The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context

430 The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context
Talmud (Sank. 26a). When Jerome deems a phrase incomplete he may
add some explanatory words; more often than not these reflect some
midrash. The question *?pco rr», 'where is he that weighs' (Isa. 33.18)
sounds somewhat perplexing in its Hebrew terseness. The Vulgate has
ubi legis verba ponderans, 'where is he who weighs the words of the
law'; this corresponds exactly to the Talmudic explanation j'^pitD rnto
rmratB ]Tiam f'pp (Hag. 15b.), 'they used to weigh the easier matters as
well as the grave ones in the Torah'. Equally enigmatic seems the isolated
participle D'p'niHan (Isa. 29.15), '...that seek deep'. In Jerome's
translation a word is added: quiprofundis estis corde, '... (in the depth
of their) hearts'; the same word is added in Ibn Ezra's commentary:
D3 1 ? pDim op'ounn. The popular saying mntoriD iraon "119, 'too short is
the bed to stretch oneself on it' (Isa. 28.20), is rendered coangustum
est enim stratum ut alter decidat, 'the bed is so narrow that one or the
other must fall out'. This slightly changed picture, not a short bed for
one but a narrow bed for two persons, stems from the Talmudic exegesis
(Yom. 9b). In his commentary Jerome elaborates: the husband
says to his adulterous wife, 'The one bed cannot hold myself and the
adulterer with you'. The Midrash (Lev. R. 17.7) offers the same idea:
The bed cannot hold a woman and her husband and her lover (rrann ]'«
-into nir-n rftim nc?« 'pop'? n'TD 1 ). 45
Summing up the evidence and thinking of Jerome's impact on
Western civilization we may feel entitled to say that this man built the
most important bridge between the classic Jewish culture and Western
Europe. Nolens volens he did it; but then, history is full of such ironic
twists. Finally, one of Jerome's remarks may serve as salutation to our
venerable friends of the Royal Irish Academy. Jerome is dissatisfied
with the improper use of the word testamentum (a mistranslation of
the Greek word diatheke which has survived in modern idioms," Old
and New Testament); the Hebrew word rp"n means pactum, 'a pact,
covenant'. The Bible is not 'the last will of the dead' (non voluntatem
defunctorem sonare), he says, but 'a covenant among the living'. 46
This conference, generously sponsored by the Royal Irish Academy,
has once more demonstrated the Bible to be pactum viventium.
45. Commentarii in Isaiam, on Isa. 28.20; IV, p. 382: '...qui adulterae dicit
uxori; Unus lectulus me et adulterum tecum capere non potest'.
46. Commentarii in Jeremiam, on Jer. 31.31-34; IV, pp. 1074ff; Commentarii in
Malachiam, on Mai. 2.14; VI, p. 957.