Anti-Nicene Rabbinic Reading; or, Late-Style Midrash

Abstract

Abstract:In this essay, I limn the bones (with some sinews as well) of a new approach to the theorization of the particular mode of responding to Scripture known as midrash between c. the first and seventh centuries AD. The fundamental structure of the argument is that our particular way of understanding “interpretation” is the product of a singular episteme or mentalité, one set in motion by Aristotle and essentially dominant until today, while midrash is the product of a significantly different theoretical understanding of language. The thesis, moreover, attempts to make a case for seeing midrash after the fourth century as a reaction against the theological epistemology of Christendom. Jewish thought undergoes a further epistemic shift in the early Middle Ages, rendering further midrash impossible and nearly unintelligible in Jewish intellectual life.