CHAPTER 3
Commentary noted by Field, who quotes Origen (De Hist. Susannae 12) as witness that the etymology of 'woman' had already been connected with the verb 'take up'.
Most witnesses of LXX state that the serpent was 'wisest', phronimotatos, of all the beasts; but a variant 'wiser' is attested (see
89). The Hebrew has Grim, which means 'crafty, shrewd' or, in a good sense, 'prudent', the latter most often in the Book of Proverbs. LXX were not alone in translating it with a word meaning 'wise': this rendering is found in TN, some witnesses to TO, and in PJ, where, however, it is glossed by the addition of 'in respect of evil'. VL and Jerome in his Latin rendering here and in Ep. 22. 29 have sapientior.
Jerome's sense that the word means calliditas, 'slyness', finds expression in his Vg, where Grim is rendered as callidior, 'more sly'. He knew that the word presented difficulties, witnessed, for example, by Augustine, De Gen. ad Litt. 9. 1-2; De Gen. contra
Manichaeos 2. 20. For the LXX's word phronimos usually has good connotations; thus attempts were made to argue that it must, in this verse, have a bad sense, since the serpent is the cause of Eve's sin. See especially Origen, Comm. in Ep. ad Rom. 9. 2; Diodore in Catena fragment, Petit, ii. 106, who says that it is a fagon de parler;
Theodoret, OG 31; and Clement of Alexandria, Stromateis 6. 154.
4. There was also the threat of the Ophites, a Gnostic group who worshipped the serpent as a god embodying supreme wisdom, and who drew on this text for support (see Irenaeus, Adv. Haer. 1. 30;
Origen, Contra Celsum 6. 24). They were still active in Jerome's day, as his Ep. 14. 9 makes plain. It was therefore essential to show that Scripture presented the serpent in a bad light. Jerome's predecessors had done this by resorting to homonymy, to show that phronimos might mean 'sly' as well as 'wise': Jerome, by contrast, went directly to the Hebrew word which, he remarks, clearly describes the serpent's cunning.'
1 For this, see Kamesar, Jerome, 159-67, who defines and discusses homonymy, polysemy, and katachresis in Greek scholarship as means of solving literary and textual problems: they were readily applied by Christians in biblical study. Hebrew
'dram itself has both good and bad senses.
The Hebrew text of this verse has the expression [*ritab hayyom, which is reproduced in garbled form as laroeaiom by Codex Monacensis 6299; otherwise, the other witnesses to QHG transliterate it as barua haium. Hebrew riah may mean 'spirit' or 'wind': hence the different renderings of Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion.
Jerome evidently approves the translation of Theodotion, whom he quotes by name some 15 times in QHG, less frequently than Aquila (approximately 32 times) and Symmachus
(approximately 27 times).* The Targums also reflect the problem in translating these words: TN has 'in the breeze of the day'; the marginal gloss of TN, FTP, and FTV have 'in the strength of the day', possibly taking 'spirit' as implying power; and TO and PJ have 'at the decline of the day'. This last translation is not far removed from the 'afternoon' of LXX; while Pesh has 'towards the end of the day'. In Vg, Jerome put 'at the breeze after noon', striving to incorporate the insights of the Greek translators and, possibly, the Jewish understanding preserved in TO and PJ. verse 14 Jerome notes the precise reading of the Hebrew here, no doubt because he sees in it further support for his view of the serpent as a sly and cunning beast, expressed in his comment on 3: t above. The breast is the seat of thought; and it is entirely appropriate that the deceitful serpent should have its breast close to the dust. He makes no attempt, however, to explain the addition of LXX, who may be groping for the range of meanings implicit in the Hebrew, or who may obliquely refer to an ancient legend about the serpent. PJ of this verse and of Exod. 7: 9, Gen. Rab. 20: 5, ARNa
1, PRE 14: 3, and other sources record a tradition that the serpent originally had feet, which God cut off when He cursed the beast.
Josephus, Ant. 1. 50, knew this story as already established in the first century AD; and LXX may have hinted at it in their translation.
