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Pseudo Jonathan Leviticus

About this book
Chapter 19

And the Lord spake with Mosheh, saying: Speak with the whole congregation of the sons of Israel, and say to them: Ye, shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am Holy. Let every man revere his mother and his father, and keep the days of My Sabbaths: I am the Lord your God. Go not astray after the worship of idols, nor make gods for yourselves that are molten: I am the Lord your God. And when you sacrifice the consecrated victims before the Lord, you shall make the sacrifice acceptable. On the day that it is sacrificed you may eat of it, and on the day following; but what remaineth on the third day shall be burned with fire. But if it be indeed eaten on the third day, it is profaned, and shall not be accepted. And he who eateth it shall receive (the penalty of) his sin; for he hath profaned the holy of the Lord, and that man shall be destroyed from among his people. And in the time that you reap the harvest of your land you shall not finish one corner that is in the circuit of thy field, and the (full) ingathering of thy harvest thou shalt not collect. Neither mayest thou shake out thy vines; (the whole of) their bunches, and the remnant of thy vines thou shalt not gather: thou shalt leave them for the poor and for the strangers at the time of their collection: I am the Lord your God. Sons of Israel, My people, you shall not steal, nor prevaricate, nor do fraudulently one man with his neighbour.Sons of Israel, My people, let no one of you swear by My Name in vain, to profane the Name of thy God: I am the Lord. Thou shalt not be oppressive (hard) upon thy neighbour, nor take away by force, nor let the hire of the hireling be remaining all night at thy side until the morning. Thou shalt not curse one who heareth not, nor set a stumbling‑block before the blind, but shalt fear thy God: I am the Lord. Thou shalt not act falsely in the order of judgment ment neither accept the face of the poor, nor honour the face of the great but in truthfulness shalt thou judge thy neighbour. Thou shalt not go after the slanderous tongue, which is cruel as a sword that killeth with its two edges in uttering false accusations to afflict thy people. Thou shalt not hinder the acquittal of thy neighbour in witnessing against him in the judgment: I am the Lord. against your neighbour, nor be silent about thy neighbour's blood, what time in the judgment thou knowest the truth: so speaketh the Lord.] Speak not bland words with your lips, having hatred to your brother in your hearts; but reproving you shall reprove your neighbour; and though it make you ashamed, you shall not contract sin in account of him. Be not revengeful, nor cherish animosity against the children of thy people; but thou shalt love thy neighbour himself, as that though there be (cause of) hatred with thee thou mayest not do (evil) to him: I am the Lord.⁠ You shall keep My statutes. Thy cattle shall not be made to gender with various kinds, neither sow thy field with mixed seeds, nor put upon thee a garment of divers materials, (as) wool and linen. And if a man lie carnally with a woman, and she be an (Israelitish) handmaid (about to be) made free, and betrothed to a free man, but her redemption not altogether completed by (the payment of) the money, or the written instrument of liberation not having been given to her, let inquisition be made for judgment: she is liable to be chastised, but he is not. But it shall not be considered a matter of putting to death, because she was not altogether free. (Deut. xxii. 22‑24.) And the man who lay with her must bring his trespass offering to the door of the tabernacle of ordinance, a ram for a trespass offering. And the priest shall make atonement with the ram of his trespass offering before the Lord, for his sin that he hath sinned; and the sin that he hath sinned shall be forgiven. And when you have come into the land, and have planted any tree that may be eaten of, you shall verily circumcise the fruit of it; three years shall it be to you for rejection, to be destroyed; it shall not be eaten. And in the fourth year all the fruit of it shall be consecrated, (a token of) praise before the Lord delivered for the priest (or, to be redeemed from the priest). But in the fifth year thou mayst eat the fruit of it; for produce will be increased to you from the heavens: I am the Lord your God. You shall not eat the flesh of any sacrifice while the blood remaineth in the veins. You shall not be observers of auguries, after the sanhedrin of the speculators. You shall not round off the (hair on) the sides of your heads, nor shave the corners of your beards. And a corrupting incision for the soul of the dead thou shalt not make in thy flesh, neither set upon yourselves an inscription by the incutting of any figurated sign: I am the Lord. You shall not profane your daughters to give them up to fornication: neither delay to give your daughters unto husbands in their proper ages, lest they go astray by fornication after the people of the land, and the land be filled with whoredom. The days of My Sabbaths You shall keep, and go unto My sanctuary with reverence: I am the Lord. Go not astray after those who inquire of impostors, or bring up the dead, or interrogate the bone of Jeddua: neither be ye inquirers with them, to pollute yourselves thereby I am the Lord your God. You shall rise up before the aged who instruct in the law and honour the presence of the wise, and fear thy God: I am the Lord. And if a stranger becometh a sojourner, and settleth among you in your land, you shall not molest him with hard words: but the stranger who sojourneth among you shall be (treated) as the native born, and thou shalt love him as thyseIf: thou shalt not deal with him as if thou didst hate him; for ye were sojourners in the land of Mizraim: I am the Lord your God. You shall not deal falsely in the ordering of judgment; in the admeasurement of summer and winter; in weight and measure, in heaping up, or in sweeping off: but balances of truth, weights of truth, measures of truth, and tankards of truth, shall yours be. I am the Lord our God who brought you redeemed from the land of Mizraim: and you shall observe all My statutes, and all the ordinations of My judgments, and do them: I am the Lord.

