Bavli, a vast
  re-presentation of the received categorical
  structure and system, now in a theological
  formulation. The agendum of hermeneutics
  encompasses the issue of the author's - in
  theological context, God's -original meaning in
  revealing the Torah and yields the secular
  question, what do we think the original writer or
  compiler of a given document meant by saying
  things in one way, rather than in some other, and
  how does a single program of thought and
  expression govern the document as a whole."
  Neusner

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5 Hermeneutical Rule of Bavli

• 1. Defining the Torah and the Context for Meaning
• "The Torah consists of free-standing statements,
  sentences, sometimes formed into paragraphs, more
  often not and we are to read these sentences
  both on their own - for what they say - and also
  in the context created by the entirety of the
  Torah, oral and written."

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5 Hermeneutical Rule of Bavli

• 2. Specifying the Rule for Making Sense of the
  Torah
• "The first is that the Torah is perfect and
  flawless. The second is that the wording of the
  Torah yields meaning. The third is that the Torah
  contains, and can contain, nothing contradictory,
  incoherent, or otherwise contrary to common
  sense. The fourth is that the Torah can contain
  no statement that is redundant, banal, silly or
  stupid. The fifth is that our sages of blessed
  memory when they state teachings of the Torah
  stand for these same traits of language and
  intellect sound purpose, sound reasoning, sound
  result, in neat sentences."

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5 Hermeneutical Rule of Bavli

• 3. Identifying the Correct Medium of Discourse,
  which is the dialectical argument.
• "Since our principal affirmation is that the
  Torah is perfect, and the primary challenge to
  that affirmation derives from the named
  classifications of imperfection, the proper mode
  of analytical speech is argument. That is because
  if we seek flaws, we come in a combative spirit
  proof and conflict, not truth and consequence.
  Only by challenging the Torah sentence by
  sentence, at every plausible point of
  imperfection, are we going to show in the
  infinity of detailed cases the governing fact of
  perfection."

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5 Hermeneutical Rule of Bavli

• 4. The Harmony of What is Subject to Dispute, the
  Unity and Integrity of Truth.
• "Finding what is rational and coherent the final
  principle of hermeneutics is to uncover the
  rationality of dispute. Once our commitment is to
  sustained conflict of intellect, it must follow
  that our goal can only be the demonstration of
  three propositions, everywhere meant to govern
  1 disputes give evidence of rationality,
  meaning, each party has a valid, established
  principle in mind 2 disputes are subject to
  resolution 3 truth wins out."

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5 Hermeneutical Rule of Bavli

• 5. Knowing God through the theology expressed in
  hermeneutics.
• "Finally, in a protracted quest for the unity of
  the truth, detailed demonstration that beneath
  the laws is law, with a few wholly coherent
  principles inherent in the many, diverse rules
  and their cases - in that sustained quest, which
  defines the premise and the goal of all talmudic
  discourse the second Talmud's writers maintain,
  is where humanity meets God in mind, in
  intellect, where that meeting takes place in
  accord with rules of reason that govern God and
  humanity alike."

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9. Targum

• "Within rabbinic literature, it is the
  Palestinian Targum which we propose as a starting
  point. This text cannot be considered a version,
  but belongs to a very different genre it is much
  closer to Midrash, properly speaking, than to a
  version. It even is probable that it originally
  was a homiletic midrash, or simply a series of
  homilies on Scripture, read in the synagogue
  after the public reading of the Torah . . . .
  During the study of the Jerusalem Targum, it
  became obvious to us that this Targum lies at the
  base of later aggadic tradition, that by serving
  as an immediate extension of scripture given, it
  acts as a sort of hinge, a bridge between the
  Bible and later rabbinic literature, and that it
  represents the starting point, not of the
  midrashic genre as such (which is already present
  in biblical literature), but of Midrash, properly
  so-called, all of whose structure and themes it
  already contains." R. Bloch

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9. Targum

• 9.1 Definition "The word targum signifies
  translation and derives from the verb tirgem
  meaning to translate, to explain, or to read
  out (compare Ezra 47) it is a denominative of
  turgeman ( interpreter) to which an Akkadian
  origin is generally attributed." Le Déaut
• 9.2 Reason "The origin of the Targum is to be
  explained by a double necessity that of
  promoting a knowledge of the Torah among the
  people and, consequently, that of expounding this
  knowledge in a language known to all." Le Déaut

