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My MidrashHere are my bible-story re-workings. all my midrash is © copyright 1995-2003 the Revd. Gareth J M Saunders; apart from the bits I have so obviously nicked from the Bible! All rights reserved.
PDF formatAll my midrash is available in PDF 1.3 format which requires Adobe Acrobat Reader 4.0 or above. For more information about PDF files see my page on creating PDF files. What is Midrash?According to a Rabbi Scheinerman on a Jewish website, Midrash is a verse-by-verse interpretation of Hebrew Scriptures, consisting of homily and exegesis, by Jewish teachers since c.400 B.C. "Midrash is the art of extending and interpreting Torah by commenting on the text, answering unanswered questions in the text, or deducing laws and traditions from the text. From the time the Torah was closed and canonized, Jews have been interpreting and reinterpreting the sacred writings of the Torah. Many of these interpretations are expressed through Midrash... The sages of old wrote midrashim to teach and inspire, explain esoteric legal matters, and interpret the meaning of events of their day. We, today, do the same. The art of midrash is alive and vital today." ...and then there is my stuff!When I began work with the Shaftesbury Society in London in 1995 I found myself on long night-shifts with little to do once the kitchen was cleaned! So I got out my trusty pocket NIV Bible and began to embellish the stories a little. An activity, which amongst some Evangelical Christians is regarded as almost blasphemous - citing Scriptures which tell us not to add one jot or tittle to the words of Scripture. However, as you will have read above, this practice is well known in the Jewish community - from which Jesus himself came. And if it's good enough for them ... It was actually one of my former lecturers at St Andrew's, when he'd read them, that called it my "Midrash", so the name stuck. Midrash on-lineAs part of the Join Hands organisation there is an online Midrash community who discuss, via an e-mail group, the forthcoming week's Revised Common Lectionary readings with a view to preaching on them. You can subscribe (free) to this group by visiting:
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