Biblical Hermeneutics

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PRINCIPLES OF BIBLICAL HERMENETICS ; M. M. NINAN These thirty-two rules are united in the so-called Baraita of R. Eliezer b. Jose HaGelili. In the introduction to the Midrash ha-Gadole, where this baraita is given, it contains thirty-three rules. Rule 29 being divided into three, and rule 27 being omitted. Dates of the rules All the hermeneutic rules scattered through the Talmudim and Midrashim have been collected by Malbim in Ayyelet HaShachar, the introduction to his commentary on the Sifra, and have been reckoned at 613, to correspond with the 613 commandments. The antiquity of the rules can be determined only by the dates of the authorities who quote them; in general, they cannot safely be declared older than the tanna to whom they are first ascribed. It is certain, however, that the seven middot of Hillel and the 13 of rabbi Ishmael are earlier than the time of Hillel himself, who was the first to transmit them. At all events, he did not invent them, but merely collected them as current in his day, though he possibly amplified them. The Talmud itself gives no information concerning the origin of the middot, although the Geonim regarded them as Sinaitic למשה מסיני)‏ ‏,הלכה "Law given to Moses at Mount Sinai"; comp. rabbi Samson of Chinon in his Sefer HaKeritot). The middot seem to have been laid down first as abstract rules by the teachers of Hillel, though they were not immediately recognized by all as valid and binding. Different schools interpreted and modified them, restricting or expanding them, in various ways. Rules of Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Ishmael Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Ishmael and their scholars especially contributed to the development or establishment of these rules. Rabbi Akiva Ben Joseph Akiva ben Joseph (ca.40–ca.137 CE), widely known as Rabbi Akiva (Hebrew: רבי עקיבא ), was a tanna of the latter part of the 1st century and the beginning of the 2nd century (3rd tannaitic generation). Rabbi Akiva was a leading contributor to the Mishnah and Midrash Halakha. He is 31
PRINCIPLES OF BIBLICAL HERMENETICS ; M. M. NINAN referred to in the Talmud as "Rosh la-Chachamim" (Head of all the Sages). He is considered by tradition to be one of the earliest founders of rabbinical Judaism. Akiva devoted his attention particularly to the grammatical and exegetical rules, while Ishmael developed the logical. The rules laid down by one school were frequently rejected by another because the principles which guided them in their respective formulations were essentially different. Rabbi Ishmael or Ishmael ben Elisha (90-135 AD)was a Tanna of the 1st and 2nd centuries. A Tanna is a rabbinic sage whose views are recorded in the Mishnah. It is to Rabbi Ishmael that we owe the “Thirteen Rules of Interpretation” that we recite in our daily prayers. Rabbi Akiva and he are called “the fathers of the world.” Both of them were very experienced in medicine. They traveled together often across the country and healed sicknesses. Superfluity in the text According to Akiva, the divine language of the Torah is distinguished from the speech of men by the fact that in the former no word or sound is superfluous. He established two principles broadening the scope of the rule of his teacher Nahum of Gimzo, who had declared that אך , as were inclusive and certain others, such ‏,או , and גם certain particles, like were exclusive. These two principles are: את 32 ‏,מן and רק "one inclusion added to another is equivalent to an (= אין רבוי אחר רבוי אלא למעט • exclusion"; Sifra, Ẓaw, Pereḳ, 11 [ed. I.H. Weiss, p. 34d]) 17a) "words are amplifications"; Jerusalem Talmud Shabbat xix. (= לשונות רבויין הן • Hence he interprets the following forms of expression as amplifications: an infinitive before a finite verb, e.g., הכרת תכרת (Sanhedrin 64b); the doubling of a word, e.g., איש איש (Yeb. 71a); and the repetition of a term by a synonym, e.g., ודבר ואמר (Jerusalem Talmud Soṭah viii. 22b). Ishmael, on the contrary, lays down the principle, "the Torah speaks in the language of men"; תורה כלשון בני אדם דברה Sifre, Num. 112 . After all, the purpose of revealing is to make known. How can it be done without a common language? Since there are many nations and many languages, God chose the nation of Israel and their language to speak to mankind with the intention that it will be translated to the languages of all the nations. "Go ye and preach the gospel to all creation." [Sifre (Hebrew: סִפְרֵ‏ י ; siphrēy, Sifre, Sifrei, also, Sifre debe Rab or Sifre Rabbah) refers to either of two works of Midrash halakhah, or classical Jewish legal <strong>Biblical</strong> exegesis, based on the biblical books of Bamidbar (Numbers) and Devarim (Deuteronomy).]
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Prof. Madathilparampil Mammen Ninan
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Life, Legacy and the Theology of Dr
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