Hebrew Myths: The Book of Genesis

by Robert Graves

  MID. TEHILLIM. Also known as Shoher Tobh, a midrash on the Book of Psalms, compiled probably during the tenth or eleventh century in Palestine. Quoted by page of Solomon Buber’s edition, Wilna, 1891; photostatic reprint, New York, 1947.

  MID. WAYISSAU. A midrash on Genesis XXXV. 5 and XXXVI. 6, describing the wars of the Sons of Jacob with the Amorites and Sons of Esau. Its text is preserved in the Yalqut (q.v.), but it has close affinities with the Book of Jubilees and the Testament of Judah which attest to its antiquity. Printed in BHM (q.v.), vol. iii. pp. 1–5.

  MID. WAYOSHA. A midrash on Exodus XIV. 30; XV. 18, based partly on Tanhuma (q.v.), and quoted by the Yalqut (q.v.); it can therefore not be earlier than the twelfth century. Printed in BHM (q.v.), vol. i. pp. 35–57.

  MID. YONAH. A midrash on the Book of Jonah, compiled from the Yalqut (q.v.) on Jonah, to which is added the Hebrew translation of Zohar (q.v.), ii. 198b–199a. Printed in BHM (q.v.), vol. i. pp. 96–105.

  MOSES OF CHORENE (fifth century A.D.), Armenian History. French translation: Histoire d’Armenie, Venice, 1841.

  MUSIL, ALOIS, Manners and Customs of the Rwala Bedouins, New York, 1928.

  N

  NAZIR. A tractate of the Palestinian Talmud. See Yer.

  NEDARIM. A tractate of the Babylonian Talmud. See B.

  NIDDA. A tractate of the Mishna and of the Babylonian Talmud. See B. and M.

  NUM. RAB. Numeri Rabba, a midrash on Numbers, compiled in the twelfth century. Quoted by chapter and section of the Wilna, 1884, edition.

  NUR AL-ZULM, ‘Light of Shade and Lamp of Wisdom’, by Nathanel ibn Yeshaya. Hebrew-Arabic homilies composed in 1327. Ed. by Alexander Kohut, New York, 1894.

  O

  OPPENHEIM, Fabula Josephi et Asenathae, Berlin, 1886.

  ORIGEN (185–254 A.D.). Ecclesiastical writer, lived in Egypt, Rome and Palestine. His works were edited in the Ante-Nicene Fathers series.

  OROSIUS OF TARRAGONA, Seven Books Against the Pagans. Paulus Orosius, a Spanish historian and theologian of the fifth century A.D. His Seven Books were edited by C. Zangemeister, 1882.

  ORPHIC FRAGMENTS. See Tannery, Paul, ‘Orphica,’ Revue de Philol., Paris, 1899, pp. 126–9; 1900, pp. 54–7. 97–102.

  OTZAR MIDRASHIM, ed. J. D. Eisenstein, New York, 1915. A collection of two hundred minor midrashim. Quoted by page and column.

  P

  PALESTINIAN TALMUD. See Yd.

  PATAI, RAPHAEL, Adam weAdamah (‘Man and Earth in Hebrew Custom, Belief and Legend’). In Hebrew. Jerusalem, 1942–3. 2 vols.

  PATAI, RAPHAEL, Man and Temple in Ancient Jewish Myth and Ritual, Edinburgh, 1947.

  PEAH. A tractate of the Palestinian Talmud. See Yer.

  PESAHIM. A tractate of the Babylonian Talmud. See B.

  PESIQTA DIR. KAHANA. A midrash of some thirty-two homilies which grew out of discourses for festivals and special Sabbaths, compiled not later than 700 A.D. Quoted by folio of Solomon Buber’s edition, Lyck, 1868; photostatic reprint, New York, 1949.

  PESIQTA HADTA. A medieval midrash drawing on Gen. Rab., PRE, Sepher Yetzira, etc. Printed in BHM (q.v.), vol. vi. pp. 36–70.

  PESIQTA HADTA. A mediaeval midrash drawing on Gen. Rab., PRE, Sepher compiled during the ninth century in Italy. Quoted by folio of M. Friedmann’s edition, Vienna, 1880.

  PHILO OF ALEXANDRIA, also known as Philo Judaeus. Jewish Hellenistic philosopher of the first century A.D. His works are quoted by their Latin titles, such as De Decalogo, De Migr. Abrah., De Mundi Opif., De Somn.

