Meditations

Hour 1 of Open Line on November 1, 2025 @15:11

Question:

I have recently been listening to a podcast that’s going over Jewish and eastern understanding of the bible that’s talking about Midrash and other literature which dwells on the bible in hebrew in Jewish. How do you use that stuff to further our understanding of the bible?

Answer from Dr Michael Rydelnik:

https://www.moodyradio.org/radioplayer.aspx?episode=658646&hour=1

Summary of answer:

Dr Michael Rydelnik says the best way to understand the bible is to read it. The mistake is to think that we need all sort of background literature to understand the bible. If we need the historical background to the text, the bible itself is the best reference. For example, the background to Isaiah 7 is 2 Kings 16 and the background to the book of Ephesians is Acts 19. Let scripture interpret scripture. Secondly, there may be some background that we may have forgotten that the author of scripture presumes the audience knew. For example, in Matthew 23, Jesus is talking about the seat of Moses and Matthew records that. Matthew knows that Jesus knows about the seat of Moses and the audience knows about the seat of Moses but the current reader of scripture don’t. That’s when it is good to do research to understand the seat of Moses. Historically, the seat of Moses was thought to be discovered at the city of Chorazin in Galilee and it suggests a literal or symbolic seat of authority for teaching Torah in synagogues.