CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 22 verse 2. The versions and ancient interpreters discovered in the word Moriah, which appears at first merely to be the name of a place, a remarkable range of meanings. LXX seem to have derived it from root rwm, 'to be high'; Aquila may have related it to '6r,
'light'; and Symmachus takes it from root 7h, 'to see'. In Vg, Jerome follows Symmachus, and translates 'the land of vision'. The identification of Moriah with the Temple Mount in Jerusalem is as old as 2 Chron. 3: 1, as Jerome notes:! see also
1. 226; TO and PJ, 'the land of worship'; Nel, 'Moriah, where the House of the Sanctuary is to be built'; jer.
Ber. 4: 5; Gen. Rab. 55: 7; Song Rab. 4: 11; Tanh. Wayyera' 45; Pes. Rabb. 40. These sources ultimately associate Moriah with root yaré', 'to fear, worship'. Other sources note that mdr, 'myrrh', was a prime ingredient of the incense and oil used in the Temple service."
Jerome seems to stress the sense of 'enlightening', linking Moriah with 'or and *6rah, 'light': the Torah is a light (Ps.
119: 105), and the usual translation of Torah in the Aramaic Targums is 'wryy?, "illumination'. Hebrew has also the word hordah, meaning 'legal decision, instruction'. Hence from this mount Law and teaching go forth: see also Isa. 2: 3, and Jerome's comment on that verse in In Esa. 1. 2: 3. He refers to the d'bir, the Holy of Holies in Solomon's
Temple (1 Kgs. 6: 5, 16, etc.), perceiving in that word the root dbr, 'speak': hence his comment about the oracle. It was in this room that the Ark (717) of the Covenant was kept, with the tables of the Law. Origen explains the meaning of it in Comm. in Joh. 1. 23; but it should be noted that, unlike Jerome, he enumerates its contents as the Ark, the tablets, and the two cherubim. Jerome's words are more in line with Jewish tradition, especially the Aramaic Targum, which speaks of God's oracular Word as a Dibbur spoken from between the cherubim (PJ and TN of Num. 7: 89), and of the Holy
1 Jerome may have quoted this verse from memory: it actually reads: 'Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord on Mount Moriah... on the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite. He began to build in the second month of the fourth year of his reign.' See also Eusebius of Emesa, Devreesse, p. 73.
2 See Aberbach and Grossfeld, Targum Onkelos, 128-9, citing b. Keritoth 6a; and Rashi. While it is possible that some of these interpretations may presuppose a Hebrew text which reads bmwr'h, as Salvesen, Symmachus, 44, suggests, this is not a necessary pre-condition for understanding the variety of exegesis before us.
Commentary Ghost as 'the Spirit of the Sanctuary' (Fragment Targum, Niirnberg MS, Gen. 37: 33).° All these shades of meaning cluster around the one word Moriah.* We should also note that the expression Holy Spirit was sometimes used by Jews to express the Presence of God in the Temple at Jerusalem.' Most of them feature in Gen. Rab. 55: 7 explaining Moriah. For R. Hiyya Rabbah, it is the place whence
'teaching', hwryyh, goes forth for the world; for R. Yannai, the place whence 'fear', yr'b, goes forth. Both Rabbis then discuss the Ark, kept in the d*bir: one says that from it 'light' goes forth, the other, that it is the place whence 'fear' goes forth. They then turn to discuss the d'bir itself: for R. Hiyyah, it is the place whence the Dibbur, Oracle, goes forth; for R. Yannai, it is the place whence the Word, Dabar, goes forth. R. Joshua ben Levi says that it is from this place that the Lord will pass a decision (mwrh) on the nations of the world and bring them down (wmwrydm) to Gehenna; R.
Simeon bar Yohai that it is a proper rwy place corresponding to the Temple; and R. Judan b. Palyya that there Abraham will have a vision, mh. R. Pinhas sees it as the place of the dominion mrw?' of the world, and the Rabbis as the place where the incense will be offered, the proof of which is Song 4: 6, with its reference to myrrh. verses 3-4 Jerome has earlier established that Isaac was born in Gerar: see 21: 30-1. Here he seems to disagree with Josephus and those who followed him in placing Isaac's birth, and Abraham's residence, at the oak of Mamre in Hebron: see Ant. 1. 186. Jerome had himself journeyed from Hebron to Jerusalem (Ep. 108. 10-12), and personal experience probably led him to punctuate as he does:
'and he came to the place...on the third day'. The Hebrew, however, and LXX as punctuated by Rahlfs, take 'on the third day' with the following words, 'then Abraham lifted up his eyes'. This difference in punctuation was significant for Christian interpreters, in that Isaac's arrival at the appointed place 'on the third day' might
3 See M. McNamara, The New Testament and the Palestinian Targum to the Pentateuch (Rome, 1966), 182-8; and P. Schafer, 'Die Termini "Heilger Geist" und
"Geist der Prophetie" in den Targumim und das Verhiltnis der Targumim zu einander', VT 20 (1970), 307.
