Targum Onkelos to Genesis 3

Koot van Wyk (DLitt et Phil; ThD)

Visiting Professor

Kyungpook National University

Sangju Campus

South Korea

Conjoint Lecturer of Avondale College

Australia

17 August 2011

 

The Targums are not all perfect reproductions of their originals. Sometimes in an Aramaic Targum, Christian and Arabic elements can be seen. Yet, the Aramaic Targums are considered an integral part of Judaism and is cited from by famous Rabbis in the Middle Ages in their commentaries on the Bible. Targum Onkelos to Genesis 3 was prescribed to me by prof. dr. H.J. Dreyer at the University of South Africa. The following is my rendering of the Targum to Genesis 3 in English. At that time I used the translation of Johann Cook, a MA treatise, a person who was to become my major professor in Textual Criticism, Syriac, Septuagint Readings and Coptic at Stellenbosch University.

 

What the reader is going to find is that in comparison with his/her English Bible, the Jewish Targums of the post-Christ period (the pre-Christian Targums did not survive and someone has said that it was the Christians who preserved the Targums) is that they had certain taboos that caused them to change the original to fit their taboo. They did not want to make God appear like a human as we find in the original of Moses so they took the liberty with scissors, glue and a wastebasket to cut out those humanizing elements from the text and substitute it with a hidden phrase or longer phrase hiding that stark anthropological element.

 

Targum Onkelos to Genesis

 

verse 1

And the snake was wiser than any of the animals of the field that the Lord God created. And he said to the woman: "Is it in truth that the Lord God said: 'You may not eat from any tree from the garden'?

 

verse 2

And the woman said to the snake: "'From the fruits of the trees of the garden you may eat,

 

verse 3

but from the fruits of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, the Lord said, you may not eat of it, nor may you approach it, otherwise you will die.'"

 

verse 4

"And the snake said to the woman: 'You will definitely not die."

 

verse 5

"And it is revealed before the Lord that in the day that you eat thereof your eyes will open, and you shall become like the mighty who distinguish between good and evil."

[Targum Onkelos changed "and God knows" of the Hebrew of the Masoretic text into "and it is revealed before the Lord" due to a taboo they had of representing God with human qualities].

 

verse 6

And the woman saw that the tree was good to eat from, and that it is healing to the eyes, and the tree was desireable to receive through it understanding, and she took from the fruits and ate, and she also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.

[Targum Onkelos changed "desire to the eyes" of the Hebrew of the Masoretic text into "healing to the eyes"].

 

verse 7

And the eyes of both of them opened and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed together leaves from figtrees and made for themselves coverings.

 

verse 8

And they heard the voice of the word of the Lord God that was walking in the garden at the setting of the day. And Adam and his wife hid themselves before the Lord God in the midst of the trees of the garden.

[Targum Onkelos changed "the sound of the Lord God" of the Hebrew of the Masoretic text into "the voice of word of the Lord God". Targums attempted to remove anthropomorphisms of the consonantal text of the Masoretic tradition because they thought it was a taboo to picture God similar to humans].

 

verse 9

And the Lord God called to Adam and said to him: "Where are you?"

 

verse 10

And he said: "I heard the voice of your word in the garden and I was afraid because I am naked and I hid myself."

[Targum Onkelos changed "the sound of You" of the Hebrew of the Masoretic text into "the voice of Your word". Targums attempted to remove anthropomorphisms of the consonantal text of the Masoretic tradition because they thought it was a taboo].

 

verse 11

And He said: "Who told you that you are naked? Did you eat from the tree that I told you not to eat thereof?"

 

verse 12

And Adam said: "The wife that you gave me to be with me, she gave me from the tree and I ate".

 

verse 13

And the Lord God said to the woman:

"What did you do?" And the woman said: "The snake deceived me and I ate".

 

verse 14

And the Lord God said to the snake: "Because you did this, cursed are you more than the beasts, and more than every living animal of the field, on your stomach will you go, and dust will you eat all the days of your life."

 

verse 15

"And I will set enmity between you and the woman, and between your descendants and her descendants and it shall be a remembrance what you have done to him from the beginning and you shall spy him out until the end".

[Targum Onkelos changed 'seed' of the Hebrew Masoretic text to 'descendants'].

 

verse 16

And to the woman He said: "I will greatly increase your suffering and your pregnancy, in difficulty you will bring forth children, and you shall return towards your man, and he will reign over you. [Targum Pseudo Jonathan used here for 'return' 'your desire'].

 

verse 17

To Adam he said: "Because you listened to the word of your wife, and ate from the tree, from which I commanded you saying: 'You may not eat of it', cursed are the ground for your sake, in difficulty will you eat of it all the days of your life".

 

verse 18

"And thorns and thisles it will bring forth for you and your shall eat the plants/herbs of the ground."

[Targum Onkelos changed "plants of the field" of the Masoretic text "plants of the ground"].

 

verse 19

"In the sweat of your face/nose you will eat food/bread until you will be brought back [The 'Ittaphal is in Targumic Aramaic a passive of the 'Aph'al] to the ground from which you were taken/created because dust are you and to dust you will return".

 

verse 20

And Adam called his wife Eve, because she is the mother of all the sons of man.

[Targum Onkelos changed "all the living" of the Hebrew of the Masoretic text into "all the sons of man"].

 

verse 21

And the Lord God made Adam and his wife expensive clothes on the skin of their flesh, and He clothed them.

[The Hebrew of the Masoretic text reading "garments of skin" is changed by Targum Onkelos in "expensive clothes on the skin of their flesh"].

 

verse 22

And the Lord God said: "Look Adam is unique in the world, he is able to distinguish between good and evil, and that he may not stretch out his hand and take for himself from the tree and eat and live for always."

[Targum Onkelos changed the Hebrew of the Masoretic text "like one of Us" into "unique in the world"].

 

verse 23

Thus the Lord God send him away from the Garden of Eden to cultivate the ground from which he was created.

[The Hebrew of the Masoretic Text reads here 'taken' instead of 'created'].

 

verse 24

So he chased Adam out and in the East of the Garden of Eden cherubs were placed and the flaming sword that is turned around so that it protects the way to the tree of life.