  PHOTIUS. Ninth-century Byzantine scholar, Patriarch of Constantinople. Most of his works (Myriobiblion, Mystagogia, Letters) are printed in J. P. Migne’s Patrologia Graeca.

  PIRQE MASHIAH. A midrash on the messianic glories of Jerusalem, the Temple and Israel, written during the Gaonic period (seventh to tenth century A.D.) in Persia. Printed in BHM (q.v.), vol. iii. pp. 68–78.

  PIRQE RABBENU HAQADOSH. A collection of ethical or practical sayings attributed to Rabbi Jehuda Hanasi (second century A.D.), but compiled considerably later. Printed in Otzar Midrashim (q.v.) pp. 505–14.

  PRAYER OF ASENATH. See Joseph and Asenath.

  PRE. Pirqe Rabbi Eliezer, a midrash on the work of God in His Creation, and the oldest history of Israel. Attributed to Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanos, a Palestinian sage (‘Tannaite’) of c. 90–130 A.D., but actually written during the eighth or early ninth century in Palestine. Quoted by chapter.

  PRITCHARD, JAMES B., Ancient Near Eastern Texts, Princeton, 1955.

  PSALMS OF SOLOMON. Eighteen apocryphal psalms written by Jews in the first century B.C. See Charles, The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, vol. ii. pp. 625 ff.

  PSEUDO-PHILO. Guido Kish, Pseudo-Philo’s Liber Antiquitatum Biblicorum, Notre Dame, Ind., 1949.

  PTAHHOTEP’S MAXIMS. Precepts and wise sayings compiled by Ptahhotep, the vizier of King Izezi of the Fifth Egyptian Dynasty (c. 2450 B.C.). See Pritchard, Ancient Near Eastern Texts, pp. 412–14.

  R

  RAGLAN, LORD. The Hero: A Study in Tradition, Myth and Drama. London, 1936.

  RASHI. The commentary of Rabbi Shelomo ben Yitzhak (1040–1105) on the Bible. Quoted by Biblical book, chapter, and verse.

  ROSH HASHANA. A tractate of the Babylonian Talmud. See B.

  S

  SABA, ABRAHAM. Tseror HaMor. A collection of animal fables, translated into Hebrew by Judah Loeb b. Kalonymos (fourteenth century) from the Arabic encyclopaedia of the Ikhwān al-Safā (Brethren of Sincerity). Printed in Mantua, 1557.

  SALTAIR NA RANN. The longest Irish mediaeval poem on a religious subject, containing sections on cosmogony and speculations on the fate of the universe.

  SANCHUNIATHON’S Phoenician History. Sanchuniathon was a fourth- to third-century B.C. priest born in Berytus (today Beirut) whose Phoenician History was translated into Greek by Philo of Byblus (c. 64–140 A.D.). A fragment of this work is preserved in Eusebius’ Praeparatio Evangelica (q.v.).

  SANH. Sanhedrin. A tractate of the Babylonian and Palestinian Talmud. See B. and Yer.

  SCHATZHöHLE, DIE (‘Cave of Treasures’). Ed. by Carl Bezold, Leipzig, 1883–88. A Christian life of Adam and Eve, written in Syriac during the sixth century A.D.

  SEDER ARQIM. A midrash, closely related to Mid. Adonay Behokhma (q.v.), extant in a thirteenth-century manuscript. Printed in Otzar Midrashim (q.v.).

  SEDER ELIAHU RABBA and SEDER ELIAHU ZUTA. An ethical midrash composed of two parts (‘The Great’ and ‘The Small’ Seder Eliahu), also known as Tanna diBe Eliahu. According to B. Ketubot 106 a, the Prophet Elijah taught Rabbi Anan (late third century A.D.) the contents of these two books. Their earliest extant manuscript, however, dates from 1073 A.D. Quoted by page of M. Friedmann’s edition, Vienna, 1902–4; photostatic reprint, Jerusalem, 1960.

  SEDER ELIAHU ZUTA. See preceding entry.

  SEDER GAN EDEN. A midrash describing the Garden of Eden, compiled c. 1050 A.D. Printed in BHM (q.v.), vol. i. pp. 131–40, with additions on pp. 194–8.

