Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- 1 What is ‘Midrash’?
- 2 Traditional motifs in early rabbinic exegesis I: Job and the Generation of the Flood
- 3 Traditional motifs in early rabbinic exegesis II: Job and Israel's early history as a nation
- 4 Popular legends and traditions I: the archetypal sage
- 5 Popular legends and traditions II: the archetypal priest-king
- 6 Popular legends and traditions III: the regenerating tree
- 7 The midrashic background for James 2:21–23
- 8 Elements of Near-Eastern mythology in rabbinic Aggadah
- 9 Conclusions
- Appendices
- Select bibliography
- Index of sources
- Index of names
- Index of subjects
1 - What is ‘Midrash’?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 November 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- 1 What is ‘Midrash’?
- 2 Traditional motifs in early rabbinic exegesis I: Job and the Generation of the Flood
- 3 Traditional motifs in early rabbinic exegesis II: Job and Israel's early history as a nation
- 4 Popular legends and traditions I: the archetypal sage
- 5 Popular legends and traditions II: the archetypal priest-king
- 6 Popular legends and traditions III: the regenerating tree
- 7 The midrashic background for James 2:21–23
- 8 Elements of Near-Eastern mythology in rabbinic Aggadah
- 9 Conclusions
- Appendices
- Select bibliography
- Index of sources
- Index of names
- Index of subjects
Summary
In the context of a scholarly study, the question, what is Midrash, may appear to be trivial, if not irrelevant. For more than a century, Midrash has been the subject of intensive and extensive academic study and research. Its language and terminology have been analysed in detail. It has been exhaustively excavated as a mine of information relating to the religious beliefs and attitudes of the talmudic sages and to the political, social and economic conditions in which they lived. In more recent years, a new dimension has been added to the study of Midrash, through literary analysis. The phenomenon of Midrash has captured the attention of literary theorists, who have reinterpreted it in the light of the contemporary theory of intertextuality. Consequently, this ancient corpus of specifically Jewish literature, which represents centuries of development as a living process in the ancient synagogues and school-houses of the Holy Land, retains its place in the forefront of modern scholarly interest.
Yet, despite this considerable and wide-ranging scholarly activity – or perhaps, in some measure, because of it – insufficient attention has been given hitherto, to one or two basic issues relating to the nature and the underlying rationale of the midrashic process. For example, what were the criteria upon which the selection of proemial and proof-texts was based? The early preachers frequently cite verses in support of their statements, or as the basis of a proem, with apparently scant regard for the plain meaning of their chosen text, or of the context from which it was taken.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Midrashic ProcessTradition and Interpretation in Rabbinic Judaism, pp. 1 - 20Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1995