CHAPTER 41
of 'purest loaves'; nor with Josephus, Amt. 2. 71, where the baskets contain loaves of bread and royal luxuries. Jerome's translation, in fact, coincides with Aquila's: he has 'fine meal' (guris). Note also the meaning given to the names Chorri and Chorraeus in Lib. Heb.
Nom. (p. 64) as 'flour' or 'floured'.
Augustine, OG 131, shows the problem which LXX raise: they have rendered hori with chondritos, 'coarse bread', understood in Latin as the rations proper for a slave's food allowance. He rightly asks what need Pharaoh would have of such things, and therefore seeks to explain away the oddity of LXX. Jerome indicates that proper understanding of Hebrew béri eliminates any problem.
Once more, Origen, Sel. in Gen. 40: 9, 16, has a different emphasis, discerning profound theological significance in the vine-shoots and the baskets, whereas Jerome strives to clarify the meaning of the actual word.
The Hebrew word is 'abu, found here and at verse 18.
LXX read it as achei on both occasions, and VL had translated it as 'river bank'. This is not a correct rendering, as Jerome shows. The word is possibly Egyptian, meaning 'Nile-grass', so Skinner, Commentary on Genesis, 465. TO's translation is 'reed-grass': TN has
'reeds', Ngl, PJ, and FTV 'papyrus'. Aquila and Symmachus, however, understood it as 'marsh', which is Jerome's preference in Vg of this verse ('marshy places') and at 41: 18 ('pasture of marsh').
Jerome explains how letter waw representing vowel u and letter yodh representing vowel 1 can easily be confused in Hebrew script, suggesting that LXX have misread the Hebrew which lay before them. He finally notes their use of Greek chi to represent the sound of the Hebrew letter beth. verse 16 Jerome's translation of the Hebrew is very literal, as in Vg; and the proper sense of it is given by Symmachus. TO is clearest of all as to the meaning of the phrase: 'Not through my wisdom, but from before the Lord shall the welfare of Pharaoh be restored.'
PJ has Joseph say that it is not through him that the dream will be interpreted, but through God. LXX, like Pesh, seem to have read the Hebrew bl'dy, which means 'without me', simply as b/d, and Commentary then to have translated the following word to produce 'without God ...'. LXX also supply a negative later in the verse, to indicate that God is the interpreter of dreams.' verse 29 For Jerome's discussion of the various ways of reading and understanding forms derived from the root 5b, see above, 21:
30-1 and 26: 32-3; and In Esa. 18. 65: 15-16. verse 43.
The Hebrew has: 'and they called out before him abrék'.
The word is probably of Egyptian origin; but LXX and Jerome in Vg took it to mean 'herald', and placed it as subject of the sentence.
TN and PJ may also have regarded it in this light, with their translations: 'and they proclaimed before him'; but see further below. Aquila, like Ibn Ezra centuries later, took the word as from root brk, 'kneel, bless', from which comes the noun berek, 'knee': this corresponds to R. Jose ben Durmaskit's interpretation in Sifre
Deut. 1 that the word is equivalent to birkayim, 'knees', since at Joseph's authority everyone entered and went out. See also the second interpretation of the word offered by Origen, Sel. in Gen.
41: 43. Symmachus transliterated the word.
Jerome rejects all these translations in favour of the Jewish exegesis which sees in this one expression two separate words, @b,
'father', and rék, 'tender'. Thus in Sifre Deut. 1, R. Jehudah explains it as 'father in respect of wisdom, tender in respect of years'; see also Gen. Rab. 90: 3; and PJ, 'This is the father of the king, great in wisdom, but tender in years', which is almost identical with FTP, FTV, and GM. TO's translation, 'This is the father of the king' (cf. b. BB 4a), seems to be an abbreviation of the longer exegesis set out here, as is probably the reading of Pesh, 'father and ruler'.? It is probable that Jerome derived this knowledge directly from Jews;} for although Origen knew this tradition and recorded it along with Aquila's translation of 'abrék (Sel. in Gen. 41: 43), he does not state that it is Jewish.* verse 45 LXX made an attempt to transliterate the name Zaphnath-paneah (spnt pnb), as did Aquila and most witnesses to TO; Pesh reproduced the name, and added an explanation, 'the one
1 See Salvesen, Symmachus, 52-3.
? See Vermes, 'Bible and Midrash', 203-4; id., 'Haggadah in the Onkelos Targum', JSS 8 (1963), 162; Geiger, Urschrift, 463-4.
