CHAPTER 9
Commentary this verse is clear from his Dialogus adversus Luciferianos 22, where he follows LXX (as do also some witnesses to Vg): the raven does not return. It symbolizes evil and the devil: once sent out, it should never return. He has probably derived this allegorical interpretation from Philo, OG 2. 35-6. He then contrasts the raven with the dove which Noah also sent out (8: 8-12), the symbol of the Holy Ghost which Christians receive in baptism, when the devil is exorcized and takes his leave.? Augustine, OG 13, candidly states the problem raised by LXX: the raven did not return, whereas the dove did, finding no rest for its feet. Did the raven, therefore, die?
Or did it stay alive by other means? If it had rested on dry land, the dove could surely have done the same. Thus, he tells us, some suppose that the raven settled on a corpse, which the dove would naturally avoid.
Such explanations of LXX are forced; and Jerome's setting forth of the Hebrew text makes clear that they are also unnecessary.
CHAPTER 9 verse 18 Having noted that LXX often use letter chi to represent Hebrew beth, Jerome seems keen to point to his knowledge of the Egyptian language: see also 41: 2, 453 45: 21. verse 27 The Hebrew root pth means 'be spacious, wide'; and the text of Genesis itself implies that the name Japheth is related to this verb. The name is explained as 'width' in Lib. Heb. Nom. (p. 67).
Jerome, for reasons of Christian theology which he states, accepts the etymology, no doubt regarding the name as an imperfect hiphil form of the verb. In one of the most overtly Christian comments in the book, Jerome envisages the Gentile Christians taking over scriptural knowledge and learning from the Jews, the children of Shem.
LXX of the second part of the verse speaks of the 'houses' of Shem, but there are witnesses to a variant reading 'tents', as in VL.
Jerome either took up this variant, or translated the Hebrew with above, ch.
1 n. 7) is recorded as being not like the Greek, since it says 'and it returned', as also 'the Hebrew': see Field, i. 26. In this case, 'the Syrian' cannot be the Peshitta. TN of this verse repeats the point that the raven went out and returned, perhaps in conscious opposition to the renderings of LXX and Pesh.
3 See also Rahmer, Die hebrdischen Traditionen, 68-9, and Jerome, Ep. 69. 6. its reference to Shem's 'tents'.! He seems aware that the 'tents' of Shem were interpreted by Jews as referring to a Study House, a Beth
Ha-Midrash, which Shem, and later Eber, had headed. His comment sounds suspiciously like a Christianized version of PJ of this verse, which reads: 'May God make beautiful the boundaries of Japheth. May his sons become converts, and dwell in the Study
House of Shem. Jerome's language strengthens the suspicion. He speaks of Christians 'who are engaged in' (Latin, versamur) Scripture learning; the verb may equally be translated 'who are turned to', suggesting a conversion from former paganism to Christianity.
The Targum, too, naturally took the sons of Japheth as Gentiles, and foresaw their conversion to Judaism. We should recall m. Meg.
1: 8, which permits the writing of Scripture in Greek; indeed, Rabban Simeon ben Gamaliel permits such writing for Greek alone, and the translation of the Scriptures into Greek is further discussed in jer. Meg. 1: 9. 10, b. Meg. 9b, b. Yoma 9b. The Study House of Shem, where Scripture could be studied and God's instruction sought, is often referred to in Targum and Midrash.? Most striking is a midrashic interpretation of Gen. 25: 27, which describes Jacob as a man 'dwelling in tents'. A marginal gloss of TN
(cf. PJ) interprets: 'Jacob was a man perfect in good work, dwelling and ministering in the Study House of Shem and Eber, and seeking instruction from before the Lord.' In this last instance, Jacob is contrasted with his wicked brother Esau, who later became a symbol of the Roman Empire in much Rabbinic writing.* Jerome knew that the Rabbis had equated Esau with Rome;' and his commentary on Gen. 9: 27 may consequently have been influenced by the Jewish interpretation noted here, which he turns on its head.
' See Wevers, p. 132, and Fischer, pp. 132-3.
2 PJ has understood Japheth as if it derived from the Hebrew root yph, 'be beautiful': see further le Déaut, Targum du Pentateuque, i. 133. Shem's Beth HaMidrash features also in the two marginal glosses of TN of this verse.
3 See PJ of Gen. 22: 19; PJ, TN, FTP, Ngl, FTV of Gen. 25: 22; PJ, TN, Ngl, TO, of Gen. 25: 27; Gen. Rab. 63: 6; b. Ber. 16a; PRE 32: 4; and G. ben-Ami Sarfati,
'The Tent = The House of Study', Tarbiz 38 (1968), 87-9.
4 See Gerson D. Cohen, 'Esau as Symbol in Early Medieval Thought', in A.
Altmann (ed.), Jewish Medieval and Renaissance Studies (Cambridge, Mass., 1967), 19-48; H. Hunzinger, 'Babylon als Deckname fiir Rom und die Datierung des I.
Petrusbriefes', in H. Reventlow (ed.), Gottes Wort und Gottes Land: Festschrift fir H.-W. Hertzberg (Géttingen, 1965), 67-77; S. Zeitlin, 'The Origin of the Term Edom for Rome and the Christian Church', JOR 60 (1969), 262-3; L. H. Feldman,
'Josephus' Portrait of Jacob', JOR 79 (1988-9), 130-3.
> Jerome, In Esa. 7. 21. 1-12.