Fig leaves, bramble thorns and cedars of Lebanon: silent and talking plants in the Bible and beyond

Authors

  • Alessandro Mengozzi Università di Torino

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.13135/1825-263X/1875

Keywords:

Targum, Aramaic, Dispute, Bible, Classical Syriac

Abstract

A number of Hebrew and Aramaic texts in which trees and plants appear as speaking characters are here published in Italian translation: the parable of the trees in Judges 9, a haggadic expansion of Midrash Esther Rabbah upon Esther 5:14, a hymn inserted before Esther 7:10 in the Targum Sheni, and the two extant stanzas of a Classical Syriac dispute between The vine and the cedar. They exhibit a high level of literary elaboration and have rhythm and structure similar to the Mesopotamian dispute. Plants and trees are humanized as spokesmen who, sometimes ironically and playfully, put into stage values and knowledge of the Bible centred culture of their authors, audiences and readerships. The midrashic and targumic texts organize Biblical quotations on trees and plants in the form of brilliant debates that were possibly used for pedagogical purposes. The Classical Syriac dispute of the vine and the cedar by David bar Pawlos (8th-9th century) has a more learned character and recalls one of the elegant reuse of traditional forms and themes in Arabic adab texts.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

Alessandro Mengozzi, Università di Torino

Alessandro Mengozzi ha conseguito il dottorato all’Università di Leiden, Paesi Bassi, ed è professore associato di Semitistica all’Università di Torino, dove insegna lingua araba e filologia semitica. Si interessa di linguistica storica, critica del testo, rapporto tra scrittura e tradizioni orali, indagando in particolar modo la letteratura siriaca tarda, la letteratura e dialettologia aramaica moderna.

References

Adinolfi, Marco. 1959. “Originalità dell’apologo di Jotham (Giud. 9,8-15).” Rivista biblica 7:322–42.

Barsoum, Ignatius Aphram. 2003. The Scattered Pearls. A History of Syriac Literature and Sciences. Translated and edited by Matti Moosa, 2nd revised ed. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press.

van Bekkum, Wout Jac. 1991. “Observations on the Hebrew Debate in Medieval Europe.” In Dispute Poems and Dialogues in the Ancient and Mediaeval Near East, edited by Gerrit J. Reinink and Herman L.J. Vanstiphout, 77–90. Leuven: Peeters.

Bonebakker, Seeger A. 1990. “Adab and the concept of belles-lettres.” In Abbasid Belles-Lettres, edited by Julia Ashtiany et alii, 16–30. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Bialik, Hayyim Nachman - Ravnitzky, Yehoshua Hanna. 1987. Sefer ha-aggadah. Tel Aviv: Dvir Publishers.

Bono, Donato. 2014. “Dalla parabola degli alberi (Gdc 9,8-15) alla regalità di Cristo.” La scala. Rivista di spiritualità 68.3:157–67.

Bresciani, Edda. 1990. Letteratura e poesia dell’Antico Egitto. Torino: Einaudi.

Brock, Sebastian P. 2001. “The Dispute Poem: From Sumer to Syriac.” Journal of the Canadian Society for Syriac Studies 1:3–10.

Brock, Sebastian P. 2011. “Dawid bar Pawlos.” In Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage, edited by Sebastian P. Brock et alii, 116–7. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press.

Butts, Aaron. In stampa. “A Syriac Dialogue Poem between the Vine and Cedar by Dawid bar Pawlos.” In The Babylonian Disputation Poems. Palm and Vine and the Series of the Poplar, by Enrique Jiménez. Leiden: Brill.

Castellino, Giorgio R. 1962. Sapienza babilonese: raccolta di testi sapienziali tradotti dagli originali. Torino: Società Editrice Internazionale.

Castellino, Giorgio R. 1977. Testi sumerici e accadici. Torino: UTET.

Chapman, David W. 2008. Ancient Jewish and Christian Perceptions of Crucifixion. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck.

Chilton, Bruce. 1982. “A Comparative Study of Synoptic Development: The Dispute between Cain and Abel in the Palestinian Targums and the Beelzebul Controversy in the Gospels.” Journal of Biblical Literature 101.4:553–62.

Contini, Riccardo. 2005. “Il testo aramaico di Elefantina.” In Il saggio Ahiqar: Fortuna e trasformazione di uno scritto sapienziale, a cura di Riccardo Contini e Cristiano Grottanelli, 113–39. Brescia: Paideia.

