David Instone-Brewer, Techniques and Assumptions in Jewish Exegesis before 70 CE (Tübingen: Mohr, 1992)
As titled, this book (his PhD Thesis in Cambridge) is about Techniques and Assumptions in Jewish Exegesis before 70 CE. 70 CE is an important date, because when the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed, the Temple-centered Judaism had to be changed. Rabbinic Judaism eventually developed and became the mainstream of Judaism. The author points out that “The exegetical techniques and assumptions used by the Jews of the late Second Temple Period should help us to understand the exegesis of the Old Testament in the New.” (p. 2)
However, Rabbinic Judaism could not be regarded as the Judaism of the New Testament period. In fact, there were JudaismS at that time. To be precise, Rabbinic Judaism adopted the Pharisaic strand of Judaism, but not the Sadducees or the Zealots. And of course, Kabalah mysticism developed after the New Testament times.
David Instone-Brewer clearly distinguishes scribal exegesis and non-scribal exegesis. He adopts an inductive approach. Firstly, he identifies the pre-70 CE works; then, he discusses their exegesis; and then he synthesizes the principles they used. He notes that the scribal exegesis was “nomological” and the non-scribal exegesis was “inspirational.” “Nomological” looks for the plain meaning of the text, and “Inspirational” looks for the hidden meaning of the text.
His conclusion:
“III.4 In conclusion, the differences between the exegesis of the scribes and their contemporaries can be summarised by their approach to Scripture. The scribes regarded Scripture as fixed law while their contemporaries regarded it as living prophecy. This difference resulted in the scribes interpreting Scripture according to its context, without looking for spiritual or secondary meanings, and accepting only one standard text as valid. At the same time, their contemporaries expected new secondary meanings to be revealed, which might be completely independent of the original context. They expected copyists and translators to be inspired so that all versions and text traditions were of equal value.
The distinctions between these two approaches to Scripture began to become blurred and disappear after 70 CE when the rabbis inherited both Nomological and Inspirational principles.” (p. 225)
Lesson learned:
Must be very careful to say “the Jews believed…” The date (before or after 70 CE) and the type of Jews who made such a statement should be examined first.
The book is very rich in content. Unfortunately, there are few examples of how the New Testament used the Hebrew Bible. My interests are: 1. The NT writers seem to be atomistic in quoting the NT; 2. The NT writers seem to have their own definition of how the OT was fulfilled. I still need to explore…
A very helpful article is the Introduction of the Lexham English translation of Strack-Billerbeck, written by David Instone-Brewer. He argues that S-B is helpful for its purpose, i.e., for illustrating sayings, concepts, parables, theological background, and cultural assumptions. However, one needs to be aware of some critical issues, such as the dating of the source and its representativeness. One has to be mindful that most rabbinic literature comes from after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE, and the Judaism that survived was only one strand among many in Jesus’ time. In other words, one should not use S-B to construct a comprehensive Jewish theology as if S-B contains all the Jewish thoughts of Jews throughout all times.