MIDRASII (t;','.'M), plural MIDRastrim, MID RASHOTH (vurrin, murrin), the most ancient Jewish exposition of the Hebrew Scriptures.
t. Title and its Signification, etc. The term nin, which is strangely rendered in the text of the A. V. by story (2 Chron. xiii. 22 ; xxiv. 27), is the Aramaic infinitive of to search into, to examine, to investigate, to explain, and primarily denotes the study, the exposition of Holy Scripture in the abstract and general sense. Thus it is said, Not the study of it (trrina) but the doing of the law is the chief thing' (Aboth, i. 17). The study or exposition of Holy Writ (tn-n) was effected in earlier times through public discourses delivered on Sabbaths, festivals, and days of assembly, by the priests, Levites, elders of Israel, and prophets. During the period of the second temple, when the canonical books and the written discourses of the older prophets became unintelligible to the mass of the people who spoke Hebraized Aramaic, these public expositions became more formal and were delivered on a larger scale by the lawyers, or Scribes (VIVID) as they are called in the N. T., the directors of schools (1=1), graduated rabbins (11111, only with suff. 1rT1131), or learned men in general and members of societies (D'inn).
2. Design and Classification.—The design of the Illia'rash or exposition varied according to circum stances. Sometimes the lecturer (jerl, U."111) confined himself to giving a running paraphrase into the vulgar Aramaic, or the other dialects of the country, of the lessons from the Law and Prophets which were read in Hebrew [HAPHTARA], thus gradually giving rise to the Chaldee, Syriac, and Greek versions, so that these Targunzim may be regarded as being the result, or forming part of the illidrash. The chief design of the Midrash, however, was to propound the Scrip tures either legally or homiletically. Hence ob tained that twofold mode of exposition called the legal or ilalachic exegesis, and the homiletic or Hagadic exegesis, and their respective literatures.
A. The Legal or Halachic Exegesis.—The object of this branch of exposition is to ascertain, by analogy, combination, or otherwise, the meaning of the Law respecting exceptional cases about which there is no direct enactment in the Mosaic code, as it was the only rule of practice in the political and religious government of the Jews under all vicissitudes of the commonwealth, and as the motto of the expositors and administrators of it was Turn it (i. e., the inspired code) over and
over again, for everything is in it and will be dis covered therein' (.both, v. 22). The laws thus obtained, either by deduction from the text or introduction into it, are called .11alachoth sing. nwn, from Da, to go), the rule by which to go, the binding precept, the authoritative law, being equivalent to the Hebrew word 13n3tYln (comp. Chaldee Paraphrase on Exod. xxi. 9), and this mode of exposition, which is chiefly confined to the Pentateuch as the legal part of the O. T., is termed Halachic Exegesis. These Halachoth (1'1155n), some of which are coeval with the enact ments in the Pentateuch itself (Dent. xvii. lib and some are the labours of the Great Synagogue or the Sopherim=Scribes—beginning with Ezra and terminating with Simon the Just—were for cen turies transmitted orally, and hence are also called Shematha (Nripnv), i. e., that which was heard, or that which was received by members of the chain of tradition (npInvin Nnvvy). Those prohibi tory laws or Fences O'D, 111, later ri-In) which the Sopherim were obliged to make on their own account in consequence of the new wants of the times, without being indicated in the Pentateuch, and which are called Sopheric precepts ('131 and in the N. T. Tradition of the Elders (rapci800ts irpeol3vrIpow, Matt. xv. 2; Mark vii. 3), are distinguished from the traditional laws which are deduced from the Bible. The latter are designated Deductions from the Law (NV and are of equal authority with the Biblical precepts. The few learned men who during the period of the Sopherim (Lc. 450-300) wrote down some of these laws, or indicated them by certain signs (nt3D) or hints (0'1131) in their scrolls of the Pentateuch, only did so to assist their memory, and the documents are called Secret Scrolls (viinD J-43n)• These marginal glosses in the MSS. of the Law became the basis of the Masson?. Gradually, however, these Hala choth were fully written down, and are embodied in the following works.