Midrash and Allegory

Midrash texts make heavy use of literary allegory to illustrate meaning. A common technique is to tell us about new characters by having them replay events or speak words of older Biblical characters. In fact, in Jewish literature, every story that can claim inspiration must somehow be connected with a sacred moment of the past. This was something common to even the canonized Torah. The story of Joshua is told through the lens of Moses. Rich allegory is used to paint Joshua (Yahoshua, Hebrew for “Savior”) as the new Moses who takes over as the next heroic figure in Jewish antiquity. The Joshua story draws on symbolic acts of Moses including the way they told about the Israelites crossing the Jordan River in a miracle that is clearly an allegory to the Red Sea crossing a generation earlier. Even the Garden of Eden stories and their more developed Midrash complimentary texts appear to be formed as allegoric reference to the Promised Land.

Why is this important to Christians? To understand our own defining texts (the Gospels), we need to recognize their roots in Midrash. Long before western thinkers literalized our myths and symbols, Jesus (Greek for Joshua or savior) had his own life captured by writers steeped in Midrash tradition. Starting with a birth story that compares Jesus and Moses as survivors of infant genocide and ending with an ascension to the heavens that grounds Jesus in the legend of Elijah, the gospels tell us about Jesus through well known stories of Jewish antiquity. In between those two events, these symbolic Gospels include a story about the parting of heavens that is set in the Jordan River, another story about a walk across water, a dramatic set of new commandments delivered from a mountain, and a Palm Sunday donkey ride borrowed from the prophetic words of Isaiah. That merely scratches the surface of the allegorical texts in the gospels. All seem to point to the creative techniques of Midrash.

When studying midrash, students realize the question to ask of the texts is not, Did it really happen? That is a western question tied to a western mind-set that seeks by sensory perception to measure and describe those things defined as objectively real.
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The proper question of the midrsh tradition is, what was the experience that led, or even compelled, the compilers of the sacred tradition to include this moment, this life, or this event inside the interpretive framework of their sacred past? What was there about Jesus of Nazareth that required the meaning of his life to be interpreted through the stories of Abraham and Isaac, Moses and the Passover, Exodus and wilderness, Sinai and the promised land, Hnnah and Samuel, David and Solomon, Elijah and Elisha, the servant figure and the son of man, Pentecost and Tabernacles, and a thousand other choices that served to incorporate the life of Jesus into the meaning of God known in the history of the Jewish people? That is the midrash question of which we were ignorant for so long, the question that could not be asked in any substantive way until we developed Jewish eyes and Jewish minds with which to read and understand our own holy gospel. – Bishop John Shelby Spong, “Resurrection: Myth or Reality” (p.9)

When I first began to look at the Gospels as symbolic narratives, I was concerned about the implications. Had we been lied to? Was this a 2000-year-old hoax? Was the modern liberal attempts to trivialize the stories the only way out of this problem? I think the answer to each of those questions is, No. Understanding the Gospels as products of Midrash tradition eliminates the intention of hoax and it provides for a reconciliation of ancient stories, modern scholarship, and postmodern deconstruction.

Emergent Theology and Midrash

The term Midrash describes a library of ancient Jewish commentaries on the Hebrew Scriptures. One type of Midrash took the form of a collage. The creator of the Midrash might put one passage from the Bible on the center of a page. Then, he would surround the passage with a variety of commentaries pulled from different generations of rabbis. Each of the commentaries displayed a different perspective. Some often disagreed or challenged one another. It sounds like an Emergent Cohort!

This method invites the reader of Midrash into the process of interpretation. The reader can consider each commentary and allow the entire collection to speak. This act moves the reading of scripture from passive to active interpretation and from individual to communal meaning. It encourages the reader to wrestle with different perspectives. This visual form of exegesis allows meaning to emerge through the active dialog between the present reader, generations of ancient commentators, and the Biblical text.

Too often, our study of scripture devolves into a form of intellectual masturbation as we wrestle with texts on our own. Another common problem is when we let a single human authority dictate the meanings for us. Midrash combines generational wisdom, individual enlightenment, and a profound sense of community as we are encouraged to work together through the historic and present meanings. I appreciate this Midrash form of communal and inter-generational interpretation. Midrash forces us to move from a blind allegiance towards a holistic understanding of deep meaning. It helps us see the Bible as God's living Word not simply God's words.

Emergent communities are becoming more aware of the transcendent in popular culture. Music, art, poetry, and even movies are all thin places that allow us to glimpse the transcendent. One Emergent use of Midrash techniques is to borrow this notion of surrounding a passage of scripture with a collage of poems, lyrics, and pictures. I can imagine how effective that might be as a group activity. Combining ancient writings with layers of historical and current voices allow us to connect to our sacred texts.

Read more posts about Midrash

Emergent Midrash

I’ve recently become more aware of the Jewish Midrash tradition. I’ve heard a few of these Midrash stories in the past, but until recently, I didn't know much about this intriguing world of literature. From what I’m learning, it seems to me that this is exactly where the Emergent movement could find both its roots and its voice.

Midrash is the rabbinic tradition of interpreting the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible). These ancient Rabbis have been doing this much longer than modern Christianity and there is a huge library of Midrash texts to prove it. One of the most common styles in Midrash tradition is explaining sacred texts by creating more stories about the stories. These highly creative stories and poems draw out the meanings in more detail. They fill in the gaps in all our favorite Bible narratives with dramatic creativity. Midrash is the place where minor Biblical characters get their very own fully developed stories. The serpent in the Garden of Eden is more developed as the storytellers speculate about the source of his motivation for tempting Eve. The details about Adam and Eve's adventures east of Eden and Noah's difficult journey come to life. Even the words written on Moses’ two stone tablets become a living mythical character. The actual text (the very words of God) written on these two stone tablets is what lifts the heavy stones and allows Moses to carry them down the mountain. When the words see the golden calf at the bottom of the mountain, the words become angry and they fly off the tablets. Moses can no longer support the tablets void of God’s powerful words and he drops the meaningless stones to the ground. I think that is an amazing creative statement about the power of those words.

Once a canon (i.e., approved scriptural text) is closed, the problem facing the community is the problem of "searching out" the canon…The ultimate goal of Midrash is to "search out" the fullness of what was spoken by the Divine Voice.
- Dr. Charles T. Davis, Appalachian Statue University, Philosophy and Religion Department, NC

The thing I’ve learned most is that these rabbis loved to tell stories. This is how they capture and transmit meaning. I think it's beautiful. Not everyone communicates in three point sermons or PowerPoint lists. These artists created poems, narratives, symbolism, and myths that invoke our imagination while bringing out the deep meanings of the Bible. Doesn’t this sound like a postmodern concept? If Emergent Christians are seeking a return to the hermeneutics of story telling in place of our flat modern systematic theology, then Midrash may be an important model.