The Memra (Word) in the Jewish Targums

[TomL]

In the Beginning Was the Memra

There may be nothing more Jewish than the idea that “in the beginning was the Word.”

It is hard to fathom and, yet, that Word walked among us, both subject to God and worshipped as God. How did the Jewish Believers in Yeshua’s (Jesus’) time understand this mysterious Messianic truth?

The answer will encourage you in your faith and equip you to share that faith with others in a new and profound way.

Orthodox Jewish men read from the Torah scroll in Jerusalem.

How Do You Explain God?

If you were asked: “How could the infinite Creator of the Universe who exists beyond all dimensions of our finite existence walk among His creation, make covenants with them, appear to them in clouds and fire, go to battle for them, bless them, curse them, and redeem them?”

What would you say?

The ancient Jewish sages pondered the same question and answered, “The Memra.”

Memra is an Aramaic term related to the Hebrew word, (אמר), pronounced amair, which means word, decree, or speech. Sometimes, the Hebrew word (דבר), pronounced debair, is used instead of memra, which also means word, as well as matter, thing, and issue.

More than just the words of our Creator God (YHVH), Memra (and sometimes Dibber) convey God’s many manifestations and expressions in His creation through His Words.

The Jewish People became intimately familiar with the Memra as the Word of the Lord because they heard about it hundreds of times in the synagogues.

Reading a Torah scroll during a bar mitzvah ceremony with a traditional yad pointing towards the text on the parchment.

When the Israelites returned from their exile in Babylon in the 6th century BC, most of them no longer spoke Hebrew; they spoke Aramaic. Nevertheless, the Scriptures have always been read in Hebrew even if no one in the greater community could speak it.

Something had to be done so that the people would understand God and His Word. The sages again found an answer.

After hearing a priest read a few verses of the Torah scroll in Hebrew, they then heard a translation in Aramaic called a Targum, which simply means translation.

In those Targums, we find the Memra.




Page from a Hebrew Bible (AD 1299) with Targum Onkelos (an Aramaic translation)

In the Beginning Was the Memra (Word)

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth,” says Genesis 1:1.

However, in the translations of this verse to Aramaic, the Jewish People learned that God had a helper of sorts:

“From the beginning with wisdom the Memra (Word) of the Lord created and perfected the heavens and the earth … And the Memra (Word) of the LORD said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light by His Memra (Word). A (Genesis 1:1–3; Targum Neofiti)

In this Targum, the Word or Memra is doing, being, and acting as God and yet we see that he is also with God, a distinct essence apart from Him.

In fact, the Memra is the one who rested after all his work:

“On the seventh day, the Memra of the LORD completed his work which he had created, and there was Sabbath.” (Genesis 2:3; Targum Neofiti)

The Apostle John grabbed hold of this very Jewish understanding of the Memra (Word of the LORD) to introduce Messiah Yeshua, who is God and yet a distinct essence apart from God. He writes:

“In the beginning was the Memra (Word), and the Memra (Word) was with God, and the Memra (Word) was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.” (John 1:1–3)

John is telling Jewish readers that Yeshua as the Word of God is responsible for bringing forth life from the very beginning of our world. But John doesn’t stop there. He reveals even deeper truths about this Word using the Jewish understanding of light.

The Memra (Word) Is Life and Light

“In Him was life, and that life was the light of men.” (John 1:4)

In a Hebrew poem called “The Four Nights,” the Targums write that on the First Night of creation, when darkness spread over the surface of the deep, “the Memra/Word of the LORD shone and gave light.” (fragmentary Targums P & V)

In other words, the Word of the LORD not only created light, it is Light itself.

This poem was part of the Passover liturgy among many of the Jews living in and around Jerusalem at the time, so when John refers to the Word as light, he is reminding them that the Light of this Word is so powerful, not even the darkness of space could overcome it.