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9. Targum

• 9.3 Exegesis "The targum is invariably
  declarative rather than argumentative it never
  cites sources, and it never provides exegetical
  logic. The wide diversity between various
  targums, and the fact that mutually contradictory
  elements may be found within the same targum
  testify to a dynamic conception of interpretation
  that resisted the dogmatic pressures to impose a
  single, 'official' reading and interpretation of
  Scripture. To force this variegated text into a
  dogmatic mould would be procrustean ex
  definitione, for in the Judaism(s) of late
  Antiquity there were neither dogmatic credal
  formulae nor authorities empowered to promulgate
  them. The targum reflects an eclectic use of
  sources, variant purposes to which its midrash
  was put, and flexibility of the genre itself."
  Levine

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9. Targum

• "In many respects the targum continues the
  earlier scribal tradition of glosses marginalia
  later incorporated into the biblical text itself.
  Their functions were a) to resolve textual
  difficulties by interpreting obscure words or
  simplifying syntax, b) to harmonize conflicting
  texts, c) to reconcile the biblical text with
  accepted tradition, d) to incorporate specifics
  of Pharisaic-rabbinic Judaism into the text, e)
  to provide specificity to historical, juridical
  or religious allusions, f) to either strengthen
  or mitigate the force of a scriptural passage."
  Levine

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From the New Testament to the Medieval Church
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1. New Testament

• 1.1 "The New Testament authors did not consider
  themselves as writers who provided the holy
  Scripture of Israel with a new conclusion that
  supposedly included an ultimate validity because
  they were proclaiming an ultimately valid
  message. They were firmly convinced, however,
  that their writings had final authority."
  Hübner
• 1.2 "For the New Testament authors the Scripture
  of Israel was not the Old Testament. The correct
  formulation can only be the New Testament
  authors were theologically dealing with the
  Scripture of Israel which for them exclusively
  was holy Scripture and, thus, the literal word of
  God announcing Christ by divine authority."
  Hübner

49
2. NT Septuagint

• 2.1 " The problem of the historical and
  theological relation of Old Testament and New
  Testament is, to a large extent, understood as
  the relation between the Biblia Hebraica and the
  Novum Testamentum Graece. It is symptomatic that
  in academic education, the Hebrew original text
  of the Old Testament receives a lot of attention
  in contrast to the Septuagint, the Greek
  translation produced in the Egyptian Alexandria.
  But during the process of translation a certain
  shift occurred toward Hellenistic thinking Based
  on this translation, a considerable Hellenizing
  of the Old Testament cannot be denied, even if
  the extent may be debatable. In the Septuagint
  the spiritual attitude of Hellenistic Judaism in
  the diaspora is expressed one may refer to its
  greater emphasis on universalism." Hübner

50
3. Paul

• 3.1 ". . . Isaiah 28 (25) Psalms 20 (20)
  Deuteronomy 15 (13) Genesis 15 (12) Exodus 5
  (5) Hosea 4 (3) Leviticus 4 (2) Proverbs 3
  (3) 3 Kings 2 (2) Job 2 (2) Habakkuk 2 (1)
  Malachi 1 (1 Joel 1 (1) furthermore 4 (3)
  quotations which cannot be identified with
  certainty."
• 3.2 "For him, the Old Testament is the word of
  God which he, indeed, by virtue of the Holy
  Spirit bestowed upon him by God, understands as
  the word of God in messianic promises."
• 3.3 ". . . Paul could adopt Old Testament
  passages for central issues of his theological
  argumentation in such a way that the
  christological understanding of Old Testament
  passages does not mean denying, but expanding its
  original meaning. Thus Paul places the Old
  Testament passage with its genuinely literal
  meaning in a larger, qualitatively different,
  theological grid. The original literal meaning is
  not negated, but newly understood within the new
  situation of salvation, and thus within a newly
  created reality."

