Targum Onkelos and Torah Scroll from the Collections of Francesco Petrarch
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(CE:1227A-1228A) HEXAPLA and TETRAPLA, Two Editions of the Old Testament by ORIGEN
(CE:1227a-1228a) HEXAPLA AND TETRAPLA, two editions of the Old Testament by ORIGEN. The Bible was the center of Origen's religion, and no church father lived more in it than he did. The foundation, however, of all study of the Bible was the establishment of an accurate text. Fairly early in his career (c. 220) Origen was confronted with the fact that Jews disputed whether some Christian proof texts were to be found in scripture, while Christians accused the Jews of removing embarrassing texts from scripture. It was not, however, until his long exile in Caesarea (232-254) that Origen had the opportunity to undertake his major work of textual criticism. EUSEBIUS (Historia ecclesiastica 6. 16) tells us that "he even made a thorough study of the Hebrew language," an exaggeration; but with the help of a Jewish teacher he learned enough Hebrew to be able to compare the various Jewish and Jewish-Christian versions of the Old Testament that were extant in the third century. Jerome (De viris illustribus 54) adds that knowledge of Hebrew was "contrary to the spirit of his period and his race," an interesting sidelight on how Greeks and Jews remained in their separate communities even though they might live in the same towns in the Greco-Roman East. Origen started with the Septuagint, and then, according to Eusebius (6. 16), turned first to "the original writings in the actual Hebrew characters" and then to the versions of the Jews Aquila and Theodotion and the Jewish-Christian Symmachus. There is a problem, however, about the next stage in Origen's critical work. -
Philo Ng.Pdf
PHILO AND THE NAMES OF GOD By A. MARMORSTEIN,Jews College, London IN A recent work on the allegorical exegesis of Philo of Alexandria' Philo's views and teachings as to the Hebrew names of God are once more discussed and analyzed. The author repeats and shares the old opinion, elaborated and propagated by Zacharias Frankel and others that Philo was more or less ignorant of the Hebrew tongue. Philo's treat- ment of the divine names is put in the first line of witnesses to corroborate this literary verdict. This question touches wider and more important problems than the narrow ques- tion whether Philo knew Hebrew, or not,2 and if the former is the case how far his knowledge, and if the latter is true how far his ignorance went. For the theologians generally some important historical and theological problems, for Jewish theology especially, besides these, literary and relig- ious questions as to the date and origin of religious concep- tions, and the antiquity and value of our sources are involved. Philo is criticized for having no idea2 of the equivalent names used by the LXX for the Tetragrammaton and Elohim respectively. The former is translated KVptOS, the latter 4hos. This omission is the more serious since the distinction between these two names is one of Philo's chief doctrines. We are referred to a remark made by Z. Frankel about ' Edmund Stein, Die allegorische Exegese des Philo aus Alexandreia; Giessen, 1929. (Beihefte Zur ZAW. No. 51.) 2 Ibid., p. 20, for earlier observations see G. Dalman, Adonaj, 59.1, Daehne, Geschichtliche Darstellung, I 231, II 51; Freiidenthal, Alexander Polyhistor, p. -
Humor in Torah and Talmud, Part 5
Sat 18 Aug 2018 – 7 Elul 5778 B”H Dr Maurice M. Mizrahi Congregation Adat Reyim Lunch and Learn Humor in Torah and Talmud, Part 5 Torah (Theme: God is angry at us) 1-God loses it [The Israelites repeatedly ask Moses for meat in the desert. God tells Moses:] And say to the people... you shall eat meat. You shall not eat it for one day, or two days, or five days, or ten days, or twenty days; but for a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils and you become disgusted by it. [Numbers 11:18-20] 2-This, too, shall happen to you! The most dreaded Torah portion is Ki Tavo, where God lists all the curses that will befall those who do not follow His commandments: But it shall come to pass, if you will not listen to the voice of the Lord your God, to take care to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command you this day, that all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you. [Deut. 28:15] Follows a long string of dreaded curses, beginning with: Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field… [Deut. 28:16] And ending with: Also, every illness and every plague, that is not written in this Book of the Torah, the Lord will bring it upon you, until you are destroyed. [Deut 28:61] It’s not even exclusive: Whatever you dread most, whatever it is, shall happen to you! 3-Moses’ masterful plea The Israelites revert to idolatry by building and worshiping the Golden Calf. -
Shavuot Daf Hashavua
