Neofiti Genesis 9:6

Targum

4 Only flesh, the blood, with the soul you shall not eat. 5 For I will demand your life blood: of every beast I will demand it; of the son of man and from the brothers of the son of man I will demand the life of the son of man 6 Whoso sheddeth the blood of man, the judges, by witnesses, shall condemn him unto death; but he who sheddeth it without witnesses, the Lord of the world will bring punishment on him in the day of the great judgment; because in the image of the Lord He made man. 7 As for you, grow strong and multiply and reproduce on the earth and multiply within it. 8 And the Lord said to Noah and to his sons with him, saying: 9 “And as for me, behold, I establish my covenant with you and with your sons after you, 10 and (with) every living being that is with you, the birds and the cattle and with any wild beasts of the earth with you/ from all that come out from the ark, to every living being of the earth.

Matthew 5:22

New Testament

21 “You have heard that it was said to an older generation, ‘Do not murder,’ and ‘whoever murders will be subjected to judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that anyone who is angry with a brother will be subjected to judgment. And whoever insults a brother will be brought before the council, and whoever says ‘Fool’ will be sent to fiery hell. 23 So then, if you bring your gift to the altar and there you remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother and then come and present your gift. 25 Reach agreement quickly with your accuser while on the way to court, or he may hand you over to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the warden, and you will be thrown into prison.

 Notes and References

"... The first antithesis is introduced in Matthew 5:21 with the formula: “You have heard that it was said to the men of old”. Whereas the first part of the saying that follows (“You shall not kill”) is obviously taken from Exodus 20:13 (= Deuteronomy 5:17), the rest cannot be found in any Old Testament text. Martin McNamara was the first to point to the targumic paraphrase of Genesis 9:6 as a clear parallel to he Matthew 5:21 ending. Targum Onqelos interprets the biblical “Whosoever sheds man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed ...” as relating to a juridical procedure in which “by man” means “following the testimony of witnesses according to the decision (sentence) of judges”: The targumic paraphrase of the Torah seems to have been one of the pillars of public teaching in the synagogue already in the late Second Temple period. Biblical passages, therefore, could often be remembered in their Aramaic form, and it is highly probable that the popular exegetical tradition concerning Genesis 9:6 (attested in Targum Onqelos and also in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan) was in great part responsible (together with Exodus 20:13) for the quotation form in Matthew 5:21 ..."

Ruzer, Serge Mapping the New Testament: Early Christian Writings as a Witness for Jewish Biblical Exegesis (pp. 12-13) Brill, 2007

 User Comments

Do you have questions or comments about these texts? Please submit them here.