Mag. Claudia R. Wintoch
The Gospels in New Testament Times
Ken Lundeen
World Revival School of Ministry
1. Introduction
2. PaRDeS
2.1.
P’shat
2.1.1.
NT Examples
2.2.
Remez
2.2.1.
NT Examples
2.3.
(Mi)Drash
2.3.1.
NT Examples
2.4.
Sod
3. Parables
3.1.
Structure
3.2.
New Testament Parables
3.2.1.
The Vineyard’s Tenants
4. Bibliography
1. Introduction
The New Testament was written in a
Jewish context – by Jews and mostly to Jews.
Today we forget that Jewish background and culture and are unaware that
rabbis at the time used different teaching techniques and methods to interpret
and teach Scripture. In our western world we have reduced Biblical
interpretation to “grammatical-historical exegesis” (Stern 1999:13) only,
therefore losing the richness of what God has conveyed in His word. This
unfortunate fact is the result of an overemphasis of “the Church Fathers in the
second through eighth centuries to over-allegorize, an error which probably
resulted from their misunderstanding the limitations of, and therefore
misusing, the other three rabbinic approaches to texts.” (ibidem).
This paper discusses the four
teaching methods rabbis used at the time of Christ and shows examples from the
teachings of Jesus. It also considers the literary device of parables, which
was extensively used by Jesus as we can see in the New Testament. My aim is to
deepen the reader’s understanding of the richness of God’s word and provide him
with the tools to discover all its treasures.
2. PaRDeS
The four basic teaching methods and means for Scripture interpretation the rabbis used can be remembered by the acronym PaRDeS (a Hebrew word meaning orchard, garden), which stands for P’shat, Remez, Drash and Sod. The first one is the one mostly used today (grammatical-historical exegesis), the other three being discarded for the most part since “they all allow, indeed require, subjective interpretation; and this explains why scholars, who deal with the objective world, hesitate to use them.” (Stern 1999:12).
2.1. P’shat
The Hebrew word p’shat[1] means simple. This teaching method is easiest to understand for people in
the Western world since it is plainly saying what you want to convey. The text
has a literal, plain meaning that the author wants to convey.
2.1.1. NT Examples
Jesus used this teaching method
frequently, often preceded by a parable. Many Christians however have tried to
imply a deeper meaning and even founding doctrine on their interpretation.
Jesus’s teaching on binding and
losing is a passage that has commonly been misunderstood as we have lost the
Hebrew perspective over the centuries. Jesus says in Matthew 18:18: Whatever
you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will
be loosed in heaven. Jesus is using p’shat in this statement and not using
a picture to talk about forgiving and retaining sins. In Jesus’s time the terms
binding and loosing were commonly understood as dealing with making legal
judgments, as the Pharisees did. Jesus was simply conveying the same authority
to his disciples who would have to work out the rules of the young church.
David Stern (1999:57) points out that the wrong understanding “was adopted by
Tertullian and all the church fathers, thus investing the head of the Christian
Church with the power to forgive sins, referred to on the basis of Mt 16:18 as
the ‘key power of the Church.’”
We have therefore a case where the
church has wrongly gone beyond the p’shat because of their lack of
understanding the Hebrew culture.
In the same way the church has
understood Mt 18:20[2] as meaning
that the presence of Jesus would be among those gathered in His name. While
this would be a midrash[3]
on that text, it is not the literal p’shat meaning. Jesus is still talking
about binding and losing and is assuring His disciples that in the case of an
issue brought before two or three messianic community leaders, “they can be
assured that the authority of God in heaven stands behind them” (Stern 1999:57)
in their decision.
2.2. Remez
Remez is
Hebrew for a hint. Stern (1999:12)
defines this method the following way: “a word, phrase or other element in the
text hints at a truth not conveyed by the p’shat.” Jesus or the gospel writers
used remez to hint at Old Testament passages, especially messianic passages to
claim, affirm or prove Jesus’s Messiahship.
2.2.1. NT Examples
Matthew frequently cites Old
Testament Scripture to show the reader that Jesus was in fact the fulfillment
of the messianic prophecies. One such example is found in Mt 21:4-5[4].
Matthew hints back at Isaiah 62:11 and Zech 9:9 which are both prophecies
regarding the coming Messiah. Isaiah reads: Say
to the daughter of Zion, ‘See your salvation comes!. The Hebrew word for salvation here is yesha, which is basically identical with Jesus’s name. Zechariah
says: Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion …
See, your king comes to you … riding on a donkey, yes, on a colt. Matthew
combines the two passages and gives us the hint that the salvation of Israel,
the messianic King and Jesus are identical.
