Reform Judaism and the influence of "modern civilization"

Today we accept as binding only its moral laws and maintain only such ceremonials as elevate and sanctify our lives, but reject all such as are not adapted to the views and habits of modern civilization. We hold that all such Mosaic and Rabbinical laws as regulate diet, priestly purity and dress originated in ages and under the influence of ideas altogether foreign to our present mental and spiritual state. We recognize Judaism as a progressive religion, ever striving to be in accord with the postulates of reason.

from the Pittsburgh Platform adopted by the Reform movement in the United States

in Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1997) 53.

Reform Judaism and the application of the Law

A law, even though divine, is potent only so long as the conditions and circumstances of life, to meet which it was enacted, continue; when these change, however, the law also must be abrogated, even though it have God for its author. For God himself has shown indubitably that with the change of the circumstances and conditions of life for which He once gave those laws, the laws themselves cease to be operative, that they shall be observed no longer because can be observed no longer.

Samuel Holdheim, the first rabbi of the Reform congregation in Berlin, 1845

in Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1997) 53.

Role of Tradition in Jewish Exegesis

R. Eliezer says: If they had not brought the circumcision knife on the eve of Sabbath it may be brought openly on the Sabbath; and in time of danger a man may cover it up in the presence of witnesses. R. Eliezer said moreover: They may cut wood [on the Sabbath] to make charcoal in order to forge an iron implement. R. Akiba laid down a general rule: Any act of work that can be done on the eve of Sabbath does not override the Sabbath, but what cannot be done on the eve of the Sabbath overrides the Sabbath.

Shabbat: 19

A Brief History of Interpretation

A very helpful summary of the history of biblical interpretation by Dr. Thomas Long...

http://community.tncc.edu/faculty/longt/REL200/intro-comp-interp.htm

Allegory of the Fish

The Allegory of 153 Fish, John 21:11 (Compiled by Mark Moore)

The number 153 has had a number of allegorical interpretations attached to it, none of which appear valid:

(1) There were supposedly 153 varieties of fish in the Sea of Galilee. Thus, this is a veiled reference to Mt 13:47-48, showing that all kinds of people will be saved. This estimate comes from Oppian via Jerome. However, Jerome is somewhat "loose" in his counting of Oppian's categories. Besides that, Oppian wrote c. 176-180 and therefore can not adequately account for John's usage of 153.

(2) The total represents the sum of all the numbers from 1-17. 17 = 10 commandments plus the 7 gifts of the Spirit. Or, according to R. Grant, "'One Hundred Fifty-Three Large Fish' (John 21:11)," Harvard Theological Review 42 (1949): 273-75, there are seven Apostles present at the catch and ten who received the Holy Spirit (John 20:24). Thus, 153 functions here as 144,000 does in Revelation 7:4 to represent all God's redeemed.

(3) Peter's name in Hebrew, Simon Iona, numerically is 153.

(4) 153 = 100 (Gentiles) + 50 (Jews) + 3 (Trinity).

(5) The Hebrew word for Mt. Pisgah has a numerical value of 153. This shows how Jn 21 is Jesus farewell adress to the leaders of the New Israel, just like Moses' (cf. Num 11:16-25; 27:17). (O. T. Owens, "One Hundred and Fifty Three Fishes," ExpT 100 (1988): 52-54.)

(6) The Hebrew for "The Children of God" has a numerical value of 153. Hence, Jn 21 is a reference to the new "children of God." (J. A. Romeo, "Gematria and John 21:11--The Children of God," JBL 97/2 (1978): 263-64.)

(7) The 153 fish in the net, plus the one that Jesus had cooked = 154 fish. This matches the numeric value of of the Greek word "day," which was one of the titles for Jesus in the early church. (K. Cardwell, "The Fish on the Fire: Jn 21:9" ExpT 102 (1990): 12-14.)

(8) 153 is gematriacal Atbash. If you reverse the numerical value of the Hebrew Alphabet, then take the numbers 70, 3, and 80, you get the Greek letters "I," "X," and "Th." These are the first three letters of the Greek word "fish" which was, of course, a significant symbol in early Christianity. This word was an accrostic for early Christians which signified: "Jesus Christ, God, Son, Savior." (Cf. N. J. McEleney, "153 Great Fishes [John 21:11]--Gematriacal Atbash," Biblica 58 [1977]: 411-17).

Stop Sign Exegesis

Hermeneutics in Everyday Life (from Playing With Fire, Walt Russell, page 49)

Suppose you’re traveling to work (on an east-west road) and you see a stop sign. What do you do? That depends on how you exegete the stop sign:

1. A postmodernist deconstructs the sign (that is, knocks it over with his car) ending forever the tyranny of the north-south traffic over the east-west traffic.

2. Similarly, a Marxist sees a stop sign as an instrument of class conflict. He concludes that the bourgeoisie use the north-south road and obstruct the progress of the workers on the east-west road.