As we follow the Light into the book of Exodus, we see the Memra (Word of the LORD) lighting up the night for the Israelites in a pillar of fire, leading them to safety.

At the same time, the Memra (Word of the LORD) also remained in the cloud, keeping them in darkness. (Exodus 13:21–22, 14:19–20, 23–25)

In a form the Israelites could finally see and understand, the darkness (Egyptians) could not overcome the light (Israelites and the Word of the LORD).

The Jewish People could finally see how Light and God’s salvation from darkness were inseparable.

As we move through the wilderness into the rise of kings, rebukes of prophets, and the exile of Israel, darkness seemed to loom the earth for the Jewish People once more.

At a moment of deep oppression under the authority of a foreign power, the Light of God’s salvation again entered our finite world; this time, in a form we could talk to, walk with, and learn from:

“For to us a Child is born, to us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon His Shoulder, and His Name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6)



“She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them” (Luke 2:7)

The Memra (Word) Lived Among Us

“The [Memra] Word became flesh and lived among us.” (John 1:14)

Israel not only lived under earthly darkness of Roman rule, they lived in spiritual darkness of their own sins. To save them from that spiritual oppression, “the true Light that gives light to everyone” came into the world, freely offering it to anyone who accepted it.

“My light will shine for you just a little longer,” Yeshua said. “Walk in the Light while you can, so the darkness will not overtake you. (John 12:35; see also John 8:12, 12:46)

Sadly, even when the Light walked among them, too many “loved darkness instead of light.” (John 1:11, 3:19)

Still, Yeshua pleaded with them, “Believe in the Light, so that you may become Children of Light.” (John 12:36)

Children of Light don’t stumble and fall on the dark path through the woods of anger, jealousy, deceit, greed, gossip, and all those deeds that lead us away from entering God’s Kingdom (1 Corinthians 6:9).

Children of Light walk upright, on the path that is brightly lit by the Word of God Himself. That path leads straight into our Father’s house.

Yeshua “came to His own creation,” seeking sinners who would repent and enter the Light of God’s Kingdom with Him. “Yet His own people

The Memra (Word) Is the Door to Salvation

The One who saves people out of eternal darkness into the light of eternal life has always been the Memra—the Word.

In the targums, God established His covenant between Abraham and the Memra (Word). (Genesis 9:12–15, Targums Onkelos and Palestine)

And Abraham believed in the name of the Memra (Word of the LORD), and the LORD counted it to Him as righteousness. (Genesis 15:6, Targum Neofiti)

This Divine power of the Memra to save someone from the eternal darkness of their sins is not a new concept for the Jewish People.

This Targum says the Memra would be thought of as a deity:

“My Memra (Word) shall be unto you for a redeeming deity, and you shall be unto My Name a holy people.” (Targum Yer. to Lev. xxii. 12, as quoted in Jewish Encyclopedia).

If there is still any doubt who this redeemer deity is, one Targum written 200–600 years after Yeshua gives us a striking clue:

“When the Word of the LORD (Memra) shall be revealed to redeem his people, he shall say to all the nations, ‘See now that I am he who is and was, and I am he who will be in the future.…’ and he, by his Word (Memra), will make atonement for the sins of his land and of his people.’” (Deuteronomy 32:39, 43; Targum Pseudo Jonathan)

Throughout the Gospel of John, Yeshua gives more than clues about His identity as the saving Word that would atone for the sins of the people.

He tells us that He is the Way, the Truth, the Life, the Gate, the Door, the Shepherd, the Light. (John 8:12, 10:9, 10:11, 14:6)

He says that He is the One who is and was and will be—“Before Abraham was, I AM.” (John 8:58)

“As long as I am in the world, I am the Light of the world,” Yeshua said, as He brought forth light to a blind man (John 9).

Yeshua is still offering His healing light to the Jewish People so that they can see Him for who He really is—their long-awaited Messiah, their atonement, their redeemer.