4 See also Rahmer, Die hebraischen Traditionen, 34-5. Kamesar, Jerome, 188~9, suggests that Jerome is concerned to substantiate the renderings of Aquila and Symmachus.
5 See P. Schafer, Die Vorstellung vom Heiligen Geist in der Rabbinischen Literatur (Munich, 1972), esp. 73-88, 135-43. be regarded as prefiguring the Resurrection of Christ: see Origen, Hom. in Gen. 8. 4~5, who assumes the same reading as Jerome here.' verse x3) LXX have: 'And Aoraham lifted his eyes and looked; and behold, one ram caught by its horns in the bush sabek.' For 'one ram' LXX apparently read the Hebrew as 'ayil 'ehad, as do the Samaritan Pentateuch, PJ, TN, Symmachus, and some forty Hebrew MSS; but MT has ayil ahar, which Jerome, Vg, and some witnesses to TO have rendered here as 'a ram behind his back'.
The fragment of Eusebius of Emesa on this verse edited by Devreesse (p. 74) does not agree with Jerome's attribution here, but points to the word sabech and interprets it as 'forgiveness', doubtless deriving it from the Aramaic root 5bq, 'forgive'.? Many Fathers regarded the ram caught in the thicket as a type of the Lord on the cross: see, for example, Melito of Sardis, fr. 11; Origen, Hom. in Gen. 9. 9, 14. 1; Ambrose, Ep. 8. 3; Augustine, De Civ. Dei 16. 32,
De Trin. 3. 25; and the imagery of a goat with horns extended, no doubt forming the shape T, is in truth known to us almost as Jerome quotes it. It features as an interpretation of sabech in the Greek Catenae (Petit, ii. 202 no. 2), though not in the name of Eusebius. It may, however, derive from Eusebius of Emesa, even though given anonymously in some witnesses or attributed to Gennadius in others.' This imagery Jerome demolishes with some asperity on the basis of the Hebrew, which says that Abraham saw the ram caught in s'bak.
The meaning of s'bak is 'thicket', the sense given to it by Aquila, by Jerome in Vg (vepres), and by R. Levi in Gen. Rab. 56: 9.
Symmachus translated as en diktudi, 'in a net': both he and Aquila most probably took s'bak as being related to sibkah, 'lattice-work'.
Symmachus may have been determined to avoid the image of an animal destined for sacrifice caught in a tree or bush as part of his general anti-Christian endeavour.'
But in the minds of some © See Harl, Bible d'Alexandrie, i. 193; Wevers, pp. 213-14.
7 A variant attributed to 'the Syrian and the Hebrew' by Eusebius of Emesa (Devreesse, p. 74; Petit, i. 182) has the ram 'suspended', kremamenos, rather than caught, katechomenos in the bush, which increases the typological potential of the verse. See also Salvesen, Syrnmachus, 45. Sabech is interpreted as 'forgiveness' also by Diodore (Petit, ii. 200) and Gennadius (Petit, ii. 202).
8 For Eusebius' exegesis, which seems to have taken sabech as qualifying either the bush or the ram, see Kamesar, Jerome, 134-7.
° See Salvesen, Symmachus, 45, 293. But F. Nikolasch, 'Zur Ikonographie des Widders von Gen 22', Vigiliae Christianae, 23 (1969), 215-17, cited by Kamesar,
Commentary exegetes Aquila and Symmachus seemed to be creating a problem by using sibkab, which begins with letter sin, to explain s'bak, which begins with letter samech. For this reason, Jerome says, they preferred LXX and Theodotion, who merely transliterated the Hebrew word as sabech. But Jerome is concerned to support the sense of the word given by Aquila and Symmachus, and reports after careful researches of his own that Hebrew also has a root sbk,
'to interweave' which begins with letter samech and from which the noun s'bak used in this verse in fact derives. verse 14 The unvocalized Hebrew word yr'h, which occurs twice in this verse, might be read as the form yireh, 'sees', or as yéra'eh,
'will be seen'. LXX opted first for the active, second for the passive sense, rendering: 'the Lord has seen, so that they say today, The Lord has been seen'. But in Vg Jerome took the second occurrence of the verb, vocalized in our MT as a passive form, in an active sense: 'And he called the name of that place The Lord Sees. Whence until today it is said, On the mountain the Lord will see'. Here he also renders the second verb as active, noting that the Hebrew has a passive form: he does not note the passive as a reading of LXX.