51
4. Mark, Matthew, Lukan John

• 4.1 Mark "We cannot consider highly enough the
  fact that the Gospel of Mark starts with an Old
  Testament quotation which, as a fulfilment
  quotation, is the theological heading of the
  oldest Gospel."
• 4.2 Matthew
• "Regarding its basic concept, the Gospel of Mark
  is more determined by the Old Testament than
  generally assumed. The Gospel of Matthew,
  however, is indisputably the synoptic writing
  whose theological concept is specifically
  expressed in its Old Testament quotations."
• "At the most we may ask whether the
  evangelist's approach sometimes is typological
  as, for instance, in Matt 215 where he quotes
  Hos 111 as the Son of God, Jesus has
  typologically superceeded Israel which was the
  first son of God."
• "Regarding the Old Testament adoption by the New
  Testament, the theology of Matthew is
  characterized by a second kind of fulfilment
  besides the christologically interpreted
  fulfilment of the prophets' promises the
  fulfillment of the law which, in Matthew, plays a
  very important role."

52
4. Mark, Matthew, Lukan John

• 4.3 Lukan
• "That the evangelist did recognize the text as
  the text of the Septuagint in the hymns can be
  seen in Acts. His phrasing there being naturally
  freer than in the Gospel, he received from the
  Septuagint as his holy Scripture regarding "the
  language material - to present the holy
  apostolic period, in particular in Palestine"."
• "We can state that the question whether
  something is in accordance with Scripture is an
  essential and central element of the theology of
  the Gospel of Luke. It finds its clear expression
  in the quotations from Scripture and in the
  programmatic, redactional statements of the
  evangelist mentioned above."
• "Scripture and Scripture interpretation
  necessarily belong together. Only with Christian
  interpretation is Scripture understandable
  Scripture. Also Luke points out that preaching
  and Scripture interpretation are specific to the
  adoption of the Old Testament in the New. Only
  comprehended Scripture is God? holy Scripture!"

53
4. Mark, Matthew, Lukan John

• 4.4 John
• "We encounter literal correspondence to the text
  of the Septuagint (however only four exact
  quotations from the Septuagint). Yet
  modifications of this text are clear. Sometimes
  the evangelist possibly referred to the Hebrew
  original, but at other instances neither the
  Septuagint nor the Hebrew Bible can be identified
  as the main influence. It is not always clear
  which passage of the Old Testament was consulted.
  . . ."
• ". . . we are to conclude that he adopted the
  text of the Septuagint where it fit his
  theological concept, but that he considerably
  changed the text at his own discretion where, for
  the sake of the theological statement, he
  considered it as appropriate, if not as
  inevitable. Therefore by modification of the Old
  Testament text, the evangelist expresses his
  theological or, more precisely, his
  christological concept."

54
5. Hebrews Revelation

• 5.1 Hebrews "The author of Hebrews, first of
  all, has a christological intention when he
  quotes God speaking. In the context of an
  argumentation of this kind, the function of these
  quotations is to provide proof from Scripture. In
  the other New Testament writings we encounter the
  proof from Scripture as the written word of God
  yet in Hebrews, even though quotations are - of
  course! -written down, we find the proof of the
  spoken word of God. For the author it is beyond
  question that what God says is theologically
  indisputable and, therefore, cannot be
  questioned."
• 5.2 Revelation "The Revelation of John does not
  have a single formal quotation from the Old
  Testament, but yet like no other book of the New
  Testament it is influenced by the Old Testament
  in terms of language and content. The last book
  of the New Testament can only be fully
  comprehended in its spiritual, religious, and
  theological structure if its content is
  understood in the language of the Old Testament
  and its intentions. In the New Testament, no
  other book is influenced so thoroughly by the Old
  Testament as Revelation, not even the Epistles to
  the Romans or to the Galatians."

55
4 Evangelical Models

• 1. The full human intent school (W. C. Kaiser,
  Jr.) holds that all that is asserted in the OT
  passage must have been part of the human authors
  intended meaning.
• 2. The divine intent - human words school (S. L.
  Johnson, J. I. Packer, E. E. Johnson) holds that
  all that is asserted in the OT passage must have
  been intended by God if not by the human author.
• 3. The historical progress of revelation and
  Jewish hermeneutic school (E. E. Elish, R.
  Longenecker, W. Dunnett) uses historical factors
  in assessing the relationship of OT to NT. The
  event is the key dynamic that leads to the
  realization of the prophetic meaning.
• 4. The canonical approach and NT priority school
  (B. K. Waltke) holds that the texts intention
  became deeper and clearer as the parameters of
  the canon were expanded. thus the OT is to be
  reread ultimately in the light of the NT.

