Targums and the Transmission of Scripture into Judaism and Christianity

449 Pages·2009·1.51 MB·English

by  Robert Hayward

Targums and the Transmission of Scripture into
Judaism and Christianity
Studies in the Aramaic
Interpretation of Scripture
Managing Editor
Paul V.M. Flesher
University of Wyoming
Editorial Board
Bruce Chilton, Bard College
Willem Smelik, University College, London
Moshe Bernstein, Yeshiva University
Edward M. Cook, Catholic University of America
Luis Díez Merino, University of Barcelona
VOLUME 10
Targums and the Transmission
of Scripture into Judaism and
Christianity
By
C.T.R. Hayward
LEIDEN • BOSTON
2010
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hayward, C.T. Robert
Targums and the transmission of scripture into Judaism and Christianity / by
C.T.R. Hayward.
p. cm. — (Studies in the Aramaic interpretation of Scripture, ISSN 1570-1336 ;
v. 10)
Includes index.
ISBN 978-90-04-17956-1 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Bible. O.T. Aramaic—
Criticism, interpretation, etc. 2. Judaism—History—Post-exilic period, 586 B.C.–210
A.D. 3. Church history—Primitive and early church, ca. 30–600. 4. Midrash.
5. Rabbinical literature—History and criticism. I. Title. II. Series.
BS709.4.H39 2010
221.4’26—dc22
2009040256
ISSN 1570-1336
ISBN 978 90 04 17956 1
Copyright 2010 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgements ............................................................................ vii
Preface ................................................................................................. ix
Abbreviations ..................................................................................... xiii
PART ONE
TARGUMIC PORTRAYALS OF BIBLICAL FIGURES
I. Shem, Melchizedek, and Concern with Christianity in
the Pentateuchal Targumim .................................................. 3
II. Abraham as Proselytizer at Beer-sheba in the Targums
of the Pentateuch .................................................................... 17
III. Balaam’s Prophecies as Interpreted by Philo and the
Aramaic Targums of the Pentateuch ................................... 35
IV. The Figure of Adam in Pseudo-Philo’s Biblical
Antiquities ................................................................................ 53
V. The Sacrifice of Isaac and Jewish Polemic against
Christianity ............................................................................... 72
VI. A Portrait of the Wicked Esau in the Targum of
Codex Neofiti 1 ....................................................................... 88
PART TWO
DATING TARGUM PSEUDOJONATHAN
VII. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan and Anti-Islamic Polemic ....... 109
VIII. The Date of Targum Pseudo-Jonathan: Some
Comments ................................................................................ 126
vi contents
IX. Jacob’s Second Visit to Bethel in Targum
Pseudo-Jonathan .................................................................. 155
X. Pirqe de Rabbi Eliezer and Targum Pseudo-Jonathan ... 172
XI. Inconsistencies and Contradictions in Targum
Pseudo-Jonathan: The Case of Eliezer and Nimrod ...... 210
XII. Red Heifer and Golden Calf: Dating Targum
Pseudo-Jonathan .................................................................. 234
XIII. The Priestly Blessing in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan ......... 259
PART THREE
SAINT JEROME AND JEWISH TRADITION
XIV. Jewish Traditions in Jerome’s Commentary on
Jeremiah and the Targum of Jeremiah ............................. 281
XV. Saint Jerome and the Aramaic Targumim ...................... 300
XVI. Some Observations on St. Jerome’s Hebrew Questions
on Genesis and the Rabbinic Tradition ............................ 318
PART FOUR
TARGUM AND TEMPLE
XVII. Sirach and Wisdom’s Dwelling Place ............................... 341
XVIII. Food, the Animals, and Human Dignity. Jewish
Perceptions in a Targumic Context .................................. 361
XIX. Melchizedek as Priest of the Jerusalem Temple in
Talmud, Midrash, and Targum ......................................... 377
Index of Modern Authors ................................................................ 401
Index of Scriptural, Rabbinic, and Patristic References .............. 406
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author and publisher wish to acknowledge their indebtedness for
permission to reproduce copyright material as follows:
“Shem, Melchizedek, and Concern with Christianity in the Pentateuchal
Targumim”, in K.J. Cathcart and M. Maher (eds), Targumic and Cognate
Studies. Essays in Honour of Martin McNamara, JSOT Supp. Series
230 (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1996), pp. 67–80.
“Abraham as Proselytizer at Beer-sheba in the Targums of the Penta-
