The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context

HAYWARD A Portrait of the Wicked Esau 299
reading semeron, 'today', in both verses. The implications of these
renderings are very serious. Not only does Jacob ask Esau to do
something which is illegal and not in the latter's power: he would also
appear to be ignorant of the law, even though Neofiti has already told
us in v. 27 that he was perfect in good deed and frequented the Beth
Ha-Midrash! The Targum seems to contradict itself; and even if references
to Jacob's perfection and study were to be deleted from v. 27 as
secondary accretions, the problem would still remain, since elsewhere
Neofiti portrays Jacob as a righteous man. 16 But here the Targum
opens up a horrific possibility, that Jacob may be ignorant, or conniving
at a breach of the law, or both these things. We shall return to
this problem, noting for the moment that Neofiti here displays an attitude
which might be described as anti-halakhic. 17
There are difficulties of a different order in v. 34, which offers the
first clear indication that Neofiti regarded Esau as a particularly
wicked man. The Targum translates the Hebrew fairly literally: Jacob
gave Esau bread and lentil pottage, and he ate, drank, rose up, and
went away: so Esau despised his birthright. Neofiti's rendering of the
final words of the Hebrew, and its additional material, are set out in
literal translation below:
and Esau despised his birthright, and against (or: upon) the resurrection of
the dead, and he denied the life of the world to come.
In his careful study of the text of Neofiti, B.B. Levy remarks of this
addition that the verb governing the phrase 'against the resurrection
of the dead' is lacking. 18 The same author argues in another place that
Neofiti can often betray, through difficulties and irregularities in its
grammar and syntax, reasonably clear evidence of additions to its
text. 19 May it not be the case that, rather than lacking a verb, this section
represents a later, rather clumsy addition to Neofiti's original
16. Jerome most likely saw the problem, since the Vg omits a translation of
kayyom altogether in both vv. 31 and 33. Neofiti regularly describes Jacob as pious:
see, for example, Gen. 33.18; Lev. 22.27; and cf. b. Sab. 33.
17. Neofiti does contain rulings which are not in accord with the halakhah: see,
for example, its version of Lev. 10.6; 19.3; and the discussion of these, and other
passages, by B.J. Bamberger, 'Halakhic Elements in the Neofiti Targum: A
Preliminary Statement', JQR 66 (1975-1976), pp. 27-38.
18. See B.B. Levy, Targum Neophyti 1. A Textual Study, I (New York, 1986),
pp. 174-75.
19. See Levy, Targum Neophyti 1, pp. 28-43.