The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context

KOPFSTEIN Jewish Traditions in the Writings of Jerome 427
and therefore they changed the pronunciation of the relevant word
into bameh: 'what little is he to be accounted'.
Let us proceed to items of the vocabulary. Needless to say, if
Jerome knew to equate rv3 with domus, "pft with rex and the like—the
whole stock of frequently used words—he had learned this from Jews
through years of arduous study. Yet Jerome's acquired proficiency
becomes more salient when he deviates from what had become a standard
lexical equivalent or when he is compelled to translate rare
Hebrew words or wishes to comment upon them. The stock example
is, of course, the verse in the denunciation of Shebna (Isa. 22.15-19)
in which Jerome substitutes Latin gallus gallinaceus, 'a poultry-cock',
for Hebrew ~Qa, 'man', because that is what his Hebrew teacher had
instructed him to do 35 (cf. Rashi and Kimchi) in accordance with
postbiblical Hebrew. No less revealing, however, is the translation of
Shebna's title po, 'steward': qui habitat in tabernaculo, 'who dwells in
the tabernacle' (i.e. the portico of the Temple). True, Aquila had
translated likewise, but Jerome's decision to follow him is clearly
founded on the presumed linkage between po and HDD. Indeed, he
interprets the following word n'3, 'house', as denoting 'the Temple'
(rather than 'the palace'). In a different context (1 Kgs 1.2-4) any
etymologizing of the Hebrew word under review was unsuitable;
consequently Jerome steered clear of it.
In the passage on the 'Red Heifer' (Num. 19.2) the Hebrew text has
HD'an noi« ms. The last word is usually rendered integer, perfectus or
the like. Here, however, the Latin reads aetatis integrae, 'fully
grown'. In other words, not the redness nor the physical shape but the
age of the cow must be perfect. But that is exactly what Ibn Ezra says:
map rrnn N^ra, 'she must not be young' (cf. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan
po ]Tnn rra KrpDio).
Just once Jerome abandons the usual equation of Hebrew bin and
Latin arena, 'sand', in 'I shall multiply my days as hoV (Job. 29.18);
'sand', it seems, would fit the context exceptionally well, and yet
Jerome writes down palma, 'a palm'. Contrary to appearance, this is
no replica of the Septuagint (which has 'the stump of a date-palm') but
an echo of the Jewish tradition according to which in this verse hoi
denotes the miraculous bird that is consumed by fire but comes to life
again (b. Sank. 108b; see Jewish Bible commentators). Jerome's
35. Commentarii in Isaiam, on Isa. 22.17; IV, p. 318.