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    24
    THE FOUR MODES OF
    SCRIPTURAL INTERPRETATION

    Restoring Ancient Biblical Exegesis

    One of the casualties of the hellenisation of the Besorah (Gospel) - that is to say, the neo-Greek orthodoxy of Catholic, Protestant and Eastern Orthodox Churches - has been what I call the 'three dimensional' approach to scriptural understanding. Most of the non-Hebrew 'gentile' churches have lost the keys to a deeper, esoteric understanding of scripture, leaving them with what might call a largely 'monochrome' view of the Besorah (Gospel).

    Messianic Evangelicals stress the absolute importance of interpreting scripture within the historical context in which it was given, and resisting the temptation of 'reading in' to it our modern assumptions about words and meanings. It is primarily for this reason that this community has returned to its Hebrew roots.

    There were, in the days of Yah'shua (Jesus) and the apostles, four basic modes of Scripture interpretation, all of which we, in NCAY, to varying degrees and with varying stresses, since our inception in 1987. These four modes are as follows:

    • (1) P'shat ("simple"),
    • (2) Remez ("hint"),
    • (3) Drash/Midrash ("search"), and
    • (4) Sod ("secret").

    1. P'shat or Simple Exoteric Mode

    This is the almost exclusive mode of scriptural interpretation used by theologians and scriptorians today known as 'grammatical- historical exegesis'. It is the plain, literal sense of the text which looks to the grammar of language and the historical setting as background for deciding what a passage means. But the rabbis in Yah'shua's (Jesus') day and afterwards had three other modes of interpreting scripture too.

    2. Remez or Mesoteric Hint Mode

    In this method a word or phrase or other element in the text hints at an emet (truth) not conveyed by the p'shat. Thus Elohim (God) can hint at things of which the Bible writers may have been unaware of which they deliberately concealed in order to deny access to deeper emet (truth) to the insincere or lazy.

    3. Drash/Midrash or Mesoteric Search Mode

    This is the allegorical or homiletical application of a text. This is sometimes known as a form of eisegesis or reading one's own thoughts into the text -- as opposed to exegesis which is extracting from the text what it actually says. The implied presupposition is that the words of Scripture can legitimately become grist for the mill of human intellect, which Yahweh can guide to truths not directly related to the text at all.

    4. Sod or Esoteric Secret Mode

    Sod is a mystical or hidden meaning arrived at by operating on the numerical values of the Hebrew letters, noting unusual spellings, transposing letters, and the like. For example, two words, the numerical equivalents of which add up to the same amount, are good candidates for revealing a secret through what Arthur Köstler in his book on the inventive mind called 'bisociation of ideas'. The implied presupposition is that Yahweh invests meaning in the minutest details of Scripture, even the individual letters.

    Collectively, these four modes of Scripture interpretation were called by the rabbis PaRDeS, an acronym formed from the letters of p'shat, remez, drash and sod meaning 'orchard' or 'garden'.

    What is interesting is that the writers of the New Testament use all four methods just as the nevi'im (prophets) (to the horror and loss of many former members too exclusively steeped in the exoteric p'shat mode) of NCAY have done in the revelations and their esoteric translations of ancient texts (such as the Gospel of Thomas).

    Let us take an example of how various mesoteric and esoteric methods are used by the New Testament apostles. Matthew, who wrote (it is believed) his Gospel in Hebrew before it was translated into Greek (the form we now have the oldest known MS in) writes:

      "So (Joseph) got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where they stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what Yahweh had said through the navi (prophet) [Hosea]: 'Out of Egypt I called my son'" (Matt.2:14-15, NIV).

    If we interpret Hosea 11:1 (which is here being quoted) using the p'shat or literal method we are forced to disagree with Matthew who directly equates "son" with Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) because Hosea is indisputably talking about Israel:

      "When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. But the more I called Israel, the further they went from me" (Hosea 11:1-2a, NIV).

    We are forced, by the literal exoteric p'shat method of scriptural interpretation to conclude that Matthew was wrong for the "son" here is indisputably Israel and was even called "son" before leaving Egypt:

      "Then say to Pharaoh, 'This is what Yahweh says: Israel is My firstborn SON, and I told you, "Let My son go, so that he may worship Me." But you refused to let him go; for I will kill your firstborn son.'" (Exodus 4:22-23, NIV).

    The two previous Tanakh (Old Testament) quotations (Matt.1:23; 2:6) involved literal fulfilment, but this does not. So how, then, does Yah'shua's (Jesus') flight to Egypt fulfil what Yahweh had said through the navi (prophet) Hosea? Is Matthew misusing Scripture by twisting the meaning of what Hosea wrote?

    We are forced to conclude that Matthew is giving us a remez, a hint of a very deep emet (truth). Israel is called Elohim's (God's) son as far back as Exodus 4:22. The Messiah is presented as Elohim's (God's) Son a few verses earlier in Matthew 1:18-25, reflecting Tanakh (Old Testament) passages such as Isaiah 9:5-7, Psalm 2 and Proverbs 30:4. Thus, mathematically, one might say, "the Son = the son": the Messiah is equated with, is one with, the nation of Israel. This is the deep truth Matthew is hinting at by calling Yah'shua's (Jesus') flight to Egypt a "fulfilment" of Hosea 11:1. Thus, as Messianic Evangelicals would say, Tanakh (Old Testament) passages that speak of "Israel" are also talking allegorically of Messiah AND vice versa, that is to say, passages talking of Messiah in the Messianic Scriptures (New Testament) are also talking of NEW ISRAEL, the Covenant People, or the New Covenant Assemblies of Yahweh in all generations.

