a palestinian targum feature in syriac - directory listing

A Palestinian Targum Feature in Syriac

SEBASTIAN P. BROCKOXFORD

q!A6g 7rtarg oabptaKov 4o°715

A familiar feature of the Targumim in general is provided by the variousAdistancing mechanisms which are used where the direct interaction ofGod with humanity is described in the Hebrew Bible. The purpose, of course,is to enhance the transcendency ofGod;' accordingly, in the Targumim peopledo not speak to God directly, as in the Hebrew Bible, but 'in his presence'(qdam), a usage taking its origin from the Achaemenid bureaucracy where onespoke, not directly to a high official, but 'in his presence': thus at Elephantinethe memorandum of Bagohi and Delaiah concerning the petition to rebuildthe Temple2 has: 'Let this be a memorandum for you in Egypt to say beforeArsham ...', and in several other Elephantine documents we find similarphraseology.3 The same usage recurs in Daniel, where people regularly speak'in the presence of' the king.4 The earliest instance of the transfer of thisuse of 'to speak before' from the earthly to the heavenly court5 seems to bethe Aramaic translation of Job from Qumran: 'Job answered and said beforeGod' ( llQTgJob 42:1). It is likewise found in the Apocalypse of Baruch ofthe late first century C.E., where, for example, Baruch says in the course ofhis prayer for Jerusalem:6 'I will only say one thing in your presence, Lord',and similar wording recurs elsewhere in the book (14:4, 16; 48:1). This earlierusage, evidently not confined to biblical books, was then taken over as aregular feature in both the Palestinian and Babylonian Targum traditions.7

Other 'distancing mechanisms' find their origin within the Targum traditionitself; one such case involves the circumlocution used in response to phrasesin the Hebrew Bible where God is described as 'having been seen by' (usually

1 They have often been claimed as 'anti-anthropomorphisms', but as M. L. Klein points out,this is inappropriate; see his 'The Preposition QDM: A Pseudo-Antianthropomorphism in theTargums', JTS n.s. 30 (1979), pp. 502-7 (pp. 504-5: 'deference, not anti-anthropomorphism').See also his Anthropomorphisms and Anti-Anthropomorphisms in the Targumim ofthe Pentateuch(in Hebrew) (Jerusalem, 1982), pp. 110-24.

2 Cowley 32:2-3=B. Porten and A. Yardeni, Textbook ofAramaic Documents from AncientEgypt (Winona Lake, 1986) I, A.4.9.

3 E.g. Cowley25:2 (=Textbook II, B.2.10), 'Yedoniah ... said before Widrang, commander ofthe garrison'. Similarly Cowley 37:9 (=Textbook I, A.4.2); Kraeling 8:1-2 (=Textbook II, B.3.9),etc.

4 This is noted by Klein, art. cit., but he did not take the usage back to Achaemenid Egypt.Occurrences are to be found in Dan. 2:9, 36; 4:5; 6:13, 14. At Dan. 6:16, however, the officialsspeak directly (with 1-, not qdam) to the king: a deliberate indication of their discourtesy, as R. H.Charles points out in his Commentary (1929), p. 159.

5 The transference of the terminology of the Roman court to the heavenly court is notablyto be found in the Hekhalot literature, on which see P. Alexander in J. H. Charlesworth (ed.),The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, I: Apocalyptic Literature and Testaments (Garden City NY,1983), pp. 240-44. In the Targumim, note for example the 'familia of the angels', at Cant. 1:15.

6 Apoc. Bar. 3:4.7 In the Peshitta it is only rarely found, e.g. Gen. 50:41 (Hebrew, 'speak in the ears of

Pharoah'), Num. 16:15 (as a variant).

noahbickart

Text Box

Sebastian P. Brock, A Palestinian Targum Feature in Syriac, JJS Vol. 46 (1995)Issue: 1-2 271-282 pp.

JOURNAL OF JEWISH STUDIES

wayyera' YHWH 'el).8 Here two developments occur. In the first place, theevent is solemnized by being described as a revelation; thus in Onkelos wayy-era' Y 'el regularly becomes w- 'itgli Y 1-. In the Palestinian Targum tradition,however, a further development takes place: God is no longer revealed 'to'someone, but 'over' ('al) them.9 Rather remarkably, the Peshitta'0 normallyattests the Palestinian Targum usage in this, whereas Pseudo-Jonathan agreeswith Onkelos. Since this pattern is broken by a few anomalies, it will be helpfulto set out the different attestations for the Pentateuch in tabular form:"Passage 'itgli Y 'al 'itgli Yl- 'ithzi 1- Other

(=Heb.)Genesis12:7 N P O PsJ SA SJ12:7 N P O PsJ SJ SA hamitglelwateh1217:1 N P O PsJ SM SAJ18:1 N F PsJ P OSM SAJ (N has memra d- )26:2 N O PsJ Sm SAJ P26:24 N P 0 PsJ SA SJ35:1 N P O PsJ SM SAJ35:9 NCFP OPsJSM SAJ48:3 N P O PsJ SA SJExodus3:2 angel NO PsJ SA S(J) P3:16 N P O PsJ Sm SAJ P(5bl)4:1 N O PsJ SAJ P4:5 N O PsJ S(A)J P5:21 NCO PsJyitgle qdam Y;

