The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context

HAYWARD A Portrait of the Wicked Esau 307
as restored along the lines of the other Targums, does not make the
identification explicit. 35
Conclusion
Targum Neofiti's portrait of Esau is confused, inconsistent, and partial.
It corresponds to a text which shows clear signs of careless
transmission and of interference. The carelessness includes omissions
of words, phrases, and whole verses: some of this could be deliberate.
The interference manifests itself in the work of the censor, and in telltale
additions of material not integral to the translation. The commonplace
rabbinic equation of Esau with Rome has been influential, not
only in the work of the censor, but in other more subtle ways. Thus it
is likely that Neofiti has omitted 'the Jews' as a closer definition of
Esau's brothers in the conflate expression of Gen. 27.40, and has made
Jacob refuse to address Esau as 'my lord' in Gen. 33.8, to avoid any
suggestion that Rome might have eternal dominion over the Jewish
people. The omission of Num. 20.18, and the name of Edom in Num.
20.14, may also be determined by the Targum's unwillingness to
suggest implied conflict with Rome at this point in the scriptural narrative,
since God forbids Israel to fight Esau (Targum Neofiti of
Num. 20.21).
Yet it cannot be said that the equation of Esau with Rome entirely
defines Neofiti's picture of this man. As we have seen, the lines of
connexion drawn between Esau and Rome are somewhat indirect in
Neofiti, even allowing for the work of the censor. They may also be
superficial; because when we look beyond them, a picture of Esau
emerges which, in important respects, is incompatible with them. For
Esau is revealed as a latter-day Cain. He is so depicted in Gen. 27.41;
25.34; and probably also in 27.40. The note that Esau was a landowner
(Gen. 25.27) recalls Cain's profession as a cultivator of the
land (Gen. 4.2). The hostility of the two brothers Esau and Jacob was
very early related to Cain's attack on Abel: it was certainly known to
Philo, and so close was the association of Esau with Cain that the
35. See Levy, Targum Neophyti 1, I, pp. 139-40; Le Deaut, Targum du
Pentateuque. I. Genese, pp. 170-71, and, for more detailed consideration of the
texts referred to here, R. Le De"aut, La Nuit Pascale (Rome, 1963), pp. 271-72. On
the question whether Targum Neofiti of Exod. 12.42, the Poem of the Four Nights,
makes mention of Rome, see Le Deaut, La Nuit Pascale, pp. 359-69.