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The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context

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268 <strong>The</strong> <strong>Aramaic</strong> <strong>Bible</strong>: <strong>Targums</strong> <strong>in</strong> <strong>their</strong> <strong>Historical</strong> <strong>Context</strong><br />

the place where Moses addressed the people, but as referr<strong>in</strong>g to some<br />

unspecified s<strong>in</strong> which the Israelites committed beyond the Jordan. This<br />

understand<strong>in</strong>g of the phrase is mistaken, and it has been ignored by all<br />

the <strong>Targums</strong>, <strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g Pseudo-Jonathan.<br />

Neofiti, V, Ctg Br and Onqelos all follow the <strong>in</strong>troductory words of<br />

v. 1, '<strong>The</strong>se are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel', with the<br />

statement 'he rebuked them'. Thus these <strong>Targums</strong>, like Sifre, also<br />

adopt the tradition that the words of Moses were words of rebuke, but<br />

they do so <strong>in</strong> a manner that differs from that of Pseudo-Jonathan, who<br />

as we have seen, <strong>in</strong>troduced the term 'rebuke' earlier <strong>in</strong> the verse. P is<br />

the only one of the <strong>Targums</strong> that does not explicitly refer to the words<br />

of Moses as words of rebuke.<br />

As the verse cont<strong>in</strong>ues it is to be noted that whereas Pseudo-<br />

Jonathan and the Palest<strong>in</strong>ian <strong>Targums</strong> have Moses address the people<br />

directly, Onqelos records his words only <strong>in</strong> narrative form: 'he<br />

rebuked them for hav<strong>in</strong>g s<strong>in</strong>ned...for hav<strong>in</strong>g angered etc.'.<br />

Pseudo-Jonathan is the only Targum to say that Moses 'gathered<br />

them closely to himself when they were (on the other side of the<br />

Jordan)'. Here aga<strong>in</strong> Pseudo-Jonathan is echo<strong>in</strong>g a tradition which is<br />

recorded <strong>in</strong> Sifre 1, and which expla<strong>in</strong>s why Moses gathered the<br />

people to himself. Sifre offers three explanations of HT 'unto all<br />

Israel'. <strong>The</strong> first of these says that if all the the people were not present<br />

when Moses spoke, those who were absent might later say that if<br />

they had been present they would have rebutted his words. <strong>The</strong> second<br />

<strong>in</strong>terpretation is closest to the text <strong>in</strong> Pseudo-Jonathan which we are<br />

consider<strong>in</strong>g. It reads as follows:<br />

Unto all Israel: Hence we learn that Moses had gathered them (knsrri) all<br />

together, from the oldest to the youngest, and said to them, 'I am about to<br />

rebuke you. If anyone has anyth<strong>in</strong>g to say <strong>in</strong> a rebuttal, let him come forth<br />

and speak'.<br />

Pseudo-Jonathan offers a condensed version of this tradition or of one<br />

very similar to it, a tradition which would have been well known to<br />

his audience. Without a knowledge of the midrashic l<strong>in</strong>e of thought<br />

one would not know why Pseudo-Jonathan felt it necessary to say<br />

explicitly that Moses gathered the people around him. Here then we<br />

have another example of Pseudo-Jonathan's tendency to make allusions<br />

to haggadoth which would have been familiar to his audience. 11<br />

11. See above, n. 9.

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