An Apparent Contradiction in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Genesis 25:20–26: Was Rebekah Barren for Twenty or Twenty-Two Years?

While the Hebrew Bible does not specify the duration of Rebekah’s barrenness, Targum Pseudo-Jonathan (TgPsJ) Gen. 25:21 introduces a comment that Rebekah was barren for twenty-two years. This appears to produce an inconsistency, both between the Hebrew Bible and TgPsJ, and within the TgPsJ narrative...

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主要作者: Zhakevich, Iosif J. (Author)
格式: 電子 Article
語言:English
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出版: Brill 2018
In: Aramaic studies
Year: 2018, 卷: 16, 發布: 1, Pages: 42-63
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Bibel. Genesis 25 / Rebekka, 聖經人物 / 聖經年表 / Targum Yerušalmi I 5. Pentateuch
IxTheo Classification:HB Old Testament
Further subjects:B Aramaic Targum Pseudo-Jonathan contradiction interpretation Rebekah Isaac barrenness
B Targum
在線閱讀: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
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總結:While the Hebrew Bible does not specify the duration of Rebekah’s barrenness, Targum Pseudo-Jonathan (TgPsJ) Gen. 25:21 introduces a comment that Rebekah was barren for twenty-two years. This appears to produce an inconsistency, both between the Hebrew Bible and TgPsJ, and within the TgPsJ narrative itself. Two references to Isaac’s age—in the context of his relationship to Rebekah—seem to suggest that Rebekah was barren for twenty years: At 25:20, Isaac marries Rebekah when he is forty; and at 25:26, Esau and Jacob are born when Isaac is sixty. This twenty-year gap presumably reveals the twenty years of Rebekah’s barrenness. Indeed, scholars have suggested that TgPsJ’s ‘twenty-two years’ be emended to ‘twenty years’. This article, however, contends that TgPsJ’s ‘twenty-two years’ should be retained, and that the text of TgPsJ proves to be a coherent text when read in the greater context of biblical and Jewish tradition about Isaac and Rebekah.
ISSN:1745-5227
Contains:In: Aramaic studies
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1163/17455227-01601001