10-08-2008, 05:16 AM
Shlama all---
I was researching in the Targums here. As I mentioned earlier today, the "Trilinear" source here is Onkelos, which is a crtical reesource in defending an Aramaic witness to the Hebrew text.
I noticed something in the first line of Onkelos Genesis 1:1 that I thought would be of interest to Jews and Christians alike. Rather than use the Hebrew "Bereshit" (in the beginning), Onkelos says instead B"KADMIYN which can mean the same thing but is better translated as "in the antiquities" as Etheridge does with this note:
"This expression, when used, as here, im the plural, "is sometimes put for "eternity". Compare Onkelos on Deut. xxxiii, 27, Eloah d'milkadmin, "the Eternal God" or "God who is called from eternity", with Joanathan (targum) on Micah V. 2, "Messiah, whose name is called (milkadmin) from eternity."
This is a very important ancient messianic statement also relfected in mystical traditions and Tanakh. Messiah can be called "Last Adam" but the mystics also link on occasion to "Adam Kadmon" the spiritual blueprint of ideal man that Y'shua later fulfills in the Nazarene interpertation. John 17 of course links it with the name of the Eternal, the Yah that is in Y'shua, which verse 11 talks about is the SAME NAME as YHWH and earlier that it was known from before time began.
But the best linkage is actually in Micah 5:2. Looking at both the MT and the targum, we see some startling parallels. Both texts do a double parallelism, a reptition of a key phrase right near one another to act like a kind of verbal steroids. So when Isaiah says for example "shalom shalom" it is usually translated as "perfect peace" because of the intensity of having the two words side by side. Simlarly both MT and targum do this with eternity concepts with resepct to Messiah.
There are two pairs of Aramaic and Hebrew words each that mean "forever, eternity". One phrase empahsizes Messiah's origins are from long ago, another he is immortal. The word OLAM/ALMA can mean both "world" and "eternity" and this is preceded by MALKIDMON and MEQEDEM from the Hebrew--both mean "from long ago". However, by Onkelos choosing this word for Genesis 1:1 as well he makes it clear that he sees Messiah as co-existent with at least the moment of creation, if not prior to that. Both versions of Micah though are using TWO "eternity" words each, indicating intense focus on this aspect of Messiah.
To me, Onkelos might as well have been targumming John's first chapter, and this is true in another way of Targum Jonathan, who emphasizes Memra d Yeyeh also a creative force from YHWH to make all and that creative agent also has his own individual ancientness. This has nothing to do with Trintiy of course but with branches from the same tree. A tri-une nature though doesn't mean a tri-une YHWH. Those are two different concepts.
Thought it might be interesting...
Shlama w'burkate
Andrew Gabriel Roth
I was researching in the Targums here. As I mentioned earlier today, the "Trilinear" source here is Onkelos, which is a crtical reesource in defending an Aramaic witness to the Hebrew text.
I noticed something in the first line of Onkelos Genesis 1:1 that I thought would be of interest to Jews and Christians alike. Rather than use the Hebrew "Bereshit" (in the beginning), Onkelos says instead B"KADMIYN which can mean the same thing but is better translated as "in the antiquities" as Etheridge does with this note:
"This expression, when used, as here, im the plural, "is sometimes put for "eternity". Compare Onkelos on Deut. xxxiii, 27, Eloah d'milkadmin, "the Eternal God" or "God who is called from eternity", with Joanathan (targum) on Micah V. 2, "Messiah, whose name is called (milkadmin) from eternity."
This is a very important ancient messianic statement also relfected in mystical traditions and Tanakh. Messiah can be called "Last Adam" but the mystics also link on occasion to "Adam Kadmon" the spiritual blueprint of ideal man that Y'shua later fulfills in the Nazarene interpertation. John 17 of course links it with the name of the Eternal, the Yah that is in Y'shua, which verse 11 talks about is the SAME NAME as YHWH and earlier that it was known from before time began.
But the best linkage is actually in Micah 5:2. Looking at both the MT and the targum, we see some startling parallels. Both texts do a double parallelism, a reptition of a key phrase right near one another to act like a kind of verbal steroids. So when Isaiah says for example "shalom shalom" it is usually translated as "perfect peace" because of the intensity of having the two words side by side. Simlarly both MT and targum do this with eternity concepts with resepct to Messiah.
There are two pairs of Aramaic and Hebrew words each that mean "forever, eternity". One phrase empahsizes Messiah's origins are from long ago, another he is immortal. The word OLAM/ALMA can mean both "world" and "eternity" and this is preceded by MALKIDMON and MEQEDEM from the Hebrew--both mean "from long ago". However, by Onkelos choosing this word for Genesis 1:1 as well he makes it clear that he sees Messiah as co-existent with at least the moment of creation, if not prior to that. Both versions of Micah though are using TWO "eternity" words each, indicating intense focus on this aspect of Messiah.
To me, Onkelos might as well have been targumming John's first chapter, and this is true in another way of Targum Jonathan, who emphasizes Memra d Yeyeh also a creative force from YHWH to make all and that creative agent also has his own individual ancientness. This has nothing to do with Trintiy of course but with branches from the same tree. A tri-une nature though doesn't mean a tri-une YHWH. Those are two different concepts.
Thought it might be interesting...
Shlama w'burkate
Andrew Gabriel Roth