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The Site of Adam's Tomb

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The Site of Adam's Tomb chapter 1 The Site of Adam’s Tomb Although the major ancient Jewish Bible translations, the Septuagint and the Targumim, render Joshua 14:15 relatively literally, at least without major devia- tions from the Hebrew text, the Christian translation made by Jerome around 400 ce, the Vulgate, does deviate from the biblical text at a major point. In this modest contribution, I will argue that it is precisely this Christian translation that incorporated Jewish exegetical traditions. In the Masoretic text of Joshua 14:14–15 we read that Hebron became the portion of Caleb because he was loyal to the Lord. ‘The name of Hebron was formerly Kiriath-Arba; he [Arba] was the great man among the Anakites’ (v.15, JPS). Targum Jonathan has: ‘The name of Hebron formerly was “the city of Arba;” he was a great man among the giants.’1 We see in this translation that Kiriath-Arba, originally ‘town/city of the four (clans),’ was taken to mean ‘city of (a man called) Arba’ because the immediately following phrase ha ʾadam hagadol baʿenaqim huʾ seemed to require that ‘the great man’ refers back to an immediately afore-mentioned person, who must be Arba. This interpreta- tion of the Hebrew original seems to make sense, but the LXX translator has a different view. His rendering is: ‘The name of Hebron was formerly “city of Arbok;”2 it was the metropolis of the Enakim.’3 So this translator changed ‘the great man’ into ‘the metropolis’ because, taking Kiriath-Arba to be a toponym, he had to do away with the great man – a great city fitted the context much better. So far so good. But now Jerome’s Vulgate: nomen Hebron antea vocabatur Cariatarbe; Adam maximus ibi inter Enacim situs est4 (‘Hebron was formerly called Kiriath- Arba; Adam, the very big one (or: the greatest), lies buried here among the Enakim’). That Jerome took the Hebrew ʾadam to mean not ‘man’ but Adam here is evident also from some passages in his other works: In his Quaestiones 1 Text in A. Sperber, The Bible in Aramaic II: The Former Prophets, Leiden: Brill, 1992, 26. Translation by D.J. Harrington & A.J. Saldarini, Targum Jonathan of the Former Prophets (The Aramaic Bible 10), Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1987, 40. 2 Varia lectio: Arbo. The letter k in Arbok renders the Hebrew ʿayin. 3 On this translation see J. Moatti-Fine, La Bible d’Alexandrie 6: Jésus (Josué), Paris: Éd. du Cerf, 1996, 176. 4 Text according to R. Weber (ed.), Biblia sacra iuxta Vulgatam versionem, vol. 1, Stuttgart: Württembergische Bibelanstalt, 1969, 306. Several manuscripts have instead of inter Enacim the reading in terra Enacim (he lies buried in the land of the Enakim). © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���4 | doi ��.��63/9789004�7����_00� 2 chapter 1 Hebraicae in Genesim, he remarks on Gen. 22:3 (‘Sarah died in Kiriath-Arba’) that the LXX with its ‘city of Arbog’ makes nonsense of the text (Arboc enim nihil omnino significat, ‘Arboc actually signifies nothing at all’), It is called Arba, Jerome says, because four great figures from the past lie buried there, namely, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob ‘and the head of the human race itself, Adam (et ipse princeps humani generis, Adam).5 He adds that ‘this will be shown more clearly in the book of Joshua’ (14:15, of course). The other passage is in his famous Epistula 108, where in 11.3 he tells how his rich Roman lady friend, Paula, in the course of her long pilgrimage through Palestine, also visited Hebron, haec est Cariatharbe, id est ‘oppidum virorum quattuor,’ Abraham et Isaac et Jacob et Adam magni quem ibi conditum iuxta librum Hiesu Hebraei autumant, licet plerique Chaleb quartum putent, cuius ex latere memoria demonstratur (‘This is Kiriath-Arba, that is “the city of the four men,” Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Adam the Great, who was buried there according to the book of Joshua, as the Hebrews say, although there are many who think that the fourth man is Caleb, whose tomb is shown nearby’).6 And there it is: Hebraei autumant, ‘the Jews assert so.’ Here Jerome makes clear what is behind his translation and interpre- tation of this biblical text – it is Jewish exegesis.7 5 Text in P. Antin, S. Hieronymi presbyteri opera I/1 (CCSL 72), Turnhout: Brepols, 1959, 28. Translation by C.T.R. Hayward, Saint Jerome’s Hebrew Questions on Genesis, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995, 56–57. 6 Latin text (with Dutch translation) in P.W. van der Horst, Paula in Palestina. Hieronymus’ biografie van een rijke Romeinse christin, Zoetermeer: Meinema, 2006, 60–61. Translation (slightly corrected) by J. Wilkinson, Jerusalem Pilgrims Before the Crusades, Warminster: Aris & Phillips, 2002, 85. See also H. Donner, Pilgerfahrt ins Heilie Land. Die ältesten Berichte christ- licher Palästinapilger (4.–7. Jahrhundert), Stuttgart: Katholisches Bibelwerk, 1980, 159–160. 7 In his translation of Eusebius’ Onomastikon, Jerome gives similar information (which is not in Eusebius’ text): ‘Arboc: In our codices it is written corruptly Arboc, but in the Hebrew codices it is Arbe, that is, four, because there the three Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are buried, and Adam the Great, as it is written in the book of Joshua.’ For text and transla- tion see R.S. Notley & Z. Safrai, Eusebius, Onomasticon: The Place Names of Divine Scripture, Leiden: Brill, 2005, 7, and G.S.P. Freeman-Grenville, R.L. Chapman III, J.E. Taylor, Palestine in the Fourth Century A.D. The Onomasticon by Eusebius of Caesarea, Jerusalem: Carta, 2003, 13. For other passages in Jerome about Adam’s tomb see see J. Dochhorn, Die Apokalypse des Mose. Text, Übersetzung, Kommentar (TSAJ 106), Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2005, 171 note 36, and R. Ginzberg, ‘Die Haggada bei den Kirchenvätern und in der apokryphischen Literatur,’ MGWJ n.s. 7 (1899) 69–72. It would seem that in this respect Jerome had altered his earlier belief that Adam’s tomb was at Golgotha; see his Epistula 46.3 and the comments in Hayward, Saint Jerome’s Hebrew Questions on Genesis 183. .
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