The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context

SHINAN The Aggadah of the Palestinian Targums 207
brought by Targum Pseudo-Jonathan before and after this verse from
Genesis:
Genesis 3.4: iimon mn ^ noun •?» omn ~in»"i i(=And the serpent said to
the woman, You shall not die).
Pseudo Jonathan:
(= At that time the serpent
slandered its creator and said to the woman: 'You shall not die, for every
craftsman hates his fellow-craftsman').
First we are told that the serpent slandered the words of the Lord, and
lastly, we are told the content of his words. The snake reassures the
woman: proscribing the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge is but the
act of a jealous craftsman, eager to ward off all rivals, eager to protect
his trade-secrets. We are not told however why eating from the
prohibited fruit will elevate man to be God's fellow-craftsman.
This last point becomes clear by comparing the Targum to the following
tradition in Midrash Genesis Rabbah: 12
Genesis Rabbah 19.6:
(= R. Joshua of Siknin said in R. Levi's name: He [the snake] began
speaking slander of his creator, saying, 'Of this tree did He eat and then
create the world; hence He orders you, you shall not eat thereof, so that
you may not create other worlds, for every craftsman hates his fellow
craftsmen').
The affinity between Targum and Midrash is clear and unmistakeable,
and it is with the hundreds of such examples that I would shape the
first part of this paper. Since it is difficult to believe that Targum and
Midrash reached the same tradition and language by taking separate
and independent roads, we can of course advance one of two possibilities:
(a) direct dependence between Targum and midrashic tradition
(in this direction or that); (b) indirect dependence: that is, use of
a common source (written or oral) which stood before the author of
the Midrash and the Meturgeman. Yet the difference between these
two answers is not all that significant. Both postulate an intertextual
affinity, whether direct or indirect, based on a written or oral source.
And as for the example noted above, we may even succeed in
12. Ed. J. Theodor and Ch. Albeck, (Jerusalem, 1965), pp. 172-73 [Hebrew].
Cf. M. Maher (trans.), Targum Pseudo-Jonathan: Genesis (Collegeville, 1992),
p. 25, notes 3-4.