It is our privilege to continue the work that the Apostle John so valiantly began and share the identity of the Light, the Word, the Memra that was with God and is God—Yeshua—with the Jewish People.

In the Beginning Was the Memra | Messianic Bible

The Memra (Word) of the Lord is the Jewish way to convey God’s many manifestations and expressions in His creation through His Words, including salvation.

free.messianicbible.com

 

[TheLayman]

Hello Tom:

The following are some excerpts from a very long article titled “The Gospel of the Memra” by Daniel Boyarin PhD., Jewish Theological Seminary. I was unable to attach the file with the entire article, but you can check out some of it below:


"Winston has pointed out that, although we can know very little of the philosophical context of Philo's writing, we can determine from the writings themselves that Logos theology is "something his readers will immediately recognize without any further explanation."(22) The consequences of this point are formidable. Philo was clearly writing for an audience of Jews devoted to the Bible. If for these, the Logos theology was a virtual commonplace (which is not to say that there were not enormous variations in detail, of course), the implication is that this way of thinking about God was a vital inheritance of (at least) Alexandrian Jewish thought. It becomes apparent, therefore, that for one branch of pre-Christian Judaism, at least, there was nothing strange about a doctrine of a deuteros theos, and nothing in that doctrine that precluded monotheism. Moreover, Darrell Hannah has emphasized that "neither in Platonism, Stoicism nor Aristotelian thought do we find the kind of significance that the concept has for Philo, nor the range of meanings that he gives to the term [GREEK TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] and, therefore, that "he appears to be dependent upon a tradition in Alexandrian Judaism which was attributing a certain independence to God's word."(23) He sees the sources of that tradition as in part growing out of the Israelite Prophets themselves, at least in their Septuagint hypostasis. As he has formulated it,"

"Philo oscillates on the point of the ambiguity between separate existence of the Logos, God's Son,(27) and its total incorporation within the godhead. If Philo is not on the road to Damascus here, he is surely on a way that leads to Nicaea and the controversies over the second person of the Trinity."

"It becomes, in the light of the centrality of such mediation by the Logos for Philo's theology, less and less plausible to speak of Philo as having been influenced by Middle Platonism. Instead, insofar as the Logos theology, the necessity for a mediator, is intrinsic to Middle Platonism, that form of "Hellenistic" philosophy may simply be the Judaism of Philo and his fellows. A "Hellenism" is, after all, by definition the creative synthesis of Greek and "Eastern" culture and thought, and "Philo's Logos, jointly formed by the study of Greek philosophy and of the Torah, was at once the written text, an eternal notion in the mind of the Creator and the organ of his work in time and space. Under this last aspect, it receives such epithets as Son, King, Priest and Only-Begotten; in short it becomes a person."(28) As eloquently described by Charles Harold Dodd as well, Philo's Logos is neither just the Wisdom, the [GREEK TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] of the Bible, nor is it quite the Stoic nor Platonic [GREEK TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], nor yet just the divine Word, the [GREEK TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] of the Hebrew, either, but some unique and new synthesis of all of these.(29) That synthesis is arguably the central theological notion of Middle Platonism itself. If the Logos as divine mediator, therefore, is the defining characteristic of Middle Platonism, then, not only may Philo's Judaism be Middle Platonism, Middle Platonism itself may be a form of Judaism and Christianity.(30)"

"Philo's Logos seems, therefore, a close congener of the Logos theology that we find among almost all ante-Nicene Christian writers, and which would appear, therefore, to have a "Jewish" Beginning."



