Midrash is the ancient Jewish practice of intensive, reverent investigation of Scripture — "searching out" the text with the conviction that every word, every letter, every apparent redundancy carries divine meaning. It is not casual reading but active wrestling with the Word. The underlying verb dārash (to seek) is the same word used in Deuteronomy 4:29: "You will seek the LORD your God and you will find Him, if you search after Him with all your heart and with all your soul."
At its best, midrash embodies the posture Scripture demands of its readers: attentiveness, humility, and the willingness to sit with a text until it yields its treasure. The Bereans "examined the Scriptures daily" (Acts 17:11) — that is the midrashic impulse in action. Jesus Himself engaged in midrashic exposition: on the road to Emmaus, "beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself" (Luke 24:27). The master midrashist was Christ Himself — the one who could draw from every text its ultimate meaning because He was its ultimate subject.
Webster 1828 did not include "Midrash." The term was known in scholarly theological circles but had not yet entered common English usage. The concept, however, was deeply embedded in the Reformed and Puritan traditions of careful, searching Bible study — what the Puritans called "meditation" on Scripture was functionally midrashic: turning the text over and over, examining it from every angle, seeking the Spirit's illumination.
In popular usage, "midrash" has been reduced to mean "creative retelling" or even "reading things into the text that aren't there." Progressive scholars sometimes invoke midrash to justify eisegesis — importing modern ideological commitments into ancient texts and calling it "creative interpretation." But genuine midrash is the opposite of eisegesis: it begins with absolute submission to the text's authority and seeks to draw out what God put in. The rabbis took liberties with narrative elaboration, but always in service of the text's moral and theological claims — never to override them. When modern interpreters use "midrash" as a license to make Scripture say whatever they wish, they have perverted the very tradition they claim to honor.
2 Chronicles 13:22 — "The rest of the acts of Abijah… are written in the story [midrash] of the prophet Iddo."
Ezra 7:10 — "Ezra had set his heart to study [dārash] the Law of the LORD, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel."
Psalm 119:18 — "Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Your law."
Luke 24:27 — "Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself."
Acts 17:11 — "They received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so."
H1875 — דָּרַשׁ (dārash) — to seek, to inquire, to expound, to study; the root of midrash. Used over 160 times in the OT, ranging from "seeking God" to "investigating a matter" to "expounding Scripture." The word implies active, effortful pursuit — not passive reception.
H4097 — מִדְרָשׁ (midrāsh) — study, investigation, exposition; used twice in Chronicles (13:22, 24:27) referring to prophetic commentaries or elaborated historical narratives.
Understanding midrash transforms how Christians read the New Testament. Paul's typological readings of the Old Testament — Adam as a "type" of Christ (Rom. 5:14), the rock in the wilderness as Christ (1 Cor. 10:4), Sarah and Hagar as an allegory (Gal. 4:24) — are midrashic in method, Christological in aim. He is not inventing meanings but discerning the deeper patterns God embedded in history.
The Christian is called to be a midrashist: to search the Scriptures with the conviction that every text ultimately points to Christ, and that no passage is so familiar that it cannot yield fresh insight when approached with a humble, seeking heart.