Connecting Pirke Avot 4:16 to Jesus

We've been reading Pirke Avot (Ethics of the Fathers) as part of the Introduction to Rabbinic Thought and Literature course that I'm taking this semester. This work is a compilation of the moral and ethical sayings of the 65 rabbis who form the foundation of the oral Torah (Jewish oral teachings).

Today, our mission was to find a passage that stood out to us and see if it had any parallels in the New Testament. I chose 4:16:

Rabbi Judah said, "Be cautious in study, for an error in study may lead to presumptious sin." (Pirke Avot 4:16, trans. Dr. Brad Young).

I think the literal meaning is clear enough. How easy is it to read over a Scripture and think you know what it means without actually studying the context and intertextual implications to try to discover what it was really intended to communicate? In such a case, a person could think he or she is following what the Scripture says, when in actuality, the person may be doing something totally opposite.

There is a story in rabbinic literature where a somewhat unschooled man (an am-haaretz) is walking along and finds a dead body. He picks it up and carries it to the nearest city, thinking that he is doing a good deed, and then when he gets there, he is berated by the rabbis because he has sinned by doing this "good deed." They tell him that he would have done greater honor to the dead man by burying him where he lay (and they present their scriptural support for this). Perhaps this is an extreme example, but it nonetheless illustrates the concept that one can think he is doing what is right, but because he does not actually know what the Bible says about it, he actually ends up doing wrong by presuming that he knows something that he does not actually know.

As I sat in class, staring at this passage from Pirke Avot, another thought came to mind. I remembered Jesus' words to His disciples in Matthew 18:6, where He says,

But whoever causes one of these littles ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. (NASB)

When I read the statement from Rabbi Judah, I am reminded of my own individual need to approach the Scriptures carefully. Yet when I think about Jesus' words here, it seems that this need to do right by the Torah (Scripture teachings) has implications far beyond those that benefit or harm me as an individual.

My understanding of Scripture is what I communicate to others. Either it will be sound, or it will be faulty. In some part, my level of study determines this. (I believe we are also helped by God, who illumines our understanding of His words.)

Could it be that what Jesus meant here was that His disciples should not cause "littles ones" to stumble by teaching them incorrect things? Is it possible that an element of His teaching here is a motivation for the disciples to soundly study and approach Torah so as to be equipped to present the most accurate picture of its teachings to those who are coming to them?