    Now this may seem strange to our individualistically-oriented Western world. But to us as Messianic Evangelicals, who believe in the equal importance of personal as well as communal covenants, it is most certainly not. The fact of the matter is that Yah'shua (Jesus) stands for, and is intimately identified with, the people of Israel. You can't separate the two even though Christendom has tried to do so by twisting and perverting the Besorah (Gospel).

    You see, the individual who has emunah (faith) in Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) becomes united with Him and is 'immersed' (baptised -- Matt.3:1) into all that Yah'shua (Jesus) is, including His death and resurrection -- not just the person of Yah'shua (Jesus) but into THE WHOLE COVENANT NATION OF ISRAEL. So, just as this intimate identification with the Messiah holds for the individual, so the Messiah similarly identifies with and embodies national, corporate Israel -- "Israel" the nation and "Israel" the Messianic Community (Church). Such a revelation opens up the Bible in ways inconceivable using the p'shat mode alone -- indeed one might even claim that it doubles the size of the Bible!

    Matthew knew perfectly well that Hosea was not referring to Yah'shua (Jesus) or to a Messiah, or even to an individual. Yet he also sensed that because Yah'shua (Jesus) in a profound way embodies Israel, His coming from Egypt re-enacted in a spiritually significant way the exodus of the Israelite people.

    Thus when Yahweh spoke to Hosea He was actually saying more than Hosea ever dreamed. Hosea only ever saw Israel as He wrote the Davar Elohim (Word of God), but the omniscient Elohim (God) saw deeper and further into the antetype, namely, Messiah. And the apostle Matthew, blessed by a new level of the spirit of prophecy, saw this. Thus we see how, in the words of a famous hymn, "the Lord hath yet more light and truth to break forth from His Word" when that Davar (Word) is prophetically discerned.

    Messianic Evangelicals have for many years taught that Biblical prophecy is multi-layered and multi-faceted. There is more there than meets the 'p'shat eye'. Indeed our 1995 schism involved just this question -- the departing group maintaining that there is no 'Israel' or Messianic Israel (Church) organisation with the remainder reminding them that the Scriptures are not single-layered.

    Many of NCAY's own revelations, believed at the time of reception to be referring to just one event or principle, have turned out to refer to many more that came to pass in the future. To the dismay of many 'p'shat literalists', some of the earlier revelations have been prophetically expanded to include the new insights we have received. But we have done no more than the ancient Hebrew writers, including the authors of the Messianic Scriptures (New Testament) who sometimes 'misquoted' the Tanakh (Old Testament) to make Scripture better 'fit' what they were trying to convey.

    There are, of course, dangers with any kind of mesoteric or esoteric approach to the Scriptures if our subjectivism is uninspired and actually leads us away from the emet (truth). Look what hundreds of editions of European and American Bible translators have done in perverting the New Testament teaching on the Torah (Law) in order to 'harmonise' with pre-conceived Lutheran doctrines on grace. Our Protestant Bibles have diluted the Besorah (Gospel) horribly and created millions of 'personal Christians' but few with any concept of what communal covenants are any longer. Christians have lost their 'nationhood'. They are no longer of Israel, which they have repudiated by their false exegesis of Scripture. Though many evangelicals pay lip-service to Israel they remain full-fledged members of the gentile 'nations' they live in. They are no better off than the Jews were when they were in exile in the Diaspora. Christians have been dispersed from Israel by their own false, inadequate monochromatic Scriptural interpretations.

    Some years ago we received a prophetic vision of the number "333" whose meaning we have been interpreting ever since. This esoteric figure has proven to be the centre of a very large, multi-layered prophetic onion indeed. We now have revelations totalling many thousands of words and referring to many different things arising out of a single vision of this number. We have, moreover, literally 'lived' in the heart of this number. And we know that Yahweh has much, much more to reveal about it.

    To be complete Christians/Messianics we must understand the Scriptures and live them. To understand them we must learn the four methods of Scriptural interpretation. But Christianity has lost most of these keys -- the esoteric tradition is practically dead, or has been abused by occultists like the kabbalists (who have basically used the Biblical forms or shells in which to secrete their New Age teachings). It is for this reason (and many others) that NCAY exists.

    Understanding as we do the close intimacy between Israel and Messiah will ultimately show us, moreover, that the falsely-called 'Old' and 'New' Testaments are, in fact, One Testament and One Besorah (Gospel). As the children of Abraham we are under the Covenant of Abraham. As the children of Israel we are the sons of Jacob too through the Messiah Yah'shua (Jesus). There is no distinction between us -- the children of Messiah -- and the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We are all one. We shall see, in fact, that the ancients were, and are, a part of the Eternal Round that the Besorah (Gospel) is. Jacob the man was a type of Messiah, as was the nation he sired. In Messiah, Jacob and his family -- the nation of Israel -- is brought to completion. Whilst the 'Old Covenant' has indeed been 'brought to an end', the Torah has not (tontrary to what the grand old heresy of Christendom maintains) but has been brought to completion in Messiah. So imagine yourselves, in Messiah, living with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, in Messiah. They are all 'Christians', 'Messianics' or 'Believers' as we are. They always were -- only they never knew it. Now the question is: When will we recognise that we are of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? When Christians recognise what family they belong to, and stop making orphans of themselves with false teachings, then they will finally enter into the rest of the New Covenant.

    This page was created on 22 November 1997
    Last updated on 19 January 2018

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