115

Logos of the Fourth Gospel and Memra of the

Palestinian Targum (Ex 12
)
42
By FATHER MARTIN McNAMARA, M.S.C., BALLYGLUNIN, GALWAY, IRELAND

THERE was a time when many scholars believed While there are some who still believe that the
that John called Christ the Word (Logos) because Word of the Lord (Memya) in the Targums is,
of the then current use of the expression the Word at least to some extent, hypostatized, it is hard
(Memra) of the Lord in the Aramaic paraphrases to deny that the weight of evidence favours those
of the Old Testament (i.e. Targums) which were who see in the term no more than another way of
used in the synagogues of Palestine. The Word saying God , or the Lord . An examination of
(in Aramaic Memra) of the Lord is of extremely targumic usage appears to make this clear. The
frequent use in these versions. The religious text can pass with the greatest of ease from
mentality which produced the Targums shrank mention of the Lord to mention of the Word of
from speaking of God as acting directly in the the Lord, and vice versa. In one verse, or in one
world and spoke instead of His Memra doing so. half of a verse, the subject can be the Lord ,
Some of the earlier scholars we have referred to while in the next verse, or in the very same verse,
went so far as to consider the Memra of the it can be the Word of the Lord . The same
Targums as a hypostatized being between God conclusion is reached when we compare the
and the world, an intermediary through which parallel renderings of the Palestinian Targum
God communicated with visible creation. In this among themselves. One text will have the
case, the doctrine as well as the term used by Lord where another has the Word of the Lord .
John would have been prepared in the synagogue This is especially evident in the numerous marginal
theology. glosses to Neofiti where we repeatedly find the
When this presumed origin of the Logos doctrine Word of the Lord when the text itself has the
of the Fourth Gospel came to be studied in greater Lord . One feels justified, therefore, in maintain-
detail weaknesses soon became apparent. To begin ing that the term in the Targums has no special
with, whereas in John Logos is not just another significance ; it is simply another way of saying
manner of expressing the divine Name but is a the Lord , or God .
term rich in theological import, the Memra of the But it is one thing to say that the expression
Targum seems to be a term devoid of special has no special significance (it being neither an
content; it appears to be merely another way of hypostasis nor intermediary), quite another thing
saying God or the Lord . In no sense can the to maintain that synagogue usage did not in-
Memra of the Lord be taken as a hypostasis, fluence John in his choice of the term Logos
an intermediary between God and man. This in the Prologue of the Fourth Gospel. Even if in
view is now generally accepted by students of the Targums the Word of the Lord is no more
Jewish and Christian theology. As for the memra than a metonym for the Lord , this by no
of the Targum , writes H. A. Wolfson, no means excludes a possible influence of the phrase
scholar nowadays will entertain the view that it is on the author of the Fourth Gospel in his choice
either a real being or an intermediary. This of terms for the realities of the New Testament
change of view on the nature of the Memra of the dispensation. For John, too, the Word was
Lord in the usage of the Targums has also had God (il). His teaching on the nature of the
its effects in exegetical circles. The targumic Logos John got from the revelation of the New
expression has come to be seen as no true prepara- Testament. The source from which he drew the
tion for the rich Johannine doctrine of the Logos. words that express this new doctrine is then the
In this case, John would not have been influenced
point at issue.
by the paraphrases of the synagogue in his choice While studying the overall relation of the New
of term. And, in
point of fact, many scholars Testament to the Palestinian Targum on the
have come to see the preparation for the doctrine Pentateuch 2 it became apparent to the present
of John in the Wisdom literature of the Old writer that there is a very close relationship
Testament, and for the term he uses in the creative 2
The New Testament and the Palestinian Targum to
Word (in Hebrew dabar) of God.
the Pentateuch (Analecta Biblica 27, Rome : Pontifical
1Philo, Harvard, 1948, vol. I, p. Biblical Institute, 1966), pp. 255 f.
287.
 116

between the Apocalypse and the Jewish liturgy as the Word of the Lord was shining (hwh nhyr)
and illuminating . The Paris MS has : and
expressed in this Targum. If this is so, one may in His Word He was shining (hwh nhyr) and
expect to find explanations for difficult texts of
the Fourth Gospel in this same body of Jewish illuminating .
literature.1 In view of this, the ancient problem Apart from showing that the waw of Neofiti is
of the origin of the Johannine doctrine of the scribal error, these texts indicate that Neofitis
a

