The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context

MAHER Targum Pseudo-Jonathan of Deuteronomy 1.1-8 267
follow. The author then goes on to prove this assertion by quoting
several verses, including Deut. 1.1. The same work later quotes the
words 'These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel' to make the
point that Moses' words at the beginning of Deuteronomy were words
of rebuke (mqntr), whereas his words at the end of that book were
words of blessing (cf. Deut. 33.1). 7 Midrash Tannaim* quotes the
phrase 'These are the words' (Deut. 1.1) and adds the comment: 'The
Holy One, blessed be He, said, "Moses' rebuke of (twkht msh) Israel
is as dear to me as the Ten Commandments'".
It seems then that interpretative tradition took the words referred to
in Deut. 1.1 to be words of rebuke. When, therefore, Pseudo-Jonathan
adds the words 'of rebuke' in his translation of this verse he was
alluding to this well-known tradition. This practice of simply alluding
to popular midrashic traditions is very frequent in Pseudo-Jonathan,
as I have noted in another context. 9
The idiom 'the words of rebuke' (pytgmy 'wkhwt') which we find
in Pseudo-Jonathan Deut. 1.1 occurs again in Pseudo-Jonathan Deut.
28.15 which introduces the series of curses that are recorded in
vv. 15-68. One of the characteristics of Pseudo-Jonathan is that it
shows a certain consistency in using a particular formula to translate
the same Hebrew word in different biblical texts, or, as is the case in
Deut. 1.1 and 28.15, to describe a certain activity in different
contexts. 10
Sifre I understands 'beyond the Jordan' in Deut. 1.1 not as indicating
7. Cf. PRK, Supplement 1.5. See also Qoh. R. 3,11.1. Exod. R. 51.8 says
that when the people broke off their golden rings for the purpose of making the
Golden Calf Moses rebuked them (hwkyhri) with 'And Laban, and Hazeroth and Di-
Zahab'. Josephus, Ant. 4.8.4.194-195 reads Deut. 1.1 as a rebuke; also Pseudo-
Philo, LAB 19.1-5, especially 5. On the tradition of 'words of rebuke' in the
Targums see J.M. Sanchez Caro, Tradiciones del Targum Palestinense a Dt 1, 1',
Salmanticensis 26 (1979), pp. 109-24.
8. Midrasch Tannaim zum Deuteronomium (ed. D. Hoffmann; Berlin:
Poppelauer, 1908-1909), p. 1.
9. See M. Maher, Targum Pseudo-Jonathan: Genesis (The Aramaic Bible IB;
Collegeville, Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 1992), pp. 6, 31 n. 3, 68 n. 32, 103
n. 24, 138 n. 22; see also, e.g., Pseudo-Jonathan Exod. 10.23; 14.24; Lev. 8.33;
Num. 12.1.
10. Cf. e.g., E.M. Cook, 'Rewriting the Bible: The Text and Language of the
Pseudo-Jonathan Targum' (unpublished PhD dissertation, University of California,
Los Angeles, 1986), pp. 48-51, 108, 272.