בס״ד ׁשָ בֻ עוֹת SHAVUOT In loving memory of Harav Yitzchak Yoel ben Shlomo Halevi Volume 32 | #35 Welcome to a special, expanded Daf Hashavua 30 May 2020 for Shavuot at home this year, to help bring its 7 Sivan 5780 messages and study into your home. Chag Sameach from the Daf team Shabbat ends: London 10.09pm Sheffield 10.40pm “And on the day of the first fruits…” Edinburgh 11.05pm Birmingham 10.22pm (Bemidbar 28:26) Jerusalem 8.21pm Shavuot starts on Thursday evening 28 May and ends after Shabbat on 30 May. An Eruv Tavshilin should be made before Shavuot starts. INSIDE: Shavuot message Please look regularly at the social media and websites by Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis of the US, Tribe and your community for ongoing updates relating to Coronavirus as well as educational programming Megillat Rut and community support. You do not need to sign by Pnina Savery into Facebook to access the US Facebook page. The US Coronavirus Helpline is on 020 8343 5696. Mount Sinai to Jerusalem to… May God bless us and the whole world. the future Daf Hashavua by Harry and Leora Salter ׁשָ בֻ עוֹת Shavuot Shavuot message by Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis It was the most New York, commented that from stunning, awe- here we learn that the Divine inspiring event revelation was intended to send a that the world has message of truth to everyone on ever known. Some earth - because the Torah is both three and a half a blueprint for how we as Jews millennia ago, we should live our lives and also the gathered as a fledgling nation at the foundational document of morality foot of Mount Sinai and experienced for the whole world. -
10. Why Didn't Jesus Use the Septuagint?
10 Q Did Jesus and the apostles, including Paul, quote from the Septuagint? A There are absolutely no manuscripts pre-dating the third century A.D. to validate the claim that Jesus or Paul quoted a Greek Old Testament. Quotations by Jesus and Paul in new versions’ New Testaments may match readings in the so-called Septuagint because new versions are from the exact same corrupt fourth and fifth century A.D. manuscripts which underlie the document sold today and called the Septuagint. These manuscripts are Alexandrinus, Vaticanus, and Sinaiticus. According to the colophon on the end of Sinaiticus, it came from Origen’s Hexapla. The others likely did also. Even church historians, Jerome, Hort, and our contemporary D.A. Carson, would agree that this is probably true. Origen wrote his Hexapla two hundred years after the life of Christ and Paul! NIV New Testament and Old Testament quotes may match occasionally because they were both penned by the same hand — a hand which recast both Old and New Testament to suit his Platonic and Gnostic leanings. New versions take the Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, and Alexandrinus manuscripts — which are in fact Origen’s Hexapla — and change the traditional Masoretic Old Testament text to match these. Alfred Martin, who was a past vice- president of Moody Bible Institute, called Origen “unsafe.” Origen’s Hexapla is a very unsafe source to use to change the historic Old Testament. The preface of the Septuagint marketed today points out that the stories surrounding the B.C. (before Christ) creation of the Septuagint (LXX) and the existence of a Greek Old Testament are based on fables. -
Three Early Biblical Translations
* * * * * * * Three Early Biblical Translations We do not have any of the original manuscripts of the books that have been included in the Bible. All we have is copies of copies. Most of the original manuscripts of the Old Testament were written in Hebrew, although a few chapters of Ezra and Daniel were recorded in Aramaic, the language of Jesus. The books of the New Testament were first written in Greek. The first translations of the Bible were of the Hebrew Bible. The Septuagint (SEP-too-a-jint) was a Greek translation written about three centuries before the birth of Christ. Two other early translations, composed after the birth of Christ, were the Peshitta in Syriac and the Vulgate in Latin. These three translations, the Septuagint, Peshitta, and Vulgate became the official translations of the Old Testament for the Greek-, Syriac-, and Latin-speaking churches respectively. Each also became the basis for other translations of the Bible. The Septuagint The Septuagint (from the Latin word septuaginta meaning seventy) was a Greek version of the Bible created during the reign of Ptolemy II Philadelphus (ca. 285-246 BCE) in Alexandria, Egypt for Diaspora Jews. Most of Jews living outside of Palestine were Greek-speaking as a result of Alexander the Great's (357-323 BCE) campaign to Hellenize his empire. First verses of Genesis (click for larger picture) At first, the Septuagint (LXX) consisted only of the Pentateuch (Torah, first five books of the Bible). Different books were translated from the Hebrew over a span of two centuries, including the books of the Apocrypha, and were added to the LXX. -
Introduction
