What Were the Pharisees Up To?
Jude Series // Part I - Midrash // Chapter II - Midrash & the Pharisees
This week we’re continuing with a new chapter in the Jude Series. This series is all about a much-misunderstood book of the Bible, and in part one with looking at one of the reasons for that—the use of Midrash. Two weeks ago we talked about what Midrashim are, but in short, these are essentially stories that were commonly used around the time of Jesus to teach the scriptures—sometimes well, and sometimes not.
Because of this, the book of Jude can sound odd to western Christians; it doesn’t follow the same “rules” we’re used to from other books in the new testament, and it also quotes from extra-biblical sources. If we take the time now to explore this in detail, we’ll be better equipped to handle questions that come up along the way.
I’ll be using the term ‘Second Temple’ a fair bit in this chapter, which is a term that pops up in many books across the academic and theological spectrum, so even if you’re not interested in learning specifically about Midrash stick around because knowing about this will be useful again in the future.
To check out other instalments in the Jude Series, click here:
Chapter II
Midrash in the Second Temple Period
The Bible isn’t a just a collection of books, it is one cohesive story, encompassing all of time. It isn’t one continuous story, however. This is clear to us when we think about the present and the future. We know the Bible speaks about the early church, and to the church in our time, as well as about the future, but doesn’t tell the story of the Church in the UK, for instance. It can be easy, however, to forget that the time between the Old and New Testaments was very similar to this. Our mind closes that gap because history was a long time ago and so it all sort of blends together1.
In reality, the intertestamental period2 looks something like this:
Old Testament → 400 Years → New Testament
For 400 years there was no clarity, they knew the story would finish one day, but they didn’t know how. The Old Testament—full of prophecy, full of hope, and full of promises that a Messiah, a Saviour, would come one day—was read, researched, and expounded upon for four centuries, and some of that was in error.
So before we talk about the Pharisees, and how they appeared on the screen, let’s explore to road that led to the second temple?
“David assembled all the leaders of Israel in Jerusalem…rose to his feet and said, “Listen to me, my brothers and my people. It was in my heart to build a house as a resting place for the ark of the Lord’s covenant and as a footstool for our God. I had made preparations to build, but God said to me, ‘You are not to build a house for my name because you are a man of war and have shed blood.’
…He said to me, ‘Your son Solomon is the one who is to build my house and my courts, for I have chosen him to be my son, and I will be his father. I will establish his kingdom forever if he perseveres in keeping my commands and my ordinances as he is doing today.’”
Christian Standard Bible, (Holman Bible Publishers, 2020), 1 Ch 28:1-3;6–7
David and Solomon. Two Kings. One Father; One Son.
Before we look to the second temple, we need to address the first. In short, David desired to build a temple for the Lord, but in the end his son, Solomon, was granted the gifts needed to fulfil that desire.
I’ve ended this passage of the words, “I will establish [Solomon’s] kingdom forever if he perseveres in keeping my commands and my ordinances as he is doing today.”
Suffice it to say, that this prefigured a horrific fall, and a tremendous return to God. Solomon, like his father before him, did what was evil in the sight of his God, but before he did any of that, he built a temple for the glory of God’s name.
When they sin against you—for there is no one who does not sin…and when they come to their senses in the land where they were deported and repent and petition you in their captors’ land, saying,
“We have sinned and done wrong; we have been wicked,”
and when they return to you with all their mind and all their heart…toward the temple I have built for your name, may you hear their prayer and petitions in heaven, your dwelling place, and uphold their cause. May you forgive your people who sinned against you.
Christian Standard Bible, (Holman Bible Publishers, 2020), 2 Ch 6:36–393
Even before he or his people turned from God, Solomon cried out to the Lord. Before fire filled the Temple, Solomon—knowing the hearts of men—pled with God to provide a way of mercy and grace for his people, that when they turn and repent that they would be forgiven.
Why?
For no one is without sin.
How and where? By turning to the Temple of the Lord.