S P ylnehze6:3 NCFSA OPsJSJPLeviticus9:4 N 0 PsJ SM S(J) P SA (Iwat-)9:6 glory N P 0 PsJ Sm SA(J)9:23 N P(6bl) 0 PsJ Sm SAJ P(rell.) qdamNumbers14:10 glory N 0 PsJ (SM) P (SAJ)16:19 glory N P O PsJ SM SAJ20:6 glory NCP O PsJ SAJ

8 This has been extensively studied by A. Chester, Divine Revelation and Divine Titles in thePentateuchal Targumim (Texte und Studien zum Antiken Judentum 14, 1986), especially chs. 2and 5.

9 Chester provides no special comment on the difference in prepositions.10 The use of 'etgli in the Peshitta is noted in passing by Chester, Divine Revelation, p. 239." C=Cairo Geniza fragments, ed. M. L. Klein; F=Fragment Targum, ed. M. L. Klein;

J=Targum Jonathan; PsJ=Targum Pseudo-Jonathan; N=Targum Neofiti; O=Targum Onkelos;P=Peshitta; S=Samaritan Targum, ed. A. Tal (SA, SJ, SM/m represent specific manuscripts, citedfrom Tal's edition). Discussion of the various anomalies (such as P at Gen. 26:2) lies beyond thescope of this article; for the case of the variation in P at Ex. 3:16, see my review of M. D. Koster'sThe Peshitta ofExodus in JTS 29 (1978), pp. 550-1.

12 Compare 'etgli lwat in Ap. Bar. 4:3.

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A PALESTINIAN TARGUM FEATURE IN SYRIAC

It is noteworthy that 'itglil'etgli 'al is also the rendering in N and P for acouple of other Hebrew verbs:

Gen. 35:7 :n137;1 l"bM1 l711 M 'n"Ex. 3:18 W1'37 ;VIjpl E31 T- fl7'71'X mlll'

In the Prophets the pattern for renderings of wayyera' Y 'el is as follows:

'itgli 'al 'itgli 1- 'ithzi 1-Judges6:12 JP13:3 angel J P1 Kings3:5 P J -

9:2 P J -

9:2 P J -

Isaiah53:1 arm of the Lord ('al) J P(9a1)13 P(rell.) -

60:2 glory ('al) J (P+'al)Jeremiah31:3 J PZechariah9:14('ab) JP

In fragments of the Palestinian Targum tradition preserved for the Prophets'itgli 'al occurs at Isaiah 33:7, and 'itgli 1- at Hab. 3:1. In some further places'itgli 'al occurs where objects or places rather than people are concerned;thus Judges 5:4, 5 (Mount Sinai); 2 Sam. 22:11 (Cherubim); 1 Kings 19:8(Horeb).14

Particularly interesting is the situation in 2 Chronicles, where at 1:7 and7:12 P has 'etgli 'al, whereas the Targum has 'itgli 1-. 1:7=7:12 'etgli marya 'alVleymon.The table for the Pentateuch reveals very clearly that, as far as the Targumim

are concerned, the phrase 'was revealed over' is a characteristically Palestinianfeature.15 This is further confirmed by the considerable number of furtherplaces where the phrase occurs in Neofiti where there is no prompting in theHebrew due to the presence there of wayyera' Y 'el.16The high incidence of agreements between Peshitta and the Palestinian

Targum witnesses in Genesis, and to a lesser extent in Leviticus and Numbers,is very striking and requires explanation. Although the several claims that have

13The original reading 'alman ('etgli) is preserved only in 9a1 fam, and the rest ofthe manuscripttradition has altered to Inan, 'to whom', in conformity with John 12:38. For the importance of9alas a frequent lone witness to the original text of the Peshitta, see M. Weitzman, 'The Originalityof Unique Readings in Peshitta ms 9al', in R B. Dirksen and M. J. Mulder (eds.), The Peshitta:Its Early Text and History (Leiden, 1988), pp. 225-58.

14 For the locative use, cf. Neofiti at Lev. 16:2 (Hebrew 'al); note also 4 Esdras 7:33.15 For some references to Palestinian Aramaic outside the Targumim see M. Sokoloff, A

Dictionary ofJewish Palestinian Aramaic (Ramat Gan, 1990), 130a.16 See Chester, Divine Revelation, pp. 230-36 for summary tables.

