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Genesis 4:26, "And a son was also born to Seth, and he called his name, Enos. Then it was begun to call on the name of Jehovah." (LITV)

I have heard that there is an alternative meaning to this passage than what the majority of English translations give.

The following is quoted from The Targum of Palestine (Jonathan Ben Uzziel)


From the Targum of Onkelos:


Does the text specify only one meaning, or are different meanings possible?

Thank you!

Love in Christ,
Mark

This is quite a good translation. The others found in the Targums you quoted are elaborations that are no more warranted by the Hebrew than by the English translation you have provided.

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John Stevenson
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Thank you, John!

Mark,

A few issues need to be considered:

The value of the different witnesses

You have the Hebrew Masoretic text (our standard Hebrew Text), the Septuagint, the Targum of Onkelos, and the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan also known as "Targum Jonathan ben Uzziel to the Torah" or simply Targum Yerushalmi among others.


the Septuagint agrees (in translating the verse as a positive outlook) with The Hebrew MT against both targumim (Targum in the plural).

Hebrew MT and the Septuagint both support the more popular reading generally of a positive call on the name of Yahweh", that is a positive understanding of the clause but with a minor difference in phrasing (see bellow)

The Targum of Onkelos and the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on the other end have a negative understand of the clause with connotations or mentions of idolatry

Before we explore the specifics of the words in question, how do we determine which reading is likely the best

On one side you have the Hebrew MT and the Septuagint who are the two primary textual witnesses on the text of Genesis (The Hebrew text has of course almost always primacy over the Greek translation)

One the other side, you have the targumim that are translations from the Hebrew text into the Aramaic language but are late work with the Targum of Onkelos been generally dated around the 2nd century after Christ while the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan is said to be much later and dependent on the Targum of Onkelos.

Targums are translations but also sometimes include commentary (see the quote from the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan that you gave yourself)

Unless given serious reasons not to do so, it is better to prefer the text that was transmitted in the original language (Hebrew MT) and is much more ancient that anything else, and the more ancient translation (the Septuagint) over much later translations that did not necessarily follow a literal rendering and often include commentary and interpretation (the targumim above)

Another useful thing to do would be to look at quotations of Gen 4:26 in works that predate those targumin (which I do not have time to look up now)

Because of the above and without further evidence, the Hebrew and Septuagint reading in preferred by translators

Going back to the Hebrew Text

The Hebrew says literally "at that time it was chalal (hophal verb) to call on the name of Yahweh"
The above is rendered by "at that time it was begun to call on the name of Yahweh"

The Septuagint has "he hoped to call on the name of the Lord God"
Changing "Begun" to "hope" , changing from passive to active form and from "chalal" to "yachal" in a probable etymological exegesis explaining how "chalal" (Begun ) became "yachal" and was translated elpizw (to hope) in the Greek translation

The Targumin seemed to have worked from "chalal" in Hebrew when translating it in Aramaic but did not understand it as it is generally understood in the hophal (began) but as having the other common meaning of the word : polluted or profaned

Hence the idea given by Targum of Onkelos of having "desisted (or forbore) from praying in the name of the Lord"

Or the more elaborated commentary of the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan of "err, and to make themselves idols, and surnamed their idols by the name of the Word of the Lord"

However this seems to have been motivated more by theological reasons than by grammatical/syntactical ones. Calling on the name of the Lord is used elsewhere (12:8; 13:4; 21:33; 26:25) to describe the patriarch worshipping (worship, most obviously prayer and sacrifice)

Back to the Hebrew MT

Because there is no explicit subject, the subject "men" is supplied

And interpreted in two ways

As the commencement of public worship
Or as the beginning of prayer
or as the first use of the name "Yahweh" in worship

Others because of the lack of defined subject and the passive verb (chalal--began) see the subject as being on the receiving end and not the one doing the action
Resulting in a translation such as "then it began to be called by the name of the Lord"
With the subject being the seed of the woman

Alain

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All Bible Quotations are from the NASB unless otherwise stated

Hi Alain,

Thank you very much for your analysis. I always do prefer the text over the Targumim. In this instance, I was wondering if it was a matter of the text containing more information than was easily transmitted in translation, but it doesn't sound like it.

Thank you for your help!

Love in Christ,
Mark