Logos merits reconsideration. paraphrase is in the tradition of the Palestinian

In this we are thinking especially of the Prologue Targum. While they may appear to differ from
to the Fourth Gospel. It is clear that the author it, the other two texts in fact say the very same
is here thinking against the background of the thing, identifying the Word of the Lord with the
first chapter of Genesis. If we turn to the Aramaic primordial light. If the Word of the Lord shone
at creation, as these two texts of the Fragment
paraphrases of this chapter we find little that will
help us in our task. It may be this, among other Targum say it did, this can only mean that the
things, that has turned scholars away from the Word was Light. Neofiti, then, merely states
Targums when seeking the origins of the Johannine explicitly what is implicit in the other texts.
usage. It has, however, been too long forgotten Arguments have been produced elsewhere in
that Gn i is not the only place in the Palestinian favour of a very early date, and a generally
Targum where the creation of the world is referred faithful transmission, of the form of the Palestinian
to. We find it again in the beautiful midrash on Targum as found in Neofiti.5 It may well have
the Four Nights in the paraphrase to Ex I2z (to been in use in Palestine from the second century
Ex I 516 in the Paris MS IIO). In the paraphrase A.D. onwards. Its substance would then go back
in question, sacred history is summed up in four to pre-Christian times. In fact some authors
nights, all apparently believed to be Passover claim that there are positive arguments for dating
nights. The first was that of creation; the it in the pre-Christian era.e
second when the promise of posterity was made to It is legitimate, then, to presume that the
Abraham. The third was that in which the Lord author of the Fourth Gospel heard read in the
slew the first-born of the Egyptians. The fourth synagogue that, at the very beginning of time, at
and final night will be that of the advent of the the creation of the universe ( the first night ),
Messiah, when the world will be redeemed and there was an all-pervading darkness. There was
iniquity blotted out. also God, or the Word of the Lord . This Word
The first night is thus described in the text of of the Lord was the light and it shone-to use the
Neofiti (i.e., the entire text of the Palestinian very words of Neofiti. This is the very thing the
Targum found in the Vatican Library) : 2 prologue says when it speaks of the creative action
of the Word (Logos) at the beginning of all things : 7
The first night : when the Lord was revealed above

the world to create it. The world was void and empty In the beginning was the Word ... ; and the
and darkness was spread over the face of the abyss. Word was God. In him was light and the light
AND THE WORD (MEMRA) OF THE LORD WAS THE LIGHT shines in darkness ... (Jn if-3).
AND IT (or he ) SHONE (wmmryh dYY whwh nhwr The mention of the primordial darkness which
wnhr) ; and he called it the first night.3 we find in the midrash to Ex i z 42 is not incidental.
The first part of the relevant passage of this The text is speaking of the first night. The im-
text would be rendered literally as : And the plication in the Targum is that the light dispels
Word of the Lord and it was the Light... (whwh the darkness. According to the same targumic
nhwr).4 The was before lawh is evidently a paraphrase, the Messiah will come on the fourth
scribal error, due to the numerous raws of the night. No mention is made there, however, of the
context. That this is so seems to be clear from Messiah dissipating the darkness. The same need
the parallel versions of this text in the Fragment not be true of John and it is quite possible that the
Targum as found in Waltons London Polyglot and author of the Fourth Gospel and of the Johannine
in the Paris MS 110. Waltons text reads : and
Epistles is thinking against the same background
1 Cf. ib., pp. 145-149.
2
On the value of the Targums for New Testament 5
The New Testament and the Palestinian to
studies and on the latest report on progress in publica-
Targum
the Pentateuch, pp. 45-46.
tion of Neofiti, see Scripture 18 (1966), pp. 47-56 ; the 6
This is the opinion of M. Kasher and A. Diez Macho.
editio princeps of Genesis, with Spanish, English, and 7
The bearing of this text of Neofiti on the prologue
French renderings is already in proof form. Exodus of John has been noted independently by A. Diez Macho
and Leviticus should soon follow. (Atlantida, vol. I, no. 4, 1963, pp. 390-394) and R. Le
3 For
light and darkness during third night, see Pal. Déaut (La nuit pascale, Rome, 1963, pp. 215 f.). The
Targ. to Ex 14 .
20 latter, in fact, considers the poem on the Four Nights,
4 See N.
Séds objections in Revue des études juives. particularly as found in Pseudo-Jonathan, as a type of
Historia Judaica 3 [123] (1964), pp. 529-533. esp. p. 532. hymn to the Word (Memra) of the Lord.
 117

