Texts in Conversation
In Genesis, Jacob blesses Judah with such plenty that he will wash his robes in wine. The Aramaic Targum Neofiti interprets the wine as blood on a warrior Messiah's garments, echoing Isaiah 63, where God's clothes are stained as if from a winepress.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Genesis 49:10
Hebrew Bible
9 You are a lion’s cub, Judah, from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He crouches and lies down like a lion; like a lioness—who will rouse him? 10 The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs; the nations will obey him. 11 Binding his foal to the vine, and his colt to the choicest vine, he will wash his garments in wine, his robes in the blood of grapes.
Date: 750–400 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Isaiah 63:2
Hebrew Bible
1 Who is this who comes from Edom, dressed in bright red, coming from Bozrah? Who is this one wearing royal attire, who marches confidently because of his great strength? “It is I, the one who announces vindication, and who is able to deliver!” 2 Why are your clothes red? Why do you look like someone who has stomped on grapes in a vat? 3 “I have stomped grapes in the wine press all by myself; no one from the nations joined me. I stomped on them in my anger; I trampled them down in my rage. Their juice splashed on my garments and stained all my clothes.
Date: 740–450 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Neofiti Genesis 49:10
Targum
10 Kings shall not cease from those of the house of Judah, nor scribes who teach the Law from his sons’ sons, until the time when King Messiah comes, to whom the kingship belongs, and all the kingdoms shall be subject to him. 11 How beautiful is King Messiah, who is to arise from those of the house of Judah! He girds his loins and goes out to battle against those who hate him, and he kills kings together with rulers. He reddens the mountains with the blood of their slain and whitens the hills with the fat of their warriors. His garments are rolled in blood; he is like one who treads grapes.
Date: 300–600 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... In the targums the kingdom of God is also referred to as being revealed, as in Luke 19:11, and the Sibylline Oracles 3:46-50. It is arguable that when speaking of the epiphaneia of Christ and of the grace of God, Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2:8 and the author of the Pastoral Epistles are dependent on Jewish rather than Hellenistic terminology. The Palestinian Targum paraphrase of Genesis 49:10-11 presents the figure of a warring Messiah, one whose garments have been rolled in blood — a clear reference to Isaiah 63:2. The figure of the Christ we meet in Revelation 19:11-12 is the same as the one of the Palestinian Targum. The Apocalypse, here as in many other places, seems to be dependent on targumic tradition in its presentation of the Christian mystery ..."
Martin McNamara, Targum and Testament Revisited: Aramaic Paraphrases of the Hebrew Bible: A Light on the New Testament, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2010), 212.
* 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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