The Temple of the Lord was built to be a place of worship to God, and a reminder of his grace to his people. To represent this to God’s own people, the Temple was created to be awe-inspiring4. If the world were a pack of cards, this temple was the ace of spades.
But then, the worst happened. The people turned against the Lord, and the temple fell.
“On the seventh day of the fifth month—which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon—Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guards, a servant of the king of Babylon, entered Jerusalem. He burned the Lord’s temple, the king’s palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem; he burned down all the great houses. The whole Chaldean army with the captain of the guards tore down the walls surrounding Jerusalem.”
Christian Standard Bible, (Holman Bible Publishers, 2020), 2 Ki 25:8–10
If you didn’t already know, you could probably have guessed that in order for there to have been a need for a Second Temple, something needed to happen to the first.
So now that the faith of the people has failed, where are they supposed to turn to?
The story of the temple picks up again in the book of Ezra-Nehemiah5.
David and Solomon are long gone, but thankfully three lowly men take centre stage. These men were likely born in Babylon, and had been made her servants. Servants of Babylon?! The very same Kingdom which burned the temple down in the first place?
So were they rebels fighting the big guys?
Not even close. They had no ill-will towards Babylon, but rather God used their position in Babylon’s courts to divert attention and imperial funds to raise up a new temple.
Who were these three men?
Zerubbabel; who rebuilt the Temple.
Ezra; who then taught from the Torah and built up the people of God.
Nehemiah; who built up the walls to fortify God’s temple.
In so doing, they turned back the wheels of time.
A prophet living at the time of Zerubbabel called Haggai turned to the people after it was built and said:
“Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory?
How does it look to you now?
Doesn’t it seem to you like nothing by comparison?”Christian Standard Bible, (Holman Bible Publishers, 2020), Hag 2:3
If the first temple was an ace, this second temple was just that, a two… the least of all cards.
“This second temple had not the ark, the Urim and Thummim, the holy oil, the sacred fire, the tables of stone, the pot of manna, and Aaron’s rod. As in the tabernacle, there was in it only one golden lamp for the holy place, one table of shewbread, and the incense altar, with golden censers, and many of the vessels of gold that had belonged to Solomon’s temple that had been carried to Babylon but restored by Cyrus”
M. G. Easton, Illustrated Bible Dictionary and Treasury of Biblical History, Biography, Geography, Doctrine, and Literature, 1893, 659.
So what has this got to do with the Pharisees?
Well, as our story comes to a close, the people of God have tasted submission to a foreign power. By the end of the intertestamental period, they’re in submission to yet another power, the Romans.
In the meantime, they’re left with a sub-par temple, but promises like this:
“For the Lord of Armies says this: “Once more, in a little while, I am going to shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. I will shake all the nations so that the treasures of all the nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,” says the Lord of Armies. “The silver and gold belong to me”—this is the declaration of the Lord of Armies.
“The final glory of this house will be greater than the first,” says the Lord of Armies.
“I will provide peace in this place”—this is the declaration of the Lord of Armies.
Christian Standard Bible, (Holman Bible Publishers, 2020), Hag 2:6–9
The story isn’t yet over, there’s still something to come, but through the darkly lit mirror (1 Cor 13:12) you’re left with, you can only begin to imagine what that might be.
In the intervening years, with such hope ahead, a group of teachers rose up to fill the gap left in the meantime. Pharisees are very much the punchline of preachers the world over, but the truth is, most of them were likely doing what they could to sanctify people for God. In addition, as we discussed last week, these teachers were doing their best to be faithful to God’s law, and yet, make their teaching understandable to all—from the youngest to the eldest. I don’t say any of this to dismiss the very real issues they presented, but it is important that when we talk about the Pharisees, that we do so with the understanding that many of them did what they did to try and worship God.
With that said, in the process, they added to scripture. A modern Jewish scholar described their practice like this:
“All exegesis is eisegesis, simply because the selection of one verse, rather than some other, expresses a prior program of inquiry: different people talking about different things to different people.”
