CHAPTER 11
Commentary names in LXX are:
Elmédad, Saleph, Hasarmdéth, Iarach, Hoddorra, Aizél, Dekla, Abimeél, Sabeu, Ouphir, Heuila, and Idbab. See Josephus, Ant. 1. 146-7, for the territories of these nations. The disclaimer of ignorance is entirely Jerome's own. For Hieria, Josephus has Seria.
CHAPTER 11 verse 28 The Hebrew word 'wr, which is the place-name Ur, also means 'light, fire', and provided the starting-point for the widely disseminated tradition that Abraham had been thrown intoa fiery furnace. Jerome accepts the truth of it: see his comments below on 12: 43 In Esa. 18. 65: 8; In Osee 3. 14: 5-9; In Zech. 2. 9: 13; and his Vg translation of Neh. (2 Esdras) 9: 7. For the first time in this book, Jerome uses the expression 'tradunt Hebraei' ('the Hebrews hand on a teaching, tradition') to introduce an Haggadic paraphrase of a verse.!
He gives an abbreviated outline of a story found in many sources, which often differ among themselves in describing the circumstances, personnel, and events surrounding Abraham's suffering.' It originated in pre-Rabbinic times, as is clear from LAB 6: 15-18, and received many embellishments: see, for example, Gen. Rab. 38:
13, where a parallel is drawn between Abraham's experiences and those of Daniel at Nebuchadnezzar's court. But the essential story was so well known that the Aramaic Targums often simply alluded to 'the furnace of fire of the Chaldeans' in shorthand style: see PJ and TN of Gen. 11: 31; 15: 7; 16: 5. Indeed, the beginning of PJ's version of this verse is similar to Jerome's comment: 'Now it happened, when Nimrod threw Abram into the furnace of fire because he would not worship his idols, that no authority was given to the fire to burn him'. Jerome says nothing of Nimrod's activity, although he appears also in Gen. Rab. and other accounts; and the extent of his abridgement of the Jewish tradition is apparent only in the second part of his comment. Giving another translation of the 1 See Introduction, pp. 4-5.
? For a survey and detailed discussion of the sources, see especially G. Vermes, 'The Life of Abraham (x)', in Scripture and Tradition in Judaism? (Leiden, 1973),
67-95. Cf. also Bowker, The Targums, 187-9; and C. T. R. Hayward, 'Inconsistencies and Contradictions in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan: The Case of Eliezer and Nimrod', JSS 37 (1992), 49-52. scriptural verse, this time of the Hebrew text, he notes that Aran died by fire, having refused to worship fire. The note becomes clear when set alongside the account in Gen. Rab., that Aran was undecided whether to support Abram or the idolaters; that he finally sided with Abram when he saw that the fire did not harm him; and that he was consumed by the flames because of his doublemindedness. But Jerome does make clear that Jewish tradition linked Aran's death with the story of Abraham in the furnace.? Such is the meaning of his words: 'And they maintain that this (i.e.
Abraham's being cast into the fire) refers to what is said' in the verse about Aran's death.
A chronological problem is involved here, which Jerome regarded as solved by these Jewish traditions: this he addresses in commenting on 12: 4. But there is covert allusion to it here, without explanation. The Hebrew says that Aran died 'al p°né his father. The words may mean 'before' in the temporal sense, as the first translation given by Jerome allows; or they may mean 'before the face of', as in the second translation. It is the first possible meaning which leads to the chronological difficulty discussed in 12: 4, and the second which supplies Jerome with the resolution. verse 29 LXX give the-name of Abram's wife as Sara, and describe Aran as 'father of Melcha and father of Iesca'; Jerome's rendering makes explicit that Melcha and Iesca have one and the same father. For Thara's three sons Abram, Nachor, and Aran, see
Gen. t1: 27. This verse states that Aran had two daughters, Melcha and Iesca; and Jerome identifies Iesca with Sarai, the wife of Abraham.* He follows established Jewish tradition, set out in b.
Sanh. 69b; b. Meg. 14a; Sifre Num. 24; Midrash Pss. 118; Seder 'Olam Rabbah 2; PJ of this verse; and Josephus, Ant. 1. 151; s0 also
Augustine, De Civ. Dei 16, 12. The effect of this is to make Sarai Abraham's niece, even though Gen. 20: 12 and Jub. 12: 9 speak of her as his (half-)sister.
As Jerome remarks, the law forbidding marriages within degrees of kindred had not yet been given to Moses: Lev. 18: 9; 20: 17 forbid marriage of brother and sister, and marriage of aunt and nephew is ruled out by Lev. 18: 13. But from Second Temple times onwards, Jews believed that the Patriarchs had kept many of the commandments of the Torah before it was given to Moses; Jub.
3 See also Rahmer, Die hebrdischen Traditionen, 24-5.
4 See Rahmer, ibid. 27.
Commentary took this for granted. The tradition that Abram married his niece began as an attempt to absolve him from a charge of having broken the Law; for while Lev. 18: 13 forbids nephews to marry aunts, it is silent about marriages of uncles and nieces.5 But of these legal concerns which led to Iesca's identification with Sarai, Jerome says nothing.® CHAPTER 12 verse 4 Jerome neatly states the difficulty in terms very similar to those in a Catena fragment variously attributed to Diodore, Theodoret, or Theodore of Mopsuestia (Petit, ii. 168-70). For Thara's age at Abraham's birth, and his age when he died, see Gen.
II: 26, 32. On the 'fire of the Chaldeans', see above on 11: 28. The author of the Catena fragment tries to resolve the problem by invoking the peculiarities of biblical expression: he insists that Abram, Nachor, and Aran were no more triplets whom Thara fathered in his seventieth year, than Shem, Ham, and Japheth were triplets sired by Noah in his sooth (Gen. 5: 32). Rather, all these sons were born to their respective fathers at different times, such that the three named in each case had been born by the time the father was of the age given in the biblical text.
Jerome's solution of the chronological problem differs entirely from the one just given, and appears unique. It rests on a Jewish tradition which he describes quite simply as true. He suggests that Abraham came out of the fire of the Chaldeans as it were new-born.
There is nothing in extant Jewish lore precisely to compare with the tradition which Jerome gives, although he may have known Jewish calculations no longer available to us. The usual Jewish solution was to postulate Abraham's having left Chaldea before Thara's death.! The other options which Jerome records do not coincide
5 See further Vermes, 'Bible and Midrash', in P. R. Ackroyd and C. F. Evans (eds.), The Cambridge History of the Bible, i (Cambridge, 1970), 218-19; id. 'The Life of Abraham', 75-6.
§ Compare also with Jerome's remarks here PJ of Lev. 20: 17, which specifically points out that God permitted marriage of brother and sister in the case of the first human beings so that the world might be populated, before the giving of the Torah; but that since the Torah has been given, such liaisons are forbidden. See also b. Sanh.
58b; jer. Yeb. 11: 1; Sifra Qedoshim Pereq 11: 11; Midrash Pss. 89: 3; PRE 21: 13 and B. Grossfeld, The Targum Ongelos to Leviticus and the Targum Ongelos to Numbers, The Aramaic Bible, viii (Edinburgh, 1988), 43.
' See further Rahmer, Die hebriischen Traditionen, 25-6. Rashi commenting on