Deuteronomy 21:22-23 features a curious law. The following is the
Hebrew text of these two verses, followed by my own (deliberately
obscure) translation:
וכי־יהיה באיש חטא משפט־מות והומת ותלית אתו על־עץ
לא־תלין נבלתו על־העץ כי־קבור תקברנו ביום ההוא כי־קללת אלהים תלוי ולא תטמא את־אדמתך אשר יהוה אלהיך נתן לך נחלה
And if a man should be guilty of a capital crime,
1. and he is killed (/ then he should be killed)
2. and you (/ then you / that is, you) hang him upon a tree (/ impale him on a stake / crucify him on a wooden thing)
3. His body shall not remain overnight upon the tree (/ stake / wooden thing)
4. Rather, you shall bury him on that day,
a) for a hanged (/ impaled / crucified) person is cursed by God
b) for a hanged (/ impaled / crucified) person is an affront to God
c) for a blasphemer of God is the one hanging (/ impaled / crucified)
It goes without saying that there are a number of ambiguities within
this small section of the Hebrew Bible, not least among which is the
nature of the penalty. Is the person being hanged? Are they being
impaled? Or are they being crucified? And, furthermore, is this the
manner of their execution or is it a post-mortem method of displaying
their body? Finally, what is the reason behind needing to take them
down? Is it because they cursed God? Is it because the act of hanging
them is an affront to God? Or, finally, is it because God will
curse them? This final part, the section that was typed in bold, is the
subject of this brief analysis.
Before presenting the range of opinions on the topic, a short
introduction may be in order for the benefit of anybody who is
unfamiliar with the necessary terminology. In brief, the Hebrew clause
in question (כי־קללת אלהים תלוי) features what is known as the genitive
construct. In English, we represent the genitive case (which indicates,
among other things, possession) with the word ‘of’ (the hand of the
king) or with an apostrophe-s (the king’s hand). While Israeli Hebrew
tends to favour the usage of the particle של (similar to the English
‘of’), Biblical Hebrew is much more terse and utilises, instead, the
so-called ‘construct state’.
This is formed by putting two nouns next to each other and modifying
the former. In such a construction, the initial noun is known as the regens and the latter noun as the rectum
(or, in Hebrew, the נסמך and the נמשל). If I wanted to say “the hand of
the king” I would simply say יד המלך (where יד = ‘hand’ and מלך =
‘king’). In some instances, such as in our one above, the initial noun
(the regens) undergoes modification. In our case, that
modification consists of the addition of a final ת, thus reducing the
sort of ambiguity which is found in famous verses like Exodus 34:29-30 ,
in which one cannot even be sure if what they are dealing with is a
genitive in the first place.
The ambiguity in our verse appears to be centred around a different
issue: we know that what we have is the genitive construct, but we don’t
know whether it constitutes the subjective genitive or the objective genitive. In other words, is the second word of that chain (the rectum)
the subject of the clause (ie: the thing doing the verb) or is it the
object of the clause (ie: the thing having the verb done to it). The
structure of the clause is such that it can go either way, but just to
make things absolutely clear, here is the clause again with the relevant
section italicised and with the relevant verb in bold:
Subjective Genitive:
a hanged person is cursed by God
Objective Genitive:
a blasphemer of God is the one hanging;
a hanged person is an affront to God
As you can see, “cursed by God” has God (the second word within the
construct chain) as the subject of the sentence. The word “God” is the
word that is doing the verb “cursed”. In that instance, the object of
the sentence is “a hanged person”, for it is “a hanged person” that is
having the verb “cursed” done to it. In the following two examples, “the
one hanging / a hanged person” serves as the subject. In one instance,
the verb is translated as “blaspheme” and in the other as “affront”, but
in both cases it is the word “God” that is serving as the direct object
– ie: the one that is being blasphemed / affronted.
What do the ancient authorities have to say on the topic? Opinions
are, as always, divided. For our purposes, we will differentiate between
the first and second of our two objective genitives, labelling them
Objective Genitive 1 and Objective Genitive 2.
Witnesses to Subjective Genitive
There are three witnesses to the subjective genitive: the Greek
Septuagint (LXX), the New Testament and an Aramaic translation known as
Targum Neofiti. They are as follows:
1. Deut 21:23 (LXX)
κεκατηραμενος υπο θεον πας ο κρεμαμενος επι ξυλου
“Cursed by God is everyone hanged on a tree” (trans. acc. to Bernstein)
2. Galatians 3:13
χριστος ημας εξηγορασεν εκ της καταρας του νομου γενομενος υπερ ημων
καταρα οτι γεγραπται Επικαταρατος πας ο κρεμαμενος επι ξυλου
“Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed [by God] is every one that hangeth on a tree” (KJV)
3. Deut 21:23 (Neofiti)
ליט קדם ה’ כל דצליב
“Cursed before God is everyone who is hanged/crucified” (Bernstein)
Witnesses to Objective Genitive 1
There are five witnesses to the first of our two objective genitives:
Josephus, the Mishna, the Babylonian Talmud, Symmachus, and the Syriac
Peshitta.
