Saturday, January 11, 2025

Leviticus 26:1 in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan

Lev 26:1 of Targum Pseudo-Jonathan reads as follows:

 

לא תעבדון לכון טעוון וצילמין וקמתין מטול }סגותא{ סגודא לא תקימון לכון ואבן מציירא לא תתנון בארעכון למגחן עלה ברם סטיו חקיק בציורין ודיוקנין תשוון בארעית מקדשיכון ולא למסגוד לה ארום אנא ייי אלקכון (Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon, Targum Pseudo-Jonathan to the Pentateuch [Hebrew Union College, 2005], Logos ed.)

 

Martin McNamara rendered the above Aramaic text thusly:

 

‘You shall not make idols for yourselves; you shall not erect for yourselves images or pillars to bow down (to them), and you shall not set up a figured stone in your land to bend down to 2 it. However, you may put a pavement decorated with figures and images in the floors of your sanctuaries, but not to bow down to it. For I am the Lord your God. (Robert Hayward, The Aramaic Bible: Targum Neofiti 1 & Targum Pseudo-Jonathan: Leviticus [trans. Martin McNamara; Collegeville, Minn.: The Liturgical Press,1994], 203-4)

 

Robert Hayward provided the following commentary:

 

Ps.-J. resolved the conflict between Exod 20:4, Deut 5:8, and Lev 26:1, which forbid the making of images, and the practice of decorating synagogue floors with mosaics. Ps.-J. assures those who worship in synagogues with such floors that they do not violate the biblical commands as long as they do not worship the figures on the floor. (Ibid., 204 n. 4)

 

 

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