Dr. John David Pitcher Jr. takes us on another great sleuthing journey into the Bible’s oldest midrash (Jewish commentary) that he has discovered through hours, weeks, months and years of scholarship. This time in his “Oldest Midrash” series, he turns our attention to Hebrews 4:10-13 Source Text Genesis 14:14b-17.

In this section of the Midrash, Paul describes the fulfillment of the Great Mitzvah, or Mitzvah Rabbah, which is the duty of Pidyon Shvuhim, literally, “redemption of captives.” In the midrash, this is the first time that the Great Mitzvah of redeeming captives is actually linked to Messiah. Paul only uses four words common to the Source Text in these four verses, and all of them common, but when the Jewish Zohar is taken into account, and the framework of Greek words in the previous and in the following sections of the Midrash are considered, the message is literally powerful. Paul, a midrashic wordsmith extraordinaire, of course chooses specific words to get his message across. And Paul identified Messiah as the rightful owner of every person– having acquird them with a price at the throne of grace.  To read more click here.