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been made from time to time'7 about the 'Targumic' character of at leastparts of the Peshitta are clearly unwarranted and must be rejected,18 therenevertheless remain a number of distinctive translation features in certainbooks which suggest that the Syriac translators of these particular books(who, as we shall see, may safely be assumed to have been Jewish, and notChristian) had some connection with the circles out of which the Targumtradition as we know it developed. These common features may either concerndistinctive phraseology (as in the case under consideration), or reflect specificexegetical choices. In some cases the feature in the Peshitta may be sharedwith the Targum tradition as a whole, in others, with just the Palestinian orthe Babylonian.'9How is all this to be explained? Direct dependence of the Peshitta on the

Targumim is out of the question, in that the Peshitta is manifestly an in-dependent translation from the Hebrew original, and where the Hebrew isambiguous the Peshitta frequently makes different choices in interpretationfrom those made in the Targumim. A more promising approach might bealong the following lines. The two Targum traditions, Palestinian and Baby-lonian, as we know them from medieval manuscripts, are clearly the endproducts of a long line of development. Most scholars today would take theview that the two traditions are related, and that the literary and linguisticevidence (chronologically conflicting) is best explained by positing a lost com-mon earlier Palestinian Targum out of which both traditions have developedin different ways. Such an explanation of course implies the presence of sev-eral different chronological layers juxtaposed in the extant Targumim, eventhough these different layers are usually perceived collectively and in an undif-ferentiated way by modern scholars as representing a single recognizable styleof 'targumic translation', albeit manifested in two different forms, namelythe Palestinian and Babylonian Targum traditions. In our present context,what is needed is a strictly diachronic approach to the various translationaland exegetical strategies that we recognize collectively as characteristic of theTargumic process. It is precisely here that the witness of the early Aramaictranslation of Job from Qumran (I IQTgJob) and that of the Peshitta are ofparticular value.

In the former we encounter for the first time the transfer of the phrase'speak before' from the context of the human court to the divine presence.The fact that this feature was later to become a hallmark of the Targumim is,however, not sufficient to warrant calling this Aramaic translation of Job a'targum' in the normal sense ofthe word, and to give it this name (as is usually

17 Notably by A. Voobus, Peschitta und Targumim des Pentateuchs. Neues Licht zur Frageder Herkunft der Peschitta aus dem altpalastinischen Targum (Papers of the Estonian Theolog-ical School in Exile 9; Stockholm, 1958). Earlier scholars who took a similar view include A.Baumstark, C. Peters and P. Kahle.

18 See M. D. Koster, The Peshitta ofExodus: The Development ofits Text in the Course ofFifteenCenturies (Assen/Amsterdam, 1977), pp. 198-212, and M. Weitzman, 'Peshitta, Septuagint andTargum', in VI Symposium Syriacum, Orientalia Christiana Analecta 247 (1994), pp. 51-84.

19 The association with Onkelos was especially stressed by P. Wemnberg M0ller, 'Prolegomenato a Re-Examination of the Palestinian Targum Fragments of the Book of Genesis Published byP. Kahle and their Relationship to the Peshitta', JSS 7 (1962), pp. 253-66.

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done) simply invites confusion, and accordingly should be avoided.20 Whatthese Aramaic fragments of Job do tell us, however, is that this particularphraseology in the later Targumim represents one ofthe earliest layers amongthe various features that, in combination, we recognize as being typical of theTargum tradition.The Aramaic fragments ofJob are usually thought to go back to the second

or even third century B.C.E.,2' which means that they must antedate what islikely to be the earliest book of the Peshitta to be translated, namely Genesis,by at least a couple ofcenturies. Peshitta Genesis has preserved, in the very firstverse, an instance ofthe object particleyat (otherwise extremely rare in Syriac),and since the unsuffixed use of this particle does not seem to have come intocommon use in other Aramaic dialects until the early second century C.E.22this provides an approximate terminuspost quem for this book. In view of thefact that the Old Syriac Gospels (and probably already the Syriac version ofthe Diatessaron)23 sometimes deliberately reflect the wording of the PeshittaOld Testament when rendering quotations in the Greek New Testament, itis unlikely that the Peshitta version of Genesis will date from much afterthe middle of the second century. In combination, then, the evidence prettydefinitely points to a second-century date for this book, and this in turnprovides us with a valuable chronological peg24 to which we may attach thatparticular layer in the Palestinian Targum tradition which provides us withthe circumlocution 'was revealed over'.25

In the case of those books of the Peshitta Pentateuch which employ 'etgli'al, we are fortunate in having Palestinian Targum witnesses available. It issalutary to recall that, prior to the discovery of Neofiti, however, our evidencefor 'etgli 'al as a characteristically Palestinian feature was very much morelimited. This needs to be kept in mind when we turn to the situation in I Kings,where the Peshitta again provides 'etgli 'al in all relevant passages (against'itgli 1- of Targum Jonathan). Since the survival of Tosefta Targum fragmentsfor this book suggests that a complete Palestinian Targum may once haveexisted, one may be reasonably sure that where the Peshitta has 'etgli 'al in 1Kings, 'itgli 'al will have appeared in the Palestinian Targum.

20 See my 'Translating the Old Testament', in D. A. Carson and H. G. M. Williamson (eds.), ItIs Written: Scripture Citing Scripture: Essays in Honour ofBarnabas Lindars (Cambridge, 1988),pp. 87-98, esp. 94-5.

21 See, for example, G. Vermes, The Dead Sea Scrolls: Qumran in Perspective (2nd edition,London, 1982), p. 78.

22 Cf. T. Muraoka, 'The Verbal Rection in Qumran Aramaic', in T. Muraoka (ed.), Studiesin Qumran Aramaic (Abr-Nahrain Supplement 3, 1992), p. 101. It occurs notably in some of thedocuments of the early second century C.E. from the Judean Desert (including some of the BarKokhba letters), though an earlier example is to be found in 5Q 15 i. 17.

