Texts in Conversation
Genesis begins with the plural form of “Elohim” for God, a grammatically complex term that could imply polytheism. The Aramaic translation in Targum Onkelos avoids this implication by substituting a shortened form of the divine name.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Genesis 1:1
Hebrew Bible
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was without shape and empty, and darkness was over the surface of the watery deep, but the Spirit of God was hovering11 over the surface of the water. 3 God said, “Let there be light.” And there was light!
Date: 750–400 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Onkelos Genesis 1:1
Targum
1 In the beginning the Lord created the heavens and the earth. 2 And the earth was desolate and empty, and darkness was over the surface of the deep; and a wind from before the Lord blew over the surface of the waters. 3 And the Lord said, “Let there be light.” And there was light.
Date: 50–500 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... The name Elohim, 'God,' used in Scripture's opening verse, is written with a pluralized Hebrew suffix, the plural of El ... Since the pluralized form may lead the masses to infer the existence of many gods, Onkelos always insists on substituting the Tetragrammaton, God's four-lettered name. However, since in Jewish tradition the Tetragrammaton could only be pronounced by the High Priest in the Temple, the Onkelos manuscripts use a shortened version of the name, either two or three yuds ..."
Israel Drazin and Stanley M. Wagner, Onkelos on the Torah, Genesis: Understanding the Bible Text (Jerusalem: Gefen, 2006), 8.
* 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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Interesting that the Targums often reveal the very problems they thought they were fixing.
Interesting that the Targums often reveal the very problems they thought they were fixing.