Midrash

Midrash (Hebrew darash, 'to seek, investigate, expound') refers broadly to the Jewish tradition of biblical interpretation that goes beyond the literal sense of the text to find meanings relevant to the community's ongoing situation. As a literary genre, midrash falls into two main types: halakic midrash, which derives legal rulings from scriptural texts (as in the Mekilta on Exodus, the Sifra on Leviticus), and haggadic midrash, which draws homiletical, narrative, and devotional content from Scripture (as in Genesis Rabbah and Leviticus Rabbah). The midrashim were compiled from the third through seventh centuries AD but drew on interpretive traditions much older.

Understanding midrash is important for NT studies because several NT passages employ interpretive techniques paralleled in Jewish midrash: Paul's allegorical reading of Hagar and Sarah (Gal. 4:21-31), the chain of OT testimonia in Romans 9-11, and the typological readings in Hebrews 7-10 all share characteristics with contemporaneous Jewish exegetical practice. The difference is that NT 'midrash' finds its interpretive key in the Christ-event, reading the OT as a unified narrative leading to and illuminated by Jesus's life, death, and resurrection. This christological reading was not invented ex nihilo but drew on existing Jewish methods of scriptural interpretation while radically recentering them around the person of Christ. Recognition of midrashic technique helps explain why NT authors use OT texts in ways that sometimes seem foreign to modern grammatical-historical exegesis.