Please provide footnote text Chapter 1 Introduction In the sixteenth and the first half of the seventeenth century Christian printers in Europe published Targum texts and provided them with Latin translations. Four complete polyglot Bibles were produced in this period (1517–1657), each containing more Targumic material than the previous one. Several others were planned or even started, but most plans were hampered by lack of money. And in between, every decade one or more Biblical books in Aramaic and Latin saw the light. This is remarkable, since the Targums were Jewish translations of the Hebrew Bible into Aramaic and scarcely functioned in the Jewish liturgy anymore.1 Jews used them primarily as a means to teach Aramaic in the Jewish educational system.2 Yet, Christian scholars were, as parts of the new human- ist atmosphere, interested in ancient texts and their interpretations. And the Targums were interpretations of the Hebrew Bible, the ultimate source of the Christian Old Testament. Moreover, they were written in Aramaic, a language so close to Hebrew that their Jewish translators must have understood the original text more thoroughly than any scholar brought up in another tongue. In contrast, many scholars of those days objected to the study of Jewish lit- erature, including the Targums. A definition of Targum is ‘a translation that combines a highly literal rendering of the original text with material added into the translation in a seamless manner’.3 Moreover, ‘poetic passages are often expanded rather than translated.’4 Christian scholars were interested in the ‘highly literal rendering’, but often rejected the added and expanded ma- terial. -
1 P. Vindob. G 39777 (Symmachus) and the Use of the Divine Names in Greek Scripture Texts
1 P. Vindob. G 39777 (Symmachus) and the Use of the Divine Names in Greek Scripture Texts Emanuel Tov The Psalms fragments of P. Vindob. G 39777, probably from the Fayum in Egypt, kept at the Austrian National Library, were published as a fragment of Aquila's translation in an editio princeps by Wessely and subsequently also by Capelle.1 At a later stage Mercati suggested that the fragment may have been part of the translation by Symmachus (approximately 200 CE),2 and this view became the communis opinio in scholarship. Indeed, anyone who is familiar with Aquila's style recognizes immediately that the free translation style of this fragment does not suit that translator, while it would be typical of Symmachus. Roberts described the two fragments (Ps 69 [LXX 68]:13–14, 31–32 and 81 [80]:11–14) as deriving from a parchment roll of Psalms dating to the third or fourth century CE.3 These fragments have been mentioned in many sources,4 and their full publication history and physical description are provided by A. Rahlfs and D. Fraenkel.5 P. Vindob. G 39777 includes the fragmentary remains of respectively three and five lines of two columns of Psalm 69 (LXX: 68) and five lines of one column of Psalm 81 (LXX: 80) in the version of Symmachus. The readings of Symmachus show his free translation style which has been analyzed by Busto Saiz for Symmachus in Psalms in general,6 with no special focus on this fragment. The most remarkable feature of the Vienna fragments is the writing of the Tetragrammaton in paleo-Hebrew characters in the following verses: Ps 69 (LXX: 68):14, 31, 32. -
The Body and Voice of God in the Hebrew Bible
Johanna Stiebert The Body and Voice of God in the Hebrew Bible ABSTRACT This article explores the role of the voice of God in the Hebrew Bible and in early Jew- ish interpretations such as the Targumim. In contrast to the question as to whether God has a body, which is enmeshed in theological debates concerning anthropomor- phism and idolatry, the notion that God has a voice is less controversial but evidences some diachronic development. KEYWORDS body of God, voice of God, Torah, Targumim, Talmud, anthropomorphic BIOGRAPHY Johanna Stiebert is a German New Zealander and Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible at the University of Leeds. Her primary research interests with regard to the Hebrew Bible are centred particularly on self-conscious emotions, family structures, gender and sexuality. In Judaism and Christianity, which both hold the Hebrew Bible canonical, the question as to whether God has a body is more sensitive and more contested than the question as to whether God has a voice.1 The theological consensus now tends to be that God is incorporeal, and yet the most straightforward interpretation of numerous Hebrew Bible passages is that God is conceived of in bodily, anthropomorphic terms – though often there also exist attendant possibilities of ambiguity and ambivalence. The famil- iar divine statement “let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness” (betsalmēnû kidmûtēnû; Gen. 1:26), for example, seems to envisage – particularly in 1 A version of this paper was presented at “I Sing the Body Electric”, an interdisciplinary day confer- ence held at the University of Hull, UK, on 3 June 2014 to explore body and voice from musicological, technological, and religious studies perspectives. -
Be Read, but Not Translated (M