For the passive, see also Augustine, De Civ. Dei 16. 32, OG 58, De Trin. 3. 25. The Jews speak of the 'Agedah, or Binding, of Isaac as a sign of God's deliverance of Israel in past, present, and future."
Jerome's words here may be rendered literally as 'whenever they are set in distress': they are very close to the words of the Targums. See
TN of this verse: 'when his sons are standing in the hour of distress'; and especially PJ: 'when the sons of Isaac my son enter the hour of affliction, "igé. This last Aramaic word is used also by FTV, while FTP and Ngl have the closely related form '*nanqi:
Jerome here speaks of angustia, 'distress'.
The proverbial use of Abraham's words is underlined by the explanation of them; and we know from m. Ta'an. 2: 4, 5 that they were invoked in solemn liturgies at times of drought, when the prayer-leader would say: 'May He who answered Abraham our
Jerome, 137-8, relates Symmachus' rendering to the rope which ties the ram to the tree in paintings of the kind found at Dura-Europos.
10 See Kamesar, Jerome, 137-8.
\ The literature on the Binding of Isaac is extensive; but a good introduction and detailed discussion can be gained from the following: S. Spiegel, The Last Trial (New
York, 1967); le Déaut, La Nuit pascale, 132-212; G. Vermes, 'Redemption and Genesis xxii', in Scripture and Tradition in Judaism? (Leiden, 1973), 193-2273
Bowker, The Targums, 228-34. father on Mount Moriah answer you, and hearken to the voice of your crying today.' And the sounding of the shdfar, or ram's horn, at New Year's Day services in the synagogue as a memorial of Isaac's Binding (cf. b. RS 16a), is designed to invoke the mercy of God by recalling the events on Mount Moriah." verses 20-2 LXX read: 'And it was told to Abraham... Ox the first-born and Baux his brother ...and Chasad.' For Job as descendant of Us, see above, comment on ro: 23, and the view of R. Simeon ben Lakish in the name of bar Qappara (Gen. Rab 57:
4), who dated him to the time of Abraham." But almost all Christian writers thought that he was descended from Esau, including
Epiphanius, Adv. Haer. 1. 1. 8; Augustine, De Civ. Dei 18. 47; John Chrysostom, Homily 2 (on Patience); and Theodoret, OG 95.
Their authority for believing so was a note placed at the end of the LXX version of the Book of Job, which reads:
This man is explained from the Syrian book as dwelling in the land of Ausitis, on the borders of Idumaea and Arabia. Formerly, his name was
Jobab. He took an Arabian wife, and fathered a son whose name was Ennon. Now he himself was son of his father Zare, of the sons of Esau, and of his mother Bosorrha, so that he was fifth from Abraam. Now these are the kings who reigned in Edom, a country which he also ruled: first Balak, the son of Beor... and after Balak Jobab, who is called Job...
The Test. Job 1: 4 and Aristeas the Exegete also record that Job was son of Esau." Jerome notes that this is not contained in the Hebrew, and therefore, by implication, forms no part of the 'Hebrew truth'. In Ep. 73 Ad Evangelum (Evagrium) he stresses Jewish denial of this opinion, doubtless because Esau had already become a code-word in Israel for the Roman Empire and its anti-Jewish law.15
The descent of Balaam from Buz, and his identification with the Elihu of the Book of Job (32-7) is a Jewish tradition attested by jer.
Sot. 5. 20d. Other authorities identified him with Bela son of Beor 2 On the 'Agedab in the Synagogue Liturgy, see Vermes, 'Redemption', 211-18.
13 The Rabbis were generally agreed that Job was a Gentile, but there were widely differing opinions about his origins. See J. R. Baskin, Pharaoh's Counsellors: Job,
Jethro and Balaam in Rabbinic and Patristic Tradition (Chico, Calif., 1983), 29-30, 3°? sisteas is preserved ap. Eusebius, Praep. Evang. 9. 25. 1-4. See R. Doran, 'Aristeas the Exegete', in J.
Charlesworth (ed.), The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, ii (London, 1985), 859.
15 Jerome knew of this identification: see In Esa. 5. 21: