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{"id":318,"date":"2018-10-21T14:09:43","date_gmt":"2018-10-21T18:09:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/everythingoldisnewagain\/?p=318"},"modified":"2018-10-21T14:11:36","modified_gmt":"2018-10-21T18:11:36","slug":"318","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/everythingoldisnewagain\/2018\/10\/318\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bible is not enough: why Jews believe in an oral tradition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/p>\n

That tradition \u00a0includes a whole set of explanations and interpretations of the written text that define, clarify, and interpret vague or unclear passages, words, and laws in the Bible. Of course, lots of other interpretations were not given over to Moses by God, but instead created by rabbis reading the text in later generations.<\/p>\n

I want to deal today with the question of how we know that the Five Books of Moses (from here on simply called \u201cthe Bible\u201d for convenience) needs<\/i> to have orally given interpretations in order to be understood or fulfilled.<\/p>\n

The first key idea is that the written text of the Bible on its own simply cannot<\/i> be read without some non-written interpretations and explanations, in addition to rules of how to understand its many unclear passages.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s an interesting text from the Talmud, in which Hillel, a famous rabbi living around 2,000 years ago, explains this concept.<\/p>\n

The story goes that a gentile came to Hillel and requested to be converted \u201con condition that you will teach me only the Written Torah\u2026On the first day, he showed him the letters of the alphabet and said to him: Alef, bet, gimmel, dalet. The next day he reversed the order of the letters and told him that an alef is a tav and so on. The convert said to him: But yesterday you did not tell me that. Hillel said to him: You see that it is impossible to learn what is written without relying on an oral tradition. Didn\u2019t you rely on me? Therefore, you should also rely on me with regard to the matter of the Oral Torah, and accept the interpretations that it contains<\/b>.\u201d
\n(Tractate Shabbat 31a)<\/p>\n

This Talmudic story contains the basic lesson that everyone needs a teacher in order to read a text. That\u2019s true on the literal<\/i> level, in terms of making out the letters. But it\u2019s also true in terms of learning how to read a text well<\/i>. You won\u2019t get nearly as much out of Shakespeare by reading it alone as you will from reading it with a Shakespeare scholar. The same goes for the Bible and the rabbis.<\/p>\n

Elaborating on that argument, to properly read the written Biblical text, you need more than just letters. As it appears in ancient scrolls, the Bible is just a string of letters. That\u2019s it. The Kuzari, a medieval work of Jewish philosophy written by Rabbi Judah Halevi, shows the implications of that statement:<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is, therefore, no doubt that the Book was preserved in memory with all its vowels, divisions of syllables and accents<\/b>\u2026The seven vowels and accents were appointed as signs for forms which were regarded as Mosaic tradition\u2026
\n\u201csomeone divided the text into verses, equipped it with vowel signs, accents, and masoretic signs, concerning full or defective orthography\u2026\u201d
\n(Kuzari Book III 31,33)<\/p>\n

In other words, the written Biblical text is entirely unreadable<\/i> without an oral tradition telling us which vowels go where, when sentences end, and when to emend the text. Every\u00a0generation needs oral traditions from the previous generation about vowels, verses, accents, and other non-written markings to be able to read it. The conclusion is clear:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe acknowledgment of tradition is therefore incumbent upon\u2026anyone who admits that the Torah, in its present shape and as it is read, is the Torah of Moses.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the Biblical text is from God, that doesn\u2019t mean very much if we can\u2019t even read it! But in order for us read it, we need oral traditions, which must<\/i> have been told to the children of Israel when they received the Torah so that they<\/i> could read it!<\/p>\n

I think you get the point. But up until now, all I\u2019ve done is demonstrate that there must be some oral tradition that accompanied the Bible in order for its first readers to read it. Great. But how do we know there were any oral traditions given to Moses beyond<\/i> the banal matters of vowels, accent marks, and punctuation?<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the Kuzari again:<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the consonantic (me: not a real word, but that\u2019s what the online translation says!) text of the Mosaic Book requires so many traditional classes of vowel signs, accents, divisions of sentences and masoretic signs for the correct pronunciation of words, how much more is this the case<\/b> for the comprehension of the same!<\/p>\n

\u201cThe meaning of a word is more comprehensive than its pronunciation.<\/b> When God revealed the verse: \u2018This month shall be unto you the beginning of months\u2019 (Exod. xii. 2), there was no doubt whether He meant the calendar of the Egyptians<\/b> among whom they lived, or that of the Chald\u00e6ans<\/b> who were Abraham\u2019s people\u2026or solar [or lunar months], or lunar years\u2026I further wish to be instructed on the question as to what makes an animal lawful for food; whether \u2018slaughtering\u2019 means cutting its throat or any other mode of killing\u2026I further desire an explanation of the words: \u2018Let no man go out of his place<\/b> [on the seventh day]\u2019 (Exod. xvi. 29). Does this refer to the house or precincts, estate\u2026territory, district, or country. For the word place can refer to all of these<\/b>\u2026 I want to know the details<\/b> of circumcision, fringes and tabernacle\u2026how to deal with laws which interfere with each other, as circumcision or Paschal lamb with Sabbath, which must yield to which, and many other matters which cannot be enumerated in general, much less in detail<\/b>.\u201c<\/p>\n

The examples given in that passage are a bit complicated, but the essential point is pretty simple. The laws of the Five Books of Moses are not written all that clearly or specifically. We are told not to eat certain birds, whose identity is unclear! We are told to slaughter animals a certain way before eating them, but that way is not specified! We could add other examples: we are given commands not to do \u201cwork\u201d on the Sabbath or to \u201cafflict our souls\u201d on the Day of Atonement. What do those words mean exactly? And don\u2019t say that we can just give it our best guess, because the punishment for violating the Sabbath is death. How could God let us take a chance on that? How could God possibly give a commandment and cause His people to sin by writing it so ambiguously?<\/p>\n

The Bible says \u201cbe fruitful and multiply.\u201d How many kids must you have to fulfill this command? Christians would never think to ask a question like that, but the rabbis did. If we read the Bible\u2019s commands seriously, we quickly see that the written words alone are not enough to fully explain the meaning and details of every law.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a fair theological assumption that God would not command something that we could not understand or fulfill. However, Biblical commandments are often very difficult to understand or fulfill!<\/p>\n

The answer for traditional Jews is that there must be an accompanying oral tradition to the written biblical text that at the very least defines and explains vague or ambiguous laws and their details. Otherwise, the Bible couldn\u2019t be understood or fulfilled.<\/p>\n

As it happens, the ancient Jewish historian Josephus, living nearly 2,000 years ago, says this is exactly what occurred, writing that Moses \u201cappointed such laws and afterwards informed them<\/b> in what manner they should act in all cases.\u201d (Antiquities Book 3 5.6)<\/p>\n

That\u2019s all for now. Next post will be on the same topic, and explaining why it\u2019s actually a good thing for there to be \u201ctwo\u201d Torahs, one written and one oral.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s a core belief of traditional Judaism stretching back to the days of the Pharisees two millennia ago (and as I hope to show, even longer than that!) that when God instructed Moses to write down the Five Books of Moses, He also gave Moses an accompanying Oral Tradition. That tradition \u00a0includes a whole set […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3628,"featured_media":321,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[57,168,174,171,69,177],"class_list":["post-318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bible","tag-moses","tag-oral-law","tag-rabbis","tag-talmud","tag-tradition"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Bible is not enough: why Jews believe in an oral tradition<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It\u2019s a core belief of traditional Judaism stretching back to the days of the Pharisees two millennia ago (and as I hope to show, even longer than that!)\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Bible is not 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