Hillel I. Newman, «A Hippodrome on the Road to Ephrath», Vol. 86 (2005) 213-228
LXX to Gen 48,7 refers to a hippodrome in the vicinity of
Rachel’s Tomb. This cannot be satisfactorily explained as an exegetical creation
of the translator’s imagination and probably refers to a genuine structure. This
is also true of the stadium or hippodrome mentioned in Tg. Onq. to Gen
14,17, as the meeting place of Abram, the king of Sodom, and Melchizedek. Since
1QapGen locates the same meeting in the Valley of Beth Hakerem, which should be
identified as the valley between Ramat Rahel and Bethlehem, it is reasonable to
assume that both versions refer to the same hippodrome. There is no textual
justification for assuming a late interpolation in LXX and no geographical or
archeological justification for explaining these passages as allusions to a
Herodian hippodrome. LXX may attest to a case of profound Hellenistic influence
in Judea already under Ptolemaic rule.
218 Hillel I. Newman
following verses by Melchizedek, king of Shalem, who welcomes him
with bread and wine (Gen 14,18-20). Remarkably, Tg. Onq. renders the
location of the encounter as “the empty plain, which is the stadium
(asyr tyb) of the king†(18). Let us examine further the nature of this
place. In its semantic range, asyr/syr is equivalent to the Greek
stadion, both as a unit of measurement (19) and as a term describing a
v
type of race-course. That it could mean the latter was known to Jerome,
who in his etymological remarks on the Biblical place-name Rissa
(hsr) in Num 33,21-22 claims that that word appears in the original
Hebrew of Jubilees in the sense of “stadiumâ€, “in which boxers and
athletes train and the speed of runners is proven†(20). Indeed, the same
sense is in all likelihood reflected in Tg. Ps.-J. to Num 33,21, where
Rissa is transformed into asyr tyb (21). We can probably be more
specific. Hippodromes too are occasionally referred to as stadia (22).
That this is the case in Tg. Onq. to Gen 14,17 is suggested by the third
and final instance of the use of asyr tyb in targumic literature: Tg. Neb
to Jer 31,39(40), where in language reminiscent of Tg. Onq. (and
probably influenced by it) (23) the Horses’ Gate (µyswsh r[ç) of MT is
rendered as “the king’s stadium†(24). Seeking to define this municipal
(18) aklmd asyr tyb awh anpm rçyml (see The Bible in Aramaic Based on Old
Manuscripts and Printed Texts. Vol. I: The Pentateuch According to Targum
Onkelos [ed. A. SPERBER] [Leiden 1959] 20). The passage is similarly translated in
the later Tg. Ps.-J., clearly deriving from Tg. Onq.; see Targum Pseudo-Jonathan
of the Pentateuch. Text and Concordance (ed. E.G. CLARKE) (Hoboken, NJ 1984)
15. On anpm as “empty†or “levelled†see MCNAMARA, “Melchizedekâ€, 4, n. 5.
(19) KRAUSS, Talmudische Archäologie II, 391-392; S. LIEBERMAN, Tosefta
Ki-fshutah (New York 1988) IX, 166-167.
(20) Epistula 78.20: in quo exercentur pugiles at athletae et cursorum uelocitas
conprobatur (Sancti Eusebii Hieronymi Epistulae. Pars II: Epistulae LXXI-CXX
[ed. I. HILBERG] [CSEL 55; Vienna – Leipzig 1912] 68). The thornier question is
how Jerome came to the conclusion — probably mistaken — that asyr in its context
in Jubilees means a sports field instead of being a unit of measure. See the discussion
in H.I. NEWMAN, Jerome and the Jews. Thesis submitted for the degree Doctor of
Philosophy, Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Jerusalem 1997) 95 (Hebrew).
(21) Targum Pseudo-Jonathan (ed. E.G. CLARKE) 203. See R. LE DÉAUT,
Targum du Pentateuque (SC 261; Paris 1979) III, 312, n. 21. syr also refers to a
stadium in the description of the study house of R. Eliezer in Canticles Rabba 1,3.
(22) H.A. HARRIS, Greek Athletics and the Jews (Cardiff 1976) 34-35;
HUMPHREY, Roman Circuses, 537.
(23) I will argue below for the secondary nature of the hippodrome in Tg. Neb.
(24) The Bible in Aramaic Based on Old Manuscripts and Printed Texts (ed.
A. SPERBER) (Leiden 1962) III, 209-210. The Horses’ Gate appears also in Neh
3,28 and 2 Chr 23,15.