The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context

KOPFSTEIN Jewish Traditions in the Writings of Jerome 429
Finally, we should look briefly at the impact of Jewish exegetical
traditions on Jerome in relation to larger sense-units, the sentence, the
passage, the book. Jerome, of course, ascribes the three Solomonic
books to the wise king; what is more, he ascribes each book to a specific
period in Solomon's life and thus makes it suitable for the corresponding
age group: Proverbs aims at educating the youngsters (in
Proverbiis parvalum docens); Qohelet should be read by the mature
person who should be made to understand how transient the affairs of
this world are (in Ecclesiaste...maturae virum aetati instituens): and
the Song of Songs is reserved for the old and wise who have
renounced the vanity of this world and are about to embrace the
bridegroom (in Cantico Canticorum...ad...consummatum virum). 41
Lest anyone think that Jerome attaches importance only to the latter
portion of Christian elaboration, let it be said that he also adduces
pagan authorities: the ancient philosophers, he tells his readers, used
to teach three different disciplines to the age-groups mentioned:
Ethicam, Physicam and Logicam respectively.
Jerome criticizes the Greek translation of the prophet's name
Malachi as angelos; 42 the Latin reader should not think that an angel,
angelus, had come down to proclaim something to the people. The
Greek angelos should be understood in the sense of 'messenger'
(nuntius), but in this verse Malachi is a proper name and the person in
question is, as the Jews think, Ezra; he, then, is the author of the
book. 43
I have mentioned Shebna, the palace governor. Jerome quotes his
Jewish informants as to the reason (which, he states expressly, is not
given in the Bible) why this man was denounced by the prophet: he
had made an attempt to betray his king and country, sending messages
by arrows to the enemy's commander. 44 This story is told in the
indeed, the Vulgate exhibits the wording ad acervum novarumfrugum.
41. Commentarius in Librum Ecclesiasten, on Qoh. 1.1; III, pp. 383ff.
42. Commentariorum in Malachiam, Praefatio; VI, pp. 939-42.
43. Occasionally Jerome explains to his readers terms or customs of postbiblical
Judaism: thus for example the talmudic term for Jewish infidels minim (Minaei;
Epistola CXH, 13 [ad Augustinum]; I, p. 740), the mourning rites, the phylacteries
Tefillin (decalogum scriptum in membranulis circumdare capiti suo... ante oculos et
infrente pendere; Commentariorum in Ezechielem, on Ezek. 24.11; V, p. 280) and
so on.
44. Commentarii in Isaiain, on Isa. 22.15-25; IV, p. 224.