1. Josephus
ο βλασφημησας θεον καταλευσθεις κρεμασθω δι ημερας και ατιμως και αφανως θαπτεσθω
“Let him that blasphemes God, after being stoned, be hanged all day long, and let him be buried dishonorably and ignominiously” (Bernstein)
2. Mishna (mSan 6:4)
כי קללת אלהים תלוי וגו’ כלומר מפני מה זה תלוי מפני שברך את השם ונמצא שם שמים מתחלל
“[The Mishna quotes the Bible and explains]: כי קללת אלהים תלוי. That is to say, why is he hanging? Because he cursed God, and the name of heaven shall be found reviled [if he remains hanging]“.
3. Talmud (bSan 45b)
ת”ר והומת ותלית יכול כל המומתין נתלין ת”ל כי קללת אלהים תלוי מה מקלל זה
שבסקילה אף כל שבסקילה דברי רבי אליעזר וחכ”א מה מקלל זה שכפר בעיקר אף כל
שכפר בעיקר
“The Rabbis taught: ‘He is killed and you hang him upon a tree [from
Deut 21:22]‘. Is it possible that all executed people are hanged? It
teaches, ‘כי קללת אלהים תלוי’. Just as this blasphemer
[died] by stoning, so too all who are stoned [are hanged afterwards] –
the opinion of Rabbi Eliezer. The Sages say – Just as this blasphemer was a heretic, so too are all heretics [hanged after execution]“
4. Deut 21:23 (Symmachus)
οτι δια βλασφημιαν θεου εκρεμασθη
“For on account of blasphemy of God he was hanged” (Bernstein)
5. Deut 21:23 (Peshitta: transliterated here into Aramaic due to typesetting constraints)
דמן דמצחא לאלהא נזדקף
“For an insulter of God is the one hanging (/ impaled / crucified)”
Witnesses to Objective Genitive 2
There are two witnesses to the second of our objective genitives: the
Babylonian Talmud and an Aramaic translation known as Targum
Pseudo-Jonathan.
1. Talmud (bSan 46b)
תניא אומר ר”מ משלו משל למה הדבר דומה לשני אחים תאומים בעיר אחת אחד מינהו
מלך ואחד יצא לליסטיות צוה המלך ותלאוהו כל הרואה אותו אומר המלך תלוי צוה
המלך והורידוהו
“It is taught: Rabbi Meir says, ‘By way of a parable, to what may the
matter be compared? To two identical brothers in one city. One of them
became king and the other turned to crime. By a decree of the king, they
hanged him [the king's brother]. Everybody who sees him declares, “The
king is hanging!” By a decree of the king, they took him down” – in
other words, the act of being hanged causes an affront to God.
2. Deut 21:23 (Pseudo-Jonathan)
ארום קילותא קדם אלהא למצלוב גבר אלהן חובוי גרמו ליה
“Since it is an affront to God to hang a man, save for when his sins cause it for him”
So, it was assumed, ended the range of ancient opinions. There are
more sources than these (chief among which are the LXX-recensions of
Aquila and Theodotion, as well as the Aramaic translation of Onkelos),
but they are reasonably ambiguous and do not serve to adequately
communicate the opinions of their authors. There are also several
mediaeval opinions (chiefly those of Rashi, Rashbam and Ibn Ezra) but,
in each of these cases, it is evident which of the ancient sources they
are utilising in order to derive their opinions. There is, however, one
more item of relevance from amongst the Dead Sea Scrolls.
The Temple Scroll (11QT LXIV:11-12)
כי מקוללי אלוהים ואנשים תלוי על העץ
“He who was cursed by God and men is hanging on the tree (/ impaled on the stake / crucified on the wooden thing)”
Fascinatingly, this long-absent text from the caves in Qumran has
provided us with a second type of subjective genitive! To recap: the
ancient sources featured three examples of subjective genitives and
seven examples of objective genitives (the latter being divided between
two broad types). Now we have a second type of subjective genitive as
well and we see that we can actually divide all of our examples into
four categories: subjective vs. objective; cause vs. effect. Observe:
Subjective Genitive
Cause: “He who was cursed by God and men” (11QT)
Effect: “He who is hanging is cursed by God” (LXX, Galatians 3:13, Neofiti)
Objective Genitive
Cause: “He who cursed God is hanging” (Josephus, mSan 6:4, bSan 45b, Symmachus, Peshitta)
Effect: “Hanging is an affront to God” (bSan 46b, Pseudo-Jonathan)
So there you have it. Not only is it possible to read the genitive in
our clause as being either the subject or the object of the sentence,
it is also possible to divide each of those interpretations into two
further categories, depending on whether we see the corresponding verb
as describing the reason for their punishment or the effect that the
punishment has. Now, I wonder which of these four possible
interpretations the authors of the Bible actually meant?
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