3 See Rahmer, Die hebriischen Traditionen, 50-1; Kamesar, Jerome, 101-3.
' Kor the claim that Origen was Jerome's source, see Ginzberg, 'Die Haggada'
(MGW Ns 7), 546; R. Bardy, 'Les Traditions juives dans l'ceuvre d' Origéne', RB 34 to whom hidden things are revealed'. Symmachus certainly reproduced the name, but may also have added an explanation, 'being hidden, he revealed', or, possibly, 'he revealed hidden things'.' The element spn in his name could be taken as the Hebrew root 'to hide', and the sense of 'revealer of hidden things' was widely accepted. Jerome in Lib. Heb. Nom. (p. 72) gives it as the meaning of the Hebrew form of the name. Thus TN (cf. GM) has 'the man to whom hidden things are revealed';* PJ, 'the man who uncovers hidden things'; and 'the Syrian', 'he who knows the hidden things'.
Gen. Rab. 90: 4 records the same meanings; and Josephus, Ant. 2.
91, took it to mean 'finder of hidden things'. Augustine, OG 135 (like Theodoret, OG 94), explained the name as 'he revealed hidden things' because he interpreted the king's dreams, something he may have derived from Philo;' he adds that in Egyptian the name means 'saviour of the world'.
The Egyptian sense of the name has been explored by modern scholars: probably it means "The god speaks and he lives'.§ But Jerome here and in Vg took it as 'saviour of the world', having already expressly stated in Lib. Heb. Nom. (p. 72): 'But we have learned from the Egyptians that in their language the word means the saviour of the world.' This rendering is most likely influenced by Christian thinking, which regarded Joseph as a type of Christ in that he alone preserved alive the whole of Egypt and those who visited it during the famine.' verses 50-2 Jerome seems to translate the Hebrew here, since
LXX read: 'And two sons were born to Joseph before the seven years of famine came, whom Aseneth the daughter of Petephres, priest of Heliopolis bore for him . . ." He was much exercised about the number of Israelites who went into Egypt, and discusses the matter at length at 46: 26-7 and 48: 1. By contrast, Origen, Sel. in Gen. 41: §2 says nothing of this problem. According to b. Ta'an.
> On the question of what Symmachus read, see Salvesen, Symmachus, 53-4.
© A few witnesses to TO also have this, as does Origen, Sel. in Gen. 41: 45. See Grossfeld, Targum Ongelos to Genesis, 138-9; de Lange, Origen and the Jews, 129;
Bowker, The Targums, 254-5; Vermes, 'Bible and Midrash', 204; and L. Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews, 7 vols. (Philadelphia, 1909-38), v. 345.
7 See de Lange, Origen and the Jews, 12.9, 206 n. 69; in De Mut. Nom. 91, Philo explains the name as 'a mouth judging in answer'.
8 See especially Skinner, Commentary on Genesis, 470-1; G. von Rad, Genesis (London, 1963), 372~3; and cf. Rahmer, Die hebrdischen Traditionen, 51.
° But see Salvesen, Symmachus, 54, for the suggestion that Jerome may have had in mind the root pdh, 'deliver, redeem', in his explanation of Zaphnath-paneah.
Commentary 11a, Tanh. Noah 11, it is improper to engender children in a time of famine. The name Manasseh, m*naSseh, he here derives from root nh, 'to forget'; he gives essentially the same derivation in Lib.
69), adding another interpretation, 'necessity'.
Ephraim he takes from root prh, 'be fruitful', as in Lib. Heb. Nom.
(p. 65), 'fruitful, or one who is growing'.
CHAPTER 43 verse 11 The last word in this verse is S«qédim, properly, as Aquila, Symmachus, and Vg took it, 'almonds'. Jerome quotes the verse to illustrate the meaning of the word n*k'dt, which LXX translated as 'incense', Aquila and Vg as 'storax'. It is not common, and means 'spices, aromatics'. It occurs in Gen. 37: 25, where Rashi understands it as 'spices', quoting 2 Kgs. 20: 13 as proof: this latter verse is an almost exact doublet of Isa. 39: 2, the passage to which Jerome alludes here. But the word presented difficulties to ancient commentators, since Jub. 42: 20 and Josephus, Ant. 2.
118, seem to have ignored it; and TO, PJ, and TN here and at 37: 25 translated it as 'wax, gum'. Likewise for this verse Gen. Rab. 91: 11 gives its meaning as 'wax'. Hence, perhaps, Jerome's concern to elucidate its sense. verse 34 Kamesar notes that this comment is typical of the genre
Quaestiones, seeking to solve the problem which would be created if it were said that the brothers became drunk and behaved in an unseemly manner.' Indeed Philo, De Jos. 205-6, so bowdlerized the episode as to make it entirely wholesome. The verb used here is Skr, which means nothing other than 'become drunk, inebriated'; but Jerome interprets it in the light of Ps. 65: 11. At first sight, this presents a puzzle, because this verse does not contain the verb skr; furthermore, Jerome has probably quoted the verse from memory, since it occurs in this form in no known version. But the verse does contain the Hebrew verb rwh, as follows: 'Her furrows Thou dost saturate abundantly (rawweh), her ridges Thou dost lower; Thou dost make it soft with showers; Thou blessest its springing up.' The root rwh has the primary meaning 'be saturated', and a secondary
1 See Kamesar, 'Thesis', 76, citing Augustine on the problem of unseemly conduct attributed to Joseph's brothers. For Origen, Comm. in Joh. 1. 206, the story refers to spiritual intoxication: see Harl, Bible d'Alexandrie, i. 286.
