Pre-Reformation History of Biblical Hermeneutics: Part III

Having finished looking at the hermeneutics of Ezra and the scribes, what remains in this pre-reformation history is a period of 1400 years. The question posed at the end of part II of this series was “Will the religious leaders, church fathers, and medieval theologians of this era maintain the same hermeneutical preciseness exemplified in Nehemiah 9?”

A few decades before the birth of Christ, two rabbis come on the scene. Hillel and Shammai both lived during the reign of King Herod, from 37 B.C. to 4 B.C. Sadly, it was their differing character traits and perspectives (rather than holding to unchangeable Biblical standards) on the Roman occupation that led to their differing hermeneutics. “Shammai was concerned that if Jews had too much contact with the Romans, the Jewish community would be weakened, and this attitude was reflected in his strict interpretation of Jewish law. Hillel did not share Shammai's fear and therefore was more liberal in his view of law.” [1]

Another more serious issue arose a few centuries before, and it affected the Church for centuries to come. Years after Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey were written, other Greek philosophers came along who admired and desired to preserve these early writings. Yet, they also were embarrassed by the content – the immorality, and the way it portrayed the gods as weak and like humans. The easiest solution to this was to allegorize. “This allegorizing approach enabled Greek philosophers who came along later… to promote their own ideas while claiming to be faithful to the writings off the past. They could promote their own teachings under the guise of allegorizing the mythology of Homer and Hesiod.” [2]

The Jews also faced a similar dilemma. In their minds, the Old Testament contained unedifying stories of immorality, and also undesirable anthropomorphisms (the representation of God as having human form or traits [3] ). Two examples would be the story of Judah and Tamar (immorality), and a verse such as Exodus 15, verse 3: “The LORD is a man of war: the LORD is his name” (anthropomorphism). Instead of humbly seeking to understand the original meaning and context of these passages, they chose to allegorize. In some cases, the Jewish people went beyond allegorization and actually deleted such references. This occurred in the Greek translation of the Old Testament – the Septuagint.

Continue Reading on Google Knol

Part I: A Man Named Ezra || Part II: Prayer of the Levites
Part III: Religious Leaders and Medieval Theologians

____________

[1] http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/hillel.html
[2] Zuck, Roy. Basic Bible Interpretation. Colorado Springs: David C. Cook, 1991. Print.
[3] http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=anthropomorphism