Two prophesies: 1. Hosea 11:1 and Jeremiah 31:15 - were these prophesies originally for something else and had "echoes" here, or did they stand on their own and were originally about Jesus?
Looking at the first, the full text of Hosea 11:1 is, "When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.". This isn't even a prophecy. Why would Matthew take this so out of context?
From http://hermeneutics.stackexchange.com/questions/2575/how-can-the-flight-to-egypt-in-matthew-215-be-a-fulfillment-of-hosea-111
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The usage of Hosea 11:1 in Matthew 2:15 is consistent with the
"drash" reading of scripture that was accepted among the dominant
Pharisaic Jewish tradition at the time of Jesus.
See this explanation of "drash" and its relationship to context in the Wikipedia article on "pshat" [emphasis is mine]:
This usage of scripture is in part based on the conviction that they contain all knowledge of significant truths, past and future, either explicitly or in hints, and that this knowledge can be found in individual verses or even in parts of verses read on their own without reference to narrative context, and sometimes even read on opposition to the simple meaning (the "pshat") to yield new understanding.
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See this explanation of "drash" and its relationship to context in the Wikipedia article on "pshat" [emphasis is mine]:
Definitions of Peshat also note the importance of context, both historical and literary. This is in contrast to Drash, which will often take the text of a verse out of its context, for uses beyond the context such as ritual or moral purposes. However, this does not mean that Peshat and Drash are fully opposing methods. In fact, one may often be used in helping to explain the other, in finding and defining nuances in text that might be otherwise inexplicable without application of both methods.For Matthew, Joseph's flight to Egypt and return with Jesus mirrors the exile of Jacob's son Joseph to Egypt and the later exodus of Israel with Moses as referenced in Hosea 11:1. Not only is the narrative context of Hosea not critical to Matthew, the fact that there is such an applicable verse in a different context and written so long before is further proof of his point and invites further comparison of the life of Jesus with other similar passages.
This usage of scripture is in part based on the conviction that they contain all knowledge of significant truths, past and future, either explicitly or in hints, and that this knowledge can be found in individual verses or even in parts of verses read on their own without reference to narrative context, and sometimes even read on opposition to the simple meaning (the "pshat") to yield new understanding.
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It does seem like Matthew uses this Drash method in his text, and it seems to be an accepted method of the day. It's too bad that evangelical Christianity seems to have gotten this so wrong (me too - based on my comments about how cool it was that prophecy so clearly predicted Jesus). I've been told over and over again that there were hundreds of prophecies about Jesus in the Old Testament, and we can use that as proof of the Bible's accuracy. (And in fact, there may be quite a few - we will see as we go along). But, so far, if I were to do the little research I'm doing and wasn't so cynical already, my faith would be pretty shaken right now about how badly Matthew takes things out of context. I've never been taught about this "Drash" thing that was so common. It's like evangelicals are afraid to talk about it. Like I said, if I wasn't already so cynical of traditional evangelical teaching of scripture already, my faith would really be shaken.
ReplyDeleteYep, the second prophecy about Rachel weeping for her children is more Drash. The prophecy in Jeremiah is about the exile.
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