Texts in conversation

Compare 4Q180 2–4 ii 4 and Neofiti Genesis 18:1

Dead Sea Scrolls, Biblical Interpretation · Targum

Summary

In 4Q180 from the Dead Sea Scrolls, Abraham’s three visitors are identified as angels. The Aramaic translation of Genesis in Targum Neofiti makes the same identification and gives each angel a separate task, explaining why three visitors are needed.

Passages

4Q180 2–4 ii 4

Dead Sea Scrolls, Biblical Interpretation · The Ages of the Creation

1 which … […] … it is that which dwelt … […] … […] 2 I know … […] … beautiful … […] … […] 3 … […] the three men […] 4 […] … from the oaks of Mamre, they are angels […] 5 […] he will stand … […] their sin … […]

160–60 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in 4Q180

Neofiti Genesis 18:1

Targum

1 Three angels were sent to our father Abraham at the time that he circumcised the flesh of his foreskin, and the three of them were sent for three matters, because it is not possible for one of the angels on high to be sent with more than one matter. The first angel was sent to bring Abraham the news that Sarah would bear Isaac for him; and the second angel was sent to rescue Lot from the midst of the overthrow; and the third angel was sent to overturn Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim. And the Memra of the Lord was revealed to Abraham in the plains of Vision, and he was sitting at the door of his tent in the strength of the day, warming himself from the blood of his circumcision, in the heat of the day. 2 And he lifted up his eyes and saw, and there were three angels in the likeness of men standing over him. And he saw them and ran from the door of the tent to meet them, and he greeted them according to the custom of the land.

300–600 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Neofiti Genesis

References

“... The targumim also left no doubts as to the nature of the three "men" of the biblical text. As expected, they are identified as angels, an identification most probably prompted by the biblical text itself, which (in Gen 18:22) asserts that the "men" went towards Sodom and that that "two angels" came to Sodom in the evening (on Gen 19:1).7 [...] One of the manuscripts from Qumran cave 4, 4Q180, makes the same identification explicit. In frag. 2 ii 3-4 it is flatly asserted: "The three men [who] appear[ed to Abraha]m at the oak of Mamre are angels". Cf. DSSSE, 372-3, and the contribution by Tigchelaar in this volume, above, esp. 52-7. [...] Three angels were sent to our father Abraham at the time he circumcised the flesh of his foreskin. The three were sent for three things, because it is impossible for any angel from on high to be sent for more than one thing. The first angel was sent to announce to our father Abraham that Sarah would bear him Isaac; and the second angel was sent to deliver Lot from the destruction; and the third angel was sent to destroy Sodom and Go- morrah, Admah and Zeboiim. And the Word of the Lord was revealed to Abraham in the Valley of the Vision as he was sitting at the door of his tent in the strength of the day, warming himself because of the blood of his circumcision in the heat of the day. ...”

Florentino García Martínez, “Sodom and Gomorrah in the Targumim,” in Sodom’s Sin: Genesis 18-19 and Its Interpretations, ed. Ed Noort and Eibert Tigchelaar (Leiden: Brill, 2004), 85–86.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

Fragments 2-4 ii

4Q1804 chapters

Compare 4Q180 2–4 ii 4 and Neofiti Genesis 18:1

Summary

Passages

4Q180 2–4 ii 4

Neofiti Genesis 18:1

References

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