A HISTORY of BIBLICAL INTERPRETATION

volume 1 The Ancient Period

William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company

Copyright © 2003 Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8028-4273-2

Contents

Preface........................................................................................................................................viiAbbreviations..................................................................................................................................xi1. Introduction and Overview Alan J. Hauser and Duane F. Watson...............................................................................12. Inner-Biblical Exegesis in the Tanak Esther Menn...........................................................................................553. Hebrew Into Greek: Interpretation In, By, and Of the Septuagint Leonard Greenspoon.........................................................804. Philo of Alexandria as Exegete Peder Borgen................................................................................................1145. Biblical Interpretation in the Dead Sea Scrolls Philip R. Davies...........................................................................1446. Interpretation of Scripture in the Targumim Martin McNamara................................................................................1677. Rabbinic Midrash Gary G. Porton............................................................................................................1988. The Stabilization of the Tanak James A. Sanders............................................................................................2259. The Interpretation of the Tanak in the Jewish Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha James H. Charlesworth...........................................25310. Interpreting Israel's Scriptures in the New Testament Donald H. Juel......................................................................28311. The Apostolic Fathers and the Apologists Joseph Trigg.....................................................................................30412. Alexandrian and Antiochene Exegesis Frances Young.........................................................................................33413. Jerome and the Vulgate Dennis Brown.......................................................................................................35514. Augustine and the Close of the Ancient Period of Interpretation Richard A. Norris, Jr.....................................................38015. The Formation of the New Testament Canon and Its Significance for the History of Biblical Interpretation Harry Gamble.....................40916. The Interpretation of Scripture in the New Testament Apocrypha and Gnostic Writings Craig A. Evans........................................430Contributors...................................................................................................................................457Index of Ancient and Modern Authors............................................................................................................458Index of Subjects..............................................................................................................................466Index of Primary Sources.......................................................................................................................518

Chapter One

Introduction and Overview

Alan J. Hauser and Duane F. Watson

This introductory discussion presents an overview and summary of key topics important to the early history of biblical interpretation. The reader is referred to the subsequent chapters in this volume for more extensive discussions.

THE BEGINNINGS OF INTERPRETATION

The history of biblical interpretation begins at that unknown point in time when the first biblical traditions were created ("biblical traditions" is used here to mean any materials, such as laws, stories, sayings, pieces of poetry, hymns, oracles, etc. that subsequently found their way, after incorporation into larger bodies of material, into the biblical text as we now have it). Such creation of necessity involves a deliberate focusing on particular elements chosen from the broader experience of life, such as major events, significant laws, important customs and practices, special clan and tribal affiliations, etc. Furthermore, no tradition can embrace and embody all elements and vantage points of the subject it treats. What is selected in this creative process will be a direct result of the perspectives, social mores, religious beliefs, hopes and fears, and political and economic needs of the person or community that does the creating. Thus, interpretation is already under way.

The next step in the interpretive process comes when these created units are passed on from one generation or group to another. Admittedly, the mere passing on of traditions may not appear to be an act of interpretation, since transmission does not necessarily imply an intent to modify or reformulate. Nevertheless, even in clearly neutral contexts for transmission, where there is no conscious desire to alter or emend the tradition(s) received, the transmitters will nevertheless place their own, or their group's, particular perspective onto the material being transmitted, often without being aware that such a shift in perspective is occurring. That is interpretation, and it can occur either early in the long process of transmission, when the form is more likely to be oral, or later in the process, when the transmission is more likely to be written. Furthermore, those transmitting the traditions were, in many cases, quite intentionally altering the material they had received to make it suit their own purposes. They would not have seen anything questionable or improper in their doing so.

It is only human nature for any person receiving and conveying important traditions to view them from a perspective that most clearly makes sense in the context of that person's particular religious, cultural, social, economic, and intellectual milieu, which often will not be the same as the milieu presumed earlier by the person or group that created or previously transmitted the tradition(s). The new person or group's own milieu quite understandably becomes, in this context, the only important perspective at that point in time for understanding the materials received. For example, the motif of the exodus experience, including the various traditions and reflections associated with it, would of necessity have been viewed quite differently by a returnee to Palestine after 538 BCE than by a citizen of Solomon's kingdom. Both would have possessed the same essential core to the tradition, namely, the deliverance from Egypt, but each would have seen the shape, significance, and implications of the traditions in quite different ways.

Another example would be the stories in Daniel 1–6. Presuming, as most scholars do, that these stories existed in some earlier form before they were incorporated into the current book of Daniel, it is clear that their emphasis on avoiding idolatry, observing the kosher food laws, and overcoming the evil plotting of dictators and vengeful enemies of the Jews necessarily took on a new and more profound meaning in light of the murderous actions of Antiochus Epiphanes and his cohorts beginning in 168 BCE. So powerful were the reinterpretation and reapplication of those traditions that we today can do little but speculate concerning the focus of these stories in their earlier...