23 See J. Joosten, 'The Old Testament Quotations in the Old Syriac and Peshitta Gospels: AContribution to the Study of the Diatessaron', Textus 15 (1990), pp. 55-76.

24 An earlier one might conceivably be seen as underlying Paul's dsoKaA T1ETEL yap 3pyl OEov&I vdaav aItKi'aV KTA in Rom. 1:18. Note also the Syriac translation of Ben Sira 42:16, 'etgliwrahmaw d-marya 'al kullhon 'badaw, 'the mercy of the Lord has been revealed over all his works'(in the Hebrew the verse is differently divided, but fl172 ': 7y does feature).25 In the extant Palestinian Targumim a number of further developments have of course taken

place in the use of the phrase, for which see Chester, Divine Revelation, passim.

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The situation in 2 Chronicles is more problematic, in that the extant Tar-gum, which attests 'itgli 1- and not 'al, is also of Palestinian provenance,though probably late. The Peshitta version of Chronicles, which does pro-vide 'etgli 'al, is a work which offers more features that could be generallydescribed as 'targumic' than any other book of the Syriac Bible;26 very few ofthese features, however, occur in the corresponding places in the extant Tar-gum. Probably the best way ofexplaining this state of affairs is to suppose thatthe Peshitta Chronicles reflects contemporary features of Palestinian Targumpractice, and in this it serves as a witness which must be considerably earlierthan the extant Palestinian Targum.

'Targumic' features in the Peshitta such as 'etgli 'al thus should not beclaimed as direct borrowings from Palestinian Targumim, but rather theyshould be seen as reflecting an awareness on the part of these particulartranslators of strategies of translation into Aramaic that were at the timecurrent in Palestine, and which we encounter today in the surviving witnessesto the Palestinian Targum tradition. Connections with Palestinian Jewishtranslation circles, combined with a good knowledge of Hebrew, make itvirtually certain that these translators were Jewish rather than Christian, eventhough their handiwork came to be transmitted solely by Christians (as ofcourse also came to be the case with the Septuagint). These Jewish translationsmust have been taken over by Aramaic/Syriac-speaking Christians in northMesopotamia within less than a century from the time of their origin.27 Ifone were to suppose that, roughly contemporaneously with this borrowing,some of these Jewish translators joined the nascent Christian community inthe region,28 then this would render a further phenomenon concerning thephrase 'etgli 'al more readily explicable, namely the extension of its use inearly (and some not so early) Syriac writers to other biblical contexts wherethere is no textual evidence, either in Targumim or in the Peshitta, for the useof the phrase in the actual biblical text. It is to these that we now turn.29

(1) Gen. 4:9 MT (=N 0 P) 7'p X n1mm -173x'1Both Ephrem in his Commentary on Genesis30 and the Syriac Life of

Abel,3" by an unknown Symmachus, state that God 'was revealed over Cain'

26 On Peshitta Chronicles see especially M. P. Weitzman, 'From Judaism to Christianity: TheSyriac Version of the Hebrew Bible', in J. Lieu, J. North and T. Rajak (eds.), The Jews amongPagans and Christians in the Roman Empire (London/New York, 1992), pp. 147-73, esp. 150-58.27 Such an explanation would also well suit the unique case of the Targum to Proverbs, which

is dependent on an early form of the Peshitta; see, for example, E. Z. Melamed, 'Targum Mishle',Bar Ilan Annual 9 (1972), pp. 18-91.28 This would fit well with the historical reconstruction suggested by Weitzman in 'From

Judaism to Christianity'.29 It is appropriate that two ofthese passages (Gen.4:9 and Ex.4:24) should belong to episodes

whose early exegetical history has been so skilfully illuminated by Geza Vermes in his Scriptureand Tradition in Judaism (Studia Post-Biblica 4, 2nd edn. Leiden, 1973).

30 Ephrem's Commentary on Genesis is quoted from R. Tonneau's edition (with Latin trans-lation) in Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium (=CSCO) 152-3, Scriptores Syri 71-2(1955). There is a recent English translation by E. G. Mathews in St Ephrem the Syrian: SelectedProse Works (Fathers of the Church 91, 1994).

31 Quoted by section of my edition in Le Museon 87 (1974), 467-92.

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at this point; thus: Ephrem C Gen. 111.5 'God was revealed over ('etgli 'al)Cain and said to him, Where is ...'; and II1.6, referring to the same verse,'God was revealed over him in kindness . . . '.

Life of Abel, §12: 'then God was revealed over him . . .'.A Palestinian Jewish witness is provided by Tanhuma ad loc. (ed. Buber,

p. 10), niglah 'al.

(2) Gen. 12:1 MT (=NO P) a1mK nrm 1ImnEphrem, C Gen IX.2, 'God was revealed over Abram and said to him, Go

forth...'.

