Section 283
49Calvin, not knowing the Aramaic and Syriac readings, concluded that “Paul purposely changed the word” (from “received” to “gave”) to enhance the glory of Christ’s ascension, “because it is more excellent for a conqueror to dispense all his bounty freely to all, than to gather spoils from the vanquished” (Ephesians, pp. 175-76).
50See E. Nestle, “Zum Zitat in Eph 4, 8,” ZNW 4 (1903), 344-45. P. E. Kahle thought of the OT Peshitta as an Eastern Aramaic Targum prepared in the first instance for the proselytes of Adiabene in the first century A.D. (The Cairo Geniza [Oxford, 2 1959], pp. 270-73).
51Cf. the targumic rendering of Deut. 32:35 (”Vengeance is mine; I will repay”) in Rom. 12:19 (and Heb. 10:30); of Isa. 6:10 (”and be forgiven”) in Mark 4:12; of Isa. 6:1 (”I saw the glory of the Lord”) in John 12:41.
52The Targum on the Psalms appears to be not later than A.D. 476, since it knows both the western and eastern divisions of the Roman Empire.