The Burning Word by Judith Kunst
Years ago, my dad was teaching a Sunday School lesson to adults. He said: “We don’t know much from the Gospels about the early years of Jesus. What can we learn from Jewish history and culture about what his life may have been like?” An older man spoke up: “Since the Bible is silent on Jesus’ youth, we have no business delving into it.” End of discussion.
My dad liked to ask questions of Scripture. He would have enjoyed The Burning Word: A Christian Encounter With Jewish Midrash by Judith Kunst, a book that deals with the well-established Jewish tradition of wrestling with all Scripture - the knowns and the unknowns (and especially the unknowns). The word midrash literally means study but figuratively refers to the practice of commenting on Scripture and grappling with hard passages. For thousands of years, rabbis have written stories, poems, proverbs and other commentary on the meaning of the sacred texts, and by so doing have debated one another across the generations.
Kunst invites Christians into the practice of making midrash. How? Pick a text. Identify a question or problem it raises. Draw out of your imagination a solution for the problem, perhaps shaping it into a story or parable. Then find someone who will argue with your interpretation, refine it, or even reject it in favor of a better one.
Christians of my stripe tend to be leery of too much “grappling” with the text. Isn’t that disrespectful to its authority? Kunst convinces me that it isn’t, especially if I look at my ideas not as the conclusion of the matter but as the starting point for entering the discussion.
(Thanks to Bob Silvera for lending me this enlightening book).