  SEDER OLAM. A chronological midrash, probably compiled during the third century A.D., but subsequently revised and enlarged. Printed in Wilna, 1897. See also Al. Marx (ed.), Seder Olam (Kap. 1–10), Königsberg.

  SEDER RABBA DIBERESHIT. A cosmogonical and cosmological midrash, used by the Mid. Konen and the Mid. Aseret Hadibrot (q.v.). Printed in Bate Midrashot (q.v.), vol. i. pp. 19–48.

  SEPHER HAQANE WEHU SEPHER HAPELIAH, ed. Koretz, 1784. A fifteenth-century kabbalistic book by Avigdor Kanah.

  SEPHER HASSIDIM, ed. by Judah Hacohen Wistinezky, Berlin, 1891–3. The author of this book of ethics, Judah ben Samuel He-Hasid, died in 1217.

  SEPHER HAYASHAR, ed. by Lazarus Goldschmidt, Berlin, 1923. A late (twelfth-century A.D.) heroic midrash on Genesis, the beginning of Exodus, Numbers, and Joshua. Compiled in Spain, written in Hebrew. Quoted by page.

  SEPHER HEKHALOT. A midrash on the secrets of Heaven, closely related to the Books of Enoch (q.v.). Printed in BHM (q.v.), vol. v. pp. 170–90.

 
; SEPHER NOAH. A midrash on the medical secrets given by the Angel Raphael to Noah. First quoted in the eleventh century, but has close affinities with Jubilees (q.v.). Printed in BHM (q.v.), vol. iii. pp. 150–60.

  SEPHER RAZIEL. A kabbalistic work on the secrets of Heaven, creation, angels, amulets, etc. Compiled during the Gaonic period (seventh to tenth century A.D.).

  SEPHER YUHASIN, ed. by Philipowski and Freiman, Frankfurt a. M., 1924. Abraham ben Samuel Zacuto, author of this chronicle, lived c. 1450–1510.

  SERAPION. Physician of Alexandria, Egypt, flourished in the third century A.D.

  SHABBAT. A tractate of the Babylonian and of the Palestinian Talmud. See B. and Yer.

  SHET B. YEFET, Hem’at ha-Hemda. An Arabic and Hebrew commentary on the Pentateuch, written in 1284, in Babylonia. See Ginze Yerushalayim, vol. iii, edited by Samuel Aharon Wertheimer, Jerusalem, 1902, pp. 13b–15a.

  SHU’AIB, JOSHUA BEN, Derashot al ha-Torah, Constantinople, 1523. The author of these kabbalistic homilies on the Pentateuch lived in the first half of the fourteenth century. Quoted by Pentateuchal weekly portion and folio.

  SIEGFRIED, CARL. Philo von Alexandria als Ausleger des alten Testaments, Jena, 1875.

  SIFRA. A midrash on Leviticus compiled by Hiyya son of Abba, in Palestine, c. 200 A.D. Edited by M. Friedmann, Breslau, 1915.

  SIFRE. A midrash on Numbers and Deuteronomy, of Tannaitic origin (i.e., from second century A.D., Palestine). Quoted by folio of M. Friedmann’s edition, Vienna, 1864; photostatic reprint New York, 1948.

  SLAVONIC ENOCH. See Enoch.

  SODE RAZA, or Sode Razaya. A kabbalistic work by Eleazar ben Judah of Worms, c. 1176–1238. Published by Israel Kamelhar, Bilgoraj, 1936.

  SOTA. A tractate of the Babylonian Talmud. See B.

  ST. JEROME. See Jerome.

  SUKKA. A tractate of the Mishna and of the Babylonian Talmud. See B. and M.

  SUSANNA. One of the apocryphal additions to the Book of Daniel. Written probably between 80 and 50 B.C. See Charles, The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, vol. i. pp. 638 ff.

  T

  TAANIT. A tractate of the Babylonian and of the Palestinian Talmud. See B. and Yer.

  TALE OF THE TWO BROTHERS. An Egyptian story, paralleling the Biblical story of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife, and dating from the thirteenth century B.C. See Pritchard, Ancient Near Eastern Texts, pp. 23–5.

  TANHUMA. A midrash on the Pentateuch, based on sayings of Rabbi Tanhuma bar Abba, a Palestinian Amora (Talmudic sage) of the fourth century A.D. Quoted by Pentateuchal weekly portion and paragraph to which sometimes the folio number of the Levin-Epstein, Warsaw (undated), edition is added. For an older text see next entry.

