Thursday, August 9, 2018

Genesis 4:7 (Targum Neofiti) and "binding and loosing" being tied to the forgiveness of sins

Genesis 4:7 in Targum Neofiti reads as follows:

Surely, if you make your work in this world to be good, you will be remitted and pardoned in the world to come; but if you do not make your work in this world to be good, your sin will be kept for the day of great judgment; and that the door of your heart your sin crouches. Into your hands, however, I have given the control over the evil inclination and you shall rule it, whether to remain just or to sin. (Targum Neofiti 1: Genesis [The Aramaic Bible volume 1A; trans. Martin McNamara; Collegeville, Minn.: The Liturgical Press, 1992], 65, italics in original)

The note for the term "remitted and pardoned" links this concept into the binding and loosing in Matt 16:18 (cf. 18:18; D&C 132:D&C 124:93; 127:7; 128:8, 10):

“remitted and pardoned”; Aramaic šry wšbq. Compare NT expressions in John 20:23; Matt 16:19; 18:18. See discussion in Z. W. Falk, “Binding and Loosing,” JJS 25 (1974) 92-100; Vermes, art. cit., Annual of Leeds University Oriental School (Leiden) 107-109; Strack and Billerbeck, Kommentar, 1,637; II, 585. For rabbinic parallels see Grossfeld, Neofiti, note 10 to Gen 4. (Ibid., 66 n. 8)


 Such shows that "binding and loosing" is not the proclamation of the gospel merely.

For a discussion of a related text (John 20:23), see: