84 Meira Polliack
nonfi ctional and exegetical writing, yet its content was idiosyncratic to the
longstanding traditions of Jewish Bible interpretation. Th e Judaeo-Arabic
Bible commentaries had a three-layered structure. First the commentator
cited a Hebrew biblical verse; then he translated it into Judaeo-Arabic (es-
sentially classical (middle) Arabic transcribed into Hebrew letters); then he
commented on it in Judaeo-Arabic from syntactic, semantic, thematic, and
stylistic perspectives. Sometimes the very same commentaries were also
produced in Arabic script, especially by Karaite exegetes. In such cases, the
Hebrew biblical verse could also be transcribed into Arabic characters. Th e
commentary continued verse by verse as a functional device, enabling the
analysis and interrogation of the biblical text within cohesive discourse and
literary units.4
In order to grasp the novelty of this form of commentary in Judaism,
one must look to classical rabbinic literature, which at fi rst glance may
also appear to comment on the Bible consecutively. Th e formal structure
of midrashic compilations (or midrashim) tends to follow the biblical text
verse by verse, oft en dissecting the verse into smaller fragments of phrases.
But the content of these compilations is not inherently consecutive or co-
hesive. Rather, midrashic compilations bring together clusters of varied,
diverse, and oft en opposing interpretive comments on each verse and its
minute fragmentations. Further, they sometimes focus on some verses
and then skip large sections before moving on to another group of verses.
Th ough the classical midrashim may contain interrelated comments, they
are essentially anthologies of collated interpretations attributed to various
Sages, with no overall evident cohesiveness between their parts, except
that they are arranged formally in a manner that follows the biblical text
consecutively. Th eir editors remained anonymous, and as literary works,
their creations seem to refl ect the collective exegetical endeavor of a certain
school of rabbinic thought. At some stage, these interpretations were com-
mitted to writing, but they appear to have originated from an oral setting
of biblical study and interpretive discourse which took place in batey mid-
rash (schools/houses of learning) or in synagogues during the pre-Islamic
period. Th e midrashic method of commenting on the Bible refl ects the
Sages’ conception of the Bible as an “omnisignifi cant” divine text imbued
with unlimited meanings, unlike any text originated by a human being.
Th e new medieval commentary form was suited to diff erent ways of think-
ing about, writing about, and reading the Bible among the book-cultured
Arabized Jews.5
Before rabbinic midrashim, there did exist individually authored works