the Johannine traditionis less under the influence

of the poem of the four nights when he speaks of
of Qumranic Judaism than is now generally
Christ as dispelling darkness. At His coming the
world was in darkness. He, the Word, is the light believed-not, of course, that influence from
that shines in the darkness (Jn 15). All who are Qumran is to be excluded entirely. Johannine
not attached to Him by faith and good works are tradition may yet well prove to be mainly influ-
still in darkness (Jn 812, 1 Jn 16, 29,11). They enced by liturgical Jewish tradition, particularly
who refuse to come to Him remain outside the of the form found in the Targums. As E. Stauffer
new Messianic age ; they love darkness more than has remarked :
the light (Jn 319). He who follows Him does not Nowhere in rabbinic literature or in pre-Christian
walk any more in darkness (Jn 812). He has Hellenism is there a writing or a tradition which can
submitted to hypostatized Light of the new exhibit anything like the same wealth of Johannine
creation. This new creation, described in Jn i parallels. That fixes the place of John in the history
as the counterpart of the first creation, began of religion. He belongs to the priestly tradition. The
when the Word was made flesh. The light then Baptists disciple John is an apocalyptist cast in a
began to shine in the darkness of the non-messianic levitical-liturgical mould just as Gamaliels disciple Paul
is an apocalyptist cast in a rabbinic-dialectical mould.1
age. The progress of the gospel is, then, the It is not to no purpose that it (the Apocalypse)
dissipation of darkness and i Jn as can say : the contains more hymns than any other book in the New
darkness is passing away and the true light is Testament, while its framework and its formal language
already shining . Those who believe in the are unmistakably liturgical in character.z
a

Messiah, the Word of God, the light, are the sons

of light ; those who do not are sons of darkness. New Testament
1 Theology (Eng. trans., London,
If we accept this view of the origin of the con- 1963), pp. 41 f.
cepts and terminology of John it will follow that 2
Ib., p. 41.

In the Study
The Junior Church King Midas. Because he befriended a poor
wanderer, he told that he could have whatever
was
The Best Wish he wished. This was a wonderful chance and
BY THE REVEREND D. A. DAVIES, BOW, Midas thought that the best thing of all would be
DEVON to wish for great riches. And so he wished that
everything he touched might turn to gold. At
How many of you like to have chicken for dinner ? first it was so wonderful. If he touched a stick or
And how many of you like to have the wish bone, a stone, immediately it turned to gold in his
after you have eaten it ? And what did you wish hands and, because of this, he knew that he could
for the last time you had the wish bone ? But have more gold than anybody else in all the world.
perhaps you had better not answer that one, just But then, when it was too late, he realized that he
in case your wish may not be granted. People had made a terrible mistake. He picked up a nice,
wish for all sorts of things, dont they ? And boys
juicy apple, thinking to enjoy it, and what do you
and girls certainly do. Do you remember the song think happened ? Yes, it turned to gold in his
of Snow-White ? hand and he couldnt eat it at all. Then, he went
Im wishing, Im wishing, to lie down on his bed and, as soon as he touched
For the one I love. it, the sheets all turned to gold. They looked
Boys wishes, nf course, are very different. They wonderful, but they were very uncomfortable and
wish for so many things, that I wont even begin he couldnt rest at all. Then, worst of all, his
to describe them. And do you remember the wish little daughter came into the room. Midas was
of Winnie the Pooh ? very fond of her and greeted her with a kiss. To
his horror, she too turned into gold. The unhappy
I wish I were a cloud,
Floating in the blue. king longed to be delivered from his terrible
power and, you will be glad to know, that after a
I dont think I should like that at all. I am sure
great deal of pleading, he was.
that, being up so high would make me feel Well, many people have made the same kind of
thoroughly dizzy and, in cold weather especially, mistake that King Midas made. They have wished,
I am sure that it would be most uncomfortable. above everything else, to have plenty of money,
Perhaps some of you will know the story about and, when they have got it, it has not made them