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

Humility

R. Levitas of Yabneh says, “Be exceedingly humble, for the hope of humanity is the worm.”

Abot 4:4, A.

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

Authority of Scripture

The phrase “authority of scripture” can make Christian sense only if it is a shorthand for “the authority of the triune God, exercised somehow through scripture.”

N.T. Wright, The Last Word (San Francisco: Harper, 2005), 23.

Use of the OT in the NT

“…A very conservative count discloses unquestionably at least 295 separate references to the Old Testament. These occupy some 352 verses of the New Testament, or more than 4.4 percent. Therefore one verse in 22.5 of the New Testament is a quotation.” When you take OT allusions into account “it can therefore be asserted, without exaggeration, that more than 10 percent of the New Testament text is made up of citations or direct allusions to the Old Testament…278 different OT verses are cited in the New Testament: 94 from the Pentateuch, 99 from the Prophets, and 85 from the Writings. Out of the 22 books in the Hebrew reckoning of the canon only six (Judges-Ruth, Song, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Ezra-Nehemiah, and Chronicles) are not explicitly referred to.”

Roger Nicole in Roy B. Zuck ed., Rightly Divided (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1996), 183-184.

Translation

Every translation is a messianic act, which brings redemption nearer.

Franz Rosenzweig in Eugene Peterson, Eat This Book (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006), 119.