Midrash. (Midrashim) in the Bible.
Midrash is a Jewish hermeneutic based on the word Pardes, usually written PaRDeS which means Orchard.
PaRDeS, an acronym for Pesher – Remez – Daresh – Sod.
Peshat (פְּשָׁט — " Surface )("straight") or the literal (direct) meaning.
(It says what it means and means what it says).
Remez (רֶמֶז) — "hints" or the deep (allegoric: hidden or symbolic)
a meaning that goes beyond just the literal sense.
Daresh ( the comparative – from Hebrew darash: "inquire" ("seek") — the comparative (midrashic) meaning, as given through similar occurrences.
Sod (סוֹד) (pronounced with a long O as in 'lore') — "secret" ("mystery") or the esoteric/mystical meaning, as given through inspiration or revelation.
There are many who reject Midrash as a valid way of interpretation of scripture, however, it was an hermeneutic used by Jesus and the Apostles, especially the Apostle Paul.
“Midrash” is plainly taught in the Word of God.
It is cited as a valid historical source and as a theological source of a prophetic interpretation of scriptural events and biblical history.
In the KJV and the ESV, The word Midrash is translated as “Story”.
2Ch 13:22 And the rest of the acts of Abijah, and his ways, and his sayings, are written in the (Midrash) story of the prophet Iddo.
2 Chronicles 24:27 “As to his sons and many oracles [burdens] against him, and the reconstruction of the House of God, behold these are written in the story (Midrash) [ מִדְרַ֖שׁ ] of the Book of kings. Then Amaziah his son became King in his place”.
The Septuagint translates the first verse 13:22 as “Book” and the second verse 24:27 as “Writing”.
In any event, “Midrash” is found in the Old Testament.
The Apostle Paul aka Rabbi Saul of Tarsus tells us that he was from the Pharisaical School of Hillel, a disciple of Gamaliel (the grandson of Hillel).
Act 22:3 I am verily a man which am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, yet brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, and was zealous toward God, as ye all are this day.
Also, Act 5:34 Then stood there up one in the council, a Pharisee, named Gamaliel, a doctor of the law, had in reputation among all the people, and commanded to put the apostles forth a little space;
While Paul counted efforts to be justified by the Law as “dung“, we see repeatedly the use of his education that would have been largely predicated on the Seven Midoth of Rabbi Hillel. (Hillel's Seven Principles of Bible Interpretation).
Phil 3:8 Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung,(Rubbish) that I may win Christ,
Paul’s ability as a rabbi who had been born again, precisely fulfils the teaching of Jesus as to what happens when a “scribe who has become a disciple of the kingdom of heaven…He brings out of his treasure things new and old”.
Mat 13:52 Then said He (Jesus) unto them, Therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old.
This was also recognised by the Apostle Peter, who understood Paul was better educated than he, to explain more complex doctrinal issues because of his rabbinical teaching.
2Pe 3:15 And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you;
2Pe 3:16 As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.
We see Paul writing midrashically in Galatians 4:21-31. When using an allegory for the two covenants.
Gal 4:21 Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?
Gal 4:22 For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.
Gal 4:23 But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.
Gal 4:24 Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.
Gal 4:25 For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.
Gal 4:26 But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.
Gal 4:27 For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.
Gal 4:28 Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.
Gal 4:29 But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.
Gal 4:30 Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.
Gal 4:31 So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.
These are the scriptural facts.
As hermeneutic, as literary genre, and as prophetic interpretation of history, Midrash is found in and taught in God’s Word.
If rabbis distorted it, it does not make it false. This happens all the time. The Gospel is very often misquoted and falsified but it does not take away the fact that the Gospel is true.
We should not throw the baby out with the bath water.
It is not reasonable to reject the validity of something that is true just because it is counterfeited. It is a poor scholar or teacher who would tell us to do so.
Midrash interprets prophecy as a cyclical pattern of historical recapitulation (prophecies having multiple fulfilment), with an ultimate fulfilment associated with the eschaton, (the end times), which is the final focal point of the redemptive process.
There are different kinds of prophecy in the Bible.
The two kinds that are important in understanding the Last Days are Messianic prophecies and, connected to those, eschatological prophecies.
When we come to consider biblical prophecy, this is very important, because the Western mind, says that prophecy consists solely of a prediction and a fulfilment.
To the ancient Jewish mind, it was not a question of something being predicted, then being fulfilled. Rather, to the ancient Jewish mind, prophecy was a pattern which is recapitulated. In other words cyclical.
We can see from history that prophecy has multiple fulfilments. And each fulfilment, each cycle, teaches something about the ultimate fulfilment.
The ancient Jewish mind that produced the New Testament looks at prophecy, not as prediction, but as pattern.
To understand what is going to happen in the future, you look at what did happen in the past.
Jesus said: Matt 24:37 But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.
Jesus also used the prophecy of Daniel, to explain the abomination of desolation.
Matt 24:15 “Therefore when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place” (whoever reads, let him understand),
There are multiple fulfilments, and each successive fulfilment teaches something about the ultimate one.
However, we should never base doctrines on types and shadows.
We should base doctrines on clearly specified passages, and only use types and shadows to help expound on those doctrines.
E.G. There is one mediator between man and God, the man Christ Jesus.
The doctrine of salvation is based on belief in Jesus Christ the man, the Son of God.
Whilst John the Baptist said behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world.
The truth is that we are not saved through a literal lamb.
This is a metaphor, an allegory, a symbol.
We are saved through the man Christ Jesus who metaphorically speaking is the Lamb of God.
The literal truth (Pesher) is that God manifested Himself in the person of Jesus Christ, who became a sacrifice for sin.
This is what we base doctrine on.
We can explain the deeper meaning by using Remez, a hint, a deeper allegorical meaning.
The Lamb of God that is sacrificed for sin.
Or Daresh, a comparison, something similar.
A gate – a door – The Way, the Truth, the Life.
Or Sod, a mystical meaning, a hidden, secret meaning.
Wonder of all Wonders, that Mystery of all Mysteries, the Incarnation of the Son of God.
Such thinking, the presence of incomprehensibilities and their toleration, is shunned by the rationalist mind, for whom, what is not readily understood through the senses and by the reason cannot be real, or warrant serious attention.
This is a “mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints” (Col 1:26).
In fact the Incarnation is both, something revealed, and yet remaining a mystery.
Paul prays that the Colossian church may “reach all the riches of full understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col 2:3).
The Word of God is like a fruit with many layers, each layer revealing something different.
An Orchard (PaRDeS) with many fruit.
Yet unfathomable.
Eph 3:8 Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;
Incomprehensible riches, boundless, fathomless, incalculable, and exhaustless. Blessings that cannot be measured, riches that are too great to understand fully.
