Texts in Conversation
Pseudo-Philo’s and an Aramaic Targum of Numbers echo a midrash that the well, or rock, in Israel’s wilderness journey followed them. These details, not in the Torah, show how creative interpreters tried to connect them to find new meaning.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Pseudo Philo Biblical Antiquities 10:7
Classical
6 Israel crossed over on dry land in the middle of the sea. The Egyptians saw and went on pursuing them, and God hardened their minds, and they did not realize that they were entering the sea. So while the Egyptians were in the sea, God commanded the sea once again and said to Moses, “Strike the sea once more.” And he did so. The Lord commanded the sea, and it returned to its waves and covered the Egyptians and their chariots and their horsemen, to this day. 7 But as for his own people, he led them out into the wilderness. For forty years he rained bread from heaven for them, and he brought them quail from the sea, and he brought out for them a well of water that followed them. In a pillar of cloud he led them by day, and in a pillar of fire by night he gave them light.
Onkelos Numbers 21:19
Targum
16 And from there was given to them the well, which is the well that the Lord spake to Moses about, Gather the people together, and I will give them water. 17 Therefore sang Israel this song: Spring up, well; sing all of you to it. 18 The well which the princes digged, the chiefs of the people cut it, the scribes with their staves; it was given to them in the wilderness. 19 And from the time that it was given to them it descended with them to the rivers, and from the rivers it went up with them to the height, 20 and from the height to the vale which is in the fields of Moab, at the head of Ramatha, which looketh towards Bethjeshimon.
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Notes and References
"... although Josephus mostly explains the biblical description of miracles in his wilderness narrative, in the case of the water from the rock he enhances the features of the παράδοξον. He upholds his description by referring in an editorial remark to the interpretation of a writing from the Temple. The authority of that writing would justify the description of the episode as a miracle in the eyes of Josephus’s non-Jewish audience. But Josephus’s editorial comment may also address a Jewish audience: in so doing, Josephus would reaffirm the correct interpretation of the passage against alternative contemporary interpretations such as the tradition of the travelling rock or well attested in 1 Corinthians 10:4 and Pseudo Philo, Biblical Antiquities 10.7, as well as in rabbinic literature ..."
van Henten, Jan Willem and Silvia Castelliv
"Massah and Meribah Re-interpreted: Biblical Accounts, Judith, and Josephus" in De Troyer, Kristin, et al. (eds.) The Early Reception of the Torah
(pp. 19-45) De Gruyter, 2020
* 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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