56
Robert L. Hubbard, Jr. Doing Old Testament
Theology Today

• 1. "First, one must remember that, compared to
  the OT, the NT has a narrower focus. It is does
  not set aside, revise, or update the OT rather,
  its primary preoccupation is to interpret the
  significance of the Christ-event and to set up
  the fledgling Christian church on a solid
  footing. . . . the point is that the NT does not
  see itself as replacement of the OT, so that
  latter retains full authority for Christians."
• 2. "Second, however, a well-intentioned desire to
  retain the value of the OT and the unity of the
  testaments should not blind one to the glaring
  differences between them. That is, besides
  fulfilling the OT, the NT goes beyond it."
• 3. "Most important, Jesus does more that simply
  fulfill OT prophetic hopes - He actually exceeds
  their expectations by radically reforming
  Israels religion and by inaugurating a new era
  of Gods dealings with humanity."

57
Robert L. Hubbard, Jr. Doing Old Testament
Theology Today

• 4. "Fourth, the principle of analogy is the key
  link that unites the testaments. In other words,
  both share analogous concepts with each other-
  e.g., a self-revealing creator-God, a people of
  God, gifts given to them by God, concepts of
  salvation, etc."
• 5. Fifth and finally, one must define how Jesus
  Christ relates to the OT since He is the heart of
  the NT. Obviously, Christians regard Him as the
  fulfillment of some OT theological ideas. . . .
  On the other hand, Christ provides a new, final
  interpretive key for the Bible. Christians view
  everything within the Bible from the point of
  view of Christ."

58
Patristics

• Early Church to Augustine

59
1. Introduction

• 1.1 "In many respects, Christian literature of
  the period 30-250 CE may be said to be one single
  large commentary on the Scriptures, the Hebrew
  Bible. Judaism was a religion of the holy
  Scriptures." Skaraune
• "The exegesis of the primitive Christian Church
  was a direct and unself-conscious continuation of
  the type of exegesis practised by ancient Judaism
  in its later period. . . ." Hanson
• 1.2 Three Main types
• 1. Proof-text the idea is proving that Jesus is
  the Messiah
• 2. The Paraenetic Homily.
• 3. Biblical antiquities.

60
2. Marcion

• 2.1 "To the heresiologists of later centuries,
  Marcion was the most formidable heretic of the 2d
  century CE. His teaching sprang from a radical
  emphasis upon the discontinuity between
  Christianity and Judaism. The God of Jesus, he
  asserted, was not the same as the God of the
  Hebrew Scriptures. While this ditheism was an
  important element of Marcionism, theological
  innovation was not Marcions hallmark. In fact,
  he was a radical Paulinist who rejected the OT
  writings and organized a church with strong
  ascetic tendencies. The scripture of his church
  comprised one gospel (a version of Luke), ten
  letters of Paul (not including the Pastorals and
  Hebrews), and his own work entitled Antitheses
  - a catalog of contradictions between the
  teaching of Jesus and that of the OT."

61
2. Marcion

• 2.2 "While not all scholars agree that Marcion
  forced the creation of the Christian canon, we
  cannot deny that his was the first. His influence
  in this matter is manifest in the composition of
  the NT canon that was later to emerge. . . . It
  should be noted that the primary difference
  between Marcions canon and the Christian canon
  is that the former is singular and the latter
  plural." Clabeaux
• "A conscious step in the direction of diversity
  was taken by anti-Marcionite Christians of the 2d
  and 4th centuries. The vociferous insistence of
  anti-Marcionite Christianity on the validity of
  the OT within the canon is a point which should
  not be missed in our time."

62
2. Marcion

• 2.3 "The OT set forth, in Marcion's view, not the
  good God of Jesus Christ, but a second divinity,
  the inferior demiurge who made the world . . . .
  The OT promises by this deity refer not to the
  Christians' Christ, but to a warlike messiah whom
  Jews rightly expect. Marcion therefore solved the
  problem of relating the Testaments by cutting the
  knot. . . . It is noteworthy that Marcion,
  eschewing symbolic interpretation, assessed the
  OT as no more than just, but true. He and his
  followers characteristically noted weaknesses and
  inconsistencies in the OT, but their position
  could be presented so as to set the Christian
  above the Jew, but the Jew still well above the
  gentile, with regard to divine illumination."
  Horbury

