Midrash Proverbs - Form

Form

This midrash is different from all the other haggadic midrashim in that its interpretations approach the simple exegesis then in vogue, being brief and free from the prolixity found in the other midrashim, so that this work is in the form of a commentary rather than in that of a midrash. The interpretations follow immediately upon the words of the text, without the introductory formulas found in the other midrashim, "as Scripture says," or "Rabbi N. N. began"; the latter formula, however, occurs at the beginning of the midrash. The editor of the midrash drew upon the Mishnah, Tosefta, Mekilta, Sifre, Pesiḳta de-Rab Kahana, Abot de-Rabbi Natan, Bereshit Rabbah, Wayiḳra Rabbah, Ecclesiastes Rabbah, Canticles Rabbah, and the Babylonian Talmud. But he does not seem to have known anything about the Jerusalem Talmud, since he does not quote from it. The editor was therefore probably a Babylonian Jew, although this can not be definitely decided.

The exact time at which the editor lived can not be determined. Zunz holds (G. V. p. 268) that the midrash was compiled in the middle of the 11th century; but this is dubious inasmuch as it is mentioned by name by Hananeel and Nathan, both of whom lived in the first half of that century. Buber thinks that the midrash was compiled as early as the 8th century, since quotations from it are found, though not with references to the source, at the end of the Halakot Gedolot and in the Seder R. Amram 12b. Although the midrash contains comparatively few legends, myths, or parables, it has many interesting sentences for which no parallel exists in the other midrashim. For instance, the four riddles which the Queen of Sheba propounded to King Solomon (Buber, l.c., p. 20b) are found in no other extant midrash, but they correspond to the first four of the nineteen riddles mentioned in the manuscript Midrash ha-Ḥefez (comp. S. Schechter in Folk-Lore, 1890, p. 353).