Pragmatic historiography is exemplified in the various Deuter onomic writers. Similarly the relation between Genesis and the Book of Jubilees should be noted. The Apocrypha to some extent fills the gap between the Old Testament and the Rabbinic Mid rashim, but, as has been stated, it must be used with care. Judi ciously used, the Midrash and the Apocrypha may sometimes present a clue to a lost line of tradition : this tradition may or may not be valuable historically but its recovery is of interest, since it lay before the particular O.T. writer who discarded it or used it only incidentally. Thus Gen. xlviii., 22, contains a cryptic allusion to the capture of Shechem. In Jubilees xxxiv. (about 2nd century B.c.) a story of this war is detailed and simi lar accounts are preserved in various Midrashim. It is unlikely that these were mere elaborations of Gen. xlviii. 22: it may be inferred that an extracanonical tradition continued to survive the compilation of Genesis and ultimately assumed the exaggerated forms now extant. Again, Jewish traditions of Abraham in Ur of the Chaldees recur in the Targums, Midrashim and Jubilees (ch. xii., ed. Charles, p. 91; cf. also Judith, v., 16 sqq.). The legends of his escape from a fiery furnace may have a philo logical basis, for 'ur can be interpreted as fire, but the allusion to the redemption of Abraham in Isa. xxix., 22, seems to indicate that older tradition was fuller than the present records in Genesis.
Midrashic exposition was based on the theory of progressive interpretation. Every word of the scriptures had a definite mean ing, nay, no single letter was otiose ; moreover every word had "70 aspects." This means that generation after generation would extract new lessons, all of which were deemed latent or implicit. Some of these interpretations were arbitrary but more often the arbitrariness lay not in the teaching but in the deduction. When it was desired to point a moral or elicit a law not always the best exemplar was adopted. Thus faulty proof rather than faulty inference is illustrated when the rare word Be-mikh,sath, "in number" (Exod. xii. 4), was used to confirm the Halakhah that the man who killed the paschal lamb must know how many people were about to share it. (Jew. Enc. VIII., 57o.) Many cases of apt deduction can be adduced and deductions, similarly apt or far-fetched, occur also in the N.T. Thus emphasis on a single word is illustrated by Gal. iii. 16, where the argument rests on the word "seed" (and not the plural "seeds") in the proof-text and the same word in Rabbinical writings is used to support other ar guments (cf. Mishnah, Sanhedrin, iv., 5 : see A. Geiger, Z.D.M.G.
1858, pp. 307 sqq.: S. R. Driver, Expositor, IX. [1889], pp. 18 sqq.). By the allegorical method Isa. lxi. is applied to Jesus (Luke iv. 16-22).
The more important Midrashim are : A. Halakhic or Tannaite Midrashim: (I) Mekhilta, on Exodus. This begins at xii., the first legisla tion (the ordinance of the Passover). The later portions of Exodus are not commented on (as they are historical) in the present work, but there is reason to believe that the original was fuller. This famous Midrash was of the school of R. Ishmael, but it was concluded in the school of the patriarch Judah in the 2nd century A.D. (Text, M. Friedmann, Vienna 1870: 1. H. Weiss, Vienna, 1865. German trans., J. Winter and A. Wiinsche, Leipzig, 1909.) (2) Another recension of the Mekhilta, cited by mediaeval authors, was that of Simeon ben Yohai—ed. D. Hoffmann (1905).
(3) Midrash hag-Gadol, a composite work on the Pentateuch, compiled in the 13th century, recently discovered in Arabia, con tains much lost material. The Midrash is edited in part. (S. Schechter, Camb. 1902: D. Hoffmann, Berlin, 1913.) (4) Sifra (de-Be Rab), on Leviticus, which it follows almost verse by verse. Probably redacted by R. Hiyya in the beginning of the 3rd century A.D. (Text, M. L. Malbim, Bucharest, 186o: I. H. Weiss, Vienna, 1862. Latin trans. [faulty in parts] in Ugo linus [Thesaurus] xiv.) (5) Sifre, on Numbers and Deuteronomy (2nd and 3rd cen turies). (Text, M. Friedmann, Vienna, 1864: H. S. Horovitz, Part I., Leipzig, 1917. Germ. trans. [on Deut.] G. Kittel, Stutt gart, 1922.) B. Haggadic Midrashim: (I) Midrash Rabba, on the Pentateuch and Five Rolls. Ed. princeps, Constantinople, 1512: frequently reprinted, Crit. ed. of Genesis Rabba by J. Theodor (unfinished), (Berlin, 1903– . Germ. trans., A. Wiinsche, Bibliotheca Rabbinica, Leipzig, 188o– (2) Tanhuma (2 recensions) on the Pentateuch, one of the oldest Midrashim: mentioned once in the Talmud. (Text, ed. S. Buber, Wilna, 1885: the other recension, Constantinople, 1520-22.) (3) Pesiqta (de Rab Kahana), 33 homilies on the festivals (lectionary, etc.). (Text, ed. S. Buber, Lyck, 1868. Germ. trans. A. Wiinsche, Leipzig, 1885.) (4) Pesiqta Rabbathi, a similar but separate collection of 51 homilies of which 28 have a Halakhic exordium. (Text, ed. M. Friedmann, Vienna, 1880.) (5) Midrash Shohar Tabh on Psalms, text, Warsaw, 1875.
(6) Yalqut or "Wallet," title of several midrashic collections.
BIBLIoGRApHy.—Articles (main and subsidiary) in Jew. Enc., Hastings, D.N.B. and E.R.E., G. M. Moore, Judaism, I. 125 foll. Cambridge (Harvard), 1927.