Another obvious example for remez is
found in John 6:70 where Jesus says to his disciples: Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?.
Applying p’shat we would have to take Jesus literally in that Judas was Satan
(Greek diabolos) which is obviously
incorrect. As verse 71[5]
shows, Jesus was hinting at what Satan would inspire Judas to do – something
the disciples would only understand at a later point in time.
2.3. (Mi)Drash
The Hebrew word drash or midrash means to search. It denotes “an allegorical or
homiletical application of a text. This is a species of eisegesis – reading
one’s own thoughts into the text.” (Stern 1999:12). Flusser (1987:61) defines
it as “a creative exegesis and understanding of the text of the Bible and its
stories, an attempt to discover all the various senses implicit in the biblical
verse.” This technique is controversial today since it is seen as subjective
and can go in a totally different direction from what the original text
intended to convey. However, there has been a new interest over the last 20
years.
Some rabbinical schools held the
opinion that one Scripture verse would contain several meanings, like the
School of Rabbi Ishmael:
“‘Behold, My word is like fire – declares the Lord – and like a hammer that shatters rock’ (Jer 23:29). Just as this hammer produces many sparks [when it strikes the rock], so a single verse has several meanings.” (Stern 1996:17)
Church Father Augustine still used
midrash, finding multiple interpretations for a single verse, saying “to
express in manifold ways what we understand in but one, and to understand in
manifold ways what we read as obscurely uttered in but one way” (Stern
1996:24). He did not see any danger in it as long as the interpretations were
in line with all of Scripture.
One of the most frequent literary
forms of midrash is parables[6].
Then there is homiletical midrash[7]
and the exegetical anthology[8]
found in the classical period, which describe more a literary type than a
teaching method.
2.3.1. NT Examples
Flusser (1987:61) holds the opinion
that “all the books of the New Testament and all those persons who were active
during the period of early Christianity also had an affinity to the world of
the Midrash”. Jesus, having had a good Jewish education, was familiar with
midrash, yet He only used it very subtly. In Matthew 5:21, for example, He
expands the meaning of the commandment “you shall not kill” to not being angry
with anyone, using a midrashic principle.
The gospel-writer Matthew quotes
Hosea 11:1 in Matthew 2:15: Out of Egypt
I have called my son. Since the context of Hosea clearly speaks about God
calling his people Israel out of Egypt, this passage is certainly not p’shat.
Some believe Matthew is using a midrash. He is taking the text and making it
refer to the Messiah. Many rabbis were used to taking this approach and no one
would have found it questionable[9].
In the epistle to the Corinthians
the apostle Paul is using a midrash on Exodus 34:29-35, talking about Moses’s
glory, Christ’s glory and His glory being in us today.
Flusser claims that the early
Christians and New Testament authors used midrash to show that Jesus fulfilled
Old Testament prophecies of the Messiah to “explain the disaster of his death”
and “find Biblical verses which hinted that this catastrophe was not
unforeseen” (1987:63). Having established the validity of midrash, this
statement can in no way be seen as negative but as a valid method used in that
period of time.
2.4. Sod
The Hebrew word sod means secret. Stern
(1999:12) defines this method the following way: “a mystical or hidden meaning
arrived at by operating on the numerical values of the Hebrew letters, noting
unusual spellings, transposing letters, and the like.” This method shows the
sovereignty of God and inspiration of Scripture, as God hides meaning that can
only be discovered through numerical methods, like the Bible codes discovered a
few years back. Jesus might not have used this method consciously, as far as we
know.
In the Hebrew language every number
equals a value and numbers have meaning. In Revelation 13:18 we are told the
number of the beast. Stern (1999:829) points out:
“7 is regarded as the perfect number; and
triple repetition symbolizes absolute ultimacy …. Therefore 888[10]
means that Yeshua is absolutely and ultimately beyond perfection, while 666
means that the beast in every respect falls short of perfection and is
therefore absolutely and ultimately imperfect and evil.”
3. Parables
The word parable is derived from the Greek word parabole and means a comparison or analogy. Jewish teachers had already “developed the classic form of the parable from their religious heritage and cultural experience” (Young 1998:4). In Hebrew a parable is called mashal. “The mashal, or parable, is the most common narrative form the rabbis use in midrash to interpret the Torah.” (Stern 1983:27). It resembles a story, narrating what people do, rather than what they say, yet it is abstract, “not mentioning specific authorities nor placing the action in concrete time and setting nor invoking an authoritative text … a parable ordinarily focuses on wisdom or morality … a parable teaches its lesson explicitly” (Neusner 1998:191).
