2nd of 4 slideshows on connections between Midrash and New Testament texts.

1. Midrash and the
New Testament:
Exploring Connections
WITH RABBI MAURICE HARRIS
Lesson 2

2. Triggers
 Gaps in biblical stories
 Contradictions within the Bible
 Grammatical quirks or oddities in the biblical Hebrew
 Unusual word choices
 Apparent redundancy or repetition in the Bible
 Word plays or literary associations in the biblical Hebrew
 Unusual visual features found in certain Hebrew words in the Torah (enlarged
letters, upside-down letters, etc.)
 Anything that might raise a question to a careful reader of the Bible in Hebrew
 Elements of the Bible that seem to address contemporary issues facing the rabbis

3. Triggers – Example: Unusual word choices
Why does the Torah use this
plural form of the word “I” in “I
am the Eternal your God…”?
Why not use the singular?

4. The trigger: the word “Anokhee”

6. Triggers
 Gaps in biblical stories
 Contradictions within the Bible
 Grammatical quirks or oddities in the biblical Hebrew
 Unusual word choices
 Apparent redundancy or repetition in the Bible
 Word plays or literary associations in the biblical Hebrew
 Unusual visual features found in certain Hebrew words in the Torah (enlarged
letters, upside-down letters, etc.)
 Anything that might raise a question to a careful reader of the Bible in Hebrew
 Elements of the Bible that seem to address contemporary issues facing the rabbis

7. Triggers – Example: Elements of the Bible
seeming to address contemporary issues
Midrashic Text: Genesis Rabbah 41.9
Biblical passage being drashed: Genesis 13: 14-17
14 The Eternal One said to Abram after Lot had parted from him, “Lift up your eyes from where you are and
look north and south, east and west. 15 All the land that you see I will give to you and your
offspring forever. 16 I will make your offspring like the dust (!) of the earth, so that if anyone could count the
dust, then your offspring could be counted. 17 Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am
giving it to you.”

8. Triggers – Example: Elements of the Bible
seeming to address contemporary issues
I will make your offspring like the dust (!) of the earth
[the midrash now adds to what God tells Abram at this moment in Genesis:]
As the dust of the earth extends from one end of the earth to the other, so
your children will be scattered from one end of the world to the other. As the
dust of the earth can be blessed only through water, so Israel too can be
blessed only in virtue of the Torah, which is compared to water… And as dust
is made to be trampled on, so your children too will be made for kingdoms to
trample on. And as dust wears vessels of metal away, but itself endures
forever, so with Israel: all the idolatrous nations shall disappear, but Israel
will endure.

9. Triggers
 Gaps in biblical stories
 Contradictions within the Bible
 Grammatical quirks or oddities in the biblical Hebrew
 Unusual word choices
 Apparent redundancy or repetition in the Bible
 Word plays or literary associations in the biblical Hebrew
 Unusual visual features found in certain Hebrew words in the Torah (enlarged
letters, upside-down letters, etc.)
 Anything that might raise a question to a careful reader of the Bible in Hebrew
 Elements of the Bible that seem to address contemporary issues facing the rabbis

10. Triggers – Example: Apparent redundancy or
repetition in the Hebrew Bible
Exodus 20:13 and Leviticus 19:11 both state, “you shall not steal” using
the same Hebrew word for “steal”.

11. Triggers
 Gaps in biblical stories
 Contradictions within the Bible
 Grammatical quirks or oddities in the biblical Hebrew
 Unusual word choices
 Apparent redundancy or repetition in the Bible
 Word plays or literary associations in the biblical Hebrew
 Unusual visual features found in certain Hebrew words in the Torah (enlarged
letters, upside-down letters, etc.)
 Anything that might raise a question to a careful reader of the Bible in Hebrew
 Elements of the Bible that seem to address contemporary issues facing the rabbis

12. Triggers – Example: Anything that might raise a
question to a careful reader of the Bible in Hebrew
Exodus 21:24
Matthew 5 : 38-42
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for
tooth.’ 39 But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone
strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40 And
if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have
your cloak as well. 41 If someone forces you to go one mile, go
with him two miles. 42 Give to the one who asks you, and do not
turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.
Talmud: Baba Kamma 83b-84a
It was taught: Rabbi Dosthai b. Judah says: Eye for
eye means monetary compensation.
Complex discussion & debate takes place in text.

13. Key concept:
Midrash helps illuminate NT texts & vice versa
Matthew 5 : 38-42
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for
tooth.’ 39 But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone
strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40 And
if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have
your cloak as well. 41 If someone forces you to go one mile, go
with him two miles. 42 Give to the one who asks you, and do not
turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.
Talmud: Baba Kamma 83b-84a
It was taught: Rabbi Dosthai b. Judah says: Eye for
eye means monetary compensation.
Complex discussion & debate takes place in text.

14. Triggers – Example: Anything that might raise a
question to a careful reader of the Bible in Hebrew
Exodus 21:24
Matthew 5 : 38-42
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for
tooth.’ 39 But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone
strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40 And
if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have
your cloak as well. 41 If someone forces you to go one mile, go
with him two miles. 42 Give to the one who asks you, and do not
turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

15. From Lamentations 3
I remember my affliction and my wandering,
the bitterness and the gall.
20 I well remember them,
and my soul is downcast within me.
21 Yet this I call to mind
and therefore I have hope:
22 Because of the ETERNAL’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
23 They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
24 I say to myself, “The ETERNAL is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him.”
25 The ETERNAL is good to those whose hope is in him,
to the one who seeks him;
26 it is good to wait quietly
for the salvation of the ETERNAL.
27 It is good for a man to bear the yoke
while he is young. 28 Let him sit alone in silence,
for the ETERNAL has laid it on him.
29 Let him bury his face in the dust—
there may yet be hope.
30 Let him offer his cheek to one who would strike him,
and let him be filled with disgrace.
31 For men are not cast off
by the Eternal forever.
32 Though he brings grief, he will show compassion,
so great is his unfailing love.
33 For he does not willingly bring affliction
or grief to the children of men.
34 To crush underfoot
all prisoners in the land,
35 to deny a man his rights
before the Most High,
36 to deprive a man of justice—
would not the Eternal see such things?
37 Who can speak and have it happen
if the Eternal has not decreed it?
38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
that both calamities and good things come?
39 Why should any living man complain
when punished for his sins?
40 Let us examine our ways and test them,
and let us return to the ETERNAL.

16. Next up…
Let’s bring some more New Testament texts
into the discussion in
Lesson 3!