63
3. Typological Exegesis

• 3.1 The Method
• "The spiritual sense (Rev. 11.8) was discerned
  especially by recognition of types and allegories
  (Rom. 5.14, Gal. 4.24). Typology can be said to
  differ from allegorical interpretation in that it
  takes seriously the historical setting of an OT
  law or event type and antitype identify some
  correspondence between different stages in a
  sacred history, whereas allegory elicits timeless
  truth form beneath the veil of the biblical
  letter, which may be regarded as having no
  reference to history." Horbury

64
3. Typological Exegesis

• 3.2 Irenaeus
• 1. "For every prophecy, before it comes about, is
  an enigma and a contradiction to men but when
  the time comes, and what was prophesied takes
  place, it receives a most certain exegesis. And
  therefore when the Law is read by Jews at the
  present time, it is like a myth for they do not
  have explanation of everything, which is the
  coming of the Son of God as man. But when it is
  ready by Christians, it is a treasure, hidden in
  the field but revealed by the cross of Christ. .
  . . The true exegesis was taught by the Lord
  himself after his resurrection."

65
3. Typological Exegesis

• 2. "Irenaeus also formulated the principle that
  obscure passages should be interpreted in the
  light of clear ones. In taking some early Gnostic
  Christian heretics to task for focusing on the
  obscure, he says If anything is clear in
  Scripture, it is that there is only one God who
  created the world through his Word. This is an
  article of scriptural faith which the Gnostics
  denied most vehemently."

66
3. Typological Exegesis

• 3. "Irenaeus, in his battles against groups on
  the fringes of Christianity who had perverted its
  main teachings, also introduced the idea of
  authoritative exegesis. The true meaning of
  Scripture is invested in the church, where
  apostolic authority was preserved. Although part
  of what he said was true (the church is invested
  with the knowledge of Scriptures meaning), this
  began a long tradition of finding authoritative
  meanings in the early church leaders rather than
  in careful exegesis of the biblical text itself,
  which culminated after the Reformation in the
  Council of Trents affirmations of ecclesiastical
  infallibility." McCartney Clayton

67
4. Allegorical Exegesis

• 4.1 The Method
• "The ecclesiastical interpretation of scripture
  which was to draw on this canon of Old and New
  Testament and lift from it the biblical witness
  to truth in service to the church now required a
  method which would penetrate to this spiritual
  witness and at the same time effectually bind the
  biblical literature with the communitys faith.
  This method lay ready to hand in the shape of the
  theory of the multiple or, better,
  multi-dimensional sense of scripture and the
  so-called allegorical exposition yielding this
  sense. Allegorical interpretation was shaped
  since the third century BC in the centers of
  Hellenistic learning, Alexandria and Pergamum . .
  . ." Stuhlmacher

68
4. Allegorical Exegesis

• 4.2 Clement of Alexandria
• 1. "Criteria. Clement briefly mentions the
  criteria of interpretation. First, those common
  to all men should be considered. Then comes the
  technical criteria acquired by education. Most
  important, however, are the moral criteria
  avoidance of self-conceit, readiness to
  persevere, and energy of soul to take the canon
  of truth from the truth itself."

69
4. Allegorical Exegesis

• 2. "Heretics. Surprisingly, perhaps, Clement
  agrees with Tertullian, not that scripture should
  be ruled off limits for heretics, but as least
  that it is barren for them. Heretics wrest
  scripture to suit their desires. Failing to take
  the canon of the truth from the truth and
  falsehood. While using scripture, they come to
  it with their own systems, picking out ambiguous
  phrases... plucking out a few scattered
  utterances, perverting the bare letter as it
  stands. They attend to the words alone, while
  they change the meaning, neither understanding
  them as they are spoken, nor even using in the
  natural sense such extracts as they adduce."

70
4. Allegorical Exegesis

• 3. Hermeneutical Rules
• 3.1 Nothing is literally true which is unworthy
  of God.
• 3.2 No interpretation can be accepted which
  contradicts the Bible as a whole.
• 3.3 Literal meaning is meant to excite interest
  in understanding deeper meaning. Bromiley
• 4. Although Clement quoted more from the NT than
  the OT, he clearly recognized its Scriptural
  status in the Theodotian tradition of the
  Septuagint.
• 4.1 Clement wrote, "There are four ways," he
  writes, "in which we can receive the meaning of
  the Law it may present a type it may show a
  symbol it may lay down a precept for right
  conduct it may pronounce a prophecy" (Strom.
  1.179.4)."