CHAPTER FIFTEEN לא מתרגם בציבורא—NOT TO BE TRANSLATED IN PUBLIC Introduction The subject of “forbidden targumim” has been discussed periodically in papers devoted to the specific topic, as well as in more general studies of the relationship between the targumim and other rabbinic literature.1 The point of departure of these studies has understandably been the lists contained in the Tannaitic sources and the discussion of those lists in the Babylonian and Palestinian Talmuds. Much effort has been expended in trying to establish a “correct version” of the lists, in identifying the passages in question, and in search of a rationale for each of the particular forbidden items. As readily observed, there is almost complete unanimity among the rabbinic lists regarding the passages in the Pentateuch that “may The Mishnah .נקראין ואינן מתרגמין ”,be read, but not translated (m. Megillah 4:10), Tosefta (t. Megillah 4:35 ff ), and the later Talmudic sources2 all agree that the “Story of Reuben” (Gen 35:22) and the “sec- ond account of the [golden] calf” (Exod 32:21–35) fall into this cat- egory. The only other Pentateuchal passage assigned to this group is “the priestly blessing” (Num 6:24–26), according to the Babylonian and Palestinian Talmuds (b. Megillah 25b; y. Megillah 75c). But this seems to be based upon a compounded error. J. Heinemann has argued rather convincingly that the statement regarding the “priestly blessing” was not originally related to the weekly Torah reading or its rendition 1 E.g., A. Geiger, Urschrift und Übersetzungen der Bibel (Breslau, 1857), pp. -
Chazal's Metaphoric Approach by Rav Elchan
PARASHAT KEDOSHIM "You Shall Not Place a Stumbling Block Before the Blind": Chazal's Metaphoric Approach by Rav Elchanan Samet 1. Four Interpretations of the Prohibition "You shall not curse the deaf, and you shall not place a stumbling block before the blind. You shall fear your God; I am the Lord." These two prohibitions, of cursing the deaf and leading the blind to stumble, both involve the protection of those particularly vulnerable due to physical disability. Indeed, these two crimes are linked by the single admonition towards the end of the verse: "You shall fear your God." Nevertheless, we will devote our discussion entirely to the second prohibition, addressing the first half of the verse only insofar as it affects our understanding of the second. We present here the four interpretations that have been offered to this verse, in the sequence of their deviation from the simple, straightforward meaning, from closest to furthest: 1. "Blind" refers to an individual who cannot see, and "stumbling block" denotes a physical object, such as a stone or beam, that physically endangers the unsuspecting blind person as he walks. This is the interpretation of the Kuttim, who rejected the Oral Law's extrapolation of Biblical verses. (See Nida 57a, Chulin 3a.) The prohibition according to this approach involves taking unfair advantage of the handicap of another. The earlier prohibition against cursing the deaf would presumably be explained in a similar manner. 2. "Blind" here means anyone, even without any handicap, who does not see the stumbling block placed before him. With respect to this specific danger, he may be considered figuratively "blind." "Stumbling block" refers to a physical trap lying innocuously in one's path, such as a pit with an indiscernible covering. -
Adaptive Talmud Session #2: Identifying Technical Vs
Adaptive Talmud Session #2: Identifying Technical vs. Adaptive Challenges The Day They Fired the Head of the Academy Rabba Yaffa Epstein April 1, 2020/ 7 Nissan 5780 Background on Rabban Gamliel and Rebbe Yehosha from Encylopaedia Judaica Gamaliel, Rabban, Encyclopedia Judaica, Second Edition, Volume 7, Pp. 365-366 Gamaliel, Rabban, the name and title of six sages, descendants of *Hillel, who filled the office of nasi in Ereẓ Israel. RABBAN GAMALIEL II, also called Rabban Gamaliel of Jabneh, grandson of (1), succeeded *Johanan b. Zakkai as nasi c. 80 C.E. He saw his life’s work as the strengthening of the new center at Jabneh and the concentration and consolidation of the people around the Torah, constituting an authority that would be capable of filling the place of the Temple and of the Sanhedrin which had met in the Chamber of Hewn Stones. To this end he worked energetically for the elevation of the dignity of the nasi’s office, and for the unification of halakhah. The Talmud reports a heavenly voice “that was heard in Jabneh” establishing the halakhah in accordance with Bet Hillel (Er. 13b; TJ, Ber. 1:7, 3b), corresponding to the aims of much of Gamaliel’s activity. It also describes his vigorous exertions as not directed to increasing his own honor or that of his household, but rather to preserving the unity of the nation and the Torah (BM 59b). In his private life and in his personal relationships he was modest and easygoing, showed love and respect toward his pupils and friends, and even to his slave, and was tolerant of gentiles (Tosef, BK 9:30; Ber.