The Sages and Midrash
In his article entitled “Ancient Biblical Interpretation and the Biblical Sage,” James Kugel surveys the development of the interpretation of the Hebrew Bible after the exile and shows the influence that the sages had on its development. The post-exilic condition that ushered in this new wave of biblical interpretation is what Kugel calls the “mode of return” (5). Basically, the dilemma faced by those returning from exile was how to go back to the glorious days.
The interpreters of Scriptures were not only priests or Levites (due the the centrality of the laws) but also wisdom sages. If we read Proverbs, Qohelet, or Job, one of their striking characteristics is that they are quite detached from history. The post-exilic sages, however, went back to the biblical writings and showed how principles of wisdom could be derived from them. Kugel first talks about how previously the sages used the meshalim and then how these teachers of wisdom became teachers of Scripture using Sirach and the Wisdom of Solomon as examples of these “transitional figures” (12).
The meshalim are composed of two parts, A and B. The trick is to see the relationship between them. Proverbs 26:9 is an example:
A thistle got stuck in a drunkard’s hand, and a proverb [mashal] in the mouth of a fool. (his translation)
Kugel is of the opinion that part A of this mashal is probably referring to the staggering of a drunkard since he is depicted several times in the bible as “falling to the ground” (e. g. Isa. 19:14). So “he must have fallen to the ground and, in groping around, thrust his hand into some sort of thorn bush or briar” (8). So “like the drunkard’s thorn, a fool’s proverb has been acquired quite by accident.” This example shows that the reader must think about the proverb carefully to see the relationship between A and B. Other examples are Proverbs 11:22, Qohelet 7:1 and Proverbs 11:10. Check them out!
One of the examples of how the sages were teaching the bible after the exile is Wisdom of Solomon 10:17-19:
She [Wisdom] gave holy men the reward of their labors; she guided them along a marvelous way, and became a shelter to them by day, and a starry flame through the night. She brought them over the Red Sea, and led them through deep waters; but she drowned their enemies, and cast them up from the depth of the sea.
Kugel makes three interesting remarks about how this sage is interpreting the Exodus narrative. The first thing the sage does is to make sure to point out that the spoil (Ex. 12:26) that the Israelites got from Egypt were actually a reward for their labor and not thievery. Secondly, he explains that the purpose of the pillar cloud during the day was to shelter the people from the sun (an explanation Exodus account leaves out). Then he solves an apparent contradiction in Exodus. See if you can detect it:
Pharaoh’s chariots and his host he cast into the sea, and his chosen officers were sunk in the Red Sea. The floods covered them; they went down into the depths like a stone. (Ex. 15:4-5)
Thus the LORD saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. (Ex. 14:30)
Did the Egyptians sink to the bottom or wash up on the shore? “The author’s answer is that they at first sank to the bottom of the see but then they were ‘cast up’ to the shore again to be seen by the Israelites” (15).
Here we see how the activities of the sages were changing. Before they contemplated the world and nature, and now they contemplate Scripture. But like Wisdom of Solomon, “this did not consist merely of understanding scripture and repeating it, but of looking deeply into its words, for God’s teaching were not obvious” (15).
Bibliography
Kugel, James. “Ancient Biblical Interpretation and the Biblical Sage.” In Studies in Ancient Midrash, ed. James Kugel, 1-26. Harvard University Press, 2001.
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