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Biblical Exegesis in the Apostolic Period

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The use of OT in the NT is of major importance in studying the hermeneutical practice of the biblical authors. Longenecker systematically presents the foundational and relevant information necessary for all the NT students.It covers the Jewish background like Midrash, Pesher, and allegory etc. It also includes how Jesus, Paul, and the early Christians preachings uses the OT. Particluarly helpful to me is the session on Paul in which Longenecker listed Paul's quotation of the OT and then traces his exegetical techniques back to the Hebrew roots. I consider these basics for any work on NT exegesis which takes seriously the continutiy between the NT and the OT.

If you've had enough of critics shoving the ignorant rantings of Thomas Paine, Robert Ingersoll, Jim Lippard, Dennis McKinsey, and so on in your face on the topic of the New Testament's use of the Old, then you can scramble their brains once and for all with this detailed thunderclap provided by Richard Longenecker. The aforementioned skeptics complain violently about how the NT authors supposedly misused and twisted the OT for their own purposes. Longenecker shows that such complaining is simply anachronistic -- the NT writers were interpreting and explicating within an established paradigm and methodology consistent with Jewish hermeneutics of the period, as evidenced in the works of the rabbis, Philo, and the Qumranites.

This hermenuetic did not sit simply with the literal reading of the text, but assumed a fuller sense that could be unlocked by events of the day. The twin principles of corporate solidarity and typological correspondence are a key here, and while Western, wooden minds will scoff nevertheless, the charge that the NT writers manipulated the texts for their own purposes is thereby destroyed.

The simple-minded literalism of the Paines will take a beating from the details provided in Biblical Exegesis in the Apostolic Period.

Everyone interested in biblical studies should have a copy of this book.

By the time of Second Temple Judaism, scriptures, whether written or oral, were regarded as having been divinely inspired. "Jewish exegesis of the first century can generally be clasified under four headings: literalist, midrashic, pesher, and allegorical" (p 28), with midrashic exegesis more usual than literalist.

Also worth noting about Judaism around the time of Christ is the fact that the Jews were likely "bi and probably tri-lingual" (p 64) in Palestine. Although there were various kinds of Judaism, all Jews were expected to recite the Shema, which declared the monotheism of Judaism, every day.

Early Christianity sought out correspondences in history. Pesher interpretation is also common. The "'Servant Song' while never accepted by Judaism to be applicable to the Messiah, could very well have been fixed quite early in Christian thought, stemming from Jesus' own reinterpretation of the passage" (p 102).

Paul mentions some one hundred Old Testament passages. Although Paul usually follows the original meaning of the texts, in some instances he find new historical or eschatological fulfilments.

Of course, all the gospels are drenched in Old Testament references. Notable especially is the new use of typology.

A classic reference book.

At one point in this great work, the author quotes another researcher, "it is doubtful whether we can hope to understand the contents of any mind whose presuppositions we have not yet learned to recognize." This is the key to any hermeneutic. Until we understand the presuppositions of the authors, we cannot hope to truly understand the message they wanted to convey. We can learn those presuppositions by observing how they use the texts of scripture that preceded them and taking into account the hermeneutical context in which they were trained. The study of writings like the dead sea scrolls (see also, The Modern Scholar: The Dead Sea Scrolls: The Truth behind the Mystique) have given us a great deal of insight into the exegetical methods of second-temple Judaism. We are remiss if we do not take advantage of that scholarship in understanding the new testament writings. Reducing the texts to the lifeless literalism of historical-criticism, for instance, will lead us down a path away from the original authors' mindset. In addition to the peculiarities of second-temple Jewish hermeneutics, we need to remember the context of the effects of the incarnation and resurrection. Whether those events are believed as truth by the one attempting to glean meaning from the scriptures - it must be accepted that the writers of those texts believed the events had occurred as recorded. Understanding the mindset of these writers in the context of having seen a risen Christ will alter how we interpret what they wrote. It is not enough to study the works of scripture in the context of history and philology and claim we are following only scientific methods. It is not scientific to ignore the context in which the authors were writing - the context of their faith in a risen savior and the context of a community of others with the same faith.

This is a must-have work for any seeking to truly understand the new testament in the most complete context possible. Very well done and with plenty of examples from scripture to illustrate the concepts it contains. A must have for any student of exegetical methods.

For years I had wondered why the New Testament writers didn't always quote the Old Testament in a literal and exact manner, but were somewhat more flexible, sometimes even creative with the text. This comprehensive book explains why this is. The author analyses all the quotations and finds four different types - literal and allegorical (both of these terms mean pretty much what they say), Midrash (using interpretive rules which Jewish scholars had worked out, and which result in often loose and non-literal interpretations) and Pesher (in which the writing is re-interpreted in the light of later events - in this case, mostly the coming of Jesus). It turns out that literal is not the most common way of interpreting - Jesus tends to use Pesher the most, and Paul tends to use Midrash.

The book is very useful in understanding that truth does not always have to be expressed in literal forms - an obvious thing, but sometimes forgotten by Bible students. The last chapter addresses the very interesting question of what all this has to say about how we interpret the Bible today - can we also use these creative approaches? Unfortunately, the author doesn't really come to grips with this question (possibly not surprising since it is an academic book).

There's a lot of detail in this book which will be useful for reference. I heartily recommend it for anyone who wants to better understand the Old Testament in the light of the New.