Biblical Hermeneutics

PRINCIPLES OF BIBLICAL HERMENETICS ; M. M. NINAN
Again, the four rivers of Paradise represent the four great kingdoms of the world: Pishon is
Babylon, after Hab. i. 8—the land of Havilah which it compasses being Israel that watcheth
for ( ) the Lord (Ps.xlii. 6) and has the gold of the Law. Gihon is Media, the home of
Haman, the serpent-like crawler ( , Gen. iii. 14); Hiddekel is the Seleucidmonarchy with its
sharp ( ) and rapid ( ) anti-Jewish legislation; Euphrates (Perat) is Rome the destroyer
( ), the wine-press ( , Isa. lxiii. 3) of the Lord (Gen. R. xvi. 4). Such technical matters
as the precepts concerning clean animals are also covered by allegorization; but it must
never for a moment be forgotten that throughout Palestinian allegorism the literal word of the
Law is endowed with complete reality, and any allegorical meaning found in it is always
secondary to the import of its literal sense and does not in any way displace it. Thus in Lev.
xi. 4-8, "the camel" means Babylon "because he cheweth the cud," for the Babylonians praise
God (Dan. iv. 34); "and the coney," that is Media, because the Medians likewise praise God;
"and the hare because he cheweth the cud," that means Greece, for Alexander the Great
praised God; "and the swine," that is Edom (Rome); "he cheweth not the cud," he not alone
praiseth not God but curseth and blasphemeth Him (Lev. R. xiii. 5). The preceding examples
of Palestinian allegory were concerned with Israel and its history; but there are also many
ethical doctrines in the form of allegories, though perhaps they are not so numerous as the
preceding species. Thus, for instance, R. Johanan explains the passage, Num. xxi. 27:
"Wherefore they that speak in proverbs say," so as to refer to those who control their
passions ( ); "come into Heshbon," is interpreted as "let us estimate [ ] the good
and the bad and weigh them against each other." "Let it be built and set up," "if thou doest
thus, measuring good and evil, thou shalt be built up and established in this world and in the
world to come," etc. (B. B. 78b). The whole is interesting inasmuch as it shows that the
allegorization of Biblical proper names was by no means exclusively the characteristic of
Alexandrian allegorism; the Palestinians were very fond of it, as shown by their interpretation
of the genealogical lists in Chronicles, fragments of which have found their way into the
Talmud, Meg. 13b, B. B. 91b, Sifre Num. 78, and Ruth R. repeatedly.
Of anagogic allegory—which, according to Origen, was a favorite mode among the Jews in the
interpretation of the Song of Songs especially—there are but very few specimens in rabbinical
literature. Thus a passage in PirḲe R. El. xxi., the close relationship of which with Gnostic
ideas has been demonstrated by Ginzberg ("Monatsschrift," 1899, 224), in commenting on
Gen. iii. 3, interprets the sin of paradise as being sensual gratification.
The Targums.
Allegory in the Targums is hardly different from that of the Midrash. Onkelos is almost
entirely free from it, though he occasionally uses it, as on Gen. xlix.; the Palestinian Targums
frequently make use of it. The Targum to the Prophets, especially that upon Isaiah,
frequently employs allegory. The Targum to the Song of Solomon is an allegorical Midrash in
itself, preserved in part in the Midrash Rabbah upon the book.
Rashi and Ibn Ezra.
Even those two prominent defenders of literal interpretation (peshaṭ), Rashi and Ibn Ezra,
also at times succumbed to the influence of allegorical exposition. This is especially true
concerning the Song of Solomon, which is interpreted allegorically by both writers, although
in varying fashion. Rashi, the head of the French school of exegesis, sees in the book, like
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