Texts in Conversation
Exodus 22 forbids eating meat torn by animals, which may refer to a dead animal or living animal. The Aramaic translation in Targum Neofiti keeps the ambiguity, harmonizing it with Rabbinic interpretations that also consider several possible meanings.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Exodus 22:31
Hebrew Bible
28 “You must not blaspheme God or curse the ruler of your people. 29 “Do not hold back offerings from your granaries or your vats. You must give me the firstborn of your sons. 30 You must also do this for your oxen and for your sheep; seven days they may remain with their mothers, but give them to me on the eighth day. 31 “You will be holy people to me; you must not eat any meat torn by animals in the field. You must throw it to the dogs.
Date: 750–400 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Neofiti Exodus 22:30
Targum
28 Do not delay gathering your tithes and priestly contribution. Consecrate your firstborn male sons to my Name. 29 Do the same with your cattle and sheep. For seven days the young animal must be reared behind its mother; on the eighth day they must set it apart to my Name. 30 You must be a people consecrated to my Name. Do not eat meat torn by a wild animal, killed out in the field. Throw it to a dog, or throw it to a gentile stranger, who is compared to a dog.
Date: 300–1000 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... This law deals with flesh (trèfàh) torn from a living animal. In ruling that it may be given to a Gentile, the Targum is following the rules laid down for carrion (nebêlàh) in Deuteronomy 14:21. This corresponds to the way in which the verse is treated in Mekiltah Rabbi Kaspa 2:23-39, Exodus Rabbah 31:9, and the arguments adduced for dealing with flesh in this fashion. But as Levy makes clear, the Hebrew is ambiguous and may refer to two forbidden things, dead flesh in the field and flesh from a living animal. The words of Neofiti can be translated such that they also include this ambiguity ..."
Martin McNamara, Targum Neofiti 1 & Targum Pseudo-Jonathan: Exodus, ArBib 2 (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1994), 98.
* 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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