Abstract

The purpose of this article is to present some aspects from a discussion on “what is Midrash?”, a discussion which has been going on among learned Jewish and Christian scholars dealing with the interpretation of the Hebrew Old Testament and the New Testament as well. The first part of the article deals with some short introductory remarks on the new orientation in the study of Targum and rabbinic literature. The main corpus of the article concerns whether Midrash is a literary genre or an exegetical method. This discussions leads to a presentation on the terminology itself as it occurs in Jewish and Christian literature. The content and meanings of the verb dāraš are traced in the Old Testament, in Qumran and in the rabbinical literature. Also the connotations and use of the related noun midrāš are dealt with throughout the same literature, here also including the New Testament.