  TANHUMA BUBER. Midrash Tanhuma, an older version, edited by Solomon Buber, Wilna, 1885; photostatic reprint, New York, 1946 (2 vols.). Quoted by book of the Pentateuch and page. See preceding entry.

  TANIS PAPYRUS. See Two Hieroglyphic Papyri from Tanis. I. The Sign Papyrus; II. The Geographical Papyrus. Extra (9th) Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Fund, London, 1889.

  TARG. Targum, the Aramaic translation (or, rather, paraphrase) of the Bible. The Targum to the Pentateuch, called Targ. Onkelos, was completed in Babylonia during the early third century A.D. The Babylonian Targum to the Prophets, called Targ. Jonathan, dates from the fourth century A.D.

  TARG. YER. The Jerusalem Targum, a paraphrastic Aramaean translation of the Pentateuch, extant only in fragments. Prepared in Palestine, probably during the first or second centuries A.D. See M. Ginsburger, Fragmenten-Targumim, 1899.

  TELL AMARNA LETTERS. Three hundred and seventy-seven tablets, being letters written by petty rulers of Canaanite, Phoenician, and Syrian cities to their overlords, Amenhotep III and his son Akhenaten, in the fourteenth century B.C. See Pritchard, Ancient Near Eastern Texts, pp. 483–90.

  TESTAMENT OF ABRAHAM. An apocryphal book, written in Hebrew by a Jew or Jewish Christian, during the second century A.D. Extant in two Greek versions. See G. H. Box, The Testament of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, 1927.

  TESTAMENT OF GAD. See Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs.

  TESTAMENT OF ISSACHAR. See Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs.

  TESTAMENT OF JOSEPH. See Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs.

  TESTAMENT OF JUDAH. See Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs.

  TESTAMENT OF REUBEN. See Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs.

  TESTAMENT OF ZEBULON. See Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs.

  TESTAMENTS OF THE TWELVE PATRIARCHS. An apocryphal book written in Hebrew by a Pharisaic Jew between 109 and 107 B.C. Moral teachings put into the mouths of Jacob’s twelve sons on their death-beds. See Charles, The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, vol. ii. pp. 282 ff.

  THEODORET. Fifth-century Church historian, theologian and Bishop of Cyrus, Syria. His commentaries on the Old Testament and the Pauline Epistles (including the Quaest. 60 in Gen.) were published in Migne’s Patrol. Graec. 80.

  THEODOTION AD GEN. Theodotion prepared his Greek version of the Bible about 185 A.D.

  THOMAS, BERTRAM, Arabia Felix, New York, 1932.

  TOSEPHTA. A collection of Tannaitic statements and traditions closely related to the Mishna. Probably compiled by Hiyya bar Abba in Palestine, c. 200 A.D. Quoted by tractate, chapter, and paragraph of S. Zuckermandel’s edition, Pasewalk, 1880; photostatic reprint with additions, Jerusalem, 1937.

  TOSEPHTA ATIQTA. By Chaim Meir Horowitz, Frankfurt a. M., 1890. A collection of old extra-canonical Baraitot.

  TZETZES, JOHANNES. Byzantine mythographer of the twelfth century. His extant works comprise the Chiliades, Iliaca, and commentaries on Homer, Hesiod, Aristophanes, and Lycophron.

  U

  UGARITIC texts, poems, or myths. See Pritchard, Ancient Near Eastern Texts, pp. 129–55.

  V

  VITA ADAE. Full title Vita Adae et Evae, i.e., ‘The Life of Adam and Eve’. An apocryphal book of Jewish origin, written probably in the first century B.C., extant in Greek, Latin, and old Slavonic versions. See Charles, The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, vol. ii. pp. 123 ff.

  VULGATE. The first Latin translation of the Bible, prepared by the Church Father Jerome, and completed about 405 A.D.

  W

  WOOLLEY, SIR CHARLES LEONARD, Ur of the Chaldees, London, 1929.

  Y

  YALQUT. The first word in the title of several collections of midrashim. When followed by no name, it refers to the Yalqut Shimoni, the most important such collection, made in the first half of the thirteenth century by R. Shimeon Hadarshan of Frankfurt. Quoted by Biblical book and paragraph.

  YALQUT MAKHIRI. A collection of midrashim made by Makhir ben Abba Mari in the fourteenth century, probably in Spain. Quoted by Biblical book, chapter, and verse.