(3) Gen. 13:14 f. MT (=NO P) WIMM 7t -173H ;ll;l'lEphrem, C. Gen. X.2, 'After Lot had separated the Lord was revealed over

Abram: Arise ... '(v. 17 is quoted).

(4) Gen. 15:1 MT ratinf an=x '2 nl,l' "rm'N D8I= t7 " M7p ,1 r1=31 D Mn;ll;l0 Z31X 1Y '11'1 KXnIM ,irn

P 'the word of the Lord was upon ('at) Abram in a vision'.Ephrem, C Gen. XII. 1, 'After these things God was revealed over Abram

in a vision and he said to him, ...' (the last three words of verse 1 arethen quoted). 'etgli 'law(hy) is repeated in XII.2; by contrast the DiarbekirCommentary32 quotes the passage with the wording 'he was revealed to him('etgli leh) in a vision'.

(5) Gen. 15:13 MT (=NO P) D*-W V17=t'Ephrem, C. Gen. XII.2, 'Only after fire33 had descended on his accepted

offering, at evening, was He then revealed over him, and said to him ....

C. Gen. XII.5, the 'stillness' (Jelya) that fell upon Abraham (Gen. 15:12)takes place 'at the time God is revealed over him and establishes with him thecovenant' (Gen. 15:18).A Palestinian Jewish Aramaic witness is to be found in the Poem of the

Four Nights (Second Night):34N ... DIUX '7Y3 "7~IPXTnx K1flz"7"

(6) Gen. 31:3 MT (=N 0 P) npr 7X n1mm -itt'lEphrem, C. Gen. XXIX.2, 'God was revealed over Jacob, and he said to

him that he should return . . . '.

32 Edited, with French translation and good annotation, by L. Van Rompay, Le commentairesur Genese-Exode 9,32 du manuscrit (olim) Diyarbekir 22 (CSCO 483-4, Scriptores Syri 205,1986), p. 73; the pagination of the text volume is cited, since this also features in the margins ofthe accompanying translation volume.33 For the introduction of fire, see in general my 'Fire from Heaven: From Abel's Sacrifice to

the Eucharist: A Theme in Syriac Christianity', Studia Patristica 25 (1993), pp. 229-43.34 The various witnesses to the text are conveniently set out, for example, in R. Le Deaut, La

nuit pascale (Analecta Biblica 22, 1963), pp. 133-5.

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(7) Gen. 31:24 MT l W1?X" '13~=7 'I?X11 72' :"3* 'lN nxiX xn,in Yrvn 7=b w ,, +mx0 ;r'n x;ncri uxn-mx 7:a5*m, trip 1nn,n xnt

Ephrem, C Gen. XXIX.4, 'The Lord was revealed over Laban in a dreamand he said to him ...' (verse 24 is quoted). The phraseology with 'over' isrepeated in XXIX.5 ('Jacob says to Laban, God saw ... and was revealedover you in the evening... '), and in XXX. 1 ('God who was revealed over himin the evening . .. '). In contrast, elsewhere in XXIX.4 Ephrem refers to thesame episode with the words 'The God of truth was revealed to him in theevening'.

(8) Gen. 46:2-3 MT (=P; cf. N 0) ... r7X ",3b'tl7nlEphrem, C Gen. XL.5, 'God was revealed over him and he said to him, Do

not fear . . . '.

(9) Exod. 3:2 MT n' 1m,v jx71 X'lN .'17Y n"Inxl

P 'The angel of the Lord was seen by him' ('ethzi leh).Aphrahat, Demonstration VI.5 (ed. Parisot, I, col. 261, 16),35 .. . from the

time that the Holy One was revealed over him (=Moses)...'.

(10) Exod. 4:24 MT ;mlu ilioliN D Pxnxjn fl 'rvr Y71l0 rrbn~ rr 7-v

P 'The Lord encountered him' (pga' beh).Ephrem, C. Exod., Prologue, 'Concerning (how) the angel was revealed

over him in the night staging post and wanted to kill him'; and IV.4, 'Andbehold the angel was revealed for two reasons ...; therefore he is revealed inanger over Moses, for ofwhom was it right to be afraid ... ?'. In IV. 5 Ephremhas Moses say to Sipporah '(God ... ) who was revealed over you . .. '.36

(11) Exod. 4:27 MT (=N 0 P) 7InlX X inn9 -1nNnEphrem, C. Gen. IV.6, 'Now the Lord was revealed over Aaron and he sent

him to meet Moses'.

(12) Exod. 6:3 MT ...n;r.zX 7X XtXlN . .. rrinnx 7S7 ri7:12 inw7Xo . .. zrrmx nbm

35 In Patrologia Syriaca I (Paris, 1894).36 For the exegesis, based on Jewish aggadic traditions, of the passage in Aphrahat and

Ephrem, see A. Guillaumont, 'Un midrash d'Exode 4,24-26 chez Aphraate et Ephrem de Nisibe',in R. H. Fischer (ed.), A Tribute to Arthur Voobus (Chicago, 1977), pp. 89-95.

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P'... who was revealed to Abraham...'.Although the anonymous Diarbekir Commentary37 quotes the phrase ex-

actly as it appears in the Peshitta, it immediately goes on to gloss it as '...who was revealed over Abraham . . .'.

