words of (human) motion

Targumim (or: Targums) are translations of the Hebrew Bible into Aramaic. They were translated and used when Jewish congregations increasingly could not understand the biblical Hebrew anymore. Targum Onqelos (also: Onkelos) is the name of the Aramaic translation of the Torah (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) probably composed in Israel/Palestine in the 1st or 2nd century CE and later edited in Babylon in the 4th or 5th century, making it reflect Jewish Babylonian Aramaic. It is the most famous Aramaic translation and was widely used throughout the Jewish communities.

In many, but not all, cases the translation of Targum Onqelos avoids anthropomorphisms (attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions) as they relate in the original Hebrew text to God.

The Hebrew of Genesis 20:3 and 31:24 as well as Numbers 22:9 that is translated in English as “God came to . . .” is translated in Targum Onqelos as “the word came from before God to ….”

Other occurrences of Hebrew terms that are translated in English as words of motion and are circumvented in Targum Onqelos include:

  • Exodus 19:9: “I am going to come to you” becomes “I am going to manifest myself to you”
  • Exodus 20:24: “I will come to you and bless you” becomes “I will send my blessings to you and I will bless you.”
  • Deuteronomy 33:2: “The Lord came from Sinai” becomes “The Lord manifested himself from Sinai”
  • Exodus 12:12 and 12:23: “pass through the land of Egypt” becomes “manifest (myself) in the land of Egypt”
  • Exodus 11:4: “I will go out through Egypt” becomes “I will manifest myself in the midst of Egypt”
  • Exodus 3:18: “has met with us” becomes “has manifested himself to us”
  • Numbers 23:3: “the Lord will come to meet me” becomes “the word from before the Lord shall be proclaimed before me”

(Source: Schochet 1966, p. 29ff.)

Moses

The name that is transliterated as “Moses” in English is signed in Spanish Sign Language and Polish Sign Language in accordance with the depiction of Moses in the famous statue by Michelangelo (see here ). (Source: John Elwode in The Bible Translator 2008, p. 78ff.)


“Moses” in Spanish Sign Language, source: Sociedad Bíblica de España

American Sign Language also uses the sign depicting the horns but also has a number of alternative signs (see here).

In French Sign Language, a similar sign is used, but it is interpreted as “radiance” (see below) and it culminates in a sign for “10,” signifying the 10 commandments:


“Moses” in French Sign Language (source )

The horns that are visible in Michelangelo’s statue are based on a passage in the Latin Vulgate translation (and many Catholic Bible translations that were translated through the 1950ies with that version as the source text). Jerome, the translator, had worked from a Hebrew text without the niqquds, the diacritical marks that signify the vowels in Hebrew and had interpreted the term קרו (k-r-n) in Exodus 34:29 as קֶ֫רֶן — keren “horned,” rather than קָרַו — karan “radiance” (describing the radiance of Moses’ head as he descends from Mount Sinai).

Even at the time of his translation, Jerome likely was not the only one making that decision as this recent article alludes to.

In Swiss-German Sign Language it is translated with a sign depicting holding a staff. This refers to a number of times where Moses’s staff is used in the context of miracles, including the parting of the sea (see Exodus 14:16), striking of the rock for water (see Exodus 17:5 and following), or the battle with Amalek (see Exodus 17:9 and following).


“Moses” in Swiss-German Sign Language, source: DSGS-Lexikon biblischer Begriffe , © CGG Schweiz

In Estonian Sign Language Moses is depicted with a big beard. (Source: Liina Paales in Folklore 47, 2011, p. 43ff.)

See also Moses and Elijah during the Transfiguration.

Translation commentary on Exod 11:4

And Moses said presents a problem, for it does not easily relate to the preceding verses. (Good News Translation‘s “then” may be misleading.) Neither does it identify the addressee. Obviously he is not responding to Yahweh, for he is announcing what the LORD had told him to say. But what follows is quite different from what Moses was told to say to the Israelites in verse 2. On the basis of verse 8, therefore, it is best to assume that he is now speaking “to the king” (Good News Translation). (See the introductory remarks above.)

Thus says the LORD is the messenger formula discussed at 4.22. About midnight is literally “around the middle of the night,” that is, halfway between sunset and sunrise. I will go forth means that Yahweh will be the one going forth, since this is a quote within a quote. In the midst of Egypt means “throughout Egypt” (New International Version), or “among the Egyptians” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). It is also possible to use indirect speech here and say, for example, “Yahweh says that about midnight he will go through the land of Egypt.”

Quoted with permission from Osborn, Noel D. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Exodus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1999. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .