For the past few days I have been writing about the ancient Jewish Targumim (Targums) and how the targumist expressed implications of plurality within the Godhead. Another example is found in Genesis 16. Here Hagar, the bondwoman who bore Ishmael to Abraham, addresses God. The Scripture reads:
Gen 16:11-14 JPS And the angel of the LORD said unto her: ‘Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son; and thou shalt call his name Ishmael, because the LORD hath heard thy affliction. (12) And he shall be a wild ass of a man: his hand shall be against every man, and every man’s hand against him; and he shall dwell in the face of all his brethren.’ (13) And she called the name of the LORD that spoke unto her, Thou art a God of seeing; for she said: ‘Have I even here seen him that seeth Me?’ (14) Wherefore the well was called ‘Beer-lahai-roi; behold, it is between Kadesh and Bered. (emphasis mine)
…and the Targum reads:
“And Hagar gave thanks, and prayed in the Name of the Word of the Lord, who had been manifested to her, saying; ‘Blessed be You, Eloha, the Living One of all Ages, who has looked upon my affliction.’ For she said; ‘Behold, You are manifested also to me, even as You were manifested to Sara my mistress.’ Wherefore she called the well: The Well at which the Living and Eternal One was revealed. And, behold, it is situate between Rekam and Chalutsa.” [The Jerusalem Targum] (emphasis mine)
The Scripture is very clear that the Angel of the Lord appeared to Hagar. Yet she referred to him as God when she prayed. The Scripture describes the One to whom she prayed as the LORD (YHWH). But when the targumist translates this, some substitutions are made. The Jerusalem Targum says the “Word of the LORD” had been manifested to her even though verse-14 in the Scripture says it was the “Angel of the LORD.” When translating Hagar’s prayer, the Targum says she prayed in the name of “the Word of the LORD” to God, the Living One of all ages. Although she claimed that God was manifested to her, it is very clear that the only one manifest was the “Angel of the LORD” or, as the Targum refers to him, “the Word of the LORD.” Hagar named the well that was shown to her after the Living and Eternal One that was revealed to her, whom the Scripture calls the “Angel of the LORD!”
The evidence of plurality within the Godhead is there in the text, and the ancient Jewish literature addresses it by describing the plurality as the “Word” of the Lord. Another clear example is found in Genesis 19 just after the LORD told Lot to flee to Zoar before he judged Sodom and Gomarrah and the other cities in the plain:
Genesis 19:24 JPS Then the LORD caused to rain upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven;
But the Targum reads:
And the Word of the LORD caused to descend upon the peoples of Sodom and Gommorah, brimstone and fire from the LORD in heaven.
Clearly the Scripture shows the LORD (YHWH) on earth calling down judgment from the LORD (YHWH) in heaven, so the targumist addresses this plurality by addressing the LORD on earth as the Word of the LORD.
I find it is so fulfilling to seek and find these little jewels in Scripture. It is one thing to be taught that Jesus is God and believe what is told to me, but it is something much greater to find the evidence in the Scriptures that show who Jesus was in the Old Testament in the ages before he became man. I praise him for “lighting” the way.
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