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In the Aramaic Targum Neofiti, Hebrew women pray to their Father in heaven before giving birth. Rabbinic tradition in tractate Sotah similarly calls God Israel’s Father in heaven as children turn against their parents.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Mishnah Sotah 9
Mishnah
Rabbinic
Rabbi Eliezer the Great says: From the day the Second Temple was destroyed, the generations have deteriorated: Scholars have begun to become like scribes that teach children, and scribes have become like beadles, and beadles have become like ignoramuses, and ignoramuses are increasingly diminished, and none ask and none seek. Upon whom is there to rely? Only upon our Father in Heaven. He also said: In the times of the approach of the Messiah, impudence will increase and high costs will pile up. Although the vine shall bring forth its fruit, wine will nevertheless be expensive. And the monarchy shall turn to heresy, and there will be no one to give reproof about this. The meeting place of the Sages will become a place of promiscuity, and the Galilee shall be destroyed, and the Gavlan will be desolate, and the men of the border shall go round from city to city to seek charity, but they will find no mercy. And the wisdom of scribes will putrefy, and people who fear sin will be held in disgust, and the truth will be absent. The youth will shame the face of elders, elders will stand before minors. Normal family relations will be ruined: A son will disgrace a father; a daughter will rise up against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. A man’s enemies will be the members of his household. The face of the generation will be like the face of a dog; a son will no longer be ashamed before his father. And upon what is there for us to rely? Only upon our Father in heaven. Rabbi Pineḥas ben Ya’ir says: Torah study leads to care in the performance of mitzvot. Care in the performance of mitzvot leads to diligence in their observance. Diligence leads to cleanliness of the soul. Cleanliness of the soul leads to abstention from all evil. Abstention from evil leads to purity and the elimination of all base desires. Purity leads to piety. Piety leads to humility. Humility leads to fear of sin. Fear of sin leads to holiness. Holiness leads to the Divine Spirit. The Divine Spirit leads to the resurrection of the dead.
Date: 190–230 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
Neofiti Exodus 1:19
Targum
15 The king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, one named Shiphrah and the other Puah. 16 He said, “When you help the Hebrew women give birth, look at the birthstools. If the child is a son, kill him; if a daughter, let her live.” 17 But the midwives feared before the Lord. They did not do what the king of Egypt had told them; they kept the children alive. 18 The king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this and kept the children alive?” 19 The midwives told Pharaoh, “The Hebrew women are unlike the Egyptian women; they are vigorous. Before the midwife reaches them, they pray before their Father in the heavens. He answers them, and they give birth.” 20 The Lord showed kindness to the midwives, and the people increased and became very strong.
Date: 300–1000 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Things are different in the Palestinian Targums to the Pentateuch. In one text (Deuteronomy 4:30, Neofiti) 'the Lord your God' is replaced by 'your Father.' In the Palestinian Targums of the Pentateuch alone among the targums do we find the designation of God as 'Father in heaven.' As in the New Testament, it is never found alone, but is always accompanied by a qualifying pronoun, 'your,' 'their,' 'our' ('Father who is in heaven'). Like most of the New Testament occurrences of the expression, in the targums too it is found chiefly in certain definite contexts, i.e. in reference to prayer, merit or divine will. I have found a total of thirteen occurrences of the expression 'Father in heaven' in the Palestinian targums: three in Pseudo-Jonathan, seven in the Fragment Targums and three in Neofiti. The texts are as follows: Genesis 21:33 (Fragment Targums, manuscripts PVNL); Exodus 1:19 (Pseudo-Jonathan and Fragment Targums manuscripts P, V, B2 and in Neofiti); Exodus 17:11 (Fragment Targums, manuscript P; compare all other Fragment Targum texts); Leviticus 22:28 (Pseudo-Jonathan, variant); Numbers 20:21 (Fragment Targums, manuscript V, Second Biblia Rabbinica, Neofiti); Numbers 21:9 (Fragment Targum, manuscript V, Second Biblia Rabbinica); Numbers 23:23 (Fragment Targum, manuscript V, Second Biblia Rabbinica, P); Deuteronomy 28:32 (Fragment Targum, manuscript V, Second Biblia Rabbinica, manuscript P); Deuteronomy 32:6 (Fragment Targum, manuscripts V, P); Deuteronomy 33:24 (Neofiti). In only one instance (Exodus 1:19; prayer to Father in heaven) do all three representatives of the Palestinian Targum carry this particular designation of God ..."
Martin McNamara, Targum and Testament Revisited: Aramaic Paraphrases of the Hebrew Bible: A Light on the New Testament, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2010), 19-.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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