Contini, Riccardo. 2010. “Bibbia e storiografia nel Medioevo siriaco.” In Forma formans. Studi in onore di Boris Uspenskij, a cura di Sergio Bertolissi e Roberta Salvatore, 133–50. Napoli: M. D’Auria.

Cook, John Granger. 2014. Crucifixion in the Mediterranean World, Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck.

Ginzberg, Louis. 1936. The Legends of the Jews. Vol. 4 From Joshua to Esther. Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America.

Ginzberg, Louis. 1946. The Legends of the Jews. Vol. 6 Notes to Volumes 3. and 4. Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America.

Glickman, Elaine Rose. 1999. Haman and the Jews. A Portrait from Rabbinic Literature. Northvale, NJ - Jerusalem: Jason Aronson.

Grelot, Pierre. 1986. “La Dispute des Arbres dans le Targoum II d'Esther VII, 10.” In Salvacion en la Palabra, Targum - Derash - Berith, En memoria del profesor Alejandro Diez Macho, libro de D. Muñoz León, 399–408. Madrid: Ediciones Cristiandad.

Grossfeld, Bernard. 1994. The Targum Sheni to the Book of Esther: A critical edition based on MS. Sassoon 282 with critical apparatus. New York: Sepher-Hermon Press.

Guillaume, Philippe. 2004. Waiting for Josiah. The Judges. London: T&T Clark.

Hayward, Robert. 2011. “Targum a Misnomer for Midrash? Towards a Typology for the Targum Sheni of Esther.” Aramaic Studies 9:47–63.

Heinrichs, Wolfhart. 1991. “Rose versus Narcissus. Observations on an Arabic Literary Debate.” In Dispute Poems and Dialogues in the Ancient and Mediaeval Near East, edited by Gerrit J. Reinink and Herman L.J. Vanstiphout, 179–98. Leuven: Peeters.

Herford, Robert T. 1903. Christianity in Talmud and Midrash. London: Williams and Norgate.

Jastrow, Marcus. 1903. A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature. London: Luzac.

Lambert, Wilfred G. 1960. Babylonian Wisdom Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Münz-Manor, Ophir. 2010. “Liturgical Poetry in the Late Antique Near East: A Comparative Approach.” Journal of Ancient Judaism 1.3: 336–61.

Payne Smith , Robert. 1879. Thesaurus syriacus. Oxford: Clarendonian Press.

Ponchia, Simonetta. 1996. La palma e il tamarisco e altri dialoghi mesopotamici. Venezia: Marsilio.

Rossi, Luiz A.S. 2006. “O triunfo da ironia na parábola de Joatao (Juizes 9,7-15).” Estudios biblicos 92:19–26.

Schäfer, Peter. 2007. Jesus in the Talmud. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Simon, Maurice. 1983. Midrash Rabbah. 9. Esther. 3. ed. London - New York: Soncino Press.

Ska, Jean-Louis. 2006. L’apologo di Iotam (Gdc 9,8-15a): critica o rifiuto della monarchia?” Ricerche storico-bibliche 18:91–103.

Stemberger, Günter. 1992. Il Midrash. Uso rabbinico della Bibbia. Bologna: Dehoniane.

Stemberger, Günter. 1995. Introduzione al Talmud e al Midrash. Roma: Città Nuova.

Taylor, David. 2010. “ ‘Your sweet saliva is the living wine’: Drink, desire, and devotion in the thirteenth-century Syriac wine songs of Khamis bar Qardaḥe.” In The Syriac Renaissance, edited by Herman Teule and Carmen Fotescu Tauwinkl, 31-52. Leuven: Peeters.

Downloads

Published

2016-12-08

Issue

No. 20 (2016)

Section

Movement 1: Sacredness and vegetation / Sacralità e vegetazione

License

Gli autori che pubblicano su Kervan accettano le seguenti condizioni:

  1. Gli autori mantengono i diritti sulla loro opera e cedono alla rivista il diritto di prima pubblicazione dell'opera, contemporaneamente licenziata sotto una Licenza Creative Commons - Attribuzione che permette ad altri di condividere l'opera indicando la paternità intellettuale e la prima pubblicazione su questa rivista.
  2. Gli autori possono aderire ad altri accordi di licenza non esclusiva per la distribuzione della versione dell'opera pubblicata (es. depositarla in un archivio istituzionale o pubblicarla in una monografia), a patto di indicare che la prima pubblicazione è avvenuta su questa rivista.