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Pseudo Jonathan Genesis

About this book
Chapter 1

1 At the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, desolate of people and empty of all animals;⁠ darkness was upon the surface of the deep and a merciful wind from before God was blowing over the surface of the water. 3 God said: 'Let there be light to illuminate the world'⁠ and immediately there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. 5 And God called the light Day, and he made it so that the inhabitants of the world might labor during it; and he called the darkness Night, and he made it that creatures might rest during it. And there was evening and there was morning, one day. 6 God said, 'Let the firmament be in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the upper waters from the lower waters.'⁠ 7 God made the firmament—its thickness being three finger breadths—between the limits of the heavens and the waters of the ocean, and he separated the waters that were under the firmament from the waters that were above in the reservoir of the firmament. And it was so. 8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day. 9 God said, 'Let the lower waters that remain under the heavens be gathered together to one place, and let the earth be dried up so that the dry land may appear.' And it was so. 10 And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering place of the waters he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. 11 God said, 'Let the earth grow vegetation, plants whose seed is sown, and fruit trees that produce fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, upon the earth.' And it was so. 12 The earth brought forth vegetation, plants whose seed is sown, and fruit trees producing fruit in which is their seed, according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening and there was morning, a third day. 14 God said, 'Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs and as festival times, and for counting the reckoning of days, and for sanctifying the beginnings of months and the beginnings of years, the intercalations of months and the intercalations of years, the solstices, the new moon, and the cycles of the sun.' 15 'And let them serve as lights in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth.' And it was so. 16 God made the two great lights, and they were equal in glory for twenty-one hours less six hundred and seventy-two parts of an hour. After that, the moon spoke with a slanderous tongue against the sun, and it was made smaller. And he appointed the sun which was the greater light to rule over the day, and the moon which was the lesser light to rule over the night, and the stars. 17 And God arranged them in their courses in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth. 18 And to minister in the day and in the night, and to separate the light of the day from the darkness of the night. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day. 20 God said, 'Let the alluvial mud of the waters swarm forth a swarm of living creatures, and birds that fly, whose nests are on the earth, and the course of their flight across the air of the firmament of heaven.' 21 God created the great sea monsters, Leviathan and his mate, that are designated for the day of consolation, and all living creatures that creep, that the clear waters swarmed forth, according to their kinds, kinds that are clean and kinds that are not clean, and all birds that fly with wings, according to their kind, kinds that are clean and kinds that are not clean. And God saw that it was good. 22 And God blessed them, saying, 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth.' 23 And there was evening and there was morning, a fifth day. 24 God said, 'Let the clay of the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kind, kinds that are clean and kinds that are not clean, cattle and creeping things, and creatures of the earth according to their kind.' And it was so. 25 God made the beasts of the earth according to their kind, kinds that are clean and kinds that are not clean, and the cattle according to their kind, and all the creeping things of the earth according to their kinds, kinds that are clean and kinds that are not clean. And God saw that it was good. 26 And God said to the angels who minister before him, who were created on the second day of the creation⁠ of the world, 'Let us make man in our image,⁠ in our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds that are in the air of the heavens, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.' 27 And God created Adam in his own likeness, in the image of God he created him, with two hundred and forty-eight members, with six hundred and sixty-five nerves, and he formed a skin over him, and filled it with flesh and blood;⁠ male and female in their appearance he created them. 28 God blessed them, and God said to them, 'Increase and multiply and fill the earth with sons and daughters, and become powerful in possessions upon it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens, and over every creeping animal that creeps upon the earth.' 29 God said, 'Behold I have given to you every plant whose seed is sown, that is upon the face of all the earth, and every unfruitful tree for the requirements of building and for burning; and every tree on which there is fruit whose seed is sown shall be yours for food.' 30 To every beast of the earth, to every bird of the heavens, and to everything that creeps upon the earth, in which there is the breath of life, I give every green plant.' And it was so. 31 And God saw all that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, a sixth day.

Texts in conversation

Compare John 1:9 and Pseudo Jonathan Genesis 1:3

New Testament · Targum

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Summary

John and the Aramaic translation of Genesis in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan follow similar interpretive traditions that link Genesis with the personified wisdom of Proverbs 8. For John, that light and wisdom is Jesus and for the Targums it is the Torah.

Passages

John 1:9

New Testament
7 He came as a witness to testify about the light, so that everyone might believe through him. 8 He himself was not the light, but he came to testify about the light. 9 The true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was created by him, but the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to what was his own, but his own people did not receive him.
90–110 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in John

Pseudo Jonathan Genesis 1:3

Targum
1 At the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, desolate of people and empty of all animals; darkness was upon the surface of the deep and a merciful wind from before God was blowing over the surface of the water. 3 God said: 'Let there be light to illuminate the world' and immediately there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.
300–1200 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Pseudo Jonathan Genesis

References

"... Midrash Rabbah בחכמה explains us how the targumist came to make this translation [in Genesis 1:1]. Here a connection is made between Proverbs 8:22 and Genesis 1:1 via the word ‘beginning’. Because Proverbs 8:22 says about wisdom that YHWH had said that He possessed it in the beginning of His ways, Midrash Rabbah states that the word ‘beginning’ in Genesis 1:1 must be seen in relation to wisdom. Midrash Rabbah equates wisdom with the torah. It is likely that the connection between Genesis 1:1 and Proverbs 8:22 that we find in Targum Neofiti and the Fragment Targum, was already made before the destruction of the Second Temple. In the sequel in Targum Neofiti an indirect connection is made between the wisdom and the מימרא as the medium by which YHWH creates the world. There the מימרא is repeatedly mentioned as the medium that YHWH used when He created the world. In Targum Neofiti the מימרא is for the first time explicitly mentioned in Genesis 1:3 ... Genesis 1:1, seems to indicate that there also a connection is made with the מימרא of YHWH, who creates the world in His wisdom. On the basis of this fact it is almost impossible to conclude that there is no relationship between the prologue of the fourth gospel and the Palestinian targumim ..."
Pieter de Vries, The Targumim as Background of the Prologue of the Gospel According to John (Free University, Amsterdam, 2002), 1–24.

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

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  • Psuedo Jonathan on Genesis 1:3

    Kim, August 25, 2024

John 1:9 and Pseudo Jonathan Genesis 1:3

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