The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context

JEWISH TRADITIONS IN THE WRITINGS OF JEROME
Benjamin Kedar-Kopfstein
The man whose work I will be discussing here seems to have a split
personality: Jerome obviously never succeeded in reconciling his
theology with his philology. On the one hand, he was deeply convinced
that the Christian message was to be found in every chapter
and verse of the Holy Scriptures—of which, and this is decisive, the
Hebrew Old Testament constituted in his view an indispensable part.
On the other hand, he was keenly aware of the need to reach a philologically
accurate understanding of the text before any message could
be derived from it. 1
This dual loyalty, so to speak, explains Jerome's ambivalent attitude
towards the Jewish exegesis of the Bible, which in his eyes was basically
wrong insofar as it turned a blind eye to christological passages,
but which—this grave fault notwithstanding—was based on solid
Hebrew erudition. First, let me introduce the theologian.
The Jews, Jerome tells us, explain the call lernn amim IDOD D'ehnn
m«~ib 'Hear, you deaf! And look, you blind, that you may see'
(Isa. 42.18), as addressed to the Gentiles; but this is, he adds disparagingly,
a foolish interpretation (stulta interpretation2 since they themselves,
being deaf and blind as they deny Christ (negantibus
Christum), 3 are apostrophized by the prophet. Thus also the prophet's
utterance mrr n» law and ienp rm n» ia:un no nan, 'They have abandoned
the Lord' (Isa. 1.4), and thus 'rebelled and grieved his Holy
1. On Jerome as biblical scholar cf. H.F.D. Sparks in P.R. Ackroyd and
C.F. Evans (eds.), The Cambridge History of the Bible (Cambridge, 1970),
pp. 510-41, bibliography pp. 596ff., and B. Kedar in M.J. Mulder (ed.),
Mikra:Compendia Rerum ludaicarum ad Novum Testamentum (Assen/Maastricht,
1988), pp. 313-35, bibliography pp. 335-38. Passages from Jerome's writings are
quoted according to Vallarsi's edition (vols. I-XI), pp. 1734-42.
2. Commentarii in Isaiam, on Isa. 42.18-22; IV, p. 514.
3. Commentarii in Isaiam, on Isa. 2.2-3; VI, p. 14.