71
4. Allegorical Exegesis

• 4.3 Origen
• 1. Assumption 1 Scripture is divinely inspired.
  Therefore
• 1.1 Its legal precepts are superior
• 1.2 It is powerful in changing lives
• 1.3 Biblical prophecy comes true
• 1.4 Like Jesus, the Bible is divine but in human
  form
• 1.5 The Bible contains hidden secrets.

72
4. Allegorical Exegesis

• 2. Assumption 2 Scripture should be interpreted
  according to its nature. Therefore
• 2.1 Not every text has a literal meaning, but
  every text does have a spiritual meaning.
• 2.2 The spiritual meaning is not always plain or
  easily understood
• 2.3 Scripture has a threefold meaning, a body
  (literal meaning), a soul (a psychical meaning
  relating to the will), and a spirit (spiritual
  meaning which speaks of Christ).
• 2.4 The problems in Scripture are there to hinder
  us from being too enamored of the literal meaning.

73
4. Allegorical Exegesis

• 3. Origen the OT
• 3.1 "Origen's contribution to the Christian
  interpretation of the Old Testament was immense.
  He was the first Christian as far as we know to
  attempt to establish an accurate text of the LXX
  by reference to the external criterion of the
  Hebrew original. His production of the Hexapla is
  testimony to the importance he attached to his
  textual endeavours, and indirectly to the
  importance he attached to the OT itself." Paget
• 3.2 "He was the first Christian to attempt to
  construct a systematic theory of hermeneutics.
  When interpreting the OT, more than any Christian
  writer before him, he saw it as appropriate to
  consult Jewish exegetes . . . ."
• 3.3 "He was interested in bringing order to the
  discipline of OT exegesis, of establishing
  criteria by which to distinguish a good
  interpretation from a bad one."

74
4. Allegorical Exegesis

• 3.4 "Origen saw the OT as much more than the
  foreshadowing of events in the NT. While it was a
  shadow of the good things to come, not all those
  good things had in fact come."
• 3.5 "Origen wrote much more on the OT than the
  NT, and together with the evidence of the Hexapla
  this implies that he probably spent more time
  studying it. The reason for this lay partly in
  the fact that the OT was a much larger body of
  literature. Furthermore, it was a more difficult
  set of texts containing in it much that appeared
  strange and irrelevant. But in assessing why
  Origen wrote so much on the OT, we should not
  lose sight of the context out of which much of
  his extant exegesis emerged. Caesarea was a city
  with a large Jewish population, some of whom were
  Rabbis skilled in the interpretation of
  Scripture."

75
5. The Literal Sense

• 5.1 Introduction
• "The importance of types and allegories in second
  and third-century OT exegesis did not overwhelm
  more literal interpretation. It appeared
  negatively in Apelles, but more positively when
  the laws were viewed as having been mandatory in
  their times or indeed as still in force and
  literal interpretation of the promises was
  popular. Gen. 1-3 were likewise commonly taken
  literally, perhaps in rebuttal of gnostic views
  of the cosmogony as well as in accord with the
  hope for the last things. A Refutation of the
  Allegorists by the Egyptian bishop Nepos (about
  240) rebutted spiritualization of the millennium
  (Dan 7.18-27, Rev. 20.3-6), and Denys of
  Alexandria replied On Promises (Eusebius, History
  Eccl. 724, 1-3)." Horbury

76
5. The Literal Sense

• 5.2 Antiochene School Theodore of Mopsuestia
• 1. "Unless the NT actually cites the text it is
  not messianic. Allusion is not sufficient to
  establish a text as messianic. Even when the NT
  cites an OT text, it may be only illustrative
  rather than an indication of a messianic meaning
  . . . ." McCartney Clayton, 89-90
• 2. NT does give indications of actual literal
  fulfilment of OT prophecy.

77
6. Thomas Aquinas

• 6.1 4-Fold Interpretation
• 1. Literal
• 2. Spiritual allegorical moral anagogical
• 6.2 Rule or Interpretation
• 1. All Interpretation rests on the Literal
• 2. We can argue only from the Literal
• 3. Nothing essential is contained in the
  spiritual sense a passages which is not clearly
  expressed in the literal sense of another.