(13) Exod. 14:24 MT tl flnrinn 'x mrl qprlN "vr127 pmn1v1ve '7s tfl- "' P"7X0 K1373?Y xInVnwv I, 2nom

P 'and the Lord was seen by ('ethzi I-) the camp of the Egyptians'.Ephrem, C Exod. XIV.5, 'At the morning watch the Lord was revealed over

the Egyptians and put them into confusion'. The poem of the Four Nights inthe Palestinian Targum tradition at Exod. 12:42 likewise speaks of the Lordbeing 'revealed over' the Egyptians.

(14) 1 Kings 19:9 MT r'5tt nmfr -inr flwi1J ;'7l31 'l't M311n0 Km

Aphrahat, Demonstration 111.3 (ed. Parisot, I, col. 104, 14), 'and He wasrevealed over him (=Elijah on Horeb)'.

Not included in this list are passages where the Peshitta already has 'etgli 'al,and this is simply reflected in Ephrem's Commentary, either in direct quotationor in paraphrases of the biblical text; these appear in the Commentary atXIVl=Gen. 17:1; XIV.3=Gen. 18:1; XXXII.1=Gen. 35:1; and XLI.3=Gen.48:3.The fourteen instances listed above can be classified under two separate

categories: (a) cases where the Palestinian Targum tradition also has 'itgli 'al(thus 5, 7, 9, 12, 13; in one further case, 1, there is a Palestinian witness outsidethe Targum tradition); (b) cases where there is no other support for the phrase(thus 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 11, 14).38 The first category can serve as a starting pointin the search for an explanation for the phenomenon as a whole.We can be certain that neither Ephrem (d. 373) nor any other later Syriac

writer will have had any direct access to Jewish Palestinian written sources,and this phraseology is not on a par with the various exegetical traditionsthat Ephrem in particular shares with Jewish tradition,39 which could con-ceivably be explained as having been transferred on an oral rather than ona written level. This would seem to leave only one plausible explanation forthe phenomenon: that phraseology like 'etgli 'al, of Palestinian Jewish origin,became familiar to Syriac exegetical tradition at a very early stage, thanksto the prominent presence in the early Syriac-speaking Christian communityof Jewish converts who had at some time had connections with Palestiniancircles out of which the Palestinian Targum tradition emerged. Once in Syr-iac exegetical usage, it begins to function independently of its Palestinian

37 Ed. Van Rompay, p. 142.38 In the cases of nos. 9 and 11 it is interesting that 'itgli 'al also occurs in the Palestinian

Targum in the same, or an adjoining, verse, but in a different context.39 See note 56.

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roots, though its usage is largely confined to the two earliest major Syriacwriters whose work is preserved: Aphrahat, writing shortly before the middleof the fourth century, and Ephrem, writing in the third quarter of the samecentury. The phraseology for the most part disappears from use in later writ-ers, though not totally so, as can be seen from nos. (1) and (12). Curiouslyenough, the phrase seems to survive best when it has been transferred froma biblical context to that of Christian spiritual experience. An early witnessto this transference is provided by the Liber Graduum,40 a directory of thespiritual life usually dated c. 400; here the phrase occurs twice, in XV. 16 'theLord is revealed over a person in this world', and XV. 18 'and He was revealedover them ...' (in the same section we also find 'etgli I-). In later writingsthe phraseology turns up only very rarely, in the context of either liturgy orhagiography. Thus in the Martyrdom of the legendary Jewish convert JudasQyriaqos41 (set in Jerusalem) we have Hanna, the mother of Judas (now abishop), tell the emperor Julian when he asks her what is her religion, 'I reverethe heavenly king, Jesus, who was revealed over me through Judas, my son'.In the Martyrdom of Mar Shabay, first bishop of Merv,42 we learn how 'theangel of the Lord was revealed over her and he said to her (sc. the queen whois Mar Shabay's patron) ...'. The anonymous East Syriac Commentary onthe Liturgy,43 dating from the early Arab period, also provides a couple ofexamples: II, p. 98 line 8, where the author speaks of the time 'when Godwas revealed over Moses and fulfilled his promise to Abraham'; and II, p. 106line 10, where he gives as an explanation of why the pre-baptismal anointing(rusma, lit. 'mark') is made with only one finger: 'because the power of Godhas not (yet) been revealed over us'. As an example from an actual liturgicaltext one might cite a madrasa (hymn) where we have the words 'Jesus who wasrevealed over his disciples when he rose from the tomb on the first day of theweek'.44The phrase 'etgli 'al is in fact one of a not insignificant number of fea-

tures to be found both in the Syriac Bible and, independently of the SyriacBible, in early Syriac literature, which have their closest links with the JewishAramaic Targum tradition.45 Other examples include such phrases as 'thespirit of prophecy' (ruha da-nbi'uta),46 'second death' (mawta tenyana, i.e.

