Pharisaic or early rabbinic exegesis is known in
the Fourth Evangelist as well. Twice there is reference made to ‘search’ the
Scripture. The first occurrence is found on the lips of Jesus: ‘You search (εραυνατε)
the Scriptures, because you suppose that in them you have life; these are what
testify concerning me’ (5.39). This comment refers to rabbinic interpretation
known as ‘midrash’. The principal purpose of searching the Scriptures was to
find life. This idea is rooted in Scripture itself, for keeping the
commandments of Torah meant life: ‘You shall therefore keep my statutes and my
ordinances, by doing which a man shall live’ (Lev. 18.5; cf. Bar. 4.1-2). Hence
the principal aim of ‘building a fence’ around Torah (Ab. 1.1) was to
gain life. According to Hillel, ‘If a man . . . has gained for himself the
words of the Law he has gained for himself life in the world to come’ (Ab.
2.7) (In one midrash, Moses refers to ‘the Torah, the while of which is life’ (Deut.
R. 9.9 [on Deut 31.14])). The Johannine saying undoubtedly reflects this
perspective, which evidently reached back well into the early first century, if
not earlier, and apparently was not only held by Hillel, but by Jesus also.
After the Law is summed up by the Two Great Commandments, Jesus tells the
legist: ‘Do this and you will live’ (cf. Lk. 10.28). Because Jesus’ answer to a
question tat asked how to obtain eternal life (Lk. 10.25), it is probable that
the eschatological interpretation is found in the targum preserves an ancient
interpretation of Lev. 18.5: ‘If one practices them, he will live by them in
the future world’ (cf. Targ. Onq. Lev. 18.5; also in Targum
Pseudo-Jonathan, but adding ‘with the righteous ones’). This targumic
paraphrase coheres with the midrash found in the Tannaic commentary on
Leviticus, where it is reasoned that since people die in this life, ‘live by
them’ must refer to life in the world to come (Sifra Lev. §193 [on
18.5]). Both the synoptic and Johannine traditions seem to reflect this understanding
of the passage (cf. Jn 12.50). Thus, the Johannine statement, ‘You search
the Scriptures’, is not merely a formal parallel with rabbinic exegetical
method, but a reflection of a significant struggle between the Johannine
community and the synagogue over soteriology. Is eternal life found in Torah or
is it found in Christ? (Craig A. Evans, Word and Glory: On the Exegetical
and Theological Background of John’s Prologue [Journal for the Study of the
New Testament Supplement Series 59; Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1993], 151-53, emphasis
added)
Further Reading
Not by Scripture Alone: A Latter-day Saint Refutation of Sola Scriptura