Midrash

Talmud and Midrash, commentative and interpretative writings that hold a place in the Jewish religious tradition second only to the Bible (Old Testament).…

Toward the end of the 1st century ce, the canon of the Hebrew Bible was formed when certain Hebrew writings were recognized as the authoritative corpus of divine revelation. The study of the Bible became an essential element of the Jewish…

in the Targumim and Midrashim (plural of Targum and Midrash). Among the former, special interest attaches to the early Palestinian Pentateuch Targum; it preserves, for example, messianic (referring to the expected anointed deliverer) exegesis of certain passages to which later rabbis gave a different interpretation because of the Christians’…

…which at first were merely oral but which progressively were reduced to writing—first in the form of memoranda or aide-mémoire inscribed on tablets or notebooks, then in actual books. The diffusion of this religious literature called for an expansion of programs of instruction, evolving into diverse stages: elementary, intermediate, and…

…creative exegesis later known as Midrash (meaning “investigation” or “interpretation”; plural Midrashim) is to be found in the covenant document of Nehemiah, chapter 9—every item of which shows development, not reproduction, of a ruling of the Torah (see Ezra and Nehemiah, books of). Thus, the publication of the Torah as…