Modes of Scriptural Interpretation in Early Judaism and Early Christianity

Benjamin Edsall, Joseph Verheyden, Jens Schröter

• Publisher: De Gruyter
• Year: 2026
• eBook ISBN:
  9783111329598
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Jewish Literary Criticism

The present contributions examine three modes of interpretation—rewriting, appropriation, and commentary—within early Jewish and Christian texts. As is well known, scriptural interpretation was important, even central, for the process of identity formation in early Jewish and Christian communities. The modes of scriptural interpretation covered in the present volume not only betray deep commonalities in their approach and discursive field, but also illuminate the practical side of interpretation to which communal and/or polemical application is intrinsic. These different modes co-exist, operating side by side across the early period, rather than conforming to any clear developmental scheme. In the end, the category of interpretation itself turns out to be capatious, including material from sectarian Halakhah to Valentinian mythology to Rabbinic heresiological discourse. Further, contributors note that in a myriad of ways we remain the heirs of the interpretive projects explored here. Attending to the reception of scriptural texts in their ancient interpretation offers the opportunity for scholars to highlight their possibilities, promises and difficulties, opening them for others with ears to hear.

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Frontmatter
• Contents
• Introduction: Prolegomena to Modes of Scriptural Interpretation
• Forms, Significance, and Limits of Exegesis in the Halakhic Texts from Qumran
• Philo of Alexandria, Allegorical Commentary, and the Soul’s Road to Virtue
• “. . .written for our instruction” (Rom 15.4): Scriptural Reasoning and Cultural Translation in Pauline Letters
• Matthew’s Interpretation of Scripture
• Christianizing Jewish Scriptures: Luke-Acts and the Re-sacralization of “Law and Prophets”
• Failing to Communicate: Isa 6:9–10 in the New Testament
• Tatian’s Diatessaron between Rewritten Scripture and Cento: On the Origins of the Gospel Harmony Genre
• The Sophia Myth of Irenaeus’ Grande Notice (Haer . 1.1–9) as a Poetic Reflection on Jewish and Christian Scripture
• Multiplicity and Diversity in the Interpretation of Jewish Scriptures, according to the Valentinian Tractatus Tripartitus
• The Bat and the Rooster: on Jewish-Christian Literary Interactions in the Babylonian Talmud
• Primary Sources Index
• Authors Index
• Subject Index