  YALQUT REUBENI. A collection of kabbalistic comments on the Pentateuch compiled by R. Reuben ben Hoshke Cohen (died 1673) in Prague. Quoted by volume and page of the Warsaw, 1889, 2-vol. edition.

  YAQUT AL-RUMI. (1179–1229). Arab geographer of Greek origin.

  YEBAMOT. A tractate of the Babylonian Talmud. See B.

  YER. Yerushalmi (‘Jerusalemite’). When followed by the name of a tractate, refers to the Palestinian Talmud, compiled in Palestine in the early fifth century A.D. and written mostly in Aramaic. Quoted by tractate, folio, and column.

  YERAHMEEL. The Chronicles of Jerahmeel, translated by Moses Gaster. Oriental Translation Fund, London, 1899.

  YOMA. A tractate of the Mishna and of the Babylonian Talmud. See B. and M.

  Z

  ZDMG. Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft.

  ZEBAHIM. A tractate of the Babylonian Talmud. See B.

  ZOHAR (‘Splendour’). The ‘Bible’ of the Kabbalists, written by the Spanish Kabbalist Moses de Leon, in Aramaic, during the thirteenth century. It is a commentary on the Bible, pseudepigraphically attributed to Rabbi Simeon ben Yohai, the famous Mishna-teacher. First printed at Mantua, 1558–60, in three volumes, whose pagina
tion is usually followed by subsequent editions, e.g., the Wilna, 1894, edition quoted here.

  ZOHAR HADASH (‘New Zohar’). Contains those parts of the Zohar missing in manuscripts used by editors of the Mantua version. The material was chiefly collected by Abraham Halevi Berokhim from manuscripts found at Safed. Quoted by folio of the Warsaw (Levin-Epstein) undated edition.

  Endnotes

  1

  THE CREATION ACCORDING TO GENESIS

  1 Genesis I–II. 3.

  2 Genesis II. 4–23.

  2

  THE CREATION ACCORDING TO OTHER BIBLICAL TEXTS

  3 Psalm XXXIII. 6; CIV. 2; Isaiah XL. 22 and XLIV. 24; Psalm CIV. 6; Isaiah L. 3; Psalm XVIII. 10–12; 1 Kings VIII. 12; Psalms CIV. 3; XCIII. 1–2.

  4 Psalm XVIII. 10 and Nahum I. 4; Proverbs XXX. 4; Psalm CIV. 3–5; Isaiah XL. 12; Psalm LXV. 7.

  5 Psalm XCIII. 3; Jeremiah XXXI. 35; Job IX. 13; Psalm LXXXIX. 11; Job XXVI. 12–13; Isaiah LI. 9; Psalm CIV. 6–8; LXXIV. 13–14; Nahum I. 4; Psalm XVIII. 15–16; Isaiah XL. 12; Psalm XXXIII. 7; Jeremiah V. 22; Job XXXVIII. 8–11.

  6 Psalm LXXIV. 17; Job XXXVIII. 5; Psalm CIV. 10–26; Jeremiah XXXI. 35.

  7 Job XXXVIII. 7.

  8 Habakkuk III. 3; Psalm CIV. 32.

  3

  MYTHICAL COSMOLOGY

  9 Mid. Konen, 27.

  10 B. Pesahim 94a.

  11 B. Pesahim 94a.

  12 Mid. Konen, 27–31.

  13 Num. Rab. 2.10; 3.12; Mid. Konen, 38; Pesiqta Hadta, 49.

  14 PRE, ch. 3.

  15 Mid. Konen, 32–33. In other sources somewhat different names are given, cf. Zohar Hadash, 20b.

  16 Mid. Konen, 30, 35–36.

  17 Mid. Konen, 36.

  18 Mid. Konen, 36.

  19 Gen. Rab. 176–77; B. Hagiga 12b.

  20 Cf. Ginzberg, LJ, V. 10.

  21 Mid. Konen, 33.

  22 PRE, ch. 3.

  23 B. Baba Bathra 74a.

  24 B. Baba Bathra 25b.

  25 B. Hagiga 12b.

  26 Mid. Konen, 37.

  27 B. Hagiga 12b.

  28 2 Enoch III–IX, and parallel rabbinic sources, Ginzberg, LJ, V. 158 ff.