40 Ed. M. Kmosko, Patrologia Syriaca III (Paris, 1927).41 Ed. N. Pigulevskaya, in Revue de l'Orient Chretien 111,6 (1927/8), p. 334.42 §23 in my edition (in preparation); for the text, see my 'Bar Shabba/Mar Shabbay, First

Bishop of Merv', in W Schwaigert and M. Tamcke (eds.), Festschrift fur W Hage (forthcoming).43 Ed. R. H. Connolly, in CSCO 64, 71-2, 76, Scriptores Syri 25, 28-9, 32 (1911-15).44 Fenqitho, vol. VII (Mosul, 1896), 202b.45 In general see my 'Jewish Traditions in Syriac Sources', JJS 30 (1979), pp. 212-32, reprinted

in my Studies in Syriac Christianity (Aldershot, 1992), ch. IV.46 Ephrem, C Diatessaron XXI.6 (in the context of Mt. 27:51-2), 'or because the spirit of

prophecy was residing (sarya) in the temple . . . '. A rare occurrence in a much later writer (seventhcentury) can be found in Isaac of Nineveh (ed. Bedjan), p. 158. According to P. Schafer 'spirit ofprophecy', which is characteristic of the Babylonian Targum tradition, represents the older usagethat was replaced in the Palestinian tradition by 'spirit of holiness': see his '"Heiliger Geist" und"Geist der Prophetie" in den Targumim und das Verhaltnis der Targumim zueinander', VT 20(1970), pp. 304-14; this was disputed by A. Diez Macho, Neophyti I (Madrid/Barcelona, 1971),III, pp. 52*-55*. It should be noted that 'spirit of prophecy' occurs in a Geniza fragment at Gen.

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A PALESTINIAN TARGUM FEATURE IN SYRIAC 281

at Judgement),47 'resurrection of the dead' (hayyat mite),48 'sacred books'(ktabay qud§a),49 'which is compared to' (da-mtil b-),50 and divine titleslike 'anointed king' (malka m9iha),51 terms such as aggen,52 'urayta53 andgkinta,54 or the pairing 'grace' and 'justice',55 corresponding to the two mid-dot. In the same category belong several short quotations of the biblical text,notably in Ephrem's Commentary on Genesis, where Ephrem uses wordingthat goes against the Peshitta but accords with that of the Targumim, or somepart of the Targum tradition.56How is one to explain this remarkable phenomenon, and how is it to be

fitted in to what little we know of the origins and early history of Syriac41:38, as well as occasionally in the margin of Neofiti. A possible Greek reflection of the phrasecan be found in 7TVEoa7U 'pO+q7KOV in Hermas, Mandate xi, and Justin, Apol. i 6.47 See my 'Jewish Traditions', pp. 220-21, with note 28 for references; it also survives in

a number of Syriac liturgical texts still in current use. For the Jewish background see P. M.Bogaert, 'La "seconde mort" a l'6poque des Tannaim', in A. Theodorides, P. Naster and J. Ries(eds.), Vie et survie dans les civilisations orientales (Leuven, 1983), 199-207.48 As in the Old Syriac codex Sinaiticus at Mt.23:23,28,30; the normal terms for 'resurrection'

in Syriac are qyamta and nuhhama.49 E.g. Ephrem, Hymns on the Fast 5:6, and sporadically in later writers.50 E.g. Ephrem, C Gen. XXXIII.l, XLIII.4; C. Diatessaron V.18, XII.5; Hymns on Faith

25:10.51 As opposed to the reverse order (thus Luke 23:2). Quite frequent in Aphrahat (Dem. 1:4,

5:14, 14:30, 19:9-10, 22:4,23:13, 16,46), but absent from Ephrem apart from the (later) responseto Hymns on Unleavened Bread 6. The title also occurs in later liturgical texts, especially (itseems) in those from the eastern Syriac area. For the Targum usage, see S. Levey, The Messiah:An Aramaic Interpretation (Cincinnati, 1974); the phrase is already found in Ps. Sol. 17:32.

52 The verb, which translates pasah in one strand of the Palestinian Targum tradition, appearsin all the Syriac versions at both Lk. 1:35 and Jn. 1:14; see my 'An Early Interpretation ofpasah:aggen in the Palestinian Targum', in J. A. Emerton and S. C. Reif (eds.), Interpreting the HebrewBible: Essays in Honour ofE. L J Rosenthal (Cambridge, 1982), pp. 27-34, and, for Syriac usage,'From Annunciation to Pentecost: The Travels of a Technical Term', in Eulogema: Studies inHonor ofR Taft (Studia Anselmiana 110, 1993), pp. 71-91.53 Frequent in the Old Syriac Gospels (e.g. Mt. 22:36, Lk. 2:27, Jn. 7:49), and occasionally

found in the Peshitta and subsequent Syriac literature.54 A feature of Peshitta Chronicles; see my 'Jewish Traditions', p. 215. Usage in the Rabbinic

