The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context

ISHMAEL AND ESAU IN THE BOOK OF JUBILEES AND TARGUM
PSEUDO-JONATHAN
Roger Syren
In the Old Testament, Ishmael and Esau are two of the forsaken firstborns,
who had to give up their birthrights to a younger brother.
Although they remain outsiders, later generations did not lose interest
in their lot and relationship to the 'true' children of Israel. Here, I
shall make a brief survey, and some comments, on their appearance in
the book of Jubilees and Tg. Pseudo-Jonathan.
Jubilees (commonly dated to the middle of the second century BC) 1
contains two large sections on Ishmael, and both are additions in relation
to the Hebrew biblical text. One is found in ch. 20 with a blessing
of Ishmael, Isaac and Keturah (in that order!), the other in ch. 22,
where Ishmael celebrates Pentecost together with his father and older
brother in Hebron. Ishmael's birth is briefly reported in 14.24,
whereas the oracle in Gen. 16.11-12 does not receive any attention at
all. On the other hand, Genesis 21 is retold almost literally with slight
alterations or additions. Again, in 20.1-13, Jubilees proffers some
geographical and 'ethnical' details which seem to sum up several
biblical passages:
Ishmael and his sons and the sons of Keturah and their sons went together
and they dwelt from Paran to the entrance to Babylon in all of the land
which faces the east opposite the desert. And these mixed with each other,
and they are called Arabs or Ishmaelites. 2
1. Cf. D. Mendels, The Land of Israel as a Political Concept in Hasmonean
Literature (Texte und Studien zum Antiken Judentum, 15; Tubingen: Mohr, 1987),
pp. 148-49 for relevant data.
2. My quotations from Jubilees follow O.S. Wintermute's translation in
J.H. Charlesworth (ed.), The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, II (London: Darton,
Longman & Todd, 1985), pp. 54-142.