See also the anonymous authors of Catena fragments in Petit, La Chaine, 258-9. verse 15 Jerome's comment conceals a good deal, since he clearly prefers his understanding of the Hebrew as speaking of the crushing of the serpent. This, he notes, agrees with St Paul's statement in Rom 16: 20. There seems little doubt that his rendering of the Hebrew has involved him in selecting meanings from many possibilities, and has been directly influenced by the New Testament.
? Of the Three, Theodotion is least quoted also in Jerome's In Esaiam.
For discussion of Jerome's attitude to Theodotion, see Jay, L'Exégéese de saint Jéréme, 106-8.
Commentary The Targums PJ, TN, FTP, and FTV offer multiple translations, and indicate that the uncommon root S#p could be understood as 'keep' or 'observe', a sense which they share with LXX and TO.
They also point to a meaning 'crush', 'grind', or 'bruise': so Aquila, Symmachus, Pesh, and Vg. Finally, they also give it the sense of 'heal', as does R. Levi in Gen. Rab. 20: 5. The extended Haggadah which the Palestinian Targums offer here is, therefore, a careful exegesis of this unusual verbal root. Jerome does not refer to Aquila's rendering prostripsei, which is very close to his own: he seems more concerned to provide Hebrew support for Paul's remark in Romans.?
In so doing, he indicates on the strength of the Hebrew text that it is the Lord, Christ, who shall crush Satan. This verse had, indeed, been invoked by other Fathers to the same end; see, for example,
Irenaeus, Adv. Haer. 4. 66. 2, 5. 21. 1; Cyprian, Testimonia 2. 9; Augustine, De Gen. ad Litt. 11. 36. But their exegesis had been restricted by LXX's rendering of Sip as 'keep', and by that version's lack of clarity regarding the subject of the first verb.* For Jerome, the Hebrew text dissolves all difficulties, and accords with Christian understanding. verse 16 In his comment on the first part of this verse, Jerome once more sets the reading of the Hebrew against the LXX which reads 'your groaning', the plural being a widely attested variant
(Wevers, p. 93). The other ancient versions agree with the Hebrew at this point: LXX may have read hegyonek, 'your groaning', instead of Hebrew héronék, 'your conception'.
The Hebrew which LXX rendered as 'turning' (cf. Pesh: 'you shall turn') is t°Saqaték, a rare word which elicited different interpretations. LXX and Pesh seem to have read or understood it as tesubaték, from root sub, 'return': so also TO and TN, who stand very close to LXX here. The meaning 'desire' is shared by Symmachus and PJ. It is similarly interpreted by R. Joshua ben
3 See Salvesen, Symmachus, 14-15 for a summary of interpretations of this verb; further Rabbinic references are given in M. Kasher, Torah Shelemah (Jerusalem,
* See M. Harl, La Bible d'Alexandrie, i: La Genése (Paris, 1986), 109: the subject is autos, a masculine form which can only with difficulty refer to the 'seed' (neuter in Greek) of the woman spoken of immediately beforehand.
Is it, then, to be understood as an undefined man? Some witnesses to VL even read ipsa, 'she' (see fischer, pp. 68-9). Jerome's solution to this morass of difficulties seems simplicity itself.
