While Gen. 19.33–35 in the Hebrew Bible indicates that Lot did not know that his daughters lay with him, the manuscript of TgPsJ suggests that Lot did know when the older daughter arose after the act of intercourse was completed. The printed editions of TgPsJ disagree with the manuscript, but agree with the Hebrew Bible and state that Lot did not know when either daughter lay down or arose. This raises the question: Is the manuscript accurate or does it contain a textual error? Scholars disagree. Some affirm the manuscript; others prefer the printed editions. This article argues that the text of the manuscript is accurate: the targumist did indeed state that Lot knew when his older daughter arose after she lay with him.
Purchase
Buy instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Institutional Login
Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials
Personal login
Log in with your brill.com account
Michael L. Klein, ‘ “Converse Translation”: A Targumic Technique’, Biblica 57, no. 4 (1976), pp. 515–537, reprinted as Michael L. Klein, ‘ “Converse Translation”: A Targumic Technique’, in Avigdor Shinan et al. (eds.), Michael Klein on the Targums: Collected Essays 1972–2002 (SAIS, 11, Leiden: Brill, 2011) pp. 19–39. Citations of this article will refer to the 1976 publication. At least six cases of apparent converse translation appear in the manuscript of TgPsJ: Gen. 4.14; 4.23; 19.33; 21.7; 37.33; Exod. 33.3.
Klein, ‘Converse Translation’, p. 516, and see p. 118, but cf. p. 123; and see Michael L. Klein, ‘Associative and Complementary Translation in the Targumim,’ in Baruch A. Levine and Abraham Malamat (eds.), Eretz-Israel: Archaeological, Historical, and Geographical Studies 16: H.M. Orlinsky Volume (Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 1982) p. 134.
See Bernard Grossfeld, Targum Neofiti 1: An Exegetical Commentary to Genesis (New York: Sepher-Hermon, 2000) p. 91, n. 21; B. Barry Levy, Targum Neophyti 1: A Textual Study: Introduction, Genesis, Exodus (Studies in Judaism, 1, Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1986) pp. 110 and 112; Fraade, Enosh and His Generation, pp. 116–119; and Lund, ‘Converse Translation in Peshitta Ezekiel’, http://purl.org/TC or at http://rosetta.reltech.org/TC/v06/Lund2001.html, paragraph 30.
See Samson Raphael Hirsch, The Hirsch Chumash: The Five Books of the Torah, Sefer Bereshis (translated by Daniel Haberman, New York: Feldheim, 2002) pp. 445–446; and for remarks on Lot’s awareness and guilt by medieval Jewish commentators, see Rashi (11–12th c.) in Katzenellenbogen, תורת חיים: בראשית, I, p. 234 (רלד); Radak (12–13th c.) in Katzenellenbogen, תורת חיים: בראשית, I, p. 234 (רלד); and Ralbag (Levi ben Gershon, 13th–14th c.) in Jacob M. Shurkin (ed.), רלב״ג על התורה (New York: Edison Lithographing Corporation, 1958) p. 28 (כח) and also p. 27 (כז).
Moses Ginsburger, Pseudo-Jonathan (Thargum Jonathan Ben Usiel Zum Pentateuch) Nach Der Londoner Handschrift (Brit. Mus. Add. 27031) (Berlin: S. Calvary & Co, 1903) p. 33. For criticism of Ginsburger’s frequent decision not to include notations to the emendations in his TgPsJ edition, see David Rieder, תרגום יונתן בן עוזיאל על חמשה חומשי תורה: העתק מכ״י לונדון, בריטיש מוזיאום (Jerusalem: Salomon’s Printing Press, 1974) p. ii.
Díez Macho, Targum Palaestinense in Pentateuchum, p. 125, n. 33. In the section ‘Sigla et Verba Breviata’, the legend has the following: ‘X̣ = littera mendosa, quod saepe accidit in V’ ‘X̣ = faulty letter, which is often the case in V’ (V being the symbol for the TgPsJ editio princeps of Venice, 1591) (Díez Macho, Targum Palaestinense in Pentateuchum, pp. IX and XX).
Clarke, Targum Pseudo-Jonathan of the Pentateuch: Text and Concordance, p. 21.
Clarke, Targum Pseudo-Jonathan of the Pentateuch: Text and Concordance, p. x.
Stemberger and Strack, Introduction to the Talmud and Midrash, p. 267; and see comments in Tov, Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible, p. 279.
Stemberger and Strack, Introduction to the Talmud and Midrash, pp. 206–207.
Tov, Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible, p. 52, and see p. 203. See also Rashi in Katzenellenbogen, תורת חיים: בראשית, I, p. 234 (רלד), n. 44; Yeivin, Introduction to the Tiberian Masorah, pp. 44–46 §§ 79–80; Ginsburg, Introduction to the Massoretico-Critical Edition of the Hebrew Bible, pp. 318–334, esp. 320; John Bowker, The Targums and Rabbinic Literature: An Introduction to Jewish Interpretations of Scripture (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1969) p. 321. For some discussion of extraordinary dots in midrash—which shows that some rabbinic circles were familiar with the procedure of using dots to mark what were believed to be doubtful letters—see Gen. R. 48.15 and 78.9; Avoth de-Rabbi Nathan (Solomon Schechter [ed.], אבות דרבי נתן [New York: Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 1997] p. 101); and Num. R. 3.13; and see Tov, Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible, p. 52, n. 65.
See Maher, Pseudo-Jonathan: Genesis, p. 72, n. 25; Le Déaut, Targum du pentateuque: Genèse, p. 201, n. 12; Rieder and Zamir, תרגום יונתן בן עוזיאל על התורה, pp. 26–27, n. 18 (in the section with their Hebrew translation of the text).
See Boyarin, Intertextuality and the Reading of Midrash, pp. 39–56; Sternberg, Poetics of Biblical Narrative, pp. 186–229; Samely, Interpretation of Speech in the Pentateuch Targums, p. 169; and Teeter, Scribal Laws, p. 177, n. 10.
Samely, Interpretation of Speech in the Pentateuch Targums, p. 175.
Samely, Interpretation of Speech in the Pentateuch Targums, pp. 174–175.
All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 363 | 27 | 8 |
Full Text Views | 229 | 5 | 1 |
PDF Views & Downloads | 62 | 14 | 4 |
While Gen. 19.33–35 in the Hebrew Bible indicates that Lot did not know that his daughters lay with him, the manuscript of TgPsJ suggests that Lot did know when the older daughter arose after the act of intercourse was completed. The printed editions of TgPsJ disagree with the manuscript, but agree with the Hebrew Bible and state that Lot did not know when either daughter lay down or arose. This raises the question: Is the manuscript accurate or does it contain a textual error? Scholars disagree. Some affirm the manuscript; others prefer the printed editions. This article argues that the text of the manuscript is accurate: the targumist did indeed state that Lot knew when his older daughter arose after she lay with him.
All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 363 | 27 | 8 |
Full Text Views | 229 | 5 | 1 |
PDF Views & Downloads | 62 | 14 | 4 |