3. A serious and educated Catholic believes that he cannot understand the stop sign apart from its interpretive community and their tradition. Observing that the interpretive community doesn’t take it too seriously, he doesn’t feel obligated to take it too seriously either.

4. An average Catholic (or Orthodox or Anglican or Methodist or Presbyterian or Coptic or whoever) doesn’t bother to read the sign, but he’ll stop if the car in front of him does.

5. A fundamentalist, taking the text very literally, stops at the stop sign and waits for it to tell him to go.

6. A preacher might look up “STOP” in his lexicon and discover that it can mean: 1) something which prevents motion, such as a plug for a drain, or a block of wood that prevents a door from closing; or, 2) a location where a train or bus lets off passengers. The big idea of his sermon the next Sunday on this text is: “When you see a stop sign, it is a place where traffic is naturally clogged, so it is a good place to let off passengers from your car.”

7. An orthodox Jew takes another route to work that doesn’t have a stop sign so that he doesn’t risk disobeying the Law.

Philo

Let us follow him from the beginning in his book “On the Allegories of the sacred Laws.” “It would,” he tells us, “be a sign of great simplicity to think that the world was created in six days or indeed at all in time.” Six, therefore, is only mentioned because it is a perfect number, being the first which is produced by the multiplication of two unequal factors. On the seventh day God did not “rest,” but, having desisted from the creation of mortal creatures, began the formation of more divine beings; and the word should be rendered “He cause to rest.” Nature delights in the number seven. There are seven stars in the Bear, seven parts of the soul, seven viscera, seven limbs, seven secretions, seven vowels, seven tones of the voice, seven strings to the lyre; and by God’s “causing to rest” on the seventh day is meant that when reason “which is holy according to the number has entered into the soul, the number six is then arrested, and all the mortal things which this number appears to make.” By “the green herb of the field” Moses means “that portion of the mind which is perceptible only by intellect.” The verse “God did not rain upon the earth,” means that God did not shed the perceptions of things upon the senses. To take literally the words “God planted a Paradise in Eden” is impiety; “let not such fabulous nonsense even enter our minds.” The meaning is that God implants terrestrial virtue in the human race. The tree of life is that most general virtue which some people call goodness. Its four heads are the cardinal virtues. Pheison is derived from pheidomai “I spare,” and means prudence, and being an illustrious virtue it is said to compass the whole land of Evilat where there is gold. The name Gihon means “chest” or an animal which attacks with its horns, and therefore stands for courage, and it compasses Ethiopia or humiliation; in other words, it makes hostile demonstrations against cowardice. Tigris is temperance; the name is connected with a tiger because it resolutely opposes desire. Euphrates means fertility and stands for justice. Again, Pheison means “change of the mouth,” and Evilat “bringing forth,” which is an appropriate name for folly which always aims at the unattainable, and is destroyed by prudence manifested by speaking, i.e. by the changing of the mouth! The carbuncle and emerald of the land of Evilat stand for Judah and Issachar. The Euphrates does not mean the river, but the correction of manners. The literal statement that God cast Adam into a deep sleep and made Eve of one of his ribs is fabulous; the meaning is that God took the power which dwells in the outwards senses, and led it to the mind. The serpent means pleasure, which leads Philo into a long disquisition about the rod of Moses, and the tribe of Dan. Dan means “temperance” though he is the son of Bilhah, which means imbibing; he is a serpent in the path that is in the soul; he bites the heels of the horse, because “passion has four legs as a horse has,” and is an impetuous beast and full of insolence, and the soul which is the rider of this horse falls backwards, i.e. falls from the passions when they have been wounded.

Frederic W. Farrar, History of Interpretation, Bampton Lectures 1885 (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1961), 143-144.

Jewish Hermeneutics

R. Simeon says, “He who is going along the way and repeating [his Torah tradition] but interrupts his repetition and says, ‘How beautiful is that tree! How beautiful is that ploughed field!’—Scripture reckons it to him as if he has become liable for his life.”

Abot, 3:7, C

Application

He would say, “Anyone whose deeds are more than his wisdom—his wisdom will endure. And anyone whose wisdom is more than his deeds—his wisdom will not endure.

Abot 3:9, II

Jewish Hermeneutics

R. Eleazar Hisma says, “The laws of bird offerings and the beginning of a woman’s menstruation period—they are indeed the essentials of the Torah. Calculations of the equinoxes and reckoning the numerical value of letters are the savories of wisdom.

Abot, 3:18

Jewish Hermeneutics

R. Aqiba says, “Laughter and lightheadedness turn lewdness into a habit. Tradition is a fence for the Torah. Tithes are a fence for wealth. Vows are a fence for abstinence. A fence for wisdom is silence.”

Abot, 3:13

Application

R. Ishmael, his son, says, “He who learns so as to teach—they give him a chance to learn and to teach. He who learns so as to carry out his teachings—they give him a chance to learn, to teach, to keep, and to do.” R. Sadoq says, “Do not make [Torah teachings] a crown with which to glorify yourself or a spade with which to dig. (So did Hillel say [M. 1:13], “He who uses the crown perishes.”) “Thus have you learned: Whoever derives worldly benefit from teachings of Torah takes his life out of this world.”

