The Mishnah and the Bible (proofs) (original) (raw)

The Place of the Hebrew Bible in the Mishnah (MA Thesis, McGill University)

1999

The Mishnah depends on the Bible for its authority, vocabulary, and much of its contents. Nearly six hundred Bible citations are distributed in fifty-three of the Mishnah's tractates and are quoted from all but six biblical books. Most citations are from the Torah and are used for proof-texting. The Mishnah uses thousands of words derived from or related to the Bible (e. g., Shabbat, Peah, Kohen). Its content is unquestionably tied to that of the Bible (e. g., Seder Moed is based on the discussions of the various holy days in Exodus). Finally, the Mishnah contains multiple discussions of Biblical characters and events, of Bible reading, interpretation, and teaching. The works of Georg Aicher, Samuel Rosenblatt, Peter Acker Pettit, and Jacob Neusner help examine the Bible-Mishnah relationship. The first three discuss the use of Bible citation in the Mishnah. Neusner uses form-analysis to examine its historical development and descusses the Mishnah by viewing it as a whole. Our approach, an examination of the Mishnah's details, is more in line with those of Aicher, Rosenblatt, and Pettit. The dependence of the Mishnah on the Bible is demonstrated by examining the distribution and use of Bible citations, comparing the content of the Mishnah to that of the Bible, and analyzing various Mishnaic passages.

A Call to Covenant Love: Text Grammar and Literary Structure in Deuteronomy 5–11 (2007 excerpt)

Gorgias, 2007

Targeted toward the exegete, A CALL TO COVENANT LOVE offers a clear method for establishing flow of thought, text hierarchy, and literary macrostructure in biblical Hebrew prose. The study contributes both to hermeneutical theory and to the study of Deuteronomy by arguing for the application of discourse linguistics alongside stylistic and semantic analysis in the interpretation of OT texts. It is distinct from most other textlinguistic studies in its attention to reported direct speech and in its inclusion of a brief literary-structural and theological commentary on Deuteronomy 5–11 that models the text grammatical approach and shows its benefits for exegesis. The study's first goal is to clarify the formal elements of biblical Hebrew that operate above the sentence level and that help guide the understanding of text structure. Through rigorous analysis of the formal features, semantic meaning, and discourse function of every clause in Deuteronomy 5–11, this study lucidly evaluates and articulates how biblical Hebrew marks and/or tracks logic and flow of thought, foregrounding, participant reference, and various discourse signals. As the book s main title suggests, in this study discourse grammar is a servant to exegesis. Through numerous examples and commentary, the study demonstrates that the biblical text is both coherent in its discussion and cohesive in its organization. Furthermore, A CALL TO COVENANT LOVE clearly and passionately articulates the lasting message of one of the OT Scripture's most foundational sections, extending the original call to life-encompassing, Godward surrender into the present age.

The Interrogative-Indefinite Puzzle in the Context of Biblical Hebrew

Journal for Semitics, 2019

The biblical corpus features a number of verses in which interrogative pronouns appear in non-interrogative contexts. The same phenomenon is observed in many other languages and gives rise to the question known in the linguistic literature as "the interrogative-indefinite puzzle," namely, what is the natural connection between the interrogative and indefinite functions. This paper seeks to explore how this question should be examined in the context of the Biblical Hebrew data. It will be argued that a consideration of typological observations can yield important insights into this question. Subsequently, it proposes a formal semantic analysis of the indefinite pronouns in question and shows how the proposed approach can help explain their distribution.

Jewish Concepts of Scripture: A Comparative Introduction (sample chapter)

What do Jews think scripture is? How do Jews view the anthology they variously call Tanakh, Miqra or “the Bible? Until now, no book has surveyed the answers Jews through the ages have given to these questions. This is the more surprising, since one would think that the conception of the Book among the People of the Book would be a topic of interest. The way Jews construct scripture, after all, is one way Jews construct themselves. The purpose of this anthology is to fill this gap. The seventeen essays in this collection explore how various figures, movements, or texts conceptualize scripture. Issues they address include: - Ways in which the Tanakh is and is not thought to be authoritative - The relationship between Tanakh and tradition (in rabbinic parlance: between the Oral and Written Torahs) - The question of who has the authority to interpret scripture - The special status of the Bible’s language, or the ways its use of language differs from that of other texts - The relationship of scripture to God and/or heavenly intermediaries - The place of the Tanakh in the life of Jewish communities"