Commentary 2.29 sense of 'be intoxicated', such that LXX in this verse rendered it as methouson, 'make drunk'. Why Jerome should invoke this verse here may be explained by the fact that Aramaic has a root rwy cognate with Hebrew rwh, which the Targums of this verse use to translate Skr: thus TO, 'and they drank and had their fill (or: became drunk) with him'; see also TN and PJ. The Hebrew verb kr, 'become drunk', occurs only twice elsewhere in the Pentateuch, and rwy is the usual Aramaic translation of it: see TO and TN of Gen. 9: 21; and FTV, PJ, TO, TN, and GM of Deut. 32: 42; also
Targum 2 Sam. 11: 13; Isa. 29: 9; Jer. 25: 27. One possible way of explaining Jerome's comment, then, would be to assume that he knewa traditional rendering of Hebrew Skr, 'become drunk', by Aramaic rwy, 'be saturated', which he himself sought to justify on the basis of a Psalm verse in which the Hebrew cognate of the Aramaic verb occurred. But even the use of this slightly less explicit verb in the Targums did not seem to go far enough in exonerating
Joseph's brothers, in the opinion of some authorities: thus b. Shabb.
139a and Gen. Rab. 92: 5 explain that the brothers had not drunk wine since the day that Joseph had been separated from them.
Augustine, OG 144, seems to follow Jerome's explanation of the 'drunkenness'.
CHAPTER 44 verses 1-2 LXX, whom Jerome follows in Vg, have correctly understood the Hebrew as 'sack', but Jerome adduces two other meanings of the word: see also PJ, which reads 'his bag', twnyh; TO (cf. TN) has 'his bag, burden, load', twyh.! The cup, Hebrew g'bia, was translated as kondu by the LXX:? Aquila preferred scyphum, 'goblet', which was taken up by Ambrose, De Josh. 61, and by Jerome in Vg. Symmachus rendered the word with phialé, a broad flat bowl used for drinking. The word kondu is found again in Isa. 51: 17, where LXX had used it to represent Hebrew kds, a common word for 'cup'; Symmachus in that verse put kratér, 'a mixing-bow] for wine'. Interestingly, the Targum of Isa.
5: 17 used the Greek loan-word phialé to render the expression 1 Fischer, p. 453, notes a Hexaplaric marginal note which reads thula<kia>, 'little sacks', and compares this with Jerome's interpretation of the Hebrew.
? For LXX's translation, kondu, see Harl, Bible d'Alexandrie, i. 286.
Commentary qubba'at kés, 'bow! of the cup', translating 'the broad bowl of the cup'.
CHAPTER 45 verses 9-10 The word in question is vocalized in the MT as Goshen. LXX read Gesem at this point, and 'of Arabia' was probably added, as it is again at 46: 34, under the influence of Neh. 2: rg, where we hear of Geshem the Arab. But Arabia was actually the name of one of the nomes of Graeco-Roman Egypt, according to Ptolemy and Strabo, and LXX may equally be attempting to offer a contemporary identification of the site.! Hebrew gesem, as Jerome records, means 'rain'. verse 17 'The Hebrew is b"irkem, which means 'beasts', and is so rendered by Jub. 43: 22, Vg, Pesh, Allos, TO, PJ, and TN. Aquila and Symmachus have kténé, which means 'property', but again also
'cattle, herds'; and some witnesses of LXX also read 'beasts of burden', phoreia.2 Theodotion and most witnesses to LXX read
'wagons, carriages', which is also the understanding of Josephus, Ant. 2. 167. verse 21 The Hebrew sédah means 'provision, food for a journey', and so it has rightly been understood here by all the Greek versions, as well as Vg, Pesh, and Targums. It also occurs in Ps. 132: 15, where Aquila and Symmachus treat it as 'food', but most witnesses to LXX have translated with théra, which, as Jerome says, implies food taken in hunting, 'game'; they had in mind the root sdh which means 'to hunt'. Other MSS have 'widow', which some modern scholars suggest may represent the original text.3 Jerome once more displays his ostensible knowledge of Egyptian and its contemporary pronunciation, as if to imply that the LXX translators may have been influenced to some degree by the local Egyptian language. But he almost certainly derived his information from Pliny, Nat. Hist.
22. 121, who speaks of a two-grained wheat called olyra or arinca:
1 So Skinner, Commentary on Genesis, 488; however, see further Harl, Bible d'Alexandrie, i. 291.
? See Field, i. 64, who also notes that some witnesses to the text of QHG at this point also read phoreia.
3 See A. A. Anderson, Psalms, New Century Bible, ii (London, 1972), 884. The word supplies a good parallel to 'poor' in the second half of the line.