Abot 4:5

Application

There are four sorts among those who go to the study house: he who goes but does not carry out [what he learns]—he has at least the reward for the going. He who practices but does not go [to study]—he has at least the reward for the doing. He who both goes and practices—he is truly pious. He who neither goes nor practices—he is truly wicked.

Abot 5:14 V

Attitude of the Reader

There are four traits among those who sit before the sages: a sponge, a funnel, a strainer, and a sifter. A sponge—because he sponges everything up; a funnel—because he takes in on one side and lets out on the other; a strainer—for he lets out the wine and keeps in the lees; and a sifter—for he lets out the flour and keeps in the finest flour.

Abot 5:15

Philo

And God says, he “who slays Cain shall suffer sevenfold” (Gen. 4:15). But I do not know what analogy this real meaning of this expression bears to the literal interpretation of it, “He shall suffer sevenfold.” For he has not said what is to be sevenfold, nor has he described the sort of penalty, nor by what means such penalty is excused or paid. Therefore, one must suppose all these things are said figuratively and allegorically; and perhaps what God means to set before us here is something of this sort. The irrational part of the soul is divided into seven parts, the senses of seeing, of smelling, of hearing, of tasting, and of touch, the organs of speech, and the organs of generation. If, therefore, any one were to slay the eighth, that is to say, Cain, the ruler of them all, he would also paralyze all the seven. (Det. 166b-168b).

Philo in Bruce Corley, Biblical Hermeneutics (Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 2002), 62.

Philo's Rules of Interpretation

(From Gary Hall, Lincoln Christian Seminary)
1. The literal sense is excluded if: the statement is unworthy of God, There is a contradiction, or the allegory is obvious.
2. The literal and allegorical sense can be used side by side when: an expression is repeated, a word is superfluous, there is an apparent tautology, there is a change of expression.
3. Words may be explained apart from their punctuation, especially if there is a contradiction.
4. Use of synonyms implies allegory.
5. Plays on words are permissible to get the deeper sense.
6. Particles, adverbs, and prepositions may be given all their meanings in one context; words may be altered; an unusual expression means something mystical.
7. All numbers and names of places that have etymologies are symbols for moral and spiritual things.

Philo

Consider how he handled Gen. 2:14 (A river flowed through Eden and watered the garden. From there the river branched out to become four rivers). He determined that the Edenic River represented goodness, while the other four represented the four great virtues of Greek philosophy – prudence, temperance, courage, and justice. In other words, the number four in the biblical text suggested to him four items from Greek philosophy.

William Klein, Introduction to Biblical Interpretation (Dallas: Word, 1993), 26.

Pesher

And God told Habakkuk to write down that which would happen to the final generation, but He did not make known to him when time would come to an end. And as for that which he said, That he who reads may read it speedily (Hab. 2:2b). Interpreted [pesher] this concerns the Teacher of Righteousness, to whom God made known all the mysteries of the words of his servants the Prophets. For there shall be yet another vision concerning the appointed time. It shall tell of the end and it shall not lie (Hab. 2:3a). Interpreted [pesher], this means that the final age shall be prolonged, and shall exceed all that the prophets have said; for the mysteries of God are astounding. If it tarries, wait, for it shall surely come and shall not be late (Hab. 2:3b). Interpreted [pesher], this concerns the men of truth who keep the Law, whose hands shall not slacken in the service of truth when the final age is prolonged. For all the ages of God read the appointed end as he determines for them in the mysteries of His wisdom (1 QpHab vi 12b-vii 14).

In Bruce Corley, Biblical Hermeneutics (Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 2002), 64-65.

Irenaeus

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 the explanation of everything which is the coming the Son of God as man. But when it is read 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.”

Irenaeus, Against Heresies 4.26.1 in Dan McCartney, Let the Reader Understand (Bridge Point, 1994), 86.

Hillel's Rules

Hillel’s Rules of Interpretation (From Gary Hall, Lincoln Christian Seminary)
1. A meaning applied to a lesser case will certainly apply to a more important case. (Qal wahomer)
2. Verbal analogy from one verse to another. The same consideration can be given to same words in different verses. (Gezerah shawah)
3. Building up a family from a single text. The same phrase found in several texts allows the consideration given to it in one place to apply to all. (Binyan ab mikathub ‘ehad)
4. Building up a family from two texts. A principle derived from relating two passages together can be applied to others. (Binyan ab mishene kethubim)
5. The general and the particular. A general rule may be restricted in application by another verse, or conversely, a particular rule may be extended to a general principle. (Kelal upherat)
6. A difficulty in one text may be solved by comparing it with another that is similar. (Kayoze bo bemaqom ‘aher)
7. A meaning may be established by its context. (Dabar halarned me’inyano)