* The Memra
"Were we to find such notions among non-Christian Jews in Philo alone, we could regard him, as he often is regarded, as a sport, a mutant, or even a voice crying in the wilderness. However, there were other Jews, and, moreover, not only Greek-speaking ones, who manifested a version of Logos theology. Notions of the second god as personified word or wisdom of God were present among Semitic-speaking Jews as well. This point is important because it further disturbs the dichotomies that have been promulgated between Hellenistic and Rabbinic (by which is usually meant "authentic," "really real") Judaisms.(34) The leading candidate for the Semitic Logos is, of course, "The Memra" of God, as it appears in the para-rabbinic Aramaic translations(35) of the Bible in textual contexts that are frequently identical to ones where the Logos hermeneutic has its home among Jews who speak Greek."(36)

"The Memra has a place above the angels as that agent of the Deity who sustains the course of nature and personifies the Law."(37) This position has been well established among historians of Christianity since the late nineteenth century. Alfred Edersheim saw the Memra as referring to God's self-revelation. As Robert Hayward says of Edersheim: "He also made a distinction between God and the Memra. Noting that Rabbinic theology has not preserved for us the doctrine of distinct persons in the Godhead, he remarks: `And yet, if words have any meaning, the Memra is a hypostasis.'"(38) With this comment, Edersheim is clearly implying the existence of non-rabbinic forms of Judaism that were extant and vital within the rabbinic period alongside the rabbinic religion itself. Although the official rabbinic theology suppressed all talk of the Memra or Logos by naming it the heresy of "Two Powers in Heaven," both before the Rabbis and contemporaneously with them there was a multitude of Jews, in both Palestine and the Diaspora, who held onto this version of monotheistic theology.(39) If we accept Edersheim's view, the Memra is related to the Logos of Logos theology in its various Christian manifestations."

"It seems not to have occurred to any who hold this view that it is fundamentally incoherent and self-contradictory. Surely, this position collapses logically upon itself, for if the Memra is just a name that simply enables avoiding asserting that God himself has created, appeared, supported, saved, and thus preserves his absolute transcendence, then who, after all, did the actual creating, appearing, supporting, saving? Either God himself, in which case, one has hardly "protected" him from contact with the material world, or there is some other divine entity, in which case, the Memra is not just a name. Indeed, as pointed out by Burton Mack, the very purpose for which Sophia/Logos developed within Judaism was precisely to enable "a theology of the transcendence of God."(43) The currently accepted and dominant view ascribes to the use of the Memra only the counterfeit coinage of a linguistic simulation of a theology of the transcendence of God, without the theology itself. Rather than assuming that the usage is meaningless, it seems superior on general hermeneutic grounds to assume that it means something. It follows then that the strongest reading of the Memra is that it is not a mere name, but an actual divine entity, or mediator."(44)

"In Philo, as well as in others, Sophia and the Logos are identified as a single entity. Indeed, we find God's Wisdom and his Word already as parallels in the Hebrew itself. Consequently, nothing could be more natural for a preacher than to draw from the Wisdom hymns and especially the canonical Proverbs the figure, epithets, and qualities of the deuteros theos, the companion of God and agent of God in creation, while for the purposes of interpreting creation focussing on the linguistic side of the coin, the Logos. I thus agree with Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza in her contention that "The narrative characterization of Jesus" in the Fourth Gospel "seems to speak [for] Jesus [as] Wisdom Incarnate"101)

1. In the beginning was the word, And the word was with God,
2. And the word was God. He was in the beginning with God.
3. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.
4. In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
5. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not receive it.(102)

One of the most important observations that has been made about this text is that its formal structure, the envelope structure of the first two verses is highly biblical in form (i.e., in my parlance, "Hebraic") in its use of chiasm(103) and Leitwort. We learn two things from this observation. First of all, it seems very difficult to regard the second verse as a gloss or other form of intrusion, as most commentators of the hymnic persuasion seem to; and second, if its structure is dictated or modeled on biblical literary texts (indeed, on the opening verses of Genesis), then the possibility that it is a paraphrase or midrashic gloss on this text seems considerably enhanced."

