[CHAPTER XIV.]
Citations from the Chaldee Paraphrases.
The earliest Chaldee paraphrases which have been handed down are supposed to have been compiled or written about the time of the first advent, when the true worshippers may be supposed to have been anxious to revive and spread abroad the knowledge of them in such manner as to induce the Jews of that period to recognize the Messiah in the incarnate Word. The following testimonies from those writings of the sentiments of the Jewish Church concerning the Messiah as understood by them to be revealed in the ancient Scriptures, and his identity with the Messenger Jehovah, are, for the sake of his comments, taken from Faber’s Horæ Mosaicæ:
“When the text reads, They heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden, the Targums explain the passage to mean: They heard the Word of the Lord God walking; or, somewhat more fully, they heard the voice of the Word of the Lord God walking. In point of grammatical construction, even the modern Jews allow that the participle walking agrees with the voice, and not with the Lord God. But walking is the attribute of a person. Therefore the Targums rightly gave the sense of the original when they introduced the Word as the judge of our first parents.”
The exclamation of Eve, I have gotten a man from the Lord, they render, “I have obtained the man, the angel of Jehovah! Now, since Jehovah is the word used in the original, it is difficult to account for this paraphrastic exposition, unless we conclude that, at the time when it was written, the Jews believed the angel of Jehovah to be himself Jehovah, and expected him to be born incarnate.”
“To this opinion we shall the rather incline, if we attend to another paraphrastic interpretation. The sacred text reads: In that day shall Jehovah of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty unto the residue of his people. But the Targum of Jonathan reads: In that day shall the Messiah of Jehovah of hosts be for a crown of glory. Jonathan, however, could never have thus explained the passage, unless he had believed that the future Messiah would be Jehovah incarnate; nor would he have hazarded so extraordinary an interpretation, unless he had been fully conscious of speaking the general sentiments of his contemporaries. It is well known that the Jews so highly venerate the Targum of this writer, as to deem it something divine; yet we see that Jonathan identifies the Messiah with Jehovah himself. The doctrine in question still prevailed among the Jews at the time when Justin Martyr flourished, as is manifest from his direct appeal to Trypho. If we produce to them, says he, those scriptures formerly rehearsed to you, which expressly show that the Messiah is both subject to suffering, and yet is the adorable God, they are under a necessity of acknowledging that these respect the Christ. So that while they assert that Jesus is not the Christ, they still confess that the Christ Himself shall come, and suffer, and reign, and be the adorable God: which conduct of theirs is truly most absurd and contradictory. I need scarcely remark, that Justin could never have hazarded such language to a Hebrew antagonist, unless he knew that he had very good ground for what he said.
“But to return to the Targums, where the text reads: Let not God speak with us, lest we die, the interpretation of Onkelos runs, Let not the Word from before the Lord speak with us. So likewise where the text reads, She called the name of Jehovah that spake unto her, Thou God seest me, the Targum of Jonathan runs, She confessed before the Lord Jehovah, whose Word had spoken unto her. And the Targum of Jerusalem, She confessed and prayed to the Word of the Lord who had appeared to her. Now the person who appeared to Hagar was the angel of Jehovah. The paraphrasts therefore identify the Word and the Angel. Hence it is plain that by the Word of God they do not mean a speech uttered by God, but that they use the term to express a real person. By this personal Word they understood the Messiah; as is evident from Jonathan’s interpretation of the text, Jehovah said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand. He explains its purport to be, Jehovah said unto his Word. But it is manifest from our Saviour’s conversation with the Pharisees relative to the nature and parentage of the Messiah, that they acknowledge this text to relate to him; and it appears from the Midrash Tillim that such an application is fully recognized by the Jewish Rabbins. Hence the inference is inevitable, that the Hebrew doctors confess the Messiah to be the Word of God or the angel of Jehovah. And hence we shall at once perceive why St. John so pointedly bestows the title upon his divine Master. He did but employ the usual phraseology of his countrymen respecting the promised Messiah; yet, by applying the name of Jesus of Nazareth, he at once declared him to be the Messiah, and that angel of Jehovah who was confessedly the God both of the Patriarchal and of the Levitical Church.
“Agreeably to this obvious conclusion, the Targums exhibit the Word with all the characteristics of the expected Messiah.
“They describe him as the Mediator between God and man.