Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Note on the 1979 reprint
- Note on transliteration
- Note on bibliographical references
- List of abbreviations
- INTRODUCTION: THE BACKGROUND OF THE TARGUMS
- PS. JONATHAN ON SELECTED CHAPTERS OF GENESIS
- GENESIS I
- GENESIS II
- GENESIS III
- GENESIS IV
- GENESIS V
- GENESIS VI
- GENESIS VII
- GENESIS VIII
- GENESIS IX
- GENESIS X. 8–14
- GENESIS XI. 1–9, 27–8
- GENESIS XIII. 10–13
- GENESIS XIV. 13–15, 18–20
- GENESIS XV. 1–6
- GENESIS XVI. 1–6
- GENESIS XVIII. 1–25
- GENESIS XIX. 24
- GENESIS XX. 13
- GENESIS XXI. 1–2
- GENESIS XXI. 33
- GENESIS XXII
- GENESIS XXVI. 5
- GENESIS XXXVII
- GENESIS XXXIX
- GENESIS XL
- GENESIS XLI
- GENESIS XLII
- GENESIS XLIII
- GENESIS XLIV
- GENESIS XLV
- GENESIS XLVI
- GENESIS XLVII
- GENESIS XLVIII
- GENESIS XLIX
- GENESIS L
- Appendices
- Bibliography
- Indexes
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Note on the 1979 reprint
- Note on transliteration
- Note on bibliographical references
- List of abbreviations
- INTRODUCTION: THE BACKGROUND OF THE TARGUMS
- PS. JONATHAN ON SELECTED CHAPTERS OF GENESIS
- GENESIS I
- GENESIS II
- GENESIS III
- GENESIS IV
- GENESIS V
- GENESIS VI
- GENESIS VII
- GENESIS VIII
- GENESIS IX
- GENESIS X. 8–14
- GENESIS XI. 1–9, 27–8
- GENESIS XIII. 10–13
- GENESIS XIV. 13–15, 18–20
- GENESIS XV. 1–6
- GENESIS XVI. 1–6
- GENESIS XVIII. 1–25
- GENESIS XIX. 24
- GENESIS XX. 13
- GENESIS XXI. 1–2
- GENESIS XXI. 33
- GENESIS XXII
- GENESIS XXVI. 5
- GENESIS XXXVII
- GENESIS XXXIX
- GENESIS XL
- GENESIS XLI
- GENESIS XLII
- GENESIS XLIII
- GENESIS XLIV
- GENESIS XLV
- GENESIS XLVI
- GENESIS XLVII
- GENESIS XLVIII
- GENESIS XLIX
- GENESIS L
- Appendices
- Bibliography
- Indexes
Summary
‘…because that Abraham obeyed my word, and kept my word, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.’
Notes on Genesis xxvi. 5
This verse formed a basis for the belief that Abraham kept the Law before the time of its revelation to Moses. Midr. Teh. on Ps. i. 13 recorded:
R. Samuel b. Naḥman said: ‘Abraham's father did not instruct him and he had no teacher to instruct him, so from whom did he learn Torah?’ He gave the answer of R. Simeon b. Joḥai: ‘The Holy One, blessed be he, gave Abraham kidneys like to overflowing containers filling him with wisdom and understanding throughout the night, as it is written, Yea, my reins instruct me in the night season.
The belief arose at an early date because of the problem posed by the fact that Abraham was manifestly ‘the friend of God’ but Torah had not yet been revealed. How was he able to please God without observing the specific requirements of Torah? As early as Jubilees the theory was proposed that all the patriarchs observed Torah so far as God made it known to them. It is said specifically of Abraham in xvi. 21, xxii. 1–4, xxxvi. 20; and in xxi. 1 ff. Abraham instructs Isaac in various laws. (In Test. Levi ix. 6 ff. the same instructions are attributed to Isaac.)
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- The Targums and Rabbinic LiteratureAn Introduction to Jewish Interpretations of Scripture, pp. 235 - 236Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1969