teuch”, JJS 49 (1998), pp. 24–37.
“Balaam’s Prophecies as Interpreted by Philo and the Aramaic Targums
of the Pentateuch”, in P.J. Harland and C.T.R. Hayward (eds), New
Heavens and New Earth. Prophecy and the Millennium: Essays in
Honour of Anthony Gelston, Supp. to Vetus Testamentum 77 (Leiden:
Brill, 1999), pp. 19–36.
“The Figure of Adam in Pseudo-Philo’s Biblical Antiquities”, JSJ 23
(1992), pp. 1–20.
“The Sacrifice of Isaac and Jewish Polemic against Christianity”, CBQ
52 (1990), pp. 292–306.
“A Portrait of the Wicked Esau in the Targum of Neofiti 1”, in D.R.G.
Beattie and M. McNamara (eds), The Aramaic Bible. Targums in their
Historical Context, JSOT Supp. Series 166 (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic
Press, 1994), pp. 291–301.
“Targum Pseudo-Jonathan and Anti-Islamic Polemic”, JSS 34 (1989),
pp. 77–93.
“The Date of Targum Pseudo-Jonathan: Some Comments”, JJS 40
(1989), pp. 7–30.
viii acknowledgements
“Jacob’s Second Visit to Bethel in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan”, in P.R.
Davies and R.T. White (eds), A Tribute to Geza Vermes. Essays on
Jewish and Christian Literature and History, JSOT Supp. Series 100
(Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1990), pp. 175–192.
“Pirqe de Rabbi Eliezer and Targum Pseudo-Jonathan”, JJS 42 (1991),
pp. 215–246.
“Inconsistencies and Contradictions in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan: The
Case of Eliezer and Nimrod”, JSS 37 (1992), pp. 31–55.
“Red Heifer and Golden Calf: Dating Targum Pseudo-Jonathan”, in
P.V.M. Flesher (ed.), Targum Studies, vol. 1, Textual and Contextual
Studies in the Pentateuchal Targums (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1992),
pp. 9–32.
“The Priestly Blessing in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan”, JSP 19 (1999), pp.
81–101.
“Jewish Traditions in Jerome’s Commentary on Jeremiah and the Tar-
gum of Jeremiah”, PIBA 9 (1985), pp. 100–120.
“Saint Jerome and the Aramaic Targumim”, JSS 32 (1987), pp. 105–
123.
“Some Observations on St. Jerome’s Hebrew Questions on Genesis and
the Rabbinic Tradition”, PIBA 13 (1990), pp. 58–76.
“Sirach and Wisdom’s Dwelling Place”, in S.C. Barton (ed.), Where
Shall Wisdom Be Found? (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1999), pp. 31–46.
Reproduced by kind permission of T&T Clark, an imprint of
Continuum International Publishing.
PREFACE
This collection of essays consists of seventeen previously published
papers, to which two unpublished items, the first on food, animals,
and human dignity, the second on Melchizedek in some Rabbinic
texts, have been appended. The essays are grouped together under
four headings, which highlight their principal concerns. All the essays,
however, are to a greater or lesser extent concerned with the Aramaic
Targumim, and many of them deal also with the exegetical traditions
to be found in the Rabbinic midrashim. All the items in the collection
itself are presented here as contributing to an overarching theme, a
discussion of how the manifold, and sometimes mysterious meanings
of the Hebrew Bible were transmitted into the Judaism of post-biblical
times, and (to a lesser degree) into early Christianity.
The Aramaic versions of the Bible known as Targumim played
an important role in the Jewish and early Christian investigations of
the Bible. Both Jews and Christians were convinced that the Hebrew
Scriptures conveyed information to the reader or hearer not only en
clair, as it were, but also in less obvious ways which could be discov-
ered and understood only by painstaking and detailed scrutiny of the
texts. The persons who, over the course of the centuries, were respon-
sible for the development of the Aramaic Targumim offered to their
hearers and readers not only a translation of the Hebrew texts they
treated, but also exegesis. This exegesis they may, in some instances,
have generated themselves; in other instances it seems that they are
content to report and record interpretations which they have heard or
read elsewhere. Not infrequently, their exegesis has much in common
with biblical interpretations preserved for us in the classical midrashic
collections. Many of the essays reprinted here attempt to describe and
investigate further the exegetical traditions which the framers of the
Targumim had at their disposal, and to provide a context for them.
Undoubtedly the most informative and expansive of the Targumim
discussed in the essays is Targum Pseudo-Jonathan of the Pentateuch,
and a section is devoted to discussion of its date. It is certainly not,
in its final form, the oldest representative of the Aramaic translations
of the Law of Moses; as is well known, it contains a few, scattered
indications that it is aware of Islam. Yet after many years of work