Most frequently parables were used in sermons in the synagogues. There are about one thousand parables recorded in rabbinic literature which were probably intended for sermons or lessons.
The earliest preserved parables are those found in the Bible. We know of fables that existed before, and they are seen by some as precedents for parables. The Mishna shows us that rabbis believed that the parable “was invented (according to one tradition, by King Solomon) in order to reveal the secrets of the Torah” (Stern 1996:41). This belief is reflected in the following parable about the parable recited by rabbis:
“It is like a king who lost a gold piece in his house, or a valuable gem. Does he not find it by means of a penny candle?
Likewise: Let not the mashal seem trivial in your eyes, for by means of the mashal a man is able to understand the words of Torah.”[11] (ibidem)
Parables can generally be put into one of three categories:
1. the parable as an illustration – helping to grasp a concept
2. the parable as secret speech – deliberately concealing a concept
3. the parable as rhetorical narrative – drawing a parallel between a fictional story and reality.
The second kind of parables started to emerge in the Middle Ages. Stern (1996:44) states that the third kind of parable is the most frequent: “Neither a secret tale with a hidden meaning nor a transparent story with a clear-cut moral, the mashal is a narrative that actively elicits from its audience the application of its message”.
One third of Jesus’s teaching consists of parables and it is therefore of uttermost importance for us to not only try to understand them from our viewpoint, but to understand them in their cultural, historic and linguistic context.
3.1. Structure
Parables have a basic two-part structure – the mashal (narrative) itself and the nimshal (explanation), which gives the listener its context. It usually concludes “with the citation of a prooftext, a Scriptural verse, which itself is reinterpreted in light of the nimshal and the mashal preceding it” (Stern 1983:28).
There is a motivation for the creation of every parable. A rabbi might have had a situation in his community that needed to be addressed and led him to the “invention of a metaphorical tale that opens an insight into the Torah” (Thoma 1989:28). He has a clear religious strategy for bringing out his h8iddush[12] – which we cannot always discern so many years later. What we can determine pretty well is what the listeners understood to be the author’s aim.
The parable itself is made up of six parts[13]:
1. The prolegomenon, which is the introduction to the parable with the aim of building anticipation for what is coming, e.g. “A parable, to what may the matter be compared? To a…”. Jesus often uses the following phrase in His kingdom-parables: “The kingdom of God is like…”.
2. The introduction of the cast, with every character playing an important role, being crucial for the plot. Jesus’s parable of the prodigal son, for example, starts with “A man had two sons.”.
3. The plot of the story, which is the development of the story, leading the listeners to identify with one or more character in the story.
4. The conflict that is often crucial to the story, focusing on a major problem a solution is needed for.
5. The conflict resolution that the author has worked towards, to illustrate its resemblance with real life. Sometimes a parable ends without the resolution, leaving it up to the listener to discover it.
6. The call to decision and/or application the author is ending with, called the nimshal, which is often introduced with the phrase “thus it is also with…”. It is “the major turning point of the parable. Here the storyteller is describing the significance of his or her tale and explaining the central theme” (Young 1998:25). There is a strong connection between the parable itself and the nimshal.
3.2. New Testament Parables
We find twelve narrative parables attributed to Jesus in the synoptic gospels. They can be put into four categories[14] according to their themes:
(1) Jesus’s audience’s reception of His teaching
* The sower – Mt 13:3-23, Mk 4:3-20, Lk 8:5-15
* Children in the marketplace – Mt 11:7-19, Lk 7:24-35
* The marriage feast/banquet – Mt 22:1-14, Lk 14:15-24
* The two sons – Mt 21:28-32
(2) How to prepare for the kingdom of heaven
* The ten talents/minas – Mt 25:14-27, Lk 19:12-27
* The wise and foolish virgins – Mt 25:1-18
(3) God’s behavior regarding those accepting/rejecting His teaching
* The weeds sown by the enemy – Mt 13:24-30
* The laborers in the vineyard – Mt 20:1-16
* The vineyard’s tenants – Mt 21:33-46, Mk 12:1-12, Lk 20:9-19
(4) The proper religious behavior
* The unmerciful servant – Mt 18:23-35
* The rich man and his storehouse – Lk 12:13-21
* The fig tree owner and his steward – Lk 13:6-9
Some parables may be put into more than one category. There are also other ways of categorizing them, e.g. by literary aspects like the kingdom-parables starting with “the kingdom of heaven is like…”.
