The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context

396 The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context
In that I, Eleazar, have the right, and am the heir of Nikarchos, my father,
and my uncle Bannai did not leave (sons) and has no offspring, I,
Eleazar, [have the rig]ht... 50
Read in comparison with the usage of Targum Jonathan, Eleazar's
declaration shows that pi*, rather than or, was the natural diction in
ordinary, legal contexts, as well as when the issue was more profoundly
theological (as in the 'Targum' of Job). In the rendering of
pis from Hebrew, the material from Qumran and Hever represents
earlier usage.
Paul's claim to see in Jesus a i^aoTTipiov where God was both
righteous and making righteous is consistent with both Greek and
Aramaic sources of early Judaism insofar as his expectation was of
global worship on Mount Zion. He did not claim that Jesus was a
replacement of the cult, but that Jesus provided believing Gentiles
with a means of access into the covenant with Israel. Their
'justification' resided in the offering that they themselves might make,
rather than in any purely theoretical sense of acquittal. Paul's thought
is certainly no repetition of targumic materials, and there is no proof
(and no suggestion here 51 ) that he formulated his argument in Aramaic,
but the Targumim are among the sources which illuminate—in the
language of a later period—the matrix and milieu of his argument.
In the study of the New Testament, the Targumim have for too long
been identified, without remainder, as sources in which 'Aramaisms'
might be discovered. Doubtless, evidence of linguistic interruption
within the Greek Testament may suggest the influence of Aramaic
sources. 52 But the speaker need not be a Jesus (or a Paul), since there
is no evidence that the early church was less creative in Aramaic than
it was in Greek. The language of such sources would need to be
reconstructed within a continuum in which the Targumim are
50. For the most part, my translation agrees with that of Fitzmyer and
Harrington, and with their restoration of the material in square brackets. But I think
the syntax of the whole may be cleaned up by supplying what is in round brackets,
and that haplography explains why it was omitted. Whatever interest my suggestion
might arouse, it has nothing to do with the argument of the present paper.
51. Cf. W.C. van Unnik, 'Aramaisms in Paul', in Sparsa Collecta: The Collected
Essays of W.C. van Unnik, I (NovTSup 29; Leiden: Brill, 1979), pp. 129-43.
52. Cf. M. Black, An Aramaic Approach to the Gospels and Acts (Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1967); M. Wilcox, 'Semitisms in the New Testament', ANRW
11.25.2 (ed. W. Haase; Berlin: de Gruyter, 1984).