The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context

STONE Jewish Tradition and the Christian West 447
Jerahmeel (14.4). 54 This text too is associated with Elijah, while similar
material connected with Isaiah is also to be found in the same work
(16.1-5). 55 Both the punishments and their causes given in these texts
are very similar to those to be found in the apocryphal Epistula Titi.
Thus we read of 'man hanging by their hands and men hanging by
their tongues and men hanging by their eyes and men hanging by their
ears'. 56 Clearly the Epistula Titi and the Chronicle of Jerahmeel know
a common tradition containing hanging punishments which are correlative
with the crimes committed. Moreover, both sources relate this
tradition to the prophet Elijah. How did such a specific tradition come
to be shared by these two Jewish and Christian sources and can it be
traced back to an ancient Elijah apocryphon? 57
The source of this material may be uncertain, but its relative
antiquity was maintained and a number of further relevant Hebrew
and Aramaic texts were published by Saul Lieberman in 1945. The
oldest of these texts is a Geniza fragment attributed to the Tanna debe
Eliyyahu, 'The Teaching of the House of Elijah', a work mentioned in
the Talmud, although actual passage under discussion does not occur
in the surviving parts of that work. 58 The occurrence of talmudic precursors
of the 'hanging punishments' material is significant for our
discussion, since it highlights the Eastern sources of the Jewish material.
This might have been doubted because of the fact that the
Chronicle of Jerahmeel, as we have noted, does contain some
54. M. Caster's translation is not to be trusted completely, since he has introduced
into the text (with no indication) parallel passages from other mediaeval Hebrew
works, such as the Resit Hokmah by Elijah b. Moses de Vida, a Safed Cabbalist of
the sixteenth century. His work contained many selections from earlier works
including Hebrew Elianic writings (compare, Jewish Encyclopedia, V, p. 132).
55. Note that in some of the testimonia to the Elianic materials, Isaiah's name
replaces that of Elijah: see Stone and Strugnell (eds.), Books of Elijah, p. 76.
56. Translation from Stone and Strugnell (eds.), Books of Elijah, p. 16.
57. One should, of course, bear in mind the close relationships sometimes
existing between Jewish and Christian apocalypses of the Byzantine period. A case
worthy of further examination is that of the Daniel apocalypses. Much relevant
material has been assembled by K. Berger, Die griechische Daniel-Diegese (Studia
Post-Biblica, 26; Leiden: Brill, 1976).
58. S. Lieberman, 'On Sins and their Punishment', in Louis Ginzberg Jubilee
Volume in (New York: American Academy of Jewish Research, 1945), pp. 2, 249-
267. On Tanna debe Eliyyahu see the useful article in EncJud XV, cols. 803-804 and
further bibliography there.