The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context

308 The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context
targumic paraphrases of Gen. 27.41 were given as explanations why
Esau did not, in actual fact, do what everyone might expect him to
have done, and act like Cain in murdering his brother instanter. Esau,
in this picture, is a killer, and his descendants have the same reputation,
as in the ancient exegesis preserved in Neofiti of Deut. 33.2. 36
Furthermore, it was notorious that Cain's sacrifice (Gen. 4.5) was
not accepted; it was thus pswl, like Esau himself, according to Neofiti
of Gen. 49.2 and Deut. 6.4. And we should note one further, and
crucial, fact of biblical history. As Gen. R. 75.9 points out, God did
not kill Cain for murdering his brother; rather, he protected him
from anyone who sought to slay him (Gen. 4.15). The link between
Esau and Cain, therefore, belongs to a world removed from that
which could equate Esau with Rome, because in the latter the everlasting
downfall of Rome is essential stuff of the equation. As the
Palestinian Targums of Gen. 15.12 insist, Edom is to fall, never to
rise again: there is no question of this Esau being protected from the
wrath of his enemies. We may suggest, therefore, given the evidence
of Philo and the observations made here, that the association between
Esau and Cain in Neofiti belongs to an older stratum of tradition than
the Esau-Rome equation. This study has, we believe, enabled us to see
how the one tradition has been superimposed on the other.
It would also seem reasonable to argue that verses which present
Esau as a commander of troops, a mighty warrior, and one of the
great ones of the world, but do not speak of him in royal terms (Gen.
32.7; 33.1; 49.26; 50.1) may ante-date the introduction of the Esau-
Rome equation into Neofiti. These verses do not speak of legions, have
no necessary reference to Rome, and echo, albeit faintly, the description
of Esau as a military commander found in Jubilees. The failure of
Targum Neofiti of Gen. 50.1 to use the word 'kingdoms' in respect of
Esau's sons is striking in this regard. 37
Different strata are also discernible in the more obviously
'translational' elements in Neofiti. We have noticed places where
Neofiti agrees with one or more of the ancient versions over against
36. For the dating of the Targums of this verse, see J. Heinemann, Aggadah and
its Development (Jerusalem, 1974), pp. 156-62 [in Hebrew], and R. Syr6n, The
Blessings in the Targums (Abo, 1986), pp. 144-48.
37. Although this text speaks of Ishmael in royal terms, it is unlikely to belong to
the Islamic period, since Esau-Rome-Christendom certainly had 'kingdoms' at that
time.