"The vaunted hymnic repetitions of words from strophe to strophe, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God" can be interpreted as an expansion of the formal pattern found already in the first verse of Genesis: "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, and the earth was without form and void." The assertion that the Word was with God is easily related to Prov 8:30: "Then I was beside him,"(104) and even to Wis 9:9: "With thee is wisdom." On the other hand, such themes as the arrival of the Word on earth and his living among men can clearly be traced as allusions to texts like Bar 3:38: "Afterward she appeared upon earth and lived among men." As frequently with rabbinic midrash, the gloss on the verse being interpreted is dependent on an alluded-to but not explicitly cited later biblical text. This can be compared with the Palestinian Targum to this very verse, which translates "In the beginning" by "With Wisdom God created,"(105) clearly alluding as well to the Proverbs passage. "Beginning" is read as Wisdom or as the Logos: By a Beginning--Wisdom--God created. To this midrash should be compared the famous Latin version of John 8:25, so beautifully read by Augustine as "Your Word, the Beginning who also speaks to us,"(106) once again reading "Beginning" twice. As Augustine paraphrases this tradition: "Wisdom is `the Beginning': and it is in that Beginning that You made heaven and earth."

"Now we can understand the role of the Wisdom hymns differently in the production of this text. They are not the formal model for the Prologue to John, but, as the intertext for the Logos midrash of the Prologue to John, they do provide us with access to a pre-Christian world of ideas in which Wisdom was personified and characterized in ways that are very similar to the Logos of Logos theology. They thus provide us with evidence that the latter is not a specifically or exclusively Christian product, but a common "Jewish" theologoumenon which was later identified with the Christ.(107) On the other hand, the "shift" from Sophia to Logos can now be accounted for differently. Since the text is a midrash on Genesis, and as we have seen from the targumic comparisons, the Memra is derived from the activity of God's speech in Genesis 1:3 understood as an actual divine being, we should expect the same midrashic entity here, as well." (Daniel Boyarin PhD., Jewish Theological Seminary, The Gospel of the Memra).

Blessings,
TheLayman

 

[civic]

Thanks for the info brother @TheLayman

 

[101G]

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth,” says Genesis 1:1.

However, in the translations of this verse to Aramaic, the Jewish People learned that God had a helper of sorts:

“From the beginning with wisdom the Memra (Word) of the Lord created and perfected the heavens and the earth … And the Memra (Word) of the LORD said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light by His Memra (Word). A (Genesis 1:1–3; Targum Neofiti)

GINOLJC, to all,
God is Jesus, the almighty who "Spoke" all creation into existence. the Word of God is GOD. as said, God SPOKE and it was so. the Wisdom of, of, of, God is the Light that shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. (see John 1:5). and this LIGHT that IS wisdom IS THE PERSON GOD. for the term "Light" in Genesis 1:3 is
H216 אוֹר 'owr (ore) n-f.
1. illumination.
2. (concretely) luminary (in every sense, including lightning, happiness, etc.).
[from H215]
KJV: bright, clear, + day, light (-ning), morning, sun.
Root(s): H215

note definition #2 (concretely), happiness. and this happiness reveal his Person/Memra (Word). for Rejoice or Delight is synonyms with happiness. supportive scripture, Proverbs 8:22 "The LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old." Proverbs 8:23 "I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was." Proverbs 8:24 "When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water." Proverbs 8:25 "Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth:" Proverbs 8:26 "While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world." Proverbs 8:27 "When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth:" Proverbs 8:28 "When he established the clouds above: when he strengthened the fountains of the deep:" Proverbs 8:29 "When he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the earth:" Proverbs 8:30 "Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him;" Proverbs 8:31 "Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men."

so the Word/Memra is a Possession of God... meaning "OWNERSHIP". when God says .... "MY, MY, MY, Son which is on earth", he is saying My Body on earth. and when he says on earth in that body, "My Father which art in Heaven", he is saying, "My Spirit" which is in heaven.

so, the Memra (Word) was MADE flesh, which clearly support John 1:1 that the Word/Memrs was God in the flesh, his own body/ARM of FLESH on earth. this is just too easy not to understand.

101G.