The Many Quarrels of Cain and Abel

What is it about?

Some of the ancient Jewish Aramaic translations (Targums) to the Pentateuch expand the biblical story about Cain and Abel with a “theological” debate between the brothers. Different versions of this debate appear in the Palestinian Targums, in accordance with their more expansive and paraphrastic character. Yet another version is found as an addition in some manuscripts of Targum Onqelos, which is generally much more literal. In this paper I examine afresh all the different versions, present previously unknown texts found in manuscripts of Onqelos, and conclude that even though the addition to Onqelos preserves an independent version of the debate, which was also used by the Palestinian Targums. This finding underscores the importance of studying additions to Onqelos as an independent targumic source on its own rights, as well as the complexity of the materials embedded in the Palestinian Targum sources.

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