Page:The ancient interpretation of Leviticus XVIII. 18 - Marriage with a deceased wife's sister is lawful.djvu/16

6 is a representative of each party contemporary, or nearly so, with our Lord and the Apostles. Of the Hebraists we have Onkelos, whose Chaldee translation was read in the Synagogues along with the Hebrew original, whose testimony thus becomes the testimony of the Synagogue. His translation of Lev. xviii. 18 is similar to that of the text of our authorized version— :—"And a woman with her sister thou shalt not take to afflict her, to uncover her nakedness upon [or beside] her in her lifetime;" or as Fagius has it: "Uxorem cum sorore ejus non ducas ut sit ei in tribulationem, ut scilicet reveles turpitudinem ejus dum illa adhuc vivit."

But it may be said that the phrase, "A woman to her sister" is simply an idiomatic expression, signifying "one woman to another;" and that, as Onkelos is notorious for the literality of his translation, his Chaldee words mean nothing more or less than the Hebrew original, and are therefore merely equivalent to the Hebrew idiom for "one to another." The correctness or incorrectness of this criticism is easily tested. The words, "A woman to her sister,", occur five times in the 26th chapter of Exodus. If Onkelos has in these five places, where they are confessedly idiomatic, signifying "one to another," translated them as in Lev. xviii. 18, "A woman to her sister," then it is plain that in Lev. xviii. 18 he thought them idiomatic too, and his translation would be favourable to the marginal rendering. But if in the five passages in Exodus he does not translate them as in Lev. xviii. 18, but by Chaldee words answering to the idiomatic phrase, "one to another," then it is equally plain that in Lev. xviii. 18 he did not think the words idiomatic, but took them in their proper sense,—and this is the fact. Onkelos has in Exodus xxvi. 3, twice, "one with one."

In verse 5, the same.