The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context

260 The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context
a reading of Prov. 9.30 in the light of Ps. 90.4. Neofiti still acknowledges
to wisdom a role in creation: 'From the beginning (the Word
of) the Lord with wisdom created and perfected the heavens and the
earth' (Targ. Neof. Gen. 1.1). In Abot also this surviving element of
wisdom tradition disappears definitively, and the Mosaic law replaces
wisdom as 'the precious instrument by which the world was created'
(m. Ab. 3.15). The Torah—not wisdom—preceded and rules God's
creation. 9
4. The Two Trends of Rabbinic Judaism
Mishnah, on the one hand, and Neofiti, on the other hand, witness to
the two main trends that concurred to form rabbinic Judaism. The
Mishnah created the myth of Halakha—the idea that religious life of
the Jewish people was ruled by a consistent and compulsory whole of
written and unwritten laws. Neofiti created the myth of the Torah—
the idea that the Mosaic law existed before Moses and since the
beginning was the only measure of salvation for humanity.
The treatise Abot joined these two trends through the concept of the
dual Torah. Scripture and Halakha were no longer linked only by the
external authority of the sages, but by a stronger, inner and reciprocal
bond. Scripture and tradition were now the two complemental sides of
the one, preexistent law. The clear boundaries set by the Mishnah
between unwritten and written rules, between Halakha and Haggada,
did not make sense any longer. The fusion of haggadic and halakhic
elements would mark the developments of later rabbinic literature.
Also from the sociological point of view, Mishnah and Neofiti witness
two parallel, autonomous traditions; more elitist the former,
more popular—but not less sophisticated—the latter. Mishnah is the
product of scribes who consider manual work a curse and condemn
idleness only in women (m. Pe'ah 1.1). The ideal of the sages is still
that of Ben Sira (38.24-39.11)—a life completely devoted to the study
of the laws. Unlike the professional scribes portrayed in the book of
Sira, the sages work, yet complain that since Adam's sin, human
beings are forced to work. 'Have you ever seen a wild animal or a
bird practising a craft?...! was created to serve my Maker...But I
9. The double translation of the Hebrew bereshit in Gen. 1.1, as 'beginning'
and 'wisdom', is replaced in the later rabbinic tradition by the couple 'beginning/
Torah'. See Gen R. 1.1-4: 'In the beginning by means of the Torah God created...'.