literature and the Targumim is studied in detail by A. M. Goldberg, Untersuchungen um dieVorstellung von der Schekhinah in derfrahen rabbinischen Literatur (Studia Judaica 5, 1969), andD. Mufioz Leon, Gloria de la Shekina en los Targumim del Pentateuco (Madrid, 1977). In earlySyriac writers it occurs, for example, in Ephrem, Hymns on Unleavened Bread 13:21, Hymns onParadise 2:11, and C. Diatessaron 11.20. It is frequently accompanied (as in Jewish Aramaic) bythe verb sra, especially in the passive participle, Iarya, but also as the object of the af'el, 'asri (thusJacob of Serugh (ed. Bedjan) IV, p. 707); for the importance of this verb in earliest Syriac writingsee my 'The Lost Old Syriac at Luke 1:35 and the Earliest Syriac Terms for the Incarnation',in W L. Petersen (ed.), Gospel Traditions in the Second Century (Notre Dame, 1989), pp. 117-31. For some examples of skinta in later Syriac writers, see N. Sed, 'La Shekhinta et ses amis"arameens"', in Melanges A. Guillaumont. Contributions ea l'etude des christanismes orientaux(Cahiers d'Orientalisme 20, Geneva, 1988), pp. 233-42.

5 This is especially common in Ephrem's writings. One could also add the interesting case ofthe phrase 'robe of light/glory', common in early Syriac literature, whose origin lies in an earlyJewish exegesis of Gen. 3:21; see my 'Jewish Traditions', pp. 222-3, and (in more detail) 'SomeAspects of Greek Words in Syriac', in A. Dietrich (ed.), Synkretismus im syrisch-persischenKulturgebiet (Abh. Akad. Wiss. Gottingen 111.96, 1975), pp. 98-104, reprinted in my SyriacPerspectives on Late Antiquity (London, 1984), ch. 4.56 Several examples are noted in my 'Jewish Traditions', pp. 218-21; further ones could be

added.


Christianity? In the view of Drijvers,s7 the leading authority on this subject,early Syriac Christianity had its roots in paganism rather than Judiasm, andthe Judaic features that can be seen in the fourth-century writers Aphrahatand Ephrem are due to borrowings made in that century and not earlier. Thismight be plausible enough if these features were confined to elements thatsimply reached fourth-century Syriac writers through the Syriac translation ofthe Hebrew Bible, but it becomes much more problematic when a considerablenumber of them prove to have no basis in the Syriac Bible (let alone in anycontemporary or earlier Greek Christian writings). The existence ofthese non-biblical Jewish features in fourth-century Syriac writers alters the situation,for it is extremely difficult to envisage how this borrowing could have takenplace at a time when relations between the two religious communities inSyria-Mesopotamia were clearly antagonistic. Moreover, the presence of afew of these features can be documented from a very much earlier period,thanks to their appearance in the Diatessaron and/or the Old Syriac Gospels(i.e. late second, and third century C.E.); furthermore, the very fact that theearly Syriac-speaking community took over an already existing local JewishAramaic translation of at least some books of the Hebrew Bible implies thatthis community had direct Jewish roots, and it can hardly have been anyoneother than converts from Judaism who translated any books of the HebrewBible that still remained to be translated into Syriac.

Accordingly, despite the decidedly Greek-oriented character of theEdessene Christianity of Bardaisan (died 222), it would seem best to posit theexistence, perhaps alongside the community to which Bardisan belonged,58of other Christian communities in the area of northern Mesopotamia whoseorigin was in Judaism, and whose orientation remained decidedly Jewish incharacter. Such a view would seem to accord best with the evidence, of whichthe phrase 'etgli 'al considered here is just a single strand. It will have beenfrom such communities that at least most of the Jewish features in fourth-century Syriac writers derive, and, one might add, it was thanks to themthat narrative haggadic techniques continued to live on in Christian Syriacliterature for some centuries.59

57 H. J. W Drijvers, 'Jews and Christians at Edessa', JJS 36 (1985), pp. 88-102, and 'SyrianChristianity and Judaism', in Lieu, North and Rajak, The Jews among Pagans and Christians,pp. 124-46. Although I believe Drijvers is wrong on this point, he is certainly quite correct inhis rejection of simplistic readings of the Doctrina Addai and the legend of the conversion ofEdessa; compare my 'Eusebius and Syriac Christianity', in H. W Attridge and G. Hata (eds.),Eusebius, Christianity and Judaism (Detroit, 1992), pp. 212 34.

58 There is perhaps something to be said for J. B. Segal's suggestion that there might have beentwo separate Christian missions, one of Gentile, the other of Jewish background, to Edessa andNisibis (though there seem to be serious objections to the main thesis of his article): 'When didChristianity Come to Edessa?', in B. C. Bloomfield (ed.), Middle Eastern Studies and Libraries:A Felicitation Volumefor Professor J D. Pearson (London, 1980), pp. 179-91.

59 Represented above all in an adaptation to a new genre of narrative verse memra, livelyexamples of which can be found in Le Museon 99 (1986), pp. 61 129 (Abraham and Isaac), 102(1989), pp. 93-113 (Elijah and the widow of Sarepta), and 105 (1992), pp. 87-146 (Abraham andSarah in Egypt). For the treatment of narrative aggada in Greek and Latin Christian writers, seeA. Kamesar, 'The Evaluation of the Narrative Aggada in Greek and Latin Patristic Literature',JTS n.s. 45 (1994), pp. 37-71 (with a brief reference to Syriac on p. 70).

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