Jacob Neusner, Midrash as Literature: The Primacy of Documentary Discourse, (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2003)
That’s Jacob Neusner speaking, a Jewish expert on this period who recently passed away. If you don’t know what exegesis or eisegesis is, here’s a quick summary:
Exegesis - Drawing out the meaning from a text
Eisegesis - Implanting one’s own meaning into a text
Neusner is describing Midrash here6, but this could also apply to a number of other modern practices within the church7. When we choose to take verses out of context and implant our own ideas—our own will—onto those passages, we get into real problems.
This saw its heyday during the second temple period.
Midrash existed out of a knowledge that the Scriptures spoke of what was to come and that the story was not yet complete8. This went wrong when it led the Pharisees to fill those gaps themselves. If this has been scripturally sound, then it would have lightened the path of the Messiah when he came.
Did it lead people to recognise Jesus?
Well, no.
In fact, when he came he answered the question this whole article has been expressing, what about the temple?
“He told those who were selling doves, “Get these things out of here! Stop turning my Father's house into a marketplace!”
And his disciples remembered that it is written: Zeal for your house will consume me. So the Jews replied to him, “What sign will you show us for doing these things?” Jesus answered, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it up in three days.” Therefore the Jews said, “This temple took forty-six years to build, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body. So when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the statement Jesus had made.”
Christian Standard Bible, (Holman Bible Publishers, 2020), Jn 2:16–22
In effect, Jesus is the greater Midrash, he is the story that explains the Old Testament, everything can be understood by and through him. He is the fulfilment of the law and prophets, and no one comes to the Father except through him.
Midrash was used for good reason. We would likely have done no different, we would likely have followed our own path, sought to read our own interpretations into scripture, with a heart to serve the Lord and his people.
Without the full understanding of the Gospel though, this is folly. Without the Holy Spirit, we cannot hope to understand the things which were hidden which were revealed in Christ. Thanks be to God that we have that now. Let it not lead us to pride, let us remember that we are still fallen in nature, that not one of us is without sin, but that any time we need we can and ought to turn to the Lord for forgiveness.
This isn’t to say that using stories to help uncover the meaning of scripture is bad in itself, or that this was never done correctly prior to pentecost, but, in the case of the Pharisees and others like them…it failed their purposes.
In two weeks we’ll look instead at some of the correct, scriptural uses of Midrash, and why Jude used it himself.
Grace and Peace,
Adsum Try Ravenhill
It can also do the opposite too. The age of the Samurai, the Victorian Era, the Wild West, and the dawn of the Pirates were all happening at the same time, but most people divorce those from one another because they seem so different. The fact remains, we often view history through more of an abstract lens than we realise.
The time between the Old and New Testaments.
The full text reads:
36 “If they sin against you—for there is no one who does not sin—and you are angry with them and give them to an enemy, so that they are carried away captive to a land far or near, 37 yet if they turn their heart in the land to which they have been carried captive, and repent and plead with you in the land of their captivity, saying, ‘We have sinned and have acted perversely and wickedly’, 38 if they repent with all their mind and with all their heart in the land of their captivity to which they were carried captive, and pray towards their land, which you gave to their fathers, the city that you have chosen and the house that I have built for your name, 39 then hear from heaven your dwelling place their prayer and their pleas, and maintain their cause and forgive your people who have sinned against you.
See 1 Kings 6-7, which serves as a whistle-stop tour of the Temple.
Which is two books in our Bibles, but like 1 + 2 Samuel, or 1 + 2 Chronicles, they are part of the same story and text.
Though not all Midrash, it’s true to say that some were done in a verse-by-verse manner (Perashim).
This is a strong argument for Expository Preaching. Topical Preaching, like Midrash, doesn’t come out of a will to perform false teaching, often it comes out of a heart to serve people and serve the Lord, but the outcome is often the reverse.
At least with regards to Midrash Aggadah, which we spoke about last week.