Texts in Conversation
The Aramaic translation of Leviticus 18 in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan interprets the command against giving children to Molech as a ban on marrying foreign women, linking such unions to idolatry. This follows an interpretive tradition also found in Jubilees.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Jubilees 30:10
Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions
9 For thus it has been ordained and written in the heavenly tablets regarding all the descendants of Israel: he who defiles (it) shall surely die, and he shall be stoned with stones. 10 And to this commandment there is no limit of days, and no pardon, nor any atonement: but the man who has defiled his daughter shall be rooted out in the midst of all Israel, because he has given of his descendants to Moloch, and acted irreverently so as to defile it. 11 And you, Moses, command the children of Israel and urge them not to give their daughters to the nations, and not to take for their sons any of the daughters of the nations, for this is abominable before the Lord.
Date: 170–125 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Pseudo Jonathan Leviticus 18:21
Targum
And unto the side of a woman in the time of the separation of her uncleanness thou shalt not draw nigh to dishonour her nakedness. Nor unto the side of thy neighbour's wife shalt thou come to defile her. And of thy offspring thou shalt not give up any to lie carnally with the daughters of the Gentiles, to perform strange worship; nor shalt thou profane the Name of thy God: I am the Lord. Nor with a male person shalt thou lie as with a woman; it is an abhorrent thing.
Date: 300–1200 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... While pronouncing this general ban, the Interpolator was also seeking—as so often—to connect an incident in Genesis (the Dinah story) and a later law of the Torah with what is ordained and written on the Heavenly Tablets. In this case, the later law was Leviticus 18:21, “You shall not give any of your offspring to be passed to [the pagan god] Molech.” Molech was apparently a Canaanite deity associated with child sacrifice (see further Leviticus 20:2-5; 2 Kings 23:10, Jeremiah 32:35), and to “pass over” probably meant to “pass through fire,” as in Deuteronomy 18:10. But in later times, this verse acquired a new meaning: “And do not give of your seed for sexual relations with a daughter of the nations to pass over to idolatry” (Mishnah Megillah 4:9, Targum Pseudo-Jonathan to Leviticus 18:21; compare Targum Neofiti and b. Megillah 25a) ..."
James L. Kugel, A Walk through Jubilees: Studies in the Book of Jubilees and the World of Its Creation (Leiden: Brill, 2012), 145.
* 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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