Levi, according to b. Yeb. 62b; and it is clear from Gen. Rab. 20:
7 that both explanations of the word were known and used by the Amoraim. Aquila's derivation of the word possibly arises from root niq, 'to kiss'.5 Jerome follows none of the above for Vg, however, where he has 'and you shall be under your husband's power'. His
Comm. in Eph. 3 reinforces the idea that the wife is subject to the husband as lord; see also Augustine, De Civ. Dei 15. 7. verse
The Hebrew text here reads 'cursed be the earth ba"birekha: the last word is a preposition with suffix, meaning 'because of you', and Aquila, like TO, TN, FTP, Jub. 3: 25, and Pesh, translated it accordingly. But LXX understood it as deriving from Hebrew root 'bd, 'to serve, to work'. In Hebrew script, the letters r and d may easily be confused; and, while LXX may have translated from a Hebrew MS which contained the consonants bbdk (meaning 'through your deed') rather than bork, it may also be the case that the translators misread a MS which used the word of our present Hebrew text. Jerome certainly read ba*barekhd, but followed Theodotion in deriving it from the verbal root br meaning
'to transgress, to sin'. PJ had the same notion, translating 'cursed by the land because it did not declare your sin to you': Jerome's comments thus reflect a genuinely Jewish understanding of the verse.® In Vg, however, he has the singular 'in your deed', although his remarks here make it plain that he took that deed as a reference to Adam's transgression. In Ep. 129. 2, he simply retains the LXX translation. verse 20 Jerome follows the Hebrew Bible in deriving the name
Hawwah, Eve, from root hyh, 'to live'. In labouring the point somewhat, he recalls the translations to TO and PJ, which state that Eve was mother of all human beings (literally, all 'the sons of men'): see also R. Simon's remark in Gen. Rab. 20: 11. The original
Hebrew may imply that Eve was mother of living things other than human beings; indeed, some witnesses of Josephus, Ant.
1. 36, explain Eve simply as 'mother of all', while the rest add to this 'the living'. It is therefore as mother of humanity alone that her name properly means 'life', and Jerome suggests that LXX's translation as Z6é should be understood in this manner. All this may be deliberate, given that Zé was a favourite character in Gnostic
5 See Salvesen, Symmachus, 15.
® See further Geiger, Urschrift, 456-7; and C. T. R. Hayward, 'Pirge de Rabbi Eliezer and Targum Pseudo-Jonathan', JJS 42 (1991), 224.
Commentary accounts of the origins of things. Thus in the system of Valentinus she is part of a second tetrad emerging from the first dyad of Father and Truth." Jerome may also be concerned to show that the Hebrew form of the word Eve does not permit any association between her name and Evoe, the exclamation of the Bacchantes, as some had postulated: see Clement of Alexandria, Protrep. 2. 12. 2;
Theophilus, Ad Autolycum 2. 28. And elsewhere he is concerned to point out that Eve alone was mother of all humanity, just as the Church whom she foreshadows is the one parent of all Christians, redeemed humanity (Ep. 123. 12). In all this, he may be concerned to correct the explanations of Eve given in Lib. Heb. Nom. (p. 65) as 'calamity or woe' as well as 'life'. verse 24 Scriptural proof of Adam's complete expulsion from paradise is important for Jerome: he insists on it elsewhere (e.g. Ep.
39. 33 In Hier. 8. 28. 11-19), and is possibly concerned to oppose the notion, espoused by Eusebius of Emesa, that God had placed
Adam close to paradise to punish him (Devreesse, pp. 61-2).
Kamesar regards this as likely, noting also that Theodore of Mopsuestia used the LXX reading of this verse to show how God left Adam near the garden as a sign of His mercy.® Jerome rules out both these possibilities. In this, he closely resembles the readings of all the Aramaic Targums, which unambiguously state that Adam was banished from the garden; PJ specifies that God drove Adam out from His very Presence, 'from the place where He had made the Glory of His Shekhina dwell from the beginning, between the two cherubim'. Jub. 3: 32 is also clear that Adam went from Eden to another land after his expulsion; cf. Josephus,
In speaking of the gates and forecourt of paradise, however, Jerome departs from the language of Scripture and the Targums, and alludes to Jewish tradition extant in works like The Apocalypse ofMoses 19, 28. Later Jewish authorities, such as Resh Lakish in b.
Sanh. 98a, and R. Joshua ben Levi in 6. 'Erub. 19a, discuss the geographical location of the gates of the Garden of Eden: b. Tamid
32b even reports that Alexander the Great found them! Emphasis on Adam's expulsion from paradise and the supernatural watch set to its gates and forecourt, however, has a particular Christian significance. For Jerome (see Eps. 39. 3, 70. 3) and other early
7 See Irenaeus, Adv. Haer. 1. 1.
8 See Kamesar, Jerome, 157-8.