The following chapter will discuss a parable belonging to the third category:
3.2.1. The Vineyard’s Tenants – Mt 21:33-46, Mk 12:1-12, Lk 20:9-19
This parable is one of two[15] narrative parables we find in all three synoptic gospels plus the apocryphal gospel of Thomas.
After the parable itself, Jesus quotes Psalm 118:22-23. Quoting Scripture after a parable is uncommon in Jesus’s parables[16]. Matthew then adds a nimshal, giving the interpretation of the parable in verse 43: Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. This statement has traditionally be misinterpreted and used to confirm replacement theology[17]. This is very unfortunate, especially since verse 45 makes clear who the tenants in the parable represented: When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus' parables, they knew he was talking about them. The image of the vineyard was commonly understood as representing Israel, the owner therefore being God. Logically the son must represent Jesus, which has commonly been interpreted that way, even though some scholars claim that John the Baptist was meant[18]. However, the tenants do not represent Israel, who must be replaced with Gentiles, but the religious leadership that had rejected God’s prophets and finally even His one and only Son, the Messiah, therefore giving the leadership over to a new group of people, which would be the followers of Christ. The traditional scholar Jeremias puts the parable back into its time and culture and believes “that this original tale reflects the historical resentment felt by Galilean tenant farmers toward their absentee foreign landlords” (Stern in Thoma 1989:53). Young (1989:305) states that Jesus was preparing His disciples to what would happen to Him in Jerusalem and concludes that “this parable is the first allusion made to his death in public ministry”.
4. Bibliography
Cohen, Abraham, Everyman’s Talmud, Schocken Books: New York 1995
Flusser, David, Jewish Sources in
Early Christianity, Adama Books: New York 1987
Neusner, Jacob, Invitation to
Midrash. The Workings of Rabbinic Bible Interpretation, Scholars Press:
Atlanta, GA 1998
Pearl, Chaim, Theology in
Rabbinic Stories, Hendrickson Publishers: Peabody, MA 1997
Stern, David H. (ed.), Fiction.
Rabbinic Fantasy, City College of New York: New York 1983
Stern, David H., Midrash and
Theory. Ancient Jewish Exegesis and Contemporary Literary Studies,
Northwestern University Press: Evanston, IL 1996
Stern, David H., Jewish New Testament Commentary, Jewish
New Testament Publications: Clarksville, ML 1999
Thoma, Clemens and Michael
Wyschogrod (eds.), Parable and Story in Judaism and Christianity,
Paulist Press: New York & Mahwah 1989
Young, Brad H., Jesus and His
Jewish Parables. Rediscovering the Roots of Jesus’ Teaching, Paulist Press:
New York & Mahwah 1989
Young, Brad H., The Parables.
Jewish Tradition and Christian Interpretation, Hendrickson Publishers:
Peabody, MA 1998
[1] Also Peshat, Pashat or Pashot.
[2] For where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there
in the midst of them.
[3] See 2.3. (Mi)Drash.
[4] All
this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet,
saying: “Tell the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your King is coming to you, lowly,
and sitting on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey.’”
[5] He spoke of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, for it was he would
betray Him, being one of the twelve.
[6] See 3. Parables.
[7] “Each chapter in the collection is
devoted to the interpretation of the initial one or two verses in the Torah
reading for the week … and those interpretations are themselves organized in a
special and apparently conventional structure.” (Stern 1996:56).
[8] “Interpretative opinions on
Scripture are presented in the form of a running commentary on the Bible”
(Stern 1996:56)
[9] David Stern (1999:12) however
believes it is remez since “the Son equals the son: the Messiah is equated
with, is one with, the nation of Israel. This is the deep truth Mattityahu is
hinting at by calling Yeshua’s flight to Egypt a ‘fulfillment’ of Hosea 11:1.”
[10] The Greek name for Jesus equals
888.
[11] Stern is quoting Shir Hashirim
Rabbah 1:8.
[12] “The creative idea of the mashal
teller“ (Thoma 1989:29)
[13] Largely taken from Young
(1998:24f).
[14] According to Stern, Jesus’ Parables and Rabbinic Literature,
in Thoma 1989:72.
[15] The other one is the parable of the
sower.
[16] Only the parable of the sower
alludes to Scripture as well. Interestingly both these parable are the only
narrative parables in Mark.
[17] The theology that the Gentile
church replaced Israel after it had rejected and killed Jesus.
[18] Like Malcolm Lowe (Stern in Thoma
1989:66).