Texts in Conversation
Exodus 17 describes God standing near the rock at Horeb when Moses strikes it, which could be interpreted as God having a body. The Aramaic translation in Targum Onkelos unusually preserves this image, as it usually changes physical descriptions of God.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Exodus 17:6
Hebrew Bible
5 The Lord said to Moses, “Go over before the people; take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand your staff with which you struck the Nile and go. 6 I will be standing before you there on the rock in Horeb, and you will strike the rock, and water will come out of it so that the people may drink.” And Moses did so in plain view of the elders of Israel. 7 He called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the contending of the Israelites and because of their testing the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”
Date: 750–400 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Onkelos Exodus 17:6
Targum
5 And the Lord said to Moses, Go on ahead of the people, and take some of the elders of Israel with you, and take in your hand your staff with which you struck the river, and go. 6 I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink. And Moses did so before the eyes of the elders of Israel. 7 And he named the place Massah and Meribah, because the sons of Israel quarreled, and because they put Him to the test before the Lord, saying, Is the Shekinah of the Lord among us or not?
Date: 50–500 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Onkelos retains this glaring anthropomorphism. As we have pointed out, the targumist is not always consistent in this regard. However, Saadiah renders it as 'I shall place a sign before you there' ..."
Israel Drazin and Stanley M. Wagner, Onkelos on the Torah, Exodus: Understanding the Bible Text (Jerusalem: Gefen, 2006), 104.
* 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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