Texts in conversation

Compare Matthew 7:12 and Pseudo Jonathan Leviticus 19:18

New Testament · Targum

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Summary

In Matthew 7, Jesus teaches the Golden Rule, that people should treat others as they wish to be treated. The Aramaic translation of Leviticus in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan uses both the positive and negative forms, teaching people to do good and avoid harm.

Passages

Matthew 7:12

New Testament
9 Is there anyone among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you then, although you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! 12 In everything, treat others as you would want them to treat you, for this fulfills the law and the prophets. 13 “Enter through the narrow gate because the gate is wide and the way is spacious that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it.
70–90 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Matthew

Pseudo Jonathan Leviticus 19:18

Targum
Thou shalt not hinder the acquittal of thy neighbour in witnessing against him in the judgment: I am the Lord. against your neighbour, nor be silent about thy neighbour's blood, what time in the judgment thou knowest the truth: so speaketh the Lord.] Speak not bland words with your lips, having hatred to your brother in your hearts; but reproving you shall reprove your neighbour; and though it make you ashamed, you shall not contract sin in account of him. Be not revengeful, nor cherish animosity against the children of thy people; but thou shalt love thy neighbour himself, as that though there be (cause of) hatred with thee thou mayest not do (evil) to him: I am the Lord. You shall keep My statutes. Thy cattle shall not be made to gender with various kinds, neither sow thy field with mixed seeds, nor put upon thee a garment of divers materials, (as) wool and linen.
300–1200 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Pseudo Jonathan Leviticus

References

"... it seems inherently unlikely that Pseudo-Jonathan, which of all the Pentateuchal Targumim is perhaps the most influenced by a concern to guard and articulate Judaic integrity, would inadvertently convey a saying of Jesus.' More probably, both Pseudo-Jonathan and Luke's Jesus are here independently passing on wisdom of a proverbial nature: both sources convey material from the stock of folk culture. After all, the same Targum twice explains love of another person (whether an Israelite or a stranger) with the maxim "that which is hateful to you, do not do" (Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Leviticus 19:18, 34; compare Luke 6:31; Matthew 7:12). Luke shows that this stock goes back to the first century, and Pseudo-Jonathan shows that it continued to be replenished until the seventh century. The targumic echo is therefore most certainly not immediately the source of Jesus' statement, but it may help us to describe the nature, general type, and origin of Jesus' statement ..."
Bruce Chilton, “From Aramaic Paraphrase to Greek Testament,” in From Prophecy to Testament: The Function of the Old Testament in the New, ed. Craig A. Evans (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2004), 23–43.

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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Matthew 7:12 and Pseudo Jonathan Leviticus 19:18

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